Call comes in, client says they downloaded Adobe and now they have junk all over their computer, their search engine is messed up and they have pornographic ads on their google page. Yep, it’s happening! Just downloading an easy program like Adobe can do this to your computer, but come on….Adobe Reader is in Google right? Of course it is, but not at the top of your Google search. It’s about 4 down. See my picture below?
It shows you a basic search in Google for Adobe Reader I just did. The real one is the 4th one down, under the “Ads” that is sometimes hard to notice. I know this because the website is actually an Adobe website, not Adobereader.com or something of the like. Very tough to tell these days folks!
But hey Lisa, Adobe is downloaded and works, so what happened?
You did get Adobe, but it was bundled in a “download manager” filled with other junk! Search engine fun and other programs that are annoying. Sometimes you can download up to 20 programs! I have spent over an hour before removing this junk.
So please be mindful when Googling and if you are not sure, don’t do anything and call us to install the programs properly, which will end up being cheaper than a virus removal.
Lisa
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When you set up Outlook for the first time, welcome to RSS feeds friends! You get them set up in the installation process. You sometimes have a chance to not turn them on, but most people just blaze right by that option, so most people have RSS feeds in their Outlook. Let’s start with what RSS feeds are…and what they can do for you and how to turn them off.
RSS means “Rich Site Summary” or the average person calls it “Really Simple Syndication” or just RSS.
RSS feeds are a way to get updates from your favorite websites in your Outlook. It could be news alerts from MSN or a blog post from your favorite blogger (like me!). If you look down the folder list in your Outlook, you may see RSS with tons of blue numbers. This is common, I see it everyday here with my clients. See the example to the right for where my RSS feeds lives. For the purpose of this blog, instead of removing RSS (which you can do and we will cover in a bit) I saved up a bunch to show you. See that MSNBC News one? 8794 feeds that I didn’t really sign up for, Outlook signs you up by default when you agree to RSS feeds in the setup process. This will be removed now!
How to remove RSS feeds
In your Outlook, you need to find your email settings. See pic below. You can click on the “remove” button on each and get rid of them.
Now how do you add an RSS feed from your favorite blog? Go to the top of my website and you will see the RSS feed button. My site says “Posts” but on some websites you may see “Feeds or RSS” with the commonly known logo. If you are new, you can click on the “subscribe” button and then those feeds will be in your Outlook or whatever other program you use.
I will start with the main reason – knowledge. Not every computer repair or support company has the knowledge to support what you need help with. These software support companies put in the time and energy to learn the products on their own so they can support you. But there are few people that know it, so the rates are higher. Compare this to knick knacks you buy at Target. Their section for fun house decor is full of cheap, under $50 trinkets for your home. But if you want something really unique, you go to an antique store where people hand-picked cool stuff. You pay $500 for that one piece that wows people and gives your home a little something extra. Specialty software companies are like antique stores, we know what we are doing and can get things done faster. We know people, the software and how to scoot past first level support (when we call into companies if need be). We also know the quick bugs that the software can create and how to fix them fast. We work in these applications all day, fixing, repairing and supporting is what we know well.
Basic tech support should be relatively affordable; the rates at CTG are competitive in our market and offer quick fixes. But if you are using specialty software such as ACT, CRM systems, Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 or need server work done, expect higher expenses with your tech support.
Does this make sense? I hope so. I’ve had some clients ask why my Outlook pricing is now a bit more expensive. I have spent 13 years working with Outlook on many different levels; I am fast and fix many problems in 15 minutes or less. If you asked the technician down the street in a local repair shop to fix it, even though their rate may be very low…they could spend hours trying to figure out the problem and not fix it. The may even need to do other things to your Outlook that would make your head spin, like reinstalling, starting from scratch or worse. Their expertise is probably not in Outlook and that costs you more time and money. Hire a knowledgeable software technician and get back to work faster – it will cost less in your time and money.
Call That Girl offers Outlook (all versions), Hosted Exchange Transition Assistance (old POP/IMAP email to exchange, where everything synchs) and is now in training for Microsoft Office 365. If your company is interested in working with us on a beta testing level, we are very interested in talking to you about your company and moving to the robust work of online cloud application support for your IT needs. Call today for a consultation if you’re in need of any of the above. I look forward to helping! 612-865-4475
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Is anyone else out there as irritated as I am about Skype not closing or quitting? It’s like the family member that won’t leave at Christmas! Even though I am a technician, not every annoyance deserves my precious time. Just like you, I sometimes just wait until I can’t stand something anymore and deal with it. So let’s deal with it together. First we will deal with Skype just always starting up when your computer turns on.
If your Skype starts up with your computer and hangs out at the bottom of your computer with the rest of your apps, your Skype is set up to “Launch at startup” of your computer. So yea, it’s always there. Here is how you can disable this…
Disable start up in Skype itself. Open Skype and go to “Tools” and select “Options”–then uncheck the box “start Skype when I start Windows”. Then it’s gone and should be gone for good!
But now, let’s say you start Skype up and use it, chat away and then you want to get out. You can sign out, or quit…but guess what? It will probably still linger like that awkward cousin at Christmas! I want it gone, I hate seeing it at the bottom of my screen! First, I try right clicking on the app and choose the option, “Quit Skype.” It will ask if you are sure you want to quite Skype and inform you that you won’t be able to send or recieve messages anymore. Select “Quit” and it should go away, but a lot of time this doesn’t work. So then I go off and kill it in the task manager. Really, that’s the best way I have found to get rid of it. For now, it’s not that important of a tool for me to put much time into figuring out why the thing won’t close properly…other than Skype did it as a master marketing plan to keep it in your face every day and night.
Lisa
Simple blog today folks.
I hear this on occasion, “I found your email in my junk folder,” so I felt there was value to writing up a blog about the junk/spam folder. When I am remoted into a computer repairing Outlook, I usually have to do an email test to insure it’s sending/receiving and many times…my email doesn’t show up on the client’s computer. The same email is in my inbox, but when I reply, it’s in their junk folder. It wasn’t junk! It was a test email and that should not be flagged period. But it is. The subject line was just “test”.
We have two things to discuss.
These two things are important to remember and you might have important emails sitting in your junk folder. I check mine daily and find tons of little goodies sitting in there. Emails from colleagues, clients, my staff, it doesn’t matter…it finds its way there. A good reminder for you is to check your junk/spam folder on occasion and make sure you’re not missing an important email.
