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Small businesses bought a lot of computers in 2004 and 2005. Windows XP had been on the market for three years and early compatibility problems had been resolved. Small businesses cleaned out the aging Windows 98 80386 computers to take advantage of the new OS and new programs.

This is the year to repeat the process. Windows 7 is a mature version of Windows Vista – for all intents and purposes, the current version of Windows has been on the market for three years and early compatibility problems have been resolved. Businesses should be clearing out the old Windows […] continued

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Microsoft released a patch yesterday that should be installed promptly on all Windows computers. Most of you will find that it was installed automatically on Monday night. If your computer restarted last night, you’re almost certainly fine – but be alert in case the Windows update icon is trying to get your attention from the lower right corner of your screen! If you want to make sure it was installed, look in the update history on your computer for KB2286198, the reference number for Microsoft’s security bulletin.

The patch fixes a particularly nasty vulnerability, yet another way that […] continued

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Leave your computer on overnight and prepare for it to restart. It’s Patch Tuesday and Microsoft will install a large crop of updates on all versions of Windows tonight.

Tomorrow we should see the icon in the lower right corner alerting us to an important patch for Adobe Flash. Adobe has another important update for Acrobat and Adobe Reader scheduled for June 29.

After I look at the feedback and do some testing, I’ll be installing updates on client servers.

Install legitimate updates promptly – and be careful out there!

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From Engadget:

“We’re hearing from all over that a bad McAfee for Windows XP update is causing computers worldwide to shut down. Apparently DAT update 5958 deletes the svchost.exe file, which then triggers a false-positive in McAfee itself and sets off a chain of uncontrolled restarts and loss of networking functionality. Yeah, wild — Twitter is basically going nuts, and McAfee’s support site appears to be down. There are some fixes floating around out there, but it may be too late — the final tally of borked PCs today may reach into the millions. We’ve already heard anecdotally […] continued

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Microsoft has started broad beta testing of Microsoft Fix It Center, an automated tool for fixing common problems with Windows.  I don’t know that everyone will want to rush to install it (I’d hate to have my clients forget that I am their automated tool for fixing problems), but you might want to take a look.

The roots of this project go back to the earliest days of Microsoft operating systems, when Microsoft started its “Knowledge Base” – the collection of technical support papers that describe specific issues and specific solutions. It has grown over the years to quite […] continued

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Previously:
Windows 7 Searches – Small Business
Windows 7 Searches – Libraries

You’ve got a Windows 7 workstation in a small business or law firm. The network server is running Windows Search 4 and you’ve added the network locations with shared files to your Documents library. All the pieces are in place!

SEARCH ALL DOCUMENTS FROM WINDOWS EXPLORER

When you click on Documents on the Start menu, you will open your Documents library, which includes both your individual files and all of the shared company documents.

Do a search from the upper right corner of […] continued

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Your computers will likely restart tonight after Microsoft delivers the monthly crop of updates for Windows and Office. It’s a particularly busy month – eleven patches, five of them critical, although the importance drops if you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7. Newer versions have better armor against security attacks.

Adobe will deliver updates for Acrobat and Reader tonight as well. Reportedly Adobe will be activating an “automatic update” feature in those products tonight as well, theoretically allowing them to be kept up to date without the extra click on the icon in the lower […] continued

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Previously: Windows 7 Searches – Small Business

When you click on Documents in the Start menu in Windows 7, your cursor arrives blinking in Libraries. I’ve been annoyed by that for months, but I finally had an “ah-ha!” moment when I discovered what libraries can do for searches. Let me give you some background about libraries, from the perspective of a small business or law firm user.

Libraries are collections gathered together from different places and presented in a single view. There’s no folder on your C: drive named “Libraries.” A library is a special view of files […] continued

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If the right elements are in place, Windows 7 can be used for lightning-fast searches through shared folders in small businesses and law firms. There are a couple of tricks to that process; it will take a couple of days to give you the background and show you some search techniques.

When Windows Search 4.0 was released in the summer of 2008, one of its important features was “remote query” or “remote index discovery.” A computer with Windows Search 4 responds to a search query from a remote computer by consulting its own index and sending the […] continued

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This is for anyone who might have been procrastinating. Look down in the lower right corner for the icon for your security program.

If you see the Windows Live OneCare icon (pictured above), it’s time to move on!

If you see the Microsoft Security Essentials icon (pictured at right), you’re fine. Go back to work. (If you’re using Windows 7, you may have to click on the up arrow to find it in the hidden icons.)

Microsoft is sending out a blizzard of email notices to former OneCare users about OneCare subscription extensions and renewals and […] continued

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