Five Simple Fixes for Most Computer Problems

It's a long running joke that the only thing tech support folks know how to do is tell people to restart their computers.

I've had the displeasure of working with a few "professionals" that might have inspired that joke, but please don't overlook this extraordinarily simple step.

More times than you would believe, I would visit a customer's home or business, listen to a long story about an issue, and then simply restart the computer to fix the problem.

Contrary to accounts otherwise, I do not have a magic touch. Computers sometimes encounter very temporary issues that a restart, which clears its memory and reruns processes, solves.

Make sure you restart your computer at least one time before scheduling computer repair with anyone. The problem, assuming its of a certain nature, might simply go away.

Yet another joke, albeit a more recent one, is that clearing your browser's cache, that collection of recently visited pages that's saved to your computer's hard drive, is the fix for all possible Internet problems.

That's certainly an exaggeration - clearing cache won't fix every broken website or Internet related problem - but it is often helpful.

Clearing the cache is very easy to do. Every browser has a straightforward method for doing so, even if it is hidden a few layers deep in a menu.

If you have any sort of Internet related issue, especially if it's impacting only certain pages, be sure to clear the cache before taking your computer in for service.

No doubt scanning for a virus infection was the first thing that came to mind if a virus or other malicious program (collectively called malware) made itself obvious.

Unfortunately, most problems caused by malware don't always clearly point to an infection. It's great if your antivirus program warns you of a problem, but it won't always.

Often times, virus-caused problems appear as general computer sluggishness, random error messages, frozen windows, and things like that.

Before you take your computer in for any reason, be sure to run a full malware scan using whatever antivirus software you're running.

This tutorial is really helpful if you're not sure what you're doing, don't have antivirus software (I link to several free options), can't access Windows, or can't run a scan for some reason.

A lot of computer problems are software-specific, meaning that they only happen when starting, using, or stopping a particular program that's installed.

These sorts of problems can make it seem like your whole computer is falling part, especially if you use the offending program a lot, but the solution is often very simple: reinstall the program.

Reinstalling a program means to uninstall it, and then install it again from scratch. Every program has an automated process for removing itself from, as well as installing itself onto, your computer.

If you think the problem you're experiencing is software-specific, gather up the original installation disc or download the program again, and then reinstall it.

Check out the tutorial if you've never reinstalled a software program or you run into trouble.