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Well, that’s a bit naughty

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison
A tale (actually two tales) of sleight-of-hand verging on duplicity, from our favourite mega-corporation. Microsoft.

Firstly, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Or the opening to a con. Your choice. This affects users of the Microsoft Edge browser – you know, the one that is installed automatically with Microsoft Windows, and spends a lot of time begging you not to switch to another browser. And it concerns ‘Bing‘ which is Microsoft’s massively less-popular alternative to Google. Obviously Microsoft have used their position as the authors of both to try an knit them together. So you have to be pretty alert to search with Google (other search engines are available), because Edge will constantly steer you towards Bing. Up until now, however, it’s been easy to spot. The Microsoft trick is now to format the Bing results page to look suspiciously similar to a Google results page. And more – it slides the page down to hide the ‘Results from Microsoft’ banner at the top. Now I’m absolutely, 100%, really, really sure this isn’t designed to dupe you, the user, into thinking you have Google results. But make up your own mind: there is a good article from The Verge that you can read.

Secondly, and more importantly, Microsoft is playing games with Microsoft365 (Office365) subscriptions. Particularly the ‘Basic’ pack. The ‘Family’ subscription which is/was £80 a year has mysteriously gone up in price to £110. I’m guessing they are hoping most subscribers will simply shrug & cough up. Don’t. What they have done is swapped around the names of the services. ‘Basic’ is now the next tier up (what was named ‘Premium’ and used to cost…. £110). Your current subscription would now be called ‘Family Classic’ – same package, same price. But cunningly hidden, and you can’t ‘downgrade(???)’ without a lot of effort. Back in the day there was a scam called ‘slamming’ when phone operators moved you onto a higher priced contract without discussing it with you. Sound familiar? And, to answer your next question: the difference between ‘Basic’ and ‘Family Classic’ is the inclusion of Microsoft CoPilot (yup, A.I.). To be honest, I’d pay extra to not have my life constantly interfered with by some automated cretin, but that’s me being a luddite. Anyway, there’s an amusing YouTube on this here.

If you need help or advice then get in contact with us.

Can’t upgrade to Windows 11? Maybe you can.

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison

One of the ticking time-bombs we are all sitting on is the scheduled end of Windows 10.

I did an article on what this might mean for you, so I won’t go over that again. This article will deal with who can (or can’t) upgrade to Windows 11.

You will know if you can’t officially upgrade your PC to Windows 11 because your Windows Update window will look a bit like this.

What is happening here is that the Windows installer is checking the inside of your system’s hardware, and comparing it with the list Microsoft have mandated as the minimum required for Windows 11. If it doesn’t match? Well, ‘computer says no‘. But is that the final verdict?

Well, as it happens – no. We have been experimenting over the last couple of weeks to find out exactly what the limits really are. By muzzling the installer’s watchdog it turns out that we can get a perfectly workable installation of Windows 11 onto some older PCs. So, on the face of it, we can move PCs to Windows 11 without the cost of replacing your hardware. And, indeed we can – it’s quick & inexpensive and has – as far as we tell – no downsides.

But (you knew there would be a but!). There are some caveats. Here are some of them.

  • If your PC is too old to ‘officially’ upgrade to Windows 11 then it’s done a few years of service. And some of your hardware might be nearing the end of its service life. Upgrading to Windows 11 will not stop it dying at its allotted time.
  • Some hardware is simply too old for this to be achievable.
  • One of the bits of hardware it checks for is the TPM (Trusted Platform Module). This is a cornerstone of some modern digital security systems. If you don’t have a TPM then these systems will be unavailable to you. And no, you can’t graft a TPM into an existing system.
  • Microsoft might, in the future, take steps to circumvent the steps we take to circumvent the installer’s checklist. And there might be application software that does not (either now, or in the future) play nice.
  • We are only happy doing this as a ‘fresh install’ (i.e. a totally clean installation). We would advocate installing a new hard disk at the same time. This has two benefits: (i) it preserves the existing Windows 10 system intact, in case it all goes wrong (ii) the hard disk is the component most likely to die with age. And, at the end of the day, new hard disks are very cheap!
  • It is highly likely that your existing Windows 10 license would transfer across. It not there are plenty of options to resolve this.

 

Actual model supplied will vary

So practiced are we at this that we offer an all-in-one price: Installing Windows 11 with a new 240Gb solid state drive (2.5″ or NVMe as appropriate) into a standard PC or laptop is £145 all-in (including VAT!). If, despite the caveats, you are interested please contact us for a formal quotation.

So, there it is. A quick and inexpensive way to keep your existing PC viable for another couple of years, saving you the cost of replacing the whole lot next October. As usual, contact us on 01905 426364 to discuss your requirements.

It still works – don’t panic!

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison

 

 

One of our pet hates is pop-ups. They are intrusive, annoying and catastrophic to productivity. Not to mention that they are (nearly always) irrelevant. So here’s an annoying one you might need to circumvent.
For years the Microsoft Office apps (other office suites are available!) have had the ability to export their content direct to an Adobe Acrobat file (a PDF in the jargon).

Microsoft Excel exporting to PDF in the good old-fashioned way.

This is a very useful tool. Right back at the beginning, Adobe made the strategic decision to make the software required to read their PDF files freely available. The result (as is always the case when a technology is made free-to-use) it rapidly became the de-facto standard for exchanging documents. And everybody did well out of this, including Adobe – who have built an empire on the back of the universality of their file format.
Things change, which often entails the bean-counters getting into positions of management.

Let’s bamboozle our users.

At which point they starting making strategic decisions based on short-term & irrelevant cash considerations, ignoring the fundamental underpinnings of their business (looking at you Boeing!). And so. If you have the ‘free’ Acrobat Reader software installed on your PC, Adobe will now try to hijack the Office ‘export’ function to try to bamboozle you into signing up for their premium service.
What to do? There are three main options.

  1. You can click the second link down, and it’ll all work as before.
  2. You can uninstall your Acrobat Reader (there are perfectly decent alternatives, serves ’em right).
  3. You can disable the ‘COM Add-In‘ for Acrobat in your Office apps.
Meanwhile, make a cup of tea & enjoy the beauty of Autumn.
Deco WiFi7 MESH units. Very nice. Very expensive.

Wi-Fi 7 is here

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison

WiFi 7 is here. The latest & greatest standard, offering lots of wondefulness.

Should you upgrade? Probably not. If that sounds a bit killjoy, let me explain. For most people (at home or in the office) their perception of computer speed is governed primarily by the responsiveness of their PC when accessing the Internet. Websites, email, social media – it’s all delivered via ‘The Internet’. And the thing is that the delivery pipeline is a chain – and it’s only as fast as the slowest link. I know people are going to say ‘it’s not all about speed’. And they’re correct. Thing is though that – for 99% of the people 99% of the time – it IS all about speed. And here’s the inconvenient truth: it’s great that the new WiFi7 has a data-rate of 46Gbps (which it does) – but if your broadband feed is only 0.5Gbps. then 45.5Gbps of your WiFi capacity is going unused. In addition it’s unlikely that any of your current equipment (laptops / PCs) support WiFi7, so it’s a complete waste of time.

Or is it?

There are, of course, people for whom this upgrade does make sense. One of the most useful improvements is the increased performance when sharing the WiFi with many devices in the office. Generally the performance for everyone degrades rapidly when the bandwith cake starts getting sliced too thin. WiFi7 promises to be more generous here.

And there are a bunch of intereting & usefull – if somewhat technical – improvements here as well But (and it’s a big but) – it’s expensive. The 3-pack in the image is £1000. Yes, a grand. You have got to be really sure it’s going to enhance your life before splashing that much cash!

I’m not joking. OK, a little bit.

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison
Logitech mouse

A Logitech mouse – just like mine!

I’m really not sure what to make of this. I’m keeping an eye on a seemingly preposterous story centred on Logitech. These are the people who make mice & keyboards (amongst other stuff generically known as ‘peripherals’). We like their mice & keyboards a lot – we use practically nothing else.

The story kicks off with the Logitech CEO being interviewed by a tech YouTuber. During which the idea of a “forever mouse” came up. After a bit of digging it transpired that the concept was that you’d never need to replace your mouse because it would be kept up-to-date with constant software updates. After a LOT more digging the CEO finally admitted to the idea being based on a subscription model – yes, that’s right! A monthly charge to use your mouse.

The mind boggles. Gamers might disagree, but a mouse is a mouse. I have never, ever, thought “oh, I wonder if there is a software update for my mouse?”. If I replace my mouse it’s because a button has broken, or the thing is so filthy I can’t stand it any longer. Not, ever, because it’s software is out-of-date! Even the improvements sought by gamers are likely to be mechanical (sensors & stuff) which isn’t remediated by a software update.

Oh great! More stuff to update – just want to send a quick email? Oh no, the mouse is updating. And we now have to pay for this inconvenience!

But now comes the frantic back-pedalling. Logitech now say that the ‘Forever Mouse’ was never a thing. Which is nice. So, what gives? No idea. Maybe we look no further than the old saw ‘all publicity is good publicity’.

Did they really think that they could get away with it?

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison

On Jan. 12, 2023, Intel announced full details and availability for the new 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900KS. A photo shows the ​​13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900KS Special Edition retail packaging. (Credit: Intel Corporation)

Apparently so. We’re talking about Intel and the fiasco over their latest chips. To cut a long story short, Intel launched its latest chips (13th & 14th Generation CPUs) to the usual fanfare & premium prices. Only for some users to find that these chips were, in some cases, slowly failing. What was happening is that the chip was not regulating its own electrical power properly, and bit by bit it was cooking itself. Intel quickly released a software patch that prevents this happening. But, crucially, if you have already experienced the problem then tough luck – the damage is permanent. And Intel announced that this was just on certain batches, your bad luck, so sorry, never mind. Which isn’t nice, as the i9 illustrated above is the wrong side of £600 – assuming you can get one.

Now, however, that have (in small part) backed down. You can read about it here.

Maybe the fact that Intel is laying off 15,000 staff might be connected in some way. Maybe not. But here is another product that clearly has not been rigorously tested before being flogged to the paying public.

And before you get too smug looking at your AMD chip, have a read here…

Copper switch-off delayed.

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison

To our complete lack of surprise, BT/OpenReach have announced that they have delayed the final switch off of the traditional phone lines (so-called ‘analogue’ or ‘copper’ phone lines). The grand plan was that all voice telephony would be delivered over your Internet connection by the end of 2025. The technical name for this is VOIP (Voice Over IP). When this plan was announced in 2021 anyone with any real-world knowledge knew it was unachievable. There were just too many connections to deal with – not to mention all the specialist services that only work on the copper. Like RedCare & emergency buttons for the elderly. Plus, of course, OpenReach’s ghastly reputation for not delivering the quality of broadband essential for voice communications.

And here we are. Bowing to the inevitable, OpenReach has pushed back the deadline by 13 months. That’s still ‘ambitious’. We shall see. My money is on a series of further delays as reality seeps in bit by bit.

You can read the BBC article here.

Having said that, if (and it’s a big if) you have the broadband to support it, voice telephony delivered over the Internet is very good, and very cheap. The system we use has been into our office for many years, and it works well. If you are interested talk to us about it. Call us on 01905 426365 (yes, it’s a VOIP line!)

 

Retain control of your assets.

Posted on
By:Mark Pattison

This is a problem we see occasionally – clients who don’t have control of their key assets. Mainly because it’s something they don’t think about at the beginning – when the opportunity is there. It only becomes an issue later – when, maybe, the opportunity has passed by. The most frequent area we see this problem is a company’s domain name. It’s quite common for a business to hand over the whole business of “the website” to a third-party. They do the lot – domain name registration, web hosting, web design & site maintenance. That’s OK – it’s convenient, and all the settings are handled by the same people. The problem comes if the relationship with that supplier goes awry. Maybe they go out of business, or a key member of staff leaves, or you just fall out with them. And then you are in trouble – because your website – especially your domain name – is the key to your online identity. And unless you can access this to manage the settings you are storing up big problems for the long term. We have had numerous examples of going for what should be a simple configuration change – only to spend days going around the houses while the client tries to get that essential access.

Our advice is that you get a grip early. (i) make sure in the contract that you are clearly the owner of the asset in question. (ii) make sure that you have the credentials to access that asset. (iii) make sure you check regularly that those credentials work.