Free and easy Windows troubleshooting by Microsoft, Fixit Center

Over the weekend we got news of a very quiet product release by Microsoft, the free Fixit Center application.  We’ve given it a try and think this program may serve a lot of our clients well as a first line of support.  After being installed Fixit Center automatically grabs all of the relevant details about your computer and looks for any problems you may have been having.  From there you must sign in with a Windows Live ID (don’t worry if you don’t know what that is, it’s just a free account with Microsoft and doesn’t automatically share any of your personal information) before the troubleshooter opens.  After that you’re presented with a list of automated troubleshooters which did fix a couple small problems on our test machine.  However, even if the Fixit Center doesn’t solve your problems it does record all the relevant details about your issue and give you the option to forward that to a professional technician.  It’s free, works pretty well and even if it can’t solve your problem it will assist a real person in getting your computer back to normal.  We like it and will be recommending it to all of our clients.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for free

There are literally thousands of companies out there who will charge you or your business an arm and a leg for better results in Bing, Google, or Yahoo!.  And while we wouldn’t discourage any of our clients from using those services, a few minutes and a free tool from Microsoft could save your organization a lot of money.  Enter the free Microsoft SEO Toolkit, a powerful and very easy to use program which will tell you exactly what can be done to improve your website.  We’ve tested it here on the official TechMinds site and were pleasantly surprised at the productive feedback it creates.  You don’t need any real knowledge about how your website works to get results, to give it a try click on the picture above or follow the link after this post.

http://www.iis.net/expand/SEOToolkit

Remove Duplicate Contacts easier in Gmail and Google Apps

While not quite as popular as Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail a lot of you rely on Google for your email needs.  Most of our small business clients use Google Apps (free or paid) to manage their email. calendar, contacts and tasks for up to 50 people.  So you can imagine how important it is to have only one “contact” for each person you’re in touch with.  A contact list can easily get out of hand when you have different entries for someone’s email, home/work address and multiple phone numbers.  After listening to enough complaints Google has now made it easy to merge duplicate entries with the touch of a button.  Just click on “Contacts” when you sign into your Gmail or Google Apps Account and then click “Find Duplicates” in the center of the page.  That’s it!

Windows Update: The easy way to help your computer

If you’re running Microsoft Windows XP or Vista at work then odds are when you go to Windows Update it doesn’t look like the picture above.  Every week Microsoft pushes out software updates to fix problems ranging from security issues, to reliability, to bug fixes which may have been driving you crazy for months.  I know, who has time to go through and make sure their computer is up to date?  You could call in a professional (like TechMinds) to do that, but depending on how far behind you are it could take the better part of a day.  And honestly, this is something you can do yourself.  Give yourself a week (Monday through Friday) to get everything updated and your computers will be stable, faster, and less buggy.  After all, that’s why these updates are released weekly.

For Windows XP:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Automatic Updates.
3. Choose Automatic (recommended).
4. Connect to the Internet and go to the Microsoft Update website or click Microsoft Update on any Microsoft.com site and click on Check for Updates.
   
5. Click either Express or Custom installation.Express finds High-priority updates for your PC, which you install with one click.  Custom finds both High-priority and Optional. You individually review and select the updates you want to install.
6. Microsoft Update scans your PC to identify which updates your PC needs. Follow the directions on the screen to download and install them.

For Windows Vista it’s even easier:

1. Open Windows Update (click the Start button, click All Programs, and then click Windows Update).
2. Click the Get updates for more products button. (Note: If this button does not appear, it’s likely you’ve already enabled Microsoft Update. This may happen when you installed other software programs like Microsoft Office 2007. In this case, the phrase “You receive updates: For Windows and other products from Microsoft Update” should appear near the bottom of the window.)
3. Follow the instructions to use Microsoft Update. Windows Update will begin to scan your PC for available updates for Windows and other Microsoft products if you have automatic updating turned on.

Depending on how far behind each computer is you may need to restart the PC and find more updates more than once.  It may seem like a lot, but this is one of the easiest things you can do to keep your computer running the way it should.  After all, if you rarely check for new updates it’s likely whatever problems you may be having have been fixed for a long time.  Whether you do it yourself, or pay someone to come in and bring your computers up to date, this process can save you a lot of time and money down the road.