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Q: Two Questions: 1st one – I have seen several ads on TV about companies that will ‘back up’ your files and/or Run scans on your PC to ‘clean’ it…are these offers “valid”? Can these companies do a creditable job and do they then have access to your computer files? 2nd Question – I would like to get a new laptop with Windows 8, but every time I see a ‘demonstration’ I’m somewhat intimidated by the process. Are there any ‘classes’ that are offered that will teach/familiarize me with the working process of Windows 8?

– Henry D.
Crestview, Florida

A: Those are two very excellent questions, Henry.  Actually, it’s three very excellent questions, because I’m going to break your first question apart.  You’re talking about two very different things, and my answers are going to be quite different.  First, about companies that offer to back-up your files.  Yes, these are legitimate.  Each company’s performance varies, but yes, they generally do a good job of it.  What they are actually doing is backing up your files to the mysterious “cloud”, which in this case is their (hopefully professionally maintained) servers, out there on Internet somewhere.  There are some important distinctions about this sort of back-up which can be pro or con depending on your personal feelings and the capabilities of your computer and Internet connection.  First of all, it uses your Internet connection to save the files.  Depending on how much data you have to be backed up and the speed of your Internet connection, the initial data push can take quite a long time.  I’m talking on the order of hours, if not days to complete.  After that, however, only new files and files that have changed are backed-up.  Regardless, it’s all done behind the scenes, and supposedly you don’t even know it’s happening.  Since the back-up is on the cloud, rather than within your own home, your data is protected against just about any hazard imaginable.  Fire, flood, theft, lightning, hard drive failure, are all recoverable, since your data are safely stored elsewhere.  Does the company have access to your files?  Well sure – the files are stored on their server.  But that doesn’t mean anyone is going through all your personal stuff.  Hopefully they’re encrypted at the time they leave your computer, meaning they’re stored as pretty much useless bit patterns to anyone without the decryption key.  That notwithstanding, we’ve all heard about data thefts, or rogue employees doing bad things on company servers.  The companies do their level best to prevent such activities, and really, your data is probably at just as much risk sitting unattended in your computer when you’re not home.

As for those commercials that claim they can fix a slow-running PC, double your speed, and instantly remove all your problems – no, not a single one of these qualifies as what I would call “legitimate”.  While they do offer a modicum of scanning of your computer, and might even find an occasional piece of malware, you can do the same thing with most free virus scanners.  Look at it this way:  Windows is a fairly problem-riddled operating system, right? By that, I mean there are uncounted ways that bad guys have figured out that allow them to just swoop in and take over your computer, often times while you’re simply using it to perform everyday tasks, and most people don’t even notice when it happens.  If someone invented a way to magically fix all those problems, don’t you think Microsoft would just buy that company and incorporate those features directly into the product?

As for training, you shouldn’t have to look any farther than your search engine to find what you’re looking for.  Just Google “Windows 8 Training” and go from there.  You’ll find more books, websites, and courseware than you probably ever wanted to know existed.  I hope you can understand why it’s not possible for me to make any kind of useful recommendation on such a personal topic.  Besides, when I ran that search the day I wrote this, it returned 306 million results!