Your Computer needs your help!

Spring Cleaning includes Hardware, Software, and Password Management

While many of us look to closets and drawers we store things we never expect to see again, there are few who think about the hidden corners of our technology where dust, dirt, and crummy things (like destructive viruses) can live in wait for their turn to take down our work. We’ll help you with best practices for keeping your passwords and technological life in tip-top shape!

A clean sweep for your computer is a must-do for authors

Every writer should start off the year knowing their work is protected and their work tools are ready and able to take on the job of creating the worlds we imagine. So, in the spirit of getting ready to meet those 2025 writing goals, we offer these tips on the cleaning and maintenance of your equipment.

Your computer needs your loving care, too!

Computers are arguably the most important tool in our toolbox. It stores your intellectual property, aids in transforming words from your brain into little alphabet letters that add up to a story. For most of us, our computers enable us to create what we love most—books and stories!

Whether it is a desktop, laptop, pad, or your own Mad Maxx creation of technologies (like Argus’s), your computer deserves a little bit of attention.

Computer Care for Authors and Publishers

We often forget how important it is to maintain a clean computer on the inside and outside, even if our desk and the surrounding area is spotless. Here are a few tips to get you started. And, yes, this is your annual reminder!

1. Clean your keyboard 

If you don’t want to be like the person in this XKCD comic, you might want to clean your keyboard. Luckily, this is an easy task you can do once a week. Or at least once a year…

Ewwww!!

Wipe it down with a slightly damp microfiber cloth, dry it with a different cloth, and then use a disinfectant wipe or a cloth just damp with rubbing alcohol to finish it out (do not use bleach!). It is probably best to do this when your computer and keyboard are unplugged because keyboards are actually quite delicate inside.

Also, turn your keyboard or laptop upside down and give it a gentle shake or two about once a week. Gentle being the operative word. You may be surprised to see what falls out of it.

Especially if you have a cat for an intern. Here’s looking at you, Janet Oakley!

We’ve even seen Argus vacuum his keyboards. But, that is up to you.

Really consider giving this a try. Your keyboard will feel cleaner. All the bits of dust and crumbs of food you’ve learned to ignore will be gone, and it will be such a pleasant experience for your hands.  

2. Clean your screen

We’ve all had that experience of editing and suddenly an errant apostrophe or period appears where there ought not to be one. We click on it to edit it, but something about the way it appears doesn’t quite make sense, and then we can’t delete it from the page. That’s when it clicks. The screen is just dirty.  

To clean it, a microfiber cloth is always the recommendation. Always dab any cleaning solution (Windex and/or a little bit of mild soap and water are recommended but check before trying anything else!) onto the cloth, not directly on the screen itself.  

3. Password Management

Over 353 million passwords are hacked in 2023, according to Statista, and this number has continues to grow substantially each year.

The concept of a healthy mind, healthy body can be applied to healthy software, healthy hardware, too. Now that you have a clean machine, make sure you have a good password system. While two-factor authentication (such as when you need to type in a code from your phone or email as well) can seem like a hassle but is also another key factor in security. For reliable password managers, see the following. 

• Keypass 
• Lastpass by LogMeIn
• 1Password 
• Bitwarden 
• Dashlane

We use these here at Chanticleer—but use caution and be prepared!

Using numbers, characters, and upper and lower cases matters when it comes to password security.

Make sure the password you decide on for your managers is something that is memorable to YOU. The only other person who should have it is your estate executor or life partner or someone that you would trust with your bank accounts and credit cards. 

If you happen to momentarily forget your master password, because someone was talking to you while you were creating it – you will need to start over. There is no way to recover your account, unless you happen to find the random piece of paper you scribbled your master password on… Experience is a cruel teacher…

IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD for your business/work accounts and your personal household accounts or publishing accounts. This is how hackers can take people down by infiltrating a business password—harder to do, but they have access to so many personal accounts because so many people use the same password for home and personal accounts.

After hearing from several authors whose computers were hacked, bank accounts taken over, ransomware remotely installed, and other malicious activity that drained their credit card balances and credit ratings, and stole their intellectual property (as in books – published and unpublished), we suggest you go directly to a password manager. Do not go another day without a password manager!

You can do it! There are several excellent password managers that are FREE or as little as $36 per year.

For more information here are three links to articles about password managers from reliable sources: 

Here is a link from CNet on the Best Password Manager companies

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/best-password-manager/

And here is a link from WIRE magazine

https://www.wired.com/story/best-password-managers/

PC Mag’s roundup of the best password managers 

4. Keep a clear cache. 

[Note from Editor: Do NOT proceed to this step until you have your Password Manager project all sorted out. ]

As we barrel forward into the future, there’s so much in our cache that this has become a bigger and bigger project. Luckily, PC Mag has a great article about how to clear your cache on any browser. While this can be a little tricky to navigate, it can be worth it for the faster computer speed. PC Mag also focuses on the security risks of the cache, but chances are most of us don’t have to worry too much about those.  

WHY SHOULD YOU CLEAR YOUR CACHE from COOKIES? 

This is called “Browser Hygiene.” Really.

Browsers tend to hold onto information and like a clogged drain, after a while, it will slow down the speed and performance of your computer. Where your browser holds onto this information is in its “cache.”

A computer’s cache (pronounced ‘cash’) is also where websites that you visit implement their “cookies”—that bread crumb trail that rambles through the internet linking your computer to the websites you visit. Each and every website uses cookies—even yours is guilty of it. It is the nature of the internet…

Have you ever had this happen to you?

“I don’t see the change. You said you updated on your web page.”

That is because your computer is storing and showing you the previous cache of the website it stored in its cache. You aren’t seeing the latest and greatest of the website you are revisiting, but rather a “shadow” of it.

To see the latest version of a website or webpost, you will probably have to clear your computer’s cache, which will delete cookies at the same time.

Each computer and browser has a different system, so we advise you to search on your browser (i.e. Google it) on how to clear the cache for your particular system.

Also, you can decide how much of the cache you want to clear. All of it? Only the cookies? Save the passwords? Clear the passwords? (the reason to do #2 Password Management first). It is probably a good idea to clean the password cache at least once a year. But remember that you will need to do a fresh login for each website that you visit. See #2 Password Management.

We clear our caches here at Chanticleer at least every three months or as needed to access new data from websites that we visit.

More info:

Remember all that fuss about Data Privacy back in May 2018? Cache and Cookies are what that was and is all about. Here is a handy link to Chanticleer’s blog post about it. Are you ready for the GDPR? (General Data Protection Regulation)

5. Virus Protection

What are the odds of becoming a victim of a cyber attack? One in Five

Any highly rated anti-virus and anti-malware program will update itself on a daily basis for latest hacking techniques, Trojan horses, phishing methods, ransomware, adware, spyware, and worms (I shudder to think about this one), and other malicious activity. This is different than updating the program itself. Is your antivirus program a couple of years old? If so, time to do some research.

Again, we’re going to turn to the experts here and look at CNET’s best Windows antivirus Protection. A good antivirus keeps your computer running in top shape, and it keeps your data and writing easy to access for yourself, so you don’t end up like one of the characters in Neal Stephenson’s Reamde who end up with all their files locked away by ransomware.   

Now for some potentially bad news. If malware has made it into your computer, you will need to have it professionally removed or contact the family and friends computer geek to save your computer and your sanity. If you are computer handy, then you have probably already taken steps to rid your computer of it.

The scary thing about malware is that once it has infiltrated your computer, it may be hard to detect even by anti-virus protection. That is how sneaky and underhanded malware can be.

Some symptoms that your computer may be infected with malware:

1. Your computer is slowing down
2. Your computer crashes more often or “locks up”
3. Your friends and contacts receive strange messages from you
4. Suddenly you do not have any storage space available
5. Your homepage changed itself without you changing it.
6. PUPs show up. These are Potentially Unwanted Programs that have infiltrated your system when you give your consent to install additional tools on your computer. We think “barnacles” would be a better name.
7. Unusual Error Messages

Here is an article from Heimdal Security (based in Copenhagen) with more information about malware. (June 2019) 

For more expert advice see CNET’s best Windows antivirus Protection

The Best Protection is Prevention!

Make sure that your computer (and smart phone) has the latest anti-virus and anti-malware programs protecting it.

Now for some definite good news!

Highly rated by independent and professional reviewers of Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware programs are available from free to $59 a year. A small price for piece of mind.

That’s what we want you to see! That you are safe!

6. Back up your files

Anything that you’d have trouble replacing, it’s worth backing up. There are several places like One Drive, Dropbox, or Google Drive that will let you store files for free, up to a certain point. Luckily, external hard drives are getting cheaper all the time, and you can always do both. Whenever one of my free online drives fills up, I move anything I’m not currently using onto my external hard drive. I also make sure to periodically back up my writing.  

This is such a great fear of mine that on my fire list (list of things that I need to grab immediately in case of fire) I have my external hard drive above everything else. I’m sure if you aren’t someone who has lost data, you know people who have, and I dearly hope you never have to worry about that.  

Once your computer and files are all protected, you’ll be free to write without any anxiety hanging over your head. Like cleaning and maintaining most things, a routine means you only need to do a little work when the time comes to get everything squared away. 

We hope these were handy reminders. Everybody gets busy and can easily procrastinate about taking care of these mundane but vital tasks. We certainly do!

If there is something we should add to this blog post or you have an experience that you would like to share or a question that you would like to ask about the cleaning and maintenance of your writing tools, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com

We’d love to hear from you!

Thank you for joining us and please stay tuned for the next Business and Marketing Tools and Tips for Writers Article!

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Thank you for joining us for this Writer’s Toolbox Article!

Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer Resolutions article.

Writer Toolbox Helpful Links: 

Best password manager to use from CNET

The Best Password Managers to Secure Your Digital Life

The Best Password Managers from PCMag

How to Clear Your Cache on Any Browser

EU GDPR? What does it mean? Are you ready? Get handy links and the 411 here.

15 Warning Signs that Your Computer is Malware-Infected

CNET: Best antivirus software

The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels? Read The Seven Must-Haves for Authors – Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Publishing Series by Kiffer Brown

Our Annual Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25) will be April 3-6, 2025, where our 2024 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today!  CAC25 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Bellingham Yacht Club Event Center located on the shore of beautiful Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham, WA.

We’re already halfway full! Sign up and see the latest updates here!