With Windows 8 releasing a developers version several weeks ago people are already beginning to form conclusions to the success and usefulness of this new operating system. Many users complain that the new GUI is not user friendly stating that it looks like a big mess of icons with little to no organization at all.

Many users want to have their old start menus back, or at least have it as an option. A lot of users are complaining that this drastic change to the way Windows functions will cause a huge drop in productivity as it will take many users longer to get to the programs they normally use.

Microsoft, though defending the design of Windows 8, is beginning to take some of the criticisms into consideration since there are so many people angered by the new design. Though Microsoft does see the comments being made they are not getting rid of the new “Metro” interface entirely, or even giving you the option to replace it with your old start menu. Instead, they are adjusting the GUI they have already designed to allow you to group your programs based on various factors to allow you to more easily navigate. If you haven’t gotten to see the new Windows 8 start screen just take a look at the picture posted with this article.

In my opinion, unless Microsoft changes the way this OS is designed drastically, or at least allows its users to use the old style start menus, I think this OS is going to flop horribly just like Vista did several years ago. While I think many home users may like the new GUI, I do not think this will be adopted to businesses as it is just too different. At this point it seems that Windows 7 is going to be the new Windows XP and will stick around for years to come.

To read more about Windows 8 and to see other links to more articles about it click here.

 

So you’re having issues with your computer and you, being a bit of a do it yourselfer, decide to “fix” your computer on your own and save yourself some money. There is a high likelihood that if you do not have experience working on computers that you may wind up costing yourself a lot more money that if you had just brought the computer in to begin with.

 

A few weeks back we had a client that brought their computer in and needed us to recover their pictures. The reason for this was that they tried to fix their computer by themselves. When they tried doing this they had read to just “restore the computer” well not knowing what was meant exactly they did restore their computer….to factory defaults. This action caused them to not only deleted all of their pictures by overwriting them on the hard drive but also eliminated any chances of us being able to recover the pictures using any of our techniques.

 

Long story short, if you are not 100% certain what you are doing is going to fix your problem your best bet is to not do it. You see in the above situation the client lost their pictures which to someone people are far more important than the cost to fix the computer but there are a lot of times when your actions can wind up costing you more money and time to correct the problem. So pretty simple, if you “think” you can fix it…DON’T. Make sure you know you can or just bring it in to us and we can get it fixed for you.

 

 

Are you eager to try out the newest installment of Windows?  Well now you can try out a preview of Windows 8.  Microsoft has released a “Developers Preview” of their new OS to help developers create new apps, and updating current applications.  With over 500,000 downloads since yesterday’s release, it looks like a lot of people are interested in trying it out.  Some of the new features of Windows 8 include a new start menu called “Metro” that runs on-top of the Desktop that will load up by default.  Metro is where you will find all of your apps; it will handle your social media needs including Facebook and Twitter.  You can also visit the Windows Store (Microsoft’s take on an app-store)and download Metro-style applications build for the new OS, including apps for productivity, photos, entertainment, and of course, games.

This is only a preliminary release and by no means is it available for use on your primary everyday machine.  If you want to give Windows 8 a try, you might want to consider dual-booting the OS alongside your current Operating System because if you upgrade your current OS, there is no way to uninstall Windows 8 if you do not like it.  You will have to format your hard drive and start over with a clean installation of your previous OS.

For more information click here.

Since Windows XP’s Release it has been and still is currently the most used operating system. Surveys are beginning to show that XP’s hold on that market share is slipping. Windows XP was at its highest usage ever roughly one year ago peaking out at about 62% of the operating system market share. Since then however, XP’s market share has been dropping several percentage points each month. This month XP is sitting right around 51%.

So what does this mean to you? Absolutely nothing…unless of course you want to have a more secure operating system and want to have support for it if something goes awry. The current operating Windows 7 has been shown to be more than five times as secure as XP. With Microsoft discontinuing Windows XP’s extended support in a little less than three years (4/8/2014) it’s time to start planning that upgrade.

If you are interested in reading more click here!

Also if your curious when support for your various Microsoft products will end click here!

 

This is going to be short and sweet this week folks. Ever been typing on your laptop and once you looked up realized you just type half of what you wanted to say in a completely different spot on the page than you thought you were typing? I know I have… The BEST solution I’ve found for this is a very small program called “Touchfreeze” What Touchfreeze actually does is disables your touchpad while you are typing. When you begin typing you are no longer able to move the mouse and as soon as you stop (within a few milliseconds anyhow) the touch pad begins to function again. I have personally tested this program on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and it seems to work on all of those platforms without any problems. Installation is very easy, pretty much just download it, and follow the prompts selecting all default values.

The reason I wrote about this is that most people have experienced this issue at one point or another and wished there was a way to solve this issue...and…there is! If you’re not sure how to install this yourself or are just not comfortable doing it and would like us to setup for you, we can definitely do it for you just give us a call.

To download click the Touchfreeze Logo below.

 

Adobe, one of the business world’s biggest software companies, has just purchased a company named “EchoSign”. EchoSign is a company that specializes in bringing electronic signature services to various company’s in house applications. These services allow companies to have clients sign documents electronically without the need take what used to be very expensive actions to get a signature quickly.

Now that Adobe has purchased EchoSign they will be further expanding their software to offer these services as well. This move by Adobe further imbeds them into today’s business world. When businesses eventually move over to this as a solution, since it will cost far less to send an electronic document and have the client sign it, (Without the need to even print it first) Adobe will have once again stepped out ahead of the competition.

 

If you are interested in reading more about Adobes purchase click here.

 

Lenovo has announced a new entry in its ThinkCentre all-in-one line, the ThinkCentre Edge 91z. Aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, the system measures just 2.5 inches thick, offers a 21.5-inch LCD display, and packs a lot of power—up to a second-generation Intel Core i7 quad-core processor. The 91z supports up to 8 GB of RAM, and will be available with SSD and hard drive storage options, integrated Wi-Fi an optional Blu-ray drive, and discrete ATI graphics with up to 1 GB of dedicated video memory.  The 91z also packs built-in speakers, a 2 megapixel webcam, six USB ports, Windows 7, and a 6-in-1 card reader.  The ThinkCentre 91z should be available in July through Lenovo’s business partners with prices starting at $699. 

Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 have officially been announced to release on February 22nd. Windows 7 SP1 will include minor updates to improve the security, as well as a few bug fixes within the operating system. Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will include a few security patches as well, but also will include support for Dynamic Memory, and RemoteFX to provide 3D graphics for remote users.   What is RemoteFX, and Dynamic Memory?  Well Dynamic Memory Lets you increase virtual machine density with the resources you already have, without sacrificing performance or scalability.  With testing of a Windows 7 SP1 client running in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) scenario, we’ve seen a 40% increase in density from Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM to SP1 by enabling Dynamic Memory.  Okay now that you know what Dynamic Memory is, I bet your wondering what RemoteFX is used for huh?  Well, in short – RemoteFX is a first-to-market technology that will allow you to virtualize the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) on the server side, and deliver next-generation rich media and 3D user experiences for VDI.  Together, these technologies will drive down the end-point cost and reduce endpoint power consumption to as little as a few watts.

Netbook specialist Acer is apparently pleased with the idea that it was the first to introduce a netbook that lets users run either Windows 7 or Android. The company announced yesterday that it will continue this strategy and use the dual-boot feature on all upcoming dual-core netbooks.

Regardless of whether or not Windows Phone 7 becomes a huge success among the average Joes, Microsoft has already written the next step in its playbook, trying to woo the nearly impenetrable enterprise market. With its social media integration and the ability to connect to Xbox Live, it is being geared toward everyday consumers more than any Microsoft mobile platform before it.

 

Having a portable browser on a flash drive can be a ton of help when fighting a virus on a computer. Most infections attack the browser installed on the computer. A few more benefits to the Chrome browser is how fast the browser opens and loads websites compared to IE. http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable

 

Reported by the Microsoft Malware Protection Center on Sept 1st, a new malware attack is out that not only tries to be a clone of Microsoft Security Essentials on victims but it also customizes fakes browser warnings. The infection looks just like the Microsoft version but then starts to ask the user to pay for the software which is where MS doesn't ask the user to do.

 

CDBurnerXP is a freeware, portable burning application designed to burn CDs, DVDs. CDBurnerXP is truly free and has plenty of features including creating, burning ISOs, audio CDs, bootable disks, Lightscribe integration, and command line options. Works on Xp to Windows 7. Portable version is able to be installed on any flash drive that you have.

 

This tool is very simple to use and works on Windows 95 all the way to Windows 7. This little application searches all over your computer for every cd key it can fine. Then give you the ability to save them to a text file. Very usually for people that have a issue keeping track of all there discs.

 

Microsoft released an out of schedule patch(MS10-046) for the recent shortcut exploit issue. The past few weeks have seen increasing reports of attacks using the shortcut exploit. Microsoft felt it was a serious problem to let it wait until the next scheduled patch Tuesday. The patch was released at 1 p.m. on Monday.

 

This tool is free if you use the 1.1 version. How this tool works is it generates a 100mb file to send across the network.  It then clears the windows file cache to keep read times from being skewed too high, reads the file back, clears the cache again, deletes the file, and displays the results.

 

Tweakui gives you the ability to change settings that are normally not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. This utility is also great to get Windows to Auto login for you without having to change any registry entries.

According to CNET Google is looking in to starting a cloud based music service like ITunes. This is currently just a rumor but has supposedly made ITunes a little scared about Google the Internet Giant getting in to the music business.

 

Flash Player 10.1 is now out and faster than ever. Flash Player offers up full hardware acceleration for the high-definition video standard. The new Flash Player has the ability to go full screen with High Definition.

 

Getting sick of the same old boring Google page? Now you can change the background by moving your mouse to the bottom left of the screen and click change background. They give you preset backgrounds but you can also use Picasa web album or upload your own.

HouseCall is made by Trend Micro, this program will help you to identify and remove viruses, Trojans, worms, unwanted browser plug-ins and other malware detected on your system.  You have the option to perform a quick scan, full system scan, or a custom scan.

This Program is free to download and is a portable application so it makes as a great tool to add to your thumb drive if you are an IT Professional. You can download 32 bit and 64 bit versions and it works on most Windows Operating systems including Vista and 7.

 

I was looking around for a free utility that would switch between different programs depending on what program. Never thought I would find something but I did. Automatic Printer Switcher is completely free and you can use it with any application, only in Windows though. Very nice for people that use black and white laser printer for say printing text and then have a color printer they use when they need pictures.  All you do is program what programs you want to print where and you are done.

 

Cryogenic FileSplitter is a simple file splitter program with a real easy to use drag and drop interface. You can specify how many sections you want the file to be split into. It also displays each segment size so that you can see how big each segment is going to be before you split it.

Cryogenic FileSplitter is a free portable application and will work on most Windows Operating Systems. I personally tested it on Windows 7 and had no issues.  

Having trouble at home keeping your cables on your computer desk from getting tangled? Most people just throw all there cables on the floor and just let them get tangled all up and then have to spend hours trying to untangle them. Just take a few binder clips and hook them to the side of your desk and put any USB, power or Ethernet cables through it to keep the cables from falling behind your desk. Do not believe me take a look at the picture below on how well this little trick works.

USB Safe Guard is a free portable program that will encrypt all of the files on your flash drive very easily, anyone can do it. You can also set this tool up to shred your files in case you lose your flash drive.

To get the program installed onto your flash drive you simply download it from the following website http://usbsafeguard.altervista.org/download.html, then you drag the program onto your flash drive. From here all you do is launch the software from your flash drive, then you should be prompted to create a password. Once you do you are then able to encrypt the entire flash drive or specific files or folders, in which all you do is drag into the interface. This program also gives you options on what to do when someone tries to access your data and does not know the password. You can set it to shred all of the data, leave it alone, plus a few more options.

 You can also enter in your phone number or email in case your lose your memory stick. Most other programs like this do not have this option, which is very nice to have when you leave your flash drive at a clients site. This program will work on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.