Smith Consulting Group

04/29/2016

The Windows 10 upgrade Window just gets bigger and bigger, and even more frustrating - but somehow tempting to many of my customers.

Just a little advice for those of you out there who are consistently seeing the Windows 10 upgrade button pop up promising you that your computer will become magical if you just click the free upgrade. DON'T DO IT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!.

It’s perfectly okay to buy a new computer with Windows 10 pre-installed, it's a huge step up from Windows 8, but that is the history that haunts Microsoft, every other new Operating System is almost a beta, little history lesson of how Microsoft does business.

Windows OS (Not including servers)
---3.0 welllll, we didn’t know computers anyway so...
---3.1 not all that great of a step up, but playing with Paint was fun!)
---Windows 95 and NT4 both VERY good operating systems. But, you had to know how to use a computer to make them friendly. In other words you couldn’t just plug in a serial cable to a printer and magically watch it install.
---Windows 98, sucked because the file system could not handle it, until…..
---Windows 98 SE - Upgraded to 32 bit - huge step forward
---Millennium Edition - If you remember this OS, that’s all I really have to say (Windows 2000 was essentially just NT4 on steroids, improved plug and play, but basically the same OS)
(Not including servers, the addition of the Active Directory I 2000 Server was a God Send)
---Windows XP - Solid, Stable, industry standard for a long time –
---Vista – I did not think they could do worse than Millennium Edition…. I was wrong
--- Windows 7 – Rock solid after the first Service Pack, still the industry standard in most domain environments.
--- Windows 8 – Really? What the heck is this.
---Windows 10 – I like it, takes a while to get used to, but pretty good stuff. Doesn’t crash, need to play with some features to get it just the way you want it, but pretty solid.

What’s next? Microsoft promises an even more improved file system; I have stopped listening to their PR though. I know I won’t buy it, because based on a solid history it will give me the same headaches my wife gets when she uses her Windows 8 laptop. The Computer Gurus who consider themselves to be ‘in the loop’ may disagree, but I’m waiting to see what happens rather than being a PC Prophet.

This went longer than I expected, ultimately with Windows 10 DON’T UPGRADE, buy new.

02/01/2016

SCG just won the 'Best Computer Repair And Service in Evansville Indiana' thanks! I'll keep working hard to provide my customers and businesses service above and beyond their expectations!

https://tack.bz/2cLEW

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12/18/2015

Are you a victim of a bad Windows 10 upgrade? Although sometimes the upgrade goes without an issue, quite often your computer becomes completely screwed up.

It's a really nice door stop or paper weight!

Lost data, lost programs, misconfigured drivers, sometimes the system wont boot at all.
We can help. We have saved countless computers for minimal time and cost.

07/21/2015

I just found this and HAD to post it. Bill Gates was one of the richest men in the world (and continues to be) when he committed this horrendous crime. At twenty, he went down to New Mexico and drove without a license. He might have gotten away with the crime had he not been speeding. He was arrested and has the New Mexico police mug shots to prove it!

07/01/2015

Have you seen the little square in the bottom right hand corner of your PC window by the clock offering you a free Windows 10 upgrade? Curious? Not exactly sure what to do? If after reading this you need help, please feel free to contact me through Facebook, I also have a ticket system which I respond to a little more quickly than Facebook www.contactcomputersolutions.com and as always, you can give me a call.
Microsoft is promising Windows 10 will be the best thing since sliced bread. Based on their history it probably will be, historically every other Operating System (OS) Microsoft releases have been a train wreck.
Microsoft is going to provide free upgrades to nearly everyone. Please consider this before you upgrade
Here is a quick history…
• Windows 3.###x well first swing none of us knew much, but 3.1 was much better than 3.0
• Windows 95 – NT4 – Great
• Windows 98 (first Edition) – Terrible, so Microsoft updated its file system to 32 bit and released:
• Windows 98 – Great
• Windows ME(Millennium Edition) – terrible oh jees…how bad (Windows 2000 was also released as a corporate product, which was basically NT4 with a pretty face and better plug and play, it was pretty good but not really a new OS- just a modified version of NT4)
• Windows XP – Great
• Windows Vista – I didn’t realize Bill gates could do worse than Millennium Edition… I was wrong
• Windows 7 – Pretty darn good
• Windows 8 (and 8.1) – Yet another train wreck
• Windows 10 - ?????? We will see what happens.
My point, Microsoft has Alpha tested its OS, found bugs and fixed them. Then they Beta test the OS with a few people and techs, find bugs and fix them, now they are ready for release on July 29th.
The smart move, and what I recommend to my customers, is DO NOT accept the upgrade for at least 6 months. Let everyone else go out, run the system, find bugs, get irritated, watch their computer crash and lose vital data, and expose security vulnerabilities. The truth is that Microsoft really won’t know how flawed or perfect their new OS is until it is in the hands of millions an millions of consumer’s, running a zillion varieties of hardware and software.
If you buy a computer, or have more than one, then make your own decisions. I for example will have a PC with Windows 10 only so that I can learn the system for my customers who choose to use it. BUT, I would recommend having a Windows 7 PC lying around just in case. None of my networks are upgrading until at least service pack 1 comes out, and I am recommending all my residential customers now running Windows 7 NOT to upgrade yet.
ONE LAST NOTE----- If you are running Windows 8 or 8.1, I’d probably give it a shot anyway. The very kernel of Windows 8 is flawed. It may be a good move for you. But if you are fortunate enough to have a Windows 7 machine (which most of my customers do), hold on a bit and just wait. Let everybody else expose security flaws within the OS and whatever other hardware and software issues it runs into, then allow Microsoft to fix them, update their OS, and then we can all give it a shot.

09/29/2014

Here's a piece of computer love for you. In 1936 the Russians invented a computer that ran on water... http://gizmodo.com/5879106/the-russian-computer-that-ran-on-water

In the days before Intel, Apple and Google, computing was a much more traditional affair. We're talking levers, gears, and other mechanisms that could all automate counting in some way or other. Russian scientist Vladimir Lukyanov, however, built one that ran on water.

09/03/2014

HP, Google, Microsoft, and Apple have one thing in common. All of them were started in garages.

11/29/2012

12 Interesting Computer Facts:
1. Over 6,000 new computer viruses are released every month.
2. The first computer mouse, constructed in 1964, was made out of wood.
3. The average human being blinks 20 times a minute – but only 7 times a minute when using a computer.
4. The first electro-mechanical computer was developed in 1939.
5. By the end of 2012 there will be 17 billion devices connected to the internet.
6. 5 out of every 6 internet pages are p**n related.
7. Over 1 million domain names are registered every month.
8. With it’s 800 million interent users, Facebook would be the third largest country in the World.
9. The first hard drive was created in 1979 and could hold 5MB of data.
10. The nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra video card contains 222 million transistors.
11. 20% of online viruses are released by organized crime units.
12. The engineers who developed the IBM PC were known as “The Dirty Dozen”.

11/27/2012

Here is another thread on Windows 8, this time to list down the disadvantages of Windows 8 over Windows 7. Not many at this point as I am yet to discover what all is happening behind the scenes. My concern has always been safety and privacy. So much so that I regularly run online scans to see if there are any keyloggers. I use the on-screen keyboard in Windows to use my bank account (unfortunately, my bank does not provide one). It might be an obsession but keeps my mind at peace.

1. It was tough to decide whether to use the default antimalware in Windows 8 or to install 3rd party antivirus. I do trust the abilities of Windows Firewall from Vista itself so there is no problem there. But then, is the default antivirus good enough? I have not yet installed any anti-virus on Windows 8 as I am still looking for a detailed literature that explains how it works. If you know of any resource, please let me know.

2. Media Player: What is this thing? What happened to the default codecs? Where are all the options present in the good old WMP? Are they hidden or completely done away with? No DVD support is understandable. I can use VLC player in case I need to play a DVD but then, what if I wish to rip a DVD into WMV format? One option is to install a video converter and convert from DVD. On Win7, I use AnyVideo Convertor. For some reason, it won't install on Windows 8. Did anyone else face similar problem?

3. Privacy: If you were not alert during installing Windows 8, you end up granting location access to many of the Windows 8 apps. So even if IE is really not allowing websites to track you down, other apps are giving away your location information freely. It took a good deal of exercise to figure out how to turn off location access to Windows 8 apps. Go to Change PC Settings and from there, move the slider to turn off location access completely.

08/18/2012

Please keep in mind, if you are considering a new battery for your laptop, I can beat the local stores by about ½ their price. I can also get great deals on I=Pods, I-Pads, and other various devices.