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.

When Microsoft changed everything underneath the hood in how Windows worked when they released Windows Vista, the spirit in which they intended to address all of the security problems in Windows was to detatch the Windows administrator access to everyday commands so that authorisation was needed before anything major could be changed in te functionality of the machine – what they ended up with instead was a giant backlash against them with how Vista constantly brought up this annoying popup asking for authorisation of everything you did on the machine.

Microsoft had a good idea and it’s something that they refined and corrected with Windows 7 and everything in that department is really cool and secure in how it works, except for one remaining problem – people still make themselves administrators of the machine and are constantly logged in as one when using their computer.  THIS IS A HUGE SECURITY RISK.  What people should do with their machines is create a password for the administrator account, log in and create a normal login account using their name as the username and then do their everyday use of the machine under that account.  Why?  - Because as the article I tweeted points out, the majority of the remaining security risks that are ‘exposed’ from using Windows 7 is simply due to the fact that people log in as administrators and anyone can walk straight into the machine and do whatever they want with it.  Simply put, if you log in under a seperate normal account you will be able to use whatever you want on the machine and then if you want to alter the computer in any way, such as installing a program or deleting a licence key, Windows 7 will then ask you to enter the Administrator account’s password – working on your machine this way will go a very long way to installing good security practices in your work environment and make sure that your machines are a lot safer for nasties of all sorts.  It’s a very good habit to get into and if you’re not doing it now then it is highly recommended (Windows XP does not offer this feature so now is a good time to upgrade if you are still using it, by the way).

Of course, this is just a sample of all the good security practices we teach you when you sign up to one of our monthly support packs – if you’d like more information about this sort of stuff, contact us!

  • WinPenPack Gathers Hundreds of Portable Apps in One Package [Downloads] http://is.gd/bbkVH

In last week’s blog post I mentioned an all-in-one program called ZeuApp which compiled 82 free Windows programs into one convenient installer and I was calling it the best app ever.  I was wrong – out comes the very next week this new one called WinPenPack which does the exact same thing but brings hundreds of free Windows programs into one installer, saving you the trouble of sourcing them from all different corners of the internet.  This is such a great idea and I’d encourage you to follow the link from the above Twitter post to read all about it and download it for yourself, you’ll love it. :)

  • Alt+Tab Tuner Makes Windows 7’s Task Switcher Thumbnails Larger and Much More [Downloads] http://bit.ly/b1Pa6Q

This is a really cool idea for those of you that flick inbetween multiple applications on your computer constantly – the standard ALT-TAB menu is a bit annoying and doesn’t show you much about the programs your shifting between, so this little application replaces it with a nice big screenshot of each application open to make it much easier to know what programs you’re flicking between using the ALT-TAB menu.  It’s really handy – I myself actually gave up on ALT-TAB a long time ago and would stop, take my hands off the keyboard and use the mouse to select an open program on the taskbar instead to know when program I wanted to jump to next – now I don’t have to.  It’s a great little tool, and the article in the link above shows you some screenshots of what it looks like if you’re interested, go have a look!

In the workplace, a lot of people are waiting until Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 before upgrading their machines because they just don’t know whether Windows 7 will be worth jumping into using right away and if it will be stable and tolerable for them – this article details a survey that was conducted in which current Windows 7 users enthusiastically are saying the Windows 7 is by far the best release of Windows so far and they are very happy with using it and that they have made the switch.

If you’re one of those people who are on the fence and aren’t sure if they want to upgrade yet from Windows XP, let this article be all the proof that you need to make the switch now – Windows 7 is incredibly secure, intuitive and stable.  Best of all, we can upgrade all of your machines for you and take care of everything, minimising disruptions to your business in having your machines upgraded and bringing a wealth of easy computing to your office.  Contact us to learn more about what we can do for you!

Never heard of Dropbox?  It’s a fantastic service – basically, it’s like having a huge hard drive that you can copy and paste files onto, except it’s stored in a secure location seperate to your computer that can be accessed anywhere from the internet with a simple password.  This service basically makes thumb drives obsolete by making your files accessible from anywhere whilst eliminating the risk of your sensitive documents falling into the wrong hands if a USB drive (or a whole laptop for that matter) were to be stolen or lost.  In the article above, it describes how you can then add the Dropbox service to your start menu so that you can easily access it whilst on your computer to copy and paste files to whenever you need to access it.  It’s a great idea, check it out!

  • Fantastic – The Complete Guide to Saving Your Windows System with a Thumb Drive [System Recovery] http://bit.ly/b45W1K

6 tech tips for the price of 5 this week!  I just had to include this tip as well, which shows you how you can do a full Windows system backup on a thumb drive!  That’s a fantastic idea, allowing you to regularly backup everything that’s important for you which you can them put in a safe or somewhere secure so that if you ever need to do a Windows restore back to an earlier point to reverse a serious problem on your machine, you can then retrieve that thumb drive from it’s secured location, get your computer back in top shape in no time and keep working with no hassles – and no disruptions!  If you’re lacking a sense of confidence in settings these things up yourself, this like many other things are good ideas that we can set up for you – all you need to do is ask.

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

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