Here’s some personal advice on how not to screw up your computer or laptop based on stupid things I’ve done over the years. This article should be of help to people who are brand new on the computer, people without much experience and possibly people with mid-level computer skills, who if nothing else can use this as a refresher. I’ve also included some other advice and pointers to help you avoid other potential computer pitfalls. I’m sure this is elementary advice to the more experienced computer user.

What Not to Do on Your Computer or Laptop if You Don’t Want to Mess Them up:

1. Do not delete anything that you don’t know what you’re deleting. For example, if you delete a driver, you can totally screw the computer up. So do not delete anything unless you know what you’re deleting & know it won’t harm your computer by deleting. If you’re not sure, do not delete.

2. Do not go to porn sites at all. This has nothing to do with morality but a lot of them have viruses,spyware and adware on them.

3. Do not open up any email with an attachment that you do not know who the sender is. Delete them. I also would not open up any email period if you do not know who the sender is. If you see an email from a place like Ebay, Paypal and Amazon, a Bank, etc. and the subject does not make sense- I.E., "Your account is suspended", etc., do not open it up, chances are its bogus with some nasty hidden computer code attached or its a scam email, On a lot of these suspicious emails you can check if they’re genuine by looking at the messages on the actual site. I would never open up any Ebay message for example unless it is in your Ebay message Box.

4. Do not download any software from a site unless you know it is a legitimate site. A lot of sites are known to contain spyware, adware, and perhaps viruses. If you are going to download free software, I would only do it from sites like Download.com, Tucows, Microsoft, the software company’s website, etc. As an aside, I have an Ezine Article on Free Software that you might find helpful, titled "10 Great Free Computer Software Programs and Applications (OK Some Of Them Are Cheap Software!), " Ezine ID 1062401

5, If you are not sure how to install a program, ask someone with experience. If you do install a program, initially just use the defaults and don’t try to custom install it because the chances are you will screw it up.

6. When deleting a program, go to the control panel where it says add or delete a program and if during the deletion process it asks you if you wish to remove all files or a certain file which may cause damage, click no and/or no to all. This will seem clearer to you when that happens.