Over the past few months, I’ve been using a dual-monitor setup on a couple of my PCs. Using the one that’s front-and-center as the main screen and placing one to the right of it is the setup I like. The one on the right is the great addition. I use it as a control panel mainly and as a secondary work pane. What does that mean? I have some Google tools (scratch pad, to do list, small calendar) and my instant messaging window always open on the right screen. I also use it for my Palm calendar. It’s exceptionally useful for when I need to reference the content of two different windows frequently. For instance, while learning Swish (a Flash programming application), I had the tutorial on the right monitor and Swish on the main monitor. Two monitors made it so much easier and faster to learn that I was hooked. That’s when I decided to set up my other main system with them.

Now that I’ve been using them for awhile, I am passionate about telling of my experiences with them to people who use their PC a lot. I just set up a new PC for a client and she loves the productivity boost from using dual monitors. Adding a second monitor to a system is super simple and not cost-prohibitive. LCD monitors can be acquired for as little as $150. An extra video card is as little as $50. That’s all you need for a dual-monitor setup on a Windows XP PC.

One tool I like in use with dual monitors is UltraMon. It makes managing the display settings of a dual-monitor system very easy and adds useful functions. The one I use the most is a button added to the minimize/maximize/close buttons in the top right of most windows. It’s a “move window” button that just pops the window over to the other monitor. Super simple, but very convenient. Realtime Soft offers UltraMon as a fully functional trial application and sells it for $40. The price is a little high, but I think you may find you like it enough to buy it.

When you’re ready to graduate from dual monitors to something just a little bigger and better, why not go for this puppy?!

A couple of months ago, I found my way to Joe’s Goals, a simple, functional and visually pleasing goal tracking website. As I have used it, I’ve found that its greatest use for me is to keep up with contacting friends and acquaintances. One thing I know about me is that I think to contact someone who is not part of my daily life and then something distrac… LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY! Using Joe’s Goals as a little reminder that it’s been awhile since I spoke with so-and-so helps me keep the long times between chats much shorter.

Of course, I use it for general goals, too. Some of the things I track are:

• getting adequate sleep
• drinking water
• exercising
• saving money
• eating healthfully
• practicing guitar
• writing blog posts

Joe’s Goals allows for tracking positive and negative goals. I choose to track only positive things, for they are what I want to focus upon. For instance, instead of giving myself a negative mark when don’t exercise, I only give a positive mark when I do. That’s what works for me.

Joe also gives you an option to post a mini-chart of your weekly progress. Each goal can have a positive or negative value attributed to it and the chart marks your daily totals. I don’t use this feature, but I can see how it could be useful in keeping up on your goals.

Joe’s Goals is part of my daily routine. You’ll find it open on my PC almost anytime I’m online. Give it a try for a week or three and see if it fits you. Oh, and another nice little feature: the title of the site, once registered, changes to your name. So I have “Sam’s Goals” showing on my Firefox tab. (Of course, you still go to www.joesgoals.com to get there.)

Hey! Now I get to put a checkmark for posting to PCIAM! YAY!

Layers of protection are what will keep your PC virus-free, spyware-free, trustworthy and running well. These layers include: education, operating system updates, anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, and a secure web browser. Adding anti-spyware to your PC is a huge step in creating the layered protection you need to keep your PC safe. Gone are the days of anti-virus being all you need to protect your system.

I’ve used many different applications for eliminating spyware and other nasties not classified as viruses (collectively called malware). One has consistently proven to be invaluable. Ewido has been a favorite tool in my arsenal, cleaning malware from systems so infected that other tools couldn’t even complete their scans. It was purchased this year by Grisoft, purveyor of the excellent free-for-consumers anti-virus, AVG Anti-Virus Free. Recently, Grisoft released their first rebranded version of Ewido, called (surprisingly) AVG Anti-Spyware Free. I’ve not yet had need to tackle a seriously infected system with it, but I have installed it on several PC’s and it seems to be as good as ever.

AVG Anti-Spyware Free is available for a free 30-day, fully functional trial. (Here’s a link to Grisoft’s free products front page, should the direct link be broken.) After 30 days, the major loss in functionality is the loss of automatic updates and real-time protection. Automatic updates simply means that it checks for new spyware definitions daily, then downloads and installs them without your interaction. Real-time protection means that it prevents known spyware from even installing on your PC. While both of these features are highly desirable, it is a great product even without them. Updating the application manually only takes a few clicks and scanning your system is only a few more. The catch is you must remember to do these things! (Create a repeating calendar entry to remind you at least monthly.) Of course, for a reasonable cost of $40 for a two-year subscription, the fully-functional application is quite within reach of most budgets and certainly adds peace of mind, especially for the forgetful of us.

A few other anti-spyware applications that are available for free, are useful and are trustworthy:

• Spybot Search & Destroy (Clean-up and some prevention)
• SpywareBlaster (Prevention - plays very well with Spybot S&D)
• Windows Defender (XP only - plays well with AVG Free Anti-Spyware)
• AdAware (A good product, but I prefer the others)

A WORD OF CAUTION: Be wary of any other free anti-spyware applications, especially if an ad for one pops up on your screen. There are many unscrupulous people selling useless junk billed as anti-spyware. Even worse, some of them will actually infect your system rather than clean it. Here is an excellent list of “rogue” anti-spyware applications.

Add an anti-spyware solution to your PC and know that you are actively protecting your PC and the personal information you store on it and relay through it.

Ches Kennedy, owner of downtown Greensboro’s o’kennedy’s fine clothiers and resident of Greensboro, offers this about his experience with PCIAM:

Having PCIAM work with me on my home network was such a breeze. Sam was on time, helped me keep everything organized, and made the effort to explain what he was doing. He kept things simple for me so that I can enjoy working from my home.

Earlier this month, I purchased a one-year subscription to Carbonite, an online computer backup service. I don’t even recall how I found them, but I’m glad I did. I do take various measures to backup my data, but I had one backup item on my task list that sat there for months: off-site backup. Having backups readily available is a wonderful thing when a hard drive crashes or some other minor calamity happens. (Of course, minor calamities are major ones when you don’t have recent backups or don’t even have them at all!) Unfortunately, major calamities do happen. Houses burn. Tornadoes strike. Jack Bauers fail to diffuse EMP bombs. In short, it’s a good idea to have your data backed up far away from where the original data is.

Carbonite has a simple solution for this and at a great price. For $50 per year, you can backup as much data as you want to from a single PC. Once installed, simply tell Carbonite what folders to monitor and backup. Usually, “My Documents” is all that’s needed. Of course, there are other things to backup that can make disaster recovery easier, like your username folder in “Documents and Settings.” If you’re backing up a PC with multiple user logons, you’ll want to be sure to backup their data, too. Carbonite is selective in what it backs up, but you can configure it to backup specific file types and, using its context menu add-in, you can tell it to back up specific items by right-clicking on them and selecting “Back this up” from Carbonite’s menu.

I backed up about 20GB of data and it took a few days for it to completely backup my data. Now, it’s up-to-date and only backs up what’s new or changed. If I delete a file, it retains the backup of it for 30 days. I can restore individual items simply by using Windows Explorer to navigate Carbonite just as if it were another drive on my PC. Should disaster strike and I need to completely restore all of my data to my current PC or a new one, I simply Visit Carbonite’s website to download their software, install it and initiate a data restore.

The downside of the full data restore is having to wait for the data to download from Carbonite. They state the rate is about 8-9GB/day. Seeing as that’s the only downside I have found, it’s extremely tolerable by me. As long as I’m getting my data back, I can wait a few days. Still, one thing I’d like to see offered by Carbonite is to overnight a set of DVD’s with my backup files on them.

The link to Carbonite at the beginning of this post is an affiliate link. If you try Carbonite by entering your email address, choosing a password and downloading a free 15-day trial (No credit card or other sensitive information is required.), I will receive some money. I started writing this post because I want to share this great service. While writing it, I figured I’d see if an affiliate program was available and signed up. If you’d rather not try Carbonite through my affiliate link, then click here for the direct link to their site. I hope you’ll try this service or find another way to backup your data. Computers can be replaced. Applications can be replaced. Irreplaceable data… Well, you know.

If you’d rather not use an online backup service, burning your “My Documents” folder and other important files to CD or DVD and storing them at Granny’s house, at work or in a safe deposit box is a good way to implement off-site storage. The trick is to remember to regularly update those backups. With Carbonite, (ahem) “Set it and forget it.”

AVG Anti-Virus is a product I have used for several years and have been very pleased with. I recommend it to my clients because it works and because they offer a free version. Recently, AVG 7.1 started displaying a warning to users stating “STAY PROTECTED: Your AVG Anti-Virus Free 7.1 will be discontinued on 15. January 2007!” The page goes on to show two products at costs of $29.95 and $52.95. Below those products is a small link to their full product list.

I’m a little disappointed in them, but I understand their need to market and to sell product when possible. While it may seem that the only option is to either buy AVG or find another free solution, you’ll find in the full product list a link to the description of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. This is the new version of their free antivirus solution, version 7.5. Certainly, there are reasons to purchase their fine product, but if the free version works just fine for you, why spend the money? Ultimately, after navigating their site and multi-page sales pitch, you’ll find a link to download the new free AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 software. (In case the link to the download page is changed, you can quickly get to it from Free AVG main page.)

Upgrading from 7.1 to 7.5 is quick and painless. Here’s how, per the manufacturer:

1. Run the AVG Free Edition 7.5 Setup program
2. Click “Next >” on the AVG “Welcome!” screen
3. Click “Accept” on the “License Agreement on Use of an AVG Free Edition” screen
4. Select “Repair installation” on the “Select Setup Type” screen and click “Next >”
5. Select “Restart the computer now” (pre-selected by the program automatically) and click “OK” on the “Installation Complete!” screen to restart your computer and complete the installation

Enjoy retaining your protection from viruses and such, but remember: Antivirus is not all the protection you need. There are lots of other nasties out there and protection from many of them comes in the form of anti-spyware. There are other ways of protecting your system, too, and I’ll talk about them in the coming weeks. The biggest and best thing you can do is to BACKUP all your data! If it took you time to create it, take the time to back it up. Applications are easily reinstalled, but recreating things made with those applications takes time, at best, and can be impossible. Think you can retake all those digital pictures of little Tommy’s first five years on Earth?

One of my first clients, Ronnie Brannon of Greensboro, offers this statement about his experiences with PCIAM:

Two years ago, I decided to purchase a home computer. I had known Sam Moore for a year and knew that he had started his own computer service business, so I asked him for suggestions about which computer and printer to purchase. Rather than steering me toward the most expensive models, he immediately asked me what I was going to use the computer for. He also offered additional suggestions for use of the computer that I had not even thought about. Within a matter of hours, he had provided me with a list of several different models, with specifications and prices, for me to choose from. Once I purchased the computer, he personally picked up the wireless router I would need and came to my apartment on a Saturday morning, at my convenience, and worked tirelessly for several hours setting the whole system up to my complete satisfaction. Then he accompanied me to purchase a printer – again steering me toward one that would provide the printing capabilities that I needed at the lowest price.

For the past two years, Sam has been a valuable asset by informing me about recent updates and improvements in anti-virus protection and other programs that he thought I would be interested in. He has also done service and repair on my computer, again at my convenience on weekends or in the evenings to accommodate my schedule. In addition, his service rates are so reasonable that sometimes I question whether my bill is high enough. I’m certain that I could not have found a more competent and professional individual to service, maintain, and repair my computer system. In addition, I have referred several co-workers and several personal friends to Sam for their computer service needs. Each one of them has also expressed their complete satisfaction in the services Sam Moore provides.

- Ronnie Brannon
Greensboro, NC

On January 1, 2007, PC Installations and Maintenance moves from evenings and weekends to full-time, full-service. Started over 2 years ago, PCIAM has had a long ramp-up. That time has given me many opportunities to learn great lessons about being a business owner without having to jump directly into the deep end of the pool. On May 5th, 2004, I had no inkling that my employer (now of over 17 years) would be closing their facility. That’s the date PCIAM was registered with the Guilford County Register of Deeds. PCIAM was started from the request of a close friend to service his company’s PC’s. Sedgefield Interior Landscapes was my first client and I’ve happily served them over these 2+ years.

I have received all of my business through word of mouth, choosing not to advertise because my full-time commitment to Konica Minolta Manufacturing USA consumed over 45 hours of my time each week. I believe my clients deserve every bit of great customer service I can deliver and growing too much, too fast while maintaining my full-time commitment would have worked against my clients being treated how I like to be treated. Fortunately, all this time at KMMU has given me over 17 years of computing experience and over 9 years of that has been in the Information Technology department. I’ve gained a lot of training and experience through KMMU and would not be in such a wonderful point in my life without them.

While word-of-mouth advertising is what I certainly want most (if not all) of my business to come from, coming to rely on PCIAM as my only source of income means having to put this business “out there” in people’s realms of daily living. This site redesign is the first step in doing that. Having attended the Triad Web Meetup Group and HUUG presentation on blogging this past Wednesday, I learned of the benefits of a business having a blog as part of its web presence over a static site, even if the static site is very cool. Regularly updating the content of a site, and especially doing so through the interactivity of a blog, really helps a site track well in search engines. Honestly, it makes for great advertising with very low cost. John Ford of Aldenta and Sean Coon of connecting*the*dots put on an excellent presentation and I look forward to the next event.

However, advertising is not the only reason for my wanting to have a business blog. Here I can relate all sorts of information that specifically speak to what I do and what my clients want. I imagine that, as time progresses, the true nature of this blog will reveal itself and I’m curious to see where that leads. I hope I can provide some useful pointers, commentary and links here and visitors will feel they’ve gained something from each visit, even if we never interact as client and service provider.

Thanks for stopping by!