31478 Industrial Road Suite 200, Livonia, Michigan 48150 sales@xfer.com

XFER Blog

XFER Blog

XFER has been serving the Livonia area since 1994, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Forgot to Save? How to Recover an Unsaved Document

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Have you ever closed an application and accidently hit 'Don't Save'? Poof. In one forgetful moment all of your progress is gone and your stomach turns into a giant knot. Before you go out and do something crazy, like forsake technology and modern civilization, you will first want to see if Windows was nice and automatically saved you a copy.

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Goal Setting Tips From Jerry Seinfeld

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The Seinfeld Productivity Calendar is a simple way to coax you into accomplishing your goals in a very primal, if not OCD, kind of way. It's named after its creator, Jerry Seinfeld, who is known for much bigger things. Jerry Seinfeld is not only a sophisticated actor/comedian, but he also has a very interesting way to get things done.

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Improve Communications with an E-mail Auto Responder

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As your vacation winds down, the reality of being away for a week or two begins to sneak up on you. Knowing that you have a full inbox of back messages may put a damper on your relaxed mood. If you planned ahead, then you would have used an auto responder to automatically notify everyone that you were away.

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Don’t Underestimate the Hackers

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In 2011, Ponemon Research surveyed 583 U.S. businesses and found that 90% of respondents reported that their company's computers had been breached at least once by hackers within the past year; 77% of these companies felt like they were attacked multiple times within the same year. If your SMB does not have any protection from hackers, then your sensitive data is at serious risk.

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Take Back Your Facebook News Feed

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Facebook has recently achieved one billion active users. Being on top of the social media world comes with a price. Facebook has become one of the top 10 most hated companies in America, this according to a January 2013 study from news site 24/7 Wall St. This survey takes into account customer and employee satisfaction and, most of all, stock prices.

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DeleteMe App Covers Your Internet Tracks

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In today's digital age there are actually two of you. There is the flesh and blood you, that you are all-too-familiar with, and then there is the digital you, which amounts to a profile of yourself, compiled of data that is collected and exchanged by companies all over the internet. The worst part is how little you may know about your digital self.

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Tip: Improve Your Writing with Squigglies

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Unless you are an English major, writing a well thought-out message without any spelling or grammatical errors can be a challenging task. There is not yet a technology that will transform a couple of bullet points into a detailed thesis paper, but Microsoft Word does include helpful tools that will improve the spelling and grammar for any aspiring writer.

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3 Reasons Why a Help Desk is Helpful

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An IT help desk is a resource that will benefit any office. Knowing that you have a team of computer experts standing by to deal with any technology problem will keep everybody calm whenever an issue develops. You likely won't be calling the Help Desk every day but, should the need arise, you know that a solution will be found.

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An Old Internet Explorer Can Harm Your PC

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If you never connected your PC to the internet, then you could get away with not updating any of your software. Do to the changing nature of the internet, new security threats are constantly attacking your computer. Internet browsers are your door to the internet and require constant updating in order to keep your PC protected from these threats.

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Red October: Malware that Attacks Governments

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Viruses and malware aren't just annoyances that slow down your computers. They can be extremely malicious and do a lot of harm. For instance, a newly discovered strain of malware known as Red October specifically targets governmental bodies and research institutions. Worst of all, it has been around for 5 years before finally being discovered by internet security firms.

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The Popularity of the Fax Machine

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It always feels a bit peculiar to come across a fax machine still being used in the modern office. With all of our digital advancements, the fax machine should have gone the way of the floppy disk. Contrary to common sense, it is estimated that there are 131 million fax machines still in operation around the world.

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The Samsung Galaxy S3 vs. The iPhone 5

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The smartphone market is possibly the most competitive in computing. It's no secret that Apple and Samsung are competitors. Earlier this year in California, a federal jury sided with Apple in a ruling that found Samsung infringed on software and design patents. When the two aren't duking it out in court, they are battling in the marketplace.

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4 Practices to Speed up a Slow Computer

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There are dozens of PC tricks and procedures you can try in order to speed up a slow computer. Before you do something drastic like open your case and tinker around with the hardware, or reinstall your OS, or even call your friendly IT techs for a service call, you may first want to adopt these four PC practices that are guaranteed to boost your computer's performance.

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Improve Business Communication with These 10 VoIP Features

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In business, you will gladly take every advantage that you can in regards to communications. This is because better communications will positively impact everything you do. Switching your phones system from a traditional carrier to a Voice over IP (VoIP) internet solution will not only give your business a communications edge, but also save you 50-70% on your phone bill.

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Improve Employee Productivity with Universal Threat Management

The concept behind company time is simple enough: you are employed, and therefore expected to do whatever you agreed upon while "on the clock." To be fair, you are given a few breaks to attend to personal matters; yet, as easy to grasp as this seems, the average employee wastes two hours of company time per day on the internet.

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Scan Papers on the Go with Doxie

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Everybody wants to go paperless, but few people actually want to sit in front of their PC for hours scanning piles of paperwork. If scanning papers was more convenient, then surely more people would go paperless, this is the logic behind the Doxie scanner. Doxie is a portable scanning solution that lets you scan anything from anywhere.

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Tip: Download a Windows 8 Start Button for Free

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The new Windows 8 OS has received strong reviews on performance, and complaints in regards to the new interface. The main gripe is that the new tile layout is too different than the older versions of Windows, due in no small part to the lack of a start button. Leave it to third party software developers to build a solution.

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Free Up Bandwidth with Internet Monitoring

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Internet bandwidth is a precious resource, and the amount your office can use is limited to whatever internet service package your company is signed up for. If your office is running short on bandwidth, then you will need to upgrade to a bigger package, which will be expensive. Before you spend money on upgrading, you should consider internet monitoring.

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New Years Resolution Help: Spend Less Time on the Internet

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Are you compiling your New Year's resolution list and looking for some help to achieve your goals? If one of your resolutions is to spend less time goofing off on the internet and more time being productive, then we want to share with you a helpful app called Freedom that will help achieve your resolution.

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Your MSP Will Know When You’re Down

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(To the tune of: Santa Claus is Coming to Town)

No need to watch out
Techs are standing by
There's no need to pout
Remote help via Wi-Fi
Your MSP will know when you're down

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