A Few PC Safeguards Will Minimize Risks to Home Business

If you run a full or part-time business from your home, then you--and everyone else in your house--need to treat your computer as the serious business tool that it is.

I say that because it’s not uncommon for people to have one computer that they, their spouse, kids or housemates use for business, recreation and schoolwork. For some, that may be an economic necessity. But now that computers are getting cheaper, it may be a false economy.

Let’s face it, the PC you use to do your work is essential to your livelihood. If something goes wrong, it can spell disaster. At the very least, a crashed system will set you back a few days and could cost you money and lost opportunities as well as time.

A friend of mine can testify to this. Her teenage son brought home an illegal copy of a CD-ROM game that he installed on the family machine. Dad and Mom haven’t figured out how and why it happened, but the next day all of their financial records had been scrambled. They didn’t have a backup and they now have a serious problem on their hands. Had they invested a few hundred dollars in a second PC for the family, their records would be safe.

Although I sometimes have trouble enforcing it, my kids know that the PC on my desk is off-limits to them. Even my wife stays away from my PC for fear that she may do something to damage my data. That’s not to say that I can’t also do things to mess up my machine--I have made mistakes that have cost me precious time and data and I’ve had software and hardware glitches that have also set me back. But it’s one thing for me to make a mistake on my own system and quite another for someone else to do it.

I realize that not everyone who runs a business from their house is in a position to buy two or more PCs. If you’re in that situation, there are some things you can do to minimize your risk.

First, always keep a backup copy of your data on floppies, Zip disks, on the Internet or on tape. You can buy a new PC and software but your data are irreplaceable.

Second, keep your business data in separate directories and insist that no one else in the family save any files in those directories. Microsoft Office and many other programs, by default, save all data in a directory called “My Documents.” But you can change that default. You can set it up so that the rest of the family stores their data in “My Documents” and you store yours in a different directory such as “Business Documents.”

If you know anything about Office’s macro language, you can automate this process by writing a simple macro that changes the directory for you. You can set up separate data directories for each person in the family and a menu item for each person to make sure that his or her files are being saved in the right directory.

Another thing you can do is to insist that only you or another responsible adult install software on the machine and that kids never delete any programs or data. Installation of software can sometimes cause problems and, besides, by installing all the software, you have a better idea of what is on the machine.

If you have very young kids, you can install software that locks them out of your directories and programs and, at the same time, gives them a fun environment in which to play and learn. KidDesk Lite from EdMark (https://www.edmark.com) is a free security utility that creates a special work space for young PC users.

You can protect both your files and your software from your kids and provide them with a cool desktop from which to do their own thing. EdMark also makes KidDesk Internet Safe, which not only protects your files from the kids but also protects the kids from inappropriate Web sites.

For Windows users, another option that’s suitable for any situation where there are multiple users of the same PC is the Windows Multi-Users settings command that you can access by clicking on the Users icon in the control panel. This feature allows you to create a separate desktop for each user with the option of a password protecting each environment.

Each person who shares the machine can use this feature to personalize the desktop folder and documents menu, the Start menu, the Favorites folder and their “My Documents” folder. If you’re setting up these features for your kids, it’s a good idea to do it yourself and assign them a password so that you can get into their area and make changes as necessary.

Hopefully, you won’t have to follow this advice for very long because that very small business of yours may soon grow big enough to afford another PC.

Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard at 1:48 p.m. weekdays on KNX (1070). He can be reached at [email protected]. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com.