Reason 18763 to always have current backups of your WordPress website and ALWAYS do your updates after you do a backup.

Since working with 4 clietns that bought Acer touchscreen AIOs last year, I can attest that Acer has figured out how to do touchscreens right. I would buy that laptop for your daughter!

@IRJ said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Whoa. Stop. NO legit host would ever ask you to transfer your domain. That's a scam.

Ok I have 3 options

"I want to register for a new domain"
"I want to transfer my domain"
"I will update my nameservers on an exsisting domain or I will register a new domain"

I presume the 3 options here are what you see at 1&1 domain panel? No worries...just find a new registrar and use that new registrar to transfer your domain.

Worry about pointing dns until after domain is transferred to new domain registrar.

I discovered that about 35 "missing" Window Updates patches have to do with non US English Language packs and the MS Browser Choice Screen Update for EEA Users (European Economic Area).

Is there a way to hide these? I presume choosing "ignore" in MAX RM would leave the missing patches listed.

I was contacted by Miles Technology to do some work in my area. Anyone have any input of them?

@Dashrender said:

It will be tedious assuming you keep a different image for each machine.

Let's say you create a base image today. Then 6 months from now you have to re-image a borked machine, I'd put the base image on it, then run all the updates on the base image - update everyone Windows, Office, Flash, Java, etc, then sysprep and then create a new base image. If you do this, every time you have to reimage a borked machine, you'll basically be creating a new base image that is fresh as of that day.

@Dashrender that's pretty much how I imagined how I would do it, except I didn't think about the updating the image after a borked incident!

Arrg....just missed a change to see if Webroot would find the same issues (all Java this and Java that exploits) that MS just found. I was too quick with clicking remove.....bah.

I loved how it found conduit and kicked its ass. Malwarebytes didn't see the remnants as it had been previously "removed".

@Dashrender said:

@technobabble said:

@MattSpeller and @Dashrender most of my small business clients don't have a file server, though I am considering suggesting a NAS for those who have no need for a Server...what do you guys think about that?

A NAS would be great for this.

Baseline images are definitely a pain for SMB because the updates change frequently.

Thanks. At least with a "current baseline" image those 2 PC shops with borked vendor updates or self inflicted malware infections could be handled faster.

Would I be able to house the images on the NAS and then use the NAS image during the reinstall?

@MattSpeller said:

@Dashrender said:

I guess that would be more for me than most of my clients. However if a client's base image had changed a lot, it might be worth making an updated baseline image.

Basically none of my small businesses, (1-5 PCs) have ever had baseline images aside from the laughable factory images. And in this last year, I have done new W8 new PC setups plus new software (baseline) where only weeks afterwards the customer or the software vendor's update borks the PC.

My new practice for 2015 is to start suggesting baseline images for clients.

Ugh brutal. You're really limited if they're all different models.
Strongly suggest you look at something like Acronis with "universal deploy" which really mitigates all the driver issues.

Unless Acronis lets me use the software on all my clients, this would be too expensive for most offices.

@MattSpeller and @Dashrender most of my small business clients don't have a file server, though I am considering suggesting a NAS for those who have no need for a Server...what do you guys think about that?

@Dashrender said:

That's a lot of manual work - do you really care about end user workstations that much?

I have baseline images for my departments - if a machine is borked up, I attempt, briefly, to recover any local files they may have, then blow it away and push the image out.

I guess that would be more for me than most of my clients. However if a client's base image had changed a lot, it might be worth making an updated baseline image.

Basically none of my small businesses, (1-5 PCs) have ever had baseline images aside from the laughable factory images. And in this last year, I have done new W8 new PC setups plus new software (baseline) where only weeks afterwards the customer or the software vendor's update borks the PC.

My new practice for 2015 is to start suggesting baseline images for clients.

@Dashrender said:

I've never done that.

Are you trying to do online backups? If you can accept offline backups - Clonezilla is free and works very well!

Ok...I finally read up on Clonezilla and I will be attempting this. I will have to setup a test machine and then use Clonezilla to do a system image of my PC and then I will have to have another PC ready to "reimage" with the Clonezilla system image to test.

If this works, I could do monthly images and then have a rollback point for users if they bork their PC

Sweet! Thanks @Dashrender

Has anyone tried number one from this site?

I know, I know....just install Windows and all programs from scratch, but she can't find all her discs and she had downloaded tons of fonts and other Photoshop filters and such.

She really wanted me to buy a replacement Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard (LGA 1366), but most are used and only available on Ebay from China or Hong Kong and at $180-$250 w/o shipping, it just seems to be too much of a gamble.

So I am looking to buy an Intel Core i5 4440 and an Asus Z87-A mobo with Crucial 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600 Ballistix Sport which should cost about $500. This should replace her Corei7 920 with 12GB RAM with just a small uptick in performance.

I read some articles and it appears that using Windows 7 & 8 File history, I can create System Image Backups of the OS, program and data.

Can this be automated?

How easy is it to reinstall the System Image Backup? I tried with W7 3 years ago and it failed, and I don't remember why but it was same hardware except the hard drive.

@scottalanmiller said:

HIPAA does, I believe. But it does not require a current one. As long as all patches for XP have been applies, they probably meet the HIPAA stated requirements, if not the intent.

Well that just sounds nuts! From HHS website:

Does the Security Rule mandate minimum operating system requirements for the personal computer systems used by a covered entity?

Answer:

No. The Security Rule was written to allow flexibility for covered entities to implement security measures that best fit their organizational needs. The Security Rule does not specify minimum requirements for personal computer operating systems, but it does mandate requirements for information systems that contain electronic protected health information (e-PHI). Therefore, as part of the information system, the security capabilities of the operating system may be used to comply with technical safeguards standards and implementation specifications such as audit controls, unique user identification, integrity, person or entity authentication, or transmission security. Additionally, any known security vulnerabilities of an operating system should be considered in the covered entity’s risk analysis (e.g., does an operating system include known vulnerabilities for which a security patch is unavailable, e.g., because the operating system is no longer supported by its manufacturer).

Reading these "answers" make my head hurt. It sounds like you could get screwed depending on who is reading the "rules" or guidelines. And of course everyone is an "expert".

sorry not familiar with the product.

@technobabble said:

Finding out that Join.me sucks...can't see UAC which means you can't uninstall programs or you get the picture...Looking for the program that networkwifey (I think) suggested (I am remembering something like avery...lol)

Ok..the program is Ammyy and I don't know who suggested it, but I'm going to demo it.

Finding out that Join.me sucks...can't see UAC which means you can't uninstall programs or you get the picture...Looking for the program that networkwifey (I think) suggested (I am remembering something like avery...lol)