Thursday, May 29, 2014

Procedure To Remove Unwanted Toolbars Permanently

Toolbars are browser add-ons that functions in their own context of internet search mechanism. Glued to web-browsers, toolbars are actually programs that enhance the functionality of browser and facilitates internet surfing. Most web-browser toolbars contain a search bar, various online surfing tools, and links to websites. However, as most of the toolbars are installed automatically in the browser as part of a software bundle, they might invade your computer with a malicious intent.

In normal cases, toolbars improve your online searches, offer quick access buttons to your favorite websites, and some even provide pop-up blocking options. But, some toolbars can be extremely irritating. The thing that irritates a user the most is the automatic changes made to the default home page or search page setting in the browser. Furthermore, there are some toolbars, which claim to be beneficial for enhancing your internet search function, but are actually spyware programs.

It is better to uninstall such unwanted toolbars permanently from your web browsers before they do any harm to the system. Here are the instructions to remove toolbar from your computer.

Instructions to uninstall toolbars from Windows
  • Go to the Start menu by clicking on the Start button located on the lower left corner of the desktop screen. Click on the Control Panel link to proceed. 
  • Move on to the Uninstall a program icon under the Programs folder, and scroll through the list of currently installed programs, to find the toolbar that you want to remove. Highlight the entry and click on the Uninstall button against it. 
  • Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the toolbar, and Restart your computer when prompted, to allow the changes take effect. 
How to remove toolbar from Internet Explorer
  • Start Internet Explorer application, and click on the Tools icon. Choose Manage Add-ons: Enable or Disable Add-Ons link. 
  • Click on the Show button, and select the add-ons that you do not want. Click Disable, and restart the browser to complete the task. 
How to remove toolbar from Firefox
  • Start Mozilla Firefox and then click on the Tools button. Select Add-ons and click on Extensions tab. 
  • Select the toolbar you want to remove in the resulting page, and click on the Uninstall button. Restart the browser and finish the procedure. 
The above steps should help you remove the unwanted toolbar from your computer. However, if you want further help in the matter, contact technical support team for assistance.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Microsoft Signals The Release Of Latest SharePoint Online Version

Office 365 is considered as an impressive Microsoft service. Perhaps, this may be the reason why the software giant is planning to upgrade some of the components of Office 365. As an initial step, Microsoft would roll out a new version of its SharePoint Online product. The new version will be made available to all licensed Office 365 users. However, the Redmond has not given any clear indication about the date of release of the new version.

What we could expect in the latest version of SharePoint Online (SPO)?

According to a recent post published in Microsoft help forum, the latest version of SharePoint Online would contain impressive and brand new features like improvements on the stability of the service, simple user experience and better performance. It is said that the new features are added as per the suggestions and feedbacks from Office 365 users across the world.

Customers unhappy over unclear date of release of latest SPO version

Meanwhile, it is widely believed that the Microsoft’s decision not to reveal the date of release of the latest version of SPO has made most users unhappy. SPO is one of the most popular services with Office 365. There are even users who subscribe Office 365 to use SharePoint Online. All the company has made clear in its recent announcement about the new version of SPO is that the option for users to self-upgrade the service will be made available soon. Fortunately, there is a point to be happy though. All licensed users of Office 365 will be notified about the upgrade one month in advance. So, you have plenty of time to prepare before upgrading to the latest SPO version.

Option to postpone the update

The latest version of SPO will extend all the advanced options to the personal users of the application that the enterprise users are currently enjoying. For instance, the latest version of SPO allows customers to decide when to use the update. If any user wishes to upgrade to the new service later on, they are free to choose to make the upgrade later on. This option was not included in the previous version of SPO.

A blog post released in Microsoft help forum recently indicates that SPO contains several new features little refined options to manage files and documents, simple navigation options for professionals to manage sites and the likes. If you want to know in detail about the newly added features of the latest SPO version, get in touch with Microsoft support.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Installing Windows 8.1 Media Center In Windows 8 Pro

For the Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Media Center Edition users who wish to watch and record TV shows with the Windows Media Center, it was a great disappointment that Microsoft did not bundle the Media Center in the Windows 8 operating system. Many of the users are very much disappointed that Microsoft has not included the Media Center with the Windows 8 operating system.

However, the users can add it to Windows 8 Pro by buying the Windows 8.1 Media Center Pack, or you can upgrade to Windows 8 to Pro with the Media Center with the Windows 8.1 Pro Pack. The user will be receiving a product key for the installation upon the purchase. Then in the Windows 8 operating system, search for the add features and run the Add Features wizard to install the Windows Media Center Pack.

Microsoft requires the users to activate the Windows Media Center after the installation is completed successfully. While trying to activate the product, you may get the error message "Unable to activate Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center or Windows 8 Pro with Media Center." This message will appear if your Windows 8 installation is not genuine. This can also occur if the Windows 8 product key that you received at the time of purchase is not genuine. This is a very rare case and can happen when you buy the key from a third party vendor or an already used product key.

If this is not the case, you can try running the Add Features wizard again and then select the option for activating via phone. Alternatively, you can search for and run the SLUI 04 app that also lets you to activate the product by phone. After selecting your country or region, you will be displayed a screen that shows the correct dial-in number for activating the product. You may then follow the prompts to finish the activation.

If you are still facing any problems, you need not worry as you get a short period of free tech support while buying one of the packs that install the Windows Media Center. If you fail to install Windows 8 Media Center edition, you can try contacting the Microsoft tech support for assistance with installing Windows 8 Media Center. Make sure that you have the product key to install Windows 8 Media Center available before contacting the tech support team.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Microsoft Slashes Azure Cloud Service Fee To Take On The Competition

Cloud service is the latest emerging technology in the IT sector and already big companies like Microsoft and Amazon are trying to gain a stronghold in this field. However, as in the case with the latest operating system, the popularity of a cloud service platform would also depend on the number of compatible apps available for it.

About Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is the cloud service platform from Microsoft. It is an infrastructure as a service product. What this means is that companies can subscribe to this service as a storage solution and thus reduce their IT infrastructure needs.

The Azure platform includes online storage facilities as well as software applications that would help with the various needs of the organization. This meant that Microsoft needed the software developers out there to develop more apps for their Azure cloud service platform.

To facilitate this Microsoft provided the developers special discounts and Windows support tools to encourage them to develop more application for the Microsoft Azure platform. And, so far, this has been going well.

Microsoft Azure faces more competition

Microsoft has always assumed that with their operating systems and MS Office products all linked to and available through the Azure cloud platform, they would have an edge over the other cloud service providers online. However, with more and more tech firms joining the cloud service bandwagon these days, Microsoft is facing stiff competition.

Many cloud service providers like Amazon and HP are now upgrading their service from just online storage facilities to that of IT infrastructure platforms and thereby, competing directly with Windows Azure. This has led to a situation where each of them is trying to reduce their prices as much as possible in an attempt to outcompete the others.

Recently, Microsoft announced that they are going to reduce their Windows Azure storage prices to match the low fee offered by the Amazon cloud services. So far, Amazon cloud service has maintained an advantage over its competitors by providing the lowest prices in the country.

This has forced Microsoft to slash the prices for its Windows Azure cloud services. Recent surveys show that when taken in to account the different cloud service subscription package fees, Microsoft’ Azure and Amazon EC2 now offer pretty much the same price.

However, when you take in to the excellent Windows support services as well as the MS Office applications, clearly Windows Azure is the best cloud service platform available.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Microsoft To Provide Security For XP Until 2015

Microsoft has already ended support for the Windows XP operating system, leaving most of the XP users in jeopardy. Although the company has been warning customers for more than one year to switch over to the latest versions such as Windows 8 and 8.1, many still preferred using XP. Now, with no service updates from Microsoft, these users can be said to be facing security threats. Hence, Microsoft has come up with a solution for these customers, and has announced to provide a basic level of cyber security for XP until July 2015.

According to the Windows XP help, the company had earlier decided to end all of its support for XP on April 8, 2014. Needless to say, this was a perfect ploy by Microsoft to make all its XP users shift to either Windows 8 or 8.1. This was because even after the announcement from Microsoft to shelve XP, the popularity of the operating system among the users remained unaltered. When compared to the market share of XP and Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 reached nowhere close to these. As stated by the reports, almost a third of the desktops in the world used XP, and it included even large IT firms and banking institutions.

Several XP users had contacted the Windows XP help to know about the consequences they will face after Microsoft officially ends the support. The technicians warned them about the security threats and related issues the aged operating system would become vulnerable to. Hence, the users were advised to migrate to the latest operating systems. But still, most XP users did not prefer using Windows 8 or 8.1 in their systems, as most of them found these to be much complicated to run on. Hence, even after ending XP support, many users still rely on this 12 year old OS or switched over to other operating systems other than Windows. Thus, the decision that promised to allure the customers to Windows 8 and 8.1 seemed to backfire for Microsoft. Now, Microsoft has announced that the company will be providing basic security options for XP users. These include malware signatures for Microsoft Security Essentials, System Center Endpoint Protection, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection and Windows Intune until July 2015.

Hence, this latest announcement from Microsoft seems to come as a relief for the XP users who were a bit skeptical in continuing with the OS. However, it is yet to be seen what new strategies Microsoft employs to promote Windows 8 among the users.

Monday, May 5, 2014

How To Delete Google Toolbar From Internet Explorer

Google toolbar is a web browser add-on that clings to a web browser with the aim to facilitate overall browsing activities of an internet user. With the help of this add-on, users can easily access their favorite RSS feeds and News, check emails, views social media sites, or search the web, without opening a new tab for the purpose. However, as most of the web browser toolbars are tagged malicious, many users enquire how to remove Google toolbar from their computers despite the fact that it helps them in many ways.

Uninstalling Google toolbar is an easy process, but the procedure may vary depending upon the version of your web browser and operating system. Here, we discuss how to remove Google toolbar from different versions of the Internet Explorer application.

Instructions for Internet Explorer 7 users
  • Launch the web browser by clicking on the shortcut icon on the desktop or the taskbar. Click on the Tools button located at the top menu bar, and select Manage Add-ons. 
  • Opt for Toolbars and Extensions from the pop-up menu and locate Google toolbar in the resulting page. 
  • Highlight the entry and click on the Disable/Remove button against it to uninstall the add-on. 
Instructions for Internet Explorer 8 users
  • Open Internet Explorer 8 on your computer and move on to the Tools tab located on the top menu bar. 
  • Click on Internet Options from the drop down menu and select Advanced. 
  • Opt for Reset in the pop-up dialogue box, and click on Reset button once again in the resulting page. 
  • Select Close in the next page to uninstall Google toolbar. 
Instructions for Internet Explorer 9 users
  • Launch Internet Explorer 9 on your computer and click on the gear icon located at the top right corner of the browser screen. 
  • Opt for Manage Add-ons from the resulting list of options, and select Toolbars and Extensions. 
  • Locate and highlight Google toolbar entry in the next page and click on the Disable/Remove button against it.
When done with the uninstallation, restart the application and complete the procedure. However, be reminded that the above steps only apply to removal of Google toolbar from Internet Explorer application, and the toolbar will still be present on other web browsers. If you want to uninstall the add-on from your computer completely, you can remove the program via the Control Panel utility. Get in touch with our team of experts for assistance with the matter.