Do you remember the days when we all had to copy documents onto floppy disks or flash drives in order to use them at home? Or when we all used to email ourselves important files in order to have them backed up? Thankfully those days are gone and we can credit the rise of cloud technologies for the change. But, aside from streamlining simple office tasks, cloud technology provides several truly powerful growth advantages for small businesses, including: 1. Decreased … [Read more...] about 5 Ways Cloud Technology Can Assist Small Business Success
Danville
Slow Computer? 5 Tips to Increase Your Speed
Having a slow computer can cause frustration and really impede your productivity. As a Walnut Creek IT Consultant, many of our clients come to us with this issue. However, there are steps you can take to remedy this issue and speed your computer up again. Here are 5 fast and easy tips to improve your computer’s performance and increase its’ speed. Restart Your Computer While this may seem simplified and obvious, it’s a good place to start in the search for a faster computer. Computer memory, … [Read more...] about Slow Computer? 5 Tips to Increase Your Speed
How can my business be more efficient?
We are all asking the same question. This month, let's focus on scheduling. How to make it easier, better, more visual, and with reporting features that will help with your timekeeping and payroll process. Let's take a look at how Google Calendar integrates with Ganttic. Google Calendar is part of the Google Apps package. Ganttic is an affordable application that works with Google Calendar and contains many of the features commonly found expensive CRM programs. As usual, feel free to … [Read more...] about How can my business be more efficient?
Should I upgrade to Windows 10?
Should I upgrade to Windows 10? This is a question we in IT computer consultant industry hear a lot from our clients. The truth isn't a simple yes or no question. However,depending on what programs you utilize, and what setup you need for your office or home, many different variables can determine the actual answer. Would I lose anything going to Windows 10? Yes and no. Data files, such as word documents, spreadsheets, photos, and videos would all be transferred … [Read more...] about Should I upgrade to Windows 10?
Computer Security
Computer Security Turn on automatic update and leave it that way. Windows releases computer security updates on the 2nd Tuesday of each month and these should be applied immediately. More information on Windows Update can be found here. Mac users should also apply updates when they are made available. Install antivirus and make sure it is receiving updates. Windows Defender is included with Windows 8 and Windows 10. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download for … [Read more...] about Computer Security
Computer and Network Security
Computer and Network Security Major Security Breaches Continue: If you have been following the news lately, it is evident that large businesses, government departments and other organizations continue to be hacked, sometimes disclosing personal information of millions of customers. Recent major breaches include the Sony Pictures hack (which was purportedly carried out by the North Korean government) and the Anthem breach, which affected millions of customers. In the Anthem case, … [Read more...] about Computer and Network Security
Passwords, iPhone 6 and Ask Leo!
Passwords: Computer security has been at the top of the news this year, especially with exploits such as the heartbleed bug and others taking advantage of vulnerabilities in computer security which are used throughout the Internet. The heartbleed bug puts our focus on passwords. Passwords are pervasive. We used them to access almost every site on the Internet. It is not enough to have strong passwords any more. The same passwords should not be used on different sites, especially … [Read more...] about Passwords, iPhone 6 and Ask Leo!
Google Apps
We hear a lot about cloud computing these days, so I thought I'd cover one of the most popular and powerful suites of cloud-based services available today: Google Apps. (By the way, Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and mobile devices on demand.) As usual, feel free to suggest topics which you would like to see covered in an upcoming newsletter or on the Grundig IT news page, which can be found at … [Read more...] about Google Apps
Backup and Data Recovery
Backup and Recovery Data Recovery Hard Drive - A hard drive (or multiple hard drives) store all the valuable user data in a computer or server Hard Drive Failure - A hard drive can fail at any time. Mean Time Before Failure is from 3-7 years for most drives. A computer that stops working usually has most or all of the data intact. However, it is not accessible or not recognized by the filesystem. In case of damage to the filesystem, data can usually be recovered using specialized … [Read more...] about Backup and Data Recovery
Windows 8 Preview
Windows 8 Windows 8 is expected to be released in the 2nd half of 2012. Windows 8 will be very similar in many ways to Windows 7, but will incorporate many new features such as the new Metro User Interface, Windows App Store and improved security features. New 'Metro-style' user interface with metro style apps Windows 8 certainly has got a mind blowing interactive user interface(UI), which has been extensively redesigned. The Metro-style design, which shows … [Read more...] about Windows 8 Preview
