What is Technibble? Technibble is a resource for computer technicians who are looking to start their own computer business or improve their existing one. Technibble also provides an amazing place for technicians to help other technicians via our forums.

Fix WU Utility – Repair Tool of the Week

Fix WU Utility is a small, portable and freeware tool designed to repair the Windows Update utility built into both Windows Vista and Windows 7. This utility will re-register a total of 114 .dll, ocx and .ax files that are needed for Windows Update to function properly. This application only works on Windows Vista and 7. To fix Windows Update on Windows XP, try Dial-a-Fix.
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Considerations For Starting Your Own Part Time Computer Business

Doing computer repair work on a part time basis is a great way to ease into the business. It can take many months to get your client-base up to a level where your income is similar to that of your full time job. It takes time to learn how to make money and its kind of like easing yourself into the shallow end of the pool rather than jumping into the deep-end and hope that you learn to swim really quickly.

Before you start a part time business on the side, there are a few things you need to consider first.
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Speccy – Repair Tool of the Week

Piriform Speccy is a small, portable and freeware utility from the people who brought us CCleaner. Speccy is designed to scan and display a computers specifications. While there is plenty of software out there that can scan and display a computers specifications such as System Information for Windows, SIW can be a little overkill with the amount of information that is shown.

Speccy will just show the important information without all the extra fluff. One Technibble forum member described Speccy as “Portable. Simplistic. Nice GUI. Informative. Straight to the point” which sums it up nicely.
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How You Are Losing Clients

There are many articles on Technibble are about gaining more clients. However, you need to make sure you keep them once you have them. In this article, I’ll show you 5 ways you might be losing clients.
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Computer Business Kit


The Computer Business Kit is a collection of sample business forms and documents that are needed in the computer business. The Computer Business Kit Contains:
  • Maintenance Contract
  • Backup Checklist
  • Work Order Samples
  • Invoice Samples
..and much more.
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Fix IE Utility – Repair Tool of the Week

Fix IE Utility is a small, freeware and portable application designed to help fix Internet Explorer after a Malware attack. Fix IE Utility will re-register 89 DLL and OCX files that are often de-registered in a Malware attack and are required for Internet Explorer to run smoothly. You will still need to run your usual malware removal applications but if Internet Explorer still wont work correctly after the system as been cleaned, its possible the malware de-registered some files and this is where Fix IE Utility helps. Many people would just suggest that the client could just switch to Firefox. However, the core of Internet Explorer is still used inside many other programs so it needs to be operational, even if you don’t use Internet Explorer as a web browser

Fix IE Utility has been tested on IE7 and IE8 on both Windows Vista and Windows 7.
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7 Simple Marketing Tips for Your Computer Business

Here are 7 easy and practical marketing tips that don’t take much time or money that you may be overlooking in your business.
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Ninite.com – Repair Tool of the Week

Reloading Windows and installing various applications is something that Computer Technicians do all the time. While we can streamline our Windows installs using something like nLite, there isnt really a good way to automate the installation of multiple applications. Sure, some technicians make use of .BAT files or a scripting language like AutoIT but the code is often too difficult for some Technicians. This is where Ninite comes in.

Ninite.com (formerly Volery) is a simple tool for Windows that will automatically download all the latest versions of the software you choose from its directory, then install them silently (as in, you shouldn’t see the installers or asked any questions). Some of the software you will see in their directory is Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC, Foxit Reader, Avast, AVG, Flash Plugin, CCleaner, 7zip and much more. This program will not choose not to install the spammy toolbars/search pages that comes with certain software like Foxit Reader.
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The Problem with Getting Good..

There is a certain issue that will effect just about every self employed computer technician. It can slowly sneak up on you and may technicians don’t even realize it has happened to them. So what is this sneaky little issue I am talking about?
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Windows 7 System Recovery Discs – Repair Tool of the Week

Windows 7 is just about to be released (October 22) and you are going to start seeing it on clients machines when their new brand name laptop or desktop comes with it pre-installed. The problem with many brand name laptop and desktops is they often dont come with the Windows 7 disc.

This Windows 7 System Recovery Disc can be used to access the system recovery menu, giving you options such as System Restore, Complete PC Backup, Automated System Repair and Command-line Prompt. However, you cannot use this disc to re-install Windows.

If you already have access to a working copy of Windows 7, you dont need to download this because you can create this disk by going to the run dialog and type: recdisc
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20 Pieces of Bite-Sized Advice

Just about every day I hand out little tidbits of business advice. It might be on the Technibble forums, a podcast or even in person. Here are some of my core pieces of advice for this industry in small, easy to chew, bite-sized chunks.
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