This one’s for my cousin Rachael, who started college this year. Over Thanksgiving dinner, she admitted that she’s too busy studying (and partying) to remember to run the anti-spyware program that her father installed on her laptop. Well, here’s a handy way to make it (or any other program) run itself automatically.

Windows has a built-in scheduler. You just have to know where to look for it. It’s hiding in the Control Panel.

You’ll find a nicely written set of instruction for using it over on www.iopus.com/guides/winscheduler.htm. As you follow along, simply select your anti-spyware program instead of the Internet Macros Browser that is cited in the example.

See also the official Microsoft knowledge base article on this subject: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308569 — although this one is not illustrated like the iOpus article.

Related articles:

• Check Your Internet Security with Shields UP!!
• PasswordSafe vs. KeePass Password Safe
• Secure AIM with Trillian

Read more: Windows, Productivity, Security