One computer upgrade that makes a huge difference in performance - SSD

Solid State Drive! A new type of hard drive for both laptops and desktops!
There is one computer upgrade that makes a huge difference in performance on computers, both new and old!  You might think that your new computer is fast, but this upgrade will make it even faster!  It's also a great upgrade for an older system.  It is called a Solid State Drive (SSD)!

It is a replacement for your hard drive that you currently have in your computer. You can think of it much in the same way as a flash drive or jump drive that you use to make your data portable.  The great part about an SSD is that there are no moving parts in it. The memory chips in them make reading your data and writing data very quick. My experience is that it takes startup times from 45 seconds or even multi-minute down to about 15 seconds in most cases! It also makes opening applications significantly faster, even those large and slow to launch applications!

For reference, traditional hard drives like the one you probably have in your computer currently, having moving parts.  They having spinning platters in them and a head that moves across them to read the data.  The best analogy to me for this is a record player. The reason these are slower is that they have to wait for the platter to spin around to the exact locations that the data is written, and also wait for the the head to line up just where it needs to be.

Prices for one depends on the amount of storage size that you would need.  The good news is that prices are much cheaper than they were a couple of years ago. You can get one that is probably large enough for most people's needs starting around $60.  They also can be used in conjunction with a traditional hard drive in a desktop computer, if you need more data storage (you have both in your computer and setup your SSD with your operating system and programs while using the older hard drive for data files such as music, documents, etc).

One other advantage is their use in laptops.  This is because laptops, by nature, are portable and get moved while they are being used (even just from typing on it while it is setting on your lap!). This causes a lot of wear and tear on a spinning drive where they may get moved while reading or writing data.  Since the SSD has no moving parts, you don't have to worry about this!

While the physical installation of these is normally fairly easy, they do require reinstalling your operating system and applications. It may also be possible to migrate from your current setup with an imaging software package.  My recommendation is that it is a great time to start fresh, make sure everything is patched and updated, and only install the items that you need.   If you have any questions or would like to discuss upgrading your system, please get in touch with me!

New Computer vs. Existing Computer repair

I am often asked if it is worth putting money into repairs of a current computer or if a new computer should be purchased.  Unfortunately, there is no absolute answer to this question.  Some of the factors that I use to base my suggestions to this question include:

• Age of the existing computer
• Hardware specifications of the computer
• What the computer is used for (is it basic things such as browsing the internet and typing documents or is it used for photo editing, video editing, gaming, etc).
• Could an additional computer be used in the household to re-use the existing one?
• Is the type/size correct? For example, is it a desktop and they would like a laptop?  Or is it a huge and heavy laptop but they travel with it a lot where a smaller and lighter one would be better?

I bring up this topic now because this is a great time of the year to purchase a new computer!  July and August provide great back to school specials on a wide variety of computers and electronic equipment.   If you are in the market or would like to talk about if you should be looking, please contact me and I'm happy to help! 

As for repairing, upgrading or just tuning up your current system - I also do that!  As for what I charge, let's just say it's a lot cheaper that the geek squad or a computer repair store!  This is often requested this time of year before school starts. As for a general idea:

• $25 for a consultation about the current equipment and if it still meets your needs.
• $100 maximum for any work performed without giving an updated price and getting your approval.
• $25 - $50 for data backup (for instance, if your computer won't boot any longer but you would like your pictures and documents pulled off).
• $100 - $150 for data backup and re-installing your operating system and basic applications.
• $25 - $50 for basic computer lessons on things like everyday use, managing files, backups, etc.

This is just meant to provide an idea of services that I can help with. Please contact me for specifics!  Please feel free to pass this info on to others that may be looking for help as well. I'm happy to discuss all sorts of technology needs and questions. If you are looking to reach me and don't have a contact for me, please e-mail me at tech@barciz.net

Credit & Debit Card Technology

As most people have noticed, credit and debit card technology is evolving.  New cards are coming with a computer chip on them, called an EMV chip.  The whole reason is for security.

The major problem with traditional cards that only have the mag strip that you swipe to make a purchase is known as a replay attack.  This means that a thief collects your information (card number, security code, name and expiration date) and can then re-use the same information to make fraudulent purchases at a later time.  The new chip adds more security by creating a one-time-use code that does not get re-used on future transactions.

I saw an article by Dave Ramsey recently about this topic.  I found the information to be relevant and I think it does a nice job doing what I try to do on this blog - explain technical information in easy to understand language.  I encourage you to take a few minutes and read the article for yourself.

Dave Ramsey article titled Chip Debit Cards: What you need to know.

Anti-Virus software

I often get asked about good options for anti-virus software. Most of these include some level of malware/spyware detection as well.  There are a wide range of options, both free and paid for and all have good and bad points.

In my opinion, many of the security suites tend to be bloated and make a huge impact on system performance (aka - they make you computer slow).  This seems to be especially true from solutions like Symantec/Norton and McAfee.  They have a long history of this being an issue with them, and are one of the reasons they are not as popular as they use to be.

My opinion is that all windows computers should have some form of anti-virus software, and for 99% of people, a free solution will be sufficient.  If you are paying for your protection currently, you probably wonder why I say this.  I have seen computers with both free and paid for software become infected.  Also, the majority of users that have a paid for software installed, allow their subscription to expire.  This causes the software to no longer be updated, and after a few months time, it becomes about as good as no protection at all!

Here are my recommendations:

• If you are going to use a purchased solution, you MUST renew it at the end of your subscription!  If you don't want to spend the money, move to a free solution!
• Microsoft has a free solution called Microsoft Security Essentials. This tends to be a good solution for users that want protection without having to think about it.
• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download
• Note that newer operating systems have Windows Defender built-in.  This link explains a little more detail about the difference and what you need to do to protect yourself.  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-all-versions
• Avast also provides a free solution that I think highly of. I believe you need to provide an e-mail address to get a free code to use this software. I also believe this needs to be renewed yearly, although it is still free.
• https://www.avast.com/en-us/index
• They also have paid solutions, so make sure you choose the correct product.
• The user interface is highly controllable but also very nice to navigate to view and change settings.
• AVG also provides a free solution that is pretty good. I have found that their interface is becoming come cumbersome to use in new versions, but their protection is still fairly good.
• http://www.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download
• Fair warning - it seems like on every page they are trying to get you to upgrade/download their pro software version!  Click carefully.
• I have had numerous issues with Kaspersky's software in the past.  Years ago, I liked their software but newer versions seems to cause strange issues that I don't experience with other products. I would recommend staying away from this option currently.

Hopefully that helps to give a breakdown of some options and things to look for! Feel free to leave some feedback and your thoughts in the comments!

Ransomware

As you may know, there are many different categories of computer infections such as viruses, malware, and trojans.  There is a relatively new group called ransomware that is particularly dangerous.  Current ransomware infections are going by names such as crytplocker, cryptowall and petya.

Ransomware uses very high quality encryption to make your files useless.  The creators are basically using the good crypto standards that are used to secure the internet and using them on your files.  Their goal is to get you to pay a ransom to get the key to decrypt your files.  They are using various methods for collecting payment but a very common one is called bitcoin because of it's anonymity.  The problem is that even if you jump through their hoops, you are not guaranteed the ability to decrypt the files (and it can be pricey)!

These infections are being performed through multiple sources.  Having an operating system that is not patched is one (make sure you are running windows updates!).  Outdated web browsers and plug-ins is another vector (things like old flash player, quicktime, java, etc).  It is not just the old method where you click a link in an e-mail that causes problems (although that certainly still occurs). Sometimes an ad network will receive a malicious ad that then gets placed randomly on websites that are using that ad network (this is often how high profile sites end up being a place you can get infected from).

The best defensive on these is to have backups!  If you are not performing any sort of backups at this point, you need to start NOW!  Even something as simple as getting a USB drive and copying your data to it and storing it disconnected from your computer is a great first step.  Obviously more than 1 backup is ideal, and automatic backups are important as well (although you have to make sure that they don't get encrypted too!).  I will try to cover some back up solutions in the near future.

As always, this is not very detailed on specifics and is meant to be a broad overview of the topic.  The main lesson is to make sure you have your software updates and that you are performing backups.

File management, part 1.

Very often I see people confused and frustrated about moving their data around. Here is one way to make this easier!

If you are moving files by dragging and dropping them, drag with the opposite mouse button than you normally would use!  When you release the button, you will receive a pop-up menu of choices with what you want to do with the data.

The main choices are copy, move and create shortcut.  This gives an easy way to make sure that you are in control of what happens to your data!

• Copy - This leaves the data in it's original location AND makes a copy of it in the new location.  This is great for copying items from your computer to a flash drive to take with you or to make a backup of files.  2 copies of your data will exist after selecting this.
• Move - This removes the data from the location it is currently in and places it where you dragged it. This is good for organizing your data into folders. Only 1 copy of your data will exist if you use this option.
• Create shortcut - This leaves the data in it's original location, and creates a shortcut to it where you dragged it.  This is useful for things like creating a desktop icon to a folder that you use frequently.  The shortcut will have an arrow in the bottom left corner of the icon.

Welcome!

Hi there!  And welcome to my new blog - Everyday Tech!

As an IT professional that supports end-users, I know that many times technology is very confusing for non-techies!  My goal is to explain things in easy-to-follow, every day terminology!  So please, come back often to see what new things I have posted!

Please leave a comment on this post if you like or dislike the colors/size/font/etc on here so far!