The Importance of Email Backup for Small Businesses
Email is the backbone of communication for small businesses. It serves as a record of transactions, agreements, customer interactions, and internal discussions. Losing access to these emails due to accidental deletion, cyberattacks, or technical failures can lead to serious consequences, including financial loss and reputational damage. This is why having a robust email backup strategy...Read Post→
Unlocking Efficiency and Growth: Why Small Businesses and Sole Traders Should Invest in IT Specialists
Running a small business or working as a sole trader can be exhilarating but also challenging. With limited resources and ever-growing technological demands, many entrepreneurs find themselves juggling too many roles. One area where outsourcing can truly make a difference is IT. By engaging an IT consultant or IT support specialist, small businesses and sole...Read Post→
Windows 10 Support Ends October 2025 – What You Need to Know
Come October 14, 2025, Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10, marking the end of an era for one of the most popular operating systems in history. As we approach this significant date, it’s crucial for both businesses and individual users to understand the implications of sticking with an unsupported OS and the downsides...Read Post→
Unlocking the Power of Microsoft 365 for Small Businesses
In today’s digital world, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to leverage the right tools to stay competitive and efficient. One such toolset that has proven indispensable is Microsoft 365. Formerly known as Office 365, Microsoft 365 offers a comprehensive suite of productivity and collaboration tools tailored to meet the unique needs of...Read Post→
Bypass Windows 11 Microsoft Account Requirement on Setup
Microsoft has started enforcing users to sign up with a Microsoft Account when setting up a new Windows based computer. You may have seen this when starting up a new machine. It’s quite frustrating, and in the past, with Windows 10, you could reboot and disconnect the network and you’d be able to bypass...Read Post→
Unable to view HEVC files on Windows 10 or Windows 11? Read this!
If you’re struggling to view photos sent from iPhone devices, or modern smartphones, then on Windows 10 and Windows 11, there’s a little extension you might need to install. By default the Photos app, should handle any images, but for the animated images or short videos you need an additional plugin. Microsoft sneakily tries to...Read Post→
Windows 10 100% Disk Usage – Potential Fixes
Windows 10 is good, but it’s not perfect, if you’ve upgraded from an older version of Windows, then you may be here because your system is hammering your disk usage. Windows 10, seemingly, has a very annoying and disruptive problem that Microsoft don’t seem willing to fix, and no matter how many forums you look...Read Post→
Free Windows 10 Upgrade
Yes. You can still upgrade to Windows 10, for free, from Windows 7. Provided your Windows 7 is genuine, and activated. Follow these steps, to get your free Windows 10 upgrade. Now, it should go without saying that prior to any big updates or upgrades, especially for an operating system upgrade, you should do a...Read Post→
Windows 8 Initial Setup – Bypass Microsoft Account (Use local account)
A very quick guide to the initial Windows 8 Setup screen, to show that you don’t have to use a “Microsoft” account, you can use a local account and get started straight away!
Windows 8 / Windows 8.1 100% Disk Usage – Possible Fixes
*UPDATE* This now stands for Windows 10 as well. You’re probably landing here by searching that as well anyway, so read on. Hopefully these can help. If, like me, you’ve used Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 then you’ll know that once you get used to it, it’s quite good. Yes, there are some bad parts,...Read Post→
Vodafone Mobile Wi-Fi R206 – Setup & Review
An upcoming holiday in a lovely little cottage with no fixed Internet access forced me to upgrade my old Vodafone USB Dongle (They stopped support for it). I was orginally planning on going “Off the grid” for the week, but that isn’t wise, practical, or advisable if you run your own business! Initially I was...Read Post→
Heartbleed – What You Need To Know
Let me explain a little bit. I’m talking about “The Heartbleed Bug”, a recent security threat that is affecting hundreds and thousands of websites. Now, you have more than likely seen a lot of press in the last couple of days about the ‘Heartbleed Bug’, whether it be on the BBC news, or the Radio...Read Post→
Adding a Print Button to Google Chrome
Another nice, simple and useful blog post. This time for all those Google Chrome users out there. Recently a client changed from using Internet Explorer as his main browser, to Google Chrome. The only thing that the user wanted to add, was a “Print” button. Now Google Chrome doesn’t have this as default, but we...Read Post→
Thunderbird Signature Appearing Grey? Read this …
Do you use the Thunderbird email client? Do you use an email signature? If you answered yes to both of those, then have a little read on, you may be in need of a little trick to help your email signature appear as you want it to. Not all “greyed out” and wishy washy looking,...Read Post→
How to Remove “Delta Search”
I don’t do many “How to’s” on my blog, I should do more. The reason for this one is an annoying and irritating search toolbar called “Delta Search”, you may have it installed on Google Chrome, Internet Explorer of Firefox. But one thing is for sure, if you have it installed, it’ll cause problems. Over...Read Post→
Microsoft Security Essentials – Upgrade Today!
Ok, so I’ve been guilty in the past of advising users to use Microsoft Security Essentials as a viable alternative to other free antivirus solutions. That was of course when it first came on the scene and was rated highly alongside other free security suites. Now, however, it’s come to light through various sources, namely...Read Post→
Set an Image in iPhoto as Your Desktop
I’ve decided to do a super quick post on this, as I’ve had a couple of clients ask me how to do this recently. Now apart from the obvious way of changing your desktop image through the System Preferences pane in OSX – you can actually do it direct from iPhoto, an option which they...Read Post→
#somethingsillyinjune 2013
Well, it’s getting close to June, and for me, and 13 others, that means we’re about to embark on our second “SSIJ” challenge, www.ssij.co.uk Last year we ran the South Downs Way in 3 days, that’s over 100 miles. This year however, we’ve decided to double up and do 205 miles of the Pennine Bridleway,...Read Post→
Bogus Microsoft Calls
Now, this is an archived post from my old blog, but the all the content is relevant as unfortunately it’s still happening, please read on. Over the past few months/years I’ve spoken to a number of clients and indeed friends and family members who have had a phone call from companies posing either directly as...Read Post→
LinkedIn Spam Emails
Hello again!! I thought I’d put together a quick blog post as over the past week or so I’ve had 2 of these false LinkedIn invitations come through into my email inbox. Now, on both occasions, my anti-spam program has flagged them as ***SPAM*** I felt that the way they looked was, and were formatted...Read Post→
Strava Thefts – How to Protect Yourself
There’s been a lot in the news recently about “Strava Thefts” and various articles have been published that talk about the relation to how thieves are using Strava, Garmin Connect, and a lot of other fitness tracking apps for that matter, to track where people live and therefore target them and steal bikes. It’s nothing...Read Post→
Add a Start Button to Windows 8
Seeing as most of the Windows 8 installations I’ve done recently have followed a very similar path, in that the user has asked “Where’s the start button??”. I thought I would put together a quick YouTube tutorial on how to install your own Start button with just a few simple steps. I’m using a program...Read Post→
Operating System Updates – Windows
I thought I’d do a quick post on updating your operating system, Windows only I’m afraid, I’ll be posting a Mac and Linux one in the next few days. Whether you’ve got a desktop, laptop or netbook – this guide will apply for all. Windows Update – To keep things running smooth on your computer...Read Post→
Pink Facebook Scam
Quick post here about staying secure on Facebook and not allowing rogue applications to post on your wall. Have a read of this, and watch the video to see how to remove the rogue applications from your Facebook profile. Sophos – Pink Facebook Scam – How to Remove!
Basic Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
Basic Windows Keyboard Shortcuts! I’m going to give you a few basic keyboard tricks, all based on the “Windows Key”, which I hope, will help you speed up your computing experience. So here’s a couple of keyboard shortcuts that I use on a daily basis and find they really help – especially when multi-tasking! First...Read Post→