Year End Technology Note

2007 was a wild year in the art of technology. What we found is that the users are frustrated that what they buy does not work and to make it works costs almost as much. The solution .... well that is a tough one, our answer is INFORMATION. We will be working with our current and new customers to get that information in their hands through this blog and our newsletter.

Please feel free to shout questions and or frustrations our way. Getting some free advice from us can help the stress of our daily technology life!!

Craig Kassing
ckassing@mktsmart.com

TrendMicro 2008 and WoW (World of Warcraft)

We noticed a few posts on this, but I have gotten calls from some of my friends on how good the new Trend Micro 2008 Pro Version is. The program is working really good, but with one good kicker if you are a gamer .... World of Warcraft hates it ... Multiple freeze ups and then it errors out and you are left back at your desktop. We even tried disableing it and it had the same effect. We went back to AVG on the gaming rig and all is well ... So Give it a shot .. but keep the reciept if you do online gaming ..

Craig

Buying Computer Software

Buy the right thing first!
Before you buy that perfect piece of software, whether it is a new game, new picture editor or the new Windows Vista, be sure to read the side of the box to see what is required. The side should talk about required software and recommended software. Recommended is what you truly need. Look for the recommended hardware; make sure the program is compatible with the computer you are buying. A good rule of thumb –if the program is under two years old it will work. Double checking always helps and avoids the question, “Daddy, how come Santa brought a program that does not work?” Please call; our technicians are always available to help you choose the right program and computer.

Regarding Windows Vista –Buy new! Do not try to upgrade your PC. . .problems all over the place when you do this.

Spotmau Power Suite

Just purchsed this little gem ... If you do tech work for a living ... You need this suite of tools.

Take a look at http://www.spotmau.com/ to view the Suite and what it does completely. But file and password recovery is a great start.

Craig

Threatfire 3 (Free / New)

Wow ... a new challenger to Spybot is in the race for spyware. Threatfire 3 from threatfire.com is a new free spyware program that has gotten sopme pretty good reviews ... Testing it now!

Craig

Vista -- Starting to get it right

It getting close for our company on this system. Our laptops have been good now for three months. The systems come back from sleep mode much faster and have extended the battery life.

Desktops are now being tried out as we have canned Server 2003 and installed Vista Business. Much cheaper and easier to support for a small workgroup. If security were a larger issue between users we would stick with the server, but for our model ... Vista Business is a go!

AVG Pro

AVG Pro is the paid version of the popular free product. We have been testing the Pro version and have been very happy and surprised with the full version. It works much better than the free and as of now we are also going to recommend it as a Virus Solution.

Craig

ATI-AMD New graphics driver break the Game FEAR

We have been working with a client who can not get the Game FEAR to work on his new PC. The latest graphics drivers will NOT work with the game. Go back to version 1.8 of the catalyst drivers to fix the error when you try to start the game FEAR

Kickoff into Fall

Kickoff into fall!! Welcome to our new blog. News/Tips/Tricks we will be updating this regulary with input from our customers.

Guys, I am trying PC tools Registery Cleaner and Spy Sweeper. Both are working well and were given Great feed back from the technology rags out in the market. This replaces spybot our old favorite.