ClearView IT Blog

ClearView IT has been serving the Phoenix area since 2005, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Does Your Organization’s Hardware Support Windows 11?

Does Your Organization’s Hardware Support Windows 11?

Microsoft has claimed that Windows 10 would be their chosen operating system for the foreseeable future, but we can never expect technology to rest on its laurels and grow stagnant. Enter Windows 11, the latest Microsoft operating system. What are the specifications needed to upgrade your business to this new OS, and how can you know when it is time to do so?

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Microsoft Pricing is Going Up, but We Can Help Get Your Money’s Worth

Microsoft Pricing is Going Up, but We Can Help Get Your Money’s Worth

We just wanted to provide a public notice that Microsoft intends to increase the price of its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 offerings. If your business relies on these tools in its operations, you can expect to see your costs for them go up, regardless of where they are sourced from.

That’s the bad news. The good news is, we can help you get the greatest mileage out of these solutions… potentially by introducing you to capabilities that you have yet to take advantage of.

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Is Your Business Considering Upgrading to Windows 11?

Is Your Business Considering Upgrading to Windows 11?

Windows 11 has been released into the world, but has your organization embraced it yet? If not, you’re certainly not alone. Adoption for Windows 11 has been relatively slow, all things considered, and recent surveys and polls show that Windows 11’s adoption will proceed in this fashion–at least for the near future.

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FoggyWeb is the Latest Malware to Wreak Havoc

FoggyWeb is the Latest Malware to Wreak Havoc

The attack on SolarWinds earlier this year caused a lot of challenges, and now that time has passed and the dust has settled somewhat, Microsoft has uncovered another type of malware associated with the attack. This one is called FoggyWeb. What does this threat do and what can we learn about it?

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Microsoft Dealing with Major Data Leak

Microsoft Dealing with Major Data Leak

Incorrect configurations on your infrastructure’s hardware are surprisingly easy mistakes to make, and even worse, they can have severe security ramifications if they are not discovered promptly. It can happen to anyone, as evidenced by a recent data leak. One of the most popular software developers out there, Microsoft, made a pretty nasty blunder with one particular setting that led to a huge data leak that could have exposed millions of records.

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Excel Shortcuts You Can Use to Be More Efficient

Excel Shortcuts You Can Use to Be More Efficient

Microsoft Excel is the premier spreadsheet software, but unless you know keyboard shortcuts and formulas, it can be tricky to get the most value out of it as a software solution. Thankfully, with just a couple of keystrokes, you too can achieve mastery over this software. Here are some of the most popular and useful keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Excel.

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New Patent Suggests Microsoft is Working on Wellness Technology for Its Apps

New Patent Suggests Microsoft is Working on Wellness Technology for Its Apps

The workplace can be a stressful place, and studies have been done on this increase, as well as what can be done to mitigate the damage. To combat this increase, Microsoft has filed a patent that suggests new ways to resolve workplace stress might be in development in the near future. But is this technology actually necessary for identifying when you are stressed?

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Microsoft Thwarts Major Hacking Attempt

Microsoft Thwarts Major Hacking Attempt

With the 2020 U.S. Election under a month away, there has been a lot of concern that outside interests would try to influence the results. Microsoft has recently disrupted a huge coordinated hacking effort that had designs of altering the election infrastructure needed for a fair and secure election. Let’s take a look at the effort and Microsoft’s response in today’s blog.

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Which is a Better Spreadsheet Option, Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel?

Which is a Better Spreadsheet Option, Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel?

Spreadsheets are a supremely useful tool for businesses to use, but it is important for you to consider which option will work out best for your particular needs. Let’s consider the biggest two spreadsheet applications available today—Microsoft’s Excel and Google’s Sheets—to familiarize yourself with your options.

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Tip of the Week: Stop Word from Editorializing

Tip of the Week: Stop Word from Editorializing

At the time of this writing, Microsoft Word has a market share just shy of 37 percent, making it a pretty safe bet that you’ve used it at some point. As a result, you’re probably familiar with Word’s insistence of changing how certain things are formatted, which can become irritating - especially if you had it formatted how you wanted it the first time. This week, our tip will cover how you can stop Word from editorializing.

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Tip of the Week: Limiting OneDrive Sharing

Tip of the Week: Limiting OneDrive Sharing

Statistically speaking, there’s a pretty good chance that you use Microsoft Office 365 in your business, which means you can use OneDrive, Microsoft’s contribution to cloud-based storage and collaboration. If this is how your users work productively, they are probably already familiar with how they can share these documents - but what if there are some things you don’t want freely shared around? Today, we’re going over how you can restrict OneDrive sharing capabilities.

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Microsoft is Releasing Out-of-Band Security Updates

Microsoft is Releasing Out-of-Band Security Updates

Patching your software is one of the most important, yet ignored, tasks in computing. Keeping all of your software up to date with the latest threat definitions can help your business’ IT stay secure. Recently, in a somewhat atypical move, Microsoft has announced that they have released an emergency out-of-band security update to fix two critical security issues. 

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Tip of the Week: Excel Tips That Work

Tip of the Week: Excel Tips That Work

Microsoft Excel has a ton of functionality, but how much of it are you actually utilizing? This week’s tip will help you take full advantage of keyboard shortcuts, so you can leverage the solution to the best of your ability.

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What Happens When Your Microsoft Office 365 Subscription Expires?

What Happens When Your Microsoft Office 365 Subscription Expires?

Microsoft Office 365 is a highly useful subscription-based solution. However, as these services are based on the successful continuation of one’s subscription, it may be useful to know the procedure that Microsoft undergoes when a subscriber cancels their services. Here, we go into each step that Microsoft follows.

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Tip of the Week: New Windows 10 Features

Tip of the Week: New Windows 10 Features

Windows 10 received its second update in 2018. While some experts believe that this second update is too much, others look at it and are happy that more features and functionality is being added. Today, we’re going to dig into the details about this update, as well as some of the helpful features that you can take advantage of.

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48 Vulnerabilities Resolved On Patch Tuesday

48 Vulnerabilities Resolved On Patch Tuesday

Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday issued resolutions to 48 vulnerabilities in August, including 15 that affected Windows, 25 critical flaws, 21 important flaws, and 27 that allowed for remote execution. This is a lot to consider, but the main jist of this is that lots of threats were fixed, and that your organization shouldn’t risk not implementing them as soon as possible.

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Tip of the Week: Be Better At Microsoft Word With These Four Tricks

Tip of the Week: Be Better At Microsoft Word With These Four Tricks

Microsoft Word is a great tool that your business may use for word processing, but it can do so much more. With the right tools, you’ll be able to take advantage of many different tricks that could change the way you see Microsoft Word. Here are four neat tips that you may not have thought of.

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The Windows 10 Anniversary Update Doesn’t Let You Turn Off Cortana

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update Doesn’t Let You Turn Off Cortana

Voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google Now have become omnipresent on smartphones and other devices, and Microsoft’s Cortana is hoping to capitalize on their popularity. However, Windows 10’s anniversary update has not been kind to the voice assistant, and actually makes it somewhat of a security issue to use on your Windows 10 devices.

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Microsoft Unveils New Windows as a Service Pricing Model

Microsoft Unveils New Windows as a Service Pricing Model

Is your business accustomed to paying for Windows operating systems up front? Microsoft’s latest “as a service” offering, Windows as a Service, might throw a wrench in your business model, but it could welcome shifts in your IT policy that ultimately allow for more flexibility on your part. Regardless, Windows as a Service provides businesses with the opportunity to reassess their approach to software solutions.

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Alert: 27 Major Vulnerabilities Fixed By Microsoft. Is Your System Protected?

Alert: 27 Major Vulnerabilities Fixed By Microsoft. Is Your System Protected?

Microsoft’s latest round of security patches includes 27 software vulnerabilities, many of which are critical in nature. Affected are widely-used titles such as Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and the new Edge browser. It’s important for users to take action and install the Microsoft-provided patches, and soon.

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Is Keeping Employees Away From the Windows Store Worth the Cost of Windows 10 Enterprise?

Is Keeping Employees Away From the Windows Store Worth the Cost of Windows 10 Enterprise?

As a business owner, there are naturally a few things you would prefer your employees not to be able to do on your workstations - least of all cost you a pretty penny in charges as well as in memory space. Taking this into consideration, it is no wonder that an employer would prefer to have access to the Windows Store removed from employee workstations.

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The World Has Warmed Up to Windows 10 but Microsoft Edge is Getting the Cold Shoulder

The World Has Warmed Up to Windows 10 but Microsoft Edge is Getting the Cold Shoulder

Is your business using Windows 10? If so, did you upgrade because you wanted to improve operations, or to stop Microsoft’s endless upgrade notifications? Regardless of why you upgraded, you’re now one of the 25.3 percent of people using Windows 10. But are you using Microsoft Edge as your preferred web browser?

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4 Office 365 Business Premium Features that Every Business Owner Will Appreciate

4 Office 365 Business Premium Features that Every Business Owner Will Appreciate

Microsoft Office 365 can enhance a company's operations in a variety of ways. Yet, due to the fact that not every business is the same, your organization will benefit more from a solution that’s customized to meet your needs. This is a big reason behind Microsoft’s customizable offering: Office 365 Business Premium.

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Review This Checklist to Make Sure You’re Not Running Recently Expired Software

b2ap3_thumbnail_end_of_life_microsoft_support_400.jpgEvery piece of software released by Microsoft has an expiration date. Known as the End of Life event, this is when Microsoft ceases to support the software. It’s imperative that you stay on top of EOL dates for the sake of your company’s operations and data security. Take for example the dozens of software titles that expired just this past April.

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Is Windows 10 Living Up to the Expectations of Microsoft?

b2ap3_thumbnail_windows_10_400.jpgThe hype train keeps chugging along for Windows 10, and it’s obvious why. It’s a great operating system that’s changing the way that businesses handle their daily tasks. But is Windows 10 doing as well as it lets on? According to desktop operating system usage statistics from NetMarketShare, Windows 10’s adoption rate has significantly slowed down in recent months, while more people continue to take advantage of Windows 7 and 8.x. Why?

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Microsoft Expands Hardware Offerings with Surface Book [Video]

b2ap3_thumbnail_the_surface_book_400.jpgMicrosoft and Apple have been going at it for decades. Not only have these two tech monsters been at it in the lab, they’ve been each other’s prime competition throughout the advents of the personal computer, the graphic user interface, and the smartphone. Today they continue to make devices that deliberately (or not) seem more like counterpunches to the other than pure innovation.

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4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Blindly Upgrade to Windows 10

b2ap3_thumbnail_upgrading_to_windows_10_400.jpgThe newly-released Windows 10 operating system has been well received by the tech community. Yet, no OS is perfect and you shouldn’t blindly upgrade just because you’ve heard good things about it. Before upgrading to Windows 10, be sure to take into consideration these four shortcomings.

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What You Need to Know Before Blindly Upgrading to Windows 10

b2ap3_thumbnail_windows_10_upgrade_400.jpgWe’re counting down the days until the release of Windows 10 on July 29th. The Microsoft hype train is in full gear and the world has high expectations for the new OS. This begs the question, “Should your business upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as possible?”

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Meet Sway, Microsoft’s New Office App

b2ap3_thumbnail_sway_presentations_400.jpgDesigned to meet the changing needs of computer users is Sway, a new addition to the family of Microsoft Office apps. Sway is a cross-platform content aggregation tool allowing users to easily develop and share web-based presentations that are rich in both pictures and text. How can a tool like Sway help your business?

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Even Prosecutors Take Advantage of PowerPoint to Make Their Cases

b2ap3_thumbnail_prosecutors_powerpoint_400.jpgAre you a master of making brilliant Microsoft PowerPoint slideshows to augment your presentations? You’re not the only one; it’s widely known as one of the best mediums to create a compelling, professional slideshow. It’s used in classrooms, training sessions, and much more. However, there’s one profession where PowerPoint’s effectiveness is questionable: A prosecutor in a court case.

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Windows Server 2003 End of Support Date Fast Approaching

b2ap3_thumbnail_do_it_now_400.jpgTwelve years after its release, Microsoft has scheduled to end mainstream support for Windows Server 2003 on July 14, 2015. This move essentially pulls the plug on the popular operating system, leaving any business using the server OS after its end-of-support date vulnerable. If your organization is still running this outdated OS, you need to update ASAP.

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Tip of the Week: Retrace Your Steps in Microsoft Word with Go Back

b2ap3_thumbnail_microsoft_word_400.jpgHave you ever been working in Microsoft Word and needed to go back and check an edit you made, but you didn’t remember what you did, or where in the document you did it? Going back and reviewing your edits in Word is easy using the little-known Go Back command.

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The New Face of Microsoft: What Was Revealed at the Windows 10 Live Event?

b2ap3_thumbnail_windows_10_400_20150202-011902_1.jpgWindows 10, the next big name in Microsoft’s family of Windows operating systems, is expected to arrive sometime in 2015. On January 21st, 2015, we were shown a glimpse of what to expect from the new operating system, as well as a preliminary look at the in-development browser, Spartan, and several slick new pieces of consumer technology.

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What’s Next for Microsoft? *Gasp* A New Browser

b2ap3_thumbnail_windows_10_400.jpgMicrosoft has already unveiled their latest project in the form of an entirely new Windows operating system, Windows 10. More recently, a new Microsoft web browser code-named “Spartan” is making tech headlines, which may be released alongside the new operating system.

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