Leaving your computer for a short time but don’t want anyone peeking at your desktop or files? Simply lock it. When you lock your desktop, anyone who wants to use it will have to log in using their username and password.
One way to do this is to press Ctrl+Alt+Del and then click on “Lock Computer.” A quicker way is to press the Windows logo key and the L key.
With Microsoft’s move to transition users to the newer Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 platforms through XP support discontinuation announcements, it may be high time to start thinking of an upgrade – and how you can execute it efficiently and cost effectively.
One of the standard expectations when using technology is the inevitable need to change and upgrade. Technology moves forward on the principle that things that already seem great can be made even better – and more often than not, the improvements are worth the change.
This principle applies to the operating system and SMB platform you may be using now. While it may have served you well so far (after all, if it ain’t broke, why fix it, right?), that doesn’t mean that things can’t get any better – and in a measureable way that improves your productivity. With systems like Windows 7 (which isn’t exactly ‘new’, since it’s been around for a good while) and Windows 2008 R2 gaining ground in the market and proving their worth, it may be time to start thinking about moving up and upgrading your current software.
Here are some thoughts to start the ball rolling: studies and tests have shown that Windows 7 and 2008 R2 outperform their predecessors in almost every conceivable situation. And considering Microsoft’s recent announcement that they will discontinue support for Windows XP by 2014, the possibility of needing to upgrade becomes more pressing. Like it or not, you will eventually get left behind as technology marches on.
Of course, we realize that it’s not as simple as waving a magic upgrade wand and that’s that. It’s important to understand the way you do business in order to accurately assess how an upgrade will affect your operations. So please contact us and we’ll be happy to sit down with you and find ways to implement an upgrade in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.
Will the Windows Desktop PC become extinct? Is it going the way of the dinosaur? Are we seeing the beginning of an era in which a new wave of devices and operating systems will dominate the computing world? Read on and weigh in with your thoughts.
Last year, Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, proclaimed the beginning of what he called the “post-PC” era. This, just after news of stellar numbers for Apple, surpassing Microsoft in market valuation for the first time in recent history—largely on the back of strong sales from its iPhone and iPad computing devices, threatening to displace the market for traditional desktop PCs according to many analysts. In some ways this is an ironic turn of events, considering that it was this same CEO and company that ushered in the PC era to begin with, more than thirty years ago.
But in that era, it was really the IBM PC that was the iconic symbol of that period. In August of this year, the IBM PC celebrated its 30th anniversary, which was introduced nearly five years after the arrival of Apple’s own desktop devices. But again in an interesting turn events, for nearly twenty of those thirty years, it was actually Microsoft and Intel, and not IBM, that reaped the benefits of the success of the PC device. It was Microsoft’s Operating System and Intel’s chips which earned the lion’s share of profits from the rise of the Desktop PC, not the manufacturers and assemblers. And as PCs decline as Steve Jobs predicted they will, this has prompted even the largest PC manufacturers such as HP to reassess their future.
But is the PC truly dead, if not dying? Even one of the IBM PC’s original inventors thinks so. In an interview with IBM Executive Mark Dean, who was one of the IBM PC’s original engineers, he predicts a day when the desktop PC will go the way typewriters did when desktop PCs came along. They will still be around for several years, he says, but in the future people will primarily use handheld or mobile PCs for work and play.
That may be true, but the future is not here yet. Earlier, Microsoft gave a statement that it still expects over 400 million desktop PCs running its operating system to ship this year—a business well worth over $19 billion dollars for the company. There are still several things that a Desktop PC, in particular those running Windows, can do better than handheld or mobile devices today, such as:
Do you agree? Are we in the beginning of a post-PC era or do you think it will be a PC-plus era as Microsoft believes? Weigh in and let us know!
In Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, you can set an animation to trigger when you click on an object. This is a simple way to add and control interactivity to your presentation. To add an animation trigger, select an object that already has animation applied to it.
On the “Animations” tab, in the “Advanced Animations” group, click “Animation Pane” and then select the animation that you want to trigger. Back in the Advanced Animation group, click and hold on “Trigger” and select “On Click of” and select the object for which you wish to trigger the animation when clicked.
Having difficulty keeping track of all your online passwords? Here are some tools that may help you manage and make sense of the different passwords you have for your favorite social networking sites, blogs, phones, photos, games, documents, news, bank account, expenses, stores, books, and dozens of other services where a secure password is critical.
A few months ago, news and social networking sites warned users of the website RockYou that their account and password may have been compromised. Security firm Imperva warned users that a hacker may have made off with an alarming 32 million accounts from the social gaming website. While this is nothing new, what’s interesting is the results of the security firm’s analysis of the accounts and passwords stolen.
From the data that they were able to gather, it seems that a great number of users still tend to use insecure passwords – for instance, passwords with lengths equal to or below six characters (30% of users), words confined to alpha-numeric characters (60%), passwords that include names, slang words, or dictionary words, and trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on–50%). These types of passwords can easily fold in the face of automated brute force attacks designed to guess users’ passwords.
The reason these sorts of insecure passwords continue to be used may be simple. It’s just too hard to track all of the online accounts we have, especially as more and more specialized services are introduced and become popular. While in the past users may have only needed to memorize their email and possibly their bank’s password, today they must contend with passwords to access each of their favorite social networking sites, blogs, phones, photos, games, documents, news sites, bank accounts, expense tracking services, stores, books, and dozens of other online services.
The question for many is how can we possibly remember all of these passwords, especially if we’re using different highly secures ones (that are therefore not easily remembered) at each site as recommended? Here are some quick tips to help you be able to recall and easily manage them:
Use desktop password management tools. There are several desktop tools available that can help you manage and safely store your passwords by requiring you to download software that stores your passwords encrypted on your hard drive. You only need to provide one “master” password to access the rest. Examples of such tools include Keepass, LastPass (free and fee versions are available), 1Password for Macs, and more. These tools give you the feeling of security since your password information is stored solely within your device – but be aware that should that device get lost, stolen, or hacked, you can lose your password information as well as open yourself to attack.
Store your passwords in the Cloud. An alternative is to use password managers that are solely accessible online and are hosted in the Cloud. These work the same way as desktop password managers but with the extra benefit of not having to download and install software on your PC. Another advantage is that they are available on any device or system as long as it is connected to the Internet, and losing your device does not put your passwords at risk. Examples are tools like Clipperz and LastPass. Be warned, though, that these sites can themselves be hacked, as LastPass experienced a few months back.
Use Browser Plugins. Some tools work as add-ons for your browser. Examples of such tools are many. Some generate passwords on the fly, some store the information within your PCs, and others store it in the cloud as well as sync it to your device. These services offer a compromise between solely desktop bound password tools vs. purely online ones. They are however often tied to the browser you use.
Trust a single site with your Identity. Another alternative is simply entrusting the security of your online identity to a single provider who hopefully has the resources to manage it in a more secure manner than you can on your own. These include large sites like Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, which often allow many third-party sites to use your identity at their own sites with your permission. If you don’t trust these sites, you can manage such an online identity on your own from sites such as OpenID. This way you only need to secure and manage one password and identity—which shares this to other sites as you see fit. The disadvantage of course is that not all sites may use or be compatible with these federated identity management systems. You may also have to consider the possibility that these large sites may become compromised themselves.
Managing your passwords can be a pain. Hopefully these tools can help you do so more efficiently and more effectively. Do you have other suggestions? Do you need assistance in setting these up for you or your company? Let us know – we’re happy to help!
