This is a little rant I'm afraid. I know it's basically my fault BUT!!!!!

Sometimes when at clients premises, I have to use a series of rescue/installation discs to resolve an issue.

Sometimes, it can take quite a few hours to sort out the multiple problems people allow to accumulate on their computer before seeking professional help. A lot of which is helped along by the 'bar room fixers' who know absolutely sod all in real terms about much at all.

They don't know what the real problem is because they've not seen it and clients rarely know how to describe the problem fully anyway - not that there's anything wrong with that, I don't expect it.

The client then goes and mis-follows the wrong advice they've been given and make an even bigger dogs breakfast of the whole thing and after they've totally screwed their computer, they call me.

Now to the point of my rant.

After I've spent hours sorting out the cock-up, I put my things back in my bag (or so I think) and head off home. Some days, or even weeks, later I open my bag looking for the discs to find that I've accidentally left at my clients.

The annoying thing is the client, who now has a full set of service and recovery discs that I've paid for, and doesn't have a clue in hell how to use them, hasn't had the decency to ring me and let me know I've left them. This has happened every time I've done it.

I now have to go through the time and expense of getting a new set of dics together.

ONE THING YOU GET FROM ME IS HONESTY, IF YOU CAN'T RETURN THE FAVOUR THEN YOU DON'T DESERVE THE SERVICES I OFFER.

​I will work out where I left them and that person will have a heavy bill next time they call me!

It just goes to show, there's a lot of really dishonest immigrants out there.

Well, after giving Windows 10 the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks I'm ready to give you some real life feedback.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Thank you.

OK, so maybe it's not quite that bad but would I give up my Windows 7 machines for it.

No! I wouldn't.

Apart from insisting on installing the wrong video drivers for my motherboard which resulted in a very bad display pattern, I didn't like having to use the search facility for things I never had to search for before. What's that all about?

Clicking buttons on the start menu so I could find things that were hidden in another section of it, oh my goodness, now it's all changed and I can't find anything. What was it I was supposed to click on again!?

Clicking on all the buttons on the start menu and I couldn't find the original list. Pah!!!!! Reboot.

Right then, lets connect to my VPN. Where is it? Ah, there it is. Put in password, oh bo**ocks, it won't connect. Oh, more bo.......... it won't do anything now. Reboot.

OK, lets delete it and set it up again. Right, let's connect, enter password. Even more bo......... it still won't connect, a.n.d .......... Reboot.

OK, repeat steps above BUT, don't put in any credentials. Let's try to connect now - put in credentials - hey, it's connected yahayyy. What a palarva. Now I have to put in both user name AND password as I'm connecting or it won't work. That's poor, very poor!

After a few weeks of putting up with this, we both had enough. Lets revert back to Windows 7.

Haha, That's another game Microsoft screwed up. After reverting back, it now reports my machine has a pirate copy of Windows on it and I need to buy a new licence.

Well, I only have two words for that and it involves sex and travel.

All in all, Windows 10, to date, is definitely not an upgrade if you currently have Windows 7. Is it an upgrade to Windows 8? I think I prefer Windows 8 to 10 if I'm really honest.

Who knows, maybe they'll have got it working by next July when your free upgrade deadline is due but don't hold your breath. Microsoft gave up on Windows 8 when they issued service pack 1, long before the 3 year cycle was up. It could happen with this as well.

If only they would only stop trying to fix things that ain't broke, who knows, we could end up with a decent version of Windows but until that day comes, Linux Mint is a brilliant alternative for most of you out there.


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Well, Windows 10 has been available as an upgrade for nearly 2 months now so is it now OK to go for the free upgrade.

In short, no. Do NOT accept the free upgrade unless you know what to do if everything goes wrong as it often does.

Just about everyone who worked with the evaluation and testing versions say it's OK. A lot of people who've upgraded say it's OK BUT, there's a lot of people out there who've gone for the free upgrade and regretted every second.

It's not that 10 is intrinsically that bad, it's better than 8 but that's all you can say about it. The real problem lies with the upgrade process, it's just too unreliable.

Almost everyone who has opted to do a clean installation of 10 says it works with few exceptions but that comes at a cost. The price of 10 starts around £80.

My bottom line is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Only go for 10 if you REALLY want to have the latest version of windows. It certainly isn't any better than 7.

OK, I've got XP, what should I do?

That's easy. Get Linux Mint. It has an appearance of win 7 and is free. Mint has a crisp, clean appearance and is built on the ever popular Ubuntu version but with a different appearance not too dissimilar to 7 making it easy for windows users to cross over.

Unless you have specialist needs, Linux Mint will work for you.


Opinions are those of the writer.
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How many of you out there have noticed the free windows 10 upgrade notice lurking near the clock down in the bottom right of your screen?

One of my clients did, and they decided to take advantage of it. Oooops.

Don't get me wrong, it's very easy to do the update but that's when your problems will begin and, to make matters worse, microsoft know all about the problems you're going to experience.

As with any update, always back up your stuff, all your photos, those letters to the solicitors and all the other stuff you've accumulated on your trusty computer.

Now you need to make sure you have all the drivers for all the bits you've got bolted on to the computer as well because chances are, they ain't gonna work after the upgrade.

The problems we had included deleted drivers for the pci-e usb3 card, printer not working, machine taking more than 10 minutes to boot up. No, it's not an old pc unless you call 8 months old. Win10 is supposed to work on old machinery.

OK, supposing you've managed to get everything working in windoze 10 and you decide you don't like it, how can you get rid of it?

Well, that's supposed to be easy too. You go to the start menu, go to settings, then update and security then recovery. There you'll be given the option to revert back to win7 (or 8) but don't bank on that working either. On my clients machine, it simply would not roll back to windoze 7 and kept defaulting back to 10 saying there was a problem.

Don't get me wrong, not everyone will have a screwed machine after doing the 'upgrade' but if you are, well.........


Search the internet, it's a known problem and the ONLY answer is to reinstall your previous version of windoze from your disc, your motherboard drivers and all the discs for the bits you've got bolted onto it.

Not got your windoze or motherboard discs? Oh bugger, you're in real bother now. You've got win10 and stuff that don't work and no way of getting back to what you had before without forking out for a new copy of windoze. That's a bit of a shitter innit.

I've just spent the best part of a day recovering a computer back to it's previous state because of the damage caused by microsoft. Having to source obscure drivers because the original pc builder didn't give any discs to the client.

From what I've seen of win10, I'm not impressed. It's yet another learning curve to try and work out where everything is. Haven't the people at microsoft-in-the-head heard the old saying - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We've moved on from a menu system that was easy to work to something that isn't, and they call that progress.

So for now, ladies and gentlemen, keep away from the win10 free upgrade until they've got the bugs out of it. When will that be? Give it at least 6 months and definitely not before service pack 1.


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For the millions of people out there who bought PCs with Windows 7 on, there will be no more updates!

What does this mean?

It means our friends at Microsoft are no longer interested in developing anything more, or improving  Windows 7.

WHY????

Simple. Microsoft have a three year turn around for new Windows operating systems. 

Three years ago, Windows 8 was launched and was such a success that nobody wanted it and despite all the massaging Microsoft could muster with the sales figures, it's been a complete disaster, even when compared to the ill-fated Windows Vista.

Additionally, Microsoft stop developing an operating system three years after it's successor is released. Now, as we said, Windows 8 was released three years ago and so that means MS will no longer develop Win7. However, they will continue to release security updates for the next five years.

BUT, MS have actually reneged on their support agreements as they stopped any further development for Win8 following the release of Service Pack 1, otherwise known as Win8.1 (just to boost the sales figures). This is how confident they were of its' success.

This year sees the launch of Windows 10 and so MS should still be actively working on updates to Win8 but they're not. Anybody want to take MS to task on this contract infringement? When you bought into Win8, you bought into their 'End of Life' support agreement.


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I'm getting more and more calls from people asking me to supply them with 20M internet.

Why?

Because they've bought one of these stupid IPTV boxes and it doesn't work on their current internet providers 6M connection.

More and more people are falling for the IPTV box scam. I've been asked by one of the 'budget' phone suppliers to sell their products including ................. IPTV boxes.

Guess what I told them to do with the boxes. Yep, stick 'em where the sun don't shine. They don't believe me when I tell them they'll never work until they sort out the internet and the contention ratios (how many people who share an internet connection at the exchange) but my concerns are proving to be fact.

Current contention ratios are such that you share your 6M with 49 other people for domestic clients and 24 others on a business connection (that's why business internet costs a lot more).

When there's only a few of you streaming mountains of data through your IPTV boxes, it'll just about cope but as those numbers increase, the system will either collapse or your internet provider will put the brakes on your streaming, which in turn means your IPTV boxes won't work.

Because the ex-pat fraternity are so obsessed with watching TV, hundreds of scammers have sprung up selling IPTV boxes for obscene amounts because they know you're going to pay it.

It costs them money to pay for servers to keep your boxes running and it takes a bit of technical know-how to set them up. These people have neither. They pay the deposit for the server, sell loads of boxes (making nearly €100 a box) then disappear and move on to the next town.

One hour watching live TV through the internet consumes around 700Mb of data - enough to supply an 'average' household for at least a week.

Data has to be paid for by somebody. Your internet provider sets their systems and prices based on the 'average' household. As more and more of you become 'abnormal' users, only two things can happen. Their network collapses and/or the price goes up.

What I see to be one of the biggest issues here in Spain is the ex-pat communities EXPECT to get the services they would get in their home countries at the same level of pricing. Wake up, it aint ever going to happen. The majority of Spanish networks were never designed to be used as they are now and upgrading them costs many many millions.

This is Spain, stop expecting something for nothing, accept that legitimate traders have small fortunes to pay in taxes and other fees and have all sorts of hoops to jump through to stay legal. I'm not suggesting that paying €600 for €200 worth of satellite TV kit is acceptable, what I am saying is that, as with all things in life, you need to carry out due diligence checks.

Use your legal, registered traders as you have recourse if they sell you a pup. All these illegal IPTV scammers don't give a fig once they've got your money. You can't get a refund and you'll never find them once they've moved on as they use false details.


All opinions in this article are those of the author.

This latest scare affects all versions if Internet Explorer (IE) from version 6 - 11, that includes the version you're using. Are we surprised, not really!

I've never had much faith in IE once I realised Microsoft leave the settings wide open so it's easy for people to steal your information by default. Unless you know what you're doing, you will always be at risk using IE. I've also known my Internet settings change following Microsoft updates.

These are reasons I will not use IE. These are also the reasons why you shouldn't be using IE. Add to this a report I read a couple of years ago where the guy behind IE openly admitted it was rubbish. He cited Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox as being far superior to it.

I would agree on both counts there although I wouldn't recommend Firefox just now because I find it crashes too regularly. Even on PCs that I'm asked to maintain remotely, I can see that Firefox crashes a lot. The only plus side is, it's a lot more secure than IE.

I can't get on with Google Chrome some of you will shout. How do I get Google Chrome some others will shout. What are you talking about some will say.

Some will even say, I use Google all the time then open IE because they don't know what we're talking about. That's perfectly fine because if everybody knew what it's all about, I would be out of a job.

I always use Google Chrome because it's faster.

Anybody wanting to try Google Chrome, please download it from www.ninite.com. Once the download process starts, it will download and install in one go without you having to do anything else.

Yes, it is different, that's because it isn't IE. No, it doesn't have all the cumbersome toolbars that get added to IE, because toolbars break things - keep away from them. Most of you don't know how to use them but insist on keeping them - WHY?. No, don't sign in to google unless you already have a gmail account, click the skip now link.

Most people won't use it because they think it's black magic or, because we always use IE, or in reality, they don't want to learn something new because they're scared of change.

A lot of people will simply accept that Windows has IE built in so that must be what you have to use. I only use Windows because I have to, so I can keep up to speed with how bad it is.

I'd much rather be using Linux Ubuntu. None of my clients that have tried Ubuntu has ever needed to come back with problems. I do, however, have to still visit these people to sort out their Windows machines. Says it all really.

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How the mighty fall.

Bitcoins, the on-line currency that was recently worth over $500 per coin has suddenly disappeared - along with all its' investors money. Oooppppssssss.

They've deleted all their Tweets from Twitter and their CEO resigned on Sunday.

It would appear that Bitcoins has 'lost' 744.408 of its' users bitcoins worth almost $360 million. Seems they didn't foresee the way their system could be used for fraud and put a halt on all withdrawals earlier this month but by the time they'd stopped all trading on Monday, the bitcoin value had plummeted to just $130 - ouch.


Full story here.


There are other implications to this as anybody who now gets infected with the Cryptolocker virus might have a problem getting their files back as the villains behind it were using the anonymity bitcoins offered to ply their trade.

So what happens now is anybodies guess as I'm not aware of any other on-line payment system they can hide behind for more than a couple of days without being found out. Long term, that's a good thing but for the short term, many people will be up the creek without a paddle. Don't let it be you.


Don't have nightmares - back-up your data - stay safe.

It never went away really but it's back again on the Costa Blanca.

I had a call today from one of my customers. She had received a call claiming to be from Microsoft but because she wasn't quite sure about things, she sensibly asked for a number to call them back on.

The person on the other end refused and started to threaten her claiming he was going to revoke her Windows licence and stop it working altogether if she didn't co-operate.

Anyway, long story short, she called me to double check this guys story. Yes, it's a scam!

How do you know it's a scam Clive?

Firstly, and most importantly, Microsoft will NEVER call you, let alone call you to let you know your computer has a virus.
Secondly, how did they get your telephone number? Did you give it to them? I don't think so. If you bought a new computer, you might have given your details to the manufacturer but that wasn't Microsoft.
Thirdly, if you bought a computer with Windows already on it, it's the computer manufacturer that is responsible for your copy of Windows, not Microsoft.

Microsoft are only responsible for RETAIL copies of Windows purchased by you and installed by you (or your friendly PC guy) and NOT the OEM versions that manufacturers and system builders use.

So, the bottom line is:
If you get a call claiming to be from Microsoft, it isn't! End of story.

There are a number of things you can do if you get this call but the easiest is to tell the caller you're just going to turn the computer on, lay the phone on the table (don't hang up) and carry on with your day (after all, it's his bill, not yours).

Surf safe everybody.


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