Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

More on Vista

David Grenda, Founder, Grenda Computer Consulting

We’ve all seen the entertaining commercials on TV between the “PC” guy and the “Mac” guy. Since these are Apple commercials, the Mac of course always look better than the PC. I’ve said in previous articles that while the Mac has its place and Apple is certainly a successful and worthy company, Microsoft and the Windows based world is simply in control of most business environments.

What make these commercials so effective, is how they illuminate a problem that everyone seems to be having with PCs. They don’t really have to explain the problem because we all instantly recognize what they are talking about. The most recent case in point is the variation where the PC guy is going “back” to Windows XP. I have also previously recommended that my clients avoid upgrading to Vista wherever possible, at least for now. This is reinforced with this commercial.

As you evaluate computing options for your enterprise, try and stay with what works well as long as you can before being pulled along into the next big thing. You can still buy computers from reputable places with XP licenses. Let Microsoft release a Vista service pack and let manufacturers get drivers for their devices out into the marketplace. Just last week I set up another printer a client bought themselves only to find out there were no Vista drivers available for it.

Software products like operating systems and office suites have become “feature bloated”. If you think about your own use of software packages, I would guess you (like most people) really use only 20-30% of the available features because that’s all that’s really needed to get your job done. Vista is an example of the battle between adding a lot more features and trying to make them simpler to use. Approaching your computing from the simplest solution that works is in my experience the best (and most affordable) policy.

www.grenda.com

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New IT Clients

David Grenda, Founder, Grenda Computer Consulting

The occasion of my starting work with 3 new clients this month has reminded me of something that many of you may find familiar.

Often what brings a new client my way is a build up of neglect in a computing environment that gets to a point where people really start complaining. Computers are running slow, work is taking longer, pop-ups abound, etc.

These situations are difficult because I have to let them know that unraveling the problems may take a fair amount of effort. Because I don’t know what I’ll encounter, I can’t give a hard estimate of hours required. I generally offer to spread the investment in initial fix-up hours over the next few months if the client would like. Additionally, by the time I am called in the client is often desperate to get running correctly and sometimes angry at their previous IT provider. Both of these elements of course make the kick-off to the relationship even more stressful.

The moral of this story is that computers these days are really like living things. This is especially true if they are connected to the internet (who isn’t?). Mal-ware, patches, security updates, increasingly complex software environments, and users surfing the internet all require the attention of someone who can keep the machine running properly. As I’ve said before, this is often from a well meaning but unqualified source.

It’s easy to ignore your computers if they seem to be working properly. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish though. Be sure to have them watched after regularly or you may have a serious problem at the worst time.

www.grenda.com

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