How long will it take you to fix my computer?

We talk to an average of 30 people a day on the phone as well as a lot of people who come into our shop. One of the most common questions we are asked is.. How long will it take? Although there is no way to give an exact answer on that, we thought you deserved to know the top 3 reasons why it is impossible to guestimate when a computer will be done. When you’re done reading this article you’ll have a great understanding of how long it will take..

Number 1: Guessing is.. exactly that.. a guess. Every one of our customers is important to us. If we give someone a time – we commit to that. By saying, “We’ll probably call you tomorrow”, before even taking a look at the computer; we are putting a constraint on the quality of work we can provide. We will never rush a job just to get it out of the door fast – quality matters!

Number 2: We work on a first come first serve basis. We don’t use the term, to serve, lightly. We are here to serve you and your computer needs. Since we don’t charge anything to diagnose your computer we stay relatively busy. At any given time we may have up to 30 computers on ‘the bench’ either being worked on or diagnosed. We have 3 great technicians that do a fantastic job. Even at a full-load of 30 computers, each computer is given the same amount of care.

Number 3: Technology fails – and it fails all the time. I can’t tell you how many times there have been computers I was working on thinking it was about done when another problem popped up. This happens all the time with computers. We can go deep and fix a problem – only to have three more problems occur. This is the primary reason we can’t guess on a time when we will have a computer finished. Will it be working awesome when we are done? Absolutely!

Of all the reasons I listed; from guessing to wait time to technology failing – the most important reason we don’t guess on a time is because at the end of the day our word is all we have. If we guess on a time and then miss that time – we lied to you – and that’s not how we do business. We do business the “old fashioned” way by looking you in the eye & telling you the truth.  It’s our job to earn your trust and business. I hope answers your question! If you’re looking for satellite internet, you might try reading our review on Exede internet service.

If you ever have other questions, feel free to email me at it@mach1pc.com

Reminded of how easy it is for computers to get infected

Yesterday I was reminded just how easy it is for computers to get infected. I was on a service call to a local business ( long time customers & great people! ) and was talking with the owner.. He had asked me, “How do these infections keep coming up”. We had just done a complete wipe & reload – he had the computer for about a week before it got re-infected. What a great question! In this article I am going to go over some of the most common ways to get infected and what to stay away form. The ways I am going to go over are the fake Adobe flash player, Adobe reader virus, & java infection.

Adobe Flash Player Virus

Adobe Flash Player infection: First let’s answer the question, YES Adobe products do need to stay updated for protection. However, there is a correct way to do so and a wrong way that will lead to your computer being hijacked. If you are browsing the web and a popup comes on your screen saying something to the effect of, “Your Browser is unable to browse this site, please update your Adobe Flash player to continue”.. DON’T CLICK IT! Chances are that the pop up that looks completely legitimate is actually a gateway to get you to download an infection. Don’t click on the big “x” at the top right of the window either as the people who create the malware have also found a way to take advantage of that. The correct way ( as with any of these ) is to hold down CTRL+ALT+DELETE and close the application. Here is the direct link to Adobe Flash player for downloading the latest version.

Adobe Reader malware infection: Same as Adobe Flash player, your Adobe Reader needs to stay updated to be able to handle new features of the pdf documents you download. PDF documents are an easy way to save and transfer documents with many pages. Same as with the Adobe flash infection – use CTRL+ALT+DELETE to get rid of it and download Adobe Reader from adobe.com Here is a link to download Adobe Reader from adobe.com

Another very common way to get infected is from clicking on pop ups that say your “Java” needs updated. Java is prevalent in most websites you visit – doing very impressive things behind the scenes. Just like Adobe, Java is updated constantly with new security fixes and features. If you ever see a pop up that says your Java needs updated – CTRL+ALT+DELETE that out and go to java.com; click the big update/download button on their site. Click here to go directly to java.com

There you have it! Unfortunately, that is just a few of the common ways to get infected – but they are VERY common. Make sure anytime adobe or java pops up on your computer – you get out of there! Then just go to the manufacture website and download the update direct from them.

Why the Windows 8.1 update wasn’t the start button we hoped for

Windows 8 is just.. bad. Period. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s go deeper and talk about why people 30+ years old are having so much trouble understanding Windows 8.

If you have been using a Windows based computer for any number of years; you have always had a start button. We like our start button – it makes it easy to find what we are looking for! The start button is the little icon at the bottom-left hand corner of your screen. When you click on the start button it, it pulls up a menu that lists all of your programs as well as links to your pictures, documents, & music. Windows 8 does not have a start button. Instead of using the traditional start menu, Microsoft announced the ‘metro style’ home screen like the image below.

Windows 8 start button app

Microsoft said they were going to “make it right” and introduce a start button back into Windows 8. Computer users everywhere got excited to hear that Windows 8 would finally be usable like a normal computer – it still wasn’t. Unfortunately it was a marketing ploy by Microsoft to get the word out and get people to download the Windows 8.1 update. The Windows 8.1 update simply added a “start button” that then leads to the metro style screen with icons everywhere. Even after the update there is no built-in start menu.

Not all is lost! There are some great developers that have added a ‘start menu’ app for Windows 8. I’m using it today – and it makes Windows 8 usable again.

Interested in hearing how this works? Give us a call at 317-398-3572 – we can get it installed for you!

Answer: Should I use more than one antivirus?

I can’t tell you how many times I have had customers bring in computers that got super infected, only to be told that “I have 3 antivirus programs on there – I don’t know how this could happen.”. You see that’s what we would normally think; the more protection the better – just not when it comes to antivirus. This article will answer the question, “Should I use more than one antivirus?”.

NEVER! Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a deeper look. What ends up happening when you have more than one antivirus installed is that they begin to fight each other for control. When the two or more antivirus programs are fighting each other they are too busy to be protecting you. This happens because, in many cases, they label each other as potential threats. The lesson to be learned? Only use one antivirus program on your computer. Whatever antivirus you decide to use, make sure you keep it constantly updated and run a system scan at least once every month.

I know that I have talked about what antivirus you should use previously, but again I would like to suggest you use Microsoft Security Essentials. The reason I suggest MSE is because it is constant updated, never needs to be renewed annually, & best of all it is completely free.