Newsletters
May 2023 Spam and Hackers
There are two rather specific things that have kept me busy of late, so I thought it was time to write two simple rules down that you might want to bear in mind. They could save you a lot of hassle. Simple Rules • Don’t click on links in emails! • Real businesses do NOT…
April 2022 Bitdefender Change of Heart
Bitdefender – Again! Sorry for any confusion this might cause, but it seems that Bitdefender has had a change of heart regarding a free antivirus product. They haven’t quite got around to announcing it yet but I thought I’d let you know in case some of you were still wondering what to do. Whilst they…
January 2022 Windows 11
This newsletter is about Microsoft’s new Windows 11 (released in 2021) and its impact. There are some important things that are worth pointing out first, and probably only one or two of them will affect you, but as long as you can pick them out this will hopefully be worthwhile. If you can’t, or if…
December 2021 Bitdefender Free is going
Sorry to bother you twice in one month – normally twice in one year is a lot for me – but something has come up that might be bothering a few of you, that I need to address. BitDefender, the antivirus that I have wholeheartedly recommended for the last 5 years or so, is pulling…
June 2021 Papers and refurbished PCs
There are 2 reasons for this email, the first is to tell you that I have stopped advertising in the local newspapers. I stopped for a while during the lockdowns and didn’t notice much of a difference to my workload, so I decided to save some money, but I have since come across one or…
July 2020 Covid
As some of you are already aware, I have recently started doing home visits again and I wanted to let you all know this, in case you have been saving up your computer problems. I also wanted to let you know that when I do make a home visit, I arrive wearing a face-covering, with…
August 2019 Windows 7 End of Support
This newsletter is particularly aimed at those of you running Windows 7 on your PC’s, though sooner or later those of you running Windows 8 will find themselves in the same boat, so it’s probably worth thinking about it sooner than later, not least because like most people I know, I think getting off of…
April 2017 Backups – Yet Again!
I’m afraid that I am going to get on my hobby horse, again– I do this when I start to see a rise in the number of a specific type of problem as I go about my daily visits. If you are using a computer then there will almost certainly be some files that are…
April 2015 Backups (Again)
Backups, Recovery Disks and Windows 10. It was a while ago when I last wrote about backups, but I think it is probably time to go into it again. It is scary how often I find myself at someone’s house with a messed up computer, and no backup. It is an easy thing to do…
March 2014 Windows XP Warning
I’ve got Windows XP! DO I NEED TO PANIC? Here’s a topic I am increasingly being asked about, and not surprisingly as Microsoft keep telling XP users that the end of the world is nigh come the 8th April 2014! So what does it mean? How does it affect you? What – if anything –…
February 2013 Online Payments
Online Payments Here’s another topic that I find myself repeating a lot, and it’s an important one, namely making payments for stuff on the internet. How can you minimise the risks of paying for products or services online? Well, here are a couple of very simple things you can do, to make yourself feel safer…
January 2013 Email
ISP Email Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) gives you email addresses for free. Very nice of them isn’t it? Well in one way it isn’t! If you use these email addresses, then it makes it harder for you to leave them should you ever find a cheaper or better or more convenient broadband alternative, or…
September 2012 Cash Back
Dear All, Hi again! It’s your friendly local neighbourhood all-things-IT fixer-upper. I hope that all of your PCs, Laptops, Tablets, Wireless and Wired Networks, Websites and the like are all working the way you want them to. This time I wanted to talk about something different that a lot of people are missing out on…
March 2012 Home Networks
Dear All, Hi! It’s your friendly local neighbourhood all-things-PC fixer-upper. I hope that your PC(s) and/or Laptop(s), Wireless and Wired Networks, Websites and the like are all working the way you want them to. OK, this time I want to talk a bit about home networks, something which most of you will have, but many…
October 2011 Backups – Additional Detail
Dear All This time I want to talk a bit about backups. It never ceases to amaze me how often people don’t make backups of any kind. Most of you will have something on your computer that you would be upset about losing, be it family photographs or videos, business accounts, that time consuming genealogy…
October 2011 Backups
Dear All, Hi! It’s your friendly local neighbourhood all-things-PC fixer-upper. I hope that your PC(s) and/or Laptop(s), Wireless and Wired Networks, Websites and the like are all working the way you want them to. This time I want to talk very briefly about backups. It never ceases to amaze me how often people don’t make…
July 2011 Laptops
Dear All, Hi! It’s your friendly local neighbourhood all-things-PC fixer. I hope your PC(s) and/or Laptop(s), Wireless and Wired Networks, Websites and the like are all working well! I have seen a fair number of clients of late who are having problems with laptops, and every time that I found myself pointing out some simple…
August 2010 AntiSpyware/AntiVirus
Dear All, Sorry to bother you like this – an email appearing every year or so like this could be annoying! I hope all your PC’s, Laptops, Networks, Printers and whatever else you have are all working beautifully. There are a couple of things I thought worthy of passing on this time, the first of…