Category: UncategorizedVista? Should I downgrade to XP?
Many of my clients have purchased new laptops that has Vista preloaded on it. Many of you have software that is not up to speed with Vista. Should you downgrade or try to get your software up to speed?
Here are my thoughts…
I have been using Vista since January 2007. Yes, Vista is buggy and does things that really bother me. I am also a technician and can fix my own problems (and enjoy trying to fix those problems:). You the customer…can usually only get so far until you decide it’s not worth using Vista.
First thing you may want to consider is making a list of problems are you experiencing since the upgrade to Vista. Some problems are just “configuration issues” that I can assist with. Some problems are seriously the Vista operating system and you may need to go back to XP if your work depends on it.
Second thing is check to make sure that your software is Vista ready. Even though it installs (usually you will get an error during installation that tells you if it’s not Vista ready) it may need to be updated on the company website. Check with the software company website and verify. You also may need what is called “a patch” to make it work on Vista. You can also google the issue and see if others on the net are experiencing the same issues.
Third thing is Call That Girl (612-865-4475) for a phone consultation. I do offer short conversations for free to give you an idea if you should consider staying on Vista or downgrading back to XP. If a home visit is required, we can discuss that. I can also assist via the phone if need be.
Final note: When people tell me “oh Vista, I have heard bad things about that…” I say to them, “Well, if XP was perfect, I wouldn’t have a job right now”
There is a ring of truth to that:)
Please post comments or questions about Vista! thanks and…
Have a good Thursday!
Lisa
Hey everybody! Here’s the start of a long line of postings from the fantastic intern team at the one and only, Call That Girl! For all you loyal bloggers, this will be something new to look forward to to distract yourself from work for another five minutes each day. Each of us interns will blog a certain day every week, mine happens to be Tuesday, so keep a look out to find out what we’re up to every week. Things may or may not get a little crazy…
With that said, now would be an excellent time for an introduction. My name is John Krull and I am a rising Senior at the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, MN. I am majoring in Business Management; Marketing. I enjoy playing the drums, I’m addicted to fast food and I can’t get enough of Neil Young.
Currently, I am masterminding a plan to take over the internet advertising game with Call That Girl! It is crucial for our growth and livelyhood that we get our name out there for everyone to see and what better medium than the internet. I am doing some investigating into possible outlets (websites, blogs and maybe even printed periodicals) where Call That Girl would get its name out in the best possible manner. As always, the best advertising is word of mouth, so if you have had a good experience with Call That Girl, be sure to tell your friends. It will make us feel good and you as well knowing that you did something to help out your favorite tech support company!
That’s all for now. Tune in next Tuesday for another update on what’s going behind the scenes with me at Call That Girl!
I am not a Facebook Guru, but I do know a few things about Facebook and what’s been going on for some time….Facebook hacks and viruses!
PASSWORDS:
Do you remember a few messages ago I reminded you to change your password on Facebook and make it different from your email account? I recommend that again! Please change it NOW!
I would also go and change your Facebook account password to something unique too. Why?
….Because I have seen four hacks this week alone! All different ones too. One client of mine called in despair, she was doing something in Facebook, clicked on a link and the next thing you know, her Internet Explorer lost connectivity. 2 other friends of mine apologized to their friends because their friends got messages from them that was NOT from them. I just received a message from an old high school pal and I know she didn’t write this…this is the actual message.
VIRUS!
Facebook and MySpace has a virus called Koobface. The virus hijacks your account…From an Kapersky labs with short edit:
This worm creates a range of commentaries to friends’ accounts. Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, which targets Facebook users, creates spam messages and sends them to the infected users’ friends via the Facebook site. The messages and comments include texts such as Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; Hello; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments and many others.
PROTECT YOURSELF:
*If you see a strange message from a friend, delete it.
*Then google it to see what it was
*Inform your friends about the message, they may not know about it
*Report it to facebook security http://www.facebook.com/security
QUIZZES?: Even this has me worried, those quizzes! I know they are fun, but read the small print…(pull your profile info, photos, YOUR FRIENDS INFO…and “content”…) What content? Now we have to read the TOU! (terms of use). ARGH!
Should you do them?
…with caution
*Don’t give out any personal information or passwords,etc.
*Be careful of the links that take you to off Facebook sites.
MY OPINION ONLY: Facebook is for people you know (in my opinion) there is no value to have 1000’s of friends on Facebook unless you are using it for marketing/advertising. Because I had so many folks from my online social networking world ask to friend me on my Facebook account, I created a business Facebook account. I keep them separate. I use them for different reasons.
Continue to enjoy Facebook, I do! I have been having a blast catching up with old friends, but we have to remember that the hackers also are having fun ruining our days and giving us computer problems. If you have a question about something in regards to Facebook and security, feel free to shoot me an email. I am not a Facebook Guru, but should be able to point you in the right direction if/when you have an issue.
Have a great week everyone!
I got an email from someone today and they said that they didn’t get my email because it was in their junk email. I don’t understand why people aren’t checking their junk mail more often because I check mine everyday, like it’s another inbox.
Why is that? Because I have found no matter how high or low my junk mail settings are, some regular emails sneak in there! So I might as well just turn the whole thing off and just start adding each email as just so I know that it’s junk. But what’ s the point, I will still check my junk email because I don’t trust it! ARGH. I don’t know what is worse, one overloaded inbox or checking two of them.
I love Outlook 97 before the junk email box existed. It was just easier to delete unwanted emails and create rules to force them to the garbage. Seriously.
So the point of this post is this…I recommend checking your junk mail everyday and add folks to the “not junk list”. You may be suprised to find a few emails in there that you were supposed to get and never did, but did. I will only take a few minutes and maybe, just maybe someone won’t be thinking, “wow, he never replied back…” Or if you’re getting way too much junk email, maybe it’s time for you to get a fresh email account that you only give to the “important peoples” and keep that old one for the junk. Just a thought.
To close: I know also that it’s not the subject line that sends it off to Junk Mail. I just looked at my junk mail and even the most simple words in the subject line get shoved down to no-whereville. So with that said, I turned the junk mail feature off. I will do it myself, then I won’t miss anymore emails.
Rant over!
What happened? I didn’t change any settings, the router/modem is blinking. What gives!
Happy Monday and welcome to my world today, the world of my boinky internet! I hate it, but thank goodness I have to go to work in a couple of hours and will come home to an unboinky internet. That’s how my computer rolls in this house.
Sometimes internet goes boinky for no reason, meaning….it’s not your computer, your internet provider or you router/modem.
A few things you can do when your internet is slow/not working is to reboot your computer. I did that this am and my internet came back, but then went boinky again….then came back. I think my computer is still sleeping to be honest. It is 6:37 am.
So what if you reboot and it’s boinky again? I usually say at this point to just turn off your computer and let it rest. So many of us are in a hurry, but if you haven’t changed anything….it could be just a bad connection that will fix itself shortly. On the computers time, not yours.
In the past 13 years of my computer repair career, I can’t tell you how I use the simple methods for troubleshooting and….it works. Just turning off a computer will often fix many issues. I know many folks who leave their computers on for days/months and with no reboot, things just go boinky eventually.
If you restart the computer and the internet is still boinky, then it’s safe to say that you can check the router/modem. (Usually unplugging the power cord for a minute does the trick) If those are blinking after a power cord unplug.. then call your internet provider. I will personally almost never call Comcast as I can’t stand doing the phone que (*Press one for this, *Press two for that, argh!)…but I will if need be. They aren’t perfect either and sometimes have to reset things on their end. But it’s always good to start with the easy stuff on your end.
But it’s always a good idea to do some minor things on your end. I never recommend going into your computer network settings and reconfiguring them. I have seen some folks delete some files or change things that take me awhile to fix. Just do the simple stuff.
That’s it today folks, hope to see you all at the Rudolph’s lunch! I’ll be there!
Lisa
Last night I was talking to a friend about email and how out control people let it get. I have a few concerns about email. My biggest is why it takes some people days to reply to a simple email. But then I thought about it and I do the same thing. I read it, but won’t reply right away. My biggest problem is that I have 5 ways to check my email and only one of them is where I actually “control” where the emails go. Aka…have folders to sort them in and run rules.
Here is my take on it…
Email Etiquette
Normally, when YOU email someone, you want something from them, have a question, need information or are sending them requested information. As the recipient receives the email, they read it but then mentally sort you into a “mental folder”…
Reply now! She’s important and I need her to communicate back right now!
Ah, I can reply later...This is not that important, but tomorrow I will have more time to reply properly.
oh crap, this again….This is far from important, but you should reply at in the next week or so.
the Dread….I seriously didn’t want this email and really…I don’t need to reply and I won’t. (((delete)))
Now what you should be doing is having folders set up and run some rules to organize all this email. I have about 50 folders for my Outlook in the office. I have rules running for many different topics. Example? All my Linkedin emails go to the “Linkedin” folder. I can see when I have new email and as Linkedin is important, my clients come first. I breeze the Linkedin folder as I see new items, but it’s usually not important.
What about the non-folder items? I read the email, then move each email to different folders.
“Stuff to do later” (which means I may get to it, maybe I won’t)
And then I have oodles of subcategories because not all these emails require a reply or did and I replied and it’s now in a folder for archiving.
My inbox is always clean when I leave the office at the end of the day.
Newsletter Etiquette
We all gets tons of “spam/junk”. What constitutes junk or spam? To me, getting a newsletter from someone I met at a networking event or via LinkedIn is not spam or junk. What is? Viagra and emails from Nigeria telling me I was willed $E100000. How do you handle the junk/spam from someone you know or met F2F or online? Here are my simple rules:
If they are giving information that has value, I keep it.
If they are pushing workshops or just info about themselves, I unsubscribe. I get way too much email a day and know who they are and how to contact them, so it’s just best to get off that list.
Yes, it may seem rude, but I have a huge database that I email a few times a month and see people unsubscribe to my newsletters and many are my clients. They aren’t interested in what I have to say about this and that, etc. I get it! I don’t care….so don’t think you are going to hurt someone’s feelings, business is business and email is alot of my workday.
Last tip! DO NOT have 100’s of unread email either! It only brings you down and you should clean that up and start fresh! I love helping clients clean up their emails….it feels refreshing for them and me. If you’re interested in having me help, I can do that remotely and over the phone.
Happy Wed!
