The world of Humphs & MFW-Services

Well here we are in October and I honestly don't have a clue where this year is going. Been thinking about what to write for a while, and thought the best way is just to sit down and start typing and it will come.... so let's go. I've had a customer in recently and they had their computer hacked - well I say hacked, it wasn't really hacked as they received a phone call from a company who said words to the effect of "your computer has been hacked and we'll clean it for you" - if you receive a phone call like this, just put the phone down! What ever you do, don't download any software and allow them to take control of your computer.  Whilst the software they get you to download is normally a known 'remote control' software that legitimate people use, the people that have phoned you aren't doing this out of the goodness of their heart - they want to install logging software or look to see if you use online banking so they can remove money from...

It really amazes me that people will call you at all hours just because you run a shop. I know I have a couple of phone numbers that are public and that's fair enough that people use them - that's why I have them lol. Getting missed calls is also a factor of life - sometimes you are dealing with a customer, unable to get to the phone in time (call of nature, making a coffee, whatever) - but I have answer phones so people can leave a message and I'll ring them back. However, I got a missed call the other Sunday at 00:36 - yup, just after half-past midnight! And again this morning at 02.26! Do customers really think that you will answer the phone at that time of day. My shop is open Monday to Friday between 9am and 4pm (yes I am normally here before I open) - and I do keep an eye on any emails or messages left outside these times. BUT there is no way I would even think about answer the phone at that time of day - that's just someone 'extracting the wee wee'! I kno...

Wow, it seems as if it's been months since I posted something. YUP, it has been😁 There has been so much going on, my little brain hasn't been thinking straight, but now I think I can find a bit of time to put some words down. So what has been going on? After something like 7 months or so, I finally managed to sell the Cottage (my late parents house). The first buyer 'dropped' out, and then another buyer was found (nice young couple) and they did everything when needed and didn't cause any of the problems, their conveyancer on the other hand - better not say anything about them. Microsoft have just released that they are going to extend the ESU (Extended Security Updates) system for Windows 10 until October 2027, so this means that if you have signed up for it, you will still receive security related updates for your Windows 10 PCs - No more feature updates, but that's not really a problem, and to be honest it wouldn't surprise me if this time next year they...

Hang on, there is no need to Panic! Yes, from today (at time of writing/14th October 2025), Microsoft will no longer support security/feature updates for Windows 10.......  But they will, well sort of. The Extended Security Update (ESU) is a option that we have to extended the security updates for another year (well, until 13th October 2026). And depending on where you live, this may even be free! According to Microsoft, this will keep your Windows 10 updated with any security patches but will not make any feature updates. To enrol in the ESU, go to settings, Update & Security and you should see an Enrol Now option, click on that and follow the instruction. Once enrolled, your Windows 10 will continue to get any security updates/patches until 13th October 2026. What happens after then, well that is something only Microsoft know - they might continue the updates but at a charge who knows? The thing to remember is that your PC will not stop working even if you don't sign up for t...

Yes, you did read the heading right. There has been a few issues over the past few weeks that a couple of updates for Windows 11 can cause an issue with your SSD (or possibly HDD) having a bit of a hissy-fit and causing crashes/blue-screens etc., and in some cases data corruption or loss! You need to check to see if you have update KB5063878 or KB5062660 (Preview) and if you have either of these, then uninstall them! Once you have uninstalled them, you also need to pause Windows updates because if you don't, the update will be downloaded and installed again. JayzTwoCents on Youtube has done a couple of videos about this, and they are worth a watch. Video - 19th August  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlY2QjP_-9s) Video - 30th August  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbFIUu_7LIc) If you are running Windows 10, then as far as I can find out, you are safe from the update(s) that are causing this issue. One of the possible causes of the issue is if you are trying to copy large am...

The answer to this, is yes and no! Officially Microsoft is stopping support for Windows 10 on 14th October this year (2025), and have been telling people to upgrade to Windows 11 or buy a new PC/Laptop for a while - whilst this is good for retailers that sell new PC/Laptops, it really isn't good for the environment! There are probably millions of PCs that are perfect in other aspects, but because they don't meet the requirements of Windows 11, they are meant to consigned to the bin, and I for one am not going to tell my customers that the perfectly good PC is now no longer usable! Just because Microsoft are no longer going to support Windows 10 with security updates etc., it doesn't mean that the PC is going to stop overnight (think of a Model T Ford - not been built by Ford for many many years, but put fuel in it and you can still drive it!) So what options do we all have (if we have a Windows 10 PC): Do nothing - not really recommended as the PC will become open to securi...

The ramblings from my mad mind have been lacking for past few months due to things going on in my life, and these things meant my mind was (and still is to be honest) taken up with other things. A quick bit of background: My Mum was diagnosed with Lung Cancer back in August/September 2024 (not going to get into the ins & outs of smoking here - but smoking DOES NOT guarantee you will get cancer!). She had been ill for quite a while before the 'official diagnosis' and looking back we now know what was causing it. Forward to Christmas 2024, and whilst having good days and bad ones, it wasn't too bad for her. But after Christmas, things started to get worse for her, and we ended up having to have a hospital bed put in the sitting room of her little cottage and get carers involved (there is another story there, but that one isn't going to be aired other than to say that the teams of carers we got for mum we brilliant). On Saturday 22nd February 2025, myself and my wife (...

Is WiFi better than a Hard Wired connection? Yes and No 😀 If only it was that simple. It really depends on the device, the Wi-Fi version/speed, and the Ethernet speed. Not that long ago, Ethernet speeds were as low as 10Mbits per second, then we got a speed upgrade to 100Mbits per second and now the standard (though not the fastest) is 1000Mbits per second (also known as Gigabit). You can also get 2.5Gigabit which is becoming the new standard, with 5Gigabit, 10Gigabit and even faster available on high-end equipment. If you use a laptop or tablet (or anything that you move about with) then Wi-Fi is really the only option you have as you really don't want a cable holding you back. A desktop PC, or TV are normally in a single place, so you can run a wire from the router to the device (I know that sometimes it isn't that simple). As you can see in the chart above, the theoretical maximum data rate for Wi-Fi is getting very high (with Wi-Fi 7 saying 46Gbps which is more than 40x th...

I was trawling YouTube earlier (as you do lol), and came across and interview with a businessman that I follow and he was asked if we are becoming a cashless society - this made me think. So are we coming a cashless society? This is a very hard question to answer simply, and to be honest it's also a Yes and No answer. In the past, it was simpler in the fact that if your business was a cash based business then you could take your cash and pay it into the bank .... now this is just not possible in a lot of towns. If you take payment by card (debit or credit), you don't need to pay it in at the bank, but you do not get the full amount that you are paid as the card processing company take a small percentage. If you do take cash in your business, and then when you pay it into bank, they will charge you for doing this (they also charge you for taking cash out as well!). In a lot of towns (like Halesworth) you don't have any banks so paying it in is even harder. You do have the op...

So you just turn on your computer and it tells you that it's preparing to configure windows updates.... how long is it going to take? The answer to that really is how long is a piece of string. It really depends on so many things. Some updates are quite quick to sort, others, like major changes to the operating system can take a while (in some cases if your computer isn't the fastest may even take an hour or longer). I've just had a customer on the phone asking just this question. It turns out that the computer hasn't been used for nearly two months, and it's now going through all the updates that Microsoft has released in that time. I know that in an ideal world, all updates would take seconds and the computer would just do all the major updates when you turn it off, but we don't live in an ideal world, and we don't really use computers like that. I know I only restart one of my computers when it tells me that it needs to restart to do updates other than th...

 This is a brilliant little video from a retired Microsoft engineer who worked on Windows, so knows a thing or two. It's less than 15 minutes long, but does explain a lot. And an update with more information.

What is Bitlocker? It's a drive encryption program that makes the data on your drive 'secure'. Is it good? Yes, and no. Yes because your data is more secure, however unless you have the recovery key, you won't be able to access your data - even taking the drive out of your PC and connecting it to another one won't be able to get your data off. How do I keep my recovery key safe? Ideally, Microsoft would like you to keep the recovery key linked to your Microsoft Account. This is all well and good if you have (or want) a Microsoft account, but not everyone wants one. You can store a file on your PC with the recovery key, but this is NOT recommended as if you ever are unable to boot your computer and access the drive then you are not going to able to get to the file! You can write down the recovery key, but if you do this, store it somewhere safe. You can store the file on a USB pen drive. Again store this safely as if you loose it, you'll not be able to access the...

Cloud storage .... what is it? First things first, it's not actually up in the sky 😀 It is just stored in one of many datacentres across the world. Whether it's the Microsoft OneDrive, Google-Drive, Dropbox or any other cloud storage you may have heard of or used, it's just data stored on a server in a datacentre somewhere in the world. The concept of it is brilliant in that you can send a file from your work PC, and by logging into the account on your home PC you are able to get the file. However, there is a big downside to this. And it's that you need to be connected (or online) to be able to do this. For documents, storing them on the cloud doesn't take much data, so timewise, it's not too bad. Photographs and pictures on the other hand, do have lots of data, and therefore can be slow to send to receive. I was speaking to a customer, and he moved all his photographs to the cloud and was saying that it took 10 days for them to move from his PC to his cloud st...

If you see (Not Responding) pop up in the title bar of a program you are using, it doesn't mean that the program has crashed, it's the computer saying this it is busy doing something else, so has just paused the program you are currently using. This normally happens during update downloads or installs. Windows 10 and 11, have a habit of just doing the download and then installing it without showing or telling you that this is what it is doing.  You do have the option of pausing updates, but to be honest it's not something I would recommend as the updates can include security tweaks to Windows, and even include Firmware updates for your PC, so should be done (as should be updates to your Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware programs). Updates are normally released by Microsoft on 2nd or 3rd Tuesday of the month, but it can take a few days (or longer) before your PC will download them (unless you have paused updates!), so don't expect your PC to always do the updates as soon as th...

 A customer asked me the other day if I knew anything about Cyber Essentials. It rang a bell, but I couldn't really think why. A quick search online and found it.... What is Cyber Essentials? It is an effective, Government backed scheme that will help you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks. Cyber attacks come in many shapes and sizes, but the vast majority are very basic in nature, carried out by relatively unskilled individuals. They're the digital equivalent of a thief trying your front door to see if it's unlocked. There are two levels of certification: Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus. So, what does this mean? Well I went through the questionnaire to find out, and after answering all the questions and in the end got a readiness report with 15 pages giving me an outline on what I should do to become certified.  Does it cost anything? Yes! Anything from £300+VAT to £500+VAT (depending on the si...

 Not my normal computer related post, but hey 😐 As some of you may know, together with my wife Michelle, we had a rescue German Shepherd called Cela - her name was in honour of Michelle's Dad Alec who passed away 14 years ago, and when we were on the way to go and collect Cela (or Fanta as she was named then) it was on an anniversary of his passing, and the name just came to Michelle as it's Alec backwards. Well, just short of 9 years later, and I'm sad to say that Cela has passed over Rainbow Bridge. She was just short of her 12th birthday. She had a quite large episode (it was a 'brain fart' to be honest) over the weekend and unusually for Cela this meant that she didn't want her tea and it took quite a while for her to come back to normal. She was a little bit under the weather on the Sunday, but ate breakfast and tea as normal. She ran around chasing 'nothing' while barking in the garden and generally wasn't too bad. Monday, she came to work wit...

  That’s a mouthful… but here we go with another Laptop review. This time it’s a Dynabook (Toshiba) 14” lightweight laptop. Again, this is one of my laptops, and it’s one that I carry around with me in my backpack in case I am onsite, or out, and need a laptop for any reason. It’s a small and light laptop is perfect for light use surfing the ‘net, dealing with emails and the odd bit of word processing, etc. It comes with an Intel Celeron dual core CPU running at 1.9Ghz, together with 4Gb ram (that is expandable), and a 128Gb SSD, loaded with Windows 10 Pro (Education edition). As stated, the ram is expandable and I’ve already upgraded it to 8Gb as Windows runs much happier with 8Gb – the only downside is that to upgrade the ram, you must remove the case bottom, and replace the single ram module with a larger capacity one. In general use, the laptop is fast enough, but not something that I would want to try and game on as the CPU is of an older design and only has 2 cores. It ta...

I thought I would give an honest review of the HP 255 G8 15.6” laptop now that I have been using it for the last 12 months. Whilst the model number has stayed the same, HP have updated the laptop since I purchased it. The updated ones have a different CPU, now come as standard with Windows 11, and the colour of the case is different as well. But this review is based on what I have. The specifications of the laptop I have are: 15.6” FHD screen, a Ryzen 5 3500U CPU, 8Gb Ram (expandable), 256Gb SSD, USB-C, no optical drive and comes with Windows 10 Home as standard. So, what do I think of it, and would I recommend it? I have the laptop at home for general use, surfing the ‘net, emails, watching videos etc., and the odd bit of word processing etc., and it’s perfect. Screen is clear and easy to see, I have the resolution at it’s highest of 1920 x 1080 at 100% size so for some people this is a bit small but obviously this can be changed to suit your needs. The 8Gb Ram is a minimum for ...

I've been thinking about doing a random blog and linking it to my business website for quite a while, and today seems to be that day. It's not something that I am going to do every day, week or month, it's just something that will happen when I feel like it, and it could be about anything and everything. I know that there are other platforms that I could use to either 'vent', ramble or just moan, but this will be linked directly off my business website as I would think that it will mainly contain things that are connected to my business in one way or another. So as they say, Buckle up and get ready for a wild ride 😂