How To Keep Your Business PC Safe (Part 1)

Written by Dave Navarro on May 1, 2006

Just thought I’d write a quick post here to reference a common danger I see for a lot of people who run an online business … the danger of having your online business come to a crashing halt because of viruses, data corruption, or adware/spyware.

How to Keep What you Browse for from Screwing Up Your Computer

Think about it .. if your business PC was corrupted - if it were shut down or taken out of commission … or if it just plain broke … how much would that cost you? How hard would that hit your business?

Too many people running their own online business don’t take the time to build in “disaster recovery” into their plan, even though it could wipe out your business in a heartbeat. So as someone who has experienced the pains of computer failure and data corruption in the past - and as a coach who helps online business owners avoid that pain in the future, I’m starting two series of articles: one for safeguarding your PC, and one for safeguarding your data.

In this first article on safeguarding your PC, I’m going to tell you about a great (and free) program that allows you to create a virtual computer on your PC that is completely isolated from your main computer (called your ‘host’ PC). Whatever you do inside this ‘virtual machine’ does not spill over into your host PC.

This program is great for doing research for your business and for downloading files - you won’t have to worry about cookies, spyware/adware or viruses getting onto your host PC. previously, this program carried a $200 price tag because the target market was high-tech companies (these ‘throwaway’ machines are perfect for programmers and software testers), but they’ve just released a free version that you can download and use for yourself.

To get this program, go to the VMWare web site and download the free VMWare Player. You will also need to download the “Browser Appliance”, a preconfigured Linux operating system that you can boot up and use to access the internet safely - and immediately.

This awesome program is free (but keep in mind it will take up about 1 GB of your hard drive space), and will be worth its weight in gold for how it can keep “badware” from mucking up your PC.

Give it a try today & see what you think! You’ll thank yourself for it.