Author: callduane

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Password and Account Disasters:

I know I have talked a lot about passwords in the past, but I just had an incident with a new customer that really drives the point home on making sure you know what accounts you have and how to get into them. Not knowing what accounts you have could be devastating to your business. 

Let me start at the beginning. A friend recommended that someone call me when they could not get their email working. No problem usually. I get a lot of calls like this. The difference this time was that his computer had also quit working, and his hard drive was encrypted so I could not even get to his information. This was going to take some detective work.

The first thing I did was replace his hard drive to get his computer working again. We saved the old drive in case we could at some point get into his Microsoft account to get the encryption key to access this drive. He wasn’t sure if he had a Microsoft account. He had always had people help him with his technology and he didn’t pay attention to the information. He wasn’t even sure who helped him with his email and accounts involving this type of stuff.

Once we had his computer running again, we attempted to login to any accounts using the email addresses he knew about. He did have his phone, so we hoped to be able to authenticate these accounts using his phone. We found two personal Gmail accounts and we thought we were well on our way.

Using the Gmail accounts we attempted to log into his business email account. We were unsuccessful at this. We finally figured out that he had set up his domain at GoDaddy, so we reached out to them and using his phone number we were able to get into his account, but it did not have any email accounts listed, just the domain. I will also mention this took us a few days for GoDaddy to give us access to this account.

At this point we tried to just set up his email using GoDaddy, but they informed us that he already had email set up with Microsoft and we needed to contact them to either use the one set up there or have them release our domain so we could set up his email at GoDaddy. We elevated the support, but they kept saying they could not do anything, and we needed to contact Microsoft.

With the help of GoDaddy, we finally found a phone number for Microsoft and actually talked to a person. They helped us set up a ticket for the Microsoft system and we thought we were finally moving forward. They told us this will take a few more days and they would email or call us. This actually took more than a week and when we finally heard from them, they told us they could only help us if we were the global administrator on the account. I gave them every email address he could remember but they said none of those were the global admin.

It turns out the global admin was someone from a company that helped him set this up years ago and he was not sure of the company name. He is currently going through old receipts trying to find this company that he isn’t sure of the name. This has gone on for more than a month and his business is suffering due to this. In addition, I have spent many hours working on this, so he is also racking up a bill with me.

Why am I telling you this? This is a worst-case scenario of not having all of the information for your accounts. If someone sets up your domain, email and website make sure you know how to access all of these accounts. Hopefully your relationship with the company that sets everything up will stay intact but sometimes companies close down, and people move away. It is also helpful to know what email account is connected to your Office365 account. 

These are probably the most popular accounts, but this goes for any software on your computer. If you don’t know how to access your accounts, you can end up losing a lot when disaster strikes. If you are not sure about your accounts, I can help you get control over them. It is much easier when you have a working connection to those accounts. If you wait until your computer crashes this becomes much more difficult.

The person listed above thinks this might cause him to shut down his business. I don’t want this to happen to anybody. If you have accounts out there and you are not sure how to access them, let me know and I can help. It is best to attempt this before your computer breaks or your previous vendors disappear.

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National Clean Out your Computer Day

Yes, February 10th was National Clean Out your Computer Day. I know most of you probably have not celebrated this day before and are probably wondering why I even mentioned it. This just gives me an excuse to take you through some very important computer maintenance issues that usually get overlooked and can make a big difference for your computer.

So how do you celebrate this day? 

The first thing is to get rid of unnecessary files that are on your computer. The files I am referring to are the temp files that are created when updates happen. There are tools built into both PCs and Macs that will remove these files, but I like to use a program called CCleaner (ccleaner.com) to do the job. This program is available for both platforms and will go through your computer and get rid of all of those temporary and unneeded files. It will also work in the background and tell you when you should run the cleaner again. They have a paid “Professional” version and a free version. The free version should be just fine.

The second thing you should do is look at your desktop and move any files stored there to your documents folder. By keeping your desktop relatively empty you will know if a new icon appears on it. Many times, unwanted programs that you accidentally install will drop an icon onto your desktop. If you notice anything suspicious you can take action to remove it. I am always available to remove those pesky programs that just happen to appear.

The third thing to do is make sure your backup is working properly. If it isn’t working correctly now is a good time to fix this so you won’t lose any documents in case of a computer failure. If you are not sure how to check your backup or you don’t have a backup, I can help with this also. If you are using a cloud service like OneDrive or DropBox as a backup, you might want to watch this video since those are not really backups but syncs.  

The last thing is to make sure that your anti-virus is working properly. If it has expired and you are no longer protected, your data could be in jeopardy. I have written a lot and made videos about anti-virus software. If you need one, I can also help with that.

Now that you have done all of these things your computer will hopefully be more organized, maybe a little faster and definitely safer. So Happy National Clean Out your Computer Day!!

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What Kind of Printer Should I Get?

I get this question a lot. The real answer is not so simple. There are a lot of factors that go into purchasing a printer. Let’s look at all the things you need to consider when purchasing a new printer.

There are three initial things to consider when purchasing a printer: 

First, what will you do with this printer? Merely print, or do you also want to be able to make copies, scan and possibly even fax (if you still have a land line phone)? If you only need to print, usually you can get a basic printer for a lot less than an all-in-one printer which can also scan, copy and fax. One issue with this is that many basic printers don’t have a screen and only have a few basic buttons so adding these to your network can be cumbersome.

Next, do you need to print in color and make perfect copies, or do you just need black, and you don’t mind if it is perfect or not? If printing in color is not a requirement you can also save by getting a black only printer. These come in the all-in-one and basic varieties. See the possible issues above for the basic models.

Lastly, how often do you print, daily, maybe once a week, or hardly ever, do you just want it available when you do need it? There are three ink/toner systems for printers. Inkjets are small little cartridges that don’t hold a lot of ink but are also not as expensive as toner cartridges for laser printers, that can sometimes do thousands of prints before needing to be replaced. If you print a lot and almost daily you will save money by going with a laser printer versus an inkjet printer. Another issue with inkjet printers is the ink can actually dry up if not used regularly. The printer might show that the cartridges are full, but it prints blank sheets. This is not an issue with laser. You could leave it alone for a year and it would print just like it did last time. 

There is a new type of ink printer called a tank where instead of cartridges, you fill reservoirs on the printer with ink from a bottle. This is a much less expensive way to print. The nozzles will occasionally dry up, but you can run the maintenance to clean the nozzles, and it will be back to printing in no time. These printers cost more than the traditional inkjet printers, but you will make up the extra cost in ink savings.

Armed with this information, you are ready to find a printer. The last consideration will be cost and brand. A lot has changed in the printer world in the last few years. HP used to be the absolute go to but in recent years they are really putting out junk. They are currently my last choice in buying a printer. If you are considering a laser printer, I recommend BROTHER. If you are considering a tank, I like the EPSON tanks. I usually try to steer people away from the inkjet, but they are still the cheapest initially so if that is what you want to consider either Brother or Epson for inkjet.

As always, I am happy to discuss your options with printers and even help you set up your new printers.

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Microsoft Accounts

If you have a Windows computer, it is nearly impossible to not have a Microsoft account anymore. They have made it very difficult to set up a computer without using a Microsoft account. In this article I will discuss the good and the bad and some things you should not do with Microsoft accounts.

Before we get into that, what exactly is a Microsoft account? According to Google’s Generative AI:

A Microsoft account is a personal account that allows you to access Microsoft’s products and services. You can use your Microsoft account to: 

  • Sign in to Windows, Xbox, and other Microsoft devices
  • Access online apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
  • Save files and photos in 5 GB of cloud storage
  • Access the Xbox network and community
  • Customize privacy settings
  • Receive alerts for suspicious account activity
  • Use optional password less sign-in
  • Automatically sync data to the cloud

You can use any email address as your Microsoft account username, including addresses from Outlook.com, Yahoo!, or Gmail. It is even possible to use your company email as a personal Microsoft account, but it is not a good idea. Microsoft accounts used to be called “Windows Live ID”.

First, the positives of having a Microsoft account:

  • It allows you to sync settings, documents and browsers across two or more computers. This is great if you have a desktop at home and a laptop that you carry around or use for travel.
  • It is easier to set up a new computer since you can just sign in with your account and synchronize the above-mentioned items.
  • You should never get locked out of your computer because you can always reset your password by using the email account connected to your Microsoft account on another device.
  • It allows you to use fingerprints, pins or your face to login.

Next, the negatives of having a Microsoft account:

  • All of your documents and settings will sync across your devices.
  • You must use their cloud. It is difficult to only save documents on your computer.
  • In small businesses it is difficult to set up computers for employees and it is difficult to get into the computer if that employee leaves and you don’t know their password.
  • Microsoft will have control over your computer, programs and documents.
  • Microsoft accounts can be used with many different things. You can use it only as the method to sign into your computer. You can use it only for signing into your Office365 programs or you can use it for both.
  • It is possible to have a personal and a business Microsoft account that use the same email account. (this can cause a lot of issues for people)

Next, I will list the things you should never do with your Microsoft account.

  • You should never use your Microsoft account to set up a computer for someone else. If you are a small business owner and you don’t use the entire expensive suite of Microsoft this makes setting up an employee’s computer difficult.
  • You should never share your Office 365 programs by signing into someone else’s computer with your Microsoft account.
  • As a business owner it is not a good idea to simply hand a new computer to an employee and have them set it up for themselves.

Microsoft mainly caters to large enterprises, but it is possible to set up and use computers without falling into these issues. No one wants to find their personal documents and pictures on their employees’ computer. This is something I help small businesses with all the time. Before you set up your next computer, whether it is a business or personal computer, give me a call and I can help you make the best of the Microsoft accounts without compromising your security.

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Anti- Virus Protection

I get asked about anti-virus protection a lot. Questions like “do I really need anti-virus?” “What anti-virus is best?” Also, I get questions about specific anti-virus products and my opinion of them. So here are my thoughts on various types and brands of anti-virus.

  1. Do I really need an anti-virus program? Yes, every computer, whether it is Windows or Apple, should have an antivirus installed on it. Even people that are very cautious about using their computers can still accidentally click the wrong thing or accidentally allow something harmful onto their computers. I know Apple used to claim their computers don’t get viruses, but I have removed many viruses from MACs, so this is not true. Windows computers all come with Windows Defender preinstalled. If you don’t have another anti-virus installed this will give you a little bit of protection.
  2. Are the free versions enough?  No, there is only one reason that a company gives you something for free. They give it free so they can then sell it to you in the future. All of the “free” products are really just marketing companies that constantly try to upsell you more products based on fear. I always feel like these companies have become the thing they should be stopping. They just keep popping up with new scary things and offer more products to protect you from those scary things. Most of those scary things are not real or needed. I have also installed a paid anti-virus on many computers that have a free version and during the initial scan the paid product finds things the free one never found. If your antivirus keeps telling you about new scary threats and offering to fix it for a price, give me a call and I will tell you if the threat is real or not.
  3. What anti-virus is the best?  That is not a completely straight forward question. It really depends on whether you are using a personal computer or a work environment computer. Sometimes it makes sense to use a product with an add on if you were going to purchase that add on from someone else. For personal computers I like two different A/Vs. My go to products are ESET and Webroot. They both do a good job, and they don’t constantly try to sell you more stuff. For business machines I recommend endpoint protection. The difference between endpoint and traditional A/V is that the endpoint versions can be managed by a console where all company machines can be monitored and remotely fixed if there is a threat present. Another great feature is that an employee, or a bad actor, can’t even uninstall the endpoint. It can only be done from the console. If you have a couple of computers in your company, I can help you get this important coverage, and I will handle the monitoring for you.
  4. My computer came with a free trial from McAfee, should I just keep that one? I call McAfee the virus of the antivirus world. Their biggest marketing move was offering this free trial to all computer makers. They get a kickback from McAfee for adding this to their computers and whenever someone purchases from this trial. In a few instances I have pulled a computer out of the box and while setting it up I could not access the internet. After trying to fix it in the McAfee settings I ended up removing McAfee and then I could access the internet. They are probably the worst at pop-ups, trying to scare you and sell you more unnecessary stuff. They also give Adobe and a few other companies a kickback for allowing their product to download with the real software that you wanted. When downloading anything watch out for check boxes to avoid getting things you don’t want. This extra product can slow down your system. It is always best to only have one antivirus on your computer. If you have more than one, they can cause issues for each other. More is not better.

I hope this has been helpful. Antivirus should not be expensive, and it should run in the background and not bother you too often. You should know what antivirus you are using so that if you happen to see another one on your computer you can quickly get rid of the extra one. I am always happy to help with questions about this topic.

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Driver Updater Applications

There are applications out there that claim they will keep all of your drivers updated on your computer to help keep your computer running smoothly. I see these on computers all the time and if they are the free versions I always uninstall them. If the customer has actually paid for the application, I have a discussion with them about these applications.

First of all, what are drivers? A driver is a software component that lets the operating system, and a device (printer, monitor, mouse, etc.) communicate. The most common drivers and the ones most people have heard of are for printers.

Now that you know what drivers are and what they are used for, let’s discuss these applications that supposedly keep your drivers updated.

If you are on the internet and you do a search for printer drivers and you don’t specify the brand, you might end up downloading and installing a program called a driver updater. I did a Google search and found dozens of these programs. Some of them are stand alone programs and others are part of program suites bundled with anti-virus and other similar applications.

One common theme is that they all install for free and then when you run them, they will tell you about the many drivers you have that need updating. They will be happy to update them for you, all you have to do is purchased their upgrade. This is always their endgame.

Drivers are not like the other types of software on your computer. They don’t get regular updates and generally are not security risks. Occasionally a manufacturer will find a defect in a driver and will issue a fix, but this doesn’t happen very often. Usually new versions of an operating system can cause the need for a new driver, but you will know if this is needed because your device will not function properly. Incases like this, many times you will get a driver update from that operating system to fix the issue with the driver.

If for some reason the operating system doesn’t help you, you can go to the manufacturer’s website and get the necessary driver. I have never seen one of these driver updater programs help in this situation.

In my experience, the only thing these driver updaters do is slow down your system and try to scare you into sending them money to fix a problem that really doesn’t exist. I know many anti-viruses have this as an addon, including Avast, Norton, AVG. McAfee and others. I don’t recommend any of these anti-viruses. They all act like marketing companies always trying to sell you more stuff by scaring you.

Save your money and don’t fall for the driver updaters. If you end up with one of these on your computer and are not sure how it got there, you are not alone. I see this all the time. I can help you get rid of these if you don’t know how. I can also help you if you have other software on your computer that you are not sure what it is and where it came from.

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Why are Updates so Important?

Just say the phrase computer updates, and you will get negative responses from most people. We have all heard and some of us have even experienced the horror of a bad update that kills your computer. This is a real fear, and it does happen from time to time, but today I want to give you some of my success stories involving computer updates.

I had a customer a while back that could not get her Office 365 applications to run. She had tried everything she could think of and then called me. I tried all of my normal troubleshooting steps and then took to googling for more possible fixes. Nothing that was suggested fixed her issue with these applications, in fact after trying to uninstall and reinstall we could not even get it to install on her computer.

As a last effort I suggested that we update from Windows 10 to Windows 11 since it seemed her operating system might be corrupt. Sure enough, after updating to Windows 11 we were able to install her applications, and they were once again running correctly.
Many times, I have had customers with issues in their browser (Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox) and the first thing I do is check for updates. That usually solves their issue. When a customer gets the “Blue Screen of Death” over and over again the first place to look is if there are any updates that might solve this.

Aside from these good stories about updates, there is a good reason to complete them. The majority of updates are done to fix known bugs or known vulnerabilities. Based on this, it is important to run updates even if you don’t see any problems on your machine. Software “bugs” don’t always show up immediately. They might not show until a certain feature is used. If you can keep the issue from affecting your system, it is even better.

If you are concerned about updates breaking your system, see this video where I show you how to ensure recovery points are being created before any updates.

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YES, Another Update About Windows 10 End of Life.

So, a few months ago I wrote about Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 as of January 2025. Well, a couple days after I sent that newsletter out, I discovered that Microsoft changed their date to October 2025. This means you have an extra nine months before they stop supporting Windows 10.

Just because Microsoft decided to wait an additional nine months doesn’t mean you should just forget about upgrading. If your computer is able to upgrade to Windows 11 you will gain more than you will lose by doing this upgrade. If you don’t know how to upgrade or if you are not sure if you can upgrade, I can help you check the possibility and even help with getting it done. I can also help you find a suitable replacement if you can’t upgrade.

While this extra time is helpful since you can save longer for a new computer or check for sales for a longer time, putting off the inevitable isn’t always a good thing. As I have mentioned, there are a few features that make Windows 11 great for more productivity and ease of working with your computer.

The Windows Phone Link is something I use daily to quickly get links and pictures transferred between my desktop and my phone. It saves me so much time. I also use the enhanced snap assist to get certain windows exactly where I want them on my two screens.

If you find out that your computer can’t be upgraded to Windows 11 that means that the processor is not fast/strong enough to handle the new speeds and other demands of Windows 11. Once you make the move and get a new computer you will be presently surprised at the responsiveness and how you can easily do more than one thing at a time.

The slight learning curve is well worth it. If you need help finding the right computer or help setting it up, I can help with both.

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Passwords, the continuing saga.

Here is another article about passwords. I could probably have a newsletter that is dedicated to passwords every month and I would still have information that I can’t send out because there is so much information about passwords. 

I recently read an article that claims it is possible to recreate a password by hearing the slight differences in the keys punched while entering your password. They state that using a smart phone microphone in the same room or the microphone in a zoom meeting it could be possible using AI to get a password.

While this is mostly just hypothetical, at this point the potential is there. The point I am trying to make is that it is becoming harder and harder to keep your passwords secure. This is why I think using a password manager is the safest way to go.

When you use a password manager all of your passwords are hidden behind a secure wall that only you can access. Bonus if you can access this wall by using something other than a password like your fingerprint, or two factor authentication through an app on your phone. The password manager that I suggest allows you to use Windows Hello, which can be your fingerprint, your face, a pin number or your other device to log into their application. This way you are not inputting a password which apparently can now be heard by your keystrokes.

I know this all sounds very scary, but keep in mind that sophisticated methods like listening for your keystrokes and similar things will first be used on much bigger fish than people like us since they require a lot of hi-tech gadgets and programs. Eventually this might become more mainstream but by then there will probably be more ways to counteract this threat and good password managers will be ahead of the game.

Another good reason to have a password manager is the “set it and forget it” factor. I often help people set up new computers and the thing that takes the most time is finding all of their passwords to get their email and other important accounts set up on their new machine. What typically happens is they pull out their password cheat sheet and we start attempting to login to their accounts. Sometimes they will have a few different passwords for the same account, and we go through each with trial and error until we find the correct one or we get to the point where we have to reset it. This costs these folks a lot of time and money since I charge by the time I spend. It would be so much easier to just add their password manager to the new computer and then all of their passwords would be correct in this app, and it would only take a few minutes to sign into all of their accounts.

Here is the password manager that I use:

KEEPER

If you need help setting up a password manager, give me a call and I can help.

I saw this on Facebook a while back:

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Why Are My Personal Documents on My Employee’s Computer?

As scary as this sounds, I have had this question from many small business owners. Usually, it happens for one of two reasons. They either used their personal Microsoft account to set up an employee’s computer or they used their personal Microsoft Office 365 subscription for their employee’s office applications. Either way you can end up with all of your stuff, no matter how confidential it is, on other computers.

I know Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to set up computers for your employees since they mostly require a Microsoft account to complete set up and you may not have a Microsoft account for the employee yet. I also know it can be a major expense to add Microsoft office onto their computers. But, most small business owners don’t realize they are sharing all of their information when they use their accounts.

When you sign into a new computer with your Microsoft account it will copy everything from your current computer that is in Microsoft Edge and Microsoft OneDrive. So, if you use Edge and save your passwords there you will inadvertently copy them all to your employee’s new computer. This can also include saved credit card numbers and bank logins. If you use OneDrive everything from your Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders will also sync to this new computer. Even if you can get past the required Microsoft account on setup you can still end up with all of your info on this new computer if you share one of your 5 copies of MS Office Family.

So how can you safely set up a computer without sharing your entire personal life with your crew? For enterprise sized businesses there is the option to use MS Azure and the employee’s email account as the business Microsoft account. But very small businesses usually don’t have this as an option since it can get very expensive. Rather than using your personal copy of Office365, you can share a copy with their Microsoft account. If they don’t have one, you can easily create one.

If you are not sure how to do this, it is probably best to call someone like me to assist with this. I can help you find the most economical way to set up the computer for your employees to use and keep all of your personal information from ending up on their machine.