1st Quarter 2012 - January Issue
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Windows Easy Transfer
Getting your new computer to "feel right" can be a daunting task for the average user.
Fortunately, there are tools and techniques that IT professionals can use to help you along.
One is Windows Easy Transfer, which helps move Internet settings and Favorites, files and folder, music and pictures, program settings (but not the programs themselves), user accounts, desktop backgrounds, network connections, screen savers, Start menu options, network printers, and more. correctly.
At Shiloh, we help you set up your new computer "smartly."
Cool Trends in 2012
Every year, the computer industry advances in interesting and unpredictable ways. To start the New Year off, let's take a look at 3 trending technologies that may change the way you compute in the years ahead.
Multi-Touch Screens
Touch screens have been around for years, slowly working their way
into more and more of the world you experience everyday, especially in
today's smart phones and tablet computers.
The next step involves screens that accept and respond to simultaneous, multiple touches. At January's 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the new MultiTaction technology developed by MultiTouch was unveiled. This was demonstrated using a wall of interconnected 55" LCD displays able to react to input from an unlimited number of users, simultaneously. Watch the amazing video at www.MultiTaction.com.
Voice Control
Late in 2011, Apple launched the iPhone 4S with its Siri digital assistant. Siri is a voice controlled program meant to help you perform a range of tasks without touching the phone, including making calls, sending text messages and emails, scheduling meetings and reminders, making notes, searching the Internet, getting directions, and more. Already, a host of imitators has sprung up, including Iris (Siri spelled backwards) for the Android operating system.
The whole idea has sparked a real enthusiasm among consumers, and these are only "alpha" and "beta" versions of the programs - meaning these are still works in progress and the first really solid voice controls are just around the corner.
How long will it be before you can sit back, sip coffee, and ask your computer to "bring up the Excel file on the Anderson account and compare it to last years?"
Spatial Gestures
Do your kids own Microsoft's Xbox Kinect? Kinect's optical setup tracks your movements in real time, allowing for effects and functions that have never before been available to the consumer market. Just by moving, you interact with the system, no game controllers required.
How long this technology remains solely a gaming function is anyone's guess, but innovators are at work right now trying to bring "control by gesture" to the mainstream IT market.
Remember when... Only 17 years ago, Windows 95 was a revolutionary new way to experience computing. And while there's no sign that Windows will disappear any day soon, how do you think the new fields of multi-touch, voice control, and spatial gestures will change the way you do business in the years ahead?
Migrating Your Workspace to a New Computer
A new computer can be both a joy and a pain. As you'd expect,
technology continues its rapid advance. Today's Windows 7 computers
operate more quickly, run more programs simultaneously, and boast hard
drive storage that would have been unbelievable even a few years ago.
That said, your current computer is like a comfortable old friend. Just moving Word and Excel files onto a new system still brings you up short. What about all of your favorite websites, your email and contacts, shortcuts and printers? What about your desktop, which you have just the way you like it?
Getting your new computer to "feel right" can be a daunting task for the average user. Fortunately, there are tools and techniques that IT professionals can use to help you along. One is Windows Easy Transfer, which helps move Internet settings and Favorites, files and folder, music and pictures, program settings (but not the programs themselves), user accounts, desktop backgrounds, network connections, screen savers, Start menu options, network printers, and more. For large scale network deployments, there's the USMT, Windows' User State Migration Tool.
Regardless of the tools, however, it takes a good IT professional to listen to you and learn what will make your new computer "feel right" to you and allow you to reap the benefits of blazing speed, unlimited storage, and more user friendly programs.
Contact Shiloh today to learn more about how your Shiloh Account representative can make acquiring a new computer an enjoyable and productive experience. Call us today at 724-863-0190.
Protect Yourself from Hard Drive Failures
From the headline, you'd expect this article to be about backups.
Instead, let's talk about an additional method of protecting your
workday from the chaos of a hard drive failure. RAID Arrays.
A RAID (redundant array of independent disks) does not replace the need for backups, but it will save your workday faster than the blink of an eye.
Instead of relying on a single hard drive, a computer with a RAID array has two or more drives that share and mirror data in a way that makes the failure of any one drive insignificant.
And make no mistake, like death and taxes, hard drive failure is inevitable over time, even for the most reliable systems. Lose your hard drive in an ordinary computer and you're done. Until it's repaired and restored from backups all you have is an expensive door stop. In a RAID array, the only consequence of failure is a little pop-up warning. As far as your workday is concerned, you don't miss a beat. Even if you were typing in the middle of the failure, not a keystroke would be lost.
In follow up, your IT professional swaps out the failed drive for a new one. The RAID system rebuilds itself overnight (or even while you work), and once again you feel invulnerable! That's much better than having business demands build up like a dark cloud over your dead computer.
Want to learn more about how RAID systems can protect your business from the chaos and lost productivity of hard drive failures? Contact Shiloh today or give us a call at 724-863-0190.
Fake Anti-Virus Ploys
Don't be Fooled by Fake Warnings!
Win 7 Internet Security 2012 is just the latest in an effective style of malware that relies on your help to rip you off, damage your computer, and cost you money.
Where does it come from? While most people think viruses come only in emails, many threats to your computer are simply waiting on the Internet to find and infect vulnerable networks and PCs.
Often a cheaply hosted and insecure website is hacked into and made into a delivery system. Visit an infected website and it downloads bad things onto your computer without you knowing it.
However, if you run into Win 7 Internet Security 2012, you will know it! While it looks completely professional (an impressive fake), this malware disturbs you from the start. Try to run any program and Win 7 Internet Security 2012 blocks that and instead generates a security warning. A fake scanner runs, claiming to find massive infections which must be removed immediately.
The program encourages you to download, install, and pay for this fake software. Along the way, by interacting with it, you may help it do even more damage.
What should you do? Shut down your computer and call your IT professional immediately. At Shiloh Service, our technicians are trained to handle the most stubborn cases of viral remediation. Of course, we prefer to protect your network in the first place by offering the latest and most reliable anti-virus and anti-malware systems, including Symantec's AntiVirus Corporate Edition.
Remember, sometimes a virus can trick you into helping it get past your computer's defenses. That's when the experts at Shiloh can help. Contact Shiloh Service today to learn more.
Windows 7 XP Mode
To start, Windows 7 is backward compatible with many Windows XP productivity programs. Just install your software and watch it run.
Of course, some older XP programs may not work directly in Windows 7. To solve that problem, there's Windows XP Mode.
XP Mode runs in a separate window on your desktop, much like a program, except it's a fully functional version of Windows XP. You can even access your computer's CD/DVD drive, install programs, save files, and perform other tasks as if you were using your old favorite operating system, XP.
So what are you waiting for? You can enjoy the best of the new and the old at the same time, and Windows 7 does include some awesome features. For one thing, Windows 7 ships with both 32 Bit and 64 Bit versions. 64 Bit uses system memory far more efficiently, and that means a fast multi-tasking experience:
- Many windows open at once.
- Power hungry programs running quickly, with fast switching between them as easy as the click of a mouse.
To take the best advantage of 64 Bit processing, you need to invest in the latest programs, like a 64 Bit version of Microsoft Office. But it's nice to know that on one computer you can run some of the newest programs blindingly fast and have access to comfortable old favorites that work just the way they have since 2001.
Want to know more, Contact Shiloh Service today.
Free 30 Day Trial of Monitoring Software
Shiloh offers a FREE 30 day trial to introduce you to our remote monitoring system. It will help you identify problems within your network, and you don't have to be a current customer to take advantage. Contact Shiloh Service today to learn more.
Shiloh's Remote Monitoring:
- Assures timely installation of all patches and service packs.
- Saves on deployment of new software installations and software updates.
- Keeps expensive downtime and on-site service visits to a minimum.
- Dramatically improves service response time.
Remote monitoring and management is just one way in which Shiloh helps small businesses do big things. Visit our website at www.ShilohService.com to learn more.
