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How to make Windows 8 more User Friendly

Posted By on May 13, 2013

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If you’ve upgraded your PC recently to Windows 8 you may find that you’re completely baffled with even some of the smallest tasks. Even to the point that shutting down the computer is a complex task compared to what users have been used to in previous versions of Windows.

The main reason why Windows 8 can be so confusing for new users is due to its lack of a start bar, which has been present in every version of Windows since Windows 95.

There is one simple step that you can take in order to make Windows 8 more user friendly and look more like the Windows of old, and that step is to install a start menu for Windows 8. There are several different sources and versions of start bars for Windows 8, however after testing a few different variations the best one we’ve found is provided by IObit. You can download and install the IObit start menu for Windows 8 for free from the link below.

IObit Windows 8 Start Menu

Once installed, you can also set Windows 8 to start in the Desktop view mode rather than in the metro theme, so every time you turn on the PC you will be in the familiar desktop mode.




Yahoo E-mail Accounts Hacked Multiple Times This Year

Posted By on April 16, 2013

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Despite Yahoo’s best efforts, users of yahoo mail continue to be reporting incidents of email account hacking. Hackers continue to defy Yahoo’s efforts to boost security and fix vulnerabilities in its Yahoo Mail service. Yahoo Mail users first reported seeing their accounts compromised as far back as early January. We’re now in March, and it appears that Yahoo still has a big problem on its hands.

Behind Microsoft and Google, Yahoo is the third largest email provider in the world. Even if a small percentage of accounts are affected, this can account for millions of users having their personal information shared, stolen and exposed. The attacks typically involve users getting an email from a friend or colleague or even a completely unknown party containing a link. The link may lead to the account being hijacked and sending emails to the victim’s contacts.

Regardless of whether the flaws haven’t been patched properly or if these are new flaws, it’s simply unacceptable for Yahoo Mail users to have their accounts hijacked so easily and for Yahoo to stay passive for so long. Given the clear lack of a fix for the issue, despite Yahoo’s assurances that all is well, the company may see a large decline in users in the coming weeks.

On a side note, if you are a business and you’re using free email accounts such as Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, then for the future you should be thinking about and planning to switch your e-mail to a more professional account. As an example, if you own your own domain and have a website that is being hosted then you should think about an email address such as john@yourdomain.com. The main reasons why it is more advantageous to use this kind of account can be seen below.

Yahoo and other free e-mail accounts are fine for personal use, but for businesses there are potential issues. There are two main issues with free email addresses, the first being when you send e-mails out to people you are more likely to end up in their junk mail because free e-mail addresses have a lot higher ratio of spammers than any other. This issue is an especially critical one if you are using a free e-mail address for sales and marketing as this will limit your potential reach for any e-mail marketing campaigns.

The second problem is that, generally other businesses or customers, depending on your market, will not trust a free email account if they have never met you before, because perception plays a crucial role in the consumer purchase decision process. How will they perceive you and your products and services if they see that your email address is a free internet one? Probably cheap and untrustworthy.

If you have been affected by your yahoo or other free email account being hacked, or if you feel that you need a better and more professional e-mail provider, then please feel free to give us a call and we may be able to provide you with a better option going forward.




Official Support for Windows XP and Office 2003 to Cease in 2014

Posted By on March 22, 2013

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In 2002 Microsoft introduced its Support Life-cycle policy based on customer feedback to have more transparency and predictability of support for Microsoft products. As per this policy, Microsoft Business and Developer products, including Windows and Office products, receive a minimum of 10 years of support. Support for Windows XP and Office 2003 will cease on April 8, 2014.

This means if your business is currently using Windows XP or Office 2003 then you should be planning on upgrading your systems before April 2014. After April 8, 2014, there will be no new windows updates for both XP and Office 2003, which means that there will be no new security patches or any kind of support for these products whatsoever. Running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 in your environment after April 2014 will mean that your system will be highly exposed to any new security threats that hackers can find and exploit in XP and Office 2003, below are just some of the issues you will likely experience:

  • Software: Just as is the case for Windows 98 and Windows 2000 now, driver releases for new hardware that comes out will start to become non-existent for XP around or slightly after the April 2014 timeline.
  • Hardware: Customers who purchase new hardware even for otherwise fully capable systems may start to run into compatibility issues.
  • Security & Compliance Risks: Unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security risks.

As a Microsoft Certified Partner Mad Computer Solutions can help you understand the best options to meet your personal and business needs. There are many options for small and medium businesses considering moving to a modern Operating System or PC with the latest productivity and collaboration tools.

If you are currently running Windows XP or Office 2003 in your business and you haven’t given any thought of upgrading your systems yet, I would suggest you start piecing together a plan as soon as possible, as whatever size business you are, you will need to ensure that you have budgeted for such an upgrade to your business infrastructure.

As always, if you require any advice, help or support in planning or implementing such an upgrade, please feel free to give us a call on 0845 272 2373 and see how we can help you and your business.




Safeguarding Your Business Data

Posted By on March 22, 2013

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Data is at the heart of businesses, it’s crucial for you to protect it. To protect your organization’s data, you need to implement a data backup and recovery plan. Backing up files can protect against accidental loss of user data, database corruption and hardware failures.

Imagine that you are using your computer at work when suddenly all of the lights go out and the computer shuts down. After a few minutes the power is restored. You reboot your computer only to find that an error message appears. It tells you that a fatal error occurred, and that some important data, let’s say your accounts for example has been either lost or corrupted. Situations such as this happen all too often, the good news is that there are key safeguards, one of which is data backup which will protect from such circumstances.

The reasons of data loss can fall into these main categories;

  • Human error – deleting information from a PC by mistake, the misplacement of DVDs, CDs or media, and errors in administrating databases.
  • Intentional Crimes – acking, H  Hacking, viruses, data theft and espionage.
  • Natural Causes – Power failures, hardware failures, software failures, software bugs and also any kind of disaster such as a fire or flood.

With a little preparation, individuals and businesses can rest easy that if catastrophe strikes, they can be well prepared to recover and be back up and running in as little time as possible.

Mad Computer Solutions can provide you and your business with professional cloud online backup services in order to ensure that your company’s data is secure and can be recovered in the event of hardware failures, natural disasters or any other kind of problem.

Backup is just one part of ensuring the safety of your business when something goes wrong. If you want to ensure that your business is completely protected and capable of recovering from any kind of ‘disaster’ then why not have a look at our disaster recovery planning service.




Computer Repair Halesowen

Posted By on September 12, 2012

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Are you having problems with your computer? Is it running slow and not at the peak performance that it once was at? Has your PC had it? Then MAD IT!

Over time PC’s get clogged up with both dust and unwanted software. Both of these cause unnecessary strain on the computer system causing it to slow down and run at poor speeds.

Cleaning out dust may sound as simple as cleaning anything else but there is sensitive components inside a computer which can easily get damaged if not done correctly, why take the risk when you can let a professional take care of the work for you?

As we move further into the digital age more and more documents are being stored on computers as well as the increase in online banking, thus making it vitally important to make sure that the computer is secure from any unwanted information stealing malware.

Computer Repairs Halesowen

Like all machinery, over time things wear, systems get clogged up and things eventually break. Has this happened to your computer, then we can help. With our No fix No Fee solution we can give you peace of mind that your computer is in professional hands. With both onsite and in our local Halesowen workshop we are tailored to suit you.


PC Health Check Halesowen

Here at MAD Computer Solutions we offer a professional PC Heath Check service, which includes but is not limited to:

  • Virus, Malware and Adware check & removal to ensure a clean PC.
  • Dust removal to make sure your machine isn’t overheating
  • Microsoft updates ensuring all your software is up to date
  • Hard Drive checks to remove any errors
  • Defragmentation to free up wasted space
  • System diagnosis
  • Uninstall old and unused programs to speed up your PC

Remote Support Halesowen

Sometimes remote support can be quicker, more efficient and cheaper for software based problems. Rather than visiting our workshop in Halesowen or have an engineer come for a site visit, a faster solution can be delivered to you through the use of remote internet support.


Data Recovery Halesowen

Your data is precious to you, from work to home life, from memories to essays we at MAD Computer Solutions understand that when the worst comes to the worst, loosing your data can be saddening. With many nearby schools and colleagues in the Halesowen area it can be sickening to loose work which you’ve spent hours on only for a computer error to loose it for you. With our specialist software we can attempt to get your software back with our No Fix No Fee guarantee.




Peak Time Internet

Posted By on July 26, 2012

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Did you know that the time of the day can dramatically affect your download and upload speeds for the internet?

Many Internet Services Providers conveniently ignore this factor when advertising their download speeds and also their tests are sometimes from right next to the exchange. This distance will falsify the speeds obtained if you live further away as distance matters.

A graph obtained from the BBC using uSwitch’s information is shown below.
A graph showing how broadband speed is affected by time of day. Graph from BBC who obtained information from uSwitch.
“Not many internet users enjoy the maximum headline broadband speeds offered by providers, and certainly not during the working week,”

-uSwitch’s technology expert Ernest Doku.

The graph quite clearly shows a difference in 35%, The speed has been proven differ from an average of 35% up to 70% when comparing the early hours of the morning to peak time.

Almost half of broadband users are now on packages with advertised speeds above 10Mbps but the average broadband speed is 6.8Mbps according to Ofcom.

So in conclusion, when checking what deals are available for your internet packages, make sure the package you opt for will give you the speeds they advertise during peak time. Otherwise you could be paying for a service you won’t receive.




Big Boobs?

Posted By on July 24, 2012

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Not quite what you would think, a harmless chunk of code labelled as “big boobs” can cause quite the controversy for one of the worlds leading computing companies, Microsoft.
In recent news a small hexadecimal string “0xB1GBOOB5” was discovered when when developers of the Linux kernel found it in a piece of software which helps a Microsoft program with with Linux open source software.

The piece of code executed every time that Microsoft program ran a virtual version of Linux.
“Somone (sic) was trying to be funny, I guess” as said by Kernel hacker Paolo Bonzini.
Microsoft was deeply embarrised by the mistake and quickly made a statement:
“We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologise for the offensive string,”

Also adding that they had prepared a patch that would change the spelling of the string in an update to come. Ironically the first form of the code, as pointed out by developer Dr Matthew Garrett was spelt as “0X0B00B135”, a rough form of letters and numbers which translates to “boobies”.
“Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys’ club where girls aren’t welcome,” had left speculation of possible sexism within the world of computing as noted by Dr Garrett.

The discovery of the string and the comments rasied by Dr Garrett have left a large debate on the Linux mailing list about whether use of the string was sexist and how male developers should conduct themselves. On Dr Garrett’s blog he questioned how easy it would to change the string considering that numerous services including Microsoft’s Azure cloud service are believed to make extensive use of it.

In early June, Microsoft suffered another embarrassment over ‘”vulgar” language used during a song and dance routine at a company conference.




How to write a blog

Posted By on July 23, 2012

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Writing a blog isn’t as scary as you think – everyone can do it. A blog is like a conversation with a friend where you impart knowledge and share ideas as well as thoughts. A well-written blog will drive traffic to your website and hopefully people will stay long enough to buy the product or service that you are selling or they will tell their friends about your blog especially if they feel they can learn something from it.

Some blogs can be very boring because they just concentrate on one product or service and how to sell it and those tend not to keep your attention and you feel less inclined to linger. Ideally, you need to add pictures to break up the page a little and make it more interesting. Talking about other things too such as associated products or services, for example, if you are a wedding photographer try talking about venues, stationery, the latest trends and maybe include tips on how to choose a photographer. People love free things so tips are a great way of imparting knowledge and keeping people interested.

You may be wondering how you can drive traffic to your website via a blog and again this is not as difficult as you may think. Some of the best websites have a blog incorporated into them and this is easily done by using WordPress because your site can then be themed to your business brand. Each time you update your blog tweet about it and include a link to your blog that way people will go and read it, you can also use RSS feeds on your blog too so that when people subscribe to your blog they receive notification that you have posted something new. Adding tags to your blog will also help because people tend to search the internet for snippets of information and by using words that appear in your blog as tags then these make your blog more searchable. Remember too that if you comment on another person’s blog then add a link back to your own blog so that they can then follow you.

Top Tips for your Blog

  1. Make the blog interesting by adding photographs to break up the text
  2. Add RSS Feeds and Share buttons so that you can ping out to other search engines and your subscribers
  3. Add tags as these will help your SEO and make your blog more searchable.
  4. Ask questions of your readers – this will make them think and they will come back for more.
  5. Share your knowledge to demonstrate that you are an expert in your field.
  6. Be conversational
  7. Add links to other webpages that you may own
  8. Allow comments – that way you can build up a regular readership
  9. Offer to write a guest blog for someone and return the favour by letting someone write for you, that way you get some blogging experience whilst at the same time putting a different perspective on things and offering your own readers something a little different.
  10. Try and blog regularly.

Now it’s your turn..it really is that easy.




Remote IT support for your home computers

Posted By on February 3, 2011

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Welcome to the MAD world of computer support.
Remote IT Support PackFor both small business and home computer users, finding reliable support for your computer problems is time consuming and often expensive. Many local stores will require you to take your computer to their workshops for repair, leaving you without a computer for days, sometimes weeks.

With our Remote computer support subscription MAD computers help you with your everyday PC problems from virus and spyware removal, to friendly help and advice about your IT systems. 90% of computer problems are able to be resolved remotely, with no visit to your home or office required.

Telephone our Remote Computer Support helpdesk today on 0843 2893818 to find out how MAD Computer Solutions may help you.




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