An IT Support Blog from London

The free Windows 10 upgrade has ended on 29 Julay 2016. If you choose to upgrade an old Windows PC, you'll now have to pay. 

Clock is ticking down so don’t miss the chance

Windows 10 was rolled out last summer to the relief of many Windows PC, laptop and tablet users. The previous versions 8 and 8.1 had not gone down well with many users. To placate the disgruntled and to restore some faith Microsoft decided to offer the Windows 10 upgrade free to Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users.

Many of those eligible for the upgrade will have seen the regular pop-up reminding them to take the plunge and get on with it. The latest version of this pop-up actually specifies the upgrade for a scheduled date and time, unless the user interacts with the pop-up and cancels the upgrade.

Microsoft ends the free upgrade offer on 29 July 2016, so the clock is ticking down. After this date upgrade pricing is £100 per devices.If you use Windows 7/8/8.1 on a personally owned computing device it’s your choice whether to go ahead; however if you are a business user, the decision will be down to your IT manager, department or service providers.

From the perspective of businesses, here are what we consider to be the 3 best reasons to upgrade to Windows 10.

Exemplary support for the compliance mission in the finance sector

Businesses operating in regulated sectors need access to technology that supports the compliance mission. When it comes to Professional Services organisations, technology and service providers need to be exemplary in helping to discharge regulatory obligations. Here we highlight how HTL Support provides the solutions to help accountancy firms get the best from technology while meeting compliance and following best practice.

Don’t fall victim…

One of the most serious risks originating from the Internet to businesses and domestic users is the threat of phishing. Phishing is a form of fraud where a cybercriminal attempts to trick the recipient of a message into revealing information such as login credentials or account information by masquerading as a reputable entity or person, typically in an email, but it can be attempted through other communication channels.

A victim receives a message that appears to have been sent by a known contact or organisation. An attachment or links in the message may install malware on the recipient’s device or send them to a malicious website designed to trick them into divulging personal and financial information, such as passwords, account IDs or credit card details.

You then find your personal or business bank account has been raided or your credit cards used to purchase luxury goods. Here are 10 ways to prevent users in your business from being tricked by phishing emails.

Benefits of BYOD difficult to ignore

Traditionally, businesses discouraged and even prevented employee-owned devices being used in the workplace for accessing company data and services. This was especially true of larger businesses or those with compliance requirements to meet.

Safe Harbour renegotiation by the end of January

Following the EU ruling that rendered the Safe Harbour agreement invalid last October 2015, in November Sataya Nadella (the current wearer of Bill Gates’ big Microsoft CEO shoes), announced investment in UK data centres as part of a $2bn European cloud infrastructure development plan.

Accredited to provide leading back up and DR solutions

HTL Support is proud to announce that we are now accredited Silver ProPartners for Veeam backup and hosted disaster recovery (DR) solutions.

New on-premise server and storage infrastructure data transfer

Typically, when a service provider carries out an on-premise upgrade to replace server or storage hardware, it often quotes for carrying out installation work. Some of this may include charges for data transfer from legacy devices over to new storage. This may accrue significant costs, especially where the charge is based on the volume of data that needs to be transferred.

Guidance for firms outsourcing to the ‘cloud’

When it comes to regulation, until now, the document ‘Considerations for firms thinking of using third-party technology (off-the-shelf) banking solutions’ issued in July 2014 had been the chief source of leadership from the FCA on such matters.

Big bonuses for finance firms!

Whether it's a web email service, or the apps on smartphones, tablets and wearable gadgets, the majority of us enjoy the benefits of personal internet applications delivered from the cloud.

Update: For more information about the progress, please visit https://lunarmissionone.com/. 

World Space Week 4 -10 October 2015

World Space Week was first introduced by United Nations declaration in 1999 and has grown into the largest public space event on Earth. More than 1,400 events in 80 countries celebrated space exploration in 2014.