TIM and Tim’s Top Tips by Tim Lambie & Tim Jones
We set up a lot of computers every month for our customers, straight from the shop. We remove a great deal of software that is usually completely unnecessary, but we also make some more subtle changes which are just as important. For laptops it is particularly important that the power options are modified from those set in the factory; this is also important for PCs of course. The settings which
need looking at in particular are hibernation and HDD shutting down which are far too aggressive. Also look at lid closing action and I suggest change to “do nothing”. It seems that as well as the Trusteer Rapport software that most banks seem to be offering their customer’s, some are now suggesting a choice of Anti-virus as well in Kaspersky. I have suggested before that Rapport is an unnecessary addition to your PC and I stand by that; as long as you are certain of how to get to your bank online. We suggest you use Favorites or a personalised shortcut every time. Barclays Bank seem to be offering Kaspersky now as a free download. Every time we have come across a PC with this package loaded on it the machine has been struggling. Use this at your peril.
Try not to let your Mac get too far out of date, but do not be surprised if you have Mac OS 10.4 or older that there is software and hardware that will not now load onto it. I have found that recently with my own Mac, but also with a customers Mac that was OS X 10.3. We could not repair a problem with Safari - other than wiping the drive and starting again, so we looked to load an alternative browser, but found that not one would go on. The advice from the Mac forums was to stop whining and buy a new one! Not very helpful we thought! In other words, it might be worth taking the offer of an OS upgrade if it is given to you - it will make it last a little longer at least. Over recent years, External Hard Drives have been getting
bigger and bigger and yet cheaper all the while. However, that is changing as they are in increasingly short supply. They have almost doubled in price recently and there are very few on the shelves of the ditributors. It seems that the Tsunami in Japan is now beginning to have its effect as the global supply seems to
be drying up from what was manufactured before the disaster. This will inevitably filter through to the cost of PCs and laptops as well as many other household electrical items I suspect. So if things seem to be getting more expensive, then that is why.
NOW IN OUR 7TH
YEAR 12
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32