Another year ended, and with the new one, new unknown challenges await. What will be the next threat? Will I need to update my machine? Is the software I use now, still going to be effective going forward? How will these factors change the way we work?
This year we faced numerous threats. DDoS was the star of the show and Data Theft came in as a close second. Tablets consolidated their usefulness in the enterprise world and with them the cloud begun to stop being a mystery.
So what can we do to protect ourselves and improve our user experience?
Tech Tip #1: Use a Password Manager.
Using a special date, 12345, or “password” as a password will not cut it anymore; do you want to be sure? You have to use a long string of characters and symbols that no one without eidetic memory would remember.
With a password manager, you can use random passwords, and protect all of them with a single password that I recommend should have uppercase, lowercase a special symbol, of eight or more characters, that in the end only mean something to you, not shared with anyone else.
Tech Tip #2: Do a Full Backup.
You never know when a system failure will happen. Also it’s good to have one regular backup, and one “end of the year” backup, Follow best IT practices in business and personal life. You can save those important files and store them properly, so you can refresh your system, or be able to get everything back in case of failure.
Tech Tip #3: Use the cloud more.
This year, try to save your everyday work documents to the cloud, because, you may have a backup, but to get back to your files you would need time, and time is money.
We don’t mean like, all your general documents, photos, music, etc., just your top 30 most used files in the whole year or so. That way, later you can have instant access to them wherever you are in any device.
Tech Tip #4: Get yourself an SSD
Your PC has seen better days. You want to upgrade but money is tight. The best way to buy some time before that new PC purchase, is to get an SSD drive. They eliminate bottlenecks in almost all PCs as long as your computer isn’t too old.
They are really fast, even the cheapest slower ones. The best part about getting one is that you can use it for sure in a brand new super duper ultra-fast pc down the road.
Putting that SSD in your old pc will feel like you have 3 times the ram and 5 times the CPU power, at a fraction of the cost of upgrading to a full pc.
Tech Tip #5: Format your PC
It does not matter if you have an SSD or not. A system gets awry over time. Countless installs, fragmentation, cache, logs, temp files and so on make every pc feel old, even if you got a new one over the holidays.
The way we work changed. We need to be more secure, and that xp/vista/7/8 OS we are using is more of a foe that a friend; a headache waiting to happen, with the latest windows 10 the learning curve is very low, it is faster and you will be up-to-date.
In our personal opinion, in windows 10, we needed less clicks to get things done, therefore, doing our everyday work faster, so try to begin this year with a fresh O.S.
Tech Tip #6: Give your network some love
With things like online gaming, Netflix, desktop virtualization, and multiple wireless devices, one thing is sure, that neat two lanes highway of a LAN is getting bumps and holes, try to optimize resources, re-punch some connectors, and check the power adapters, that way you can experience enhanced performance again.
Tech Tip #7: Move to Gigabit
Things are getting bigger, the pictures, the videos, the music; you name it. Don’t think so? Then why do you have a 16 GB flash drive in your pocket?
When you need to transfer something, you have to do it at 2016 speeds. The world waits for no one. Try to invest in one of those fancy dual core 802.11AC routers and a gigabit switch.
That way even on a wireless set-up, you will feel like transferring files locally, also, those Wi-Fi routers have better reach, manage several more clients and are relatively less expensive that N routers in comparison, why wasting time waiting some data fly when you can do better stuff?
Tech Tip #8: Migrate to USB3
USB3 is here and here to stay, with SSD speed, a nice reliable flash drive can be a life changer even if you do not have USB3 ports in your PC. Internal USB3 adapters are inexpensive. Get one and watch your USB transfer speeds soar.
Tech Tip #9: Reset your phone
Do you remember tip #5? Well, that applies to your phone as well. Those constant updates, attachments, and downloads build up in your phone, and not everyone can afford to switch to the latest smartphone. You really maybe not need something that advanced and expensive. Yes, it will take some time to download again all those apps. Yes, It’ll take time to set it up how you like it; and yes, putting all the accounts back on can be a pain. However, that wasted day, can improve your everyday experience so much more for another year or so. Also try to update your micro SD card to a class 10 or similar. It will save you battery life and time in the end.
Tech Tip #10: Get expert help
We know how it is. We think we can do it all by ourselves, then we end up breaking it. By that point we realize the cost to hire a professional to manage my devices is much lower than the costs to perform the repairs.
You would not believe how a mere toolbar uninstall can lead to a massive OS breakdown due to registry errors that could lead to a full PC reformat. Don’t do that to yourself and your wallet. If you think it’s easy but never done it, you’re better off calling us.
We do know that most of these tips need some help from an expert, so let us help you to start off 2016 on the right foot!
