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What is End-of-Life for Operating Systems? End-of-Life doesn?t necessarily mean that your computer’s will just stop working–rather, they will just stop receiving extended support from Microsoft. Although mainstream support for Windows 7 ended on January 15th, 2015, Microsoft will continue to provide extended support for the operating system until January 14th, 2020. Assuming you have Service Pack 1 installed, your operating system will cease to receive updates following the Windows 7 End-of-Life date. While you?re still receiving security updates, there are no new features being added to your operating system. Basically, End-of-Life means that the operating system no longer receives any important updates, meaning that it?s a security best practice to update away from Windows 7 before it becomes a liability. Why Does End-of-Life Exist? There is a constant war going on between software developers and malicious entities, like hackers. They are constantly trying to undermine the efforts of security professionals to keep businesses and their technology solutions safe from threats. Software developers put out patches frequently to prevent hackers from making headway in this war, but it?s hard to support all existing versions of operating systems at all times. When Microsoft ends support for an older version of an operating system, they are essentially giving ground to hackers, but let?s face it–if you?re using older software that is no longer supported, you could stand to take advantage of more recent, user-friendly solutions with all new features in the first place. What You Should Do The easiest way to get around the pitfall of using older software like Windows 7 is to just install Windows 10 as soon as you can. If you can?t do so immediately, it?s best to think about preparing your organization for a move to Windows 10 in the near future. Make sure that any workstations used by your business meet the following minimum requirements. Processor: 1GHz processor or faster Memory: 1GB RAM for 32-bit; 2GB for 64-bit Hard disk space: Up to 20GB available Required video card: 800 x 600 screen resolution or higher. DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver If your workstations don?t meet these requirements, perhaps it?s time to invest in some upgrades for them as well. If you?re looking to keep your technology in proper working order, even in the face of End-of-Life events, White Mountain IT Services can help. Our managed services will ensure your technology stays optimized and operational for the long haul. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Switching Between Monitors Multi-monitor setups are becoming increasingly popular in many workspaces. While windows and applications can be dragged from one screen to another, there is an easy shortcut that allows you to quickly switch the application?s location back and forth. With the window you want transferred to your other display selected, press Windows Key + Shift + Left/Right (depending on which way the window needs to go). This shortcut also allows you to quickly dock an active window to either side of its current monitor, with one easy change: Windows Key + Left/Right. Screen Zoom In/Out Sometimes, you want your entire screen to zoom in and zoom out to better show what you are looking at. There are a few ways to accomplish this. You can either zoom in and out by pressing CTRL + (+) and CTRL + (-) respectively, or simply CTRL + Scroll Wheel to zoom in and out freely. When you want to return to the default screen view, you can do so quickly by pressing CTRL + 0. This will reset the screen magnification. Quick Settings Have you ever found that one setting is driving you nuts, and you want, no, need to change it? A quick way to pull up Windows settings is to press Windows Key + I. Switching Applications There are times when a person can hit a real groove as they work, and their productivity really hits a high point. The next time you feel this is happening to you, you can try out a shortcut for switching active applications without even needing to take your hands off the keyboard. Holding Alt + Tab will bring up miniaturized versions of all of your open windows, from where the directional keys can be used to select the window you want to work in next. Becoming a Windows power user is easier than it sounds, all it takes is practicing the use of these kinds of shortcuts until they?re second nature. Do you have a shortcut that you use all the time? Share it in the comments!

The first thing that should be mentioned is that, with all the threats out there, every business needs dedicated IT management. Many small businesses have tried to keep their crucial IT working properly through what is known as break/fix. The basic strategy of this is: when a part of your company?s IT infrastructure breaks, you get it fixed. This strategy has some merits for companies that don?t necessarily use enterprise-level, or complicated, IT solutions; but, no matter what their position is, when they rely on the break/fix strategy, downtime is going to end up being an issue. The average small business owner may not even consider this costly as much of the technology management services that you would call when your IT breaks (or starts acting up) is done onsite and only takes a short time to fix. However, it typically costs a pretty penny, and there is no telling if the problem will cause others, or come back again frequently. The problem with this is that every minute that your IT is down, your organizational profitability is hindered. Say you run a small retail store and your point of sale computer goes down. You make the call to the computer repair company and they come within an hour and your computer is up and running in two. That?s two whole hours where you are scrambling around trying to figure out how to service your customers? needs without the use of your most important computing system. If you are lucky, you will be able to keep your business open during this time, but often you simply cannot as many businesses not only have their register through their POS system, they also have their inventory system through it. When dealing with IT downtime your service will inevitably be hindered, and you may actually lose repeat customers because of the outage as word of mouth carries further than ever before as a result of social media. IT Services With Managed IT services, you?ll never have to shut your business down or deal with long stretches of downtime. This is because it is handled much differently. With an MSP looking after your business? computers and computing network, you will know in advance if one of your computers is going to fail. White Mountain IT Services?s brand of IT services proactively monitors your computers and network; and, using state-of-the-art software, is able to leverage its built-in and extremely innovative automation options to your advantage, effectively reducing your IT costs by keeping your systems up and running efficiently. The fact is that most of the problems the modern PC has can be remedied with dedicated monitoring and management. It?s easy to see how our proactive monitoring service can present value. Your return is properly functioning technology, boosting profitability, and effectively cutting your IT support costs; but that is just the beginning. An MSP provides several other services that are designed to deliver value. One such service is our Backup and Disaster Recovery service. You may be thinking, ?how could backup produce a significant return?? Not only is it part of the value-based approach, it also protects your business from data loss, a major problem for any business that depends on its data. Data loss doesn?t just happen when a disaster hits your business, it can happen any day […]

We?re starting to see that scammers are getting sneakier, and citing specific information about a user, like their computer?s model and serial numbers. Beyond that, they possess a lot of information about the user, including the device owner?s telephone number, email address, customer number, the device?s model number and their name. This is just the latest in what is a growing trend of sophisticated social engineering scams that are targeting technology consumers and end-users. One problem is that these scammers are calling people who have purchased products from some of the largest and most well-respected hardware and software distributors in the world. Companies like Lenovo, Microsoft, Apple, Dell, and more have all had support scammers falsely represent their companies, and with these new tactics increasing their effectiveness, expect these situations to grow in frequency. What You Should Do? It?s important to understand that no matter how proactive your IT support is, there is very little chance a manufacturer will call you to report issues with your computer, unless you?ve deliberately signed up for a service that does. Even then, there will be a pretty stringent authorization process attached to the support. Major technology vendors understand the types of threats out there, and while they want everyone that purchases their products and services to have a good experience, they are also huge corporations and don?t typically call people up to help them fix their computer issues, unless they are scheduled to do so. If you get a call like this, it?s better to play it safe than to be sorry later. This is doubly true if you share a network with other users. If you give an unwanted entity access to your system it could have negative effects on the entire network. So while it is true that the IT support scams are an industry-wide problem, ensuring a business? users aren?t duped into allowing access to these nefarious parties is important. At White Mountain IT Services, we make a point to help our clients promote industry best practices to their company?s users to ensure that they aren?t putting the company in bad positions. For more information about IT support scams, what real IT support looks like, and how to promote solid practices to your staff, call us today at (603) 889-0800.

Inventorying Your Vendors First, let?s list all the vendors you likely have to deal with. There?s the company that provides your network infrastructure, your Internet service provider, your phone provider, the people who provide your network security implements, anyone else that provides some aspect of your business? information technology, not to mention all the other vendors you have. Frankly, that?s a lot of vendors, which means that managing them is going to take a lot of time. Is that really time that you and your employees can spare? Furthermore, you have to consider any vendors that you utilize as an extension of your business. Their performance will have repercussions on your operations, influencing your ability to serve your clients and thereby affecting their impression of your company. In short, you need to be sure that all of your vendors deliver what they promised, when they promised, adding yet another layer to the task of managing them. Potential Issues with Your Vendors Of course, there is also the risk that your business could suffer due to the disparate priorities of your assortment of vendors. If a solution provided by one interferes with another solution?s performance, you?re hardly in a better position. Then there?s the question of quality. Not all vendors are going to provide the service that you rightly expect them to, so again, you need to be sure that they are held accountable. These issues can also complicate your vendor management, which wastes your valuable time. What If Someone Else Could Manage Them for You? With the right managed service provider, this question doesn?t have to be a hypothetical. At White Mountain IT Services, we can take responsibility for managing your many vendors. We?ll use our knowledge of your infrastructure and needs to ensure that your business gets the solutions and support it needs, when it needs it. In the meantime, all you have to do is continue your operations. You can be confident that your interests are being served under the watchful eyes of our staff. To learn more about how our vendor management services can help your operations, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.