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Keeping your Mac running optimally

In Friday’s post on viruses, I suggested that often when people worry they may have a virus it’s something less serious. With that in mind I wanted to remind Mac users of a post I made some time ago on a utility I strongly recommend running on an adhoc basis from time to time called AppleJack. The original post is here.

This tool will perform some maintenance on your computer’s operating system, and this often resolves some of the weird problems Mac users experience (e.g. my laptop solemnly refused to connect to any wifi network recently; AppleJack sorted it out for me in less than 10 minutes).

If you’re looking for another Mac tool that cleans up your system, deletes unnecessary files and software, I’ve found that CleanMyMac 2 by MacPaw works extremely well. I run this about once a month to clear down log files and caches (created by the system to improver performance of different things and for technicians to help diagnose issues, but unfortunately rarely trimmed). For example, I ran it a week ago, if I was to run it now it would clear about 4.5GB of data from my system, none of which is required. What you normally find is the first time you run it, you will get rid of a lot of unnecessary system files (things like language files – who needs them if you never run the computer in anything other than English) saving a big chunk of room. Well worth a small investment in my opinion.

That’s it for today, later this week I should have a couple of posts on holidays (planning, booking and helpful techie tips for what to take with you) which I hope to be able to […]

By |August 11th, 2014|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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    Virus protection, your essential actions for PC and Mac users

Virus protection, your essential actions for PC and Mac users

So many times I get called to a job where the client is in a panic because they tell me “I’m sure my computer has got a virus”. Most often this is because their computer is acting odd, maybe running a bit slowly or something else strange. Sometimes, it genuinely is a virus causing this, but quite a lot of the time there is another reason altogether. Today I want to shed some light on what you can do to reduce the chances of you being hurt by a virus on your system.

Rather than muddy the waters with the why’s and how’s, I’m just going to give you straight up advice about what to do, and what not to do.
Mac Users
Do
Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing to stop damaging software being written for a Mac, but at this stage there have only been sporadic and minor breakouts.

My suggestion at this stage for an experienced Mac user with good awareness of the risks they are exposed to on the internet is that they do not need any protection. But for a relatively inexperience user I’d recommend one of the free utilities available, and my current favourite would be Sophos.
Don’t
On the list of DON’T’s for Mac users – never, never, never (I really can’t emphasise this enough) install MacKeeper. Seriously, I’ve had more jobs fixing problems caused by that product than anything else !
PC Users
Do
Because Windows is the most used computer operating system in the world, it is also the one that most bad code is written for to expose the most users to the bad guys. With that in mind I think it’s important to get the best protection software that’s available. Over time things […]

By |August 8th, 2014|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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Password Security about to get much easier

Morning all

One of the messages I seem to bang on about quite a lot is password security. i.e. Use different, hard-to-guess passwords for every service you use. Now this is fairly easy if you use a password manager (I strongly recommend 1Password) on your Mac or PC, but realistically I can understand why people are inclined to use the same password for some services if their primary “computer” is an iOS device – it’s time-consuming to dip in and out of 1Password to copy and paste passwords!

But that’s all about to change with iOS8.

One of the major changes to iOS8 is what Apple are calling extensibility. This allows app designers to create hooks into other apps, making the use and sharing of data between apps much easier. For example, as it stands right now, to get a password from 1Password into a login prompt in Safari, you have to open 1Password (password required), find the service you are logging in to, copy the password, switch back to Safari and paste the password in (I’m assuming you can remember the login name). In iOS8 however, 1Password have released a beta of their extension which allows you to use the fingerprint scanner to authenticate, via the share button in Safari, making the use of secure, unique passwords so much easier.

I did find a video of someone using this beta software, which you can see below, and I’m sure you will agree this is a much easier way of logging into things on the web.

By |July 1st, 2014|Apple Software News, Help and Advice|1 Comment
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On Spam, Junk, Unsolicited and Unwanted Email

Morning all

This morning I felt the urge to talk a bit about email. I get so many people expressing their frustration about the amount of junk email they get, yet when I explore this further I often find that a significant volume of the unwanted emails are from shopping Web sites that the client admits to having used in the past.

Unwanted email is not the the same as spam, junk or unsolicited email. Very often, the unwanted emails come through because in our haste to order a new gadget or clothes, we fail to read all the small print on the checkout page. Virtually any retailer worth their salt will want to send you offers and reminders about their products and services once they have their details. But…..you can stop this!

First, when you are submitting your email address anywhere, read the rest of the page (and subsequent ones in any checkout or subscription process) to make sure you are not signing up for any unwanted emails. Read carefully, because some Web sites will want you to tick to unsubscribe and some will want you to untick. At this stage, let me point out that it is now ILLEGAL in the UK to send unsolicited email to any individual. So if you have your own business and Web site, it is incredibly important that you give your readers the option, not to opt out of emails but that they should explicitly opt in (not all sites do this, but I believe they should).

Furthermore, it’s not over once you’ve subscribed to a mailing list. Again, it is incumbent upon companies to offer an unsubscribe option. Some will have a simple Unsubscribe button at the bottom of the mail, some will […]

By |March 18th, 2014|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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Windows XP and What You Should Do Now

For those people still running Windows XP, you might be aware that Microsoft are ending support for computers running this Operating System with effect from April 8th 2014. You will more than likely get reminders from your computer beginning March 8th telling you that support is ending.
What does this mean?
Firstly it doesn’t mean that your computer will stop working. It does however mean that Microsoft will stop providing technical assistance for XP, and this includes the regular updates that are released to prevent you becoming a victim of any security risks such as viruses. With this in mind, there is a high probability that, as there are so many Windows XP machines still being used (29% of all the computers in the world!), those machines will increasingly be targeted by people looking to attack the users of those computers, for whatever reason (some of which may be damaging to you).
How do I know if I’m running Windows XP?
Microsoft have created the Web site http://amirunningxp.com/ – click on this and it’ll tell you very clearly if you are running Windows XP.
What should you do?
The chances are that if you are running Windows XP, your machine is relatively old, and incapable of running a newer Operating System without, at best, decreasing performance. So, the likelihood is that you are going to need to replace your existing computer. Before you do this though, I’d strongly recommend you to speak to your IT Support company, or ourselves if you don’t already have one, to double check the capability of your existing computer.
What should you upgrade to?
Microsoft would probably tell you to upgrade to Windows 8, but at this stage we strongly recommend Windows 7 as it is a […]

By |March 11th, 2014|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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