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Free Business I.T. Health-check – Worth £250 !

Our free, no-obligation Business IT health-check drills down with the detail of your computer systems. This is an opportunity to identify any major issues or annoying minor niggles before they escalate into complete business disasters. All the information we gather is recorded and is securely held, presented in a confidential report, and destroyed after use.

This completely free, no-obligation health-check is worth £250, but could save you so much more.

Our FREE Health-Check is carried out on-site by an experienced I.T. consultant
All I.T. Health-checks are performed on site by an experienced and trained I.T. consultant, who can examine your email setup, file servers, desktop PCs, cabling, backup procedure and networking infrastructure.

We will identify any security, virus or backup issues, to give you peace of mind and complete confidence in your I.T. systems.

If you’d like to book your FREE Health-check …. Please call us on 01452 223277.

XP – the end is nigh…. well almost.

After 12 years, support for Windows XP will end on April 8, 2014. There will be no more security updates or technical support for the Windows XP operating system. It is very important that customers and partners migrate to a modern operating system such as Windows 7 or Windows 8. Customers moving to a modern operating system will benefit from dramatically enhanced security, broad device choice for a mobile workforce, higher user productivity, and a lower total cost of ownership through improved management capabilities.

Support for Office 2003 also ends on April 8, 2014.

What does this mean?

It means you need to take action. After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for Windows XP. Security updates patch vulnerabilities that may be exploited by malware and help keep users and their data safer. PCs running Windows XP after April 8, 2014, should not be considered to be protected, and it is important that you migrate to a current supported operating system – such as Windows 7 or 8 – so you can receive regular security updates to protect your computer from attacks.

How do I migrate off Windows XP?

Home Users and Small Businesses:

Small businesses and home users should contact a Microsoft Partner such as  Cotswold Computer Medic Ltd and seek advice to understand the best options to meet their home or business needs.

Cotswold Computer Medic Ltd can be contacted on 01452 223277 or 01242 500045

Potential risks of staying with Windows XP

Running Windows XP SP3 in your environment after April 8, 2104 may expose you to potential risks, such as:

Security:

Without critical Windows XP security updates, your PC may become vulnerable to harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software which can steal or damage your business data and information. Anti-virus software will also not be able to fully protect you once Windows XP itself is unsupported.

Compliance:

Businesses that are governed by regulatory obligations may find that they are no longer able to satisfy compliance requirements.

Lack of Independent Software Vendor Support:

Many software vendors will no longer support their products running on Windows XP as they are unable to receive Windows XP updates. See below for comments from SAGE, IRIS and Intuit.
SAGE – “We will cease to support issues arising from the use of XP in all practice suite software from the end of March 2014. We will also prevent annual updates from running on machines where Microsoft XP is detected from March 2014.”

IRIS – “Iris will ensure our products function in the Windows XP and Office 2003 environments in the April 2014 releases and continue to support our [current] products until October 2014. Beyond October 2014 customers will be required to upgrade to a supported platform (Windows 7 or 8) if they discover a problem with the software.”

Quickbooks – Intuit follows the same timescale with their QuickBooks products, “Microsoft will be ending support for the Windows XP Operating System. Intuit will support Windows XP until the official end of support date.”

Hardware Manufacturer support:

Most PC hardware manufacturers will stop supporting Windows XP on existing and new hardware. This will also mean that drivers required to run Windows XP on new hardware may not be available.

Should you be unsure as to what any of this means or are worried how this may impact your business or home computing then please call

Cotswold Computer Medic Ltd on 01452 223277 or 01242 500045

April 8th 2014 Microsoft will no longer be supporting Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003.

Microsoft will no longer be providing critical updates, patches, or technical assistance for Windows XP. Computers will be at higher risk of harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal personal information.

If you’ve still got a windows XP computer then now is the time to give us a call and have a chat about your plans. 01452 223277