1.Remove the extra- Most PC’s purchased from a big-box store comes with all kinds of extra tools,trails, and worthless pieces of software on these machines. This all needs to be removed. If you aren’t going to use it then REMOVE IT. These things are just taking up space and will cause problems on your machine.

2.ANTI- Virus and Malware ASAP- So many people either forget or don’t realize how important this is. Most users only think their pc has been attacked by a virus when the pc totally stops working, but this isn’t the case viruses and malware outbreaks progressively get worse over time. This should be the first thing done after a pc is taken out of the box. As soon as the pc has a network connection it is vulnerable to viruses and malware.  Also make sure you are only using ONE antivirus solution on each machine.

3.Maintenance – This applies to all Windows deployment that you have. Be sure you have disk Cleanup and Defragmenter set up to happen regularly. Do not depend on your end-users to do this because they will forget, after all we are human. When setting up your scheduled maintenance to take place also set up scheduled antivirus and anti-malware scans to take place along with daily definition updates.

4.Disabling Services- Windows machines have services that are not needed. Example You never send or re taxes through your PC. Why not make sure the tax service is not running? Each user will need to go through and find the services that are useless to them and then remove them. Before you disable any services make sure you know what it does before you disable it. The links below can help with that info provided by TechRepublic.

• Windows XP SP3 services that can be disabled
• Windows Vista services that can be disabled
• Boost security by disabling these 10 Windows XP services
• Video: Disable and enable Windows XP services
• Tweak Windows Vista Services the right way

5.Turn off Aero in Vista or Windows 7-  A PC can be slow right out of the box, if this happens it could mean it barely has the resources to run everything necessary. You can give it a boost by turning off the Aero feature in either Vista or Windows 7. This will disable all of the GUI elements of the OS, but give you back some speed. For Vista, right click on the desktop, select Personalize, and then click Window Color and Appearance. Next, click Open Classic Appearance Properties For More Color Options. In the Appearance Settings Dialog box select Windows Vista Basic from the Color Scheme list. For Windows 7 just right click the desktop, select Personalize, and then scroll down until you see Basic Themes, Select a basic theme and Aero will be disabled.

All pretty simple huh? There are many other ways to improve your PC, but these are the most basic and common things that can really help.

Need Help or have questions Ask Elad.

1. Use a faster browser- Internet Explorer is the most common browser, but is not the only one available and is definitely not the fastest browser available. Google Chrome takes first place in being the fastest web browser available. If you have gotten very accustomed to other browsers you will see a dramatic difference in the speed with Google Chrome. This is by far the best way to increase speed. Also Chrome helps speed things up by allowing you to enter a search string in the URL address bar. This helps from having to add another toolbar.

2.Disable Flash- Flash is basically in all web pages now. Flash makes things look great, but makes your browsing speed decrease. You can have flash turned off by default and re-enable it to view what you need. The biggest problem with this is that some browsers require an add-on to block Flash. For Chrome, you need the extension Flashblock. There’s also a Flashblock extension for Firefox. Internet Explorer has a built-in tool you can access by clicking Tools | Manage Add-ons. In the Manage Add-ons dialog box, double-click Shockwave Flash Object. Then, click the Remove All Sites button. This will disable Flash for all sites. Need help let us know!

3.Save your Web files on a RAM disk- Since the RAM disk will be much faster than your standard hard drive, using it to save all your browsers temporary files will create a faster environment for your browser. However, this solution is not for the newbie, and you will need to use a third-party to better achieve this task. Learn more.

4.Get rid of all those toolbars- This is something we have all been guilty of at one time or another, having to many toolbars. These toolbars slow down the browser in many ways. Some take up memory while others just take up bandwidth by sending and receiving data. This is really a users choice, if you want or need more toolbars then just be aware you may run slower, but if you want speed then get rid of the toolbar baggage!

5.Use tabs, not windows-Too many tabs can also slow down your speed, but tabs are your best bet for browsing efficiency.  Why is this? Tabs are more effective in a few ways, one is helps stay organized and you can find a page much faster if everything is in a single window. Not only is this easier on you but browsers like Chrome treat tabs differently. Chrome treats each tab as an individual process. So when a Web site causes a tab to crash, you can close the one tab and not lose all the other tabs you have running. Not all browsers support this behavior so in order to insure this you will need to switch to  the Chrome browser.

To learn more about how Elad can meet your technology needs and protect your network, Contact us!

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2012 is here!!! We all get excited about a new year its a fresh start for individuals and businesses, we are all able to look back on the past year and put a new plan into place. Well, we have our plan and we are ready to get it going, but we need your help!

One goal of ours is to provide user friendly information once a week for readers. This information will help you as the user to learn more about technology and hopefully walk away with some helpful tips. Our goal at Elad is to “Make technology better” and what better way than to inform users.

Here is your job….if you are interested in receiving helpful tips,news, and reviews from Elad we need your email address. All you need to do is reply yes or no to WorkIT and if you want to submit a friends email or a different address send that also.

Click here  to start expanding your mind with 2012′s first article!

For more information or questions please Contact Us and we will assist you!

Which Social Media site is right for your business and what level of engagement makes sense? It's all part of a well-considered Social Media Engagement Strategy.

Engaging customers online may depend on a high level of Social Media Marketing on sites like Facebook, Twitter and site aggregators like Pinterest, but your business needs and resources may not make the effort worthwhile.

“The cost issues are critical for a small business,” says Paul Verna, senior analyst with eMarketer in a recent post on MSNBC/AmericanExpress’ Small Business on Main blog. Larger companies can afford to hire an agency or even a team of people to handle the time-consuming chores of creating content, making regular updates and monitoring corporate social media pages. A small company may only have a part-time resource. “Even having one person dedicated to your social media profile better have an intense payoff at the other end,” Verna warns.

This explains why in a recent Hiscox survey, most business owners say an effective Social Media Engagement Strategy is a “must,” but over 50% of respondents aren’t using social media at all.

The Problem

“Most people go on Facebook to connect with people like family and friends or to play games, and they really don’t care about your ball-bearing company,” observes Mark Schaefer, a blogger and consultant in social media marketing. “At the end of the day, you have to go to where your customers are.” This means dedicating resources to target your Social Media Strategy to engage your existing and potential customers.

Social Media Expert Jay Baer says the trend is too powerful to ignore. “Fifty-two percent of Americans have a Facebook page, so it’s not just for big companies.” Small companies have an advantage, he says, since they don’t have layers of management getting in the way. One strategy he recommends is using your Facebook page as a way to keep customers and prospects informed about special offers and company news.

So how do you make the right decision about how deeply to delve in? What’s the right level of engagement for your business? The good news is that you can develop strategies that focus on your market in the major Social Networking sites as well as industry-specific sites and blogs.

Market And Industry Matters

SMB Group Analyst Laurie McCabe points out that sites like Facebook and Google Plus are ideally suited for companies targeting consumers. A beauty salon may use their Facebook page to list daily openings and offer a discount for those who book from the Facebook page.

“A lot of people use Facebook only for personal stuff,” she says. “If you are a B2B company, going to an industry site could be better.”

Twitter, for instance, is a “must-do” for anyone working in the technology industry. For her own branding, McCabe often answers questions on the software marketplace site GetApp.com.

Get feedback from your existing customers on how they’d like to hear from you; use an email survey with an incentive for respondents.

Save Time

Take the time to think through how you’re going to use Social Media. Just building a Facebook page or posting on Twitter is almost certainly going to be ineffective and won’t generate leads. But using those sites for Customer Service or Support, for example can be effective and even create a community where customers help each other out, advises McCabe. “Using social media strategically instead of in an ad hoc way is usually more successful,” she says.

Sometimes business owners start out enthusiastically posting way too much on their Facebook page, then slacking off when they see no response. Verna says that’s worse than doing nothing at all. Set realistic expectations with the understanding that building a community of followers takes time and just because you don’t initially see a response doesn’t mean your customers aren’t reading your posts and internalizing your message. Verna also recommends posting relevant information just a few times a week to start.

Success can come as a result of a slow start and building momentum with creativity. Former aerospace manager Kenneth Larson drives a ton of traffic to his blog using Social Networking sites and increased his business by 30% using his LinkedIn profile.

How did he start? He first created a small blog, just writing about what he knew — offering government contracting advice. “The idea was to refer clients to article links on the site to avoid repeating myself over and over to new business clients,” he says. He then started promoting his services using LinkedIn where he also responded to questions using the Answers feature.

Then he used Twitter, BlogCatalog, Facebook, Widgetbox, FriendFeed and Ning to drive traffic to his site. He spends about three hours a day on Social Networking activities. But the payoff has been huge. In addition to the 30% increase in business, he also services clients more efficiently. “The result has been heavy traffic, good efficiency in supporting over 4,000 counseling cases over the last four years, and virtually no expense to me as a volunteer working for a nonprofit organization,” he remarks.

You can dip your toe in Social Networking by looking at your competitors’ sites, McCabe says. See what they’re doing and determine whether it may be effective for you. “At the least, do some monitoring so you aren’t missing out on conversations.”

The latest “fake” is called the System Restore Virus. This is a virus that will pretend as one program that focuses on hard drive and system optimization. However, in reality, this is another addition to the lists of fake hard drive defragmentation programs. It differs from other rogue programs that will produce virus scan on the system. What System Restore virus does is scan the PC for known system and hard drive errors.  This fake application will provide PC Performance & Stability Analysis Report that will show false information regarding initialization errors, bad sectors and a bunch of critical errors. It also displays a bunch of fake pop-up alerts informing users of hard drive and system malfunction.Issuing these types of alert is specifically to make users think that computer needs a licensed version of System Restore to be able to resolve given errors. Malware authors push their programs to the edge where it can even disable legitimate antivirus programs on target machine. Therefore, System Restore reigns as the sole security and optimization software at hand.

The real solution to this kind of problem is to remove the culprit itself. Removing System Restore virus from a compromised system will also stop excessive annoyances it brings. Only use a legitimate anti-virus application and we discourage you to purchase the fake and unknown software.

If you are suffering from this virus or have more questions about preventing the System Restore Infection please contact us and we will be glad to help you.

To learn more about how Elad can meet your technology needs, contact Summer Blain at 270-737-Elad

Click to Enlarge

I’ve had my Cisco certifications for some years now so I’m not a newbie on routing and firewalls.  I have my ethical hacking certification so it’s not like I don’t know and understand security.  I’ve done my share of bouncing from products that Cisco, SonicWall, SonicPointe, Barracuda, and others have produced.  But I’ve never been more excited about our firewall appliances.  With a network of over 50,000 users we are part of a team that is constantly evolving security with a linux based firewall.

I was just reminded of this when a client called me and asked me how much time employees were spending on youtube.com.  I was able to produce a report in seconds and give the alarming news to them, and quickly block youtube.com in seconds.  Plus put a flag on other time wasting internet sites in case they want to make more changes in the future.  Literally … seconds is what it took me.

If you want to know more, or see a demo just contact us and let us know.  We’ll be glad to show off what protecting your network has evolved into.

From ImageResizer website. Click to enlarge.

Found a real neat tool today to squeeze images that people have saved on their pc and try to email as large attachments. After installing it, you right click on a picture or multiple pictures, tell it to resize and even select from pre-set sizes.  Handy little tool to have installed for everyone, never know when your going to need it.

Click here to visit the ImageResizer website and download the application.

UPDATE 11/16/2011, SR. WEB DEVELOPER DANIEL PANTOJA — This is a very handy tool for image resizing; it’s very similar to the script used by the top website publishing platforms and comes in REALLY handy when you need to resize a large image.

First, in Q1 2010, Internet Explorer ranked higher in security tests run by independent security consultants NSS Labs. Like, not just a little bit better, a whopping 56% better than the No. 2 most secure browser in their test.

Then Windows 7 blows reviewers away. And first looks at Windows 8, with its one-click “Windows To Go” feature and broad compatibility for hardware platforms from X86 to tablets have hardware manufacturers eagerly anticipating its release.

Long perceived “also-ran” Microsoft seems to have kicked up their game and positioned themselves for excellence on multiple fronts.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise — although my mouth LITERALLY dropped open upon hearing the news — that a year-long study conducted by IT publication Ars Technica revealed Microsoft’s Cloud Servers perform far more quickly across a broad range of indexes than any other cloud services.

Another win for Ballmer’s boys.

I’m not going to go over each new feature, instead I’m going to post my opinion on a few of them for listening ears.

You can’t argue with dual core processing, it will be faster. Whether or not that’s something you have a problem with if your an iPhone4 user will determine how important that is.

The battery life has been enhanced. I personally never had a problem with the battery life. It’s not like the old days where you had a flip phone that would make it all week and you were griping about plugging it in every night. I believe now everyone is used to just plugging it in every night.

The camera does have an extra lens and larger aperture to let in more light. I’m excited about this, not because I’m a huge camera person. But because the iPhone already has a camera that can out perform any Android hardware I’ve owned, and now it’s better. I think other hardware vendors need to take notes.

The video camera has a built in image stabilizer, THIS IS HUGE. I can’t believe Apple didn’t make a bigger deal out of this, I think it by far is the best new feature. This is also something that hardware vendors need to take notes on. I personally do NOT enjoy the Apple IOS (operating system). But you cannot argue with the hardware they have produced in the past.

Siri, or the new “personal assistant”. I’m waiting to hold judgement on this. I’ve been burned, you’ve been burned, everyone has been burned on voice recognition technology. With that in mind, apple seems to lead the way with new technology. We all have heard that Windows 8 is going to be largely driven by voice activation. So I’m waiting to see how good my new personal assistant is really going to be.

iCloud — Why didn’t apple just announce this, and leave everything else as is? This alone would have been enough to hold a press conference about and get the press it needs. Granted, I’ve been syncing music wirelessly using Spotify for some time now, but iCloud let’s me do it seamlessly between my Apple devices. LOVE THIS. Can’t wait to see what other software vendors do in Android and PC to compete with this.

Opinion

My opinion is this is not the finished product. I believe Apple did not call it the iPhone5 because it knows it’s not the finished product. They’ve made a few modifications to hardware and software and is releasing as a finished product, but I believe it’s not a finished product.

I don’t understand why Apple get’s all this technology together and then releases it all at once. They would make a lot more money and satisfy our desire for more technology if they would realease things on a faster schedule.

Will I buy one? That’s yet to be determined. My Samsung Android already has an 8 megapixel camera with a dual core processor. So their hardware enhancements aren’t too attractive to me. But I am interested in the image stabilazition, Siri, and iCloud. However iCloud will work with my iPad2, iMac, and MacBook so do I really need it on my phone too? I personally think the Android offers more benefits as a mobile device and dealing with mobile applications in a mobile lifestyle. Yes, I carry my iPad2 everywhere.

So wait, let’s see what 200 enhancements IOS5 has, then determine if you want to put out the cash on a phone. I’ll follow up later.