The IT guy is chuffed to bits to be involved with running the Wiltshire Business Club in Chippenham!!

The purpose of this club is to bring together businesses so that they can help each other to find new customers both from within the network and introductions from outside. Members of the same types of business can join and work together unlike some other networks.

Key points
• Free Membership
• Free use of website to promote and network your business
• Free use of Forum
• Monthly Meeting at cost of food and facilities. Only £10.
• More meetings planned and will now be 2 a month during most months
• 3 one to one appointments at each meeting

Now we don’t do stuffy, boring network meetings so can highly recommend visiting. Take a look at the site http://wiltsbizclub.co.uk/ and register and say hello!

If you are interested you can always call us and have a chat. We love it!

(plus the food is very, very good too!!)

When it comes to free anti-virus products, The IT Guy has very strong opinions on the subject. And we are entitled to. Because on a weekly basis we get PC’s that are riddled with viruses. And when we say riddled we mean completely trashed. Unable to be used with pop ups all over the place saying you have a million Trojans ‘click here’ to buy the full licence of this product to clean it up, blah blah blah.

Why do you think the product is free in the first place? Sure it might offer a little protection but that’s not good enough. If you are not properly protected against Trojans you are at risk to lose everything on your PC. And if you haven’t backed up? Oh dear…….

Let’s not beat about the bush, let’s use the most common and popular product as an example: AVG Free Edition. In fact 99% of the infected machines that we clean up have this installed. Now guys, for less than 20 quid you can have your PC protected against these Trojan fellas for a year. For around 25 quid you can protect 3 machines for a year. The product we always recommend is Kaspersky Internet Security. Why? Because we know it works. And it works well.

But we’re not bullying AVG it happens on nearly all of them – even Microsoft Security Essentials. So do yourselves a favour please: DO NOT USE FREE ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE. If you do then you will pay the price at some stage.

Whatever product you choose to use, make sure you use it with a decent malware removal tool – Malwarebytes is one of the best out there and is free to use.

The IT Guy can recommend you buy Kaspersky from Amazon as it’s usually the cheapest place.

You have been warned…..

Welcome to the 1st online tutorial from The IT Guy – Removing Startup Programs. We aim to provide regular tutorials for all our friends out there and hold their hand through the crazy, messy world of PC hints and tips.

That’s enough waffling, watch the video and enjoy!!

We’d like to thank the lovely and very talented Pam Jones from Eight-Interactive for producing this for us – thanks Pam!!

The IT Guy did its first exhibition this week. Called ‘The Best Of The West’ it was run by The Best of Bristol and the FSB – 2 fab organizations which every small business should check out. We rocked up at 7.30 and set-up the stall. As first timers it was more of an exercise to see what these things were like, and whether they are worthwhile. So we had our table, banner stand, 32inch TV with promo vid on rotation, plenty of biz cards and of course – sweeties!!

Doors opened at 10am and a slow trickle of business peeps started to drift in. But by lunchtime the place was buzzing! There was a fantastic atmosphere in the place and plenty of familiar faces too. Our stand had a fairly good location (by the bar!!) and attracted a good deal of interest. By the end of the day we had at least 1 signup and several solid leads – well worth being on our feet for 9hrs!

We will definitely do another biz show as the exposure is very good, plus it’s another good way to network – something we like to do a lot.

Take a look at our brilliant promo/exhibition video we have had made by Chris Harding of MouseProud

We think you’ll agree that The IT Guy has never looked so……famous!

Yes, we are plunging into the world of business exhibitions. The IT Guy will be having a stall at the FSB Best Of The West Exhibition – 1ST March 2011. This is a networking event not to be missed. Hosted by Bristol City Football Club, the first class facilities, central location and FREE parking will make this FSB Best of Bristol exhibition the place to be.

So if you are in the area, please do drop by to support us and say hello. There will be lots of sweets and a great prize draw going on, so it’s definitely worth a visit!

For more info click on the link below – hope to see you there!!

http://www.businesssorted.com/exhibition-company-exhibition-details-1st-march-2011

Happy new year everyone!

It’s 2011 and we predict that things are going to change this year. We strongly believe that 2011 will be the year that cloud computing really takes off and we will see a shift in the way that companies big and small start to work. You are already seeing Microsoft adverts on TV promoting their Office 365 software, but even they are behind the times! Google are leading the way with Google apps and the integration between PC, Laptop and smart phones is just awesome. If you are thinking about working smarter, here are a few things for you to consider doing in 2011:

• Online backups – Cheap, secure and ultra reliable. Never forget to back up again! We like Carbonite.
• File sharing – Dropbox, Sugarsync, Google docs……the list goes on, but by using the cloud to store and share files you’ll be able to access and share documents from any PC anywhere in the world!
• Email, Calendar and Contacts – Google apps just rocks with this. Sync this with your Smartphone and you’ve got a mobile office. All backed up and stored in the cloud. Add contacts and make appointments on the go, knowing that it will sync with your desktop or laptop instantly giving you up to date information at any time.
• Software – By using an online system you don’t have to worry about conflicts, bugs or viruses causing problems. Again, you can use it at any machine anywhere and all your info is stored and backed up for you.

Another big bonus of using the above examples is that your PC/Laptop will not need to be a mega machine or a super computer as all you need is an internet connection!

Give this some thought and if you need any help or advice just ask us, we won’t bite and are more than happy to help.

Make 2011 the year you change the way you work for a better more productive business.

That white stuff is here again – and already snow has caused problems all over the country, however for our customers that doesn’t really affect you. Why?! Because by using the latest – and very simple – technology, we can take control of your computer and fix those annoying issues that you have.

But what if my internet is down?! You won’t be able to connect?! Well, we are experienced enough to diagnose a fault by running through a series of simple tests and by listening to what you are saying.

Example:

Just this morning, a letting agency called in distress that their PC had lost all their network connections and couldn’t get emails, internet or shared docs. After listening to them it was discovered that this happened after a Windows Update. So by going into Device Manager and rolling back the appropriate driver the problem was fixed! To us that was very easy, but to the customer they had no idea, and were worried about not getting someone to visit due to weather.

Remote and telephone support is a powerful tool, and most of your problems can be fixed by this. Don’t sit on those niggling issues, let us know and we’ll resolve them for you!

So if you are ANYWHERE in the UK, or even the WORLD for that matter, we can always help you.

For those of you that follow on Twitter, you will know that we love cheese on toast for lunch. In fact, we love it so much that we want to share with the world what we consider to be, the perfect cheese on toast recipe – so here it is.

If you ask the question, ‘what is the most important part of making cheese on toast?’ 90% of people will say The Cheese. This is wrong. It’s the bread.

To make the perfect cheese on toast you need to buy a loaf of tiger bread. You can get this from any supermarket. Tiger bread is made with sesame oil and with a pattern baked into the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking. The paste dries and cracks during the baking process, creating a two-color effect similar to a tiger’s markings, hence the name. Cut 2 large slices of bread, about 1.5 inches thick, and place under a grill. Now lightly grill both sides until they are just about to turn brown and remove from the grill.

Now for the cheese – it’s cheddar. Cut enough cheese to evenly place over both slices of bread. Be careful not to use too much as it will run and spill over into your pan causing excess washing up!! Now place back under the grill but not on the highest temperature – this will cause the bread to burn. Somewhere between medium and high is perfect. Now wait until the cheese has melted and just starts to bubble and remove.

Now simply put some cracked black pepper or Worcester Sauce over the slices and enjoy!!

There is no escaping The IT Guy now…..for we now have our first branded vehicle out there on the road! We realise the importance of advertising in the RIGHT places and what better way to do it then have everyone see our vehicle on the road. We travel all over the South and South West so we’re sure people will see us and remember us!

If you do see us on the road give us a little toot toot!

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