Free Windows 10 Upgrade – time is running out!

Graeme D Anderson

It’s almost 1 year since launch and if you are still running Windows 7 or especially Windows 8.1 – it’s probably time to upgrade to Windows 10. Better still its free to upgrade until 29/07/2016.  With over 350 million devices running Microsoft’s flagship operating system you’ll be in good company!  From July 30th it is expected Microsoft plan to charge around £89.00 for the once free upgrade – however insider sources hint that this deadline may be extended.

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Microsoft have worked hard on this latest release with a host of new features.

A More Personal and Natural Experience
Windows 10 adapts to people for a more personal experience.  Windows Hello lets them log in to their PC without a password – providing instant, more secure access to their Windows 10 devices through biometric authentication.

Windows 10 also lets people interact with their device via the traditional mouse and keyboard, or through more natural ways such as voice, pen or gesture.

Be More Productive
Windows 10 will help people get more done with less effort than ever before.  Microsoft Edge, the all-new browser designed to get things done online in new ways, offers built-in inking, sharing, and reading view.

Microsoft Edge offers quick results and content based on individual interests and preferences. Fast, streamlined and personal, Microsoft Edge empowers people to focus on just the content that matters to them and actively engage with the web.

With Microsoft Office, Windows 10 offers a consistent, touch-first experience across tablet and PC with new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook.

Designed from the ground up to run on Windows, Microsoft Office enables people to easily create and edit Word documents, annotate slides in real-time with inking features or easily present PowerPoint presentations, and create or update spreadsheets without a keyboard or mouse with new touch-first controls in Excel.

Work and Play the Way You Want Across Devices
Windows 10 offers a familiar and consistent experience across devices. Continuum enables devices to transform, enabling elegant transitions of a tablet into a PC, and back—and for a Windows phone to provide a rich desktop experience.

Xbox on Windows 10 brings the expansive Xbox Live gaming network to both Windows 10 PCs and tablets. People can communicate with their friends on Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One while playing any PC game, and share content using Game DVR.

People can also stream games directly from their Xbox One console to their Windows 10 tablets or PCs. Games developed for DirectX 12 in Windows 10 will see improvements in speed, efficiency and graphics capability.

 

For further information or to discuss how we can assist your business with the upgrade please contact us.

Planning Your Website: Setting Goals

Graeme D Anderson

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A professional website is often a crucial factor in the success of your business, and could be one of the most important investments you ever make.

But if you don’t set clear goals, how will you know if your investment in a new website has paid off?

When we’re working with a client to build their website, one of the first steps in our web design process is to sit down and discuss your business goals (not just your website). This discovery session will help us get to know you better, and we’ll work with you to set clear goals for your website project.

What do I want my website to achieve?

This is the most important question of all. The clearer you are on your expectations and goals, the more successful your website will be. For example, some goals for an imaginary Aberdeen based clothing shop could include:

  • Attract new customers: by raising awareness of the shop’s offerings. The success of this goal could be measured through regular customer surveys and web statistics.
  • Increase customer numbers during typically quiet periods: by boosting sales through an email newsletter. This could also highlight Sunday trading hours, special anniversaries and other such occasions. The number of newsletter subscribers could be an indicator of success here.
  • Create a new stream of sales separate to the retail store by using online shopping. The success of this goal could be measured on the basis of sales figures.

Now let’s break down these individual goals and look at how we could achieve them:

New customersOptimize the website for search engines under the keywords “clothes shop aberdeen”. Create a Google My Business listing and a Yelp Page .
Increase customer numbers during quiet periodsIntegrating a newsletter subscription form , and encourage website visitors to sign up. A regular publishing schedule will help yu build a following, and connect with your customers.
Create a new stream of sales separate to the retail storeMake products available to purchase on your website. You should include pictures, product descriptions and indicative delivery costs. You can also ask customers to review your products, building further trust and credibility for first time visitors.
This article is part one in a four part series on planning your new business website. Further articles will be linked here.

Randsomware emails

Graeme D Anderson

There have recently been a huge increase in ransomware and cryptolocker attacks. This is rapidly becoming one of the most significant threats to UK organisations.

 

The latest strain is known as Locky. The most common way that a Locky virus will arrive is by email. You may well receive an email containing an attachment with varying filenames.

If you open this it will look like gobbledegook at which point you will possibly be prompted to enable macros if the data encoding is incorrect. If you enable macros, you don’t actually correct the text and instead you allow the virus to run.

 

Locky scrambles all files that match a long list of extensions, including videos, images, source code, and Office files making your data completely unreadable!

You are then held to ransom and asked to pay a fee to retrieve your data.

 

So how can you protect against this type of attack?

  • Backup regularly – keep a recent backup copy off-site/disconnected from your network.
  • Don’t enable macros in document attachments received via email.
  • Ensure you have robust up to date antivirus protection in place.
  • Be cautious about unsolicited attachments. Generally delete any email or attachment you are not expecting to receive.

 

Unsure what to do next? Contact us to discuss how we can help protect your systems.

Important information – email account upgrades

Graeme D Anderson

Our hosting/email provider will be making some improvements to service over the next coming days. During this time you can continue to use your mailbox to send and receive emails. As part of the migration, you may be logged out of your mailbox. If this happens, just log in again or restart you favorite mail software.

As part of the upgrade all customers on Standard or Starter mailboxes will be upgraded to the new platform featuring (but not limited to):

  • The new platform is faster when searching for emails and content that is stored on the mail server. This helps you to work faster.
  • Improved SPAM and Virus filtering, both in and outbound.
  • All standard mailboxes will be upgraded to the new Mail Lite product, doubling the mailbox storage from 50MB to 100MB free of charge!
  • SMTP (outbound mail routing) is enabled on all email products as standard.
  • Connect to your mailbox using encrypted TLS protocol.

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If you experience any issues with your standard/free mail account please contact us or log a support ticket