Celebrate World Password Day By Creating a Strong Password for Yourself

Ever heard of World Password Day? It was celebrated last May 7, a day dedicated to remind every Internet user to protect their identities and information by changing their passwords. We exist in a password-driven era, where your main line of security to your personal files and important data depend on the type of password you've set. Every year, hackers have leaked millions of passwords from sites such as Google, Facebook, and Yahoo! Banking and online shopping sites have also been a main target of these cybercriminals where they decrypt countless passwords in order to steal valuable information, including money.

Having a strong password is one of the most important things you need to protect your identity on the Internet. Anytime you access a personal information over the Web, you'll be asked to enter a password. A strong password reduces your chance of falling prey into the hands of scammers because it will be harder for them to guess or decipher it.

So how do you protect yourself from being a victim of these cybercrimes? Try following this simple guide on how to create a strong password.

A strong password must consist of at least eight characters long. It should contain at least six uppercase and lowercase letters, one number, and one special character (like ! or @). When creating a password, always keep this in mind -- the longer, the better.

When creating a password, avoid using words, terms, or names that identifies you or any of your personal information. Here's a list of names or terms you should avoid when creating a password combination:

• your children's or parent's names
• your birth date
• your pets' names
• your street address
• your first, middle or last name
• "123456"
• "password"
• "abc123"
• "iloveyou"

One tip in making a good six-letter password is to think of your favorite things like a phrase from a song, movie, or TV series. For example, you can use the famous line from the movie Jerry Maguire "you complete me" as your password. Next, you'll want to make it a single word and capitalize some of the letters. You can also mix it with a number and a special character to make it more unique. So from the original phrase "you complete me," you can create it into a strong password like "Ucomp!etem3."

It's also important to remember to avoid picking a password that is too general when picking a password you're planning to built with. For example, do not use words like "chocolate" or "pizza," but instead be specific with those like "pistachio ice cream" or "four cheese pizza" to make it less common and harder to guess.

And last, but not the least, never use the same password or variation of that password more than once. The idea may be a hassle though, but it will give you more protection if you have a different password for each website that you access to get personal information from or perform transactions on.

5 Tips to Improve Your Computer’s Performance

Computers, like any gadget or appliance, experience wear and tear. You might have been over the moon with its performance and specifications when you first had it. But over time, due to the programs and software you have installed, and all the files you have stored, it won't be how it used to be performance wise. However, there's no need to run off to the nearest computer shop to get a new one. Here are a few simple things you can do to improve your older computer's performance.

Disable Unnecessary Startup Programs

Over the course of time, you have probably installed a number or programs and applications. Most programs are designed to start automatically when Windows starts. These programs are often set by their software manufacturers to run in the background where you can't see them, so that they can open right away when you click on their icons. This can be very helpful for those programs you use on a regular basis. But it can also waste precious memory and slows down the time it takes for Windows to finish starting up, especially for those programs you rarely or never use.

To disable unnecessary startup programs in Windows 8, all you have to do is go to the Task Manager by doing any of the following:

• Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Esc]
• Right-click the taskbar on the Desktop and select Task Manager
• Type "task manager" on the Start screen, and then click Task Manager
• Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del], and then click Task Manager from the screen that appears
• Right-click the lower-left corner of your screen and select Task Manager

Once Task Manager is opened, click the Startup tab. From there, you will see a list of programs and services that launch when you start Windows. Go through each program and right-click the ones you want to disable from startup, and then click Disable.

NOTE: If you are running Windows 7 or Vista, click Start, then type "msconfig" in the search field, and then click msconfig.exe to open the System Configuration tool. Click the Startup tab, and then uncheck the box next to the program you would like to prevent from starting when Windows starts. Click OK to save the changes. Restart the computer for the changes to apply.

Install Additional RAM

Adding more memory is one of the easiest and without a doubt the best thing you can do to speed up and improve the performance of your computer. The more RAM you have, the faster your Windows and programs will run. You may refer to your computer's manual for specific instructions on how to physically add more RAM.

If you are not too keen in opening your computer case and plugging memory modules into its motherboard, you can use Windows Readyboost as another option to boost the amount of memory. This feature allows you to use the storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer.

Delete Programs You Never Use

It is a good idea to uninstall all programs you do not need or never use, whether they are manufacturer-installed software or software you installed yourself. You can also delete unused files and duplicate photos while you're at it.

Another thing you can do is use a cleanup tool such as CCleaner. CCleaner helps in clearing out cache and temp files to further free up some valuable disk space. Furthermore, you can use Disk Cleanup, which is a Windows built-in tool to get rid of unused files. You can check out this guide to learn how to delete system files using disk clean up in Windows 8 or find out how to clean up all files using Disk Clean up on a Windows 7 computer.

Defragment Your Hard Disk

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can ultimately slow down your computer. To combat this, use Disk Defragmenter. This will rearrange fragmented data so your hard disk can work more efficiently. You can defragment your hard disk on a schedule or you can do it manually. Check out Ways to improve your computer's performance for additional instructions.

Reinstall Windows

Some laptop manufacturers have a recovery partition which allows you to restore your computer to factory settings. This will erase your data, updates, software, etc. So you need to do a backup before reinstalling Windows.

Do check your laptop's online documentation to access recovery partition.

If you do not have recovery partition, perform a clean install of Windows to make it run like new. However, if you are running on Windows 8, you can either perform a PC Refresh or a PC Reset. A PC Refresh will reinstall Windows but will keep all your data, while PC Reset will get rid of everything and will do a clean install. Make sure you back up your data to an external drive, shared network drive, or to cloud.

Essential Computer Maintenance Tools for Non-Techie People

Let’s face it; around 80 percent of computer users are non-techies, or at least contain only minimal skills when it comes to computer maintenance. They may be the kings of web development, content writing, Photoshop, photography, and other computer whizzes, but when it comes to computer maintenance; it’s a whole new ballgame.

For the non-techie, there are numerous computer maintenance tools that can be found online, many being open-source – meaning they're free – or are sold at affordable prices. The level of experience for using these tools range from beginner or basic computer skills needed, to intermediate or familiarity with some computer jargon.

Here are some examples:

CCleaner – gives your PC a tune-up by removing unnecessary files and registry information, freeing up valuable disk space and making your machine run faster.

JkDefragGUI – JkDefrag reorganizes files on your PC to improve performance.

Double Killer – helps you find and easily remove duplicate files which are using unnecessary disk space.

Deep Burner – makes it easy to backup information to a CD or DVD.

7-Zip Portable – 7 Zip lets you create and extract from most of the popular archive file formats.

PC Decrapifier – uninstalls many of the common trial ware and annoyances found on PC’s when you bring them home from the store. A list of software that it can detect and remove is provided after it is downloaded and installed. PC Decrapifier displays a list of software it detects and then lets you choose what you want removed.

Process Explorer – a task manager on steroids. Find out what files, registry keys, and other objects applications have open, even which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns each application.

ProduKey – a small utility that displays the Product ID and the CD-Key of MS-Office, Windows, Exchange Server, and SQL Server installed on your computer. This utility can be useful if you lost the product key of your Windows/Office, and you want to reinstall it on your computer.

WirelessKeyView – retrieves the type and value of previously used wireless network keys and passwords stored in your computer, and then lets you easily save all the information to a text file.

Unknown Devices – helps you determine what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are if Windows can’t figure it out by itself.

Recuva – recovers files which have been deleted from your computer, including files emptied from the recycle bin as well as files deleted from memory cards or MP3 players.

PhotoRec – recovers files which have been deleted or damaged from memory cards. It works by ignoring the file system and going after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media’s file system has been severely damaged or re-formatted.

ClamWin – scans your PC for viruses and helps remove them. It does not include an on-access real-time scanner. You need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware.

Rootkit Revealer – an advanced rootkit detection utility that outputs a list of Registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit.