Windows XP end of support .. ( April 8 2014 )

What is Windows XP end of support?

Microsoft has provided support for Windows XP for the past 12 years. But now the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources toward supporting more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences.

As a result, after April 8, 2014, technical assistance for Windows XP will no longer be available, including Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP on this date. (If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will continue to receive anti-malware signature updates for a limited time, but this does not mean that your PC will be secure because Microsoft will no longer be providing security updates to protect your PC.)

automatic updates that help protect your PC. Microsoft will also stop providing

If you continue to use Windows XP after support ends, your computer will still work but it might become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses. Also, as more software and hardware manufacturers continue to optimize for more recent versions of Windows, you can expect to encounter greater numbers of apps and devices that do not work with Windows XP.

For more info on this visit Microsoft End Support Help

Durbangeek  ~ IT Solutions  |  Durban, South Africa  |  http://www.durbangeek.co.za 

Lumia 2520: A tablet all its own

Lumia 2520: A tablet all its own

Nokia’s much-ballyhooed tablet device will reside in the market alongside Microsoft’s Surface tablets. The Lumia 2520 looks like an enlarged version of its phone siblings and runs Windows RT 8.1. It features a 10.1-inch 1080p display with high brightness and low reflectance, which Nokia says will make it easier to use in direct sunlight.

It’s equipped with a 6.7-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel wide-angle front-facing camera, as well as a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, which is a bit of a departure from the Surface 2’s Tegra 4 chip. Nokia says that sticking with Qualcomm’s mobile chip should help improve startup times, as the tablet could take advantage of the processor’s fast-charging abilities. The 2520’s 8000mAh battery pack can charge up to 50 percent after just half an hour, though it requires an entirely separate port—and power adapter—to do so. This connection exists in addition to the USB 3.0 port (the same that Samsung uses on its latest, the Note 3) and a Mini HDMI-out on the side.

You can also buy a keyboard case, seemingly fashioned after the Surface’s, that has a “bouncy” Chiclet-style keyboard, an extra battery pack for an extra five hours of juice, and two USB ports. The case folds over like a Trapper Keeper and protects the Lumia 2520 from dust and scratches.

The Lumia 2520 will sport a keyboard cover not unlike that of Microsoft’s Surface.

Nokia hopes that integrated, out-of-the-box Office functionality—something that Apple and Google tablets don’t offer—will draw users to the 2520. But with both versions of Microsoft’s Surface tablets not selling well, and considering the fact that the tablet feels heavier than Apple’s iPad without the keyboard case, it’s not clear which part of the tablet market Nokia is gunning for here: the mobile consumer segment, or the professional productivity niche the Surface has managed to carve out.

Apps are coming, too

Today’s announcement finally puts Nokia and Windows Phone directly in the ring with the big competitors, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. And the company isn’t going into battle alone—Nokia also announced that more app makers have come on board the Windows Phone 8 platform. You’ll see popular apps such as Flipboard, Instagram, and Vine in the coming weeks, in addition to a few handwriting applications. “We want to keep bringing great applications to Windows Phone,” Majid said in our closed session. “There’s a little bit of a perception problem with the applications [Windows Phone 8 has now].” Some worthy applications—especially Instagram—may be in the pipeline, but whether consumers will be willing to leave the comfortable embrace of the platforms they know best will be another thing entirely.

The Lumia 1520 and Lumia 2520 will be available for purchase later this year. The 1520 will cost $749 before carrier subsidies. The 2520 will sell for $499 before subsidies, while the power keyboard accessory will cost $149.

Microsoft is doubling the storage capacity of inboxes for those using Exchange Online and Office 365

Microsoft is doubling the storage capacity of inboxes for those using Exchange Online and Office 365. The rollout from 25GB to 50GB is already under way and should be completed sometime in November according to a post on the Office 365 blog.

Customers using Exchange Online Plan 1, Office 365 Small Business, Midsize Business, Enterprise E1, Government G1 and Education A1 are among those that will see the mailbox capacity boost.
Those on one of Microsoft’s premium service plans (Exchange Online Plan 2, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E4, Government G3 and G4, Education A3 and A4) already enjoy unlimited e-mail storage through their personal archive but now the default primary mailbox size is increasing to 50GB. It is worth pointing out there will be no extra charge for the additional storage and the transition will happen seamlessly behind the scenes.

Elsewhere, shared mailboxes and Resources mailboxes are both increasing to 10GB (more than double) and Kiosk user mailboxes are doubling in capacity from 1GB to 2GB. The size of Site mailboxes remains unchanged, Microsoft said.

The changes come just days after Microsoft tripled the file storage capacity on SkyDrive Pro. Office 365 and SharePoint customers previously were afforded just 7GB of storage but that’s now been boosted to 25GB.

Overall, the new storage limits push Microsoft ahead of Google Drive’s storage capacity that’s shared across Drive and Gmail. One has to wonder if the search giant will take notice and boost user capacity in response

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Microsoft Office 2013 - Error opening word and excel files that have been downloaded or sent to you as attachments.

How to fix an error opening word and excel files that have been downloaded or sent to you as attachments in Microsoft Office 2013

 Below: Error message

 

The message that has nothing to do with the actual problem, and the problem is actually a Microsoft feature, as often is:

- Office now has a  "protected-mode" feature, which prevents office apps from doing certain things under certain conditions.
- One of them is to stop excel / word from opening attachments coming from outlook.

Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options. or Excel  depending on what you having a problem with.

  

Below: Click Trust Center, and then click Trust Center Settings.  

Below: Click the "Protected View"  in the left menu and untick all 3  check boxes on the right.

'

Save and voila, suddenly  word / excel can open all your files and has absolutely no problems with your gigs of free memory.
Thanks to the brilliant minds who conceived such an awkward feature with awkward error messages and ultra-deep menu options to clear - and of course no simple help. LOL

Microsoft Office suite will soon be available for Android users in the next few weeks

Just over a month after making available a mobile version of its Office suite for iPhone users, Microsoft is doing the same with an Android version of Office Mobile.

 

Just like it did with the iPhone version, Microsoft is tying the Android version of Office Mobile to Office 365. Users who want to use the mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint on their Android phones will need to have an Office 365 subscription, such as Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 ProPlus or these other SKUs to get them.
Office Mobile for Android phones (known officially as "Office Mobile for Office 365 Subscribers") was launched initially in the U.S.  yesterday, ( July 31 2013)  and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for free. The plan is to make it available in 33 languages and 117 markets "over the next several weeks."
The Office Mobile for iPhone and Android suites are both like the Office Mobile suite that Microsoft preloads on Windows Phone, meaning they are optimized for the editing, viewing and creation of Word and Excel documents. (Microsoft already has offered OneNote for Android phones since February 2012.)
 Unlike Office Mobile for iPhone, Office Mobile for Android phones does not include an option to purchase an Office 365 subscription from within the app, however. Office Mobile for Android phones only has a “sign in” option.
Office 365 subscribers are authorized install Office Mobile on up to five iPhones and/or Android phones. (Office Mobile on Windows Phones don't count against that total.) Office 365 University subscribers can install Office Mobile on up to two non-Windows Phones.
Microsoft is still widely believed to be developing versions of its core Office apps that would be customized to work on iPads and Android tablets. As with the iPhone and Android phone versions, these Office tablet apps would likely be tethered to an Office 365 subscription, tipsters have hinted.

(credits zdnet.com  : Mary Jo Foley )

Windows 8.1 now with Quiet hours for notifications

Windows 8, like Android and iOS, features an apps notifications function, alerting you when you receive new messages, calendar events and email. Unfortunately, Microsoft offered users scant options for silencing those notifications. You could either shut them off for a few short ours, or turn them off entirely. Thankfully, Microsoft has rectified this omission, adding a new Quiet Hours function in Windows 8.1 that lets users schedule when notifications should be active and when they shouldn’t.

 

 search for 'notifications' from start screen  select it then select '

notification settings'

When enabled, Quiet Hours ensures your notifications don’t make any noise or cause the screen to light up when your Windows 8.1 device is in sleep mode. Your notifications will automatically be restored whenever you start using your device or Quiet Hours are over.

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Fix many common PC and device problems automatically

Fix it Solution Center finds and fixes many common PC and device problems automatically. It also helps prevent new problems by proactively checking for known issues and installing updates. Fix it Center helps to consolidate the many steps of diagnosing and repairing a problem into an automated tool that does the work for you.

Microsoft Fixit Centre

Fix it works with older versions of Windows as well as Windows 7. The complete list of compatible versions includes:

• Windows XP SP3
• Windows XP Pro (64-bit) SP2
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2003 SP2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2008 R2

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Boot directly to Desktop in Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 includes an option that lets you boot to the desktop so you don’t have to see that tiled interface anymore. You don’t have to install third-party software or mess around with complex hacks involving the Task Scheduler just to boot to the desktop.

To enable this option, right-click the taskbar, select Properties, click the Navigation tab, and check the “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in” option.

KB2821895 update for Windows 8 causes System File Checker to hang & eats up resources

 

During the June 2013 Patch Tuesday, which took place June 11th, Microsoft rolled out a high-priority non-security update KB2821895 via Windows Update. This "servicing stack update" was available for Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012. However, after installing the update, some users are experiencing some major resource consumption issues when it comes to the System File Checker.
After installing the update and running the System File Checker, the process hangs at 100% CPU utilization while eating more RAM than necessary. This process eventually ends after roughly 30 minutes and states that it was "unable to fix problems" while generating a large CBS.log file that repeatedly states "Cannot repair member file." Microsoft has not addressed this issue just yet so we will have to resort to an alternative means to bypass this update since we cannot manually remove it.
In order to fix this issue, run the following command as an Administrator and type at the command prompt 

DISM /Online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth  [press enter]

If you have yet to install this, head over to Windows Update and find KB2821895. Make sure you right click on the update and select "Hide Update." The update weighs 9.5MB. We will update you as Microsoft issues a formal statement on this issue.

Windows 7 limited stocks avaliable

Windows 7 limited stocks avaliable

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic 32Bit	R  990
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic 64Bit	R  990
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Prem 32Bit	R1290
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Prem 64Bit	R1290
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 32Bit	R1790
Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64Bit	R1790

For more information Contact Us

prices subject to change with out prior notice

Microsoft Office 2013 or Office 365

The Microsoft Office suite is an essential collection of desktop applications that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and much more. If you're considering purchasing or upgrading to Office 2013, you'll need to compare different pricing options to help choose the Office that's right for you.

Below: The different suites to choose from

There is the usual raft of suite versions to choose from starting with Office Home & Student 2013, this includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, but if you also want to be able to use Outlook you must look to Office Home & Business 2013.
Top of the range is Office Professional 2013 which includes Publisher and Access. 
Note: Suite components can also be bought as individual apps.

 Office 365 –(office on demand) his is where the big changes are to be found. Rather than buying software to keep, here you pay a monthly or annual subscription; essentially renting the software.
But this is far from being the only difference. While Office 2013 can only be installed on one computer, Office 365 can be used on up to five PCs (and Macs) for one price.
There are other versions available for businesses

• Office 365 Small Business Premium, 
• Office 365 Enterprise 
• Office 365 ProPlus.

 Whether you are working with one PC or five, you pay the same price, so this is great option for households with several computers. There’s a strong online focus with Office 365 and a subscription also includes 20GB of SkyDrive storage and, perhaps unsurprisingly following Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, 60 minutes of Skype calls per month.
Office on demand drawbacks :-
Office on Demand plays nice only with PCs running Windows 7 or 8. It also requires the PC to have a fairly modern browser: Internet Explorer 9 or later, Mozilla Firefox 12 or later, Apple Safari 5 or later, or Google Chrome 18 or later.

For more information and prices contact the durbangeek 

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Free Windows 8 update to address confusion

A planned Windows 8 update to address complaints and confusion with Microsoft's new operating system will be made available for free this year, the company says.
Not charging extra for Windows 8.1, previously code named "Windows Blue", is consistent with the company's practice of offering "decimal point" updates to operating systems for free. But when Microsoft announced the update last week, it didn't say that it would be free.

Read more: Windows 8.1 "Codename Blue"

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