Welcome again to my weekly tech tips here at Superior IT. 

Each week I’m picking out the things that I liked the most that I submitted via Twitter for you all to read. If you haven’t already seen my Twitter feed of tech tips add me @aholesgrove or have a look at http://twitter.com/aholesgrove and subscribe to the RSS feed of my tweets.

  • Windows 7 Tip of the Week: Using Aero Snaps with Multi-Monitor … And Other Keyboard Shortcuts http://is.gd/b1vbj

This week I’m focusing on handy things that can help our customers work better and smarter in the office – starting with some really cool keyboard shortcuts in Windows, including new ones in Windows 7.  This article describes a whole bunch of them and is worth checking out and having a read, but I’ll let you in on my favourite additions to Windows 7:

The first is snapping windows to the edge of your monitor.  If you drag a window to either the left or right, Windows 7 will auto resize your window to take up exactly half your screen to either the left or right, which you can them consequently do for another window beside it and have a perfect two window setup for fast use of two applications at the same time.  What’s more, you can use keyboard shortcuts to achieve the same effect – holding the Windows key whilst using the left and right arrows will also snap your applications to the edges perfectly also and is really handy.  Similarly, using the Windows key plus the up and down arrow keys will maximise fullscreen and minimise your application windows respectively as well, allowing you to toggle your open windows purely with the keyboard when used in conjunction with ALT + TAB (or Windows key + TAB if you have aero glass installed).  Very cool indeed.

Secondly is a new feature for focusing on windows.  Have a whole pile of windows open at the same time and want to get rid of all of them except for one?  Just click and hold on the blue bar across the top of the window you want to remain open, shake it with the mouse and all the other open windows will auto-minimise out of the way.  Killer feature.  Of course, these new features are a great excuse to get that nice big 24 inch monitor you’ve always wanted on your desk and allow you to make great use of it. :)

  • Absolutely best Windows download ever – ZeuApp Downloads 82 Awesome Open Source Apps [Downloads] http://is.gd/b19z8

We know that there are whole pile of free Windows utilities/software out there that are really great for having at your disposal whenever you’d like to use them and we encourage their use, but this software package in the Twitter post serves and even greater advantage to your office than the convenience of not having to source and download them individually – by having them altogether as one package, you can add ZeuApp to your domain policy setup in your Windows Server controlled office so that your staff members can take advantage of any and all of the 82 free applications within this package without accidentally downloading any one of them that might be virus infected or contain another security compromising weakness – just distribute it through Windows Server to your users’ workstations and you can know with peace of mind that anything your staff might want or need is there for them to use and it has been utilised throughout your network safely.  We specialise in these sorts of simple yet very effective software rollouts and can even do this sort of work for you as part of our support packages!  Call us for more information.

  • Cool – McAfee Stinger Removes Hard-to-Tackle Malware and Pesky Fake-Alert Programs [Downloads] http://is.gd/b17cY

Windows security just keeps getting better all the time and this application mention in this Twitter post, McAfee Stinger, is just another example.  Stinger has actually been around for a very long time and is something that we’ve used a lot in fixing nasty infections on computers in the past and this latest version really does cleanse your computer for even the nastiest of annoying accidental installations – popup advertisements for certain pills come to mind when mentioning this.  Best of all, if you’re the kind of business that really just doesn’t want to have to bother with having to understand any of this stuff, Stinger is so quick at scanning and repairing your computer of this stuff that we can run this application for you over your computer remotely as part of your monthly support package without barely using much of your prepaid support time – so you can offload this sort of worrying to us, we can take care of it for you and you’ll still have plenty of time left over in your support hours to have the rest of your Windows security being monitored for you as well.  Of course, if you’re so inclined to give these things a go, click on the link in the Twitter post and try it out yourself, it’s long been one of our favourite little applications.

Regular readers of our weekly tips will know that we are very strong advocates of IT safety and security in the workplace and this article we picked up on is one of many written on the internet that validates a lot of what we talk about constantly.  As always, we understand that there is a lot to know and understand in how to keep on top of all this stuff and that’s why we’ve modelled our business on assuming all of that hassle for you at cheap and affordable costs through monthly service plans.  Feel free to call us to discuss more about how we can help you out in this area and allow to rest easy knowing that your IT systems and your information is safe at all times.

I wanted to finish off this post this week with something that I know would just blow your minds with one of thise “why in the heck didn’t someone make one of these earlier” sort of reactions.  The Powermat serves a simple purpose – if recharges the battery of small devices such as mobile phones simply by laying the device down on it. That’s it – no cables or chargers, just lay the device down on it and the battery will charge it up – absolutely brilliant!  Now your office workers can’t ever use the excuse of a dead battery stopping them from answering your phone calls or that of your customers when the right kind of charger is not available for use – this device eliminates all limitations of connector types and works for all modern phones and smart devices.  I would thoroughly recommend that you give the Powermat a closer look – click on the link for more information about it, I’m personally a very big fan. :)

About Us

Superior IT Technologies is a specialist IT Support and Sales business based on St Marys in Sydney, NSW. For more information about what we can offer you email Paul Ditrih at paul@superiorit.net.au