New Internet Explorer 7 released

Internet Explorer 7 has been officially released. This important new update to Microsoft's browser will be automatically downloaded to your PC if you have Automatic Updates turned on starting November 1. While you have the option of not installing this update, HLP recommends that you do. I've been using it for quite some time now and it is good. But it is a bit different. I recommend you take the tour of what's new at: http://www.microsoft.com/ie.

This update has additional safety features and some great new features. One of my favorites it he RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) service to get updates to websites and news sites automatically displayed. In fact, our Blog has an RSS news feed that you can pickup with IE 7.

Look for the orange icon on the right side of our blog. This same icon within your IE 7 toolbar will light up whenever you go to a page that has a feed. (Like this one.)

If you're one of our clients and you would like to NOT get the IE7 downloaded to your systems automatically, give us a call. We will install a Microsoft supplied blocker to prevent the installation of IE 7 until you're ready for it.
There is a free blocker toolkit that can be downloaded to prevent the installation of IE7. This can be found at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=65788

Technical information on IE can be found on the IE team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/

You can download it now at: http://www.microsoft.com/ie

Derek Rowan
President
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net

Test Drive Office 2007 easily without installing software!

The new Microsoft Office 2007 is almost ready for release. This complete overhaul of the Office application suite is sure to be welcomed and cursed by those that use it. While there are new features, the main advantage to the new Office system is the completely different user interface design.

This new design has been extensively researched by usability experts at Microsoft to deliver the ability to more easily use the powerful features that have always been in the software. This new approach to menus and options was designed to “deliver better results faster.” But, it will take a little getting used to.

The new interface is broken down into several new components. The first is called “ribbons.” The ribbon replaces the normal menu and toolbars. The ribbon is an organized set of tabs that are automatically displayed based on what you are currently doing at that moment and what you have selected in your document. According to Microsoft, “the tabs simplify accessing application features because they organize the commands in a way that corresponds directly to the tasks people perform in these applications.”

The next change is the addition of “contextual tabs.” These are tabs that are displayed when certain type objects in the document are being edited. For example, clicking on a chart, will cause a contextual tab to appear with the commands useful for chart editing.

Galleries are throughout all of the Office applications. These provide a set of results to choose from when working on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or databases. They simply the process of creating professional looking documents.

There are many more changes to the Office 2007. But talking about them isn’t as effective as actually trying them. Microsoft now has a very cool online method of test driving these applications right within your Internet Explorer browser. There’s no software to load, (other than a browser plugin), nothing to purchase, and it’s fast and easy. They even have online lessons you can go through to get the most out of the test drive experience. This is highly recommended for HLP clients since we know many of you will be upgrading to the new Office next year. This is a great “training” environment to get used to the new features!

You can get more information on Office 2007 at:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview

You can test drive the new Office 2007 system at:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/testdrive.mspx

Derek Rowan
President
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net

Latest Microsoft Flaw Marked "Critical."

Last week, Microsoft issued a patch for a new Zero Day fix for the “VML” exploit. This was done two weeks before their normal monthly update.

This is rated as “critical” by Microsoft and HLP concurs. There are now thousands of reports of hackers exploiting this flaw in Windows. This could allow a hacker to take complete control over your system without your knowledge.

We've become aware of some users who have not updated their system or installed this patch. HLP highly recommends that all users run Windows Update to make sure that your system has been updated. Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and make sure you have the latest updates. Your computer many already be setup to download and install these updates automatically, however we have found that many users may have the patch downloaded but not installed.


If you see the “Shield” icon on the right side of your task bar, that means you have patches waiting to be installed. Please close your programs, click on this icon and install these patches. You may have to reboot your system.


More information on this vulnerability can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS06-055.mspx

Naturally, if you have any questions, please contact us.


Derek Rowan
President
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net

Windows Vista will lock you out if you're not legit.

The new Microsoft operating system coming out next year will have a feature to help thwart software piracy. If a legitimate license key is not entered shortly after installation, the system will run in what they call “reduced functionality mode.” This will limit access to the Internet. This system will be part of all future Windows versions according to Cori Hartje, the director of Windows Genuine Software Initiative.

We’ve seen some of this already with the later patches to Windows XP where it may tell you that you’re not running a legitimate copy of Windows. This can occur when a computer consultant or technician uses a different copy of Windows to repair your computer if you’ve lost yours. As many of you know, HLP requires you to have your original CD and license key for us to perform work on your system when it will require reinstallation of critical operating system components.

With Windows Vista coming out our clients are reminded that the operating system CD and license key are critical to the successful operation of the system and repairs that may be necessary in the future. HLP also recommends that your license keys and media be copied and stored off site to aid in disaster recovery efforts.


Derek Rowan
President
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net

How to Choose the Right PC Components - Part 3 - the Optical Drives

The optical writable drive is now a standard component for most PCs. You have the option of a CD writer or a DVD writer. CD writer or re-writers (also called CDRW drives) burn data and music to CDs up to 700MBs or 80 minutes of music. Depending on the media you use, you can also write and re-write data to the disk, like you can with a floppy drive. (Note this doesn’t work when making a music CD.) A CD Writer also reads CDs.

Similar to CDRW drives, DVD-RW drives allow you to read, write and rewrite data to DVDs, up to 4.7GB. You can also burn up to 2 hours of video on a DVD (but like music CDs you can only write the data once.) On top of that DVD writers can also read DVDs (even your DVD movies), CDs, and write and rewrite CDs, like a CDRW. These drives may be $50 - $100 more than a CDRW.

To complicate matters, there are two DVD writing formats: DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW (sometimes you’ll see plus sign on top of the minus in the PCs specs.) There is no single industry standard, but fortunately, there’s no need to determine which format is superior. When you purchase a DVD writer, make sure it supports both. Typically you’ll see it marked as DVD+/-R/RW or you’ll see the plus sign on top of the minus sign, signaling in the specs that the drive supports both formats.

Like hard drives, optical drives can connect to either a SATA channel or an IDE channel. Although SATA optical drives aren’t as prevalent as SATA hard drives, higher end PCs will offer that option especially with the DVD burners (which already cost more.) To keep cost down in a PC you may only see an IDE CD or DVD writer. Eventually the older IDE (also called ATAPI) interface will be phased out.

In Part Four, we’ll discuss the other components of a system.

Mike Tanney
Product Manager
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net

What maintenance does an E-mail server need?

Your E-mail server usually does not get much attention until there is a problem. Some offices institute mailbox size-limits to keep mailboxes within a general recommended size, but often many companies do not. You may have HLP’s bi-weekly or weekly service, and your technician comes out and makes sure that everything is okay. However, what does okay mean? How much mail can the server store? What happens to mail when it is deleted? What happens to a user’s mailbox when it is deleted? Does the server need any special maintenance? These are the common questions that people have about their mail server. We are going to concentrate Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and Exchange Server 2003 to answer these questions.

Let us start with how an Exchange Server stores mail. The mail is stored in a database, which increases to accommodate the amount of mail; but when you delete a message, the size of the database does not decrease. Therefore, if you delete a user’s mailbox that was 1.5 gigabytes you do not instantly regain that storage space. The space is not available until an on-line defragment occurs. This typically happens automatically on Sunday for most servers. That space also still counts against the total size limit of the database.

Here lies the problem: if you have an Exchange Server Version 2000, your server can hold up to 16 gigabytes of mail. Once the database reaches 16 gigabytes YOUR SERVER, WILL NO LONGER SEND OR RECEIVE MAIL! Therefore, we have a file (the Exchange mail database file) that increases and it also has a size limit -- but it does not decrease! What can we do? Microsoft has a utility that allows you to defragment the database, which will restore it to its actual size, and it is free! With all of that said there is of course a downside; your mail will be down the entire time this process runs, and you need to have double the free disk space available to run the tool. For example if your database is 15 gigabytes then you need 30 gigabytes of free space. HLP offers all of our block customers a free loaner hard-drive for this process if you do not have enough space. The offline defragment usually takes about two and half hours, and this can be performed in the evening, and remotely so that a staff member does not have to stay behind. The defragment is also useful if your backups are starting to run onto two tapes, because it will decrease the amount of data backed up.

If you have an Exchange 2003 server with Service Pack 2, you have 75 gigabytes of mail storage capacity! Although, for backup purposes, you probably do not want to use all of that space, so a defragment can be helpful in this case as well.

Paula Crowell
Service Manager
HLP Associates, Inc.
www.hlp.net