Windows 7 has many features which makes it a great improvement over earlier systems. However, like most things, if you are unaware of all these features you could be missing out.

By mastering a few simple tricks, you can get the most out of Windows 7.

• Coping images to a CD or DVD is easy with Windows 7. Just double click the image, and choose the drive that contains your blank disk. Choose the burn option and Windows 7 takes it from there!

• Finding issues and repairing them is also simple with Windows 7. To do this choose the “Control Panel” and choose the “troubleshooting” option. This will give you usage of a series of wizards that look for and resolve common OS issues. For example cleaning up adware and deleting clutter.

• Do younger members of your household install cumbersome software that slows down your computer? This can be easily prevented using the Windows 7 AppLocker feature. This feature only allows your computer to run and install programs that have your pre-approval. You are able to tell AppLocker to only run programs from respectable companies, so if someone is attempting to run a program from an unknown publisher AppLocker will block it.

• Windows 7 includes its own power efficiency service. This allows you to access reams of information regarding how much power your laptop is consuming. This may be important if you’re working from a remote location and are not close to a charging source.

WordPress was once viewed predominantly as a blogging platform. But it has developed into one of the most popular website publishing tools on the Internet. Tech Crunch recently reported that about one fifth of new domains in the U.S. are powered by WordPress. And it also may surprise you to learn that one of the most popular publishers in the world uses WordPress.

Here are 7 things you should know about WordPress:

1. With WordPress it is not necessary to rebuild your pages eachtime you want to update your site. Updating your content is easy and fast, as WordPress has dynamic page generation.
2. You can get a subdomain for free! After you register with WordPress to get a free site, it is simple to name your free subdomain like this: www.yourname.wordpress.org.
3. If you have your own domain and hosting account, WordPress can be installed in minutes (WordPress calls it their ‘famous 5-minute install’).  No coding skills needed.
4. For those with their own domain and hosting account, WordPress has some minimum requirements. Essentially you have to make certain you have a complying version of PHP and MySQL on your server. The advantages of meeting minimum requirements are that you will receive reliable WordPress support if you have a problem.
5. Themes are plentiful! Before attempting to build your own theme, search to see what other themes have been created and are obtainable.
6. Managing your site, posts, media, and all other materials in WordPress can be done easily through their intuitive dashboard. It’s also possible to manage multiple users!
7. WordPress is e-commerce friendly. You will find loads of plugins developed by users to enable you to advertise, review, as well as sell products. This means you don’t need to find other payment systems or any other add-ons, they can be found readily within the WordPress community.

In recent years iPads, smartphones, and Kindles have been a few of the most sought after gadgets on the market. But not all tech is created equal. Companies can’t predict what’s going to become popular, regardless of how much they love it. Here are some that never quite caught on.

Famous tech failures

• Apple TV: It seems like a good idea—a device that lets users buy TV series and movies from iTunes then stream them on their TVs, computers, and mobile devices. The drawback? Besides YouTube, the product doesn’t allow many non-iTunes alternatives.

• Sony Mylo: The Mylo came and went in a short time so you may not recall it. It was aimed toward the 18 to 20 something crowd and was a Wi-Fi-enabled mobile device. It permitted people to play games, connect to the Internet, and also had Skype preinstalled on it. Unfortunately, the existence of the iPhone and its substantial app store overshadowed it.

The Segway peters out

• Segway PT: The Segway PT scooter hasn’t exactly been a flop. However, it never caught on in the manner its manufacturers anticipated. This two-wheeled transportation machine was said to be a must-have for commuters traveling to work and for family members taking short trips to their local supermarket. Unfortunately, the scooter makes people look kind of silly when they are riding it. Maybe this is why the device hasn’t develop into a mainstream alternative to cars.

The CueCat doesn’t purr

• CueCat: Shaped like a cat, the CueCat was a barcode reader introduced to the public in 1999. It permitted consumers to open a link to an Internet address by scanning a barcode on an item. The thought was that consumers would enjoy surfing to a website without having to type in that site’s address. This idea proved flawed, and it wasn’t long before the CueCat’s maker, Digital Convergence Corporation, was out of business.

If you use Microsoft Outlook on a frequent basis, odds are that you probably take it for granted. Outlook has been around for many years, helping us organize our email and our schedules. It may seem uncomplicated, but it is in fact a very dynamic and robust program. So as to make the most of your experience with Outlook, let’s take a look at some of its unknown capabilities.  Below we’ve discussed only 3 of the often-overlooked features that help you work more efficiently.

Eliminate the Clutter

Using Outlook’s “Conversation View” can help keep your email conversations neatly in one thread rather of being distributed over days of email backlog.  The drawback to Conversation View is that commonly these emails are cluttered with duplicate material from old emails.  To rapidly remove this annoyance, just right-click the conversation and pick the “Clean Up Conversation” option.  Now all of the repeated quoted material will be removed from the conversation.

Say it in a Picture

Using screenshots in your emails is always a great way to efficiently help express your message, particularly for IT support problems. Inserting a screenshot into your email is very simple with Outlook.  All you have to do is click the “Insert” tab and then choose the “Screenshot” option. From here, Outlook will produce images of all the windows open on your desktop.  Choose the correct one and it will be inserted into your email.

Take Out the Trash

Did you know that all those old emails in your trash folder are taking up lots of precious space? It can be easy to forget to empty our email trash. Outlook has made that easy too! Choose the “File” tab and then select “Options.” Go to the “Advanced” section and look for the “Start” and “Exit” options. By checking the box after “Empty Deleted Items” when exiting Outlook, this will enable Outlook to automatically get rid of your trash folder every time you exit the program.

When looking at data security, you may think you have enough safeguards set up to protect your small business. After all, you most likely regularly update your antivirus software and other security protocols as well. And it’s not as if you’re a large organization that needs to stress about having their systems breached by advanced hacking techniques. With thousands of sensitive customer records on file, these large firms are the ones who must worry about cyber attacks, right? As it happens, digital thieves have greatly escalated their efforts with regards to stealing from small businesses. To help you learn more about your level of danger, let’s look at this important topic in greater detail below.

Small firms: low-hanging fruit

It may seem obvious, when you think about it, that small businesses make fast and simple targets of cyber attacks. Cyber criminals can launch attacks on small businesses quicker, which greatly increases the likelihood that they’ll succeed on obtaining some valuable information. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your small company doesn’t have valuable information that a hacker may want to steal. The simple act of paying via credit card means that your system must verify the card’s validity. This verification information can contain names, addresses, account numbers, and more.

How hackers gain access to your data

Even though you probably have systems in place to protect your information, hackers will make use of multiple points of entry, so firewalls alone is probably not enough. Harmful email attachments are among the biggest offenders. These attachments can leave your system wide open for data mining. This year alone in the first quarter, 6 million malware programs were detected. Aside from these more high-tech tactics, cyber criminals also use low-tech way to steal information. Telephone calls or even personal visits by someone posing as a network administrator or security firm can be detrimental. We all hope our workers are smart enough not to be seduced by an obvious phishing scam, but it only takes one slip up to open yourself up for attack.

The buck stops with you

If you feel that preserving data security is not vital, take into account that should your systems be breached, your clients will likely hold you personally responsible for any stolen information or property. These types of events cost companies thousands of dollars each year and can damage a company’s name so badly  that they have to close their doors permanently.

An ounce of prevention…

Data security is extremely important and any additional precautions you can take would be sensible. Use strong passwords and update your existing security systems often. Educate your staff on safety measures they can take, such as creating strong passwords and never giving out login information. Hiring an outside consultant to help you ensure you and your client’s information is safe is another good idea. Simple measures can give you peace of mind that your systems are safe, and your clients will know you have their best interests at heart.

Our last blog post explored the reasons why having a vibrant business culture is important for your brand. The positive effects of a healthy culture are many, while the result of letting the culture of your company decay can be very negative indeed. In our previous post, we touched on how to measure the cultural health of your company, so how do you do you improve that culture if necessary?

If you have established that the culture of your company needs some adjusting or refreshing, there are a few questions you will want to think about first:

• What attributes do you value that you want to show up in your company’s culture? Respect, acceptance, creativity, fun, etc.?
• What are the main values or focus of your company? How can you make that prominent in the culture?
• How is information shared with employees? Are they left in the dark frequently?
• Do you reward employees and in what ways? 
• Does everyone in the company feel heard? If not, how might you improve this?

These can lead to more questions. To discover answers try brainstorming with your colleagues. Listed below are some suggestions to get the ball rolling:

Suggestion/Thought box – Allowing individuals to anonymously share their thoughts or opinions about the day to day in the office can lead to a more open feeling in the company. These concerns can be brought up in company meetings if they relate to everyone.

Empower employees – Let your employees make decisions. Treat the employees as peers; let them have a say and listen to their ideas. Also be a transparent leader. Don’t just tell your employees when things are great, but also make them aware tactfully when things aren’t going very well.

Flexible hours – You hired your employees because you trust them to do their job. Allowing them to have somewhat flexible hours will show you trust them to get their work done well and on time. The respect you give them will be reflected in the respect they give you.

Dress code – Have a more laid back dress code. It’s remarkable what allowing individuals to express themselves can do for a company’s culture. Think about themed days: silly hat day, Hawaiian shirt day, or anything that gets people thinking creatively and brings joy to the day.

Celebrate – A company is made up of the people in it, so celebrate together. A monthly movie day, a catered lunch, or lunchtime board game days are only a few ways you can get your employees together to celebrate.

Below is a variety of things that real companies do to add some fun to their culture:

• Spontaneous Nerf gun wars
• Painting inspirational quotes on the walls
• Hitting a loud gong when there is a success to let the whole company know
• Foosball tournaments
• Lunchtime Yoga
• Lunchtime Crafting Club
• Monday Mad Libs, whoever wishes to contribute, does, and then the completed Mad Lib is emailed to the company

Strategy is commonly at the forefront of a company’s focus. Strategy is not the only thing which makes a company prosperous. Culture also plays a huge role. The culture of your company affects your branding, your marketing success, and daily operations, all of which have an effect on how the world sees your company. The logos of brands like Apple, Google, and Starbucks are identifiable not only because they appear to be everywhere, but also these companies have strong cultures that shine through their employees, storefronts, and logos. These positive, strong cultures all begin within the walls of their offices.

Why Culture is so Important

If people work in a place where they feel ownership, pride, and empowerment they will put their hearts into the work they do. They will take more risks and be more willing to think outside of the box. A healthy culture builds creativity and innovative thinking. When people feel like they’re being stifled by their work or they have no control over their tasks, they will do the work assigned to them with no extra effort. This can not only lead to a sad individual but a sad environment where every task put toward your brand is given the minimum amount of effort. Instead, you want a vibrant and alive environment so that your brand stands out from the rest. Nurturing a healthy culture is the responsibility of everyone in the company, from the CEO to HR to the receptionist.

A healthy culture has numerous benefits. Here are just a few and the reasons why they can have such a significant impact.

• Focus – When people are focused on the same goal, that goal is more easily achieved. Businesses that have a healthy culture, have staff that value the collective goal and genuinely endeavor to reach it. Unhealthy cultures can bring about cynicism because individuals do not feel connected to the goal. Their goal is to simply make it through the day.

• Cohesion – Healthy culture can result in strong communication in good and bad times. In a place where there is unhealthy culture people may frequently resent being told what to do because they don’t feel their views are listened to or appreciated. When a problem occurs they may avoid pointing it out because they fear backlash.

• Motivation – It’s simple; motivated people accomplish more. This may seem apparent, but in companies in which the culture is suffering, efficiency may also suffer.

Measuring the Cultural Health of Your Company

Cultural health should be evaluated regularly. So how do you evaluate the cultural health of a company? First, look at how people are managed, are they just given a task with no input or do they have some control over their jobs? Are monotonous tasks distributed so everyone has the opportunity to be challenged? While some people may never be happy, if you find the overwhelming consensus to be negative it may be time to look at making a few modifications to how the business is run to improve the culture and the overall health of the company. Visit again soon to discover some tips on creating a positive work environment.

Cyber crimes happen everyday, and everyday IT security companies track and record information around these attacks. Microsoft is upping its game and releasing a real-time threat feed so that its fellow partners can study existing threats it finds and discover the best steps to proactively take against them.

With Microsoft’s achievements in tackling botnets, they’ve been able to accumulate a lot of data around the specific threats these botnets pose. By allowing the botnets to contaminate highly controlled environments, Microsoft had been able to isolate and remove the malicious bots and also find out how they work.

This collected information is now shared with ISPs, private and government agencies, & CERTs. While real-time data may not reduce the number of attacks by destructive code, the result of sharing this data will most likely be quite remarkable. IT security companies should be able to respond more quickly to these threats and therefore be able to reduce the level of damage they can cause.

Another great result a real-time threat feed could have is an improvement in overall information sharing between IT security companies. For too long IT companies have been unwilling to share threat information for the fear that it could fuel more attacks. Most analysts say this an unsupported fear.  The cyber criminal “community” has already been sharing and learning from each other.  It’s only logical therefore that IT security professional share as much information as possible to fight the seemingly unending barrage of new cyber threats.

Let’s hope that security professionals soon realize that sharing information is more useful than secrecy. And let’s hope that Microsoft’s move is a first step in this change of attitude.

The cloud can be a great thing for small business owners fighting through tough economic times. Rather than purchasing pricey enterprise software, business owners can save their dollars by accessing powerful computing programs in the cloud, everything from high-end word processors and project-management tools to spreadsheets and Photoshop alternatives. But, the cloud isn’t perfect, particularly when it comes to security issues. Business owners must be conscious that their documents, presentations, and marketing materials can be damaged when they are stored in the cloud.

Password issues

One of the biggest security issues when dealing with the cloud is password protection. This is also one of the primary security issues outside of the cloud.

Business owners should be careful to select passwords for their cloud projects that are difficult for others to guess. The best solution is for owners to include a mix of letters and numbers in their passwords. Owners should also be cautious about sharing their passwords with a lot of people. The more individuals who have access to passwords, the more vulnerable important data and documents are.

Hacker alert

Hackers, malware, and spyware remain serious issues for cloud environments, just like they are problems that business owners face when logging onto their personal computers each day. The thing that makes this particularly scary is that individual business owners have little control over how secure cloud services are. The big names — companies like Microsoft and Google — must provide their own security for the material that business owners store in the cloud.

Common sense protection

There are a couple common-sense practices that will help protect small business owners who choose to keep information in the cloud.

First, owners should consider what sort of information they are storing in the cloud. The most sensitive data, data that could damage a company if it is lost or stolen, may not be suitable for cloud storage. Instead, this data may be better preserved on a business owner’s individual computing system and reliably backed up.

Secondly, business owners must remain cautious about who they allow access to their cloud-stored data, documents, and reports. Owners are mindful about whom they allow to access the files on their desktops and laptops and they should be equally careful when it comes to granting others access to their cloud-hosted information.

The benefits of storing information in the cloud are extensive. Backing up important data, creating more space on your servers, and having your information easily available to your employees are only a few. If you’ve been looking into this route, you probably have many questions about the security of the cloud. If your company deals with sensitive information that belongs to your customers you may need to stay compliant with HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.

Is your cloud storage solution following these requirements? If they don’t indicate it in their privacy policies, it can be hard to tell. Let’s explore this further below.

Compliance

Security has long been an important issue and as increasingly more companies use the cloud for storage solutions the question arises: How secure is the cloud? Storing information in the cloud can be quite cost effective, yet the cost for poorly handling customer data can be extremely high. If your organization must comply with regulations like HIPAA, your primary dilemma is what regulations do cloud services abide by.

Who is responsible

Who’s shoulders does the responsibility fall on? There’s no law requiring that cloud service providers divulge the degree of security they maintain. While they probably do have a respectable amount of safety protocols set up, the safest option is to take their privacy policy at face value. In this case, if you wish to stay in compliance with HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes-Oxley, cloud computing might not be for you. Having said that, if your industry doesn’t require tight regulations, then you might make use of the benefits cloud-computing offers.

In the end, as cloud computing service providers are not required by law to be transparent about their security, the responsibility rests in your hands. If you choose to use the cloud, it’s your responsibility to pick a service provider you trust. Weigh the advantages and disadvantages and make the best decision for your business.