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LogMeIn has become the most widely used product for remote access to a home or office computer. Remote access is requested by more offices all the time as a cheap and efficient way to use line-of-business programs at the office from a home computer or notebook or iPad. LogMeIn is free or cheap, it’s secure, and many people find it easier than any alternative, even if there’s a Small Business Server at the office that will set up a Remote Desktop session.

LogMeIn deserves fifteen minutes of your time to understand its basics! Please treat it like any other service that affects your productivity and your security: take the time to learn its features and its controls. […] continued

Most casual photos are taken with a smartphone now. There is something to be learned from a quick comparison of the process of getting photos from a phone to a computer on an iPhone and an Android phone.

It’s a good way to understand why Apple is the most valuable company in the world.

On the phone:

• Install the latest iOS 5 update.

By default, iCloud is turned on and Photo Stream is turned on. If not, the settings are under iCloud. Set Photo Stream to On.

On your Windows computer:

• Install the latest iTunes update.

[…] continued

Microsoft Office 365 has been tremendously successful so far, certainly from a sales perspective (millions of subscriptions, although the exact number is kept under wraps), but more importantly it’s also been successful from a technical perspective. There has been no downtime for the last few months. My clients are ecstatic that I can set passwords not to expire. Smaller businesses are being migrated from the older Microsoft Online Services platform; my clients’ experiences have not been completely smooth but no data has been lost and support for minor glitches has been readily available. Life on Office 365 is good.

So although I’m going to describe a technical issue, it’s a fairly insignificant one that has affected less than a dozen people in my personal experience. […] continued

Previously: HP OfficeJet 8600 Plus

Here’s a reminder to always do a custom install with any program, and watch carefully for unwanted software that may be installed alongside the program you want.

HP has a long history of slow installation routines that sneak unwanted advertising and programs onto your computer. The installation program for the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus is slightly better than the OfficeJet 8500, but there are still too many chances to wind up assaulted with ads and unwanted bloat.

The opening setup screen presents five pieces of “recommended software.” Only if you read the first sentence carefully does it become clear that none of them are required to use the printer. […] continued

MyPermissions.org does something very simple and very helpful – and it might be an eye-opener for some of you.

The site has gathered shortcuts to the pages that list the permissions you’ve granted to access your information on eight social networking services: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, and Flickr. The app permission management pages make it possible for you to guard your privacy and control how your information is used.

Let’s use Facebook as an example. If you have a Facebook account, you are asked constantly if you want to link this or that to your Facebook account. Maybe it’s comments on an online forum, or an add-in for a program (like Outlook’s social connector), or apps on your phone. […] continued

In addition to its flagship products, LogMeIn also runs Join.Me, a free service that you can use to share your screen with someone at another location so easily that it will amaze and delight you. I’ve written about Join.Me before but it deserves to be called out again; it should be one of your basic and frequently used tools.

When you go to https://join.me and click the Share button, it will take only seconds to install a small control that will run the session. It’s temporary – no program is installed in the traditional sense and no permanent change is made to your computer. […] continued

LogMeIn has moved far ahead of its competitors for working with computers remotely. It introduced major changes to its product lineup a couple of days before Christmas – not a good time to get much attention but an appropriate time to deliver lovely presents, since the changes include new features that will be useful for many of you.

Let’s start with the basics.

COMPUTERS

LogMeIn provides a small bit of software that installs on your computer at home or the office. It’s tied to a LogMeIn account – an email address and a password. The basic program is free for connecting from one computer to another computer. […] continued

Many Dropbox users quickly start to store all interesting files in their Dropbox folders, especially current files that are being used on more than one computer. The faster you can get to your Dropbox folders, the easier it is to use.

Here’s a tip about using Windows 7’s libraries for quicker access to your Dropbox folders – and perhaps it will give you some other ideas about how to use libraries.

Windows 7 libraries are virtual collections of folders – a consolidated view that lets you browse folders in one place even when they are stored in different directories or on different computers. […] continued

When Microsoft announced that it will provide free or cheap support for Windows and Office and common computer problems, it wasn’t a surprise for any IT consultant who’s been paying attention.

This is a look behind the scenes, some thoughts about the trends that are changing the landscape for IT consultants.

Four things are combining to recast the traditional roles for small business IT consultants.

• Technology is easier to deploy and maintain. In particular, cloud services have virtually no traditional costs for deployment or maintenance. There will be fewer and fewer on-premise server deployments as cloud solutions mature.

[…] continued

A few days ago Microsoft launched Answer Desk with little fanfare – no press release, just a new web site (www.answerdesk.com) offering live technical support for Windows and Office, plus PC tuneups, virus removal, and software training – 24×7, 365 days/year.

It might be your new best friend, it might disappear without a trace. Either way, it illustrates some interesting things about your changing relationship to technology and the evolving role of an IT consultant.

What is Microsoft Answer Desk?

When you start a session from the Answer Desk web site, Microsoft will connect you with an “Answer Tech” for free basic troubleshooting and diagnosis. […] continued