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Technology

How Windows 10 Protects You From Ransomware

Microsoft is making improvements slowly but surely to help protect you from ransomware. In the second major update released for Windows 10, Microsoft has started plugging a lot of holes that leave you vulnerable to an attack. Microsoft claimed that no Windows 10 users were affected by the recent WannaCry strain of ransomware and remarked further that there are no known strains of ransomware that could affect the Windows 10 operating system.

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This may sound like a good time to breathe a sigh of relief. However, it didn’t take long for hackers to rise to Microsoft’s challenge. It only took three hours for a white cap hacker to find his way past Microsoft’s security. That being said, Windows 10 is a vast improvement over previous versions of the Windows operating systems. What is apparent is that Microsoft realizes the pains that its users are feeling with the onslaught of ransomware attacks and they are working hard to come up with a secure solution.
The list of improvements that Microsoft has made to Windows 10 is too long to list. For a company that is looking to be preventative in the approach to the ransomware threat, one of the most important investments you can make is in updating your computer operating systems to Windows 10 company wide. The vast majority of ransomware infections start at the end user level through some form of social engineering scam. Microsoft is dumping all of their time and attention into Windows 10 to overcome this challenge. If your network is comprised of mostly Windows 8 operating systems or older, understand that this will become an increasing threat to your business as more threats are created for the unprotected operating systems. If you would like more information about how you can protect your company from ransomware, contact eTop today!

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Technology

Microsoft Windows Server 2016

Happy New Years! We hope that 2017 is your best year to date! As a technology company we want to start off the new year by telling you about new technology emerging in 2017. Perhaps the most notable and important software for small business is the Windows Server operating system. It is true, the newest release of Windows Server is 2016. That being said, 2017 will be a year when a lot of business owners start considering this operating system for their company.
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As a best practice, when it comes to choosing new software for your business, it is important not to choose the newest product off the shelf. For the sake of your company, it is better to see what the consumer reviews are for the software and allow for several updates to be released so that you do not lose precious resources due to downtime caused by poorly functioning software. Even a company as reputable as Microsoft still releases products that need refinement. Now that Server 2016 has been on the market for a while and has been updated several times, it is a safe bet to implement it for your company.

Microsoft has made some substantial improvements to the Windows Server operating system with the release of 2016 that will improve virtualization, security, remote access, active directory, management, automation, storage and redundancy. The full list of new features is much too long to cover in one article, however, you can find it on Microsoft’s website here. If you are in a position where you are needing to consider upgrading your server in 2017 then we highly recommend that you consult with your IT professional about Windows Server 2016. For some businesses, there may be applications that you use that are not compatible with Server 2016 yet. For this reason, be sure that all of your current programs will work with Server 2016 before deciding to make this move. If all of your applications are compatible, then chances are good that your company will benefit from all of the new features in Server 2016.

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Technology Training

Windows 10 System Image Backup

What is an operating system image backup? This is a backup of your complete hard drive including all of your files and the Windows 10 operating system. Rather then backing up a single folder, you can easily take an image of your hard drive and save all of your system settings and data. This is extremely useful if you are experiencing hardware failure or if you are simply trying to protect yourself from malware such as ransomware. As always, the best practice is to keep all of your data backed up regularly and this is an extremely easy way to make sure your data is safe.
To begin with, you need to choose a place to store your image. The image of your internal drive will be as large as the drive usage, meaning that if your internal drive is 200 GB then you will want to store that image on a drive that has at least 200 GB of space available. Attach your external drive to your computer via the USB cable. Once you have your external drive attached, navigate to the Control Panel. Now you will need to click on the “System and Security” tab and under this window you will want to select “File History”. You will find the tab for the system image backups in the bottom left corner of the open window.
Once you have navigated to the Systems Image Backup screen you will want to click on the “Create a system image” tab. From here, Windows will ask you where you want to save the image. Select the external drive that you attached to your computer earlier. Now all you need to do is press the ‘Start Backup” button. Once the backup has begun, it can take some time for it to copy all of your files. Make sure you do this when you do not need your computer for anything important.
Once the image is complete, Windows will ask you if you would like to create a system repair disk. This will allow you to copy the Windows 10 operating system to a new hard drive without licensing issues. You can also use a new license of Windows 10 if you need to. This option depends on if you have an additional license available to you. Depending on your situation, choose this option accordingly.
Now that you have created an image, you will be able to find it in your external hard drive. Just to be safe, we recommend that you run this process at least once per month so that you have a recent copy of your data.

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