PC Maintenance and Security

 1. Uninstallling Unwanted Applications
In this tutorial I learned how to access the control panel and see if I have more than one version of software or application on a PC. It was interesting to learn about and know how to do this, but I do most of my personal work on a Mac, so I was trying to find the control panel on my Mac and see how to remove unwanted applications. The main purpose of doing this is to free up space on your computer so it will run faster. My home computer is running slower and its also about 5 years old as well, so I need to continue to remove unwanted applications that are outdated or unused so its not taking up extra space. One thing I learned how to do was to remove an application, I will definitely share this with my friends/family who are less tech savvy so they have more space on their computer. I was surprised how easy and fast removing unwanted applications from my computer is.  

2. Blocking Spam in Google and Yahoo Mail:
In these tutorials I learned how to block spam from Yahoo mail and Gmail. I watched both since I use both email systems. Blocking spam sounds like an easy task, but everyone gets spam mail and I get very aggravated with spam mail and wasting my time deleting them. I especially hate having to spend time deleting emails that are advertisements. Although the places where you must go to block the spam is different in both mail systems, the functions are the same. You can block with a filter (a generic sender or type of email) or a specific person's email address. After viewing the tutorial I adjusted my settings for both email accounts. Before listening to the tutorial, I usually would just go into the email (advertisement) and click "remove from mailing list" thinking this was going to reduce the amount of emails I received from businesses. I am curious to see if the spam protection will reduce the amount of advertisement emails I receive. I plan to show my colleges and my family this function to reduce the amount of time that is spent on email and wasted reviewing spam email. Again, I was surprised how easy this was to do and how quickly this change was made and will help reduce the amount of spam just by a few clicks.

3. Exploring the Settings of Firefox: 
In this tutorial I learned how to adjust basic settings such as passwords and making privacy settings so that when I have other users on my computer my information is protected so that my information may not be accessed or viewed by others. The most important thing I learned when watching the tutorial was how to clearing private data after using Mozilla. For example, if I am viewing confidential sites at school and working on IEP’s or sites that have student information, I would not want another student user to have access to those sites. I will definitely show my colleagues how to adjust settings to clear private data after using their computer so that information that may be confidential is not leaked. I was not surprised by much in this tutorial, again it was simple to take these steps to ensure internet security.