Microsoft apparently reconsidered its upgrade policy, after announcing in January that upgrade editions would not be offered for Office 2010. The Technology Guarantee Program has some restrictions, however, so here’s the breakdown of everything you need to know to get your free upgrade.

Who is eligible for the Tech Guarantee?

To be eligible you have to purchase the complete Microsoft Office 2007 or single programs from the productivity suite between now and September 30, 2010. Purchases must be for a new copy of Office 2007 bought from Microsoft or an authorized reseller, and can be standalone purchases or bundled with the purchase of a new PC.

What are the deadlines?

You have to purchase and activate your copy of Office 2007 by September 30, 2010 to be eligible for the upgrade. You also have to request your Office 2010 Tech Guarantee upgrade by October 31, 2010.

What are the Office 2010 Tech Guarantee limitations?

This is a straight up trade. You only get one Office 2010 suite for every corresponding Office 2007 product. However, some versions of Office 2010 have added new programs, such as OneNote, that weren’t a part of the corresponding 2007 suite. you can see complete details below.

Also, you can only get 25 Tech Guarantee upgrades per person. Microsoft has this restriction to encourage users with larger needs to sign up for volume licensing deals.

There are no refunds for Office 2010 software ordered through the Tech Guarantee program.

What do I need?

When it comes time to redeem your Office 2010 upgrade you will need to know the date of purchase for your copy of Office 2007, your Office 2007 25-character Product ID and a Windows Live account (if you don’t have a Windows Live ID you will be prompted to create one). Microsoft also advises you to hold onto your receipt as proof of purchase for Office 2007, since Microsoft may ask for information from your sales bill.

How do I get my Office 2010 Upgrade?

You can download Office 2010 as soon as it’s commercially available in June. Make sure you’ve activated your copy of Office 2007, and then visit Microsoft’s Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Website to download the upgrade. You can also request a DVD for a fee if you prefer not to install your upgrade through the Internet. Microsoft hasn’t said how much it will cost to get the upgrade DVD.

It was a typical Monday, working in the office when I got a call from a contract customer.  She said that one of their high level employees was going to be termintated that afternoon and wanted me to come into the office the next day to change the passwords and lock the computers.  She said he wasn’t in the office so it wasn’t a rush.  I knew this employee had a company laptop so using the Live Connect function of Kaseya2 I clicked on the laptop to see what he was doing.  At first he was trying to access his 401K, then he started researching how to transfer his 401K, so at that point I had a good idea that he knew he was going to be fired.   The next thing he did was open his email and then open the company customer database. 

I knew this wasn’t going to be good.   There were over 75,000 customers in that database and he was trying to email them to his hotmail account.  Since i was a bit late to the game, I watched and waited until the email came in to the hotmail account and then went to work.  I already had the VNC window open, so when I saw a lull in activity I deleted the email, emptied the recycle bin and logged out of the hotmail account. 

Next I used one of the great features of K2 Live Connect – Remote Command Shell.  It gives a remote command shell without the user being aware of anything.  I changed all the passwords on the laptop and used the remote shutdown script in the Agent Procedures. 

Of course he tried to log back in, but since I changed thepasswords, his efforts were foiled! (it seems like an appropriate word) 

As of now we still do not have the laptop back, but the email has been deleted and as an added measure, I scheduled an automatic reboot every 7 minutes when the machine is on.

Outsourcing to On-site Tech Support can help you save money, increase efficiency and achieve your business goals.

Although large enterprises began outsourcing IT several years ago, many SMBs are still struggling to sustain an IT model that may not make good business sense. Some organizations maintain a substantial IT staff capable of handling workload spikes and emergencies, with the tradeoff of inefficiency when that staff sits mostly idle. Others keep a “lean” IT staff in order save money, leaving the organization vulnerable when issues surface unpredictably.

Either way, IT is not aligned with business goals. Rather than supporting business objectives, IT becomes a distraction from the core business focus.

Outsourcing IT can help solve this dilemma, but there remains a great deal of confusion as to what “outsourcing” really means. A lot of customers equate outsourcing with managed services, but managed services are just one element of the outsourcing concept. Outsourcing encompasses everything an enterprise IT department would do to ensure that mission-critical systems are ready to support business requirements, but at a fraction of the cost.

On-site Tech Support has developed a comprehensive outsourcing solution — designed specifically for SMBs — that combines managed services, on-site support and consulting services in a cost-effective and predictable monthly budget. On-site Tech Support’s all-encompassing solution touches every aspect of the IT infrastructure, from a business perspective as well as a technology perspective. Furthermore, On-site Tech Support serves as a trusted advisor for short- and long-range planning, budgeting and due diligence.

If IT is not a central part of your business model then it makes good business sense to outsource it. Outsourcing to On-site Tech Support replaces unproductive and unpredictable IT overhead with highly efficient and focused services bundled into one low, monthly budget.

CALL US TODAY TO SEE IF PARTNERING WITH ON-SITE TECH SUPPORT CAN SAVE YOU MONEY & INCREASE EFFICIENCY

(866)-220-0719

Today I had a new issue with an IBM Lenovo laptop that I had not seen before. I got a monitoring alert that there was only 1% free space on the c: drive. When I opened My Computer it showed the C: drive as 48GB total space. I had just installed a new 250GB hard drive less than a year ago so I knew this wasn’t right. I downloaded Treesize from JAM Software to see where the space had gone. It too showed the total size of the hard drive as 48GB, but down at the bottom it showed a folder called RRbackup on the root that was locked!

I assumed this was where my “lost” space had gone so I ran c:RRbackup and it said it wasn’t available. Not to worry, that’s why we have Knoppix and Hirens.

Once booted off the CD I was able to navigate to c:RRbackup and delete it. I booted back into Windows and Viola! c: was showing the correct size and free space.

The problem is a program called “Rescue and Recovery” on IBM Lenovo laptops. You can also start the program from the start menu and delete old restore points but sometimes that doesn’t work. I have also heard that booting into safe mode (F8) will also allow you to find and delete the folder and data but I have not tested this.

If you need more help, please contact me via the contact info on this website.

Today we phased out an older server and promoted a newer one to DC. Typically this is no problem. Once it’s complete, reboot all the workstations and they will find the new DHCP/DNS server automatically. In our case, all o f the workstations were statically assigned. Since I didn’t want to have to touch 60+ workstations, I wrote this Kaseya Script to take care of it for me.

Script Name: Change DNS
Script Description: Sets primary DNS on Local Area Connection to X.X.X.X
Sets secondary DNS on Local Area Connection to X.X.X.X
Sets WINS on Local Area Connection to X.X.X.X

IF True
THEN
   Execute Shell Command
     Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set dns “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.0.242 index=1
     Parameter 2 : 1
         OS Type : 0
   Execute Shell Command
     Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set dns “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.0.240 index=2
     Parameter 2 : 1
         OS Type : 0
   Execute Shell Command
     Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set wins “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.0.242
     Parameter 2 : 1
         OS Type : 0
ELSE

All we needed to do was change the DNS and WINS servers, but if you need to either change them from static to DHCP, or change the static IP (one machine at a time please), here are 2 more scripts.

Script Name: Enable DHCP
Script Description: Enables DHCP on the local area connection

IF True
THEN
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set dns name = “Local Area Connection” source = dhcp
Parameter 2 : 1
OS Type : 0
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set address name = “Local Area Connection” source = dhcp
Parameter 2 : 1
OS Type : 0
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set wins name = “Local Area Connection” source = dhcp
Parameter 2 : 1
OS Type : 0
ELSE

Here is one to set static IP, subnet, gateway, DNS and WINS.

Script Name: Set Static IP
Script Description: Sets static IP, subnet and gateway on the local area connection.  The first address is your IP, the second is the subnet and the third is the gateway.
In this script it sets

IP=192.168.1.23
Subnet=255.255.255.0
Gateway=192.168.1.1
DNS=192.168.1.242
WINS=192.168.1.242

IF True
THEN
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set address “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.1.23 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1
Parameter 2 : 1
OS Type : 0
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set dns “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.1.242 primary
Parameter 2 : 1
OS Type : 0
Execute Shell Command
Parameter 1 : netsh int ip set wins “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.0.240
Parameter 2 : 1
OS Type : 0
ELSE

Hope that helps.  Thanks for reading.