After I return your computer you may notice my footprints. The following explains what software I may leave on your computer in more detail than that found in my Terms of Business. Inststalled programs are mainly job specific tools needed to resolve your problems and are generally licensed to me. However those that may remain useful are often left and this page lists those. In addition to these you may notice that I update Windows and physically clean the device.
If you prefer not to have any of these please let me know and I can easily remove them - either while I have your computer or remotely some time later.
- Belarc Advisor – this enables me to record key details of your configuration: hardware and software installed and version numbers, and some license keys. I use it to create a more informative invoice for you and also retain this information as it is often useful years later when upgrade plans are discussed and product keys are lost.
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TeamViewer – this is software which allows a remote connection to your computer. It is useful in situations where you have a problem that may be addressed much faster and more cheaply by my connecting to your computer from my workshop rather than arranging a visit. I can do things such as update anti-virus packages, basic diagnosis of the cause of some faults, explain the meaning of an error message, or demonstrate how to accomplish something. There is a password required for my access and you can change this at any time. After you ask me to connect a window will appear asking whether you would like to allow remote viewing of your computer; here you must click the Allow button to enable it to proceed. When I am connected your wallpaper picture will temporarily turn plain black and a balloon will live in the lower right of the screen which tells you who is connected and allows you to end the connection immediately. After the connection closes your wallpaper is returned to its former glory.
- Folding@home – is an idle process task. Whenever your computer has spare capacity (most of the time) one of the components (the CPU) constantly cycles looking for work to do. This wasted resource can be put to more productive use by running a program that assists medical research scientists by performing a little data analysis. Packets of data are automatically fed to your computer and after a few days the results are fed back to the coordinating centre at Stanford University. This job has the lowest priority possible on your computer so it will not impact your computer's performance, there is no access to anyone so security is not compromised, and the longevity of your computer remains unaffected. Occasionally you may notice the CPU cooling fan spinning a little more than before; if this is too distracting for you we can reduce the amount of work done by the program. You may choose which disease you want to contribute to (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, or Cancer) and adjust other parameters in the control centre. For more explanation and videos please visit http://www.1computercare.co.uk/foldingathome.html
- A clock - this widget (sometimes together with its framework: 8GagetPack) does more than tell you the time – by putting your name on it I can be sure which of several computers on my bench at any one time I am working on. Also by having a second hand I can tell whether the computer is ticking over normally or has hung.
- Drive Monitor - especially valuable on old computers, this keeps a check on the state of health of disk drives. It utilises the self-monitoring analysis and reporting capability built into most disks to display some key metrics and predict the current state of health. By replacing a disk before it fails you can avoid a large expense in data recovery and possibly avoid total loss of all data.
- A link to my website is also left on the desktop. This allows quick access to my blogs, contact details and pages of information.
- A program called Ninite that helps maintain many free programs and frameworks at the latest revision to ensure security updates are installed in a timely manner. It works almost silently declining the invitations to accept junkware, choosing the correct version for your language and Windows version. This will be free until the end of the year when we can either uninstall it or renew the license (currently £6 a year).