Reducing TCO
TCO is Total Cost of Ownership and includes the cost of buying a computer and software and also maintaining it. Getting TekBusters out to fix it, and loss of productivity while it’s down all adds up and this is what TCO is. So here are some things to do to minimise TCO.
1. Get a business PC. There is a difference between business and home PCs. Business PCs are better designed and better up to the job of being used 40 hours a week. Also they have less ‘extras’ installed to slow down your PC and cause problems. It does cost more initially but in the end will cause you less trouble and reduce TCO. Usually a business PC will come with a business operating system installed, so Windows 7 Pro or XP Pro, not Home.
2. Pick your software. When you buy a PC you can get with it OEM software. This is a special licence only available with a new PC and usually about half the price of a regular license. The drawback is if you replace your PC you cannot transfer the software. If though you expect your PC to last 3 years then you can move to the newer version of the software anyway.
Also there is a lot of free software out there, I’ve listed some of them in this blog, click here to see.
3. Keep away viruses. You have to have anti virus. There is no way around it and no excuse since there are so many freely available (check the free software link above) and now Microsoft have released on called Microsoft Security Essentials as well. It’s not a bad idea to occasionally do an extra scan for malware and we recommend Malware Bytes for this.
4. Maintenance. Once every 1 – 2 months you should defragment your hard drive. Again I’ve posted about this before, so click here to see how. Also cleaning off the vents on your computer when they get dusty is necessary. Cans of compressed air are available at most electronics stores.
5. Remember to backup. I’ve discussed this here.
6. Picking the right printer can be important if you print a lot. Laser can save you a lot of money. Click here for more information.
Dell Channel Partner
Dell offers a great service with customisable PCs and excellent warranty and customer support. And with TekBusters we’ll not just deliver it to your door, we can set it up, get it on your network and transfer over your old emails and files.
Windows 7 compability mode
the Compability tab choose the version you need. In this case I used Visat Service Pack 2 and it installed (and works) just fine.
Office 2010 Beta
I liked it. I think it’s going to be pretty nice. It is again a new menu layout, but it is a mix of Office 2007 and older offices. With the older offices you had your nice menu bar – File, Edit etc, across the top and some shortcut toolbars underneath. Then came Office 2007 which had tabs which were meant to make things easier but really meant you had to search for the print button.
Now it is tabs again but more laid out in the File, Edit etc. It’s quite nice and easy to use.
I am back to Office 2007 though. Outlook, which I rely on heavily has a few too many bugs. Neither of my main syncing applications like it. Google Calendar just refuses to work with it while Mobile Me keeps throwing up errors and warnings. So I uninstalled it and will put it on a test machine again later.
For now? Office 2010, I like it and I think it will be good if all these bugs get sorted before the RC edition. If you’re interested in testing it out, you can download it here : Office 2010 Beta.
Outlook 2010
Cleaning your computer
Sometimes though even after we delete temporary files the disk defragment wont run as there is not enough free disk space, well it will run but miss a lot of files. Disk defragmenter needs at least 15% free space to run properly. To free up space on XP you might consider disabling System Restore.
System Restore remembers changes you made to your computer so you can restore it to an earlier known good point. This is useful if you install some software that crashes your system. You can then restore your computer to how it was before you installed the dodgy software.
So is this safe? Yes, if your PC is running well. Once you have your updates installed and cleaned out temporary files, ran virus scans etc then reboot. Make sure your PC is running well. Now you can disable System Restore and run defragment. After the defragment you can enable system restore again (though you could use the option to use less space). Since you have checked that your PC is good up to this point, now when you restore it will go back to how it is now.
To access System Restore in XP click on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore
Posted in Computer Support | 
Tags: defragment, not enough space to run a defrag, system restore | 
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Do you like the new look?
The new Baby Cakes website
Malwarebytes will not update
- Open your internet settings (in IE this is under Tools – Options, or use Control Panel – Internet Options).
- Under the Connections tab, click on LAN Settings.
- Untick the Proxy Server boxes and click on OK.
Free Software
You don’t need to know anything about code to use it, you can just download and install it.
Open Office. This is sponsored by Sun and is a full office suite, word processing, spread sheets, databases and presentatioon software. It will open and save files in it’s own format and also in Microsoft Office format. You can download Open Office here.
Mozilla Firefox. This is a browser, like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Google’s Chrome. You can download Firefox here.
Mozilla Thunderbird. An email client from Mozilla, this works well for handling all your email. You can download Thunderbird here.
There’s also non open source software that’s available for free use in certain conditions. AVG provides a free version of their anti virus software for home use. It’s really good and anti virus is essential to protect your computer. Download AVG free here.
Posted in Computer Support, Software | Tags: AVG, Firefox, Free software, Open Office, Thunderbird | 1 Comment »
New Special Offer
What is SEO? Search Engine Optimisation is the process of making sure search engines (like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask etc) know what it is you do. So if you sell Widgets in White Rock, can I find you that way. If I type “Where can I buy a widget in White Rock” into Google, do we find your site? The next step is to get you higher up in the results. Studies have shown that people searching generally click on one of the first 3 results, not so good if you are listed at number 117.
With this free report you can see
- How search engines see you
- How some one searching for you can find you.
- Ways to improve on this.
Why go with SEO? More and more people search online now for products and services. When was the last time you used the phone book? Or tried to remember where you seen that ad in the newspaper? From searching for holidays or cars, restaurants or services more and more people use the internet to find it. You may have a very nice web page, but if it’s not found, it’s not working for you.
Why not contact us and find out more.