A new notification prompts Windows 7 and 8.1 users to reserve an upgrade to the upcoming OS, due to debut July 29.

Microsoft is now pushing Windows 10 via a notice suggesting you reserve a copy. On Monday, the software giant announced thatWindows 10 will officially roll out July 29. That means it will be available on any PCs you purchase as of that date — and as a free upgrade to your existing Windows 7 or 8.1 tablet or PC.

Microsoft has a lot riding on Windows 10. The new OS has the task of erasing the bad experiences people had with the touchscreen-focused Windows 8, which ultimately failed to catch fire among PC users. Windows 10 comes packed with new features, such as a redesigned Start menu, the Cortana voice assistant and a new browser called Edge, all designed to win over jaded Windows users. The new OS will also offer a more unified experience among PCs, tablets and smartphones as a way to convince consumers to go the Windows route for all their devices. As such, the company wants to make sure that current device owners know they can now get in line to pick up Windows 10.So how can you now reserve your free copy of Windows 10?

You can now reserve your free copy of Windows 10, if you meet the necessary requirements.

First, you must be running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1, and you must have installed a March the Windows update dubbed KB3035583, according to blog site VentureBeat. That update will already be on your PC as long as you have Automated Updates enabled.

Peek at your Windows system tray in the lower right corner, and you should see a new icon displaying the Windows logo. Hover over it, and the popup messages says: “Get Windows 10.”

Click that icon, and up pops a window that explains how the free upgrade works. Once it’s available, Windows 10 will automatically download onto your PC. You’ll receive a notification after the download is complete so that you can choose an appropriate time to install it.

You can scroll through the various screens of the Get Windows 10 window to read more about the new OS.

When you’re done, simply click the button to reserve your free upgrade.

The reservation screen asks for your email address so you can receive the notification. Enter your email address and click the Send confirmation button. You can now close the Get Windows 10 window.

Should you change your mind and wish to cancel the reservation, just click the Get Windows 10 icon again.

Click the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner to display the menu and click the link for View confirmation.

Then click the link to Cancel reservation and click the button for Cancel reservation to confirm your choice.

Windows 10 is a free upgrade. The upgrade offers the full version of Windows 10, not simply a trial or limited version. It also ensures that you can run Windows 10 on your specific device for free “for the supported lifetime of your device,” according to Microsoft.

But there are some caveats. The free upgrade applies only to Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1. So if you haven’t upgraded Windows 7 to SP1 or Windows 8 to 8.1, you’ll have to perform those tasks first. Also, you have one year from July 29 to upgrade your PC to Windows 10 for free. After that year is up, you’ll have to purchase Windows 10 yourself.

Those of you running Windows RT or RT 8.1 are out of luck. Microsoft has excluded Windows RT and RT 8.1 from the free upgrade offer.

And what will Windows 10 cost you if the miss the free upgrade window? On Monday, Microsoft revealed the various prices. Windows Home will retail for $119. Windows 10 Pro wil sell for price of $199. And the Windows 10 Pro Pack, which lets you upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro, will cost you $99.

Have questions?

Our Upgrade Assistants and IT business team is here to help.
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

How to organize your migration from Windows Server 2003

Following on from end of support for Windows XP in April 2014, we are now rapidly approaching Windows Server 2003 end of life.

Despite Microsoft warning about end of life for Windows Server 2003 as early as April 2013, many organisations are yet to begin their migration away from the server platform. Worse still, many organisations and IT pros are unaware of the huge financial costs and security risks should they continue running Windows Server 2003 past the end of life date.

Reports from HP claim that more than 11 million systems are still running Windows Server 2003. With fewer than 240 days left until end of life, this a huge problem as the estimated time required to migrate a datacentre of 100 or more servers can range from a minimum of three months and upwards of 18 months.

If you own even one of those 11 million servers and you have yet to begin migration, you should be worried. Luck for you, the following guide will migrate you to a position of safety. We will cover the following:

• Windows Server 2003 End of Life date
• Understanding what end of support means for Windows Server 2003 and the associated impacts
• An outline of how to migrate Windows Server 2003
• Resources to aid migration

Windows Server 2003 End of Life date

According to the Microsoft Support Lifecyle section on 14 July 2015, Microsoft will end extended support on all versions of Windows Server 2003/R2.

Understanding what end of support means for Windows Server 2003

From then on, this means no more updates or patches from Microsoft, which can result a less secure and less stable infrastructure for your business. What this really means:

• Maintenance Costs – running legacy servers is expensive. Intrusion detection systems, advanced firewalls and network segmentation are required to protect a now vulnerable Windows Server 2003 platform. You will also have increasing cost from maintaining aging hardware. Current estimates in a TechNet post from Alex Fu place the cost of custom support post end of life at US$200,000 on average. In a Q&A with David Mayer, practice director of Microsoft Solutions for Insight Enterprises, he estimated a support cost of $1500 per server per year.

• No Updates – there will be no more updates to fix bugs, performance issues and security vulnerabilities. To put this into perspective, 2013 saw the release of 37 critical updates for Windows Server 2003/R2. Past the end of life date, these critical issues will remain unfixed leaving you open to cybersecurity dangers such as malicious attacks or electronic data loss.

• No Compliance – once support ends, your organisation will almost certainly fail to meet industry wide compliance standards. Regulations such as HIPAA, PCI, SOX & Dodd-Frank all require regulated industries to run on supported platforms. The impact is twofold: Non-compliance could result in the loss of business, while high transaction fees and penalties from non-compliance could dramatically increase the cost of doing business.

• Software and Hardware Compatibility Issues – new software and hardware devices will not be built to integrate with Windows Server 2003. Sticking with a legacy server means you will likely run into compatibility issues and may not be able to run new instances of software or communicate with the latest devices.

• No Safe Haven – without continued support from Microsoft, virtualized and physical instances of Windows Server 2003/R2 and Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 will not pass a compliance audit.

How to migrate from Windows Server 2003

Do not underestimate the task that lies ahead. Migrating applications and server workloads is no easy task. Worryingly, a study by App Zero suggests that 62 per cent of organisations do not have a plan to upgrade or migrate, or even know that EOS is coming.

• Discover – first up is discovering and cataloguing all the software and workloads that are running on Windows Server 2003/R2 at present. Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit as this will be a worthy support document.

• Assess – now you have a list it’s time to analyse and categorise all your applications and workloads based on type, criticality, complexity and risk. This helps you prioritise for migration as well as identify issues and opportunities.

• Target – in this step, you must choose a destination for each application and workload. This could be the perfect time to evolve your organisation to the next level and embrace the cloud. Microsoft offers a series of destinations for each application or workload which could include:

o Windows Server 2012 R2
o System Center 2012 R2 (Private Cloud)
o Microsoft Azure (Public Cloud)
o SQL Server 2014
o Office 365

• Migrate – now is the time choose a migration plan. Microsoft offers a fantastic Migration Planning Assistant which covers all four steps. Look for official Microsoft training courses to give you an in-depth understanding of the new platforms you are planning to migrate to.

Resources to aid migration

Due to the widespread requirement to migrate, there is a range of fantastic resources to aid migration. These include:

Microsoft Virtual Academy – arguably the largest and best collection of free self-study resources from Microsoft experts including videos, slide decks and self-assessments. Check out the section on migrating to Windows Server 2012, or the Microsoft zure JumpStart.

Windows Server 2003 Roles Migration Process – download this document and turn it into an A3 poster, stick it on your wall and use it to visualise the whole process.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – download this fantastic resource, which provides a collection of processes, tools and guidance for automating new desktop and server deployments.

Free Software Trials – Microsoft have a series of trials so you can check out the new software. Here they are:

• Windows Server 2012 R2 trial
• System Center 2012 R2 trial
• Microsoft Azure one-month trial
• Office 365 trial
• SQL Server 2014 trial

Windows Server Migration Services – there are a series of organisations that offer assistance in migrating away from Windows Server 2003. Big players include:

• Dell
• RackSpace
• HP

Time is running out — start your migration away from Windows Server 2003 today. Fail to do so and you find yourself facing some organisation-crippling consequences

Have questions?

Our Business IT Server Migration Specialists in NJ, PA & DE are here to help.
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/server-support/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

The new Windows 10 notifications will follow you everywhere

Windows 10 has a new notifications center for your apps — even the ones from your Windows Phone.

When you’re poking around Windows 10, you’ll notice something new: A small taskbar button that, when clicked, reveals a sidebar full of app notifications.

Welcome to the new notifications center, which is basically the Windows 10 version of the Action center in Windows Phone 8.1. The notifications center is part of Microsoft’s dream of “Windows everywhere” — it’s a universal notifications center that will pop up your app notifications across multiple platforms. Because who doesn’t want to be alerted about new Twitter followers on their phone, tablet, and now PC?

The new notifications center consists of two parts: The notifications area at the top, and the “quick actions” bar at the bottom. In the notifications area you’ll see notifications from various apps, including Twitter, Facebook, and your email account, as well as notifications from phone apps (e.g. alarms) if applicable.

Mouse over notifications and click the ‘X’ to dismiss them.

You can dismiss notifications three different ways: You can mouse over the app name (e.g. Twitter) and click the ‘X’ next to it to dismiss all notifications from that app. You can also mouse over each individual notification and click the ‘X’ next to it to dismiss that specific notification. Or you can click Clear All in the upper right corner of the notifications center to dismiss all notifications from all apps. Because this is a “Windows everywhere” feature, notifications you dismiss in the notifications center will also be dismissed on your other Windows devices, such as your phone.

In the quick actions bar, you’ll see four quick-access buttons as well as an Expand link. Click Expand to see all quick actions. Actions include things like a Tablet Mode toggle button, a link to the Display settings, a link to all settings, and toggle buttons for Location and Wi-Fi. Tap a quick action button to toggle a setting (tablet mode, location, Wi-Fi) on or off, or to go directly to the settings menu so you can configure your display, connection, or VPN.

Pick your quick access quick actions from the Settings menu.

To choose which quick actions appear above the break, go to Settings > Notifications & actions > Choose your quick actions. Here, you’ll see four small buttons that you can click on to swap out actions. If you’d prefer to have your Wi-Fi toggle on hand whenever you open the notifications bar, you can switch it for the Display button. Of course, you’ll always be able to see all of the quick actions by clicking Expand in the notifications bar.

In the Settings menu, you can also choose which apps’ notifications to display.

Here, you can also pick and choose which app notifications you’ll see in the notifications bar. If you want to turn all notifications off, you can simply click the toggle next to Show App Notifications. You’ll no longer see pop-up banner notifications, nor will you see app notifications when you open the notifications center.

If you’d prefer to just turn off notifications for specific apps, you can do that, too — find the app in the list and click its toggle to Off. Next to each app in the list you’ll see a link to Advanced notifications settings for that app. Go into Advanced to turn off specific notifications for that app — either banner notifications (pop-ups in the lower right corner of your screen) or notifications in the notifications center.

Want to turn your clock off? You can do that, too.

In the Notifications & Actions section, you can also clean up your taskbar by clicking “Select which icons to appear in the taskbar” (you can turn on and off things like the Network icon and the Volume icon), or by clicking “Turn system icons on or off.” In “Turn system icons on or off,” you can turn off the clock, input indicator or action center — in other words, you can turn off all system tray icons and have a completely icon-less system tray, if you so choose.

Have questions?

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.

Work smarter, anywhere, with hosted email for business.

Increase sales through email and social marketing. Up to 70% less than our competition!

The final version of Windows 10 won’t be available until 2015, but that doesn’t mean you can’t live the Windows 10 experience — the extremely pre-final experience — right now.

The technical preview is available right now and although things will likely change drastically between now and release, now’s a good chance to get acquainted.

And keep checking back. As the months close in on the new OS’s final release, expect all our How To coverage to be posted right here.

Windows 10 Technical Preview: 1

Build 10049 of the Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview just dropped, and with it comes Microsoft’s sexy, speedy new browser: Project Spartan.

The next-gen browser has several new features to try out, including a distraction-free reading view and a fast, secure rendering engine (which was available as an experimental feature in Build 9926). But the coolest new feature is inking — the ability to draw, write on, and generally mark up Web pages from directly within the browser. You can share your marked-up creations via email or through social networks, or you can save them to OneNote.

Start inking

When you see a Web page you want to “ink,” click the small icon that looks like a pen and paper in the upper right corner of the browser window. There are only about five icons total, so this shouldn’t be too difficult to find.

The Web page will refresh and the inking toolbar will appear over the regular toolbar. On the left side of the inking toolbar, you’ll see five icons: Pen, highlighter, eraser, text, and clip. The pen tool is selected by default, so you can just start scribbling away if you’d like (in medium thickness, light blue ink). If you want to change the color of your pen, click the pen icon to choose from 12 colors and three sizes.

To use a highlighter, which will let you highlight text and images instead of drawing over them, click the highlighter button. Click the highlighter button a second time to select your highlighter color and shape (six colors, three shapes).

Type some comments

When you select the text tool, your pointer will turn into a cross-hair. Click anywhere on the page to drop a comment pin. The pin will appear where you click, and a thin line will connect it to a corresponding text box on the right side of the page.

Click inside the text box to type your comment. To minimize the box, you can either click the minus sign in the upper right corner of the box, or you can click the corresponding comment pin. To delete both the comment pin and the text box, click the trash can icon in the lower right corner of the text box.

The clipping tool will also turn your cursor into a cross-hair, so you can clip out a section of the page. It works similar to the Snipping Tool — click the clipping tool icon, and the page will fade out until you select a section of it. Once you have a section selected, you’ll see a small copy icon in the lower right corner; click this to copy your clip (you can paste it into another program, such as Microsoft Paint, if you want to save it).

Don’t make any mistakes

As of right now, the eraser tool doesn’t do much. If you click on it, nothing happens. If you click on it again, a “Clear All” box appears, which you can click to clear the Web page of annotations.

I assume the eraser tool will be fixed before Project Spartan goes public, because right now there’s no way to fix an annotation mistake without clearing the entire page and starting over.

Share or save your masterpiece

On the right side of the inking toolbar, you’ll see a save icon and a share icon. To save your newly-annotated webpage, click the save icon.

Right now, Project Spartan will let you save your marked-up page as an HTML file – that is, you can add it to your Favorites or your reading list. In the future, you’ll also be able to save your projects in OneNote.

To share your work, click the share icon to open up Windows 10’s sharing sidebar. Because this is such a new build, Project Spartan’s sharing capabilities don’t appear to be turned on – but when they are, you’ll be able to share your creation with any app that supports Windows’ sharing sidebar.

Have questions?

Our small business team is here to help.
Call us at: 856-745-9990

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

To read this article in its entirety click here.