AVG Anti Virus

Hi everyone,

Recently I have had to sort out a computer with AVG Free Anti Virus installed on it, although this is a good anti virus system for computers i do not recommend just installing this on its own. I highly recommend installing SpyBot Search & Destroy alongside it as it picks up all the "problems" that AVG Free tends to miss. Not only that but it doesn't clash with each other!

You can get AVG Free here
You can get Spybot Search & Destroy here

Always feel free to check out our Useful Links page which lists different programs that you can generally get for Free!

Many thanks for reading,

ABC Service

Follow Us Online for ABC Giftware and ABC Service

ABC Giftware stands for "A Beautiful Collection of Giftware" while ABC Service stands for "A Basic Computer Service" quite a nice little play on words actually.

You can follow ABC Giftware/Service profile on Linked In
You can follow ABC Giftware on Facebook here...
You can follow ABC Service on Facebook here...
You can follow ABC Service on Twitter here....

Of course you can also follow our business via the websites by seeing all the latest products there,

www.abcservice.me.uk
www.abcgiftware.co.uk

I hope you like our wide range of products that are available,

Enjoy!

About ABC Giftware/Service

• Name: Brett Joseph Kinsman-Daw
• Born: December 1st 1991
• Height: 6ft 5”
• Job Titles: Business Owner and Council Staff

Hi everyone, I am the owner of ABC Giftware/Service. I took over the business from its previous owner back on September 5th 2009 but lets back track a little to before this eventful day. I completed my GCSE’s getting mainly B’s and C’s a few D’s and well an E in Physical Education or it may have been an F for “flop” but I can’t quite remember.

Anyway, after passing my GCSE’s I went onto doing a BTEC Level 3 course in Child Learning, Care and Development my initial goal being that I wanted to become a Primary School Teacher. However, I always enjoyed the social aspect of work and truly love earning money and that started to show during my year at A level.

After doing a year I ended up sitting down with the teachers and saying that it wasn’t for me, they were disappointed but also no doubt relieved as one of the chattiest (or noisiest depending on how you look at it) people in the class was leaving. I set up a 2 table stall in the Tavistock Pannier Market beginning of August 2009 just advertising my computer services including Website Design and Web Hosting called BMHost (a small business under ABC Service).

I really enjoyed having the couple of tables but as I left school my parents wanted me to earn some “real money” not just a little bit here and a little bit there. That’s when it happened...my Saturday boss turned around to me and said that he was planning on selling the business because he had other commitments and didn’t have the time. I jumped at it and bought the business over from him re-branding it as ABC Giftware and incorporating my computer business ABC Service.

At the age of 17 I was a business owner but I hit a snag, I planned to have a business account, a card machine and a phone line all on the stall for convenience sakes and for the lead up to Christmas but I was too young. When I turned 18 that December I set into motion my plans and since had the phone line, card machine and business account all setup. All set and ready to go then 2010 hit and mid year the recession was noticed but the business held its own and has continued to do so quite nicely with big plans for the future. Plus, the websites are finally being revamped with a wide range of products available on both ABC Giftware and here on ABC Service Online Shop.

Over the year I built up great rapports with my Wholesalers and customers a like who have been very supportive and continue to be supportive now and I thank them for this. The ABC Business range looks forward to your custom and hopes to see you really soon.

Thank you for reading.

Brett J Kinsman-Daw

Choosing a new Desktop computer or laptop

Hello readers,

In today's society where everything is changing rapidly it becomes increasingly difficult to decide on what to go for when looking at new computers or new laptops. I have had many a consumer come to me and I have continuously offered free support and advice on purchasing their new laptop or new desktop computer. Below I will set out a check list for you to refer to along with a description on each one:

• Making a Decision on getting a Desktop or Laptop - First decide whether you wish to purchase a Laptop or Desktop Computer - Laptops are portable computers which consists of a Monitor (screen), keyboard and mouse pad which you use to move the mouse with your finger all joined together. A desktop computer however takes up more room as most the items are usually separate, you have a separate monitor (screen), keyboard and mouse, the actual computer tower, then if you haven't got a monitor with built in speakers you could be looking at getting speakers for a desktop PC as well.
• Budgeting - When you have decided on the above you then need to decide what your budget is. Now this has to be a practical figure, £200 will barely get you anywhere, you can probably get a second hand computer for this sort of price but with second hand you are likely to experience all the problems that can come with them. In today's age with computers, unfortunately, "New is better". In theory you should be looking to spend anything from £300 + for a decent system.
• When looking at a Laptop - The size of the screen is a personal preference along with features such as webcam, bluetooth and touch screen options. Right now there are quite a few laptops around however looking at some of them carefully you can be sorely surprised that quite a few aren't very good due to the fact that some of the "mixture" of components inside can let the others down. So with this in mind keep a note of these minimum specifications somewhere on you when going to purchase a laptop. Remember that sales persons are there to try and sell you the stock and some especially enjoy "preying on those in unfamiliar territory". Go in armed with your paper and pen! Minimum Specifications: Processor (CPU) - Intel Core i3. Memory (RAM) - 3GB DDR3 +. Hard Drive (HDD) - 160GB + (most computers/laptops come with hard drives that are around 320GB or 500GB). Wifi (Wireless) - b/g/n (wireless range, "b" being the smallest range, then it's "g" then finally the latest wifi with the longest range "n" technology).
• When looking at a Desktop Computer - Shop around, recently i had a customer who was looking at an all in one computer which would have set him back about £800-900 and would have been a nightmare to even think about upgrading at a later date. After talking I set him on the path of a nice Acer desktop. They managed to get a complete setup with i3 processor really nice large flat screen HD monitor and more for around £500!!! Again here you are looking at an Intel Core i3 processor with 3GB RAM 250-500GB Hard Drive. Acer is usually a good make to go for in both Laptops and Desktop computers because they are not over priced.
• Where to shop - Comet is always a good place to start along with your local high street retailer whether big or small. Remember although some of these big companies can be cheaper a small retail outlet provides that personal touch. You can also try amazon.co.uk as well but I still personally prefer local retailers because should an issue arise it can be easier to return it to the shop that it was bought from rather than having to use expensive delivery/courier services.

I hope this helps most of you on deciding what laptop or desktop computer to go for,
If you see a computer or laptop that you like always feel free to email me with a link or information and i can always let you know. Remember to always look at 3 different computers don't just pick out one, pick out three and compare them, decide on visually what you like about them while also remembering to look at the computer specifications.

Until next time!!!! Thank you for reading.

ABC Service

ABC Service Website Update

Hello to you all,

ABC Service's website has currently undergone an overhaul in regards to its overall look, the main website pages are fairly similar to before but the main shop has changed its overall design with more work continually being done.

You can check out the main ABC Service website here or go directly to ABC Service Online Shop here.

We look forward to hearing from you and we hope you like the changes we have made to the website,

All the best,

ABC Service

Keyboard Shortcuts

Hello Readers,

Ok, keep checking on this post as this will be updated regularly with different keyboard shortcuts.

• CTRL+C - Copy
• CTRL+V - Paste
• CTRL+Z - Undo
• CTRL+A - Select All
• CTRL+P - Print
• CTRL+ALT+DELETE - Task Manager (this allows you to stop tasks and more)
• F5 - Refreshes a website page (must be on a browser such as Firefox or I.E.)
• CTRL+U - Underline (when used in a text program)
• CTRL+B - Bold ( " " )
• CTRL+I - Italics ( " " )

Keep checking back as I will be adding more to this list as and when I think of them,

Thank you for reading,

ABC Service

Browser Tips

Dear Readers,

In regards to browsing the internet there are a handful of different browsers available.

• Internet Explorer (IE)
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera
• Safari
• Google Chrome

In this list Internet Explorer will certainly be recognised as it comes with Windows Operating Systems, plus they have now released Internet Explorer 9 to the public, to find out more on this check out the Microsoft website.

Anti Virus Scanners to date are able to integrate easily with IE and Firefox, you will have to research your anti virus software to see whether or not it also supports Opera and Safari but generally they don't. The biggest concern for me is Google Chrome, it is very very quick at loading websites, loading up the program in general and much more. However, none of the anti virus programs seem to be able to integrate with it, on more than one occasion I have had a computer come to me who have had some sort of protection on there computer while using nothing but Google Chrome as there browser....and a virus has got into the system. In this regards although it is a good browser use it carefully. For the teenagers out there if you don't want your parents coming to me saying there's a virus on the computer then use IE or Firefox which will be much safer for your overall system. (Note: Firefox is said to be more secure and faster than IE)

I hope you enjoyed this little installment,
Until next time, be safe, be happy, be good.

ABC Service

Anti Virus Scams

Dear Readers,

Recently I have received a few computers which have had viruses on, when talking to my clients they stated they had bought the software off of the internet. Beware! There are a lot of so called "Anti Virus/Anti Spyware" programs out there but only a select few are actually recommended, work properly and legitimate. The others are actually viruses posing as Anti Virus software!

These are the following anti virus/anti spyware programs that ABC Service personally recommends, feel free to research them and find out which one suits you best and which you feel is easiest to navigate around.

The best way to try some of these anti virus/anti spyware programs is to download one as a limited trial, when the trial is up, uninstall it thoroughly by going to Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP) or Start, Control Panel, Programs and Features (Windows Vista and 7). Then install the next program that you want to try. Don't install more than one "full" anti virus software else they will clash with each other and potentially slow the computer down.

 FREE Programs

• Spybot Search and Destroy (Free On-Demand Scan Anti Spyware/Malware program)
• MalwareBytes (Free Anti Spyware/Malware Software, tends to load up silently in the background therefore I would recommend installing, scanning with it, remove anything detected and then uninstall again.
• Avast! Free AntiVirus - Avast is a great FREE Anti Virus/Spyware protection software, it is best placed on a system that you know hasn't been on the internet for long. Recently using this program on a computer which was infested with viruses it wouldn't just disinfect the file it wanted to delete them. It is good as a protection and potential removal but not for a computer which is infested!

 Trials (Pay per Year Protection)

• McAfee (An increasingly popular  anti virus/spyware program)
• Kaspersky (Another popular and well known anti virus/spyware program)
• ABC Service personal favourite - BitDefender - (A highly popular anti virus/spyware program that is updated almost hourly keeping you thoroughly up to date with the latest protection, highly recommended and user friendly)

Thank you for reading, more information is still to come.

Until next time, be happy, be safe, be good.

ABC Service