Dear Clients,

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for your continued support during the year.

We will close from 5pm 21st December 2018 and reopen on Monday 14th January 2019.

In case of emergencies please call our regular office number 03 9820 2345 and a receptionist will pass on your details.

Regards,
John, Rinaldo & Olaf

Update 8/10/2018. Microsoft has halted the worldwide rollout of the Windows 10 v1809 upgrade until this problem is addressed.

There have been some reports that the latest Windows 10 upgrade to version 1809 has been deleting user data such as documents, photos etc.

It is critical to back up all files before any Windows 10 upgrade, but especially now.

An Image Backup is ideal.

For problem reports see:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/windows-10-october-2018-update-version-1809/1a924008-ddba-48db-a96f-7b4bfef9039a?auth=1

https://www.askwoody.com/2018/win10-version-1809-buglog-including-troubling-tales-of-lost-user-data/

Dear Clients,

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for your continued support during the year 2017.

We will close from 5pm 22nd December 2017 and reopen on Monday 8th January 2018.

In case of emergencies please call our regular office number 03 9820 2345 and a receptionist will pass on your details.

Regards,
John, Rinaldo & Olaf

In this unusually titled post we explore how to help safeguard your critical business information and data, or personal documents and photos.

In one word: Backup.

If a ransomware virus bypasses all the other layers of security such as firewall and antivirus, there is no guarantee that paying the ransom will restore your information.
The widespread NotPetya/Goldeneye (2017) ransomware was one such non-recoverable infection.

By including a full image backup of computers and servers in your maintenance plan, even using the basic 3-2-1 method, your data can be protected.
An alternative or adjunct to backing up onto external hard drives, if your internet speed allows it, is to use cloud backup.

We have had several clients who were extremely grateful for their backups.

So backups are in fact better than airbags since they will bring your computer back to a pre-crash condition!

The latest in a long string of ransomware infections now has mainstream media reporting on it.
As usual the best defence is not to click or open unexpected emails/attachments/links and be very careful when browsing the internet.

The main difference with this strain of ransomware is that once a single computer is infected it can then infect all other computers on the company network.
UNLESS Microsoft security patches have been installed.
Security patches are usually automatically installed, so please make sure you act on the Microsoft system tray notifications (near the clock bottom right of the screen) and reboot afterwards.

For anyone still running out of date software, Microsoft has taken the unusual step of releasing a patch for the obsolete Windows XP and Server 2003.

Further reading:
https://www.bit.com.au/News/461676,australian-businesses-targeted-with-wannacry.aspx

Links for WindowsXP and Server2003 patches

Customer Guidance for WannaCrypt attacks

Dear Clients,

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for your continued support during the year 2016.

We will close from 5pm 23rd December 2016 and reopen on Monday 16th January 2017.

In case of emergencies please call our regular office number 9820 2345 and a receptionist will pass on your details.

Regards,
John, Rinaldo & Olaf

If you are prompted by your existing Windows 7 or 8 to upgrade to Windows 10 make sure you have a full image backup in case things don’t go as planned.

The free upgrade will expire on the 29th of July 2016, so there is still some time to reflect before taking the plunge.

Most upgrades including the recent unintended upgrades have gone reasonably smoothly, however there will always be some adjustments required, one of which is to check that your antivirus has survived the jump.

More details at Microsoft:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-10/upgrade-to-windows-10-faq

Dear Clients,

Thank you for your continued support during the year 2015.

We will close from 5pm Wednesday 23rd December 2015 and reopen on Monday 11th January 2016.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
In case of emergencies please call our regular office number 9820 2345 and a receptionist will pass on your details.
Regards,
John, Rinaldo & Olaf

Although the recently released Windows 8.1 has somewhat improved the user experience over Windows 8, it’s still hard to navigate with a keyboard and mouse.

Most of our clients purchase PC’s where the Windows 8 or 8.1 are legally installed with Windows 7, which has a vastly more familiar style and interface.

Don’t despair if you have Windows 8 or 8.1 because there is an open source free solution to make the unfamiliar familiar.

ClassicShell installed on Windows 8 looks just like the tried and tested interface that we have been used to over the decades.

Call or email us for more information!