Should I upgrade to Windows 11 or stay with Windows 10
When we were first presented with this question in 2021 we decided to see how many of our computer systems were eligible for upgrading to Windows 11. We found that less than 10% of our supported systems would run Windows 11.
Now in 2022 we are choosing to stay with Windows 10 and support that stable operating system for all of our clients. We feel the decision to avoid the upgrade is well founded. Most of our clients agree that they are unwilling to migrate to Windows 11 since the upgrade process is difficult and requires upgrades to almost every program that they are running.
This question has come up many times during our 29 years in the business. The answer is easy yet carries a little bit of technical prowess to achieve. The answer is, get storage with Wasabi.com. Their price is consistently low and their initial price is competitive. The reason that we answer this question is that many of the “low entry prices” become triple or quadruple as expensive once you pass the initial cost.
Wasabi needs a person expert with their S3 type backup, but they beat all the others, hands down. We did a study and found out that Wasabi was consistently competitive than ALL the others. This solution is based on our extensive experience and client feedback on who is the best and most affordable online storage.
We can provide you or your company with programs that work well with this affordable storage solution, Wasabi. Contact us for more information.
This has been a topic of discussion for the past 29 years with Global Security Support and its clients. And while there are no easy answers, lets dive into the problem of lost data, crashed harddrives, and drives that have malfunctioned for one reason or another.
Laptops and computers can become inoperable for many reasons, either by your negligence or by accident. Either way, these things happen and its wise to be prepared when it does.
There are always solutions to recovering your data without sending your storage device to a data recovery company. Ease US has been our software of choice and for the last 10 years, our only software that we go to when we need reliable data recovery.
We have tried many, if not all of the data recovery software suppliers in our 29 years of experience and find that only one is worth the money. If you have ever deleted a directory of data that has lots of work that you have done over the years, or removed pictures in your directory, there are no reasons for some of the things that could be due to a mouse malfunctioning, your finger hit the wrong key (delete) and then all of the data is gone – out of the recycle bin, or the children have accidentally deleted your data on your computer. All of these things have happened in our 29 year history of Computer Support.
And realistically, there are not many tries that you can have to recover the software. So, remember that when your data is really gone, and you have no backup of the data, then you will learn from your mistakes but at a costly price.
Lets talk about what it costs when you dont have a backup and need to send your drive out for Data Recovery. This is a costly and time consuming process that can take weeks and cost several thousands of dollars. They also state that there is no guarantee on what they will recover nor if the data will even be useful to you. So after these odds, its best to always have an offsite backup for your data. But in the event that is not an option, and you want to recover your files as quickly as possible, then this is the best alternative for the time and money that you could spend.
Data Recovery is big business and as harddrives get bigger and bigger, the odds that it will strike you gets better as time goes on. Even if you have the latest Solid State harddrive, there are no guarantees that your harddrive wont corrupt your data or your ability to start your PC. Many times, a Solid State harddrive had problems in the boot sector of the drive and even though the data was there, it was unavailable to the user due to the problem of getting to the files and directories.
If your computer still is able to start, and you are able to login, there is no better time than to backup your data to an external USB disk or thumb drive. If your data has been deleted and the recycle bin emptied, then the best thing to do is not use this PC until you have successfully recovered your files. If this is your only computer, then you need to get an external drive to do many of these functions. First when you download the software for recovery, write it to the External drive. That way it minimizes the potential loss of your data that you need to recover. You can still add the software for recovery and then begin the slow process of recovery. Depending on the amount of data that has been lost, it takes time for the software to recover the files and then to write them to your external drive. This process can take as long as several days if you have lost a significant amount of your data.
There is a solution to having to purchase recovery software and that is a good backup either local using a USB storage device or Online using a good backup tool that is under your control. S3 backups can be complicated since they require 2 passwords and what is called a bucket for your data, so if you have questions about this, email us at info@globalsecuritysupport.com.
Have you ever wondered if there is an alternative to Google ? Google does own 93% of the worlds searches but that does not mean that other engines are inferior. Some searches from the other search engines need to be used with caution, since many of the searches can be infected or lead you to malware. But armed with a good antivirus and web page protection software, you should forge ahead and see what is out there for you. Each one will give you a wide range of suggestions and may be what you are looking for.
Lets start with StartPage. StartPage is a great search engine that will give you a wide range of choices without the ads from your traditional search engine. This engine, based in the Netherlands, is a very private and blocks ads from their results. It is definitely high on our list and the search results are similar to Google, although not exactly. You may find some other things that may help you in your discovery of the internet and its fantastic resources. StartPages privacy policy is famous in the security sector of internet consulting, and has made a name for themselves as one of the most private of all search engines. They have the ability to search in other countries too and that gives you targeted searches that may assist you in your use of the internet. Make sure to read their privacy and security policy so you understand their business model. They also have a translator that when you enter the words into the engine it triggers their language translator. It is private and safe from anyone wanting to know what you are translating.
StartPages default settings are the family filter is turned on to protect you from Adult web sites. StartPage also can be set to give you specific locations too. So, click on the three lines on the right hand corner and go to Settings. There you can customize the browser to 10 different languages, a regional filter for all major regions of the world, as well as the temperature from degrees F to C if you think in terms of degrees Celsius.
Next is our second choice www.wolframalpha.com . This engine provides the perpetual student in all of us, with a way to get our answers to: Mathematics, Science and Technology questions as well as Society and Culture. A search engine that is absolutely unexpected but full of surprises. There is no way to say what this search engine can do, so if you are a teacher or student, you may want to consider upgrading to its pro version.
Our third favorite is www.ecosia.com This browser uses the power of the internet to plant trees in many countries that are suffering from deforestation. And I have to say that this company is truly helping the planet. Please support their efforts and use them as much as you can. You can compare their search results from Google or Bing and see which one gives you what you are looking for.
Some lesser known engines that you can experiment with are disconnectsearch, lukol, gigablast, oscobo, and also qwant.
To end with DuckDuck go seems fitting since this is where we began years ago and now it has opened up the world to all of us at Global Security Support.
Each one of these search engines deserves high praises and each one is different in what they provide.
Yes there is. Actually there are several but here is one that I like very much. It is called Threat Cloud from CheckPoint its map location is here.
From here you can see how specific the internet can track threats and attacks and even which ports are used.
Here is another one, from FireEye. One of the leaders in Internet Security Threats.
Finally here is one called the Digital Attack Map from Arbor Networks. They have different information that can alert you to how these attacks occur and why internet security is such a daunting task to keep ahead of.
We struggled with this problem many times using expensive solutions until we discovered RemotePC. Now we have a great solution for Remote Access to our clients computers, We are also able to give the users access back to their own PC or MACs, We can host meetings all in one affordable price by Remote PC.
In 2022 threats continue to penetrate MAC computers and now a new strategy is required to protect the browsing habits of our clients who are using Apple products. Some computers need a complete format of the operating system to upgrade to the latest version of Monterey and that is preventing many users from having the latest protections that are necessary to browse the internet safely and securely.
What can we do about threats for the MAC ?
When we get into the subject of Operating Systems, the author chooses to use Windows 10 and soon Windows 11 since there are many programs that dont run on the other operating system solutions and are difficult migrations that are required to be installed to run well.
Some of these adapter programs or shell environments do not allow all of the features to operate in a 64 bit environment, or function as well as with Windows 10, so this is why we stick with Windows 10 Pro.
However, if you want to look into Linux, it can be a great exercise, but be warned, it is not for the faint of heart. You will need to first download the version of linux that is compatible with your hardware, and this gets easier all the time as Linux is able to make improvements for compatibility for hardware.
For those of you that want to run your software on a MAC, you may have an expensive road and lots of conversions to make since there are differing formats for the MAC environment and there are also software programs that are not supported on a MAC computer. Do your research well and even hire a MAC specialist if you are concerned about the ability to safely migrate over to the MAC environment.
With the advent of Windows running Android, we feel that its important to stick with Windows 11, and upgrade as soon as you get your backups in order. Short of getting your data backed up, you could have a rough time if your computer refuses to run Windows 11 and you dont have access to your PC. Its also important to have your Windows 10 rescue media in hand and have it updated since it will be your way out if Windows 11 doesnt install or runs into problems.
First and foremost there is Google™ Chrome, the standard for people that utilize the free service of Google and Gmail.
Second there is Microsoft’s™ Edge Browser that is now based on the Chromium browser, and there are a few limitations as of todays date to the add ons or plugins due to the security concerns by Microsoft. This is understandable in todays world of hackers going bezerk. This browser is giving Google Chromes browser a run for their money.
Next we have Mozillas Firefox. This is our browser for several reasons that we will go in depth later.
We now have some lesser known browsers such as:
Also consider other browsers as are featured in this article.
CCleaner Browser – This browser is a great alternative and We use it as an additional research too. It has automatic cleaning as well as some good security features. It is available here.
We are very excited to see Windows 11 and unless you have issues running Windows 10/11 we highly recommend you using Windows 10 or 11 if your computer can run it.
We have been a user of Microsoft Office since the early days, and it has definitely increased in its value to us and many of our clients. The ability to have smart scripts, macros to calculate your data, and that is really second to none. You will be hard pressed to find another Office product, however, in our experience, Open Office or LibreOffice do serve the average user well.
There are many products that can do roughly the same as Microsoft Office.
Products such as OpenOffice, LibreOffice to name a few. These are the top competitors to Microsoft flagship Office 365 product now. Many people do find that it is difficult to change Office products. We have been using LibreOffice now for almost 2 years and find it a competitive tool. It does lack a few features that Microsoft has in Office 365, but if you dont use those features then try out LibreOffice and even OpenOffice are worth trying out.
Usually these products save in their own native format, and this is the issue that most people have. They have to add a step to convert the document to a doc or xls format. There is also an export as a PDF file, which we find very useful. Some people will enjoy these products, but be aware that there is a learning curve and you will need to look at all the features to see if they will suffice in your environment.
Depending on who you currently host your email with, we can guarantee that there are few ZERO ACCESS ENCRYPTION servers in the world. Proton Mail is one of them. We have used Proton Mail for all of our domains and have complete confidence that they will not have access to your emails. Proton Mail does NOT have the encryption key and will protect your privacy completely, unlike other email services.
This process is complicated to Change your Email Mail Exchange MX, records over to another provider. In this process we create new SPF, DKIM and DMARC records to continue your mail flow. We prepare this change in advance of the change of your legacy records and also create the users so the email flow continues uninterrupted. We also give you the login for the users and their new passwords as well. Once the mail flow is working, then you will upload your backup email, done before this process started to make sure that you have a continuous, unbroken store of your emails. We have other processes that can import directly from the email server, but ask us before we start this process.
This change will then protect your domain name from spoofing and will come with a spam filter that works 100% of the time. We rarely have false positives but after you work with the new email server for a few days, and check the accuracy of the email capture, then we can say that this process will actually ensure 100% of your legitimate email into your inbox.
We have performed this upgrade many times and know the pitfalls and precautions to make sure that this change goes smooth.
Contact us to get an estimate on this critical change to your email security.
