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 damaged in a Malware attack and are required for Internet Explorer to run smoothly. 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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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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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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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 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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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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When you are first starting your business, one of the last things you will probably be thinking about is how you are going to exit your business.
However, this something that needs to be considered early on in your businesses life. Do you plan to sell the business and retire at 60 so you can live out the rest of your days playing golf? or do you plan to build the business up over the next few years and sell it for a healthy profit?
Whatever you do, you need to plan your exit strategy now because what you do in the present can greatly increase the value of your business in the future.
So, what can you do now to increase the value of your business?
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The title pretty much says it all. This .BAT file will kill all currently running apps on a system that the user started with the exception of a few locked Windows processes and some antivirus products. This comes in handy when you are working on a system that has too many processes running and thus slowing it down; often to the point where its difficult to do any work on it.

Being a BAT file, this script is obviously highly customizable. It works on a “if the process is not in this list, then kill it” system; so you can add processes to the list that you do not to be killed such as the menu for your USB drive applications or Firefox.

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Guest Post by Justin. Justin is a small business owner and computer technician with Protocol16, supporting small and mid-sized businesses as well as consumers in the metro area of Portland, Oregon.

It’s not secret that business customers bring in more money than residential. But, in order to win over some businesses, you need to be familiar with some of the operating systems they use. For larger shops and those with Enterprise level experience, this is second nature. For those stating out, however, it can be something that scares even the most seasoned small-time business owner.
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Damaged docx2txt is a freeware recovery tool designed to recover text from corrupt Word 2007 XLSX files. Word 2007 files are actually a collection of zipped XML files and the XML format is somewhat unforgiving of data corruption. This application unzips the partially corrupted XML files and tries to read what it can, not caring about malformed XML. This tool pretty much just dumps the text it finds in the XML file to text.

Corrupt Excel xlsx2csv is similar to the above except it is designed to recover the content of corrupt Excel XLSX files. Again, XSLX files are based on XML files which is unforgiving to data corruption. This application has the ability to maintain the cell formatting and the cells content; including seperate workbooks in a single XLSX file. You can copy and paste the content out of the application or export the entire spreadsheet to CSV.

Both of these applications were originally Perl scripts but have since had a GUI made for them (you will see a command window though). These applications are “mostly portable” as it doesnt need to be installed but requires .NET version 2.
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