Windows Goes Out with a Pop-Up
It seems I may have as many as 10 old XP PCs to replace with something newer over the next few weeks. Some of these upgrades have definitely been spurred on by the annoying popup now coming up on XP screens informing the XP user – that’s it, we’re finished – outta here – you’re on your own, now – or whatever it is, it actually says. This seems to be working better than any previous warnings Microsoft’s users ever had. Though I don’t remember Windows 95 or 98 going out with a ‘popup’ ad for the next release. And, as is often the... Read more...
Heartbleed – Don’t Panic!
If you have read the press or listened to the news any time since Tuesday, you have probably heard of a new Internet security vulnerability called HeartBleed which the IT security industry has got all hot and bothered about. Well here is my personal (grossly simplified) take on it. This whole problem is all about secure connections to ‘so-called’ secure servers via a security protocol known as OpenSSL. So, firstly you should be aware that it is the server that may be running OpenSSL, not your desktop. There is nothing to ‘patch’ on the... Read more...
40% of our callouts involve data loss
Nearly 40% of all the callouts we receive involve potential or actual data loss. It may be a virus, or accidentally downloaded malware of some kind, or some kind of file corruption or physical hard drive failure. You never know what’s round the corner. But one thing’s for certain, if you use a computer for long enough it is only a matter of time before you will lose something that matters to you. It might just be a Word document you’ve accidentally over-written or a single folder of recently taken photographs you’ve just deleted from your... Read more...
Microsoft finally switch off support for XP
After giving the world what amounts to 7 years notice, Microsoft is finally pulling the plug on Windows XP today – Tues 8th April – and about 20% of Windows users will carry on with XP regardless. Of course, Windows XP won’t stop working today. And most of the 20% of users will carry on using it every day blissfully unaware that anything has changed. There are, after all, still a very small number of Windows users running Windows 98 and even Windows 95 . The most common reason for continued use of XP is simply the ‘don’t understand – don’t... Read more...
Where did that virus come from?
In the last few years we must have been asked by many dozens of clients to clean up large numbers of computers with some form of unwanted software on them – call it a virus, a worm, a trojan horse, rootkits, adware, malware, spyware, whatever – I’m just going to call it all ‘unwanted software’. Mostly this can be cleared up with careful use of the right tools and a tried and tested methodology which we’ve built up over a considerable time. But when it comes to handing back a freshly cleaned computer we are frequently asked the one question... Read more...