Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Windows’ Category

Nov 15

Windows 8 Logo

Windows 8 Implementation for Businesses

For all of the testing and development we have done in-house, none of that is as valuable as the experience we are getting on the field. This experience has helped us to answer important questions asked by our clients both existing and potential. Application and hardware compatibility, privacy, implementation strategies, and upgrade paths, as well as where to get it are all important, and now with field experience in a networked environment in the financial sector, we have been able to explore various capabilities and needs not discussed in popular articles of today concerning Windows 8.

Where to Get It

For a limited time, Windows 8 is available as an upgrade to Windows 7 for as little as $39.99 at:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/buy

After the special discount, which ends January 31, 2013, the full price will apply, and we will sell Windows 8 Professional for $200 at that point.

Application Compatibility

Either freshly installed applications compatible with Windows 7 64 bit edition compatibility or from the Windows 8 store will work fine on Windows 8.

Hardware Compatibility

The Windows 8 environment is best left alone to an upgrade with Windows Upgrade from Windows 7 if you cannot find a reliable Windows 7 64 bit driver for your hardware. If you want to get the best experience, you have to export files, setting, to a disk or flash drive for manual configuration with a fresh installation of Windows 8. Drivers will have to be re-installed in some cases but will be automatically detected in others. In a business environment you will want to use a windows technician with experience installing Windows 8 in a business environment to execute the installation

Privacy

Windows 8 for most business users are best off installing using the Cloud to save settings and documents, enabling employees to move with a true roaming login from computer to computer, all through the use of a Windows Live ID. The Windows Live ID can also be passed to other services, some of which exist and others of which are still to come. From a compliance standpoint, some firms will not allow data to be stored in the public cloud. If this is the case, a local account must be used for each user. The ability to log in and see the same settings and files on multiple computers will be lost with a local account. Companies may wish to consider upgrading their privacy policies in this particular case because Microsoft has high standards, and both internal and independent studies have found the Microsoft Cloud to be ISO 9000 Compliant, HIPAA Compliant, and  Sarbanes Oxley Compliant. However some companies have special compliance needs when it comes to the secure storage and ability for the secure destruction of files so that they are not even shared with Microsoft, including sensitive legal and health information. The Web and I has their own custom solutions including such new products as Windows 2012 Server and SharePoint. We have access to special military grade hard drives that can self-destruct data and even the drives themselves upon command. A 1TB redundant SharePoint Server is available for $10,000. This SharePoint installation is internal and can be shared only internally if you so desire. Destruction can be executed with a manual pushing of the buttons or through a remote cellular device that operates a series of solenoids are available at an additional cost. A UPS and external firewall is highly recommended as well as a secure wireless network with 256 bit encryption. The most secure organizations will wish to stay away from wireless altogether as well as the Windows Live ID accounts. HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley compliance require both technical and functional contacts and a secured area for your server where it is not physically accessible to others and the use of encrypted only USB keys. Very secure organizations including the CIA are using technology to monitor the use of USB Keys / Flash Drives to alert security staff to their use. We can also produce machines with no exposed USB for the most secure installations.

Upgrade Paths

The easiest way is to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 using the Windows Upgrade feature, maintaining your files and settings. The other options include just maintaining your files, or saving nothing. Saving nothing is the best path for installation, as it installs the most natural features for Windows 8 with the best features, and then carefully re-applying files and settings after the fact will produce the best results. It is important to make sure that all options are applied and that hardware and software are working. After this, apply all other employee or special use logins as needed.

Oct 14

Windows 8 Logo
2 Comments

Windows 8 Pricing Released

Windows has released the pricing for Windows 8, as well as the retail editions that will be available immediately upon release October 26, 2012, twelve days from now.

Disk Based Installation

Pricing will vary, but on the low-end of retail, this will be the prices you can expect to pay for disk based installation.

  • Windows 8 Professional Upgrade – $69.99 (save $130)
  • Windows 8 Pro Pack – Product Key Card (no media) – $69.99 (save $30)
  • Windows 8 (Full Version) – OEM $99.99
  • Windows 8 Pro (Full Version) – OEM $139.99

The two OEM products are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Because of the limitation of memory as well as using 64-bit programming.

Windows 8

Cloud Based Management with Windows Intune

Cloud based management including being able to scan for viruses and having hardware and software inventories, as well as an easy interface to roll-out Windows Updates from a central location is offered with Windows Intune. Boasting an always-on stateful malware and virus protection, Windows Intune comes with a license for Windows 8 Enterprise. The pricing model is monthly subscription, and the price is $11 per month.

Increase Operation Efficiency with Windows Intune from the Web and I

Increase Operation Efficiency with Windows Intune from the Web and I

One of the benefits of windows Intune is the remote management.

Remote Management

Another benefit is that you will be able to support your mobile users seamlessly and be able to have IT staff be able to sign-in and fix computers remotely, roll-out updates, and purge malware and viruses. BitLocker provides additional protection for data by allowing the encryption of entire hard-drives, which makes the Intune platform a must for businesses with sensitive, and expensive data.

Support Mobile Users with Windows Intune

Support Mobile Users with Windows Intune

When you are considering any upgrade to Windows 8, you can call us for more information and we can get started immediately. Call us now at 646-853-0573.

Oct 10

1 Comment

Windows 8: What We Do So You Won’t Have To

Currently, we are testing some of our computers on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. We are trying to find out any flaws and help Microsoft fix them as well as being prepared when our clients ask us to take advantage of the technology. We prefer to never go into a client’s systems using untested methods, and that means a great deal of testing every time a new version of Windows, Office, or even Internet Explorer comes out.

Windows Server 2012 has some driver issues, which should be resolved soon. We have observed that several types of video driver cards in our experiences with Windows Server 2012 and many more types we have read on the Internet are not recognized and cannot work with the default driver from Microsoft on. The manufacturers are working on creating Windows Server 2012. Microsoft will probably adapt the more successful Windows 8 Default Display Adapter Driver which works better. That driver allows use of the hardware while the version with Windows Server 2012 did not.

Windows 8 is rather radically different from Windows 7. Contrary to other reports I had read, you can get to the desktop, but you have to click on a tile. All the Windows 8 Start Screen really is the contents of your Windows Start button, blown up to the size of your screen. You can switch to your desktop, but there will be no start menu on your desktop. Just hovering your cursor over the lower-left-hand corner of your desktop will show an icon for Start which you have to click, and then you will be back to the start menu.  The start menu is completely customizable, and you see a limited number of tiles which are much easier to click than the tiny icons on the old Windows Start Menu. If you don’t see the right program, you right-click the Start Screen, and click the All Apps button that now appears on the lower-right-hand side of your screen.

We are sure that Windows 8 is great. We are working on being one of the first 2000 developers to get an app in the Windows Store.

Meanwhile we are putting a lot of hours into finding out the answers to all of your Windows 8 questions, so you won’t have to.

If you have any needs with Windows 8 or business computing in general, please give us a call at 646-853-0573.

Oct 9

Sharepoint-2010_logo
2 Comments

Controlling Where Users Save Documents

There are several levels of lock-down security that can be implemented to ensure documents are saved to a specific location, including network drive or SharePoint library. The requirements of document storage and the amount of security determine the method which will be used for enforcing your policy.

Passive Measures

The first, simplest, and most cost-effective, especially when you have a number of workstations, is to limit where Microsoft Office documents are save, by using settings within Microsoft Office itself. Each program employees are using needs their settings individually set to your chosen location. This is especially useful for organizations wishing to have their users save to a SharePoint location, since SharePoint is optimized to be at its’ best for Microsoft Office documents, and most organizations are using Microsoft Office exclusively. This method can also be used for network drives as well.

If an organization that wants their users to save to SharePoint and does not require users to have the advanced features of the Desktop version of Microsoft Office, then they can set options within the SharePoint library to cause the documents to be opened directly within SharePoint using the Web Edition Programs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. That is not practical however for special archives where documents are being prepared from templates with many features and defaults, because it would change the nature of future documents as well as past documents, should they be edited post-implementation. However if you are a small business just starting out, limiting use to the Web application and not installing Office on the local machine enforces strictly that all work gets done in SharePoint. This is also helpful with older computers, which may be very slow running Microsoft Office. Running on the Web Application provides another advantage: you are just running a web browser; the actual application performance will be faster, for the Web Application is running on the Servers.

Policy Enforcement

Mapping My Desktop and My Documents Folder to

The two methods above only involve saving Office Documents, but some organizations are also saving Adobe Acrobat *.pdf and / or Image *.bmp *.jpg *.gif *.png files of substantial importance, then you may want to include additional features. Most people save documents to their “My Desktop” or “My Documents” folder. This procedure can be used to enforce saving documents through proper configuration.

The first step is to use the Registry Editor’s HKEY Current User Software Microsoft Windows Current Version, Policies, and Explorer. Simply create a new DWORD named NoDrives. The value of the DWORD needs to be in hexadecimal format. You can blank out one or more drives, and the value of the letters A-Z of one or more drives need to be converted into a hexadecimal value. Arrange the letters from Z-A (Descending Order). Put a zero under each drive letter you are not hiding and a one under the ones you are. Starting with the one furthest to the left, you have a binary number. Convert the binary number to hexadecimal and enter it into the DWORD value.  When a user opens up My Computer, they will now see all drives except the ones that have been hidden according the hexadecimal encoding.   At this point, you will have successfully hidden the drives of the local machine.

Now map your network drive to the machine if this has not been done already or map the SharePoint library as a drive. Multiple SharePoint libraries can be assigned multiple network drive locations. Target both the My Documents and My Desktop folders to folders with the same names created into the appropriate target destinations using folder and search options of these folders.

Further Security Application for SharePoint

If you have SharePoint 2010 or Office 365 with SharePoint 2010, you have additional options available to protect important documents. Specifically there is a check in and check out version control that can be implemented very quickly and easily within the settings of each SharePoint document library. When you add this level of security, each person who wants to edit a document signs it out. This prevents one person from signing it out except as read only until the other user checks it back in. It is easily apparent who has stewardship of the document in question, and if anything goes wrong, an administrator can undo the latest checkout and have the last version intact. Version control allows both major and minor versions, and you can keep all versions of a document or restrict the versioning to a particular number. Strict archives will do well to enforce major and minor versions with enforced checkout maintaining all versions without limitation by number of versions. Storage conscious small businesses may elect to keep only 5 versions of a document, to improve storage utilization. However we advise organizations to carefully check their compliance requirements, for we are very sensitive to the needs of organizations to maintain compliance to industry standards as well as, state, federal, and local government standards.

Who Have We Helped With These Issues Recently

Drossman and Associates http://jdlaw1.com

Hunter College http://www.hunter.cuny.edu

We would love to include you among those who we have helped. Call us now at 646-853-0573.

Sep 30

Windows 8
1 Comment

Windows 8 and New Ways of Working

Even though it seems that Windows 7 is still new, Windows 8 will be released on October 26, 2012.

The first thing that you will notice about Windows is that it emphasizes the applications. The Start Button has been replaced by the Start Screen. The Start Screen is an entire screen covered in tiles representing the applications that are installed. You access the Start Screen by hovering over the lower-left-hand corner of the screen. From the Start Screen you will see all of your programs, access to the control panel, and a link named “Desktop” which closes the Start Screen, returning the user to the Desktop. What applications can you run on Windows 8? Most of the Windows 7 64 bit compatible applications on the Market and some of the 32 bit will run just fine on Windows 8. Developers are also hustling to get their Windows applications ready by getting the Windows 8 Certified by Microsoft.

If you have a touch-screen for your desktop PC, tablet, or notebook, you will see that the interface is designed to take full advantage of touch-screen capabilities. The Start Screen is very amenable to use by touch-screen, because the program icons are finger-tip sized on a small screen and up to only an inch or so on a large monitor. Windows can be resized by dragging the corners, and they can be moved with the user’s fingers as well.

There are notable security features that will interest the business owners seeking to lower their liability exposure. The first and most important is the built-in anti-virus capabilities of the Operating System. The second is a secure-boot feature, which requires the operating system software to be digitally signed, to prevent the introduction of malware.

Windows 8 Notebooks

A small and energy-efficient processor not as powerful as the Pentium processors we have all been using for years, the ARM processor is about to make news because of Windows 8. Windows 8 RT is a new edition of Windows created specifically for the ARM processor. This opens up a whole new set of possibilities in laptops, tablets, and other mobile devices.

At our office we have tested both Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, which is the server edition of Windows 8. We are excited about the new system, it certainly has a lot to offer the business world, but it also is of interest to consumers who are in the market for tablets. We thought that the performance was just like it was with Windows 7, but that the interface was far superior to Windows 7.

When you’re ready to take you business to the next level with Windows 8, it is time to give the Web and I a call. Because with all of the versions available for Windows 8, the best one with the most features suited to business and not to entertainment is Windows 8 Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise Edition is not available in stores, you have to call on Microsoft Partners like us to get it through an agreement with Microsoft. Call us right away at 646-853-05733.

Aug 17

2 Comments

Windows 8 and the Changes That Will Change How You Compute

Windows 8 has not been experienced by many people, because the consumer preview did not have all of the features, and because the official launch has not happened yet. Many are interested not just in the new features, but what the paradigmatic change in the user experience will be, once there is no more Windows Start button. There are a lot of changes that make Windows 8 from just another Operating system roll-out. There are security and functionality enhancements, as well as a cleaner and less confusing interface. Previous functionality is missing, replaced with new functionality, and users are already beginning to wonder what the changes are going to do for them, and why these changes were important in the first place!

The first thing that is going to change is that more users will want to try to add touch-screen technology as an additional way to interface with their computer or other device besides the keyboard and mouse. Some worry that the keyboard and mouse will be phased out due to lack of demand, however the number of third-party keyboards being sold for the iPad and other tablets and even phones is evidence enough that the keyboard is here to stay. Less clear than that is the fate of the mouse, which can be easily replaced by touching and tapping on a screen. However I am sure that mice and trackballs in keyboards are here to stay: humanity stays with the familiar, and the QWERTY keyboard we all grew to know on the typewriter has finally made it to the PC, blackberry, and iPad.

Now that you know that you have either the choice to explore touch-screen or you can continue to use a traditional keyboard and mouse, as I do, you might worry about the lack of a start menu. This removal of the Windows Start Button and Start Menu is worrying so many people, and it will be hyped many more times in respectable journals from now through Christmas. It is nothing but hype. While it is true that the start key and start menu have been removed, they have been replaced with a tiles system that you can lay out in a convenient way. You will be using your entire desktop background as a giant start menu. Another improvement which is not immediately obvious but will prove very important is the removal of the application icons. The icons and font styling of many applications force you to re-focus to the style of each particular application. With Windows 8, the icon and most of the visual customizations are gone, giving you a consistent look and feel when looking at titles and statuses of applications, without the need to immerse oneself into the world of that application. Together this will mean that there is indeed a super-start menu instead of the one that was there before.

With Windows 7, users were generally using the Windows user interface on their  desktops, possibly on their laptops, but they were unlikely to use it on their phones and tablets. With Windows 8, the phone, the desktop, the laptop, and the tablet will share the same style of desktop and operation. Many people will also be using SkyDrive or Office 365 SharePoint for storage, and this integration with the cloud will link their documents and settings across devices for a seamless user experience everywhere. This will be helpful at home, at work, and on-the-go.

Once people try out Windows 8, they will find that many of the things about Windows that were annoying, are now gone. They will see improvements that go beyond what they have imagined, and of course the same completely stable Windows core that we have all grown to know and love with Windows 7, with enhancements, will give us the reliability everybody has come to expect.

 

Apr 15

Windows 8 Logo
1 Comment

Windows 8: First Impressions

Recently we tried Windows 8 for the first time on a few of our computers to see if it would be usable for us and to try to see advantages, disadvantages, and ultimately ways to move forward. With all of the complicated technical articles, we want to offer a simple executive summary to help you make informed decisions.

Windows XP

Upgrading Windows XP is an excellent idea. Too many computers in the workplace are hampered by this aging operating system. Windows XP will no longer get Microsoft Support or updates after the support end date in two years.

Windows Vista

A problematic operating system, Windows Vista was not successful for many reasons and should be upgraded to Windows 7.

Windows 8

Windows 8 is at the free consumer preview stage. This temporary version has some of the features and shows some promise. Windows 7 Users without touch screens are fine with Windows 7 for years to come. Touchscreens and tablets you purchase should be Windows 8 Compatible because those devices will benefit the most in usability because of the Metro interface, featuring large, finger-friendly tiles linking to programs and features. There is a learning curve which employers will have to deal with more than with an ordinary new Windows version because there are many features now in unfamiliar places.

Other features are better handling of device drivers, more security, and web integration features. Other features may change since the current pre-release is far from the final version, according to many experts.

Upgrading to Windows 8 is not recommended yet. As soon as the final version comes out, you should. There are many Windows 8 Ready tablets you can get now with Windows 7. We are reviewing what’s in the market for 2012 and will report here soon in detail.

Best Recommendations for Businesses for Windows Version Choices Now

Right now, Windows 7 is the best choice for businesses wherever possible. Remember, the desktop life-cycle for your office computers should be two to four years. Longer time periods slow employee productivity, costing companies more than the upgrades over time. This is because old technology is slow, and it is expensive when your employees are waiting for your computer to finish tasks.

The current Windows 8 is not recommended for business until the consumer release. Best practices in business computing dictate that production computers should never run pre-release software or “beta” and “alpha” testing releases.

For help upgrading to Windows 8 Ready computers today, call us at 646-853-0573, and we will help you obtain technology at the best prices which will still be good for years.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 904 other followers