So often, and I mean so often a friendly customer of mine will ask me what could have caused their computer to become surprisingly slow all of the sudden. Some of the times I can tell them that a virus was lying dorment waiting for a particular thing to happen that would spring up this random occurence of slowness. But then again some times I simply ask, “Do you have kids?”
Kids tend to not really know what they are doing when it comes to computers. Sure they are pretty good with them these days and they can probably figure out things faster than most adults, but lot’s of times they just don’t read anything, or maybe they just can’t read well enough to know what they are getting themselves in to.
It’s hard to say how much a kid really knows about computers and technology. With all of the things that they are being taught early in their career of schooling, who knows, right? For the most part they know nothing, they just zip through things really fast without ever seeing a certain window like that, thinking that there will be absolutely 100% no consequence for their action. If they get it right once, they will be the master of the computer and will know absolutely everything there is to know about it, guaranteed.
So that means that when they screw up, it can’t be their fault! Then I get the call. I don’t mind cleaning up after a child’s silly mistake, normally it isn’t anything too crazy or anything too bad. But the fact of the matter is that the kid just doesn’t really know what they are doing, and some programs can install a whole bunch of junk that we simply don’t want to look at it. If your browser looks anything at all like the one on the left, then you know exactly what I am talking about, and quite frankly, I have no idea how you even found my blog. All of those tool bars can be installed in a ninja-like fashion that can get around even the most keen of software installers, they ask to be installed when installing things like Java or Flash, or other applications, even the renowned CCLeaner asks if you would like to install a Yahoo!’s Toolbar.
Toolbar’s are never really a problem too great to remove, sometimes they just take a decent amount of time which can get pretty obnoxious for most people if they just want to get on their computer and get things done. That’s what I am around for! I don’t mind removing toolbars or cleaning up your desktop or getting rid of the thousands of icons that always lurk in your computer’s systems tray (that little area near the clock). These little things could end up having some pretty malicious programs in them, and if you aren’t sure what exactly they are, then you should probably inform your local computer guru about it, he will know the answer and know exactly what is bad and what is okay for you to have on your computer.
You never really know so it is better to be safe than sorry, in the long run it will be better to pay $60 for an overnight computer tune-up, then to pay $1,200 for a brand new computer that will probably just become messed up again for the exact same reason a month later because your child didn’t know what caused the problem in the first place, and neither did you. So it’s good to learn about your problem before finding a replacement so you know what to avoid the next time around.
To clarify my point: Kids screw things up. They probably have spilt milk all over the floor within the last week, luckily it hasn’t been on your computer. Now that would have been something that would be tough to fix! Just relax and know that it is repairable, just like your now clean kitchen floor is. In the end if it really is your little boy or girls fault, it might be a good reason to tell them that they can’t have that slice of cake after dinner.
