Would you be ready for a software audit?

Computers have made doing business quicker and in many cases easier. But the computer by itself is nothing more than a box with a screen. You have to have software programs to make the computer a productive tool.

Do you know what software reside on your computer?  If you don’t know it’s probably time to find out.

Software companies just like any business they are in business make money.  They don’t want their valuable commodity being used by companies who don’t have the legal rights to use it.  So you really want to have the software on your computer to be in compliance.

There are many reasons that some of the software on the computers at your company may be out of compliance.  Some software companies may sell their software for use for a limited amount of time.  If that time has lapsed and you are still using the software it is out of compliance.

It’s possible that your company may have purchased the original software, but not the upgrade that one of your employees installed simply because they had it.

There are also cases where the software on your machine was purchased out of compliance for its use. Some software publishers will offer discounts for personal use. These versions, while identical to the full version, in the purchase agreement states they can’t be used for business purposes. This would make the software out of compliance.

You may not even be aware that the software is not in compliance, but if you happen to fall under an Audit it could cause a lot of trouble. Just the audit itself is troublesome; time is spent researching purchasing records, license agreement and other documents. After the audit you may find yourself in compliance, but most may also find themselves out of compliance with little leverage in negotiations.

Here are some things to assist you with your software inventory.

• Have a computer policy. It should state how the computer should be used, lists who may install software and document that unauthorized software can not be installed. Unauthorized software would be everything whether it’s free off of the Internet or purchased.
• Have one person or a small team being the authorizing point. You may also want to be part of that team.
• Document all software installed on each computer. Be certain that each copy has it’s own license and document such. One purchased copy put on the three machines is not valid unless the license agreement gives that right.
• Perform your own computer audit once a year.  One way to accomplish this is in conjunction with an employee performance review.  If the computer is found in compliance, than the employee did their job to maintain it as such.

If an audit is now performed, give the auditor the documented software list for each machine and you can feel confident that the audit will go smooth and, for you, successful.

© 2006-2007 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com

Ideas to keep your PC performing smoothly

Other than the telephone the most important technology tool for many businesses is the computer. In many businesses it may even be more important than the telephone. When the PC is running smoothly the business runs that way too. When it’s not there’s usually panic.

There are things that can be done to help prevent problems. Using the following as a guideline will greatly assist in keeping the tool in good shape.

1) Have the right software installed. Every computer will come with the operating system installed. The first ones to install now would be Anti-virus, firewall and one that will protect you from ad-ware and spy-ware. After those it’s time to determine what other software you need to do your work.

2) Keep the operating system software and prevention software updated. Just as important as having these packages installed on your system you need to be sure that they are up-to-date and are regularity updated. Most will allow you to set a time to update. It should probably be done once a day and at a time that you know that the computer will be connected to the Internet.

3) Think before adding new software or upgrades. It’s always best to consider all factors before adding new software or updates. Is the computer powerful enough to run the updated software? Will the software impact any other installed software? Will it require system resources that may slow the system to an unusable level? These are just a couple of the questions that should be raised when looking at new and upgraded software.

4) Clean and organize your Hard Drive. Even though computer data storage devices are getting bigger, so in many cases are the files being stored on them. Software packages can take up a lot of space, as can music and video files. It’s a good idea to occasionally check your drive to remove outdated and unwanted software and other files. Email is another source of storage hogs. There may be multiple message with the same attachment or just old messages that have attachments. The Hard Drive is nearly always working and it does have mechanical parts that can fail. You will want to back up critical files routinely for quick restore in case of a failure.

5) Keep the area and air vents clean. One of the biggest dangers to the computer is heat. And the inter working of a modern machine generates a lot of it. It’s important to keep the air vents clean and free from dust, dirt and other air flow inhibitors such as paper and sticky notes. You don’t want to have the computer in a cabinet that has little to no air flow and keep it away from the heating source of the room.

6) Know where important documentation is located. In the case that the computer does decide to break it’s important to have the contact and/or warranty information easy to find. If you have a maintenance plan that allow for checkup and cleaning, have it done at the recommended times and if possible just before the warranty expires. Also know where the system restore and other software disk are located. And have current backups available.

© 2007 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com

Problems between Apple iTunes and Windows Vista

If you use Apple iTunes and are considering upgrading to Windows Vista, you may want to think about it before doing so. Apple has released a notice detailing some compatibility issues between their iTunes application and Windows Vista Operating System.

Apple recommends that you delay upgrading until their next release of iTunes. They haven’t given a date of that release, but believe it to be available within the next few weeks.

Some of the compatibility problems are;
• iTunes store purchases may not play when upgrading from Windows 2000 or XP.
• iPod models with the “Enable Disk Use” option turned off may be unable to update or restore iPod software, make changes to iPod settings or may require being ejected and reconnected to resync.
• Ejecting an iPod from the system tray and not iTunes could cause corruption on the iPod.
• Contacts and calendars will not sync with iPod.

Apple recommends following these steps if you do plan on upgrading before the next release of iTunes.
1. Deauthorize all iTunes Store accounts.
2. Enable Disk Use on all iPod models.
3. Uninstall iTunes.
4. Perform a clean install of Windows Vista (Highly recommended but not required).
5. Reinstall the latest version of iTunes.
6. Open iTunes.
7. Choose Authorize Computer from the Store menu in iTunes.

The full text of Apple’s warning can be found;http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305042

What the Vista?

Updated from post of November 19, 2006

If you haven’t heard of Vista, you will be soon. On January 30th Microsoft will release its updated Windows Operating System.

It’s classified as an upgrade of Windows XP, but a replacement would probably be a better term for it. Windows XP is five years old.

Vista will be issued in a few different versions. The right Vista version for you would be the one that best fits your needs.

The announced versions from their website are ;
Home Basic (For Basic home needs such as email and Internet access)
Home Premium (For the best home computing and entertainment)
Business ( For small and mid-sized organizations)
Ultimate (For work and entertainment, this is the most complete edition)

There is an upgrade for users of Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Any other version would require purchase of the full product, although systems running those versions probably wouldn’t be able to run Vista anyway.

What do you need to use Vista?

While Microsoft does say that if a PC was purchased in the last 2 years, it may run Vista they never claim that it will. What they do give you on their website is the minimum requirements. They use two different levels.

The Windows Vista Capable PC
A Modern processor (at least 800MHz)
512 MB of system memory
A graphic processor which is DirecTX 9 capable

A Windows Visa Premium Ready PC
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB of system memory
Support for DirecTX 9 graphic with WDDM driver, 128 MB graphics memory
40 GB hard drive with 15 GB free space
DVD-ROM Drive
Audio Output
Internet Access

Obviously the better the computer system the better it will perform under any operating system. My recommendations for a possible Vista system are;
1 GHz processor
1 GB system memory
DirecTX 9 capable graphic processor
80 GB hard drive with 30 GB free space
DVD-RW drive

The offical site for Vista is at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

How safe are you on the Information Highway?

While we are on the Internet, either doing business or for fun, I’m sure the question has come to mind, How safe am I?

To put it bluntly, as safe as you want to be. In some ways you could compare the Internet to walking the streets in a big city. Most of the time, nothing will happen, but when it does, it could be murder.

If you walk the main streets of the Internet, you will usually have no harm befall you. But when you venture into the dark alleys and the more dangerous sections, you are obviously going to be in more danger.

There are ways to prevent this for happening. Keep an eye on what you do. if something looks to good to be true, it probably is. There aren’t really any get rich by doing nothing. Be prepared.

One of the ways to to keep the software on your computer up-to-date. This doesn’t always mean purchasing the new version, but to make certain that the ones you are using have the security patches installed.

There are many malicious programs cruising the Internet. Some of those are just out there knocking on doors to see who answers. Others may be hiding in the shadows of attachments to emails from messages that appear to be from friends.

To keep these malicious programs from infecting your computers, the computer needs to protected. Use Anti-virus programs and Anti-spyware. Anti-virus programs can be set up to scan the computer from time to time as well as to check email messages for hidden virus and to check for the programs being installed on the machine. Anti-spyware can keep programs such as Adware (programs that sits your computer and feed ads to you) from taking roost on your computer

You will want to fun a firewall on your computer as well. A firewall hides the computer from automated attackers.

Just as walking the streets in a big city there are things to follow to keep you safe.
* Do Not Open Spam.
* Before opening an attachment, check and double check that it is not a malicious program. It’s easy to steal and fake someone email address so even attachments from someone you know may not safe, check.
* If while on the Internet an Ad pops up, such as one saying you have a virus on your computer, you may wonder how they know. They don’t. They are just trying to sell you a product and lead you to their site.
* Purchase products from locations that you are familiar.
* If the site looks like it leads to a dangerous path, leave and don’t go back.

© 2006 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved – tt4sb.com