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Windows 10 reaches End of Support in 2025

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 11:54:15 GMT

Should you buy a Windows 11 Computer or can you continue with Windows 10?

If you are a regular customer of Churchdown Computers you will be aware that Windows 10 reaches end of support in October 2025. However, many residential customers may still be unaware that Windows 10 reaches end of support next year. Some of you may have seen a message saying your Computer is not compatible with Windows 11 so what does this mean for you?

If your Computer is eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 11 then the solution is simple, you take the upgrade and it's job done!! If your Computer is more than about 5 years old the likelihood is that it will not run Windows 11. This is due to a complex set of requirements that Microsoft require you to meet in order to run Windows 11. You can't just go out and buy Windows 11 for your current Computer as it still won't meet the requirements and although some Computers can be upgraded in most cases it means you will require a new Computer next year.

Is there an alternative to keep your old Computer going and Windows 10 going? In actual fact for the first time ever there is although it's not going to be a cheap alternative. When Operating Systems reach end of support Microsoft no longer issue security updates for that Operating System, this means that if you continue to use it you are at risk from an ever increasing number of Security Vulnerabilities. Microsoft have always offered an Extended Support Program for Businesses but this has never before been offered to residential customers. This time Microsoft are offering the Program to residential customers but read on before getting too excited.

The Extended Support Program will run for 3 years and the cost will double every year. You will need to subscribe to the program to get the Security Updates. In the first year the cost will be $61, but in year two it will be $122 and in year three $244. At today's exchange rates we are roughly talking £50, £100 and £200. That means £350 to get an extra three years out of Windows 10 which is almost the cost of a new Computer. It is clear that Microsoft are pushing people towards the new Computer option despite offering the program.

My advice would be to avoid the subscription and bite the bullet and move to a new Windows 11 Computer. I guess you could make a case for paying £50 for year 1 in order to delay your purchase until October 2026 but I couldn't make a case for paying the prices in years 2 and 3.

So now to answer the final inevitable question. What if I just carry on using Windows 10 and don't subscribe to the Extended Support Program? I am asked this question all the time and most people qualify it by saying they have good Antivirus software so surely they are okay for another six months at least? The first point to clarify is that Antivirus software plays no part here. The threat is from security vulnerabilities in the Operating System which if exploited could allow somebody to gain access to your Computer. Antivirus software looks for viruses and not attacks on the Operating System. The second point is that the risk is cumulative so if in month 1 there are 15 vulnerabilities then in month 2 that goes up and so on. After six months there will be a lot of vulnerabilities. So what is the real risk one day after support is withdrawn? This is an interesting question because in the lead up to an Operating System going end of support very few vulnerabilities are found and fixed. This is because a clever hacker that has found a vulnerability keeps it to himself and doesn't launch any attacks. The reason for this is that he knows his exploit will be fixed by Microsoft. However, once the end of support date has passed he knows he can launch his attack and the only people who will be protected are those paying for the Extended Support Program. Put simply there could be a large number of vulnerabilities just one day after Windows 10 goes end of life.

If you need any assistance on the above or help with the decision making process on switching from Windows 10 to Windows 11 j ust c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page

Low Priced Full Fibre Broadband in Gloucestershire

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 14:34:01 GMT

900Mbps Download speeds for £36 per month

Churchdown Computers are pleased to announce that we are working with Fibrehop on the rollout of Gigabit Broadband across Cheltenham and Gloucester. With 900Mbps Download speed for £36 a month and 150Mbps for £26 a month there are low priced packages available to suit everybody. There is also a Business package at £65 per month but you will need to contact me on 07557 483438 to discuss that service. All the information is available on Fibrehop's website and you can see full details of the packages and prices. Churchdown Computers are referrer's for Fibrehop so it obviously helps our Business if you could enter CDCOMP1 in the referrer code or sign up via this link

https://orders.fibrehop.com/bb?link=CDCOMP1

On the other hand if you just want to browse the products and then sign up later you can see all the details here

https://www.fibrehop.com/

We are working hard to bring Full Fibre Broadband to Churchdown and obviously that would benefit our own Business as well as the rest of the residents in the village. If you live in Churchdown and are really keen to see Full Fibre Broadband in Churchdown it is very important that you register your interest on the website and ask everyone you know to do the same. Fibrehop are listening and are aware of the number of homes in Churchdown that are missing out on access to this service but unless we can demonstrate that there is a high level of interest they will simply continue working on other areas where interest has already been shown. You can just use the availability checker on the website and register an interest. We do not receive any incentives for customers showing an interest, we are solely interested in bringing the service to Churchdown. If you don't register it won't come that's how supply and demand works.

If we can answer your questions or help with anything else then j ust c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page

Wifi Range Extenders vs Mesh Networks

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 11:27:55 GMT

Do you prefer solutions or a patch to a problem?

I receive plenty of calls from Customers with various problems with their wifi. Some are trying to reach a far flung corner of their property and want some advice on what to buy whilst others have already purchased a wifi extender and are now struggling to achieve what they set out to do. Wifi extenders or Powerline adapters were the way to go whenever you had a black spot in your home but now when you look at cost, complexity of setup and the range of issues you will experience there is a new and better option.

The best way to think of any IT problem is that it is an issue that requires a solution. IT Businesses like Churchdown Computers are solution providers and we aim to solve the problem that you have. Solving wifi issues has always been a bit of a problem in itself because the products available on the marketplace were only really a patch that was attempting to hide the bigger problem rather than an actual solution. There is now a proper solution that will be discussed later in this article.

Wifi extenders were often seen as a cheap fix to get wifi to a blackspot in your home. You could either use an extender on its own or buy something known as Powerline Adapters that actually use the wiring in the mains rather than wifi to carry the signal to the location that was previously unreachable. The original problem can be that the existing Router has not been centrally located by the Service Provider or that you need a long reach and there are thick walls or metal objects in the way. The problem you can be immediately faced with are the Powerline Adapters don't communicate back from the far flung location perhaps because it is on a different ring main or the wifi extender simply still doesn't reach where you want to get to. You cannot extend from an extender as all extenders connect back to the original router so you are still stuck. Even if you do succeed you may still have a very weak signal at the location you are trying to reach.

Lets assume you succeed with an okay signal but unfortunately the problems don't really end there. Extenders typically have their own network name and you are connected to it with a different password than the main wifi. You may see your normal wifi network and another network with _EXT on the end. Whilst this has no effect on simple tasks like checking your e-mail or surfing the web you suddenly find that printing doesn't work. The printer is attached to the main network with another password and therefore doesn't understand your attempts to connect from a different network with a different password. Some wifi adapters have a Clone mode. If you carry out a clone the adapter drops its own network name and password and adopts those of the main network and this helps with this type of problem. However, the original documentation that comes with the adapters often doesn't explain how to do a clone and it takes some searching on the web to find out how to do it. Let's now assume you have achieved this too but when you wander around the house you still find your phone and tablet are connected to the weakest signal and not the strongest. Yes, that's correct unless you go completely out of range of the adapter your device won't automatically switch over. It will remain on the one it is connected to if it can still see it unless you manually disconnect and reconnect to the other network.

So having read the above problems with wifi adapters and how to set them up you can understand why I say they are simply a patch to a problem and not a solution. So what if there was a system that actually solved all these things for as little as £60. Well the good news is that there is and the setup is relatively straight forward too. Mesh networks provide complete coverage for your home and the signal strength at the furthest point from the router is just as strong as the nearest. If you require new coverage at any time you can simply buy another access point and add it on. Each access point connects to the other access points so you can extend and extend creating a spiders web across your home and a far flung access point finds its way back to the router via the web you have created. Every access point has the same name and password and as you wander around your house your devices immediately connect to the access point with the strongest signal. You might be thinking that these networks must be complicated to setup but they are not. Provided you are a smart phone or tablet user there will be an app that helps you find the best locations to place them and sets them up in minutes.

All the main suppliers like Netgear, TP-LInk etc offer Mesh systems but I like the Amazon Eero system because it is a good price and straightforward to setup with the app. If you would like Churchdown Computers to help with your wifi problem then j ust c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page

Windows 8.1 reaches end of life on 10th January 2023

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 10:52:47 GMT

Free Windows 10 upgrade is still available

It seems no time at all since Windows 7 went end of life and yet Windows 8.1 is now just six months from end of life as well. In fact Windows 8 itself went end of life before Windows 7 on 12th January 2016 but given that Windows 8 wasn't well received most people quickly upgraded to Windows 8.1 which has given them another six years of support from Microsoft. The purpose of this blog is to explain your options if you are still running Windows 8.1 and also what does end of life really mean?

I rarely come across across a Windows 8.1 Computer as most people took up the option to upgrade further to Windows 10 when the free upgrade was offered to them. However, I do still have some customers running it and therefore it is time to start thinking about the best option. End of life sounds very dramatic and some people imagine their Computer just won't work any more. The good news is that you can relax because it won't stop working overnight. On the other hand some customers are completely relaxed and just carry on as if nothing has happened. There is a balance between the two different ways of thinking.

End of life really means that Microsoft have ceased supporting your Operating System and therefore you will no longer receive security updates from Microsoft. This is important because a surprising number of new vulnerabilities are found and fixed each month by Microsoft. If you continue to use your Computer with Windows 8.1 running the number of vulnerabilities you are exposed to will increase month after month. It is also important to consider that Microsoft fix vulnerabilities as they are found and reported. As an Operating System nears end of life those who wish to take advantage of vulnerabilities tend to keep what they have found to themselves. They wait until the end of life date arrives and then launch their exploits safe in the knowledge that Microsoft will not be fixing them. This can lead to a false sense of security where you feel that you will run the risk for an extra 6 months without the knowledge that a huge batch of exploits could be taking place within days of the end of life date.

Another point worthy of note is that if you are paying for Microsoft Office 365 that you will stop getting security updates for this too when Windows 8.1 goes end of life. Even though you are still paying if your Operating System isn't up to date Microsoft don't give you the updates for Office 365. If you continue to use Windows 8.1 as well as the security issues you will notice over time that certain things stop working. At some future point you will be denied access to your Bank Account but please remember this is a good thing not a bad thing. The Bank consider your Computer to be insecure so are protecting you by not allowing you in. If you reach the stage where this happens you really should have taken action some time ago especially as free options are available.

The good news for everyone is that although it isn't publicised you can still get a free upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 today. You can of course bite the bullet and buy a brand a new Windows 11 PC but you won't be able to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 11 on your existing Computer. As Windows 10 will be fully supported until October 2025 the right decision for most people will be to take the extra 3 years of support on their current Computer. If you need any help upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 or would like Churchdown Computers to do the job for you j ust c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page

What do you need to know in order to choose a new Computer?

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 16:00:45 GMT

When faced with Computers ranging from £299 to £2,999 which one do you go for?

One of the most common questions I get asked is How do I know what to buy when purchasing a new Computer? It can certainly be a difficult choice when faced with a huge number of Computers looking much the same but with vastly different prices. I will run through the basics here today and this will mean that you can enter a shop armed with the right knowledge to choose your own or at least have a conversation with a salesman. The focus of this article is just on a standard machine for work, home, or school use. Specialist areas like Gaming Machines aren't covered.

Although outside the scope of this article I will briefly touch on why you might be buying a new Computer. You may have received a message that your old Computer cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 and you may also feel it's quite old and slow. The first thing to note is that Windows 10 will be fully supported up until October 2025 and that Churchdown Computers can carry out an upgrade that will allow you to enjoy the next three and a half years with a much faster Computer. If you are interested in this option rather than buying new then just contact us as below.

You may wish to buy a Traditional Desktop PC, an All in One or a Laptop but the same basic principles apply. Once you have a grasp of these you can apply the knowledge to any type of Computer that you choose. There are obvious factors that might increase the price of a Computer like a 17" screen on a Laptop rather than a 14" and these are personal choices so I will just concentrate on the main components. In this article we will be focusing on the Processor, RAM (or memory) and Hard Disk (HDD) or Solid State Drive (SSD). The scenario you instantly find yourself with when buying a Laptop for instance is that there's one with a deal on for £299 and one right next to it that looks the same for £450. Surely the £299 one will be fine won't it? In the vast majority of cases more money means better performance unless as previously mentioned you are paying for a much bigger screen.

I will begin by covering the choice of Processor which is one of the three main components that you need to look at. One of the most popular range of Processors is the Intel i series and typically you will see Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 although i9 are also available. There are also a range of older Intel Processors called Intel Celeron and Intel Pentium. AMD are another popular Processor manufacturer and they have a range of processors called Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7. They also have older processors which were known as Athlon and are typically called A4, A9, A10 etc on the Product label. The most important thing to note here is that if you are choosing to buy on price and buying a £299 Computer you will almost certainly be buying an Intel Celeron or Pentium Processor, or an AMD A series processor. My simple advice is DON'T. I have lost count of the customers that ring up and say 'I've just bought a new Laptop and it doesn't seem any faster than the one I'm replacing'. In many cases the laptop they are scrapping cost almost £1,000 and was top of the range 10 years ago and the £299 laptop that they have now bought is bottom of the range and as they have already stated isn't much faster than the old one.

My advice is to stick to the Intel Core i series and AMD Ryzen series and at least buy an i3 or Ryzen 3 and if you can afford to go higher like i5 or Ryzen 5 you will be buying a faster performing machine.

The next component is RAM or memory and this is very straightforward. 4GB RAM has been the standard offering for many years although many are now coming with 8GB as standard. The higher the number the better the performance, so again if you can afford a machine with 8GB or more it will be a faster performing machine.

Finally we come on to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Solid State Drive (SSD). The way to speed up a slower machine always used to be to buy some more RAM but now the best way to get a much faster machine is to install a Solid State Drive. Solid State Drives are 10x faster than a standard Hard Disk Drive and the performance can be seen from the minute you press the ON button with 7 - 10 second start up times. They started off as quite expensive items but now the price has fallen making upgrades more affordable and they are also fitted as standard to most new machines. The obvious advice is therefore to go for an SSD if you can. However, I need to provide a bit of additional information here to ensure that you make the right choice. In order to keep prices low most manufacturers only fit a 128GB or 256GB SSD whereas you may well have had a 1TB HDD in your old Computer. For many people this is not a problem because they only used a fraction of the available disk space on the old Computer, however if you filled it with Photos, Music and Videos you may have a problem. When you get home and attempt to transfer your Data from the old Computer to the new one you may run out of space. There are of course ways around this. Some Computers have a 500GB SSD option at a higher price, some have a Hybrid System with a 128GB SSD to run Windows and a 1TB HDD to store Data on, and thirdly you could just buy an external drive to store your Photos on.

Once you understand the basics regarding the Processor, RAM and HDD/SSD you will be able to look at any product label in a Computer shop or chat to any salesman and have a good idea of what you are buying, how fast it will be and why it is priced as it is. Although Churchdown Computers do not sell Computers we offer free advice to those about to buy a new Computer. We also offer a full range of services from setting up the new Computer through to getting your Data transferred across, Programs installed, Printer and Email setup. Just c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page

Should you upgrade to Windows 11?

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 10:14:02 GMT

Why is upgrading to Windows 11 so complicated?

Windows 11 has been around for a few weeks and inevitably calls are already coming in regarding whether to and how to upgrade. Whilst the previous upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 was remarkably straightforward the upgrade to Windows 11 isn't; so why is that and what should you do? Windows 10 installed quite happily on almost any PC and I upgraded many Windows XP and Windows Vista PCs to Windows 10 without problems. The most important thing to understand about Windows 11 is that the minimum specification required to run it is 4 x greater than that of Windows 10 and therefore it is the biggest step change since the jump to Windows XP. Windows 11 is all about security and it's not Software security it is Hardware security and therefore most Computers over 4 years old simply don't meet the minimum requirements for running Windows 11.

As my blogs are designed to appeal to all I don't want to write many paragraphs of technical speak but what Microsoft are aware of is that Software can easily be tampered with but Hardware can't and therefore if you build in Hardware security it will bring about a much better result. At the heart of this is the requirement to have a TPM 2.0 chip (Trusted Platform Module). In simple language this chip stores encryption keys and carries out its functions in a tamper resistant manner and if your machine is communicating with another machine it will be safe for the other machine to believe you are who you really say you are. With Software there is so much scope for tampering that this isn't the case.

So should you go about trying to upgrade Processors and chips to meet the minimum specification. The majority of my customers have entry level laptops and desktops and it is not possible to upgrade these to meet the specification. Even if it was the price would be eye watering and you really wouldn't see the benefits from Windows 11 to make it worthwhile. At the other end of the scale are high end gaming machines that can be upgraded. Again, if you just want Windows 11 to be on the latest thing I wouldn't recommend spending the money. However, if you have reasons for wanting the extra security or want to play a game that requires Windows 11 then it may be worth it. It is important however to weigh up the cost of the upgrade to the cost of a new machine and then bear in mind you still have a four year old machine that may develop a different fault.

Are there ways around these new requirements? Yes, and I touched on this in one of my previous blogs. Although you can't upgrade to Windows 11 you can carry out a clean installation of Windows 11. There are a number of things to bear in mind before making this decision.

You will need to backup and completely erase your existing setup
All your previous programs and data will need to be restored
You won't benefit from the extra security in windows 11 as you don't have the required components
You may find that Windows 11 drivers aren't available for some of your Hardware
Microsoft have stated that if you take this step will not be eligible for security updates

I am always interested to see if Microsoft follow through with their threats and the first batch of security updates for Windows 11 have been released and as expected they were available to those Computers that didn't meet the minimum requirements. It is clear that Microsoft are just covering themselves with this statement but if you go ahead and install Windows 11 you need to be aware that updates could just stop at any point in time and instead of running an Operating System that is more secure than Windows 10 you will be running something that is completely insecure.

In summary what are the prospects for those remaining on Windows 10? They are actually very good and for most people who don't meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11 then staying with windows 10 is the right decision. It will be around until October 2025 and Microsoft have already announced a 21H2 version which will be released next month (November). It is fair to say that it is a small update and isn't packed with new features. The new features are clearly going to be reserved for Windows 11 but Windows 10 will continue to be supported for around four years. You will therefore have some time to consider the purchase of a new Windows 11 PC and can buy it at a time that suits you. If you have any questions Churchdown Computers are more than happy to help. Just c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page

Windows 11 will be available from October 5th

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 20:51:39 GMT

Is it ready and will you get it?

Windows 11 is set to launch on October 5th but will you get it and is it ready? The launch has crept up fairly silently unless you have been closely following progress or taking part in Insider Preview testing. As always seems to be the case, those carrying out the testing are still finding plenty of issues and yet the launch will go ahead as planned. Most organisations won't go back on their word having announced a launch date and they don't usually allow a few problems to get in the way of a big event.

Following on from my previous article have Microsoft relaxed their strict requirements for running Windows 11? In simple terms they announced that if you didn't have a TPM 2.0 chipset, which are only present in machines under 4 years old then you won't get Windows 11. The answer is 'YES' and 'NO'. This means you can install it on any PC but you will need to be party to some information that won't be announced and be in possession of some fairly strong IT skills. I will go into this in a bit more detail below but I will begin with how the official rollout will be managed.

The rollout will begin with new eligible devices and then move to existing compatible Computers meeting the hardware eligibilty requirements. All compatible Computers should have received the upgrade by mid 2022. At this point I will just throw in my normal comment that early adoption effectively makes you a tester. The latest Insider Preview only launched this week and the product goes live in a month's time. I always recommend that unless you are very keen to get new technology and happy to encounter some problems then let others do the testing and carry out your upgrade a good 6 - 12 months after launch.

Now to return to my previous comment that anybody can get it - so what happens if you have a 7 or 8 year old Computer? The answer is this .... When you attempt an upgrade through the official Microsoft channels you will be denied the upgrade for failing to meet the eligibility criteria. If you have the time and skills you can do the following. Create yourself some installation media (USB stick or DVD) using the Media Creation Tool that will be available on the Microsoft website and carry out a clean install of Windows 11. This won't be announced but will work because it bypasses all the checks. To achieve the above you should also bear in mind that you will need to backup all your existing data and be in a position to be able to reinstall any programs that you had before. This might be a job for a business like Churchdown Computers if you don't feel you have the necessary skills to carry out all the steps.

So finally is there anything else you should know if you install Windows 11 when Microsoft don't really want you to have it? Unfortunately 'YES' there are two things. Firstly having carried out the install you may find that not all the drivers for your device are available in Windows 11. Secondly it seems that there is a possibility that Microsoft might withhold updates from Computers not meeting the original eligibility criteria. This could leave you with a big security issue if you force the upgrade on a Computer that Microsoft don't want you to have windows 11 on. The worst case scenario could be having to back everything out and go back to Windows 10.

As always there are still too many unanswered questions to make any firm recommendations. Given that I always advise those who are eligible for the upgrade to be cautious I am bound to advise those that aren't to be even more cautious. It is inevitable that within a few days of launch some Computers that shouldn't be running Windows 11 will already be running it but these people will have all the skills to back out if they need to and won't be risking their sole Home or Work Computer so please don't do this. If you have any questions Churchdown Computers are more than happy to help. Just c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 11 to arrive by the end of the year

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 18:06:53 GMT

End of life date announced for Windows 10

Like many people I was under the impression that Windows 10 was here to stay, would keep evolving with a new version every 6 months and there would never be a Windows 11. Surprise Surprise on the 24th June 2021 Microsoft announced there would be a Windows 11 after all and it will be available late 2021 or early 2022. I say surprise surprise because there has been a leaked build of a new Operating System doing the rounds and as that aroused suspicions some people checked Microsoft's Support Life Cycle page only to see it confirmed in black and white that support for Windows 10 would end on October 14th 2025. Remarkably Windows 10 will have been around for just over 10 years by that date but the key thing being that the setting of an end of support date meant a new Operating System was on its way.

The good news is that as with Windows 10 a free upgrade to Windows 11 will be available. The bad news is that many machines manufactured before 2016 won't meet the minimum criteria to enable them to get the upgrade. If your machine was designed for Windows 10 the likelihood is that it will be okay but if you have already upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 (or even XP / Vista) to Windows 10 the likelihood is that you won't be able to upgrade again and you will need to stick with Windows 10 until it expires in 2025 or buy new. In my experience almost any machine up to 10 years old would run Windows 10 but the minimum requirements are much stricter for Windows 11.

If you would like to do an early check on your own Computer you can do so here . Most of the requirements are fairly standard and easily met but unfortunately one or two weren't present in older Computers. In brief you require :-

1 GHz or Faster Processor with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64 bit Processor
4 GB RAM
64 GB or more Storage Space
UEFI Secure Boot capable
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0
A Graphics Card that is DirectX 12 capable / WDDM 2.x
A greater than 9" Display with HD resolution
A Microsoft Account and Internet connectivity for Windows 11 Home

The things that are going to catch people out are those that probably go over the head of a standard Home PC user. For instance my own Computer that was designed for Windows 8.1 has a Graphics Card that is DirectX 12 compatible but is only WDDM (Windows Display Driver Module) 1.3. If you want to check this for yourself you can hit the Windows button and R to display the run command box and enter dxdiag. On the first screen (System) you will see your Direct X version towards the bottom of the page. If you move to the next page (Display) you will see your WDDM version on the right hand side. Those with Tower Desktop PC's will have the option to fit a higher specification Graphics card but those with All in One's or Laptops will have a problem. The TPM 2.0 chip is also a fairly recent addition to System Boards and many older PC's won't have it. It will be interesting to see as the launch date nears whether Microsoft alter their minimum requirements to be more inclusive. At this stage they may simply be ensuring that nobody tries a preview build of an Operating System that isn't compatible with their Computer.

I will save most of the new features for a later blog but the Home screen looks fairly familiar although the Start Button has moved to the centre of the taskbar along with the other icons to make it look similar to Apple's dock . This can be changed back if so desired. The Operating System has been optimised to work with multiple monitors and it's claimed will remember exactly where you have positioned windows if you disconnect and reconnect monitors at a later date. Windows updates will be much smaller and there will only be one big update per year. Microsoft will also be integrating Teams into the Taskbar. The popularity of Zoom during the lockdown has seen a big hit on Skype so Microsoft are fighting back by integrating Teams. Finally there are some major gaming improvements as well as a re-work of the Microsoft Store.

Needless to say you won't be needing any help with Windows 11 just yet but if you are considering a new PC in the near future you may require advice on what to buy in order to receive a free Windows 11 upgrade or whether to hold back with your purchase. As always Churchdown Computers are more than happy to help. Just c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

What's new in Windows 10 v21H1?

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 13:22:49 GMT

Major changes put back to v21H2

As Windows 10 v1909 reaches end of life on May 11th 2021 the latest incarnation V21H1 is ready for launch. Customers still running v1909 will be seeing messages asking them to update or they will no longer be supported and this process needs to be carried out during the next month.

On the face of it this will be a very short blog as almost all of the major changes have been put back to the 2nd Half update v21H2. When people started to detect a pattern of a major update in the Spring and a minor update in the Autumn Microsoft said this wouldn't always be the case and this time they have proved it with one minor update immediately followed by another. If you like a fast update process then this is a bonus but if you wanted lots of new features then you will be left waiting until the Autumn. This update will be delivered in a similar way to the monthly security updates and will be applied at a similar speed rather than the lengthy process that often occurs when manually choosing a new Feature Update. However, this is only true if you are running Windows 10 v2004 or Windows 10 v20H2. If you are updating from an older version of Windows 10 like the outgoing v1909 then the update process will still be the lengthy experience that you are used to.

Now for the new features or lack of. The first update is likely to be the only one of any interest to most customers. Windows Hello (the sign in process) has been updated so that you can choose an external webcam as your default camera. Customers that have added an extra higher spec camera have been frustrated in that they have been forced to use the built in camera as the default when signing in. The frustration often stemming from the fact that the external camera has been positioned over the top of the built in one.

Windows Defender Application Guard has received a performance boost to speed up document opening times. This update really only applies to administrators who have configured applications to run in a virtualised container for security reasons. It therefore isn't going to be a major benefit to most home users.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Group Policy Service (GPSVC) has received a performance improvement to support Remote Work Scenarios. The fact that an update has been delivered to improve remote working is no surprise after a year of COVID-19 and working from home, but again this is only something that is likely to be of interest to administrators in a workplace environment rather than the average home user.

That really is it folks!! A smaller update means much a lower risk of bugs and in fact the main aim of the update is fixing bugs that were already there. If you are one of the many people running Windows 10 v1909 and are receiving the message that you need to update by May 11th 2021 but aren't sure what to do then why not give me a call to discuss your options. Just c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

How do I speed up my slow Computer?

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 13:04:04 GMT

Hard Disk Drive or Solid State Drive?

One of the most frequent calls for help that I receive is where a Customer's Computer has gone slow or even ground to a halt. My response is to ask a few questions about the age of the Computer and whether the slow speed has suddenly occurred or occurred over a period of time. There are a number of possible causes for a Computer running slowly and as always a methodical approach is required to work out the best solution for the Customer. Some resolutions might only bring about a small improvement in performance and others are more dramatic and guaranteed.

Customers usually try to carry out a few repairs of their own and have often spent several hours deleting photos, emails, uninstalling applications and even carrying out a defrag. I always recommend checking the percentage of disk space used before carrying out such an exercise. If your hard disk is more than 90% full then the above will make a difference but if it is only 20% full then the likelihood is you will spend a lot of time, perhaps remove treasured photos and the performance will remain the same. Removing applications may make a difference in that fewer things will startup but again I usually focus on the startup folder first and stop any unnecessary programs from starting in the first place.

One of the reasons I ask if there has been a sudden decrease in performance is that there is a possibility that a Virus, Malware or other Potentially Unwanted Program has accidentally been downloaded and your performance has been hit for this reason. If I am called out I will always run some checks for this and remove anything found. I also then carry out a System File Check to make sure the Operating System isn't suffering from any corruption. I then take a quick look at the Performance in Task Manager and this can help to point out whether the bottleneck and cause for slow performance is the CPU, Memory or Hard Disk.

In some cases the Processor will be the issue particularly where you find an older Computer with a Celeron, Dual Core or Pentium Processor. In other cases the Computer can benefit from some extra memory but in most cases the problem is just a Hard Disk Drive that has seen better days. Many people have never known a Hard Disk to fail but if you work in the industry it is an every day occurrence. Some just fail suddenly and others get slower and slower and often keep going but performance becomes snail like. I have seen people waiting 15 minutes for startup, another 10 minutes to logon and almost the same time to open any of their programs. My question about the age of the Computer helps me to reach this conclusion more quickly but it's fair to say you can have a Hard Disk that is 10 years old and still working perfectly and yet I've seen a 2 month old Disk fail.

All of the above can certainly help with slow performance but we are talking about small margins - maybe 10% - 50%. If this is the improvement you are looking for then the above may be fine but if you are looking for a guaranteed solution and a massive performance boost then fitting a Solid State Drive will make your Computer 10x faster. Yes, the improvement really is that dramatic and depending on the specification of your Computer startup times of 7 - 9 seconds can be expected. Many people ask whether it would be better to get a new Computer? This really depends on the age of your Computer and your budget. Churchdown Computers supply and install a 500GB SSD for around a third of the price of a new Computer that only contains a 256GB SSD. You can buy Computers for as little as £300 but they usually don't get an SSD and therefore you won't get the speed improvement. Others only contain a 128GB SSD and you may find you fill up the SSD very quickly once you transfer over your existing Data. New Computers only come with a 1 year warranty and our SSD's have either a 3 year or 5 year warranty depending on which one you choose.

Churchdown Computers offer a simple fixed price service that includes the supply of the drive, installation and setup. You have a choice of a Clone where your new setup is exactly the same as your old setup (only 10x faster) or a Clean Build where Windows 10 is installed from scratch, all your programs reinstalled and Data transferred. We even visit your home and setup your Printer, email if required and any other finishing touches to get you back to exactly where you were before. Due to the vast array of options it isn't possible to quote prices here. You may require a 120GB / 240GB / 500GB / 1TB or 2TB SSD and you may want a 3 year or 5 year warranty. Just c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page if I can help speed up your Computer .

What do you do next when you have a Scammer on your Computer?

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:51:09 GMT

Fast action is required to minimise loss

I frequently receive phone calls from Customers shortly after they have had a scammer on their Computer. There are many articles about what you should and shouldn't do to avoid being scammed but what about when you have already made that mistake? The penny has dropped, your mouse is flying around on the screen - what do you do next?

There are many ways a scammer can end up on your Computer and it is worth just clarifying how this happens. You may receive a phone call allegedly from Microsoft or your Internet Service Provider saying you have a problem and they need access in order to fix it or you may have clicked on a link in an e-mail that says you have many viruses and need to dial a number in order to clean your Computer up. I also come across many instances where somebody has actually got a genuine fault and has googled 'Microsoft support phone number' or 'HP support phone number'. It is very dangerous to google phrases like this because scammers pay for adverts that appear at the top of the search listings making it appear as if they are genuinely Microsoft or HP. If you call these numbers the response will be very convincing and they will request access to your Computer in order to help. When you find an entry at the top of a search results list you will be convinced it is the most popular search result and therefore safe but look out for it being an Advert and therefore somebody has paid to put it at the top of the list. I am obviously going to recommend you call a local Support Business like mine but if you really want FREE support you must convince yourself you are on the legitimate Home Page for Microsoft or HP and then look for a Contact number within that site.

Once the initial mistake has been made and the scammer is on your Computer then what is he likely to do? It depends on the motivation of the scammer you have encountered. Most are only interested in money, you may encounter somebody that wants to mess up your Computer by installing a virus or deleting your files but this is quite rare and the real aim is to pretend to do the above in order to get you to pay up to stop or reverse the action. The first thing a scammer normally does is install Remote Access Software so that once you think he has gone he can easily reconnect. He will setup unattended access which means that each time you start your Computer he receives an alert which allows him to jump back on with you having to agree to it or click on any prompts. In these instances the main scam often takes place after your initial contact. While he is installing this software you will probably see him open a Command Prompt and execute commands and this helps him by making it difficult for you to know what he is up to. He may then run a Fake Antivirus Program that claims you have a large number of infections and demand payment for a cleanup or in some instances if he has hooked you in he will say you are due for compensation as a result of the viruses. He will award you an amount and then say he can only make a payment that is greater than your award and therefore you will need to transfer some money back. Beware, as the original award will never arrive or if it does will be claimed back.

There are other things a scammer will try while he is on there. If you are somebody who saves all their website passwords in a Browser cache he will attempt to access this and harvest your passwords or he may attempt to turn on Bitlocker or Drive Encryption and encrypt all your Data. If this occurs he will then have a 48 character key (in the case of Bitlocker) and without it you have lost access to your Computer. Once you reboot that's it unless you know the key. Somebody like myself can rebuild your PC but will never be able to get the Data back. If you do pay the ransom it's 50/50 what will happen - you could say it depends whether he's an honest scammer or a dishonest one? I will leave you to judge!! However, the important advice here is bound to be ALWAYS BACKUP and DON'T EVER ALLOW ANYONE ONTO YOUR COMPUTER ACROSS THE INTERNET. I could add 'unless you're convinced of who they really are' but can you ever be? If you have a backup you can simply refuse to pay and get the Computer rebuilt. If you don't you're in trouble.

Returning to the possibility that somebody has installed some Remote Access Software and then gone away without doing anything else then what should you do next? Your Computer appears fine, the person has gone so surely you don't need to do anything? My advice is to get your Computer checked out immediately and of course I would say this - so why? The most sophisticated scammers just wait, they receive a message each time you startup and logon and they can jump on at any time. They are waiting for you to access your Bank account. When you do they are likely to take a screen shot of your Account Home Page as you see it and then throw it up as a wallpaper, lock your keyboard and mouse and then behind the wallpaper they transfer the money out of your account. It doesn't look like a theft to the bank, it looks like a genuine withdrawal. The crime takes place on a Computer that the bank knows is yours and has been authenticated by your fully valid logon. Scammers are clued up enough to know withdrawal limits and the amounts that will trigger an automated call or text and stay below these amounts. I often see three quick withdrawals one after the other. In the short amount of time this takes you are still puzzled at the loss of use of your keyboard and mouse and by the time you become frustrated enough to do something the money has gone.

As I have now made you read all the way to the end of the article I will finally answer the original question. If you are on a Desktop PC with an Ethernet cable then pull the cable out of the Computer or the Router as fast as you can. If you are on a Laptop or wirelessly connected Desktop Computer then get the Router off by pulling out the Power lead. In the event the Router is not quickly accessible then hold the power button down on the Computer until it goes off. Ignore what is being said if the scammer is on the phone, you must stop him before he gets Remote Access Software installed or encrypts all your Data.

As always Churchdown Computers are here to help. We can check your Computer for you after a scam or rebuild it if it's now encrypted and you don't know the key. Just c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

What to do if your Laptop won't turn on

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 17:28:10 GMT

Methodical Fault Diagnosis is the key

I frequently receive calls from customers who have a Laptop that is failing to power on. Many people make an instant assumption that they have a faulty charger or battery and go online to buy one or the other to try to resolve the issue. Other people grab a charger from an old laptop or a friend and attempt to plug it into their laptop. At this stage guessing can be your worst enemy and you can either end up spending money un-necessarily or in the worst case scenario doing more damage to your laptop on top of the original fault. There are many things that might be the cause but unless you get the laptop checked out or work through things methodically you'll need to be lucky to get an instant result.

The first thing to check is whether you are getting any lights on the laptop. Whether it is completely dead or not is your first clue. If it is dead then what is the last thing you remember when it worked? Did you see the battery level indicator slowly falling. If you did see the battery level gradually falling and now there is nothing then it is not the battery as most people think, but the charger. The charger is failing to put anything back into the battery and is also unable to support the laptop on mains. The battery is nearly always a red herring because except in very rare circumstances a laptop just works without a battery. If you have an older laptop where the battery just pulls out you can do this and just run it from the mains. Many people get caught out by seeing a green light on the adapter of the charger and automatically assume this means it is fine. It doesn't mean that at all and just indicates it is receiving mains power. The job of the adapter is to convert mains power down to around 15 to 20 volts (depending on the laptop) and then supply the correct voltage to the laptop. If it's not doing its job properly it won't charge the battery or power on the laptop. This can be tested by checking the output figure with an appropriate tester.

So why shouldn't you just grab another charger and try it? You can if it comes from exactly the same make and model of laptop but if not you are taking a big chance. If you look at the small writing on an adapter you will find an output section. This tells you how many volts will be output to your laptop. If you pick a charger with a lower figure it almost certainly won't power on the laptop and if you pick a charger with a higher figure there is a risk you will do some further damage to your laptop by hitting it with too many volts. However, the risks go beyond this. If you examine the charging tip and compare it with other chargers you will find they come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and usually have a very fine pin in the middle. Forcing the wrong charging tip into your laptop risks damaging the DC in port or the charging tip itself.

Breakdown or damage to the DC in port is the next thing that can be the cause of a laptop not starting and a frequent repair is replacing this perhaps after a laptop has been pulled off a table by a pet, dropped with the lead in or had the wrong charging tip forced into it. Finally the problem can actually be a System Board fault. It's not easy to see even in the above magnified picture but take a look at the red box on the image above and the capacitor on the right. This capacitor is part of the charging circuit and has burnt out. In this instance the laptop was still working perfectly but the battery was gradually losing charge. Due to the failed capacitor above it was impossible to get any charge into the laptop and therefore once the battery reaches 0% that's it. The skills to repair a capacitor like this are very rare as in real size you can barely see the capacitor with your naked eye. The laptop really needs a replacement system board if one is available and if not then it's game over for the laptop.

There can be other reasons for a laptop failing to start including a failed hard disk, faulty RAM or a failed graphics chip. These issues are beyond the scope of this particular article but there are clues to the above problems. You will often see a warning like 'no operating system found' or 'no fixed disk present' in the first instance. In the second instance you will often hear several beeps which give you a clue it is RAM. In the third one the laptop often goes round and round in a loop but because you see the start process initiating you can be relatively certain it's not a battery or charger issue.

If you are experiencing startup problems with your laptop then hopefully the above will assist with the diagnosis of the fault and help avoid the situation I regularly find where somebody has purchased a new battery and charger and still has a dead laptop. On the other hand if you're not really sure where to start and would like Churchdown Computers to help then c all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

What's new in Windows 10 v2009 or 20H2

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 17:11:45 GMT

Minor update for the second year running

The October 2020 update for Windows 10 has arrived earlier than expected and has been named v2009 rather than v2010. The code name during the build was 20H2 or second half of 2020. As with last year the H1 update was a big one and the H2 update only minor although Microsoft have stated that it is not necessarily their intention for this always to be case. The advantage of a small update as with last year is that the time taken for the update is very quick and therefore you will only be waiting around the normal time for a monthly update rather than the couple of hours a major update sometimes takes.

If you are impatient you can force the update from Microsoft's Download page but as always I would recommend the cautious approach and waiting until you are offered the update through Windows update as part of the phased rollout process. So what do you get that's new with this update? Not very much at all but it's just possible that one of the features may be one that you have been waiting for.

The first change is a feature that has been taken away rather than added and that is the System icon in the Control Panel. I suspect this isn't used by many people but it's certainly handy for Administrators to check the Hardware specification of a Computer and what version of Windows it is running. Having said that System has always been available as part of Windows 10's Settings App and therefore you can just view it that way. Microsoft have a long term commitment to removing the Control Panel but progress has been slow. There are lots of useful functions there that you don't find in the new Settings App but on this occasion there has been little work involved in removing something that is already located in the App.

Microsoft's new Chromium version of their Edge Browser appears as a built in part of the Operating System for the first time. Many people will already be using it as a direct result of a Windows update but now it will be there from the word go.

The Start Menu theme has now been updated to include better colour integration. Whilst you were able to choose a light theme or dark theme for Windows 10 the Start menu always looked the same shade of blue. You can now set it to match your theme and this is slightly more pleasing to the eye.

The Alt and Tab feature has now been changed to show your 5 most recent Tabs in Edge. For some people this will be handy and for others it could be annoying. The good news is that you can head to Settings \ System \ Multitasking and change the options. This could be to only show the three most recent tabs or turn the feature off altogether. I know the first question I will be asked is whether this works for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox or just Microsoft Edge? The answer is just Edge at the moment but the other browsers may be changed in the future to allow them to integrate with the new Alt and Tab feature.

Microsoft have improved the functionality if you pin specific websites to your taskbar. If you have a site open in multiple places you can now hover over the pinned item and see all the places where that website is open. Microsoft have also improved the Focus Assist feature that hides notifications. Many gamers used this function to try to eliminate the Notifications that keep popping up over their game. Annoyingly Focus Assist had its own pop-ups that were equally annoying at the start and end of every session. The Focus Assist Notifications have now been removed but can be turned back on if desired.

The Your Phone App has been improved and you can now manage your Samsung Android Smart Phone apps on your Computer screen. They will actually be running on your Phone but you can interact with them on your Windows 10 Desktop. Earlier in this article I mentioned the benefits of the old Control Panel and Microsoft's desire to gradually move things over to the Settings App. Well one thing that has now moved over is the setting for the 'Refresh Rate'. You used to have to head to the Control Panel to adjust this but can now do so in the App.

That's it really and I doubt for most people there is any pressing need to update urgently. If you do encounter any problems during the update or wish to grab it early and don't know how to then Churchdown Computers can help you with this. C all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

If there isn't going be a Windows 11 how will Microsoft force me to upgrade my PC?

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:35:12 GMT

Should you avoid Feature Updates on older Computers?

Many Customers are surprised that Microsoft first of all offered a free upgrade from Windows 7, 8.0 and 8.1 to Windows 10 and then announced there wouldn't ever be a Windows 11. They therefore wondered how and when they would be forced to buy a new Computer. The first thing to note is that Microsoft sell the Operating System and other Software and not the actual Computer but of course there is an Operating System sold with every new PC. The answer to the initial question is that when your Computer reaches a certain age it may well suffer a major failure like the System Board that makes it more economic to replace rather than repair it. Another answer is that your Computer will gradually get slower as the demands of the Software cause your Hardware to struggle but the real answer is explained below.

Microsoft are now following a similar path to Apple and coincidentally (or maybe not) have chosen Windows 10 to match OS/X. Unlike Windows 7 which only really received security updates and minor feature updates for over 10 years Windows 10 receives a Feature Update every 6 months. It is best to think of this as Windows 10.1, 10.2 etc rather than moving to Windows 11. The version numbers are different in reality by marking the year and month of release so are typically v1909 (September 2019) and v2004 (April 2020). However, the key thing to note is that it is like getting a whole new Operating System for free every six months. So what can be bad about this? Apple release a new version of OS/X once a year and Apple customers will be aware that once your Computer reaches around 10 years old you are no longer offered the latest release on the basis that your Hardware isn't up to running it (not compatible). Once this happens you have a limited amount of time to upgrade your Hardware before being denied access to your Bank Account etc on security grounds because Safari is out of date.

Windows 10 users don't tend to find that they are denied Feature Updates but the more likely scenario is that you apply an update that causes a compatibility issue and then experience problems as a result. The issue can be Hardware or Software related and can be major or minor. Examples range from no driver for a wifi card to no graphics driver and then being confronted by a black screen. There are also examples of Printers no longer working or a Legacy program like Windows Live Mail failing to display messages. So why does this happen? The best explanation is to think of yourself as a manufacturer of one of the components that go inside your Computer. With Windows 7 you could produce a driver and that same driver would almost certainly be fine for 10 years, due to the limited changes. However, with a new version of Windows 10 released every 6 months there is constant demand for you to keep releasing new drivers. Once your product reaches a certain age you will take the decision not to release any further drivers and at that point the next time a Computer with that component upgrades there is more than likely to be a driver issue. If it's a minor component like a wifi card you can just buy a new one but if it's a major component this could be time to upgrade your Computer.

Many of my customers are still using unsupported programs like Windows Live Mail. This product has been unsupported since 2017 and as above I am receiving an increasing number of calls that the program no longer works properly after upgrading to Windows 10 v2004. Customers typically don't want to pay for Microsoft Outlook and if they switch to Windows Mail which is also free they then find there's no way to export old mail and Contacts from Live Mail into Windows Mail whereas you can into Outlook. I also receive calls from people with older printers that were really designed for Windows XP or Windows 7 and are no longer working after a Feature Update.

So how can you avoid these issues? In the early stages of Windows 10 I would have said you can't because Feature Updates just happened but now you can delay Feature updates. If you have a brand new Computer and the latest software there is no need to do this but if you have a 10 year old Computer, 10 year old printer or use unsupported software then I would recommend delaying Feature updates to keep your Computer running for longer. If you search for Windows Updates you will find Feature updates offered to you on an optional basis. If you choose not to download and install these updates you can remain on an older version of Windows 10 that is working fine for you. However, it is important to note that Micosoft only support the latest 3 versions of Windows 10 so that once you are more than 18 months out of date you will be forced to update to the latest version. Some customers are reporting to me that Feature Updates are taking place even when they haven't chosen to do them but I suspect this scenario is triggered by them being more than 18 months out of date.

If you are experiencing issues with Windows updates, software not working or driver problems after an update then Churchdown Computers can help you out with this. C all Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

When are you most likely to suffer from Cyber Crime? Do Cyber Criminals share your details?

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 11:11:19 GMT

Are you targeted for a reason?

The answer to the above question may come as a bit of surprise but it is immediately after you've already suffered an attack!!

I will begin by saying that I don't work directly in Cyber Security but as part of the roles I have previously fulfilled I regularly attended seminars where the speakers were former Cyber Criminals who were happy to discuss the methods they used. My job is primarily to ensure that a Computer is fully clean and safe to use after an attack but I do also learn the methods used by criminals as part of my work.

If you feel this article is not entirely relevant as you have not suffered an attack then you might want to read my previous article on avoiding telephone scams here or carry out some further research on scams. I am focusing here on a couple of examples of how criminals follow up after you have already been caught out and it is well worth having this knowledge in your armoury so you don't get caught twice in quick succession.

One example of a scam which most people will feel they know is that you receive an e-mail saying that your Direct Debit details for your TV Licence are out of date and need to be updated in order for a successful renewal to take place. The e-mail may even say your original payment has already bounced but this is a risky strategy as you can check this. It is uncanny how these e-mails tend to arrive around the time of your renewal but that's another story!! Anyway, you will see a link to click to update your details and once clicked you will see a site which looks like the TV licencing website and you may well be tempted to enter your bank details. The obvious advice so far is NOT to click the link or enter any details but carry out checks yourself with TV licensing but for the purpose of this article let us assume you have provided the details as requested.

The next thing that will happen is that a small amount will disappear from your bank account - usually the value of a TV Licence. There is no point a Cyber Criminal attempting a Direct Debit for £10,000 because no Direct Debits are for that amount and if you only have £500 in your account it will simply bounce, raise suspicion at the bank and he ends up with nothing. In the hours and days that follow you will realise your mistake, either because two payments go out (the real one as well) or you just suddenly sense that something is wrong. At this point you typically contact the Bank and possibly even the Police to see if you can recover the money. The important thing here is your familiarity with the number of your Bank. In the past you would have called your local branch but now it's always Head Office and so the number is well known. You may know it already, you may have it programmed into your phone so that it says Lloyd's Bank (for instance) when somebody calls or you may just look it up. After speaking to the Bank and with their investigations under way you will suddenly get a call from the number you now know and trust as your Bank. The person on the other end will know all the details of your case and will suggest that with your account number and sort code now out there in the hands of criminals that you transfer your money to another account for safe keeping.

Many people are aware that you should never trust a call of this nature and should hang up and call the Bank back on another phone. Don't use the same phone because the Cyber Criminal will hang on the line and play a dial tone from his end so that you think he has hung up and you're making a fresh call. You then just get him back again. Many people are also aware that your Bank would never ask you to transfer money. Why would they? They can just open a new account for you with new details - no transfer by you needs to take place. However, people are caught off guard because the number that comes up tells them it is their Bank and the person on the line knows everything about the crime that has taken place - mainly because he did it!! At this stage if you do go ahead with the transfer then the entire contents of your bank account will fall into the hands of a criminal and don't forget he hasn't broken into your account and stolen it you have willingly transferred it to him. Whether you get the money back from the Bank is a matter for the Bank only and not the subject of this article.

Cyber Criminals are easily able to spoof telephone numbers and e-mail addresses in order to pretend to be somebody completely different. Please don't fall for this at a time when you have already been deceived once and may well still be shocked at the first offence.

The second case I am going to refer to could apply to any online purchase from a fake site but the one I come across most often relates to Bitcoin. Somebody starts researching the topic and jumps from site to site gathering information and eventually stumbles across a promising advert, makes a purchase and the money leaves your Bank account but you never receive any Bitcoin. In this instance the amount lost is often much greater than the TV Licencing scam above. In order not to repeat myself too much I will keep the following fairly brief. You obviously report the matter to the Police who do their best but tracking down thefts involved with Crypto Currency like Bitcoin is a thankless task for them. After a number of days you will receive a call either from a Detective or an Agency who are involved with recovering money from this type of scam. As above they know all the details of the case, they will tell you the criminals have been caught and they have recovered some of your money. However, due to costs etc there is a release fee for the money and that needs to be paid first. It sounds obvious but don't pay it in the hope you will get some money back as you'll just lose more. If the caller was genuine there would be no fee or if there was one he could deduct it from what he is returning to you. There is also a reason why they have only recovered part of the money; if you pay up then they call a few weeks later saying they have recovered some more which requires another fee and with an apology as to why the first payment hasn't arrived yet. This will run and run until they realise they aren't going to get any more money out of you.

To finish the article I am going to answer the second question and YES Criminals do share your details with other Criminals. Once they feel they have extracted all the money they can from you they are happy to place your details on a list so that you can be targeted by other Criminals using a different method of attack. This means that even if you don't suffer a follow up attack you are still highly likely to be targeted by other Criminals in the future.

As mentioned above my job is not investigating Cyber Crime but as the owner of a Computer Repair Business I am heavily involved with cleaning up Computers after an attack has taken place. If you have been attacked or feel that your Computer would benefit from being checked out and cleaned up then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

New Features in Windows 10 v2004

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 12:57:51 GMT

Is it worth upgrading?

Prior to the release of a new version of Windows 10 I always write an article on what's new and how you might benefit from it. Then after release there is usually a further article with details of features that either disappeared or were enhanced but overall there isn't a huge amount of benefit for the Customer unless of course they missed the first one. I am going to change my approach this time and focus on a few features that might help improve your experience by understanding some of what is going on in the background.

One of the most common calls I get is that a Computer has gone very slow. This can be something obvious like Malware or a failing Hard Disk but often Microsoft processes that are taking place in the background are slowing down your PC. Understanding these and changing some settings can vastly improve your experience.

I will begin with Windows Update because the way this works has changed over recent versions and particularly for Windows 10 Home users. When a new version of Windows 10 was released (every 6 months) your Computer would automatically download and install it sometimes resulting in very slow performance followed by a couple of hours of updating that left you confused before things changed back to normal. During the last year or so the Half Yearly update has been renamed to a Feature Update and it is no longer automatically applied. You can now run with your current version of Windows 10 for up to 18 months before having to upgrade. At the 18 month stage you are advised that your version of Windows 10 will no longer be supported and you must upgrade to continue support. This has led to a few calls from Customers thinking their licence had expired or Windows 11 was out and they had missed the release. The reality is that if you now want to update your version every 6 months you need to type 'Windows Update' into the search bar, navigate to Windows Update settings and Download and Install the update as per the above image. The plus point is therefore that you don't have huge updates downloading in the background and stealing bandwidth but the downside is that your version of Windows 10 could be 12 - 18 months out of date and because you're not in the habit of going to Windows Update and checking you simply don't know.

In version 2004 they have now added another section to Windows Update called 'View Optional Updates'. In reality this is nothing new and was actually how things used to happen in Windows 7, but people are out of the habit of checking Windows Updates. They are used to everything just happening automatically in the background and whilst extra control can be more desirable it is only true if you know that things have changed and are actively making the manual checks required. The Optional Updates section often contains Driver Updates and if you have problems with your Graphics Card for instance there may well be an updated driver here. However, if you don't know how to check manually then it won't help you. Again there are two sides to every story and Windows Update was known to put incompatible drivers on causing all sorts of problems so many people will be pleased with this change, but again you do need to know that this section is worth checking if you have a problem.

The final item on the Windows Update front is the ability to set Bandwidth limits. Although you now need to manually download and install Optional Updates the monthly Security Updates will still download and install on or shortly after the second Tuesday of the month. This can hit performance at a time when you don't want this to happen. There is of course the 'Pause Updates for 7 days' button now but more advanced users might just want to limit the bandwidth that Windows Updates have access to. This means your PC will remain secure without a 7 day delay but won't be slowed dramatically during the process. There was a previous setting that allowed you to set bandwidth as a percentage of your total bandwidth but you can now choose a precise figure like 1 Mbps to make available to Windows Update. To find this go to Settings \ Update and Security \ Delivery Optimisation \ Advanced Options.

While discussing speed improvements I will just add that Microsoft have made further improvements to the Search Indexer. This is another process that runs in the background and yet was turned off by many people (especially gamer's) because it was perceived to have a huge detrimental effect on performance for very little benefit in return. Microsoft are now attempting to detect peak usage times and not allow processes to run when the current user is already placing high demand on their Computer.

I will finish with a couple of quick improvements that may be of some interest to those that like to delve a little deeper. I often get asked by Customers whether they have an SSD or HDD and whilst for many the speed of the Computer alone will identify that, it is sometimes nice to see it in black and white. If you start Task Manager either with Ctrl \ Alt \ Del or by right clicking the task bar and then navigate to the Performance tab you will see your type of Disk under Disk. While you are there you can also see the temperature of your Graphics Card (GPU). This assumes you have a high spec Graphics Card with the latest drivers installed and is only really likely to be of interest to gamer's.

Should you upgrade to Windows 10 v2004?

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:48:49 GMT

New release now available in Windows Update

Windows 10 is now 5 years old and Microsoft have just released another major (feature) update known as the May 2020 update or confusingly v2004. So should you update straight away? Those people who read all of my Blogs will already know the answer and as always I would urge caution. Despite all the testing that is carried out many problems don't become apparent until the new release gets installed by the masses and my recommendation is to hold fire and let others do the testing. If you grab a new release early you are one of the first to get all the new features which is exciting but you may experience a problem which could be anything from a minor glitch to losing the Data from your Documents and Pictures folders as has happened in the past.

When Windows 10 was first launched Windows 10 Home users didn't have much control over when they received feature updates as they were just rolled out automatically as soon as your Computer was deemed to be ready for them. However, they are now optional updates and this means you can be cautious and wait. In fact you can wait for up to 18 months if you like the version you are using, but after that you will be forced to update or lose support because Microsoft will only support the latest three versions. The latest release was available from May 27th and there have been issues mainly revolving around Hardware Drivers so please be cautious.

If things are working correctly you will not be offered the update unless your machine is capable of running it but some of the early adopters have already been caught out by problems. Some people aren't being offered the update and others are seeing a message on the Windows Update page saying 'The Windows 10 May 2020 Update is on its way. We're offering this update to compatible devices, but your device isn't quite ready for it. Once your device is ready, you'll see the update available on this page. There's nothing you need to do at this time.' In both of the above circumstances people have tried to get around the checks by going to Microsoft's website and downloading the update assistant and going ahead with the update. The problem with this is that it skips the compatibility test that your machine has already failed and goes ahead with the update and you are then left with the consequences of taking things into your own hands.

Once you are faced with missing drivers (particularly graphics drivers) you can be left with a machine that is struggling to boot and hence difficult to revert back to the previous version. I will therefore repeat my advice from above and recommend you remain patient and don't try to get the update before you are offered it. Even then I would wait another month or two before going ahead unless you are desperate to get the new features.

The issues below are only likely to be of interest to what I would call advanced users so I'm not going to go into great detail but you need to be aware of the following problems which mostly revolve around bluetooth, mouse and graphics drivers.

Problems with drivers for Realtek Bluetooth radios
Problems with Conexant or Synaptics audio drivers
Problems with Computers using Intel Integrated Graphics Processing Units
Blue screen occurring when plugging or unplugging Thunderbolt Dock's
Problems with Microsoft's own Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 that are using the Always On, Always Connected feature
Mouse input problems on games using Gameinput Redistributable
Owner's with older Nvidia Display Adapters receiving Stop Errors or Blue screens during installation or after

If any of the above are relevant to your machine then don't force the update to v2004 or you will find yourself with problems. Needless to say Microsoft are actively working on solutions and when the issues have been resolved you will be offered the update through the normal channels.

If you do experience problems during or after the update then Churchdown Computers are here to help. Just call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Are there valid reasons to remain on Windows 7 and is it safe to do so?

Sun, 10 May 2020 12:10:09 GMT

What if you run software that doesn't work on Windows 10?

With Windows 10 v2004 due for release shortly and Windows 7 now 5 months past its 'end of support' date are there valid reasons to still be running it? My experience is showing that while most Home Users have either upgraded to Windows 10 or purchased a new machine that many small businesses are still running Windows 7. When I question business owners they have reasons that they believe make it essential to continue with Windows 7 but don't really understand the security implications. Can you make it secure? Well, only if you are a business that is large enough to be able to pay Microsoft for extended support and that isn't your average business with 1 - 10 staff.

Some customers believe that all you need is up to date Antivirus Software and that does obviously help with one type of risk but they are missing the risk posed by security vulnerabilities that exist within the Operating System and Web Browser that Microsoft are no longer patching with Windows Security Updates. Avoiding Internet Explorer and using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox provides a bit of added security but doesn't guarantee you are safe.

The main reasons quoted to me for remaining on Windows 7 are that the customer is running specific software that doesn't work on Windows 10 and also that they don't have the installation disks. We won't go too deep into why they don't have the installation disks but there are some options to get the software to work with Windows 10. If you carry out an upgrade rather than a clean install the software often just works even though you are not expecting it to. During the upgrade process a check is made on the software and if it definitely isn't going to work on Windows 10 you will be notified and can just abort the upgrade process. If it doesn't work after upgrading you can also run the program in Windows 7 compatibility mode. I have managed to get many programs working in this way when the owner thought this would not be possible. If you actually have the disks you can also test this on another Windows 10 machine first and then choose to either upgrade or not based on the results. The other good news is that as at the last time I checked (March 2020) it is still possible to get a free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

In the event that none of the above works for you and you must keep these programs running then I recommend moving your e-mail, finance and other operations to a new Windows 10 machine and then disconnect your Windows 7 machine from the Internet to use as a standalone machine for the programs that don't run on Windows 10. I would also recommend making a clone of the Hard Disk in the machine because if you wake up one day and the disk has failed then that will be it. Computer repair businesses will more than likely be able to recover your data (if you don't have a backup) but without the installation disks you won't get your programs running on Windows 7 again.

So why should you remove your machine from the Internet? I have mentioned above the security vulnerabilities that exist in both Windows 7 and Internet Explorer. These vulnerabilities are relevant to both home users and businesses but particularly in the case of businesses; you will be in breach of GDPR if you store customer information on that machine. By customer information I mean names, addresses and telephone numbers just for a start. The security vulnerabilities put this information at risk and therefore that is where the breach occurs. This information needs to be moved to a Windows 10 Computer or the Windows 7 Computer disconnected from the Internet. The other thing to bear in mind is what would happen if you had money stolen during an online banking operation or credit card transaction. Under normal circumstances where such an issue occurs your money is refunded but you are required to carry out all reasonable steps to make sure the Computer you are using is secure. Are the bank likely to conclude that running a Computer that has received an 'end of support' notification and no security updates for 5 months is taking all reasonable steps to ensure your Computer is secure?

As always Churchdown Computers are here to offer advice or carry out any Operating System upgrades or Data Transfers that you require. Just call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Can you speed up your Computer by tidying up Pictures and E-mail?

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 17:44:37 GMT

There are many different factors that affect speed

I often visit Customers that are having problems with a slow Computer and suggest a range of things that can be tried to speed it up. Customers tend to focus on what they can do and suggest they think their Computer is too cluttered and therefore they will delete some pictures and e-mails and get back to me if this hasn't worked. I think it's fair to say that in 99% of cases this won't work and unless you were planning to spend many hours having a tidy up anyway you will just spend a lot of time and your Computer will run at the same speed.

So when would this work? If the C: Drive on your Computer is more than 90% full then carrying out the above task will make a difference. The remaining 10% of disk space is used as a working area and the smaller this area gets the more your Computer will struggle and could even crash if you run out of space altogether. You can check your percentage of free space by clicking on File Explorer and then This PC. You will see how many Gigabytes you have free and if the bar is coloured Blue then all is okay, if it is Red then a tidy up will help you.

Focusing briefly on E-mail if you are using webmail you will see no benefit from a tidy up unless your service provider has advised you that your mail box is full and needs tidying. If you are using a Mail Program like Microsoft Outlook or Windows Live Mail to store e-mail on your Computer then you are creating quite a large database of e-mail locally so in this instance a tidy up may make that program run a little faster but it won't improve any other area of operation. At this point it is worth noting that Windows Live Mail is no longer supported by Microsoft and as such is deemed a security risk by many e-mail providers.

With pictures I recommend backing up before you start so that you can't lose anything; otherwise you may be denying yourself the opportunity to show a family photo at a reunion several years later and this is a shame when you still haven't speeded up the Computer. On the other hand if you just want to be better organised you may be interested in an article I wrote back in September 2018 with some suggestions for organising photographs .

So what do you need to do to speed up your PC? If the Computer takes a very long time to boot up and then 5 minutes to respond every time you click the mouse then the likelihood is that your Hard Disk has seen better days. They are consumable items and gradually slow over time but can just suddenly fail. Most people are aware of the importance of backups because the Hard Disk can suddenly fail but don't really imagine it just slowing down. If this is the problem then I recommend upgrading to a Solid State Drive which is 10x faster even when the original disk is working correctly; so if it is faulty then it will be more than 10x faster. Alternatively you can go like for like and just have a new Hard Disk installed.

If your Computer starts normally but then seems to go a bit slow you could be suffering from Malware or Potentially Unwanted Programs. Even if you have an up to date Antivirus Program other problems tend to slip through the net while you are carrying out legitimate downloads. Malware, Spyware, Greyware, Adware, Ransomware and Potentially Unwanted Programs are just a few things that can get bundled in with downloads and subsequently cause you problems. If you experience unwanted pop-ups or unexpected crashes this can also be an indication that you have been infected by something that your Antivirus Program hasn't spotted. A simple clean up will usually return you to full speed and get rid of the annoying side effects of these types of programs.

As always Churchdown Computers are here to help and can carry out a diagnosis of your Computer and then recommend the appropriate course of action to get the best results. Just call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Get ready for the Internet to start creaking

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 12:59:52 GMT

Slow speeds and 'Page Not Avavilable' on the horizon

COVID-19 has already had a major impact on the lives of everybody but things could be about to get worse as the demand for Internet access reaches unprecedented levels. Overall the actual usage may not be significantly increased but the timing and type of usage will suddenly change as soon as the Schools close on Friday. Internet usage used to be spread fairly evenly over the day with Office workers creating peak demand between 9.00 and 5.00 and then as the Office workers headed for home the children went online with their Xboxes, Playstations and Online Games. With Apple, Google and Microsoft employees already working from home you have to appreciate that they are actually contributing to the problem as they remote in to work rather than being in the Office where you might like to thing they are working on fixes for the demand that is going to occur.

People working from home will have about the same demand as they would in the Office if they just work on their own PC but if they remote into the Office and then take over their work PC they have immediately increased their demand. While this is happening in the same household Online gaming will start to place during the working day which doesn't normally occur. Under normal circumstance neither party would be at home so the first battle will be over bandwidth within the same property. However, the main issue is likely to be the overall demand on the World Wide Web.

Xbox Live, Nintendo and Playstation have already been down and people have been struggling to login. On the Business side there has already been a problem with Microsoft Teams which many businesses use to collaborate. The closure of Restaurants, Theatres, Gym's and Businesses has left many people at home and now with the closure of schools it really is everyone. The mix of activities that used to take place has suddenly disappeared leaving everybody demanding web access at the same time. Netflix, Youtube, Smart TV's, Remote working, Online Shopping, Steam, Xbox are all happening at once and this simply hasn't been catered for in the shaping of web traffic because nobody ever imagined it would happen. With many people working from home for the first time they are setting themselves up on new services to collaborate with colleagues and again this demand just wasn't expected. Xboxes, Netflix and Playstations aren't new but with shift workers and varying lifestyles demand was spread throughout a 24 hour period but now everybody wants access between 9.00 and 5.00.

It will be interesting to see how things shape up during the coming weeks but if your favourite system goes down don't expect a quick fix as the person who should be fixing it is probably working from home.

What are Hardware Drivers and why do they occasionally go wrong?

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 13:00:35 GMT

Windows Update may have updated your drivers

Hardware Drivers can be a bit of a mystery to some Computer users but for advanced users they are part of every day life. Gamer's in particular are always hunting for the latest Graphics Drivers to improve their gaming experience. New Drivers for their Graphics Card can improve the Frames Per Second rate and therefore enhance their gaming experience, but the release of a new driver with bugs in can also bring about a series of problems that drives them mad. My standard advice is to wait for at least a couple of weeks before updating drivers to allow other people to iron out the faults or apply the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' rule and don't update your drivers if they are working fine.

As always today's blog is primarily about understanding what Hardware Drivers are and how and why they can go wrong rather than blowing everybody's mind with technical details on frames per second!! Most people are aware that a Computer comprises of Hardware and Software. The Components that make up your Computer are the Hardware so you are talking about Keyboard, Mouse and Printer externally and then RAM, Graphics Card, Sound Card etc internally. The Software is Windows 10 the Operating System and Programs like Microsoft Office. The Software and Hardware need to talk to each other and they do this through a Driver. You therefore have a Keyboard Driver, Mouse Driver, Printer Driver and a corresponding Driver for each piece of Hardware. If you think of the printing process for a Microsoft Word Document you may want to tell the printer you want A4, double sided printing, colour and specific margins. This information is supplied to the Printer by the Driver. With no Driver or an incompatible Driver you either end up with no print at all or your instructions are ignored and print goes off the edge of the page etc. Hopefully this helps clarify the role of the Driver.

In the event your Computer suddenly crashes you may see a Blue Screen often called the Blue Screen of Death or BSOD and this screen contains details of the cause of the crash and it is often related to an incompatible driver. Given that everything was okay the day before why does it suddenly go wrong? The simple answer to this is that it could be you installing a new component or updating a Driver but Microsoft are also renowned for rolling out new Drivers through the Windows update process and these can cause your machine to suddenly to go wrong.

Customers that don't understand Driver Updating often get tricked into installing Driver Update utilities. Please take my advice and never install one of these utilities as if you do one of three things will happen. The best outcome is that you get a load of unnecessary updates but everything works fine. The second possibility is that you get a batch of wrong Drivers installed and things start to go wrong or your Computer crashes and the third option that I see in many cases is that the Driver Update utility is little more than Malware and your information is being harvested along with numerous pop-ups and other issues on your machine just slowing it down.

Just remember that you don't need to update Drivers unless an important update is forcibly rolled out to you by Microsoft. The updates that Microsoft roll out are on occasions to solve a security issue but mostly because they believe they have found a better Driver for you. Unfortunately in some circumstances it isn't a better Driver and things start to go wrong. Losing your wi-fi connection or wi-fi repeatedly disconnecting and re-connecting is a typical problem. In this instance the best solution is to go back to the Driver you were using before that worked perfectly. The only problem here is that Microsoft spot this and usually just roll out the update again. The best solution is often to head to the website of the PC Manufacturer or Component Manufacturer (Wireless Card for instance) and download the Driver from there. If this is a more up to date driver it will not only resolve the problem but stop Microsoft from trying to update the Driver as well.

If you have any questions on the above or Churchdown Computers can help with any of your other Computer requirements then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Is there a problem with using Outdated versions of Microsoft Office?

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 12:34:41 GMT

Products over 10 years old have security vulnerabilities

At the moment I am busy updating large numbers of Computers from Windows 7 to Windows 10 as many users waited until the January 2020 deadline to make the move. Some people waited because they had heard Windows 10 wasn't very good and some waited because they loved Windows 7. However, the biggest factor in people switching now is that they have become aware that Windows 7 will no longer receive security updates and therefore continuing to use it puts themselves, their data and their finances at risk. When upgrading Computers I often find copies of Microsoft Office 2002, XP and 2007 still on there so are these a risk as well?

The simple answer is YES. Even if you have updated to Windows 10 in order to remain fully secure if you continue to use software that is no longer supported then you still have a security vulnerability on your Computer. At this point I will make it clear that I am not linked with Microsoft in any way so the only point of this article is to keep Customers fully informed, not to sell Microsoft's software for them!!

The first step in understanding any risks is understanding Microsoft's Product Life Cycle. They typically release a new version of Microsoft Office every three years so Office 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019. After the release of a product Microsoft continue to develop it for around 5 years. This means that as well as security updates you will receive product updates that include new features. Once the product gets to five years old they end Mainstream Support and the product enters Extended Support. During this period there will be no further product updates and the only thing you will receive is security updates for critical vulnerabilities. Then after 10 years (roughly) Extended Support ends and no further security updates will be released. At this point the product becomes a security risk if you don't update to a newer version. This can be confusing for Customers because they purchased what was described as a 'Lifetime Licence'. The explanation for this is that the licence and product will of course continue to work after 10 years it's just that the security risk makes it unwise to continue to do so. Microsoft Office 2010 pictured above goes end of life in October 2020 and it's successor Microsoft Office 2013 goes end of life in April 2023.

So what are the actual risks if you continue using it? One example is if somebody creates an infected Microsoft Word Document and e-mails it out to unsuspecting recipients. A security patch in place on Office 2010 onwards will block the infection should you actually open it. However, the attack will be successful on Office 2007 users because they haven't received the security patch. Another example is direct hacking attempts on your Computer itself. Loopholes allowing hackers in will remain on Computers running Office 2007 whereas these will be fixed for anybody running Office 2010 onwards. An attack on your Computer may be invisible to you but attacks are sometimes accompanied by unexpected crashes of your Computer so if this sort of thing is happening and you have outdated software it is time to be suspicious.

What are the options? Microsoft have now released a Product called Office 365 to run alongside the 3 yearly versions of Microsoft Office with 'Lifetime Licences'. If you purchase Office 365 you are buying a subscription to Microsoft Office rather than actually owning the Product. The good news is that you will continue to receive every available update for as long as you continue paying. The bad news is that you will pay £59.99 every year and therefore over the 10 year period will pay £599 rather than the £100 - £250 (depending on version) that you will pay to own Office outright. You also have to be aware that if you stop paying the software stops working straight away. Another plus point for Office 365 is that you can buy a five user licence for £79.99 and therefore if you have multiple Computers in your household this can be quite cost effective at £799 over the ten year period. As always there are other pluses and minuses depending on whether you like change or not. Some people like to learn one version of Office and keep using it for 10 years. A version change every three years, new things to learn, format changes causing things to print differently simply drive these people mad whereas others actually want the latest version of Office the second it comes out.

Churchdown Computers are always happy to provide free advice on Software and Security. We are not resellers of Microsoft Products but can of course obtain them should a Customer wish to order them through us. If we can help at all then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

What is new in Windows 10 version 20H1 or v2004

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 17:26:33 GMT

Another substantial update is on the way

As Windows 10 version 19H2 or v1909 continues to roll out Insider Preview testing is under way for the next incarnation which will be launched in Spring 2020. The minor update that appeared in November was celebrated by many but we are back to a major update for the next release. Many are hoping the pattern will be followed with a minor update in the Autumn and a major update in the Spring instead of 2 major updates a year but Microsoft haven't confirmed whether the minor update was a one off or new pattern. I think one major update a year is enough but that's just my opinion. Many people will have noticed that whilst the name is v20H1 during the build and testing phase that the final release will be called v2004. This breaks with the tradition of ending the names with XX03 and XX09. I suspect this is simply because the new versions are never available for release in March and September and therefore they have changed to April with a view to releasing it on time.

As usual there are a large number of improvements and rather than write about all of them I have just focused on those that are of most interest to Home users or a Technical Support person like myself. The first feature that caught my eye is the creation of a banner on the Home Page of the Settings App. If you are logged on with a Microsoft Account and have a photo uploaded this will be be included along with your name and a link to your Microsoft Account. There are also shortcuts to Windows Update and Onedrive with a status indicator showing whether everything is up to date. If all is good you will see a reassuring green tick.

A feature that I frequently use is the Disk Cleanup tool. I often get called out to look at Computers that are 100% full and this is a good starting point to free up a small amount of space that then allows me to install other programs for a more comprehensive clean up. The Utility was changed by Microsoft in Windows 10 v1809 to include Downloads and many people both experienced and inexperienced promptly cleared their Downloads when they realised how much space they could free up. They then regretted this action at a later date because whilst there is inevitably lots of junk in a Downloads folder some people leave Music and Pictures in there that they have failed to move to other folders and then of course it is gone. Anyway the change that Microsoft have made in v2004 is to remove Downloads from the list of items that can be cleaned up. This ensures you cannot make the same mistake. If you are not sure where Disk Cleanup is then just open File Explorer and right click the mouse on the C: Drive and choose Properties.

An interesting new feature is a Cloud Download for reinstalling Windows. This only comes in handy when you are having issues with your Computer and you decide to do a reset. It is inevitable that when you do this that if you use a locally stored copy of Windows 10 that it will be out of date whereas if you use the latest version from the Cloud it could save you having to do a lot of updating afterwards. You receive a message advising you that a Cloud Download could be more than 4GB so be aware that you may be in for a long wait if you don't have high speed Broadband. If you do want to do a reset and don't know how then navigate to Start then Settings, Update and Security and then Recovery. You will then see an option to reset your Computer.

The new feature that is likely to generate the most excitement is Passwordless sign-in. However, this is really just a bit of a facelift for something that is already there. Many people will already logon with a PIN as part of Windows Hello or use a fingerprint sensor or face recognition rather than a password. The change is really just a radio button where you can choose to force Passwordless logon. The new switch is found by accessing Start then Settings, Accounts and then Sign-in page. An interesting development of this feature is that you can now sign in to Safe Mode using a PIN created via the Windows Hello feature. Safe Mode always used to require a password and people that have been using a PIN for a long time can struggle to remember it, which causes a problem in the event they require Safe Mode.

Windows 10's search feature has received an improvement to try to speed it up. In the early days of Windows 10 the Search feature didn't work very well and then Microsoft made a change in v1903 by turning back on the old search indexer that used to run in the background. However, this is known to monopolise resources particularly Disk and CPU while it compiles its Database of Search items. Microsoft discovered that many of its testers turned the feature off in order to have a faster Computer. Their solution to the problem is therefore to create some parameters for the program which determine when it can and can't run. It now doesn't run in the following circumstances. When gaming mode is on, when power saving mode or low power mode is on, when the CPU usage exceeds 80%, when Disk usage exceeds 70% or Battery life is below 50%.

The new feature that I am looking forward to is an improved Network Status page. All the information was available before but in multiple places and now you can get a good overview in one place. This will be very handy when diagnosing Network problems. For example it is not always immediately apparent if somebody has a cabled connection and has also connected to wi-fi at the same time. All this information is now in one place. You can also see the Data usage on this page and this may be of interest to those with a restriction on the amount of Data that they can use. The new page can be found by by navigating to Start then Settings, Network and internet then Status.

The final item for this article is that further testing has been taking place on linking mobile phones and Computers. As this is Microsoft we are talking about the feature only applies to Android phones running version 7 or later. Using the Your Phone App you will be able to make and receive calls on your PC. The good news is that if this feature goes live it will be backdated to those running Windows 10 v1903 and v1909 so you don't necessarily have to update to v2004 to get it.

If you have any questions on the above or Churchdown Computers can help with any of your other Computer requirements then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

How can you get Online without Broadband or wi-fi? How can you avoid insecure wi-fi at Hotels?

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 15:50:51 GMT

The answer to both is close at hand

I often get called out when Customers have an issue with their Home Broadband service. Occasionally there is a problem within their property but it can just be that the service is down in that area. They often say that they urgently need to check their Bank Account, pay a bill or just purchase something from an online shop. The answer is very simple and they can be back online in minutes with just a bit of know how. The following is also applicable if you are in the middle of nowhere with a laptop or tablet and if you are in hotel that only offers an insecure wi-fi connection and you just don't trust it.

Provided you have a smart phone you have a simple solution. You can create a Mobile Hotspot using your smart phone and then get online securely using it. The following steps are for an iPhone but will be similar on an Android phone, just contact me if you need step by step instructions. On your iPhone just tap Settings and then Personal Hotspot. Turn on the radio button that says 'Allow others to Join' and make a note of the password. Head back to your laptop and click on the wi-fi symbol bottom right and you will see the available networks. In my case a new one appears called Mark's iPhone and I can connect to this with the password and establish a secure wi-fi connection. Problem solved and you are now online!! Please bear in mind that you are now using your Mobile Data allowance, so if you only have a small allowance make sure you do what you need to do and then turn off the Mobile Hotspot again.

Some of you will now be asking why don't you just do what you need to do on your phone? This is of course an option but many people just use their phone for calls and texts and prefer a laptop for online work. If you are writing a business document, browsing websites or checking your Bank Account the larger view and keyboard often make the task much easier. You may also have photographs or documents on the laptop that you want to email out and therefore need a connection on that device.

I would like to just provide a bit more background on Hotels as many of them have networks that you can just join without entering any password. These networks are usually flagged as insecure when you look at the information alongside the network that you are connecting to. There are advantages and disadvantages with this sort of setup. Yes, it's quick and easy and anybody can join including people out in the street. However all the information transmitted between your laptop and the router are sent in plain text rather than encrypted. This means that anybody else on the same network using a free program like Wireshark can see exactly what websites you are visiting and what you are entering into them. It is true to say that if you visit an https:// website like your bank account then encryption will take place on that site but everything else can be seen. It is therefore often wise to use your mobile as a Hotspot rather than running the risk on insecure networks.

As always if you have any questions on the above then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Should you carry out a Computer backup and how do you do it?

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 17:12:56 GMT

The risks go further than Hard Disk failure

When I visit a Customer to carry out a repair or Virus clean up one of the most popular questions I get asked is 'Should I be carrying out a Backup?'. The vast majority of Customers know they should but have never got round to it but some Customers aren't even aware that anything could go wrong with their Computer that costs them their Data. Those that are aware tend to focus on Hard Disk failure which is the main reason why you need a backup but there are other risks too and these risks may determine what type of backup you do and where you keep it.

The most obvious scenario is the one where your Hard Disk fails and you have you many years of family photographs and Documents on the Hard Disk that you don't want to lose. However, you should also consider the following : - 1. A burglary where your Computer is stolen or you leave it on the train if it's a Laptop. 2. A fire at the address where the Computer resides. 3. A Virus or Ransomware attack that either deletes your Data or encrypts it so that it cannot be recovered. In the final scenario you could pay the ransom for the un-encryption key but you don't always get your Data back even after paying. What the above tells you is that you must have a backup and ideally don't leave it permanently connected to your Computer. If you are burgled or hit with a Virus or Ransomware your backup Drive will be gone or infected too. Those people relying on Cloud backups need to be careful here too because in the event of a Ransomware attack your files in the Cloud will be encrypted. You may hope that your Cloud provider could get them back from a backup themselves but have you checked this especially if you're receiving a free service?

In the event of Disk failure I can still often recover your Data using a combination of a Hardware Device and Recovery Software but in the event I can't you are in the hands of Specialist Recovery Companies. Charges are typically £500 plus VAT and recovery still isn't guaranteed although you only pay for success. With the above in mind I hope I have convinced you that my favourite phrase applies. If you value something then make sure you have it in at LEAST two places!!

Having convinced you of the importance of backups the next question is how do you do it? Microsoft used to offer a handy backup option in Windows 7 called Windows 7 Backup. Some of you may still have it if you upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 but again Microsoft haven't really offered much help in Windows 10 as I'm sure they are hoping you will be using their OneDrive Cloud service. My recommendation is to purchase a USB Drive or External Drive (pictured above) and carry out your own backup which can be as well as rather than instead of Cloud backups if you already have these in place. You will need to calculate the size of the Data you want to backup by checking the properties of the Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos folders and adding them together. If the total is less than 64 GB you can just use a simple USB Drive but I still recommend purchasing a 1 TB External Drive because I prefer the ability to save multiple backups on one Drive and this gives you a better opportunity to go back should you notice a missing file many months later.

I tend to just create a Dated Folder and then copy the above folders into it. This way you can see exactly what you have on a file by file basis but it does involve you carrying out manual steps to get the backup done. If you're smart you can write a Batch File that you double click and it carries out the Backup of all your Folders but you need to be familiar with scripting to do this. Many people prefer the automated approach and you can purchase software to do this or on some Drives like the WD 'My Passport' there is backup software provided on the Drive. You will need to install and configure this software to backup what you want and when. The main two differences with automated backups are: - 1. They tend to be incremental (only backup changes since the last backup). 2. When you look at the Drive you will not be able to see individual pictures and documents just some files that the backup has created. This isn't necessarily a problem but please remember the only time you will ever use it is when you really need it and therefore I recommend carrying out some sort of test before the dreaded day occurs. I would install the software on another Computer and do a restore to make sure you end up with what you really want.

As always Churchdown Computers can help with setting up and carrying out Backups for you. If you want to discuss this subject further or just get some advice then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 7 is about to enter its final quarter before going end of life

Sun, 13 Oct 2019 12:50:22 GMT

What are the options available to you?

Windows 7 has been around since 2007 and has proved to be a very popular Operating System for both Businesses and Home Users. It was the Operating System that Windows Vista was supposed to, be but all good things come to end. Windows 7 users will have seen regular pop-ups appearing with their Updates that Support will be ending on 14th January 2020 and it's time to upgrade. I have previously covered the risks of doing nothing and not upgrading here so this article will focus on how you can upgrade.

The most simple option is to go out and buy a new Computer, reinstall your favourite programs and copy over your Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music from your old Computer. Many people will know how to accomplish this task but if you don't Churchdown Computers can do this for you. What if your old Computer isn't really that old and it still has plenty of life left in it? The first thing to do is check whether it is capable of running Windows 10. Most Manufacturers have what is known as an HCL or Hardware Compatibility List. So for instance if you own an HP you can go to hp.com and check whether your make and model is capable of running Windows 10. It is sometimes quicker to Google 'HP windows 10 compatibility list' rather than go to hp.com and hunt for it. Alternatively you can just google 'is my HP XXX compatible with Windows 10' where 'XXX' is your model number. There are two things to be cautious of here. 1 - If you end up in a forum you are taking somebody else's opinion rather than that of HP. 2 - I have successfully upgraded many Computers where the Manufacturer stated it wasn't compatible with Windows 10. This is down to the Manufacturer playing safe and offering no guarantees.

Assuming your Computer is capable of running Windows 10 can you still get a free Windows 10 Licence? The answer as at the last time I checked (late September) is 'YES'. Nobody knows how long this will be the case as the FREE upgrade was supposed to be withdrawn several years ago and thus it could be withdrawn at any time. If I had to guess I would guess it will go on 14th January 2020 but it could just as easily go on longer or be withdrawn before. If you can upgrade and get a free licence then what other things should you consider? Churchdown Computers offer a couple of options. The first one is straightforward upgrade to Windows 10 and the second option involves upgrading the existing Hard Disk Drive to a Solid State Drive. The older and slower your existing Computer is the more it will benefit from a Solid State Drive. Solid State Drives run at 10 x the speed of traditional Hard Disk Drives and therefore you are getting a substantial performance boost at the same time as your Windows 10 upgrade. This will considerably help with the extra demands.

I have lost count of the number of Customers that are going to contact me during December or early January for their upgrade to Windows 10. If they all come back to me I will be struggling to fit them in alongside the already busy support side of my Business. There is also the possibility the FREE Windows 10 Licence may be gone. I can't offer guarantees on what Microsoft may or may not do. To encourage people to think about upgrading early I have a special offer running between 1st October 2019 and 30th November 2019. To take advantage of this offer you need to quote WIN10OFFER.

So what does it all cost? At present you can still get a FREE Windows 10 Licence rather than paying the retail price of £110 for Windows 10 Home or double that for Windows 10 Pro. Churchdown Computers are offering a standard upgrade for a fixed price £70. There is a further option to upgrade to an SSD as well which is £90. PLEASE NOTE this price is for the labour only and you will need to purchase the SSD either through us or yourself on top of the £90. So either way you can get the upgrade done for you at less than the cost of a Windows 10 Licence. There are some T&C's for the offer and these are listed below.

1. You must be running a retail version of Windows 7 Home or Professional. Business or Ex Business Computers licenced with a Volume Licence cannot obtain a FREE Windows 10 Licence.
2. There is no upgrade path from earlier Operating Systems like Windows XP or Windows Vista but you may be able to do a clean installation.
3. Your Computer must be compatible with and capable of running Windows 10.
4. The upgrade will be carried out at Churchdown Computers address and not at your Home address as we do for normal support work.
5. If you choose the SSD option you will need to purchase or ask us to purchase an SSD for you on top of the £90 quoted.

If you would like Churchdown Computers to carry out the upgrade for you and get you a free Windows 10 Licence then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

What can you look forward to in Windows 10 19H2 or v1909?

Sun, 22 Sep 2019 19:49:58 GMT

A quicker update that almost resembles a Service Pack

For those people that are tired of complete version updates and a nice slow reboot the good news is that very little is changing this Autumn. If you are already running Windows 10 v1903 then a quick update will take place that closely resembles a normal monthly Windows update. However, if you are running a version older than v1903 then of course you will still get a big update because you will pick up the v1903 changes as well as those for v1909. So why have Microsoft suddenly issued a small update rather than the usual huge one? I think there are a couple of factors that have influenced this. Firstly they have been criticised for producing virtually a new Operating System every 6 months which isn't really necessary. If they were continuing with their original naming strategy we would have jumped from Windows 10 to Windows 17 in the space of about 4 years. Secondly the file deletion problem that occurred this time last year taught them some lessons about rushing changes out too quickly and perhaps not fully listening to those that provide feedback through the Insider Preview Program.

As well as the good news about the minor update the other good news is that once you are on Windows 10 v 1903 major version updates are no longer forced upon you. You can choose when you carry out the update and delay them for 18 months or three whole versions if you wish. Your Computer will not be any less secure as you will still get all the relevant Windows Updates for your version of the Operating System. You can simply skip all the changes and new features for a while and jump three versions in one go. If you want to see when a version update is available you can simply type 'check for updates' into Cortana and if there is one you will see it separated from the monthly updates by a solid black line. This indicates it is optional.

John Cable from Microsoft has described Windows 10 v1909 as 'a scoped set of features for select performance improvements, enterprise features and quality enhancements'. So what are the changes that will occur? It appears that Microsoft are going to allow Third Party Voice Assistants to run on their platform so one change will be that you can run Amazon Alexa and talk to it even when the Computer is on the Lock screen. For those of you that use Microsoft's own Calendar Function rather than one in another program like Outlook you can now add events direct from the Taskbar. Simply click the time / date on the Taskbar (bottom right) and you can start entering events without having to run up the Calendar App.

It's fair to say that not much else has changed. There are some performance improvements to the CPU that should help extend battery life and the ability to turn off sound notifications for all apps at once instead of having to address them individually but that is about it.

This can only mean one thing. Get ready for a huge update when Windows 10 20H1 arrives next spring!!

Using the Windows key to save time and mouse clicks

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:27:45 GMT

Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

There are many keyboard shortcuts that you can use to save time and mouse clicks. Some shortcuts are specific to programs like Microsoft Word and Excel and some are specific to Windows itself. With Windows 7 coming to the end of its life on January 14 2020 many people are now switching to Windows 10 and there are also another batch of pupils about to return to school with new Computers. I therefore thought it would be a timely opportunity to run through the various shortcuts that can be achieved using the Windows key. I will focus on other keys like Control and Alt in future articles but as these keys are well known by Microsoft Office users and the Windows key that is highlighted in red above remains a mystery to many we will start here.

The first and most obvious command is to just hit the button on its own and you will see that it brings up the start menu in the same way that it would if you clicked the start button with your mouse. Hitting it again makes it disappear.

Windows and A - This opens the Notification Window. Repeating the Command closes it again.

Windows and D - This shortcut immediately returns you to the Desktop regardless of how many Windows you currently have open. This can save a significant amount of time when compared to minimising or closing everything you currently have open. Hitting Windows D for a second time returns you to where you were.

Windows and E - Opens File Explorer. This may not appear to save much time compared to clicking the Folder icon on the Taskbar however this command actually opens a new instance of Explorer and hitting it several times opens several instances. Repeatedly clicking the taskbar shortcut doesn't achieve this; you have to right click and then click File Explorer on the sub menu that appears to achieve the same result. Multiple instances of File Explorer can be useful in split screen mode for moving things around or just to look at two views at the same time.

Windows and F- Opens the Microsoft Feedback Hub; not massively useful unless you are in a rush to report something to Microsoft.

Windows and I - This command opens the Windows Settings Folder.

Windows and L - You can immediately lock your Computer using this command. You will need to re-enter your password if you have one to log back on.

Windows and M - This command will minimise all your Windows and return you to your Desktop in a similar way to Windows D. However, unlike Windows D repeating the command does not maximise them again. This can still be achieved though with Shift Windows and M.

Windows and R - This opens the Run Command window which is handy if you are familiar with other commands that you would like to run. An example would be Outlook /safe to open Outlook in safe mode for diagnostic purposes.

Windows and S - Opens the Cortana Search Window to allow you to carry out a search either locally or Online.

Windows and U - This command opens up the Display Settings page to allow you to make modifications to your Display settings.

Windows and X - Displays a sub menu that is the same as clicking the right mouse button on the start button. This menu provides shortcuts to a number of other areas including Apps and Features and is regularly used by System Administrators.

Windows and Up Arrow or Windows and Down Arrow - This maximises or minimises the Window you are currently viewing.

Windows and Tab - Displays a Timeline where you can look through what you've done earlier today and on previous days. This command can vary depending on what version of Windows 10 you are running.

Windows and Break - This command opens your System Properties.

Windows and F1 - Opens Online Help Window.

If you are new to Windows 10 or you would like some training in a specific area or on a specific subject then Churchdown Computers offer this service. We have special pricing available for the remainder of 2019 where you can book training for as little as £17.50 per hour when you book a half day session. If you would like to take advantage of this offer then please give us a call to see how we can help. You can call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Should you buy a new Windows 10 Computer or upgrade your old Windows 7 Computer with a Solid State Drive?

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 12:37:07 GMT

Get 10 x speed from your old Computer

Like most Computer Repair Businesses I am currently in the process of moving Customers over from Windows 7 to Windows 10 before Windows 7 goes end of life on 14 January 2020. I have covered the pro's and con's of trying to continue with Windows 7 in previous articles so this one focuses on whether it is a good idea to go for an upgrade of your old Computer or purchase a new one.

As also covered in my previous article it is still possible to obtain a free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 despite Microsoft's original offer expiring several years ago. This helps with the decision making process somewhat because if you had to pay £110 for a Windows 10 Home licence or double that for a Windows 10 Pro Licence then it just wouldn't be worth upgrading. Solid State Drives have gradually come down in price to the point that you can now get a 500 GB drive at a fairly sensible price. If you need a drive larger than 500 GB because you have a huge amount of data the price is still quite expensive but you can use an SSD for your Operating System and Programs and keep the old drive for Data if you have a Desktop Computer that supports two drives. SSD's really do deliver on performance and their claim is 10 x the speed of a conventional drive and they do achieve that. There are no moving parts in an SSD as they use flash memory and therefore there is no waiting for an HDD to spin up and search for your Data. There's also no risk of mechanical failure and some manufacturers like Crucial back this up with a 5 year Warranty which you won't find on any conventional HDD.

To make a decision on whether to upgrade or buy new you really need to make an honest appraisal of your existing machine. Is it 5 - 7 years old or 7 - 10 years old? Does it have any other faults? Does it run hot with the fans on all the time? If there are other faults or it is really old then an upgrade is probably not a good idea - you may even find it's not capable of running Windows 10 if it's already been upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. On the other hand if it 's not too old, runs fine and is just a bit slow then it is probably a perfect candidate for an upgrade.

Churchdown Computers will carry out the upgrade for you at an average price of £160. This includes supplying the SSD, fitting it, obtaining a Windows 10 Licence and upgrading the Software to Windows 10 v1903. The above price is for a 500 GB SSD and prices will obviously be different if you want a smaller or larger one. You can also supply your own SSD and we will carry out the work for you with an appropriate adjustment to the price.

So what can you expect for £160? You will have the latest version of Windows 10 and a machine that boots up and is ready to login in less than 10 seconds. This is the claim and all but the slowest of machines achieve it. Once you enter your password you are ready to go in a couple of seconds, no more waiting for the Desktop to load icon by icon before you can actually do anything useful. You can also expect your old machine to be many times faster than a new one you could buy in the shop for £320 - £400. Of course if you purchase a new one with an SSD then it will be equally fast but the catch is that most SSD's fitted as standard are only 120 GB. Look out if you've got plenty of photo's and document's you want to load on there!! Computers priced above £400 sometimes come with 256 GB SSD's but they are still only half the size of those fitted by Churchdown Computers during an upgrade. What should you beware of if you go for an upgrade? You need to remember that if you start off with a 7 year old Computer you will still have a 7 year old Computer. The SSD will carry a 5 year Warranty but other components can still fail. You also need to be aware that the 10 x speed of the SSD only affects functionality when reading and writing to the Drive. So for instance if you are surfing the web and you have really slow broadband it will be just the same but then it will also be the same if you buy a new Computer. Finally you need to be aware that if you carry out a lot of activity that relies on the Processor that you still have the same Processor as before.

As always if you have any questions or would like more information on the above then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Can you still get a free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10?

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 08:57:37 GMT

What are the risks if I just remain on Windows 7 after January 2020?

As Windows 7 enters its final 6 months of support and the warnings start popping up in Windows update what are the options for those that still prefer Windows 7? Is it still possible to get a free upgrade to Windows 10 and what are the risks of just carrying on as you are after January 2020?I am getting a steady flow of customers switching over to Windows 10 either by purchasing a new Computer or upgrading what they have now. The last upgrade I did was about two weeks ago and that point in time I can confirm I was still able to get a free upgrade to Windows 10 for the Customer. The Microsoft offer has long since ended but the licencing Servers are still issuing free digital licences for those with a qualifying Windows 7 licence. If you are thinking of going for an upgrade rather than purchasing a new Computer I recommend that you do check on your Computer Manufacturer's website to ensure that the model of Computer you have is compatible with Windows 10 before proceeding. Samsung laptops in particular have problems with missing drivers because Samsung left the laptop market before Windows 10 was launched and simply haven't released all the necessary drivers for some of their laptops. This can be worked around by replacing components like the wireless lan card but it isn't much fun when you lose access to wifi half way through an installation.

I have some Customers who simply don't like Windows 10 or just don't want to learn a new Operating System. Some even upgraded to Windows 10 when the free offer was on and then switched back. When discussing the subject with these Customers they tell me they will remain on Windows 7 and just spend a bit of money on their Antivirus Software and Firewall and carry on. This approach does help with the side of things that people are aware of (viruses) but it is the other side of things (security vulnerabilities in the Operating System) that they struggle to understand. Windows 10 is already a much more secure Operating System than Windows 7 and once Microsoft stop issuing Windows updates for Windows 7 then any vulnerabilities found will exist forever. Vulnerabilities will be published on the Web and then you are not just at risk from highly skilled hackers but anybody else who has searched for and read the articles. Many Customers believe they will be okay for 3 months, 6 months or a year but I would urge caution when assuming this is the case. It is standard practice for hackers to hold back on exploiting vulnerabilities during the final months of support for an Operating System. They know that if they carry out the exploits the vulnerabilities will be fixed by Microsoft before the end of support. On the other hand if they wait until support has ended the vulnerability will remain forever. This means that there will already be a number of vulnerabilities lined up ready for launch as soon as support ends so there isn't any way that I can say to a Customer that they will be fine for a week, let alone up to a year. You may be but nobody can guarantee that and there isn't anything that you or I can do to guarantee it either. The exception of course is Businesses who have the funds to pay for extended support from Microsoft. Some Businesses have bespoke Software written for them which only works with Windows 7 and they will have the option to purchase extended support from Microsoft.

If you do remain with Windows 7 and all is okay initially you will find over time that you start to experience difficulty accessing certain websites. Banks and Building Societies start to detect outdated Web Browsers and block access and it gradually goes downhill from there as you find that programs you download don't work with your Operating System and eventually your Security Software no longer supports Windows 7. My recommendation is of course to either purchase a Windows 10 machine or upgrade your Windows 7 machine well before the January 2020 deadline. My experience when Windows XP disappeared was that everybody waited right until the end and then the IT Support Companies couldn't cope with the demand for assistance.

If you would like Churchdown Computers to carry out the upgrade for you and get you a free Windows 10 licence then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Can I operate my Computer without a mouse?

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 10:12:41 GMT

Rarely used menu key makes this possible

Customers often ask me whether they can use their Computer without a mouse. Sometimes this is just out of interest and sometimes they actually need to because an issue occurs with the mouse and they want to turn the Computer off. Forcing the machine off or unplugging the power lead are best avoided wherever possible so can this be done? The good news is that the answer is Yes and you can also carry out most of the other functionality you need just by using your keyboard.

If you look at the screen shot above you will see a button highlighted and it is situated to the left of the Control key. This key is known as the menu button and although hardly anybody knows it it performs the same functionality as your right mouse button. Many people can navigate around the screen using the four arrow keys and hitting the enter button when they have no mouse but it's always the bit where you need to do a right click that catches them out. If you select a file in File Explorer and hit the menu button you will see the context menu as you would if you had right clicked. The same thing will happen if you are on a web page.

If you have a laptop or a Computer with a cut down keyboard you may find that this key is not present. If that it is the case then fear not because Microsoft tend to build in the ability to obtain the functionality of a key with other keystrokes and therefore if you select a file and hit Shift and F10 you will again see your menu. This functionality works in most applications but if you find one where it doesn't try Ctrl/Shift and F10 instead.

To return to the original scenario and somebody who wants to shutdown without using a mouse then here is how it is done. We will do so using the keystrokes method mentioned in the last paragraph. First of all hit the Windows Key and D at the same time - this will return you to the Desktop. For those that don't know the Windows key is between Ctrl and Alt on the left side of the keyboard and looks like the Start button at the bottom left of your screen. Once you are at the Desktop you can hit Alt and F4 and you will see Shutdown and OK are selected so just hit Enter or Return and your Computer will shutdown with no mouse required. Here's one more command to try while you are at it. If you hit the Windows key and L you can lock your screen in seconds.

Churchdown Computers run low priced training sessions to help you get the best out of your Computer. If you have a particular subject you would like covered or just a session on Windows 10 in general then please give us a call to see how we can help. You can call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

How to avoid getting caught by a telephone scam

Thu, 30 May 2019 11:05:02 GMT

Fake phone calls on the increase

As the number of fake telephone calls continues to rise and the callers keep changing their methods and become more persuasive how can you protect yourself? The first rule of thumb is to just hang up and don't engage in conversation with them and you won't go far wrong but if you do want to engage how should you approach it? Always remember that if it is a genuine call and you hang up the provider will contact you in another way such as a letter through the post and you won't lose anything.

If you imagine that you are ringing your bank, the first thing they do is take you through security and ask you a series of questions to identify who you are. I therefore use this process in reverse on the cold caller. I don't ask them questions about who they are because you have nothing to verify it with but ask them questions about you. Ask them to give you your name, address and postcode and see how they get on, if you want to go the whole way then ask them to give you your account number. Fake callers simply won't have this information and will have called you at random, they have no idea who you are and will try to prise the information out of you in an effort to convince you they already had all your details. If the caller fails these tests then just hang up, don't accept excuses like their computer system is down. Talk Talk customers need to be extra wary as the Talk Talk database was compromised and therefore personal information is in the public domain. If somebody does call you claiming to be Talk Talk you need to remain wary even if they can answer your questions. A recent scam is to pretend they are offering £500 compensation due to all the problems you have experienced. They request your bank details in order to make the payment and customers have had money taken after falling for this scam. My personal advice is not to ever believe anybody who claims to be Talk Talk and if they want to contact you they will have to write to you.

The next piece of advice is to remain as calm as you can. The tactic these callers use is to try to get you into a state of panic that causes you to take steps that you wouldn't take under normal circumstances. They will talk about services being cut off today unless you do certain things or your bank account being frozen. You need to remember that these things never happen and certainly not as a result of a phone call. If one of your providers were going to cut you off they would write to you and give you an appropriate period of time to put right what ever is wrong. Your Computer, Broadband Connection, Telephone, Gas and Electric won't be cut off just because you don't make an immediate payment on the phone - hang up!!

Another common method of verification is to tell the person you will call your own provider using the number you recognise from your latest bill. If you are doing this then always use another phone. If you are on your landline then use a mobile or vice versa. If you don't have a second phone then I suggest you wait 3 or 4 hours before making the call. It is common practice for the original caller to wait on the line and then answer again pretending to be official staff at the number you have just called. If you think you will spot this because there will be no dial tone then think again as sophisticated phone scammers now play a dial tone into the microphone at their end so to you everything sounds as it should do.

You will receive a number of offers via the telephone that range from cheap gas and electricity through to Investment schemes. Always request everything in writing to your postal address and if the scheme is fake they will tell you that it is a one time offer on the phone that you have to accept or reject now. Again this is using the pressure tactics outlined above. They want to panic you into thinking you'll lose the deal if you don't act now and then do something rash while you are off your guard. Always remember that if it's a genuine deal it will still be on tomorrow and you will be able to see it in writing. If you can't it's fake.

Never allow anybody remote access to your Computer when they have called you. The people who have called often say they are from Windows and for a start there is no such Company as Windows (apart from the UPVC type). Microsoft is the correct name and they will never ring you out of the blue to assist with a problem. They will quite happily sell you a Computer but they don't make any calls to fix them. The exception is if you called them or taken part in an online chat that you initiated after experiencing a problem. Again please be aware that you need to be very careful if you use Google to search for assistance. If you search for Microsoft or HP you have a good chance of ending up on a genuine site but if you search for something random like 'computer help' or 'broken computer' there's a huge risk you will end up on a fake website. The person will answer the phone claiming to be Microsoft or HP and then will ask for remote access to your Computer. After doing some damage they will then demand some money to fix it. If you are not confident of identifying a genuine website then use another method like a local Parish Magazine or recommendation from a friend to find a local Computer Repair service.

I will end in the way I began and say if in doubt - hang up!!. Nothing will go wrong but it may well do if you continue to engage with whoever called you. My customers often ring for advice when somebody keeps calling threatening to cut them off if they don't get immediate access to their PC. I am happy to offer this advice and therefore if you need it call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 10 May 2019 Update (v1903) is here

Sun, 26 May 2019 12:29:22 GMT

Windows 10 Home Users can now take control of Feature updates

The eagerly awaited new version of Windows 10 began rolling out on May 21st and I will begin by giving a brief explanation of the code names. During the development and Insider preview stage this version of the Operating System was know as 19H1 or 2019 Half 1. The official code name is actually version 1903 because the intention was always to release it in March 2019 and then finally it is announced as the May 2019 update because as always it appeared late.

There are relatively few major changes in this incarnation of Windows 10 but the changes that are there are eagerly awaited because they will make a difference to everyone's experience. The most important differences revolve around speed and the updating process and I will focus on those improvements in this article.

The big difference is that Feature updates (once every 6 months) will no longer be forced upon you if you are a Windows 10 Home user. Windows 10 Pro users have always had an element of control whereas Windows 10 Home users suddenly found the update happening and this could lead to disastrous consequences (such as last year's data deletion) when a specific set of conditions weren't met. Microsoft are supposed to check that your Computer is fully compatible before rolling out the update but let's face it there are always going to be some problems and it's no fun if you are the one that is left with a black screen with 'Startup Repair failed' all over it. When a major update now takes place you will be offered it and you can happily decline and continue running on the previous version of Windows 10 for up to 18 months (three further Feature updates). This is quite interesting because after 18 months your version of Windows 10 is officially no longer supported and yet at present Windows 7 which arrived in 2007 is still supported and Windows 8 will be supported until 2023.

The phased rollout of the latest version will still take place as always but you can bring forward your update by clicking the Start button and searching on 'check for updates'. If you click on this you will either see the latest Feature update listed underneath the 'check for updates' button or if not you can click 'check for updates' and see if returns the new update. If this does not work Microsoft suggest you reboot and then click 'check for updates' again. Customers who have worked with me in the past will know that I always recommend caution in this respect and my personal advice wouldn't be to go to great lengths to get the update as early as possible. I would wait a couple of months or wait until you are offered it. This is because the early adopters are actually carrying out the testing for Microsoft and if you get something too soon you will be the one experiencing and helping to resolve all the problems. Just let somebody else do this and get it later when the problems have been ironed out, this especially applies to people with AMD Processors and a RAID configuration where there have already been problems. As described above even when the update does appear it will no longer be forced on you and you can choose when you install it and this can be anytime during the next 18 months. Other updates will still take place to protect the version of Windows 10 that you are running but the Feature update will just sit there waiting for your approval.

There is also another bonus in terms of normal windows updates. Windows 10 Home users will be able to pause them for up to 35 days. Windows 10 Professional users have always had the ability to delay updates for up to 365 days but this is a welcome bonus for home users who might be really busy and just not want the delays associated with running updates at an inopportune time. You will only be able to delay for 7 days at a time and then you will need to delay for a further 7 days. Once you have done this 5 times (35 days) you will be forced to carry out a Windows update before you can begin pausing again. To access this feature you just click Start and search for 'check for updates' as above and you will see the 'Pause updates for 7 days' option.

The final subject for today is the speed increase in Windows 10 v1903. Many people will be aware of the Meltdown and Spectre CPU design flaw and that changes were made to protect against this; those changes effectively slowed down the running of all but the latest Computers. Changes have been made again to the latest version of Windows 10 that effectively return the lost speed to your Computer whilst still providing full protection against the flaw. I could expand further and will do so in the Churchdown Computers Facebook Group if anybody is interested but all you really need to know is that your Computer will run faster. This speed increase will not be available to Windows 7 users (even though they experienced the slow down) as Microsoft do not wish to make the necessary changes to an Operating System that reaches 'end of life' in a little over 6 months.

Further new features will be covered in future articles and you can request details of any of these in the Churchdown Computers Facebook Group if you can't wait. As always if the updating process to v1903 causes you a problem then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

How to make Gmail look a little more like Outlook

Fri, 10 May 2019 17:07:15 GMT

Customisation helps if you don't want to pay for Outlook

Whilst the majority of my job role involves Software and Hardware fixes I also do a certain amount of training and education. I hardly ever receive a booking specifically for training but it's surprising how often when fixing another fault a Customer says 'can you just tell me how to do this'. There are also the occasions where I just notice a Customer is doing something in a particularly bad way and I say 'try doing it like this'. All assistance is gratefully received yet despite picking up half a dozen new things Customers are still reluctant to book a Training session. Maybe there is a stigma attached or maybe repairs are essential whereas training is just a luxury but either way I feel that many people miss out on a lot of things that might help them, just because they simply don't know about it.

Today I'm going to discuss making Gmail (the Webmail version) look just like Outlook. Some Customers are 100% happy with the Webmail interface whereas others absolutely hate it. These Customers often fondly remember Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail that mimicked Outlook but were free instead of the hefty price tag that goes with Microsoft Office. The same Customers also tend to work in a Business where they have Outlook and therefore find the Gmail and other Webmail interfaces extremely annoying when on their Home Computers. For that reason I am just going to run through a simple way to make the Gmail interface look just like Outlook as per the screen shot above.

Begin by logging into your Gmail Mailbox. Once there click on the cog icon also shown at the top right of the screen shot above and choose 'Settings'. When you arrive on the Settings Page click 'Advanced' from the menu's across the top of the page. You will see that the first option at the top of the next page is called 'Preview Pane'. Click 'enable' on this and scroll to the bottom of the page and save your changes. You will return to your Inbox and initially it won't look any different. However on the top right just to the left of the cog icon you will now see four horizontal lines and if you hover over this it will say 'Toggle split pane mode'. You can either click the icon with the four horizontal lines and toggle through the three different options or click the arrow to the right of it and make your choice. The view I have enabled above is called 'Vertical Split' but you can choose 'Horizontal Split' and see the Preview Pane underneath as you can also do in Outlook.

That is basically it but while you are on the Advanced Settings screen you might just want to enable one other feature which is at the bottom of the page and is called 'Unread message icon'. This adds the number of unread messages to the tab on your Web Browser. If you regularly have half a dozen or more tabs open this will help you keep track of when a new email arrives without having to keep going back to check. Now I'm sure that nobody actually needs any training but the blog wouldn't be complete without a quick advert!! Therefore if you do need any assistance then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Is your Computer under Attack?

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 12:21:18 GMT

Hidden Malware slows your Computer down

Antivirus Software is something that everybody is familiar with and many people opt for a built in product like Windows Defender or go for some free Software like Avast or AVG that they hope will give them some additional protection. Other people prefer to pay for Norton 360 or McAfee Total Protection or one of a number of other Antivirus products. Once you have made your choice - can you just leave it there? Many people do so and presume they are automatically being protected against everything that is out there but you aren't. The problem is that Antivirus Software concentrates on Viruses but there is Malware, Spyware, Adware, Greyware, Crapware, Ransomware and Potentially Unwanted Programs to name just a few additional things that you need to be looking out for.

This type of problem is largely nuisance based and you may experience slow performance, annoying pop-ups, being disconnected from the Internet or even experience your Computer randomly switching itself off. Malware can be slightly more malicious but the important thing to note at this stage is that the Antivirus product that you were relying on to do all of this simply doesn't as these are not viruses. You therefore need to manage the situation yourself preferably by being aware of what is landing on your Computer or if not by carrying some routine maintenance.

It may help at this stage to have a slightly better understanding of how you get these unwanted programs in the first place. Downloads are the biggest culprit and if you regularly search for free downloads of music and games you will find these programs getting bundled in with what you are downloading. Free programs have to be paid for in some way or another and it may be that the site you are downloading from have an agreement that one download includes something else that you don't really want. If you are observant you will sometimes spot an unwanted tick in a box and removing it spares you from an unwanted installation, however sometimes the Software just sneaks through and for this reason a regular cleanup is important if you want to maintain reasonable Computer performance. An example of this type of thing although it obviously isn't malicious is when you install Adobe Reader from Adobe's website. You will find Google Chrome being bundled in with the download although if you are observant you can just remove the tick and not download it.

If you are experiencing poor performance or pop-ups and suspect your Computer needs a clean up then this is a Service offered by Churchdown Computers. A full explanation of the programs used is given and you will then be able to manage the situation yourself moving forward. If you are interested in this service then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 7 remainers will start to receive 'End of Life' reminders

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 16:33:10 GMT

Microsoft use Windows update to start warning customers the end is nigh

As the countdown continues towards the end of life for Windows 7 on 14th January 2020, Microsoft are stepping up the pressure to upgrade by issuing warnings through the Windows update process. An update was released on 19th March but it will lie dormant until 18th April when the reminders will begin. The message says 'After 10 years, support for Windows 7 is nearing the end' it goes on to add 'January 14th 2020 is the last day Microsoft will offer security updates and Technical support for Computers running Windows 7. We know change can be difficult that's why we're reaching out early to help you back up your files and prepare for what's next'. The process is going to be slightly less painful than when previous Operating Systems disappeared because you will be able to tick a box that says 'Do not remind me again'. If you fail to tick the box you will however see it over and over again.

The Windows update in question is KB4493132 and it is titled Windows 7 SP1 Support Notification. Another way to get rid of the reminder is to uninstall it. To do this you need to go to Programs and Features and View Installed Updates. You should be aware though that you will also need to hide it to stop it from re-applying. This can be done by waiting for your Computer to find the update again and then right click it and choose 'Hide Update'.

Once you have removed this reminder I think it is reasonable to suspect that Microsoft will issue more as 2019 disappears and 2020 approaches. I suspect each reminder will become slightly more 'in your face' until you reach the point where every time you log on it is in front of you.

It is important to understand that if you continue to use Windows 7 after this date you will be at risk from day one unless you disconnect your machine from the Internet. Would be attackers are already working on security vulnerabilities that they will not launch until after the 'end of life' date because they don't want Microsoft to fix that vulnerability. Once the date passes they can exploit the vulnerabilities safe in the knowledge that Microsoft will never fix them, other than for Businesses that have specifically paid for extended support. Windows 10 is already a much more secure Operating System than a fully patched version of Windows 7, so needless to say the two will be chalk and cheese very soon after the security updates stop.

I strongly recommend customers upgrade before the deadline in order to keep themselves secure. In most cases a free Windows 10 licence can still be obtained even though the official offer from Microsoft has ended. It is difficult to know how much longer this will last but I suspect it will be withdrawn a couple of months before the end date so that those that cling on until the last minute will end up paying for a Windows 10 licence.

As always if you need any help with moving over to Windows 10 or just have some questions that you would like answered then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Which is the odd one out?

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 16:13:17 GMT

Can a Solid State Drive save the day?

This is of course a trick question although the answer is probably the laptop you chose anyway!! You could of course pick the Dell as there are three Toshiba's or you could pick the Silver Toshiba because it's much smaller than the other three. The answer is in fact the Silver Toshiba but only because the other three have failed hard disks and the Toshiba has a fully functional Solid State Drive.

The price of Solid State Drives are going down and down and the performance levels are continually improving. Did you know that the typical solid state drive is 10 x faster than a conventional hard disk and did you know that solid state drives are now available for as little as £17.99? It is fair to say that this only buys you a 120 GB drive but it actually comes with a 3 year warranty. You can also buy a 250 GB drive for under £50 and this comes with a 5 year warranty. You won't get that on any conventional hard disk drive or be able to make it 10 x faster so why wouldn't you switch to an SSD? The only reason not to switch is if you can't get away with a fairly small amount of disk space (see below). Solid State Drives are available in various sizes up to 2 TB but the 1 TB and 2 TB drives are still quite expensive but no doubt this will change too in the near future.

Today's blog covers many different scenario's and therefore should be of interest to almost any Computer owner. If your Computer has a failed hard disk drive then why not replace it with an SSD? If your Computer is currently working but you would like it to be 10 x faster then replace the HDD with an SSD. However, I think the most important point is this - The Toshiba pictured was actually running Windows XP and therefore most people would just scrap it and buy something new. Fitting an SSD has not only made it 10 x faster but also means it runs absolutely fine with the latest version of Windows 10 installed. Even without the latest processor and a huge amount of RAM it becomes a perfectly usable machine. It is also true to say that you could go to a well known Computer Supplier and buy a fairly up to up to date Computer for £350 plus and if it has a standard HDD it will still be slower than this very old laptop.

The lack of disk space can also be resolved with a bit of lateral thinking. If you have a Desktop PC you can simply have one SSD for the Operating System and one HDD for your Data. This can be a bit more tricky with a Laptop but there's nothing to stop you storing your Data on an external drive or in the Cloud if you have too much to fit onto the SSD. The moral of today's story is therefore to think twice before scrapping your old Computer because for a relatively small amount of money you could be up and running again at a faster speed than you will get with a new Computer. The obvious caveat here being that you could buy a brand new Computer with an SSD and it will obviously be faster because it will have a higher specification of Processor and more RAM.

If you want to get yourself an SSD and resurrect or repair an old relic then Churchdown Computers can guide you through the process from purchase through to getting it installed and running. This includes keeping the exact setup and data that you have on your existing HDD (as long as it hasn't failed). We can still move you over even if the old HDD is larger than the new SSD as long as the amount of used disk space is lower than the size of the new SSD. If you are interested or would just like to discuss your own circumstances then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Can you save money with HP Instant Ink?

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 18:58:19 GMT

Deal or No Deal?

I carry out quite a few new printer setups for my customers and for those purchasing HP Printers the first question I am asked is should I go for HP Instant Ink or just buy my own cartridges? Many customers have purchased the HP Printer specifically to use HP Instant Ink and they don't always appreciate the information I give to them. As with anything new there are good things about it and bad, there will also be winners and losers. When purchasing the printer the Sales Representative may have only mentioned the good bits and the bad bits might have slipped his mind!! It is important to match your own situation with all of the information below and then you can make an educated decision.

The good bits are very quick to summarise and you will benefit from always having your ink to hand when you need it. You will get three months ink free and you will get your ink at a very good price. There is also an option to receive all of your ink free if you print 15 pages or less each month. However, there is no way to beat the system and therefore if you aren't honest with yourself when you setup your subscription you will lose out. You need to think how many pages you are really likely to use and go slightly higher rather than lower. You will be buying pages at a higher cost if you say 15 pages a month when you really print 50 pages a month. You can however rollover unused pages and also adjust your plan if you get it badly wrong during the setup phase.

As part of the setup your printer makes a connection with HP and from that point forward it reports every page you print back to HP. You will create an account with payment details included and they will take the money every month based on what your printer reports back to them. In the eyes of HP a page is a page so no differentiation is drawn between an A4 colour photograph with a huge amount of ink laid down on the paper and a sheet with the letters abc printed on it. The person who prints lots of A4 colour photographs will receive ink whenever they need it and the person that prints pages with a few letters on will pay the same even if they only need one cartridge a year. I previously mentioned that there are winners and losers with HP Instant Ink and if junior likes to hit print with one word on the page every 10 minutes you will pay for it!!

After the creation of your account HP send you a link where you can login to a portal with all the statistics about your printer. You will be able to monitor what you are really using and it is well worth keeping an eye on it to avoid shocks. For the first three months you will pay nothing based on the option you chose. If you said 50 pages a month and you have printed 100 you will pay for the excess pages during the free period but if you have kept below 50 you won't. Most people fail to monitor their printing and to be honest don't really want to be counting every page they print but the penalty you pay is that you suddenly notice £9.99 has come out of your account when you were expecting £3.99. You will have to count pages or regularly check the portal if you use HP Instant Ink and want to avoid surprises on your bank or credit card statement.

If the above hasn't already put you off then there are a couple more things that you ought to know that might just change your mind. The Ink HP send you is described as 'Extra Large Capacity' and isn't available in any shop. This makes sense as why would they want to keep incurring postage when they can send you very high capacity cartridges? However, the interesting fact is that you don't actually own the ink they are sending to you - HP do. Your printer knows the ink isn't yours as HP will have updated the firmware to tell it this and any action that you take in breach of what you have agreed to will see your printer grind to halt. If you cancel your subscription, bounce a payment or disconnect your printer from the Internet you will find it immediately stops printing. It doesn't matter if the cartridges are 90% full, the ink isn't yours and the printer knows it and won't print. If you do cancel HP will send you a pre-paid envelope to return their ink. There aren't any penalties if you don't return it but you won't be able to use it and nor will anybody else you give it to. It is fair to point out though that you haven't lost the use of your printer altogether and if you buy some new cartridges from the shop and fit them it will start working again.

The final strange quirk is one that makes it seem as if HP own the whole printer rather than just the ink. This quirk kicks in if your printer actually breaks and either can't be repaired or a repair is uneconomic. When this happens if you don't want to lose any rollover pages or ink you have accumulated you have to use HP's replacement program for your printer. You will need to go to HP's website and use the 'Replace a Printer' option rather than heading to your well known local store and getting a great deal on a new printer. You can of course still do the latter but you will need to start from scratch and setup a new Instant Ink program rather than being able to carry forward what you have already purchased.

For many the unknown drawbacks are likely to put them off Instant Ink. The main purpose of owning your own printer is to be able to hit print whenever you fancy it and not having to worry about every single print. You may find yourself counting pages and worrying about whether a print is really necessary or not which takes away the whole joy of home printing. As always if you need any help with the purchase or setup of a new printer then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

More changes in Windows 10 version 1903

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 14:39:30 GMT

Subtle changes are the main focus of the Spring Update

With all the drama surrounding the last major update to Windows 10 it seems strange to be talking about the next release (v1903) when many people still haven't received the upgrade to Windows 10 v1809. After the file deletion problems Microsoft have rolled the update out in a cautious manner, thoroughly checking Computers before updating them. As a result many Windows 10 Home users are still on v1803 and Business users running the Professional version set to 'Semi Annual Channel' are still waiting as it hasn't been declared ready for widespread use in Organisations yet.

Anyway in the last of my articles prior to the scheduled April release I'm going to look at a few more of the changes you can expect. The first involves Cortana and the Search Bar which are now separating. You will see a separate Cortana Icon on the task bar. For many this will be seen as a major benefit as they are annoyed by Cortana providing a list of web results from Bing when searching for something on their local machine. However, the bad news is that the standard Windows Search bar still brings back results from the web. There is some light at the end of the tunnel though with a re-designed Start Menu search that allows you to search everything on your local machine. The start menu will now use the Windows Search Index to search your entire machine which hopefully will end the infuriating scenario where a search decides that a location on the web is a closer match than the actual file which is located on your Computer. In previous versions of Windows 10 it was only the libraries that were searched - Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Videos. You can now search your entire Computer by making a one time change to the settings. This can be found at Settings / Search / Searching Windows and choose the 'Enhanced Indexing Mode', the Classic Mode will return the same results as in previous versions of Windows 10. For those that want an instant fix I would recommend just using the Advanced Search in File Explorer rather than using the search on the start menu!!

Microsoft are introducing a new Light Theme for Windows 10 v1903. The Dark Theme was long awaited and had been requested by many but I had never considered there might be a demand for a Light theme. Having said that it does actually look good and is not surprisingly nice and bright. The task bar and start menu are light and there is even a new light wallpaper theme that is similar to the dark one only lighter!! Dialog boxes and notification pop-ups are also light. The settings app now has a 'Default Windows Mode' and a 'Default App Mode' so if you want to get creative you can have a dark mode for Windows and a light mode for your Apps but most people will just go for dark or light throughout.

The new start menu is much cleaner and Microsoft have also made it much easier to do some more of your own tidying up. You can unpin groups of tiles on the start menu and also uninstall many more built in Apps than you could previously. In fact apart from the sacred Store App and Edge Browser you can remove pretty much everything.

Finally, if you struggle for space you may want to take a quick look at the Storage Settings page. It has changed a bit and started to look a bit more like your mobile phone. You will see a bar showing your overall used and free space but you will also see a series of categories underneath. You can click each category and then use tools that allow you to free up space used by temporary files or uninstall unused Apps. This gives you a one stop opportunity to have a bit of a tidy up. To begin the process just head to Settings / System Storage.

As always if you are having problems or need a bit of tuition on your existing installation of Windows 10 then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Microsoft wants to end the use of Passwords

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 14:51:45 GMT

Windows Hello anybody?

Access to your Computer without a password is currently being tested in the Insider Preview version of Windows 10 19H1, later to become v1903 due out in April 2019. To use this feature you will need to create a new style of Microsoft account. If you still like to use a local account then this feature won't be available to you. On the other hand If you have purchased a new Computer or have a fresh install of Windows 10 v1903 then the feature will be available and will work by Microsoft texting a code to your mobile phone when you first login.

To use the feature you will create a Microsoft account using your phone number. When you sign in to Windows 10 using that phone number Microsoft will text you a code to enter on the sign in screen. Once you are in you will use Windows Hello to create a PIN number, fingerprint or face login method. You will never need to type in a password and your Microsoft account won't even have one. You only need the code for a new Computer so you won't have to repeat this process again, you can simply use Windows Hello after your initial access to the Computer.

There may still be a few obstacles to overcome in the Business sector where multiple people logon to one machine but Microsoft are working on solutions for this too.

Why will 2019 be the safest year for Windows 7 users?

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 13:55:55 GMT

Before becoming a massive Security Risk in 2020

As Windows 7 enters its final year of year of service before Microsoft pull the plug and end support on 14th January 2020 I'm going to answer a few questions for those still favouring this trusty Operating System over Windows 10. Many of you will think you know the answer to the above question and will think it is because it has benefited from over 10 years of Microsoft security updates and therefore must be extremely secure. This is partially true but if it was the only answer then it wouldn't explain why it becomes a massive security risk overnight on January 14th 2020.

The correct answer to the question is that attacks on security vulnerabilities found by experienced hackers during 2019 will not be launched or publicised. Hackers will be working away right now trying to find vulnerabilities but instead of launching them like they usually do they will be keeping what they find to themselves. The reason for this is that they know that if they launch their attacks then Microsoft will fix the problems and issue security updates to protect everybody. If on the other hand they keep things quiet and then launch their attack on January 15th 2020 then Microsoft will not fix the problem and the vulnerability will remain forever.

There are of course some exceptions to this but it will only really affect the Business market. Some businesses will have had bespoke software written for them that runs on Windows 7 but wasn't really designed for Windows 10. They will be able to pay for Extended Support from Microsoft and will receive security patches specific to their organisation. However, Home users won't have access to this and wouldn't be able to afford to pay the prices if they did, so if you are still running Windows 7 then you need to come up with a plan during the next 12 months.

To continue from above there will be a relatively quiet period on the security front before a sustained attack on Windows 7 when support ends. It really will become a security risk overnight so if you thought you could continue to run it for another year or two I would think again. Please also bear in mind that hackers will start to publish the exploits they have found and this includes the code to run the exploits, which multiples the risk many times over. Previously you were only at risk from experienced hackers but now your neighbour's 10 year old son can get hold of the code and run his own attack on your Computer.

If you are planning to upgrade your Computer during 2019 Churchdown Computers can obtain Windows 10 licences and carry out the work for you at extremely competitive prices. On the other hand if you are buying new you will have Windows 10 pre-installed on your new Computer. I know many people will leave it until the last minute to move over but I strongly recommend you don't do this. When support ended for Windows XP the demand for Computer Support exceeded all expectations and myself and other Support Professionals were unable to keep up with the demand for assistance. This resulted in long waits for many Customers.

As always if you need any help with moving over to Windows 10 or just have some questions that you would like answered then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

7 GB of Disk Space to disappear in Windows 10 v1903

Sun, 13 Jan 2019 13:19:25 GMT

Microsoft take control of space management for you

I often speak to Customers about Disk Space Management and some understand and some just glaze over. Many think all of your disk space can be used up before you need to worry and others appreciate 10% should be left free as a working area for Windows. If you have two drives or a partitioned drive and you use C: for the Operating System and D: for Data then you are less likely to get into trouble but the current trend is to just have one large C: Drive and as soon as the free space falls below 10% performance issues start to occur. Windows may begin to protest with messages and if you succeed in getting the free space down to 0% you may find the Computer won't even boot let alone allow you to save the document you are working on. The simple check for this is to open File Explorer and click on 'This PC' if the bar under C: is blue you are fine, if it has already turned red you are in trouble.

The problem has become more apparent with major retailers pushing SSD drives because they operate at 10 times the speed of a conventional drive, but missing out the bit where a 128 GB SSD doesn't hold quite as much as the 1TB HDD you are replacing. If you buy a Computer with an SSD you either have to be really disciplined with what you save or have a 2nd HDD or External Drive for the remainder of your storage. The sale of HP Stream laptops with only a 32 GB SSD have been an even bigger problem because once the Recovery Partition and installation of Windows 10 have been taken away you are barely left with enough room for the next Windows 10 update without you saving anything on the machine yourself.

Once every 6 months a major update or new version of Windows 10 is launched and this is a change from previous Operating Systems. You really need 6 - 8 GB of free space to be able to download it and install it. If you haven't got enough space you will experience a succession of failures which in the worst case scenario results in your entire Operating becoming unusable and you need to call for support. In other circumstances Windows keeps running on the old version but after missing 3 version updates (18 months) you will receive a message advising you that your version of Windows 10 will cease to be supported. You may be slightly surprised to see this when Windows 7 which has been around for more than 10 years is still being supported.

Microsoft feel that they have tried hard to get customers to understand the importance of free space without success and have therefore taken the interesting step from Windows 10 v1903 (19H1) of reserving 7 GB of free space for themselves by taking it away from the customer. This feature is known as 'Reserved Storage'. This will start at 7 GB but may and almost certainly will increase with future releases. Advanced users will be able to access the settings and change the amount but not remove it altogether. The important thing to note however is that if you change it to a low figure to suit yourself as soon as the reserved storage is used your free space will be grabbed as before and if you don't have any the issues highlighted above will still occur.

For customers thinking of purchasing a new Computer I recommend avoiding 128 GB SSD's and opting for a 256 GB as a minimum unless of course there is a second drive for your data. For those who are completely confused or have already run into problems due to lack of disk space Churchdown Computers are here to help. Just call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 10 Home users will soon be able to pause Windows Updates

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 17:08:05 GMT

Eagerly awaited feature is on its way in Windows 10 v19H1

Windows 10 version 19H1 which is due out in April 2019 is currently going through the Insider Preview Testing phase. Rather than focus on all the changes in one go as I have done previously I have decided to highlight particular features that customers are always asking for. By far the most frequently asked question is can I stop Windows updates? I have often wondered whether this means a particular Customer wants to opt out of important security updates altogether in order to remain uninterrupted when using their Computer but there are of course some valid reasons for pausing updates rather than stopping them altogether.

Windows 10 Professional users have always had the feature where they can pause updates for 35 days and they can also delay Feature updates for 365 days and Quality updates for 30 days. These are some of the benefits of paying more to get a more flexible Business version of Windows 10 rather than a free or low priced Home version of the software. This feature will now be available to Windows 10 Home users although they will only be able to pause updates for a maximum of 7 days. Once the 7 days are up Windows update will run immediately in order to catch up with any missing updates and you will not be able to pause again until this process has completed.

To use the feature (once you have updated to v19H1) you simply click on Start \ Settings \ Update and Security \ Windows Update or just type Windows Update in the search bar. Here you will see the new feature labelled 'Pause Updates for 7 days'. Once you have enabled this feature there will be a 'Resume Updates' button that allows you to resume updates before the 7 days are up and again in this instance there will be an immediate check for updates.

I previously mentioned that there are some valid reasons for doing this and I will cover a couple of important ones. You could be working on an important project or piece of course work and the sound of your Computer rattling away downloading updates is both annoying and takes away valuable bandwidth that you may need for your project. Your Computer will also be slow and then of course there's the dreaded moment where you see that your Computer wants to reboot. You can of course use the 'Active Hours' feature to tell it not to reboot but there's nothing worse than finding your Computer has just rebooted itself when you have popped downstairs for 10 minutes outside of the Active Hours. The ability to just a put a stop to this process for 7 days will benefit many Customers. The other time this will be particularly useful is for Laptop users going on holiday. If you are going abroad or even in the UK and have limited access to wifi or a limited Data allowance the last thing you want is Windows Update using up all your allowance or significantly slowing you down. In the worst case scenario where it attempts to download a major update you could be looking at a 4 GB- 6 GB download. I'm sure many people will now query why they can't stop updates for 14 days to allow for a two week break but at least Microsoft have offered something to appease the Customers that would like more control.

What is Known Folder Redirection (KFR)?

Sun, 09 Dec 2018 13:28:52 GMT

Can you resolve lack of free disk space with KFR?

During the recent launch of Windows 10 v1809 known folder redirection became a hot topic of conversation. This is because it was people who were using known folder redirection that suffered from having their data deleted during the installation of the latest release of Windows 10. If you don't know what known folder redirection is or you are suffering from a C: Drive that is almost full then the following may well be of interest to you.

Known folder redirection is of most benefit to people who have a Computer that has been partitioned between C: and D: and C: is running out of space while D: is virtually empty. Most machines that are sold today simply have one large C: Drive but it used to be fashionable to have a C: Drive for the Operating System and a D: Drive for Data. Most people didn't even acknowledge the existence of D: and therefore saved everything on C: and eventually ran out of space while there was an empty D: Drive sitting in the background. You should as a rule of thumb have at least 10% free space on your C: Drive and this is indicated by a nice blue bar in File Explorer, when the bar turns red you are starting to run into trouble and your Operating System will begin to experience problems. It will start with an initial slowing down and if you eventually use every last Megabyte of space you can get to the situation where the Computer may not even boot. The other people who will benefit from KFR are people who have bought machines with SSD drives installed and have sacrificed space for speed.

Let us assume the bar in your C: Drive has turned red and you are beginning to run into trouble what should you do? There are a few different things you can do but as we are covering KFR in this article that is what I will cover here. Known folder redirection is the process of re-mapping the well known folders within your user profile to a different location. These folders include Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Videos which can all be quite large. The folders are located under C:\Users\Yourname but you will find plenty of shortcuts in File Explorer which will allow you to get to them more quickly. The redirection process is very simple ... Click the Right mouse button on the folder and choose Properties, then click the tab that says Location. You will then see the properties pictured above. You can either type in your desired path which should be on another drive IE D:\Users\Mark\Desktop or you can click the Move button and use browse to navigate to your new location. When you are done just click the OK button. After doing this you will receive a very confusing pop-up box so please read the following carefully to understand what to select. The pop up box asks whether you want to move all the files from the old location to the new. In 99% of cases this is what you want to do as this will free up your disk space on the C: Drive so the answer is YES. If you click NO the new folder will still be created and used for all new data from now onwards but your existing data will remain where it is. You will not free up any space and you will now have your data split over two different locations thus making it hard to find in the future. It was the people who previously chose NO that lost their data during the recent Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft were attempting to clean up unused folders and wrongly assumed anybody using this option would have moved their data. They therefore deleted the folders on the C: Drive without checking whether there was data in them or not.

You can simply repeat this process for all the folders you would like to redirect. I suspect there will be a few questions on this process so I will just answer the three most obvious ones here. Why can't I simply drag the documents folder to the D: Drive? You can but the problem is that you haven't told Windows 10 that you have done this. It will be okay for the majority of things but Windows will still expect to find your folder in the original location and therefore some processes will not work correctly. If I only have a C: Drive can I plug in a USB Stick or Removable Drive and locate the folders on there. YES you can do this but you will need to make sure this drive is available whenever you use your Computer. You have told Windows 10 where these folders are located and therefore it will expect to be able to find them. Why do I need 10% free space on my C: Drive? Your Computer uses this as a working area and as the space gradually diminishes the Computer is forced to work in a smaller and smaller area thus slowing it down. This area is also used for a huge 4 - 6 GB download once every 6 months when Windows 10 updates to the latest version. If there's not enough free space the update will be unable to download and complete. Once you have missed three updates (18 months later) you will be advised that your version of Windows 10 is no longer supported.

If you have already done the above and are still out of space on your C: Drive then Churchdown Computers can help you clear up some more space to get your Computer running at full speed again. Just call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Is it still safe to click 'Check for Updates'?

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 18:07:10 GMT

You can be testing an update without warning if you do!

Following the problems with file deletion and the October 2018 update the question remains - Is it still safe to click 'Check for Updates'? It has been revealed that since April 2018 clicking this button indicates to Microsoft that you are ready and willing to receive updates that are still in the testing process. The October 2018 update in particular skipped the 'release preview' step of the testing process so that Microsoft could announce and release the update at a press event. I'm really not sure how they think it is okay to do this without any sort of warning. Surely there should be a warning either before or after clicking the button that shows you what you are agreeing to and allows you to opt out. Once the update starts downloading it is too late. Microsoft already have a Windows Insider Program that you can join if you want to become a tester so why would they assume that people who have not joined that program but have clicked 'Check for Updates' suddenly want to become testers?

The average man on the street may not click this button very often if at all but a System Builder like myself has spent a lifetime clicking the button over and over again. I have built a Windows 7 machine this week and as the Operating System is now 11 years old I must have clicked the button 20 or more times in order to apply all the updates. It's not acceptable for me to deliver an insecure machine with a load of updates missing but it's also not acceptable for me to be working on the machine for days waiting for all the updates to arrive of their own accord. I therefore need to keep clicking the button.

Microsoft have said that clicking the button only allows you to get major updates early and therefore this issue doesn't apply to every single update they release. In some ways this is good as you are only in danger once every six months but in some ways this is bad because the updates that you receive that aren't fully tested are the ones most likely to give you a problem (as with the file deletion). Do you even know when the major updates are released and when is the most risky time to press the button?

If you leave the updating process to itself then the updates are put through a number of different phases of testing with appropriate feedback to Microsoft so they can fix bugs. As the update nears the point where it will be released to you your hardware is actually checked for compatibility before you finally receive it, hence the rollout is phased and not everybody gets the update at the same time. This is much safer and how it should be because I've seen updates go through where the relevant graphics driver isn't available and people have just been left with a black screen. Microsoft have advised that the 'queue jumping' option is currently turned off and therefore the October 2018 update that is currently being rolled out will only arrive when they are sure your machine is fully compatible.

My recommendation is DON'T bother clicking 'Check for Updates' in the future and just allow your machine to update in its own time no matter how keen you are to get the latest version of Windows 10. Hopefully Microsoft will stop this process or at least offer some sort of warning having got their fingers burned this time.

With version 1809 now on its way out again please give me a shout if you experience any issues. You can call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 10 to get faster from V19H1

Sun, 04 Nov 2018 20:23:22 GMT

Windows 7 users left out of speed increase

Windows 10 version 19H1 due out in April 2019 promises a speed increase, however we shouldn't forget that V1809 the October 2018 update hasn't made it to people's desktops yet!! The headline relates to the Spectre and Meltdown flaws that appeared in January 2018 and at that time Microsoft's fixes for these problems slowed Computer's down significantly. The older the Computer the greater the slowdown and Windows 7 users were slowed down the most. However, even though Windows 7 users would have the most to gain they will not be getting the speed increase as the Operating system is shortly to enter its final year of extended support. This is just another attempt by Microsoft to get the remaining Windows 7 users to take the plunge and upgrade to Windows 10.

Microsoft have been able to eliminate the areas of their patches that were causing the slowdowns and thus what is described as a 'speed increase' is really just returning the performance that customers had before Spectre and Meltdown were discovered. Mehmet Iyigun who works on the Windows Kernel team at Microsoft offered the following explanation. Microsoft have now enabled 'retpoline' and 'import optimisation' in the new builds of Windows 10. These features reduce the performance impact to noise level in most scenarios. In plain English this simply means the slowdown will now be hardly noticeable.

Retpoline was developed by Google and is able to block 'spectre based attacks' with hardly any impact on performance according to Google. If you really want all the technical details about Retpoline you can find it on Google's website here but I bet you don't read all the way to the end.

If you are still running Windows 7 and are keen to get a low priced upgrade to Windows 10 then Churchdown Computers can help with this. For more details or a quote please call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 10 October 2018 update is delayed again

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 10:59:15 GMT

A second Data deletion problem has now been found

Microsoft's October 2018 update for Windows 10 (v1809) has been delayed again following the discovery of a second data deletion problem. The likely release date will now move into November. The latest problem involves zip files and was uncovered while the Windows Insider Community were testing the fix for the previous issue where files were deleted during the update when known folder redirection was being used. You can read about this issue in my previous blog here .

The latest problem occurs when you attempt to copy the contents of a zipped file to another location without carrying out the extract command first. The greatest risk appears to be carrying out a 'move' when it can fail and the contents of the original zip file can also disappear too. Microsoft Agent M. Hamer has written about the problem in detail and you can read the full explanation here .

While the wait for the new release continues I would urge caution when it comes to clicking the 'Check for Updates' button on your Computer. This subject will be the feature of a future blog but it now appears that clicking this button returns updates that are still in the testing cycle. This is because they assume that by clicking the button rather than waiting for updates to arrive automatically that this is what you want. You therefore effectively join the testing process.

Windows 10 v1809 Redstone 5 is now available

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 12:29:26 GMT

How can you get it straight away?

The latest version of Windows 10 v1809 was released to the public on 2nd October and will be rolled out to Windows 10 Home users on the usual phased rollout basis over several weeks. Some of you may already have it but in a break with tradition I understand you can now get it straight away by doing a manual Check for Updates. Apparently this tells Microsoft that you want the update immediately and you will receive it but in some circumstances you may need to try this a couple of times on different days to succeed. If you don't know how to do this you can click Start, Settings, Update & Security and Check for Updates. Before doing so however, I recommend you read the remainder of this article to understand the perils of getting things too soon.

I won't go too much into the new features here as I have written about them before but I will just mention one that has appeared and one that hasn't. There is a Your Phone app in v1809 that amongst other things lets you text from your PC and allows you to access photos from your phone when on your PC. The app is not surprisingly very android focused and works much better with android phones, some functionality isn't available to iPhone users!! The new 'Continue on PC' feature where you can send links from your phone to your PC does however work with both types of phone. Sadly as expected the Sets feature that would have added tabs to almost every application including File Explorer hasn't appeared. Hopefully this will appear in a future release. For those who would like to read more about the new features click here .

Now for the not so good bit which focuses on the issues experienced by the early adopters. There have been the usual reports of freezing during the setup process and some of apps and files having disappeared when logging into the new Operating system. The biggest issue however, seems to be some laptop users reporting that the power in their batteries is draining at an alarming rate. Microsoft have now acknowledged the issue which appears to be a compatibility problem with some Intel Display Audio drivers. The problem results in CPU usage going through the roof and hence your battery life disappears before your eyes. Microsoft have apparently stopped affected machines from updating so if you fall into this category you may currently be unable to obtain the update, however I understand you can override a Warning screen and Continue if you still want to get the update and don't mind draining your battery once it has arrived. Other issues raised so far include the Edge Browser failing to connect to some websites and mapped network drives not re-connecting automatically.

As a further update to the above Microsoft have now pulled the v1809 update. They appear to have confirmed that it is deleting files in some circumstances. If you have downloaded it then don't install it and if you've already updated and lost files they are asking you to stop using your Computer immediately and contact them directly. This is likely to be because their recovery options will include a tool to recover deleted files. If you continue to use your Computer you are likely to overwrite your deleted files. The problem itself has now been resolved and testing of the v1809 update has been passed back to the Windows Insider Community. It is understood that only a small number of users were affected and they were those that were using KFR (Known Folder Redirection) but files were left in the original folder locations. This is a choice when enabling KFR and most users would choose to move the files to free up disk space thus leaving empty folders behind. Microsoft were attempting to clean up the empty folders but hadn't allowed for those using KFR for newly created files only. In detail KFR is a process used by people who have filled up their C: drive and would like to move their Desktop, Pictures, Documents etc to another location. It is still a slight mystery how the v1809 update went live without modification because the Windows Insider Community reported the problem in both June and August. A description of the original problem and contact details are available here and full details of the resolution are available here .

As always my advice is to hang fire and let others do the testing and find the faults. However, this option isn't really available to those running Windows 10 Home. At some point your Computer will find the update and begin the download and installation process whether you like it or not. There is the odd thing you can do like telling Windows you are running on a metered connection but it is only those that have Windows 10 Professional that can choose when they get their update. I have set mine not to update until the Operating system has been tested sufficiently to be fit for Business. That means we'll be halfway to v1903 before I actually receive it.

If your update goes wrong and leaves you in a mess as it inevitably will for some then feel free to call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Is there a difference between sleep and hibernate in Windows?

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 15:32:26 GMT

I can no longer find the hibernate option?

There is actually quite a significant difference between the two and when choosing which one you are going to use you should bear the following in mind. The decision is really based on how long you are planning to be away for.

Sleep mode is really the equivalent of standby. Everything on the Computer is stopped and open files and applications are placed in memory. The Computer itself goes into a low power state but is still drawing some power. As the Computer is really still on you can resume fairly quickly and therefore this method is particularly suited to taking a short break from your Computer.

Hibernate mode on the other hand is almost the equivalent of turning everything off. In this instance your open files and applications are saved to the hard disk. The Computer is effectively turned off and therefore no power is consumed at all. This is why nothing is left in memory where it would be lost. The main difference between hibernate and a total shutdown is that you can just resume from where you left off. The machine will take a little longer to get itself going again than it would in sleep mode but obviously much faster than a shutdown. This method therefore suits those going away for a longer period of time.

Ironically if you head off and don't take one of the above options your Computer tends to automatically choose an option called Hybrid Sleep. This is a combination of the two and will take place unless you have modified your Computer's power plan. In this instance your Computer goes into a low power state with your files and applications placed both in memory and saved to the hard disk. This allows you to quickly restart your work but also protects you against a power cut which might have caused you to lose your work. Hybrid Sleep is automatically enabled on Desktop Computers but not on Laptops where owners are more inclined to choose one of the other options because of the portability of the device.

Observant users of Windows 8 and 10 Desktop machines will have noticed that the hibernate option is no longer present. Well the good news is that it is still there but hidden by default. Enabling it is a fairly straightforward task. Open the Control Panel and choose Power Options. Then click 'Choose what the power button does' on the left hand menu. You now have a couple of options. You can either reconfigure the power button to be a hibernate button using the drop down menu or you can choose the option which says 'Change settings that are currently unavailable'. By placing a tick in the box next to Hibernate and saving the changes you will then add the Hibernate option back to the menu that is available when shutting down or restarting your Computer.

If you need more help with this then you can call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

What is the best way to manage my photographs?

Sun, 30 Sep 2018 12:09:35 GMT

Do you struggle to find what you are looking for?

Something I come across on a daily basis is customers struggling with their photographs. Many people were using Picasa but Google have now discontinued this in favour of their Online Google Photos service. For those that just want to manage their own photos on their own Computer options are limited. Sometimes you can get a good program free with a camera or printer but if you just want to do your own thing in File Explorer how should you go about it? I can only make my own suggestions and I'm sure many of you have favourite programs or favourite techniques so please feel free to add your own comments because there is no right or wrong way of doing things.

Some customers have one huge file of photos in Pictures and some have lots of dated folders because this is the way that their camera has uploaded them. The dated folders are of some help if you can remember dates but the photos inside will simply be numbered by the camera as something like IMG4118 or P101500. You therefore can't easily search for 'garden hedgehog a few years ago'. Unless you rename every photo as you upload it you still won't be able to do that but I will explain how I do it and then you can decide whether this will help your situation.

You can just create a huge number of folders with the name of the occasion like 'Auntie Jean's Wedding' but this eventually gets out of control too. I therefore create a folder for each year '2016' '2017' '2018' etc and then name the event within that folder. So for instance 'Holiday in Wales' or 'Day trip to Torquay'. I then place all the photos in that folder at upload time. To find things I therefore need a rough idea of the year but I could still search on 'Holiday in Wales'. This won't find an individual hedgehog picture but if you create a folder called 'Garden Pictures' in each year you simply have to roughly guess the year and look in that folder. You can also deviate slightly from my suggestion and have a folder called 'Garden Pictures' outside of your Year folders. You then only have one folder to look in but you need to bear in mind that if you take hundreds of garden photographs you will quickly be back to a single huge collection of pictures that you will need to wade through.

Whilst the above is a reasonable strategy moving forward then how do you deal with everything that is there right now? I would recommend creating a series of Year folders and if your camera has uploaded the photographs in dated folders you can quickly move them into the correct Year folder. You can then examine each folder and rename it to an event or split it into several events. If on the other hand you just have one massive collection of pictures then I suggest you use the Details View in File Explorer and sort them into date order. You then have a starting point to move them into years or even months within the year. With a little time reviewing and renaming folders you will then have something that is far more easy to work with and find that elusive photo!!

As always if you need more help with this then you can call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Will an SSD Drive speed up my Computer?

Sun, 09 Sep 2018 15:09:53 GMT

Is an SSD Drive an affordable and sensible upgrade?

The simple answer is yes, but it pays to dig a little deeper before jumping in and making a change. If your current hard drive has failed then it's a fairly straightforward decision but if you are swapping out a working drive then it's worth weighing up a few things. You are basically sacrificing some storage space for extra speed, but if you are keeping your existing drive as well (desktop pc rather than laptop) you can simply run the Operating System and key programs on the smaller, faster drive and keep your data on the older higher capacity drive.

When looking for a low cost performance increase extra RAM always used to be the way to go because you could get a reasonable boost for a relatively small outlay but the recent drop in the price of SSD's (Sold State Drives) means that you can now pick up a drive for under £30. Admittedly this is a relatively small capacity 120 GB drive but this is absolutely fine for your Operating System and important programs and you can just keep your data elsewhere. On a desktop PC this could be an additional drive and on a laptop this could be the cloud.

The older your Computer is the higher the risk of incompatibility so on the technical side you should check a couple of things first. The suppliers of drives usually have a hardware compatibility list so you should make sure your Computer is on there and secondly it is worth seeing if your Computer Manufacturer offers a BIOS upgrade to help your Computer recognise the drive.

So how does the drive make your Computer faster? SSD's use flash memory to store data like a USB drive whereas a conventional drive uses a spinning platter with an arm that moves across the platter. The end result is incredibly fast boot times and loading of programs because the seek process that takes place on a conventional drive doesn't need to happen. How much faster? Some of the machines I have worked on were booting 3 - 4 times faster than with the original drive. SSD's also use less power, run much cooler and last a lot longer than conventional drives because there are no moving parts. Some Manufacturers now offer as much as a five year warranty on SSD's which you won't find on a conventional drive.

Some of the benefits are listed above but to explain a bit further - heat is the enemy of Computer components and this is particularly true with Hard Disks. The fact a Solid State Drive doesn't generate heat due to the lack of moving parts allows it to last much longer. Dropping a laptop which has been tucked under your arm in hibernate mode almost always results in failure of the hard disk on top of the other obvious damage to the screen and case. However an SSD will happily continue working after the drop because there are no spinning platters and arms to worry about. Finally lighter weight and easy installation make an SSD the must have upgrade for those seeking better performance.

The main drawback is the smaller size of the drives and although large sizes are now available the costs are still fairly high if you want a 1 TB or 2 TB drive. So what is the question most people ask? Many people have a 500 GB or 1 TB Hard Drive and are considering purchasing a 120 GB or 250 GB SSD which their Operating System and Programs will comfortably fit on but not their Data. So how do they migrate across to the smaller drive? Moving to a larger drive is easy but moving to a smaller drive isn't as easy. You can either carry out a clean installation of Windows and install your Programs onto the new drive but if you don't want to do this and want to transfer what you have to the smaller drive then this is where specialist help comes in. Churchdown Computers can carry out this process for you. For more details or a quote please call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

How to create a strong password that you can remember

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 16:42:53 GMT

How to create different passwords based on a theme

When setting up new Computers and supporting customers at home it still amazes me how many people demand no password at all. This is a personal preference that wouldn't be suitable for a business Computer but what do people do when they need to create a password for online banking, credit cards, Paypal and e-mail? They generally have no password on their Computer because they feel they won't remember one so when it comes to the above they choose family names, pet names, or the town where they are living because then they can remember this.

There have been numerous surveys of the top ranking passwords and one of the favourites is always password, those that want to step up security go for Password and those that want to go a step further go for Password1. Unfortunately all of these rank in the top 10 and whilst you may get away with it for your e-mail address your bank won't accept it along with your name, surname or date of birth? Why? All of these passwords can be guessed - you will not need to be targeted by a highly skilled Computer hacker - your next door neighbour's four year old will guess your password!! You also need to be aware that because the vast majority of websites use your e-mail address as the username that a potential hacker already has half the information he needs to get into your accounts. If you have e-mailed him or even made a Paypal payment to him he has your e-mail address. Therefore all he needs is your password to access your account and if he can guess it he's in. Once he is in to one website he will try the same password at all the other popular websites like Paypal, e-bay, Amazon, Credit Cards , Online banks. If you use the same password on every site and you get one site hacked you need to start changing passwords very fast.

So far I have only covered somebody having a guess at your passwords. The next level of attack is somebody attacking a business where you hold an account and you will all be familiar with some well known names that have been hacked. Once a hacker has managed to beat the Company's firewall he will immediately target the Company's password database. This is simple to find if you understand Microsoft's Server structure as it's always in the same place and you then run a password cracker against this database. Passwords are not stored in plain text so they have to be cracked but how long will your password stand up to an attack? A Dictionary attack takes seconds and if your password is in the dictionary it will be cracked in less than a minute regardless of how many letters it contains. Passwords not cracked by a dictionary attack are then the subject of a "brute force" attack. This involves a Computer trying every possible combination of letters, numbers and special characters in order. Passwords with the fewest characters will be cracked first and those with longer passwords will withstand the attack for a far greater length of time. Once you pass 8 characters (the normal minimum) each additional character can add hours to the attack time and as the length increases one character can add days. Time is the enemy for hackers and they will almost certainly quit or be cut off before they have cracked the longest passwords so bear this in mind when creating a password. Also bear in mind though that the processing power of Computers increases day by day and hackers combine the processing power of multiple Computers to maintain an attack and therefore the time taken to crack passwords using the "brute force" method is constantly reducing.

If you are still reading you are hopefully convinced you need a strong password so how do you create something that you can remember? There are many answers to this question including pass phrases but I prefer to combine two unrelated things. Bear in mind that I have advised you not to use anything in the dictionary or any family or pet names commonly found on Facebook, however the combination method does allow you to get around this with a few minor adjustments. One of my favoured methods for the first part of the password is car registration numbers. Now of course it is easiest to go for your current car as you can just look out of the window but do bear in mind that your neighbours can do that too. I therefore recommend going for a car you had a few years ago. So for instance this may give you j122xhz. You can then choose any other subject that you are interested in for the second part of the password and whilst it is best if you don't pick something too obvious there is still a way to increase the security. I'm going to pick a football team Chelsea only I'm going to capitalise letters in the middle of the word rather than the beginning and also double up the capitalised letter. For example chEElsea and therefore the password would be j122xhzchEElsea. This is a 15 character password that won't be found in the dictionary, contains random upper and lower case letters and numbers that you should be able to remember. You can increase the security further with a special character. You could join the words with an asterisk * or end them with a close bracket ). j122xhz*chEElsea or j122xhzchEElsea). The next question is how do you create multiple passwords around this theme. Well simply switch the two words and change the capitalisation so cheLLseaj122xhz can be another password and so the theme continues.

If you still feel you must write passwords down you can just record the changing characters so for instance Bank EE and Credit Card LL. I recommend keeping this to Bank and Credit Card rather than Lloyds and MBNA card. Some people will doubtless say that they cannot remember registration numbers in which case just pick two unrelated words and double up and capitalise a couple of letters in the middle. Ideally this won't be Dave and Steve but the good news is if you get it right it will still survive a dictionary attack.

Did you miss out on the free upgrade to Windows 10?

Sun, 05 Aug 2018 14:08:22 GMT

Are you still running Windows 7?

It is now less than 18 months until Windows 7 reaches the end of its life and it is no longer supported by Microsoft. Microsoft have gradually been closing down the help offered to Windows 7 users which started with the end of mainstream support as long ago as January 2015 and this continued with the withdrawal of help in the Microsoft Forums. Earlier this year in March they withdrew windows updates from Windows 7 Computers with no Antivirus software before making an about turn in April and reinstating the updates again. Unbelievably despite the free offer around 50% of Windows Computers are still running Windows 7 but this is primarily because businesses have clung on to Windows 7 as they have invested heavily in software they fear may have issues in Windows 10. The Home market is very different with the vast majority of people having switched either through the purchase of a new Computer or through the free upgrade program. Which ever way you look at it Microsoft want to convert the remaining 50% and ideally well before the January 2020 deadline.

This will commence soon with a gentle nudge appearing via Windows update and various other notifications that will highlight the increased security of Windows 10 and the increased risks of remaining on Windows 7. As the deadline approaches the notifications will be more regular and prominent.

If you missed out on the free upgrade to Windows 10 or deliberately didn't upgrade because you preferred Windows 7 you will need to think about upgrading the Operating System on your old Computer or purchasing a new one during the next 17 months. You probably won't fancy the £120 price tag for Windows 10 Home or £220 for Windows 10 Professional or even £350 for a new Computer with Windows 10 pre-installed. If this is the case Churchdown Computers have some low cost upgrade options which include the purchase of the licence and carrying out all the necessary work to get you up and running on Windows 10. There are many different options available at different prices so to provide an accurate quotation we will need to know full details of your current setup and the setup you would like to have at the end of the process, together with details of the backups (if any) that you currently have.

For more details or a quote please call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Should I repair or replace my Computer?

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 11:47:38 GMT

Is Hard Disk failure the end of the road?

When a Customer is faced with a repair bill on their computer and they call me up for advice what they are really trying to work out is should they repair it or should they just go out and buy and a new one. There are a lot of factors that will make up the decision including the age and value of the machine but ironically whether you have backed up your data is as important as any other factor. The majority of calls that come in result from the failure of the existing hard disk and it is true to say if you have everything backed up you can just throw away your old machine and buy a new one. However, if you haven't backed up you will need a data recovery carried out on the old hard disk after you have purchased your new PC and the cost of this won't be far short of fitting a new hard disk and rebuilding the existing computer.

In order to help Customers I apply heavy discounts to rebuilding an existing computer with a new hard disk and this often helps make the decision for them. In fact there is only £15 difference in my price for a complete rebuild and the price to recover data from a failed hard disk. It is then up to the customer to decide whether they want to spend £350 plus on a new machine to save £15 on the rebuild costs.

Customers are often surprised at the amount of work that is involved with replacing a hard disk and this leads to an unrealistic expectation of what the price is likely to be to do the job. Typically the work involves the following ......

Collect the computer and remove the hard disk
Determine size and type and order a new hard disk
Install the new hard disk
Install an Operating system on the hard disk and licence it accordingly
Apply the latest Windows updates to the Operating system
Install the programs the customer wants onto the new Operating system
Recover the data from the old hard disk and restore it onto the new one
Return the computer to the Customer
Carry out any additional setup they require including e-mail, printers etc

All of the above usually takes between half a day and a day particularly if the Operating system is Windows 7 and the customer doesn't have the original installation discs. I normally charge between two and two and a half hours for this service depending on whether data recovery is required or not. If I were to charge for a full day then it would be a fairly straightforward decision to purchase a new machine but with the discounts I apply it is possible to keep the old machine running at a reasonable price.

For more details or a quote please call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page .

Windows 10 v1809 Redstone 5 due out Autumn 2018

Sun, 15 Jul 2018 11:29:07 GMT

New Features available in Redstone 5

As a result of Microsoft's semi annual channel you never have to wait more than six months for another version of Windows 10 to become available. Some people are frustrated by the repeated alterations to their Operating system and others can't wait to get their hands on the latest features. There are quite a new features heading your way in the Autumn update so I have only covered the ones that I think are likely to be of most interest in this article.

An interesting feature is the new Search Preview when carrying out a search from the Start Menu or Cortana. You type what you are looking for in the usual manner and if the most appropriate result is a web page you will see a preview of the page which not surprisingly will be from Bing!! Likewise if a Word Document is the best result for your search you will see a preview of that Document. On the other hand if an application is the best choice you will see additional options like the ability to pin it to the start menu or go to the appropriate page to download the application.

After many requests Microsoft have created a dark theme for Windows File Explorer. For some time there has been a system wide dark theme but this excluded File Explorer to the frustration of many. When you receive your update to Redstone 5 if you enable the system wide dark theme your file explorer will now inherit the theme. This will include the various context menus that appear for instance when you click the right mouse button on the desktop.

Many people aren't even aware of the Snipping Tool for taking a screenshot and still use the old Print Screen feature. However, there will be a new Clipping Tool available in Redstone 5 with additional features. The new feature can either be launched by pressing the Windows Key, Shift and S for those who like keyboard shortcuts but if you don't you can change your settings so that it appears when you hit Print Screen. To do this you go to Settings / Ease of Access / Keyboard. Once you have launched the new Clipping Tool and chosen the appropriate portion of the screen you would like to clip (this can be a small window or the entire screen) you then have the option to draw on it, add arrows and carry out other annotation which will be useful when preparing instructions or presentations. For those who still like the old Snipping Tool then it is still there, however you will see a message to say that it will be removed in a future release of Windows 10.

Clipboard History is being launched in Redstone 5 and this is both a useful and slightly risky feature. I'm sure we have all experienced the pain when we had something saved in the Clipboard and it has disappeared or is no longer working, so being able to access the history will allow you to pickup things that have been previously saved to the Clipboard. The feature extends to having an option that allows you to synchronise your Clipboard between devices. You can therefore pickup something that has been saved on the Clipboard of one PC on another. There is also an option to synchronise manually between devices. This may be the safer option so that you only synchronise when you want to. Automatic synchronisation creates a slight risk if you have saved passwords and credit card numbers to your Clipboard. The Clipboard History feature can be accessed by pressing the Windows Key and V.

Another change is that the Mail App is able to ignore your default browser. Microsoft have always pushed their own applications and those using other Browsers like Chrome or Mozilla Firefox will have seen the repeated notifications advising them that the Edge Browser is both faster and more secure. Microsoft have made a change in Redstone 5 that determines what happens when you click a link in an e-mail. Instead of using your default Browser which may be Chrome or Mozilla Firefox it automatically launches Microsoft Edge. This follows previous changes that have been made by Microsoft such as Edge is always launched when you find a website via the Search option.

The biggest news about Redstone 5 is the failure of a new feature to appear. This feature is called Sets and had been eagerly awaited by many. The Sets feature is based on the tabs feature that appears in Web Browsers. Almost every application is scheduled to have the tabs feature built into it. So for instance in File Explorer you will be able to have multiple tabs. However the new feature is scheduled to go beyond this and allow you to mix and match tabs from different applications, so you can have a view with a Microsoft Edge tab, a Word Document tab and a File Explorer tab all in one. This will make it much faster to skip between all the various different things that you are currently working on. Interestingly as always Third party applications like Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, iTunes don't support the Sets feature but if the feature is built in by the Developers in the future they will be able to work with the new functionality. As mentioned previously this eagerly awaited feature has been removed from the latest preview of Redstone 5 as it needs further work. There is still a very slight possibility that it could appear in the final version but it is more likely to appear in Redstone 6, the Spring 2019 version of Windows 10.

There are many other smaller features that have been updated including changes to Microsoft Edge, the appearance of borders on windows and the renaming of Windows Defender to Windows Security with some new features too. There is a new Power Usage feature in Task Manager and also a major update to the Skype interface. This is now much easier to customise to your taste and will be liked by regular Skype users. Overall I think there will be something for everyone but if you don't like change I don't expect you to still be reading.

Are you backing up your important Data and memories?

Sun, 01 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Make sure everything is in two places unless you're happy to lose it

The vast majority of people have never encountered hard disk failure because they may only have experience of three or four hard disks in their lifetime and they have all lasted as long as the Computer. However, as soon as you introduce the law of large numbers you find that hard disk failure is more common than you would imagine and it doesn't just occur on 10 year old machines, I have seen it happen in the first couple of months with brand new machines. I tend to receive one or two calls a week from somebody whose hard disk has failed and when the reality dawns on them the next line is usually "what ever you do to fix the problem I must have all my data back". Unfortunately this isn't really the ideal time to pass the responsibility for your data over to me.

In over 90% of cases I do manage to save the data on a failed disk but it is by no means guaranteed and if it has to go to a specialist data recovery company they will charge £500 or £1000 if it's an SSD. Even then recovery isn't guaranteed and I've had several SSD's where even with £1,000 on the table they have recovered nothing.

You must think ahead and if it is vital that you don't lose something then back it up. A single location on a Computer isn't a safe place for critical data. Documents, spreadsheets and photographs should always reside in at least two places unless you are happy to lose them. A number of events including Hard Disk failure, Fire, Theft of Computer, Virus attack or Ransomware attack could result in your data and memories being lost forever.

The most common places to backup to are an external drive or cloud storage like Dropbox. The advantage of cloud storage is that the files are available from any Computer in any location. This helps keep you connected to your files while you are on the move.

There are some important things to consider even after you have a successful backup. Never leave your external drive permanently connected to your PC. If you do and suffer a ransomware attack then the files on your backup drive will be encrypted too and you then have no backup. In the event of fire or theft you will also lose everything as the drive will be burnt or stolen. The easiest solution is to store it elsewhere in the house but in an ideal world it will be off-site or at another address to cover the fire situation.

Please also remember that if you are connected to your cloud storage at the time of a ransomware attack your cloud files will also be encrypted and you will again have no backup.

You may like to consider our disk cloning service which although it only gives you a point in time backup does mean that you can just install the drive and away you go with your Operating system, programs and data as they were after a ransomware attack. Prices start from £29.99 after you have purchased the drive.

Churchdown Computers can also help you create a backup job that you can either run manually or run via a schedule please call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page if you are interested in this service.

Can you repair an Inkjet Printer?

Sun, 17 Jun 2018 17:07:47 GMT

Should you attempt to repair an Inkjet Printer?

The most important piece of advice on this subject is to always be honest about the last thing that happened before the printer stopped working. Many people leave out important facts like the printer has been in the loft for 7 years or they dropped it a couple of weeks ago. They are sometimes also a little creative about when it last worked and say it was last week when it was last year. The best chance of getting a successful repair is to give the repairer all the facts and then he can make an objective decision about whether there is any chance of succeeding. If he doesn't have all the facts he will optimistically attempt a repair only to fail and you will end up paying and still have a broken printer.

If the printer was only a £50 printer to start with and you have had it a number of years the best option is to just replace it once you have tried the obvious like a head clean (this assumes the fault is poor quality print or blank pages). If the printer has been unused for some time you will need new ink cartridges as a minimum and the print head will almost certainly be blocked too. You can attempt a few head cleans using the built in printer tools but there is no point continuing with this for too long. Some ink cartridges have a new print head built into them and this will resolve the problem but if your cartridges are merely ink containers and the printer has its own print head then an attempt will need to made to clean it. The print head is easily removable on some models but not others and as stated at the start of this paragraph if you have a £50 printer the repair is going to cost more than the value of the printer.

In the event that you have a more expensive printer and repairs can be carried out an important thing to note is that the manufacturer never intended home users to be able to repair printers or replace parts. They often state that there are no user serviceable parts. Information on how to carry out repairs and the availability of parts is scarce and the intention is that you take the printer to a recognised service centre for repair. Not many IT support engineers attempt the repair of printers because the likelihood is that you will charge the customer some money and not succeed. I do attempt repairs but only on the clear understanding of how much it will cost and the clear understanding that I may not be successful.

The most popular repair is the cleaning of print heads which have been blocked either by lack of printing or using compatible rather than genuine ink. Printing blank pages even after inserting new cartridges is a favourite where the print head is blocked but problems with the driver, ribbon cable or other components can also cause this so even when the print head is fully clear you may not resolve the issue. Below is a description of some work I carried out on a Canon Pixma MP780 and an example of how you can succeed with some determination and also some money!!

A customer asked me to take a look at his Canon MP780 because there was no power. He had been using compatible inks for a while and the printer suddenly appeared to detect this and issued a warning before total loss of power. The printer was an expensive one that had given good service and the customer was keen to spend some money to get it going again rather than just scrap it and get a new one. I tested the power cord and then dismantled the machine to find the PSU board where the power enters the machine. I then called Canon's UK repair centre and they said the fault was a common one and it would be a failed PSU board. However, they advised me that they wouldn't attempt the repair themselves as the printer was a 2005 model and the boards were £100 each and no longer available. They therefore advised me that it was time to let the printer go. I made a note of the part number from the PSU board and researched it and to my surprise I found that I could pick up a new board in Germany and get it delivered to the UK for £20. I purchased the board, waited some time for it to arrive, then fitted it and to my disappointment still no power. I then did a bit more research on Google using Canon forums and made an interesting discovery.

Many users of Canon Printers had experienced their printers shutting down when using compatible inks and it seemed that in extreme circumstances the print head overheated, burnt out and blew the logic board which is the main board in the printer. If this was the case I expected the printer to still power on and give me some sort of message about a failed print head or logic board rather than nothing at all but further research revealed why. When you power on the printer the first thing that happens is that the logic board checks the print head is okay and then sends a message to the PSU board that it is okay for the printer to start. In the event there is a problem with the print head or the board the message never arrives and therefore no power is supplied. I checked the print head and discovered that the compatible Magenta Ink was completely empty. I queried with the customer whether he had ever received a message telling him that the Magenta ink was empty. He hadn't seen this message presumably because the compatible cartridge wasn't working quite as a genuine one would. It seems that if the printer continues with an empty cartridge the head keeps trying to pump the ink harder and harder until the head eventually overheats and fails. It is perhaps interesting that the customer saw a message telling him that he didn't have genuine cartridges rather than a message telling him he had an empty cartridge immediately before the failure. I therefore knew I needed the minimum of a Print Head and possibly a Logic Board too.

I saw genuine new Canon Print Heads for as much as £121 but picked one up for £38 although cheaper options were available in China. This arrived and didn't resolve the issue so I placed another order with my contact in Germany for a Logic Board which remarkably was also £20 delivered. After another wait I fitted the board, re-assembled the printer and everything is now working fine. The customer has now decided to revert to genuine Canon inks to extend the life of his new Print Head and the printer as a whole. The moral of this story is that if you are prepared to try hard enough you can bring an old Printer back to life without spending too much money as long as you can find the parts. However, you wouldn't go through all this unless you have an expensive printer or one you are very attached to.

As always Churchdown Computers can offer assistance with Printers or any other IT related matter. If you do need assistance you can call Mark on 07557 483438, email mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form on the Contact Page

Why does my Computer take so long to restart after Windows Updates?

Fri, 01 Jun 2018 15:26:23 GMT

Windows 10 v1803 Spring Creators Update

Many people are puzzled when Windows 10 applies a major update and I think this is because very little information is supplied to the end user about what is going on. Windows updates apply as with every previous Operating System over a 6 month period but once every 6 months Microsoft issue a major update or Semi Annual update. This update is different to what Windows users are used to in that it is a completely new Operating system. Microsoft have effectively copied what Apple have been doing with OSX on Windows 10 and are effectively issuing 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 etc. The updates are officially released in March and September but don't normally become available until the month after. They are code named v1703, v1709 and now v1803 which is the year and month of release. You can check which version you are on by going to Settings then System then About.

It is difficult to tell exactly when you will get your update as due to the size of the download Microsoft use a phased roll out procedure to reduce the load on their Servers. As these updates are very large and in the region of 3 - 6 GB the first thing you will notice is lots of disk noise coming from your hard drive and poor performance during this period unless you have a high spec machine. Eventually you may see a message from Microsoft giving you a hint regarding what is about to happen by asking you to schedule a good time for a Critical update. This hint should tell you that it is going to take a long time.

When you eventually reboot you may find your Computer is restarting for an hour or even two or three. Very low spec machines with a high percentage of the hard disk used simply take forever to carry out the procedure. At some points in the procedure you will see a message asking you not to turn off your Computer and this is helpful but at other points you will just see a blue spinning wheel and are left wondering what on earth is going on? Many people get frustrated and power off their Computer and in the case of laptops even remove the battery because they just can't understand why a Computer could take an hour or more to reboot and they want to get on with their work. They think it is broken when it isn't. However, it is important to understand what is taking place behind the scenes and with a completely new Operating system being installed you run the risk of wrecking the process and needing expert help to get out of it if you take your own drastic action.

Some people see messages that the process has failed and is rolling back and others get stuck in what is known as a startup repair loop. This is where Windows 10 attempts to repair a broken installation but fails. In almost all instances you will need some assistance once you find yourself in this position so I recommend remaining patient during the update process and giving it every chance to complete successfully. If you see the update failing and rolling back I would recommend you immediately carry out a backup because this is your clue that you might get caught in the startup repair loop in the near future. When this happens I recommend a manual installation of the latest version of Windows 10 rather than leaving it to eventually break itself.

Recovery can also be a complicated process with Windows 10 because when you buy a new machine with Windows 10 pre-loaded the default is for system restore to be turned off. I'm not sure why Microsoft did this unless they think they are saving disk space because this differs from their approach with previous Operating systems. With no restore points to recover from the end result is usually a clean install of Windows 10 and whilst it is easy to save your Data, your programs will not survive and will need o be reinstalled. It's therefore important to have access to all your software, passwords and Microsoft accounts as this is when you will need them.

As always Churchdown Computers can offer assistance with this at any step along the path but hopefully having a better understanding of what is going on will give you a good chance of the update completing successfully when it occurs once every six months. If you do need assistance you can call Mark on 07557 483438, email mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form on the Contact Page

Do you own an HP Stream Laptop running Windows 10?

Fri, 11 May 2018 16:41:52 GMT

Is it failing to update because you have no free space?

A problem I frequently come across is HP Stream laptops that simply cannot update to the latest version of Windows 10 because there isn't enough free space for this to happen. Putting a 32 GB Hard drive in one of these laptops seems very short sighted indeed. With previous Operating Systems you could just about get away with it because windows updates were cumulative and fairly minor but when it comes to Windows 10 you are stuck even if you have stored virtually nothing on the laptop. I would have said that maybe the problem couldn't have been foreseen if all the laptops had come with Windows 7 on and been upgraded but many of my Customers have purchased them with Windows 10 on from the start.

Everything changed with Windows 10 because instead of Service Packs for major updates Microsoft just issue a whole new Operating System once every six months. Unless you have 6 - 8 GB of free space to allow the Operating System to download along with around the same again to use as a working area during the change you simply can't update. Having up to 16 GB free on a laptop that only came with 32GB to start with and now has an Operating System, some programs installed and some data saved just doesn't add up.

When I'm called to help out with these laptops I simply wipe them and install a fresh copy of Windows 10. This is the easiest way to resolve the problem. You don't need any download or working area just a clean install from media. On the first ones I did I found a few updates, added Google Chrome, Adobe Reader and Avast and to my horror they were already down to less than 10 GB of free space. I now just return them with a clean copy of Windows 10 and advise the Customer to put on as little as possible in order to preserve the free space for as long as possible. An external drive is the best place to store your Data.

Some Customers have recently contacted me to say that their HP Stream is now so far out of date that Microsoft are no longer supporting them. Continuing to run in this scenario is as risky as running Windows XP or Vista so I would recommend taking some action. Churchdown Computers are keen to keep these laptops running for our Customers so we offer a couple of low cost services.

1. If you are happy that you have backed up your data and are able to reinstall any programs that you have I will wipe the laptop and install Windows 10 v1803 Spring Creators update for £30. As well as the above this assumes you will deliver it to me and collect it when done. The returned laptop will have Windows 10 on and nothing else.

2. If you require me to backup your data and reinstall your programs afterwards I will do this for an additional £30 (Total £60). You will need to supply any discs required for the installation, along with licence keys or let me know the usernames and passwords associated with any downloads. Contrary to popular belief I cannot magic Microsoft Office out of thin air or copy it from your current Program Files. A clean install with the appropriate media is required.

If you are interested in any of the above services please call Mark on 07557 483438 or e-mail me on mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk. You can also send a message via the Contact Page

Will you upgrade to Windows 10 v1803 straight away?

Sun, 06 May 2018 11:13:19 GMT

Can you avoid it?

The latest version of Windows 10 is now here and you have three choices of name by which to refer to it. It is the Spring Creators update, V1803 or Redstone 4 depending on which you fancy. It started rolling out on 30th April and I carried out my first installation this week. I didn't experience any problems myself but certain problems are already widely reported including issues with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. If you're a conspiracy theorist who avoids Microsoft Edge and have noticed the regular pop-ups telling you how better Edge is then you won't be surprised there are issues with other browsers. There have also been other freezing issues which appear to be related to drivers and an issue with Reddit. Microsoft claim the first patches will be available on May 8th, so some of the early issues should be fixed.

Of course the early adopters are doing Microsoft's testing for them and as problems are always expected I recommend avoiding new releases in the early days but can you? If you have Windows 10 Professional you can choose a Business setting that delays the update for around 4 months and this allows all the Home users to test it, find the faults and then allows Microsoft to fix them before releasing it to Businesses. A previous article by me covers how to change your settings to the Business setting if you have Windows 10 Professional. If you have Windows 10 Home it's in the lap of the god's when you will receive the update. You can get it quicker by downloading it directly from Microsoft but you can't really delay it when it arrives so you will become a tester for Microsoft. There are a couple of tweaks you can do to attempt to delay it and again these are covered in a previous article by me.

If you want more hints and tips you might want to join my Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1760436304008404 or if you already have an issue just give me a shout on mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or 07557 483438. You can also fill out the form on the Contact page.

During my installation the first thing I noticed was that after installation and before login you get asked a huge number of questions. I wish I had counted them but they went on and on and on...... I got really fed up in the end and I'll be going through this several times a week rather than just once like the average customer. The other thing I noticed is what is supposed be an added security feature when adding a new user account. Those that have worked with me will know that I always add a second account which digs you out of a hole if you only have one account and it becomes corrupted. To create this account you now have to choose three security questions from a set of 6 and the options are the same each time. As somebody who creates a second account by default I'm now going to have to choose three questions and then answers and then communicate them to the customer rather than just a username and password as I do now. The problem is that if I choose "pets name" and Banjo but they actually have a pet called Fido then you can imagine the confusion three years down the line when they can't find the answers I have given to the questions. The only option will be to work with them on the second account but this is yet another task when returning the PC, the customer gets frustrated because they don't really want two accounts anyway and getting the answers can easily take 15 - 30 minutes on top of the work you have already done.

Let's hope that Microsoft resolve the early issues fairly quickly!!

Unsupported Operating Systems mysteriously failing

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 10:11:37 GMT

Is something strange going on?

During the last 7 days I have been called out to four instances of Operating Systems that are no longer supported by Microsoft suddenly becoming unusable. This compares to no instances of this in the previous six months. When I see a pattern emerging I'm always slightly suspicious as to whether somebody is trying to tell people it is time to upgrade.

Two were Windows Vista and two were Windows 7 without Service Pack 1. Obviously, in an ideal world I don't recommend people run unsupported Operating Systems anyway but due to budgets or fear of upgrade some customers choose to do this and they are still customers. The two Windows Vista PC's were stuck in the startup repair loop that I often see with Windows 10 and the two Windows 7 PC's had their user profiles corrupted so they were unable to logon. In every case I was able to carry out a full repair with no data loss and in the case of the Windows 7 machines activated hidden accounts and made registry changes to resolve the issue but the average PC user won't know how to do this.

I strongly recommend that nobody runs a machine with a single user account. If the profile becomes corrupted and won't allow you to logon you are stuck. However, if you have a second account you can just log on with that one and use it to repair the first one. This also helps you if you forget the password. When you buy a new PC don't just answer the basic questions and think you're done, create a second account straight away, grant it admin rights and you will always have a way out if anything happens to your main account. If you see the message "user profile service failed to logon" in conjunction with "user profile cannot be loaded" then give me a shout on 07557 483438 or e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk

Windows 10 Spring Creators Update, Redstone 4

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 16:31:28 GMT

Do I have to install this feature update when it becomes available?

Many of my customers ask whether they have to install Windows updates. Whether you have to and whether it is advisable to are two different things. I always recommend installing security updates as soon as they come out but feature updates are another matter altogether. I always recommend letting somebody else do the testing, let them find all the bugs and then you can install it when it is a stable operating system. However, for most people this isn't an option as Microsoft choose when you get the update and I have explained why this is below.

Windows 10 Professional or any Professional version of an operating system is a far better version although obviously more expensive. I purchase my machines from Business suppliers so I have the option to purchase a Professional operating system rather than the Home version which the vast majority of people end up with after visiting the well known local suppliers. As an Administrator I want the Professional version so that I have far more flexibility when it comes to joining networks, more control over setting up user accounts and most of all to have better control of what is going on in the background. Microsoft know that Business customers purchase Professional operating systems and they don't want to be responsible for bringing Businesses down so they allow them to change their Advanced settings in Windows update to delay the installation of feature updates and even security updates as well. By making a small change to the settings the feature update will arrive around 4 months later once all the owners of Windows 10 Home Operating systems have done the testing for them.

With the new release of Windows 10, the Spring Creators Update or Redstone 4 due this month then this is likely to become topical very soon. The new version is likely to be labelled 1803 even though it will be released in April 2018. If you are lucky enough to have the Professional version of Windows 10 and want to delay getting this update as I do then please look at the picture above to see how to do it. Navigate to Settings \ Update and Security \ Windows Update \ Advanced options and then change the box under Choose when updates are installed to Semi Annual Channel. This setting is the Business setting which means that Microsoft won't roll out the update to you until they consider it ready for Business. The setting you are probably on currently will be Semi Annual Channel (Targeted). This is the setting for consumers and this means you will get the update straight away as will the users of Windows 10 Home. If you are unable to see Advanced options when you have navigated to Windows Update then you have the Home edition and won't be able to control when you receive the update.

There is however a small trick that Windows 10 Home users can do to try to get some control over when Windows updates are downloaded. You can navigate to Settings \ Network and Internet and choose your method of connection either Ethernet or Wi-fi, then click the actual connection and under Metered Connection set it as a Metered connection. This leads your Operating system to believe that you are incurring charges when you download updates and this halts the automatic downloading of non-critical updates and instead you will receive a "download" button which will give you some control. However, your Operating system does still have the rights to download critical updates without asking you so expect to still get some updates beyond your control.

For the owners of the Professional version of Windows 10 there are also another three options as per the picture above but I don't really recommend them. The first option lets you delay feature updates by a further number of days up to 365 and the second option allows you to delay security updates by up to 30 days. Finally there is a pause option that lets you pause updates for 35 days. Interestingly once you have initiated this option you cannot turn this back on a second time until Windows updates have been carried out at least once.

Easter Telephone Hacking

Sun, 01 Apr 2018 13:09:00 GMT

Have you secured your Business?

Easter is the second most popular time for hackers to attack Business telephone systems. Why is this? They look for the times of the year that Offices are left unattended for the maximum length of time. What is their aim? It is to take control of telephone systems forcing them to dial premium rate numbers that they own and thus earn the maximum revenue.

When a Business purchases a new telephone system it is often from a major player like Cisco. The telephone system will be installed by a reputable telephone installer and Voicemail will be setup as this is a key feature of a telephone system. By default the password to access a Voice mailbox is 1234 and the Business owner as well as all the staff will be advised to change the password. Many do not as 1234 is easy to remember and after all their Voice mailbox doesn't hold any secrets does it?

In a modern day Business where staff work from home or they are out on the road they have a requirement to be able to access their Voicemail when they are not on the premises. Typically this involves dialling their own direct dial number, entering a key sequence and then entering the password for their Voicemail. Over time their direct dial number appears on Business cards, Company websites and at the bottom of e-mails and eventually the number falls into the wrong hands.

So how do criminals break in and rack up phone bills that can exceed £70,000 over 4 days? They ring the direct dial number, enter the key sequence and then try the default password 1234. If they get into Voicemail they can then take control of the telephone and get it to call their premium rate number. If it is a big Business with 100 or more phones they will try all the direct dial numbers as the phone number sequence is usually sequential and if nobody has changed their password they will access all of them and get them all ringing their premium number if there are enough outgoing lines available at the Business.

If you think this is unlikely I have personally been involved in three instances of this during my time providing support for Businesses. Telephone companies do actively look for instances of this happening over long Bank Holidays and sometimes get in contact with you before your return to save the bill from getting too large. Will you get your money back? Sometimes telephone companies help out but you never get all of it back. How do you protect yourself against this? It's easy - when your telephone installer tells you and your staff to change your Voicemail password please take it seriously and ensure it is done.

Has a Windows 10 Anniversary update left you without an Operating System?

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 12:37:40 GMT

Windows 10 stuck in Startup Repair Loop

Over the last three months 20% of my calls have been as a result of Windows 10 destroying itself during one of Microsoft's anniversary updates. This is quite a worrying statistic although of course my experience might not be representative of the picture as a whole.

I will begin by explaining what the Anniversary update is as it differs from the way that Microsoft have updated previous Operating Systems. Previously Microsoft issued regular monthly patches and from time to time they would issue a Service Pack which was a collection of updates designed to make the updating process faster for out of date systems. When they launched Windows 10 they still issued the regular monthly updates but once a year they issued an Anniversary update. The difference here is that it is a major update, in fact a complete reinstall of your Operating System. Therefore once the process kicks off things are out of your control and you are left praying that the process completes successfully and you end up with a Computer with the latest version of Windows 10 on. The name Anniversary update is also not very appropriate now as they issue two a year. The latest being version 1709 the Fall Creators Update, the previous version was 1703. The numbers actually indicate the release date which therefore was March 2017 and September 2017. Another thing to be aware of is that due to the size of these updates (you have to download a full Operating System which can be as much as 6 - 8 GB) Microsoft phase the roll out so you may get the update three or four months after it is released. That is the reason people are having issues now with an update that was released last September.

When I arrive to look at a Computer the typical scenario is that it is in a startup repair loop. This means it goes round and round trying to repair itself and never succeeds. My job is to break it out of the loop and attempt some recovery processes which rarely succeed. By default on a new build of Windows 10 it does not save recovery points so when you attempt to recover there is nothing to recover from. If you have upgraded from Windows 7 or 8.1 you should be okay but if you have bought a Computer that started out life as a Windows 10 machine recovery by default will almost certainly be off. If you want to check this and turn it on then contact me and I'll explain how to do it, but please bear in mind it does use quite a bit of disk space so if you're already low on disk space it will cause you a problem. After trying various recovery techniques I often have to resort to a clean build of Windows 10. The good news is that I can save all of the customers data but the bad news is that all the programs will be gone and will need to be reinstalled. This is fine if you have all the discs or downloads but bad news if you "borrowed" some software from a friend and don't have the discs. It is also bad news for those that struggle to remember their passwords as I will need all of them to make your Computer look anything like it did before.

The question most of you will be asking now is how can I tell if my update is likely to go wrong and what can I do to prevent it? Based on what I have discovered so far the issues seem to occur where people have poor broadband connectivity and low bandwidth. Whether there is some sort of issue with the download that Windows is working from I don't know. The next most obvious sign is seeing the message that says Windows has failed to update and is reverting to a previous installation. If you see this message more than once you should be afraid!! The customers I have spoken to have seen this a number of times only to find that one day it cannot revert and they are left with nothing. Basically it will keep trying and failing and your best bet is to backup your data now and contact a Computer expert while you still have an Operating System as they should be able to manually apply the update to save you from disaster.

The next question you might want to ask is what does Mark from Churchdown Computers do to protect himself? At this point I will quote my favourite phrase which is "I know I'm paranoid but am I paranoid enough?". If you look at the picture above you will see a clue. I have purchased disk cloning device and before a major update I take a copy of my entire hard disk. You can buy a new disk for less than £40 and take a copy of your current disk. Once you have done this all you need to do is concentrate on backing up your data. If the worst happens to me I will simply put the cloned disk into my machine, update the data from my backup and I'm fully running again in minutes. No need for a rebuild of the Operating System and no need to reinstall all my programs. The cloned disk also covers me for three other things. Firstly it acts as a full backup as at that date and time, secondly if my hard drive ever fails I'm up and running again in minutes and thirdly if ever I get attacked by a ransomware virus and all my files are encrypted once again I'm up and running in minutes. If you are interested in disk cloning just give me a call on 07557 483438 or e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk. You can also fill out the form on the Contact page.

Finally for those who are reading this but aren't a member of the Churchdown Computers Facebook group you may want to consider joining up as there are a few benefits. Members of the Group will see my latest Blogs which will either comprise of Hints and Tips or news stories on Computer related subjects. However, there are two major benefits on top of this. Firstly you will be able to raise questions that you would like answered and secondly if you join the group during March you will be granted access to the FREE telephone support line which covers minor faults that don't require a home visit. This service is normally only available to existing customers. A link to the group is below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1760436304008404

Finding programs quickly on Windows 8.1 & 10

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 13:09:43 GMT

Welcome to new Facebook group members

I would like to start this Blog by welcoming everybody who is reading this because they have joined the new Churchdown Computers Facebook Group. If you have found this Blog by other means and would like to join the Facebook Group then I will quickly summarise the benefits here. Members of the Group will see my latest Blogs which will either comprise of Hints and Tips or news stories on Computer related subjects. However, there are two major benefits on top of this. Firstly you will be able to raise questions that you would like answered and secondly if you join the group during March you will be granted access to the FREE telephone support line which covers minor faults that don't require a home visit. This service is normally only available to existing customers. A link to the group is below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1760436304008404

In the Blog I will be covering topics that group members would like covered and also some topics that I come across regularly when visiting customers homes. Some topics will be straightforward and simple but others maybe more technical if that is what members would like to see.

The first topic is how to find your installed programs quickly on Windows 8.1 and 10. This is an area that some customers have struggled with since switching from Windows XP and Windows 7. The problem arises due to the change in the interface and even when customers have found their programs they are always wondering if there is a faster way. On previous operating systems everybody was familiar with clicking the Start button and then programs but that all changed with Windows 8 and 8.1. It has improved again with Windows 10 but it is still much simpler to use search rather than click on the Start button and hunt for your programs.

My recommendation is to click on Cortana or the search field (as per the photograph that accompanies this article) and type what you are looking for. It doesn't need to be the exact name but should be fairly similar. You will see in the picture I have just typed Word rather than Microsoft Word and the program has been found. Having found it you can just click it to open the program. However, to avoid having to search for it again the next time I recommend clicking the right mouse button on the highlighted program and choosing "pin to taskbar". This will add the program to the bar at the bottom of the screen. Many people like to have a shortcut on the desktop and while this can also be done I recommend having regularly used programs on the taskbar. There are two main advantages of this:

1. If you have six or seven windows open you don't need to minimise them all to find your desktop shortcut.
2. If it's on the taskbar you only need a single click rather than a double click to open the program.

The single click option may seem a minor point but it's interesting to note that many Business customers are heavily focused on carrying out their job function with the minimum number of clicks and some Home customers struggle with the click speed when double clicking and need several attempts to get the right speed to open the program.

Hopefully the above has been useful to some group members but as previously mentioned just let me know the topics you would like covered in the future.

Computer Tuition

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:50:04 GMT

Are you getting the most out of your Computer?

There are many different ways to get the most out of your Computer and the best place to start is by thinking about what you would most like to achieve. This could be just to have a better understanding of how Windows 10 or Microsoft Word work or it could be that you want to know how to get the best energy deal or car insurance deal and don't quite know how to do it.

In many cases investing a small amount of money in some tuition more than pays for itself with the results you can achieve. The best example of this is getting the best Gas and Electricity deal. If you were to invest £30 in an hours tuition you can often get a deal that saves you £200 - £300 a year if you are still on standard energy rates. However, the best part is that some of the energy switching services pay up to £30 cashback 3 months after you have switched, and this effectively means that your tuition was free and you can sit back and enjoy the full benefit of your annual saving.

As mentioned there are many different areas of Computing that you may want to cover and the most recent sessions we have run were on understanding how to keep your machine virus free and how to create mail filters to block unwanted e-mails. Below are some examples of subjects you may wish to cover but here at Churchdown Computers we are happy to cover any subject of your choice.

How to get the cheapest energy deal
How to get the cheapest car insurance
How to upload photos from your camera
How to setup an e-mail account
How to create mail filters
How to setup a Computer and printer
How to keep your Computer Virus free
Finding your way around Windows 10
Using E-Bay, Facebook or Online Banking
Any other subject of your choice

If you are interested in some assistance to get the best out of your Computer please call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page.

Hard Disk Cloning

Sun, 21 Jan 2018 11:50:49 GMT

Protect yourself against Hard Disk Failure and Ransomware

Have you thought about what you would do if your Hard Disk suddenly failed or you got infected by Ransomware like Cryptolocker? You may have a backup of your Data but do you have the correct Operating system disks, licence key, disks for your installed programs and their licence keys?

Without the above the rebuild becomes a tricky task and you may not have some of the programs that you previously had. Having a cloned disk gets you around this so that you are up and running again straight away, with your Operating system and all your programs in place all you need to do is use your backup to bring your data fully up to date.

Disk Cloning is also a solution if you have run out of space and need a bigger Hard Drive but don’t want to start from scratch reinstalling Windows and all your other programs.

Disk Cloning is an easy way to get a point in time Backup and used in conjunction with a good backup strategy is a quick fix to a difficult problem.

Churchdown Computers provide a Disk Cloning service for £45 subject to the following.

You supply a new disk which is equal or greater than the size of the original hard disk
The disk is SATA
The disk doesn’t exceed 3TB
You live within 10 miles of Churchdown

If you live further than 10 miles from Churchdown we are still able to offer this service with the additional mileage charged at 50p per mile both ways. So for instance if you live 15 miles away an additional £5 would be payable. If you are interested in Disk Cloning please call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page.

I have forgotten my Windows Logon Password

Sun, 14 Jan 2018 18:52:34 GMT

Can it be recovered or do I need to rebuild my Computer?

The good news is that even if you have forgotten your Windows Logon Password you can create a Password Recovery Disk or USB Flash Drive and access the password database and set it back to blank. I won't explain how to do this here but you can either find details of how to do it yourself online or call Churchdown Computers who can carry out the reset for you.

You could consider the above to be bad news because if you throw your Computer on the tip hoping your password will keep it secure then of course it won't. However, the situation is worse than this because in reality somebody who wanted your Data would simply remove the hard disk and connect it to their own Computer where they can see all your Data without having to know any password. This again turns into your own advantage if you have forgotten your password and just want the Data recovered off the Hard Disk. Churchdown Computers offer both Data Recovery and Disk erasing services to ensure their customers are safe in both of the above scenarios.

However, we believe prevention is better than cure and our recommendation when buying a new Computer or with your existing Computer is as follows. Once you have completed the setup of an account in your own name always create a second account with another name. Then grant administrative rights to this account. This will mean that if you ever forget your password you will simply be able to logon with the alternative account and reset the password for your main account. You will be up and running again in minutes!! You may be tempted to enable the Administrator account which Microsoft have disabled by default but there is a catch with this particularly in Windows 10. Every time Microsoft carry out a major product update they automatically disable the Administrator account again. I think this is a bit naughty and could leave somebody who is relying on it as a second method of access high and dry.

As always if you need help with any of the above call Mark on 07557 483438, email mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact Page.

Do I really need a strong e-mail password?

Fri, 22 Dec 2017 12:56:53 GMT

There's nothing in my mailbox that really matters

The answer to the question is YES you do need a strong e-mail password and pausing to reflect for a few minutes will allow you to realise why. Whether you realise it or not your e-mail account is now the common link between almost everything you do online and also a great source of information to allow a cyber criminal to guess or answer your security questions. By sifting through your e-mails he can gain an insight into where you bank, who you have a credit card with, who you shop with, your Pet's and Children's names etc.

At this point he already has your e-mail address and password and the first thing he will try is to use those credentials on all the regular sites like e-bay, Paypal and anywhere he can see that you like to shop. Given that many sites use your e-mail address as the username he is already half way there so the next important thing to remember is never use the same password that you use for your e-mail on any other account. If you do and somebody gets into your e-mail they are automatically into everywhere else where your e-mail address is the username.

If you haven't used the same password elsewhere that is good but the key thing to remember next is that banks and other organisations use your e-mail address for the password reset function on their websites. Therefore if he can ascertain where you bank he can click the Forgotten Password link and get a password reset e-mail sent to the e-mail account he already has access to. He then resets the password and he is into your Bank account.

The final thing to remember is that once he is in he will automatically reset your e-mail password. The first thing that you will probably notice is that you have been locked out of your e-mail account, you will spot this before any other criminal activity takes place. It is therefore important to make sure you have a password recovery option set, either using your mobile phone or another e-mail address. If not it's going to be difficult for you to get back in. However, rather than go through this worry please set a strong password to begin with and ideally turn on two factor authentication where you use another device like your mobile phone to verify your access to your e-mail account.

There are many good articles on setting a secure password but I will just say avoid the obvious. Pet's names, partner's names, children's names must all be avoided as must Password1 and even Pa55w0rd. All of those will be defeated within seconds as will any word that's in the dictionary. It's best to join together two or three random words and throw in a few capital letters and a special character.

WEEE Compliant Computer Recycling and Disposal

Sun, 03 Dec 2017 14:02:43 GMT

Hard Disks erased

Do you have old Hard Disks lying around or even complete Computers where you have hesitated to take them to the local tip because of what is contained on the disk? Do you fear that somebody will gain access to your personal data?

Churchdown Computers are able to offer the above services starting at £10. The price of £10 is offered where the hard disk is posted or delivered to 4 Swordfish Close and the disk requires erasing. Zero’s will be written over the disk and it can either be returned for checking if a postage paid envelope is provided, collected or will be securely disposed of with an e-mail confirmation sent. Hard disks can be erased in your own home for £30.

Complete Computers can be securely disposed of for £20 if delivered to 4 Swordfish Close and we also offer a collection service for £30 within a 10 mile radius of Churchdown. Additional Computers can be collected at £15 from the same address.

If you live further than 10 miles from Churchdown we are still able to offer a collection service with the additional mileage charged at 50p per mile both ways. So for instance if you live 15 miles away an additional £5 would be payable.

Computers will be securely disposed of or recycled as appropriate by a fully WEEE Compliant Company.

If you are interested just call Mark on 07557 483438, email me at mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact Page.

How do Viruses get past Antivirus Software?

Thu, 23 Nov 2017 13:00:26 GMT

Things aren't as straightforward as they seem!!

Accessing the Internet provides many opportunities for the unscrupulous person to infect your Computer with Viruses, Malware, Spyware, Greyware, Ransomware and Potentially Unwanted Programs. It is perhaps the many different types of infection that you can stumble across that cause the most confusion. On the one hand you are told that you should only install one brand of Antivirus software but on the other hand you are told that you need to use a multi-vendor approach to remain Virus and Spyware free. Different threats also have different levels of impact on the use of your Computer, some are nuisance based and intended to slow you down but others aim to steal your banking passwords or encrypt all the files on your Computer. Nuisance based programs can be very obvious like a series of pop-ups all over your screen but on the other hand keyloggers that record all your keystrokes are working quietly in the background sending the contents of your session back to the owner of the Virus.

It is only my opinion but I don't believe it's worth paying a lot of money for Antivirus software. Microsoft's own Windows Defender and Security Essentials do a pretty good job and there are also lots of free products out there. The number one cause of getting a virus is usually yourself and if you visit risky websites, say "yes" or "okay" to the wrong thing, open lots of e-mails and attachments from unknown sources then no antivirus product in the world is going to save you. Your own vigilance is therefore the single most important thing in keeping viruses off your Computer.

There are roughly 600 new viruses launched every week and it stands to reason that somebody visiting a website that contains a new virus for which your Antivirus Software doesn't have the necessary updated definition file is going to get it. It is really important to update your Antivirus definition files as soon as updates are available and look out for the updating process being turned off and your Antivirus Software being well out of date. The first thing a good quality virus does is turn off the updating of your definition files so that not only has your AV Software missed it now, it will also miss it in the future. Regular weekly scans are also important to catch any viruses that have sneaked onto your Computer before the definition files were updated.

This paragraph explains how sophisticated some viruses have become and how your AV Software misses them. You can visit an infected website that downloads a small module onto your Computer. This module is capable of passing undetected through the real time scanner of an Antivirus product. Once on your Computer that module calls and downloads several other modules that are also capable of passing undetected through your real time scanner. Once all the components are present on your PC they are assembled together and then the virus launches its payload. Your real time scanner will pickup the virus at this point but it's too late - the damage has already been done to your Computer.

A common cause of ending up with Potentially Unwanted Programs or PUP's is looking for free downloads. Many sites that offer free downloads also bundle in other unwanted programs that find their way onto your Computer. The first step in protecting yourself is to never gamble on a download from an unknown site and secondly even when on a reputable site look very carefully for tick boxes that are pre-ticked during the installation. Remove all the ticks as you proceed so that you only install the software or get the download you originally wanted. Even after taking these steps there is still a risk that a PUP you didn't want has been bundled in with a download.

Of course if you do get infected by a virus having purchased Antivirus Software and then attempt to complain the vendor will either refer to the reasons above or claim that Antivirus Software only protects you against Viruses and Malware, Spyware, Greyware, Ransomware and Potentially Unwanted Programs are all something different.

If you do have concerns that you may have a Virus or are suffering from pop-ups or a slow Computer then Churchdown Computers offer a Computer Health Check using 4 different programs for only £29.99 if you live within a 10 mile radius of Churchdown. This service is also offered to people who live further afield in Gloucestershire with the extra mileage being charged at 50p per mile both ways. So for instance if you are 15 miles away it will be an extra £5. If you are interested just call Mark on 07557 483438, email me at mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact Page.

Anything found will be removed and at the very least you will receive peace of mind that your Computer is 100% clean.

Future articles will discuss Ransomware, how to protect yourself, the risks of Cloud Storage and how I can help with a Backup plan so please bookmark this site to keep up to date.

iPhone X not very happy in the Cold

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:25:17 GMT

OLED Touchscreen becomes unresponsive in cold weather

With winter on its way it seems there is an issue with the iPhone X when you head outside after being in a warm environment. Within a couple of seconds the OLED Touchscreen becomes unresponsive and finger swipes are ignored. The Register added the humorous line "you're colding it wrong" with reference to Apple's comment that customers were holding the phone wrong when Face Recognition stopped working.

Apple have acknowledged the problem and are planning to resolve it with an upcoming ios Firmware update although updating Firmware isn't what you would normally expect to fix this type of issue. Read the full story here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/10/iphone_x_cold/

iPhone X

Tue, 07 Nov 2017 12:56:52 GMT

Is the new iPhone X an incredible feat of Engineering ?

Is the new iPhone X an incredible feat of Engineering or expensive at £1,000? The answer is probably both. It is already in the hands of testers and there are some initial problems with face recognition. Apple have advised users that they're holding the phone in the wrong place when they fail to logon - which isn't that helpful. See the face recognition and technical reviews here:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/31/iphone_x_reviewers_struggle_to_admit_face_id_not_very_good/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/03/iphonex_ifixit_teardown/

If you would like to see the phone completely stripped down then click here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+X+Teardown/98975

Trusting Apple users targeted

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 21:49:18 GMT

Pop-ups attempt to steal Itunes passwords

Apple users should watch out for pop-ups within Apps that are designed to steal your Itunes Password

https://uk.yahoo.com/…/apple-password-scam-warning-00000092…

My First Blog Post

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 21:40:19 GMT

It’s official, I have a blog and I know how to use it.

I have finally decided to take the plunge and add a blog to my site. I have always wanted an easy way to share information with visitors and I’m super excited to start this journey. Keep coming back to my site and check for updates right here on the blog.