Wired Office

A quick guide to the new Intel Core i-series processors

dburchall — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:19:50 +0000

Would you buy a new computer with a 3.3GHz Core i5 processor, or a 2.66GHz Core i5 processor?

The choice seems obvious at first and I notice a lot of retailers subtly exploiting complexities of core models and steppings to sell cheaper computers. In the above example the 2.66GHz processor would be your best choice because it’s more powerful, offers greater multitasking capabilities with four cores instead of two cores in the 3.3GHz model.

You can download the whitepaper at our computers perth page in a jargon-free friendly format and get a heads up on buying a new PC.

Location Aware printing in Windows 7

dburchall — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:19:39 +0000

One very nifty feature in Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate we don’t hear a lot about is “Location Aware Printing”.

If you print, say at the office on your laptop, then at home from the same laptop, you can enable LAP. Select your printer, set as default printer, with the printer selected choose “manage default printers” on the lower menu bar,

Click Change my default printer when I change networks.
In the Select network list, click a network.
In the Select printer list, click a corresponding default printer.
Click Add.

When you return to a site where location-aware was established the printer will be become available where ever you have an automatic wireless connection set up.

External monitor on laptop with lid closed

dburchall — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:58:54 +0000

In the first of our neat tips for Windows 7 you can use an external monitor with the lid closed on your laptop.

Just configure advanced power options

1. start. Type “Power options”

2. on the left hand pane click on what to do when lid closes

3. choose the option to do nothing

Enjoy your external monitor.

Microsoft Office Ultimate - a steal at $75

dburchall — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:04:11 +0000

It’s still on - MS Office Ultimate edition for $75.

If you are a student at TAFE or uni for example. Get all the details at itsnotcheating.com.au

Prevent users deleting browsing history

dburchall — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:49:05 +0000

Most employers do not mind a little internet surfing or msn’ing during the work day but there are limits to everything, so it seems reasonable that an employer can look at someone’s browing history on any given day. But it’s easy in IE7 to delete browsing history, forms, etc under the tools menu.

To prevent browing history from being deleted you can create or edit group policy objects. This should only be done by staff with advanced IT skills or your IT Administrator.

Settings are located in both Computer Configuration\administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\ and User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer

How secure is your password?

dburchall — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:17:37 +0000

I seen a password on a computer recently that comprised 3 letters of the alphabet. Can you guess which three? This was a computer in a small business that did payroll, banking, and was the main MYOB retail server. Geesh. Anyway….

So, for those who want to know just how secure their passwords are you can use this password checker. It’s gives a rating between poor, to good and best. It is a non-recordable password tester from Microsoft.

Internet Explorer Patch MS08-078

dburchall — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:39:46 +0000

This out of band patch is now available through Windows updates.

Here’s the patch direct link (closed).

The Windows Vista Slide Show

dburchall — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:04:48 +0000

The Windows Photo Gallery is a really useful feature in Vista to create a slideshow of your product range to prospective clients on your notebook PC, or create an impressive slideshow of your wedding pictures on your widescreen monitor.

This is really easy to setup and change configuration settings. You can go to start >all programs >Windows Photo Gallery, or start >type “Windows Photo Gal” (without the quotation marks) and it should come up as first item in the search results.

Launch the Photo Gallery, ctrl + click all the images you want to incude as a slideshow and then click the gallery start. The gallery will launch into a full screen.

You can change various aspects of the slide show using the menus.

You don’t have permission to save in this location

dburchall — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:18:36 +0000

A problem we’ve been seeing when a hard drive is formatted in Windows XP and now running a Vista upgrade is:

You don’t have permission to save in this location. Contact the administrator to obtain permission. Would you like to save in the documents folder instead?

The solution is to format the drive again. Big effort and requires recover and restore of all your files.

An easier solution /workaround is to locate the executable (.exe) file inside the programs folder for example, right click this executable, choose the compatibility tab, in the lower section you will see “run as administrator”. Check this box to always run this program as administrator.

You should now be able to save the document in the location.

DEP - Blocking unwanted programs in Vista

dburchall — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:51:30 +0000

The UAC (User Account Control) prompt in Windows Vista is a security tool to prevent unauthorized access to the system. The problem I find in the field is that there will always be a percentage of users who will click “continue” = (please allow this malicious code to run on my PC because I really don’t know any better). It may also be difficult to manage the security of a computer when it is accessed by multiple users, and you need a secure computer on your network or in the office. There is a solution to this problem. It is a fiddly, requires familiarity with the mouse and navigation in Vista, but if you want to lock down Vista and prevent malicious code from running DEP is your answer.Data Execution Prevention has been around since Windows Server 2003 and monitors the way programs use system memory. If the program attempts to access memory in an unsafe fashion, DEP closes it down. If the program has a valid ActiveX Control it should execute correctly. If it will not install or run and you know this program is safe you can add it to the DEP allowed list. The computer needs to be restarted after DEP changes. Not every program that is blocked by DEP is malicious or spyware but if DEP is monitoring the program it can detect attempts to execute code from protected memory areas, and help to mitigate the threat of attacks.If DEP closes the program you know is safe, try checking for a DEP capable version of the program or contact the vendor before changing DEP settings.To access DEP settings and add or remove programs from the allow list:

· Go to start · Right click computer · Select properties · Select advanced system settings · Note the UAC prompt and continue · Select the advanced tab · Select the performance tab > settings · Select data execution prevention · DEP is turned on for essential Windows programs and services only by default – choose to turn on DEP for all programs · Restart the computer · If a new third party program does not run and is blocked by DEP specifically you can add it to the list by (A) turning off DEP, restart PC, install new program, turn on DEP and add the exe of the program to the DEP list, restart PC. We turn on DEP on request or for some security scenarios on our new computers. A program blocked by DEP does not always notify you. DEP is not for everyone but is highly effective if you need advanced security.