Windows7 RC available for public download

Microsoft have made the final test version of their new Operating System, Windows7,  available to the general public as a free time limited download. Anyone can register and download the new Operating System, and use it until March 2010 at no cost whatsoever. After March 2010 you will need to uninstall the software, and revert to your old Operating System, or buy a copy of Windows7.

We have been testing earlier Beta versions of Windows7, and so far have been impressed with both the speed and stability of Windows7. We will be trying out this latest test version later on this week.

Microsoft are obviously keen to make Windows7 a success, and have taken the unusual step in allowing the general public to both try the software out for a generous 10 months, and take part in the final testing stage.

The software can be downloaded here, all you need to do is to signup for a free Windows Live Account to register.

Let us know how you get on with Windows7 if you do decide to try it out. Please bear in mind this software is still in the testing stage so we would not recommend installing it on your main PC; better to install it on a spare PC, or laptop, that is not business critical.

Chris
ASL Computer Services

Conficker Worm; What do you need to do to protect your PC?

Computers infected with the infamous Conficker worm will start scanning the Internet for instructions this April Fools’ Day.  What action do you need to take to protect your PC?

Firstly, don’t panic, just follow the steps below:

1. Download the Conficker scanning tool
2. Unzip the contents of this download to an empty folder on your PC
3. Double click on the bd_rem_tool_gui.exe file
4. click on start

This scanning tool will show you if your PC is infected with the Conficker worm virus, and assist with the removal of the worm if needed.

If you need any advice just give us a call.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
01788 298034

PC Repairs and Support in Warwick and Leamington Spa

ASL Computer Services are now offering on-site computer support and repair services in Warwick, Leamington Spa and surrounding villages. This is in addition to the existing areas covered (Rugby, Daventry, Southam, and Coventry).

One of our experienced PC engineers will come out to your home or office to fix your PC problems. No call out fees or travel time charged.

Why not give us a call today on 01926 298034

BBC TV programme on Cyber Crime is well worth watching

A BBC TV programme broadcast on the 14th March about Cyber Crime is well worth watching.

“Software used to control thousands of home computers has been acquired online by the BBC as part of an investigation into global cyber crime.

The technology programme Click has demonstrated just how at risk PCs are of being taken over by hackers. Almost 22,000 computers made up Click’s network of hijacked machines, which has now been disabled. The BBC has now warned users that their PCs are infected, and advised them on how to make their systems more secure.”

The programme can be seem here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jctj1/Click_14_03_2009/

Chris
ASL Computer Services
“If you have a PC problem, ASL can fix it”

ASL Computer Services opens shop on eBay

We have just opened up an eBay shop, which will be selling various computer related items; Desktop PC’s, Laptops, Peripherals,  Software, & printers.

Some items will be auctions, starting from as little as 99p, and other items will be “Buy It Now” at a fixed price. The shop will be “stocked up” over the next one to two weeks, so please drop in and take a look at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ASL-Computer-Services

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services

Internet Explorer vulnerability

Microsoft has issued a security patch to fix a critical vulnerability in its Internet Explorer browser which has attacked over 2 million Windows users.

Their advice is to update Windows with the security patch as soon as possible. The relevant patch for your version of Windows and Internet Explorer can be downloaded below

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/results.aspx?pocId=&freetext=960714&DisplayLang=en

Chris Moody

ASL Computer Services

Brand new Dell desktop PC with Win XP Professional

We have managed to obtain some fairly high spec Dell desktop PC’s with Windows XP Professional instead of Vista installed. These are brand new stock from Dell with on-site next business day hardware warranties until Aug 2009 (12 months).

The spec is ideal for business use as they have:

• Fast dual processors
• Large amount of memory
• Win XP Pro installed but Vista business licence and media included in case you wish to “upgrade” later on to Vista
• Wireless keyboard and mouse
• DVD Re-writer

They are priced at £230 plus VAT. Full details of the offer are here.

Chris
ASL Computer Services

Holiday Photos

We are now quickly approaching the peak holiday season. Many of you will be almost ready to jet off on that well earned summer holiday. While on holiday you will no doubt take lots of pictures with your digital camera, or even your mobile phone, as many phones now have high quality cameras built in. But what do you do with your pictures when you get home?

Many of us will transfer our holiday photos onto our computers and then leave them there never to be seen again. Why not do something different this year. Create a free account with one of the many Internet based photo album services. When you have uploaded your pictures into these web based albums you can share them with your friends and family across the Internet. You control exactly who can access your pictures, or you can make them public, it’s your choice.

It is much easier that creating CD’s and putting them in the post, or trying to email large photos to individual people. There is another advantage as well. As your pictures are then stored somewhere else as well as on your PC you have a backup. So if the ones on your PC are deleted accidentally you have not lost all your pictures, just download them again from your web album.

A number of companies offer this service, take a look at:

Flickr -  www.flickr.com

Snapfish -  www.snapfish.com

Photobucket -  www.photobucket.com

Putfile -  www.putfile.com

Picasa Web Albums – http://picasaweb.google.com

Alternatively if you have a facebook account you can use that to share your photos with individual friends, all friends, all friends and friends of friends, or even everyone.

Facebook -  www.facebook.com

Enjoy your holidays and take lots of photos.

 

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre, Great Central Way, Rugby. CV21 3XH
Tel: 01788 298034  

The end of Windows XP

It looks like anyone wanting to buy a new PC with Windows XP as the Operating system is very quickly running out of time.

At the end of this month (30th June 2008) Microsoft will prevent the major PC builders (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, etc) from supplying any desktop or laptop PC’s with Windows XP, Vista will be the only available Microsoft operating system. The only exception to this rule is the Ultra Low cost PC’s which will still be allowed to be supplied with XP Home pre-installed, but they are a very small and specialist market.

With just over three weeks to go until the deadline the manufacturers are running out of XP licences, and they cannot get hold of any more. We are already finding it is almost impossible to obtain new desktop or laptop PC’s with XP Home or XP Professional.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services

AVG Free Edition

For a number of years now we have been recommending AVG Free edition as the ideal Anti Virus product for the average home PC user. It has many advantages over other Anti Virus products:

* It is free of charge for home PC users
* It does not consume lots of memory and processor power, so is ideal for older less powerful PC’s
* It is very effective at protecting your PC from Viruses

Recently AVG released a major update to their AVG products. Those with the paid for AVG products will automatically be upgraded to the new version, but the AVG Free users will have to upgrade manually. The existing AVG Free Version 7.5 will not receive any virus database updates after 31st May 2008, so users of the old free product will need to uninstall version 7.5 and install the newer version 8.0 as soon as possible to ensure continued full virus protection.

Some of our customers have had some difficulty in finding the download link for the new AVG Free Edition program so we have put a link to the download on our webpage. Just go to our website www.computerrepairinrugby.co.uk and you will find AVG Free Edition V8 under the “useful links” section on the right hand side of our web page.

Please note that the AVG Free edition is only for home PC users. Business users, or home PC users requiring more advanced virus & spyware protection, should consider the paid for AVG Anti Virus and AVG Internet Security products. We are an authorised AVG reseller so can supply these paid for products if you require them (you can purchase and download via our website, or we can visit you to supply and install these products). However, the average home PC user will find the basic AVG Free version will give perfectly adequate protection from Viruses.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
Computer Support and Repair for Small Businesses

Clipmate

We recently found a useful utility called “ClipMate”, from Thornsoft Development. Normally the Windows Clipboard only holds the last entry copied into it, with prior entries being lost forever. Clipmate keeps all your clipboard entries in it’s own internal database, to be available for subsequent retrieval. Clipmate also lets you manipulate the enties in the clipboard.

Here are just some of the powerful features of Clipmate:

·         ClipMate Remembers everything that you cut or copy to the clipboard.

·         It works with all Windows programs that work with the clipboard.

·         Searchable database can hold THOUSANDS of clips, in Text, RTF, HTML, and Bitmap format.

·         “Shortcuts” place commonly-used clips within easy reach for quick re-use.

·         PowerPaste™ feature helps you quickly paste a series of clips, or break apart complex data by comma, linebreak, etc.

A 30 day trial of Clipmate can be downloaded from www.clipmate.com and the full program costs around thirty five USdollars, under twenty pounds sterling.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre, Great Central Way, Rugby CV21 3XH

 

The PrtSc key on your keyboard

Many people are not aware of the existence of the “PrtSc” key on every PC keyboard, or what it’s function is. In fact this is a very useful key. The “PrtSc” stands for PrintScreen and every time you press this key, an image of the current contents of your PC display is copied into an area called the Windows Clipboard.  You can then “paste” this image into any windows application.

So why is this so useful? Imagine you had to keep a permanent record of something on your PC screen, perhaps details of an online internet purchase, or maybe an error message that has popped up.  Just press the PrtSc key, then open up Word or Wordpad, and click on Edit-Paste in the drop down menus. An exact Image of your PC screen is now in contained in the word (or Wordpad) document and can be saved, or emailed to someone else.

Perhaps you need to document how to complete a particular task on a PC for someone else to follow. Just go through the task, and PrtSc every stage of the process, pasting the screen shots into word as you go along. We all know “pictures are worth a thousand words” so your documentation on how to do this particular task will be easy for others to follow.

If you don’t want to capture the whole screen, just the currently active “window”, hold down the “Alt” key while you press PrtSc.

Thanks to Tim Foden for giving me the idea to write about the PrtSc key.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
Computer Support and Repair for Small Businesses in the Midlands (based in Rugby)

Windows Vista

Back in February we wrote about Windows Vista and how we thought it was still too early to adopt this new Operating Systems for any serious PC use. The update to Vista, Service Pack 1, which was supposed to fix the many bugs, and speed up the slowness of Vista, seems to have made little difference.

I found this blog entry today that asks if Microsoft are trying to quietly kill off Vista by extending support for XP, and announcing the replacement for Vista (Windows 7) will be launched sometime in 2009. It looks like Vista will be around for less than two years before it is replaced.

http://tektodo.com/2008/04/05/the-end-of-vista/

Our advice at ASL is to still stick with XP as the Operating System for your new PCs. Hopefully “Windows 7″ will be more successful than Vista.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
If you have a PC problem, ASL can fix IT

Getting rid of Spam

It is widely believed the term spam is derived from the 1970 Monty Python SPAM sketch, set in a cafe where nearly every item on the menu includes SPAM luncheon meat. As the waiter recites the SPAM-filled menu, a chorus of Viking patrons drowns out all conversations with a song repeating “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM… lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM”, hence “SPAMming” the dialogue.

 

The excessive amount of SPAM mentioned in the sketch is a reference to British rationing during World War II. SPAM was one of the few meat products that avoided rationing, and hence was widely available. The British public became sick of eating spam, hence the sketch.

 

Spamming is also the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages. It is popular with the spammers (the people that send Spam) as the costs of sending millions of emails is negligible, and the spammers are difficult to trace.

 

We are all now getting more and more SPAM (unsolicited bulk e-mails) in our in-boxes. Not only is this annoying, it can waste a considerable amount of time just to delete this junk. Recently we discovered a new product that claims to stop 100 percent of SPAM from reaching your in-box, but will not filter out any valid emails, quite a claim.

 

A couple of our customers have tried it out and they say that so far it seems to do exactly what it says on the tin. If you want to get a free no obligation trial of this service visit their website www.clearmymail.com

 

Chris Moody

 

ASL Computer Services

Computer Repair & Support for Small Businesses and home PC Users in Rugby and surrounding areas.

Computer Security

Is your computer secure? You may have set a password to stop anyone in your house logging on to it, but is someone sitting outside your house accessing your files?

 

I was talking to someone the other day who found the hotel they had booked into did not have wireless broadband. So what did they do? They got in their car, drove around, and within a few minutes found an unsecured wireless connection they could access with their laptop to check their emails. This use of someone else’s broadband connection was not malicious; all they stole was a small amount of data transfer which was unlikely to cost the broadband owner anything extra. But what could have happened if their intensions were more sinister.

 Once on someone else’s wireless network what can you do? Well you could:

• Access files in any shared folders on the PC’s in that household or office if they are connected to the broadband router, via wires or wireless, and even put files onto those PC’s.
•  Send anything to their printers, if shared, that will print out when they turn their printer on.
• Use that broadband connection to download files, browse dubious websites, or send SPAM e-mails.
• Infect the PC’s with viruses

 So how do you protect yourself? There are a number of simple steps you can take when setting up your wireless router

1. Make sure your wireless connection is encrypted using WPA encryption
2. Pick an encryption passphrase that is not easily guessed, ideally containing letters and numbers
3. Change your routers logon password to something other than the default
4. Disable access to the router management pages via wireless
5. Do not use a wireless name (SSID) that could identify yourself, your location, or the model of your router

By implementing the above you will protect yourself from the risk of someone sitting outside your house, browsing through your files, and possibly stealing your passwords and bank account details. So don’t delay, check your wireless router is really secure.

 Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
Specialists in computer support for small businesses

Windows Vista or XP

Windows Vista became widely available back in Jan 2007. Now, just over a year later, it is becoming more and more difficult to buy a new PC with XP installed, most are only available with Vista. We are often asked by customers, should I go for Vista or insist on XP?

For business users we think that there are still too many problems getting Vista to work with existing hardware and software packages for them to switch yet. Also Vista is very resource hungry. It needs lots of memory, and fast processors, just to run the operating system. Many businesses are quite rightly not prepared to invest in the more powerful, and therefore expensive, hardware just to run Office, email, and an accounts package. So they are currently sticking with XP.

For the home PC user the decision is more difficult. They are not tied to using specific software packages or hardware. If it does not work with Vista they can replace it without too much hassle. And the new Aero graphical interface with transparent title bars, stacking window chooser, and window preview from the task bar is popular with users.

Hopefully the imminent service pack 1 for Vista will fix many of the bugs and problems, and provide compatibility with more hardware and software.  In our opinion it’s still too early for home PC users to switch unless they really want to be on the cutting edge of technology.  But hopefully by the middle of 2008 Vista will be stable enough for the majority of home PC users to consider this for their new PC operating system.

For business users we think a migration to Vista is still a long way off, probably well into 2009.

At ASL Computer services over 80 percent of the desktop and laptop PC’s we supplied in January were running XP, I think that says it all.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
Specialists in computer support for small
businesses and domestic home PC users
www.aslcomputerservices.co.uk
01788 298034 or 07852 159092

Free Computer software

We are now into another year, and Christmas seems a distant memory. January is always a difficult month, with a very long gap between the December and January paydays, and an expensive holiday period in between. So I thought I would look at free computer software this month.

Just because software is free does not mean it is bad software, there are some very good free applications, and we will look at some of them now

Digital Photo Organiser – Picasa 2
From Google we have Picasa 2, in our opinion a must have for anyone with a computer and digital camera. It will help you organise, manage, and keep track of all those photos, and includes basic photo editing as well.
http://picasa.google.com/

Digital Photo Editor – Paint.NET
Has all the usual photo editing tools including a “clone” tool so that you can remove the lamp post that always seem to be growing out of someone’s head on an otherwise perfect photo. Easy to use as well compared to some of the other editing tools.
http://www.getpaint.net/

Anti Virus – AVG Free
If you are a home PC user you can get a superb Anti Virus product totally free. Anti Virus protection is really important to have, but can be expensive. Now with AVG Free there is no reason not to be protected from viruses. In our opinion this product is better than many of the well known “paid for” Anti Virus suites.
http://free.grisoft.com/

Office software suite – Open Office
Word, Excel, and Powerpoint are just too expensive for most home PC users, and the cheaper “Works suite” from Microsoft is not compatible with documents created in Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. The answer is OpenOffice, in our opinion another must have program.
http://www.openoffice.org/

Email program – Thunderbird
The standard supplied email programs Outlook Express, and for Vista users Windows Mail, are very basic in functionality, and prone to crashing when you have lots of emails in your inbox or other folders. But the superior Outlook program is only available if you buy Microsoft Office. Why not try Thunderbird from Mozilla, it’s far less prone to errors, and the functionality is much closer to Outlook than Outlook Express.
http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

Online Backup – Mozy Free
Mozy will give you 2 Gigabytes of free backup storage, and a program to automate the backing up of your data, in the background, across your broadband connection. Never worry again about losing those all important data files.
https://mozy.com/registration/free

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services

Hi-Tech Gadgets for XMAS

I thought I would try to give you some ideas on electronic gadgets and computer equipment as Xmas presents for your friends and relatives.

·         If they have a computer and broadband why not consider buying them a Skype compatible phone handset or webcam. It will enable them to talk to friends and relatives who are also on Skype for free, even if they are the other side of the world. And with a webcam the other person can see you as well.

·         Or how about  a digital photo frame. It looks like a standard photo frame but it displays a rolling slideshow of the photographs on the camera memory card inserted into it.

·         Laptops used to be very expensive but in the last 12 months the price has dropped considerably. You can get a good quality entry level laptop for around £300 – £350.

·         Digital cameras always make a good present as they can be used to capture the Christmas festivities, and are a useful item to own all year round.

·         USB Pendrives are useful for transporting files between PC’s, either at home, or between home and work, and they are now so cheap they can be purchased as stocking fillers.

·         iPods and MP3 music players are good for people that spend lots of time commuting on public transport. They can listen to their favourite music or podcasts, and on some models even watch videos.

·         The Apple iPhone is the latest must have gadget, albeit a pricey and currently hard to obtain gift. It will play your music, it’s a web browser, it’s your phone, and it’s made by Apple, for some that’s an irresistible combination.

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services

ASL Computer Services has moved into new office premises

ASL Computer Services has just moved into new larger office premises. Below is a photo of the new Office in Rugby. 

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services

On-line backups

Backing up your data is important. Many things can cause a total or partial loss of your data files; fire, flood, hardware failure, or even theft of your PC. If you are a home PC user and you lose your data it may be annoying (e.g. Loosing irreplaceable photos). If you are a small business loss of your data could cause significant financial problems, or even in some cases failure of your business.

Now with broadband being widespread a number of suppliers have launched on-line backup services. With on-line backups your data files are encrypted and then sent automatically in the background to a remote server across your broadband connection. As you modify your files or add new ones, the changes are also sent to the backup server automatically. If you loose any of your files you just tell the on-line backup software which files or folders to send back to your PC, and they are downloaded across your broadband connection. On-line backups have the advantage that they are automated so do not rely on someone having to remember to do the backup, ideal for busy people.

We have been testing some of these on-line backup services and Mozy seems to be one of the better ones. If you are a home PC user it will backup your data for free. If you have large amounts of data, or are a business, then there is a small monthly charge for the service.

 Mozy Free (Home Use)

Mozy (Business use or for large amounts of data)

Chris Moody
ASL Computer Services
01788 298034