Zanacore has launched a new website. Over the course of this year we will be adding more of our products and services to the website. Most of 2009 was spent on our internal processes and getting our product line where we want it. 2010 will be about letting everyone know about all these new products and services and the website will be a big part of providing that information.
Be sure to check it out and let us know of any suggestions.
www.zanacore.com
We have gotten a lot of questions about moving from windows XP to windows 7. First the bad news, you cannot perform an upgrade from XP to windows 7. You must do a clean isntall.
Now the good news, You must do a clean Install. Why is that good? Well when you upgrade, you also upgrade all your problems you have in XP. Anything slowing down XP would then slow down the new OS. By doing a clean install you will get the most speed out of the OS.
There is more good news. Microsoft makes it easy to trasfer all of your data and settings. This does NOT transfer programs (Again this can be a good thing), but it will make sure your new install of windows 7 has the same background and all your data.
Microsoft put together a great guide on how to upgarde your own computer. Be sure to print this guide out as you can’t use your computer if you are installing windows on it.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7
A good friend of mine emailed me this link today
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/12/14.html
I’ll Pause for you to go read it, You see doing backups is only the start of a backup strategy. You need to know how to restore the backup and how to monitor / test the backup.
We focus a lot of our NetGuard product on backup and restore. If there was only one thing you are going to do right with IT, it should be your backups.
First, You need to do backups. IT people will debate how to do backups, but none will debate not doing them.
Second, You need to make sure you are backing up all the data you need. I can’t tell you how many times people were doing backups, but not of the stuff they needed. A classic example is a full server backup, but the QuickBooks file with everything in it was sitting on a workstation.
Third, You need to know the backups are not only happening, but they are completing without errors. We see this a lot as well. We do a audit and find their backup program stopped working months ago. The employees were blinding switching out the tapes, but there was nothing on any of them.
Forth, You need to test your backups. This does two things. One it proves your backup was a good one, and two it lets you document the steps need to do a restore. This will allow you to restore faster if you ever need the restore in a pinch.
Fifth, You need a plan. If all you have is your backup Media, how are you going to get up and running again? How long will it take? Is that a short enough time? How can you work during this restore window? All questions that can be answered when you have a plan, and you have done a test restore.
Great thing is, NetGuard covers all of these points.
Over 1 Million people have downloaded the Office 2010 beta, Have you?
I have been using the beta, and before then the Tech Preview version. I have been real happy with the new features, and the Ribbon in outlook is great. We had one PC at our last event that had it installed on it and people were spending a lot of time checking it out. So, you should check it out too!
Official Microsoft Site (Also where Download it)
www.microsoft.com/2010
Offical Blog for Office 2010
http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/default.aspx
Missed our Windows 7 Event? That’s ok all the things that were shown all came from other areas on the web. Below are some great links to videos, walkthroughs, etc to help you learn some of the cool things you can do with windows 7.
Thinking of putting Windows 7 on your network? Make sure your servers are updated to support Windows 7, also ask our staff about deploying windows 7, its easy to setup and can save you a lot of money in the long run in you plan to move most of your computers to windows 7 at some point in time.
Windows 7 Resources
TechNet Videos (Tips & Tricks)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd799317.aspx?ITPID=insider
Microsoft Windows 7 Website (Shows off a lot of the features)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/what-is-windows-7.aspx
Here’s an interesting historical question – when we say Out of Office, why does it sometimes get shortened to ‘OOF’? Shouldn’t it be ‘OOO’?
Inside Microsoft, ‘OOF’ means not just the message which says you’re Out of Office, but it has grown to mean the act of being Out of the Office too – so you’ll get people putting sticky notes on their door saying ‘OOF Thurs & Fri’ or even people verbally saying things like, "Oh, Kevin’s OOF on vacation for the rest of the week’. I suppose that sounds better than "Oh, Kevin’s OOO on vacation …"
OOF was a command used in the days of Microsoft’s Xenix mail system, which set a user as ‘Out of Facility’ – ie Out of the Office. The usage of the term ‘OOF’ just stuck, as did the term ‘Little r’ (e.g. on an email sent to a distribution list, "Who wants to go to the cinema tonight? Little ‘r’ if you’re interested", meaning reply just to me) – as preserved in Outlook with CTRL+R for Reply, and CTRL+SHIFT+R (aka Big R) for Reply All.
Big Thanks to Ewan for clearing that up, I have always wondered what the deal was with OOF!
Found this and thought it was interesting to read.
“Netbooks — those underpowered mini laptops with 7-inch screens and unusable little keyboards — are a dying fad. However, the legacy of the netbook will be that inexpensive notebook computers are here to stay, and they are lighter and thinner than ever.”
We had a great time last Friday. A good turnout to our event, I can see we will need to do this event again. Also learned there is a lot of interest in Terminal Servers, so we will see if we can put something together for that as well.
Thanks to all that came, see the photo section for some Pic’s form the party!
I know we haven’t posted a lot over the last year, so look for that to change moving forward… Starting Today!
If you don’t know what a Solid State drive is, you should really start learning about them. Chances are you will own one in a laptop in the next few years. We have used them in a few niche computers, and when we have they are just BLAZING fast!
Check them out!
