To summarize this article, the four choices of what to do with all the email messages in your inbox, are to delete the email, to do something with the email, to delegate someone else to do something with the email, or to defer doing something with the email until a later date.

The hardest choice for some people is deleting emails, because they wonder if they will ever need those deleted emails someday.  If you frequently save emails, knowing if you ever access those saved emails will help you decide if you should be continuing to save emails.  If you don’t ever access saved emails, then continuing to save them is really a waste of your time and your email providers resources.  Just because you use an email provider that gives you unlimited email storage, that is no reason to save every email that you receive, because you still have to manage those emails.

If you are one of the few people that actually access saved emails, like myself, then continue saving selected emails that you think that you might need to access someday, but don’t forget to save those emails in a logically named folder system, so that you will know where you saved them to, and how you can easily access them without having to search through your entire inbox.  See my blog titled “Organize your files, folders & emails”, for directions on how to create and use a logically named folder structure.

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Don’t forget to create a password for every account, which is unique to all your other passwords, to help prevent all of your accounts from being hacked, all at the same time.  If you can’t sign into your email account, follow the directions on your online email account to reset your password.

After you have successfully changed your email account password, you may or may not decide to contact all of the people on your contact list.  If you discovered that your email account was hacked right away, you may decide to contact all the people on your contact list, and advise them not to open up any attachments, or click on any links, that was in the spam email, that your email account sent them.

If you didn’t discover that your email account was hacked for quite some time, most likely everyone on your contact list, that received the spam email from you, already knows that your email account was sending out spam, and if in that spam email from you, that your email account sent out to everyone on your contact list, had an infected attachment, or a malicious link in it, that could possibly cause damage to the recipient’s computer, then chances are that any damage has already been done to their computer.

You will have to decide if you want to contact everyone in your contact list, to notify them that your email account was hacked, and you have corrected that problem, but the most important thing you can do is to keep changing your passwords often, so that something like this doesn’t happen again to this email account, or any of your other accounts.

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If you already have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware installed on your computer, and if your computer ever gets infected by malware, you can run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to help get rid of that malware.  Even if Malwarebytes Anti-Malware won’t run, because the malware has prevented Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from running, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has their Chameleon product installed in the “Chameleon” folder on your hard drive, which when launched, can usually update Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and then complete a malware quick scan, to get rid of the malware on your computer.  I use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and their Chameleon software to get rid of malware on lots of computers that I work on.  Malwarebytes Anti-Malware also includes a file deletion tool called “FileASSASSIN”, that is located in the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware “More Tools” tab, which can delete those stubborn files that are normally unable to be deleted.

You can always download the latest version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from filehippo.com at: https://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

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I highly recommend storing all your data under your “My Documents” folder, so that it makes it much easier to back up all your data, because then all you would have to do is point your backup software to back up everything in your “My Documents” folder, and then you would know that all your data is getting backed up.  The problem occurs when you keep storing all your data in the root of your “My Documents” folder, and not storing it in a logically named folder structure, and the next thing you know, you have thousands of files in the root of your “My Documents” folder, and you don’t have any clue why you saved all those files, or what each file is for.

If you have a lot of documents that you created and/or saved for your golf league, for example, create a new folder named “Golf League”, under your “My Documents” folder, and then save all your golf league documents in that new “Golf League” folder.  If you play on several different golf leagues, then you might want to create a new high level folder called “Golf Leagues”, which would be created under your “My Documents” folder, and then create a new sub-folder under “Golf Leagues” for each golf league that you belong to.  If you have been playing on a particular golf league for many years, you should put the year of the golf league in the golf league name, such as “Burning Tree 2012”.  That way it makes it much easier to find any documents for your Burning Tree golf league for 2012, because now they are organized in the “Burning Tree 2012” sub-folder, which is now under the “Golf Leagues” folder.

You can use this same logical naming convention for organizing your email inbox.  Under your inbox create a new high level folder named “Saved”, and then create new sub-folders under the new “Saved” folder for anything that you would like to save, such as for correspondence for your Burning Tree golf league.  If your plan on responding to a particular email, but don’t have the time to respond right now, you could create a new sub-folder under your inbox called “To Do” or something along those lines, and then when you have time to respond, you will know exactly where that email is saved, without having to look though the new 250 emails you just got, which most end up being SPAM anyways.  It is totally up to you how you name these new folders, but I would highly suggest that you use a logical naming convention when naming the new folders, so that in a couple of years from now, when you go back through your saved folder structure, you know exactly what those emails or those documents are for, and why you saved them.

Many times when I am working on moving data from a client’s old computer, to their new computer, I help them get their documents and emails organized, so that they can retrieve those documents and those emails, easily if they ever need them someday.  You should be naming your file names the same way, using a logical naming convention, so that you know exactly what those files are for, should you ever need them someday, or should you ever decide to finally get around to cleaning out some of your older unneeded files, you will know exactly why you saved those files at the time that you saved them, and what is inside them, without having to open up each file, or each email.

Most of us all have saved pictures, and you should also be following these same directions for creating logically named folders, but with pictures, you should also be renaming those pictures with a logical name, rather than using the camera’s default file naming convention, which usually has a date and time stamp in the file name, but doesn’t describe what that picture is of, and two years from now that obscure file name that the camera automatically created, will mean absolutely nothing to you.  For example, rename the first file from your friend Nancy’s birthday party last year to “Nancy’s Birthday Party 1” and then increment the file name of each of Nancy’s birthday party picture by one, so that the second picture is called “Nancy’s Birthday Party 2”, and the last file name in that series of pictures is called “Nancy’s Birthday Party 15”, and store all Nancy’s birthday party pictures under your “My Pictures” folder, in a new folder called “Nancy’s Birthday Party 2011”.  This is just an example of using a logical naming convention, but I think you get the point.  Most importantly, remember this is your data, so go ahead and name it anyway that you want, but if you expect to ever be able to recall what those files, folders and emails were created and/or saved for, give them logical names, and store them is a logically named folder structure, to help you be better organized.

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These directions are very detailed, and are easy to follow, and cover Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.  Most all Windows Updates available today are security updates, and it is very important to download and install all the security updates that become available through Windows Updates.  You can configure Windows Updates to notify you when important updates are available to download, or available to install, after they have automatically been downloaded, or to automatically have them installed for you.

I prefer to have the Windows Updates downloaded first, but then to notify me when those Windows Updates are available to install on all of my computers, that way I know what Windows Updates are going to be installed, so that if something with the Windows Update ever goes wrong, I can uninstall that Windows Update to get my system running correctly again.

If you configure Windows Updates to notify you when an important Windows Update becomes available to download, or when an important Windows Update has been downloaded, and is ready to install, an icon will appear in the task tray, next to the clock, notifying you that important Windows Updates are available to download and install, or install.  You can then review the Windows Updates that are available to download and install, or install, before installing them.

When I work on client’s computers, if time is available, I always download and install all Windows Updates that are available, so that I know that any security vulnerabilities that Microsoft is aware of that may exist on that computer are patched, and all drivers and all Microsoft software is up to date.  If my clients would download and install all Windows Updates themselves, before I work on their computer, it would save me a lot of time, and therefore save them money, because I would be working on their computer for less time, which translates to money that I would be charging them to bring their computer up to date with Windows Updates.

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Most people make their passwords too weak, and they use the same password for many accounts. The problem with using the same password for more than one accounts is that if one account gets hacked, then all the other accounts that use the same password are then vulnerable to also getting hacked.

To help prevent this from happening, use strong and secure passwords,  change your passwords often. Many accounts require you to change your password at predetermined intervals. Corporate password policies vary from requiring you to change your password from every six weeks, to every quarter. Web banking accounts are one of those types of accounts that require you to change your account password often.

Most email accounts don’t require you to ever change your password, which is bad, and because of that, they are often hacked, because hackers can run password breaking programs on your email account, for long periods of time, because they know that you don’t ever have to change your email password.

You should still change all of your account passwords often, to help prevent your accounts from being hacked. Email accounts when they get hacked, are usually hacked to maliciously spread viruses. How many of us know someone’s email account that has been hacked, because someone is sending out email in their name, without their knowledge, or their consent?

The top ten passwords that people use (that you should never use) are:
123456
password
welcome
ninja
abc123
123456789
12345678
sunshine
princess
qwerty

The top ten base words that are used for passwords (that you should never use) are:
password
welcome
qwerty
monkey
jesus
money
freedom
ninja
writer

Here is a very good article from Microsoft, about creating strong passwords:
https://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx

There are many web sites to help you create a password that is easier to remember, but yet that is still secure. Here is one of my favorite web sites for creating a secure, but easier to remember password:
www.safepasswd.com

Check to see if how secure your current and your new password is, using these web sites:
https://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/password-checker.aspx

https://howsecureismypassword.net/

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PC Magazine’s Ten Tips for Public Wi-Fi Hotspot Security: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368802,00.asp

Remember that unless the website that you are connecting to is a secured web site (the website address starts with “httpss”, rather than with “https”), or if you are not using a VPN, then the information that you are entering and accessing from that website, is not being transmitted and received using encryption, and therefore could be used accessed by others, that could be used for malicious purposes.

Some web sites, such as Facebook and Google can be accessed using non-secured and secured website addresses.  If there is only a non-secured website address available to access the website, then remember that all the information that is being transmitted and received between your device, and the web site, is being transmitted and received unencrypted over the internet, and is therefore unsecured.

When you access a secured web site, all the information that is being transmitted and received between your device, and the web site, is being transmitted and received encrypted, and is therefore secured.  Always try to use secured web site addresses, when possible, especially when transmitting your username and password to login to the website, or when keying in any other private information that you don’t want anyone else to have access to.

Unsecured website addresses examples:

https://www.facebook.com

https://www.google.com

Secured website addresses examples:

httpss://www.facebook.com

httpss://www.google.com

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These below steps are assuming that you already have an up to date and functional anti-virus program running on your computer, and that you are also running daily or weekly anti-virus full scans of all your hard drives, both internal and external hard drives, and on all flash drives that you connect to your computer.  If you don’t have an up to date and functional anti-virus program running on your computer you will need to either download a free anti-virus program, or purchase a commercial anti-virus program, which requires an annual subscription, or check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to see if they offer you an anti-virus program that is included with your paid internet service, and then install one of these anti-virus programs, and then configure it to run daily or weekly full scans of all your hard drives.

If you already have an up to date and functional anti-virus program running on your computer, but it is not configured to run daily or weekly anti-virus full scans of all your hard drives, configure your anti-virus program to run daily or weekly anti-virus full scans on all your drives.  If you need assistance with this, either seek help from the maker of your anti-virus program, or if you got your anti-virus program from your ISP, call them for assistance with this.

These below steps also assume that you already have CCleaner, Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware and Spybot Search & Destroy installed on your computer.  If you do not have all three of these programs installed, search the internet for them, and download and install them on your computer before proceeding with the below steps.

Step 1
Confirm that all your work is saved, and that all running applications are closed before proceeding.  Perform Steps 2, 3 & 4 at least once a week, and more often if heavy daily internet browsing occurs, or if you have had someone else using your computer that might be going to web sites that are known to spread infections, like online gambling web sites, and pornography web sites.

The more internet browsing that you do on your computer, the greater your risk that your computer is going to get infected because your computer’s anti-virus program can’t protect you against all known virus, because viruses get created faster than anti-virus programs get updated against those new viruses.  No matter how good that you think that your anti-virus program is, or no matter how safe that you think that the web sites that you are visiting are, legitimate web sites get infected all the time.  By the time the owners of those web sites are made aware of the infection, and they are able to remove any infections that they find, numerous computers who have visited that web site have already been infected, and a lot of the times owners of those computers don’t even know which web site infected their computer.

It does not matter the order that you run steps 3 and 4.  To save time you can run both steps 3 and 4 at the same time, but when running multiple scans, your computer may perform so slow that it may be barely usable, so usually the best time to run these scans is during a time when you will be away from your computer, like when you leave work, or when you go to bed.  Step 2 always should be run first, so that all unneeded files on your computer are deleted first, before you run any scans, so that you can reduce scanning time, and to save unnecessary wear and tear on your hard drive scanning files that could have been deleted before the scans are started.

Step 2
Run CCleaner & clean your computer

Step 3
Update & run Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware scan

Step 4
Update & run Spybot Search & Destroy scan

Step 5
If Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware & Spybot Search & Destroy scan were clean, then you are finished. If either Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware or Spybot Search & Destroy scan found objects to delete, then run another scan from which ever program found the objects to be deleted, and keep repeating until both Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware & Spybot Search & Destroy scans are clean; then you would be finished.

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