iYogi Re-Defines Technical Support – BizTech2.com

Remote managed services are gaining a lot of attraction these days. Companies are looking to outsource the maintenance and monitoring of their IT infrastructure to a third party to improve efficiency and save costs. BizTech2.com caught up with Uday Challu, founding partner and CEO, iYogi, to see what the company has to offer in this space.

As far as Enterprise and SME customers are concerned, which verticals are you focusing on?

Our focus will mostly be on small companies with around five to 100 users and also firms that have multiple small branch offices like travel agencies, retail stores etc.

What kind of support services do you provide to your customers? What is the Green PC service?

iYogi provides the next generation of remote computer support services for consumers and businesses. For consumers, our live 24/7 support extends to technologies we use everyday, including hardware, software applications, devices, peripherals and networking equipment. iYogi also offers a full range of business IT solutions including managed monitoring, managed services, set-up and installation services, and incident-based services.

Green PC Service

With the current state of the global climate and increasing dependency on the computer, iYogi helps PC users reduce their carbon footprint and save money at the same time. iYogi’s Green PC service is the first in the independent computer support industry to offer customers a way to save money, conserve energy and protect the environment by optimising their PC’s efficiency. Consumers and businesses can save up to $200 per year, per desktop, in energy costs with iYogi’s Green PC application. This green application makes the computer environmentally friendly by reducing power consumption by almost 50 percent.

Our Green PC dashboard helps customise power settings and calculate power savings in kWh (kilowatt hour). The Green PC dashboard also gives a status on the reduction of CO2 and how responsible usage will benefit the environment by saving trees. A customised service that increases the energy efficiency of computers, undertakes the below-mentioned three primary initiatives:

- Computer assessment, analysing settings and PC energy use
- Customised efficiency planning geared specifically to the individual’s usage patterns
- Implementing setting changes to maximise the computer’s energy use

What are the technologies that allow you to offer 24/7 support and ensure there is no downtime at the client site?

We have invested significantly in developing a comprehensive monitoring and management tools stack. This enables us to manage and monitor all devices in the office network as well as for branch offices and mobile users. Our tools continuously monitor the customer’s network and notify our NOC (Network Operations Centre) in case of problems. Based on the set of events, tickets are automatically generated and escalated to corresponding teams. Over and above our proactive approach, the customer always has an option to call our 24X7 support line for issues that are not identified via the monitoring tools.

Please throw some light on your proprietary iMantra technology.

iMantra is a CRM system, which is tailor-made to suit the emerging business needs at iYogi. It allows for the formation of individualised customer relationships with the aim of providing personalised services to each subscriber. This tool is built on the latest java technology with a layered architecture that makes it scalable and secure. This architecture provides a seamless workflow and independent channels for various business needs: sales, support, quality and customer service. The entire system can be exposed in the form of secure APIs and Web services, which makes it a re-usable entity.

Your business model is similar to BPOs in India providing technical support to offshore customers. What unique values do you bring to this ecosystem that would help a potential client choose you over a competitor?

iYogi’s business model is different from traditional BPOs. Some key factors that differentiate iYogi include:

- Direct-to-consumer and -small business: iYogi delivers technical support services directly to consumers and small businesses and is a global technical support brand based out of India. Unlike traditional BPOs in India, iYogi does not provide any private label support and/ or work on behalf of large OEMs or software publishers.

- Optimised Processes: iYogi has developed proprietary processes for consistently delivering on a resolution rate of 87 percent, which is among the highest published benchmarks in the support industry, where averages hover in the range of 50 percent.

- Comprehensive technology platform: iYogi’s global delivery platform, iMantra, gets smarter with every customer interaction. It documents every problem, the solution and relevant hardware and software aspects, while capturing each customer’s demographic information and creating a behavioural profile. All of this information is at the fingertips of iYogi’s Global Tech Experts. This set-up combines a knowledge base with a comprehensive set of tools and technology expertise. iYogi offers a range of tools that complement its remote support services for helping customers maintain technology at peak performance levels. iYogi’s products include iYogi Smart PC Scan, iYogi Support Dock, iYogi Green PC and iYogi PC Optimisation.

How do you plan to move up the value chain in the times to come?

The growing use and penetration of the Internet and new Web-based applications has consequently opened the door to threats and vulnerabilities, which affect the system performance and ultimately lead to degrading performance. If the threats are diagnosed early on, the impact on efficiency can be minimised considerably. Currently, a user only realizes that he needs technical support once the damage has occurred and reactive methods of support are used to recover from the loss.

At iYogi, we are developing our capabilities to not only provide support when demanded, but to also monitor, pre-empt and fix threats before they can cause any damage to the computer. This will be possible only by combining technology with processes that are capable of re-defining the way technical support is delivered today.

What is your India strategy?

Technically, we are capable of servicing any geography including India. At this stage, we are looking for the right kind of partners to find access to potential customers and provide them a consolidated, 360-degree solution and services for issues relating to hardware, software, network etc. We aim to launch our India services in the coming six to eight months. Our services will offer clients a one-stop solution for all their business needs.

Source : BizTech2.com

How to Install Windows 7 Beta on an Acer Aspire One Netbook

How do you install an Operating System onto a laptop with no optical drive? The answer is you need a bootable USB drive. It took a lot of searching around the net to work out how to do this, so I thought I’d outline the steps here, mainly for my own benefit, so I know where to look the next time LOL. This guide will show you how to get Windows vista support Acer Aspire One laptop, YMMV with other laptop.

Step 1 – Let’s create a bootable USD Drive!
1. Clearly, the first thing you need is a USB drive and the one I used was an 8GB Seagate model.
2. Plug the drive into your PC.
3. Open a command prompt as administrator.
4. Get the drive number by typing:
diskpart
list disk
On my machine the USB disk was number 1.
5. Format the drive by typing:
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit
6. Mount the Windows 7 beta iso using Daemon Tools or similar.
7. Navigate to the boot directory
cd E:\boot
8. Using bootsect, we’ll make the USB drive a bootable NTFS drive, ready for a Windows 7 image (my drive was labeled G):
bootsect /nt60 G:
9. We are finished with the command prompt now, so you can close it.

Step 2 – Copy the installation files from the mounted Windows 7 iso to the USB drive.

Step 3 – Install on the Netbook
1. Plug in the USB drive and turn on the netbook
2. On start up press to select the bootable drive
3. Select the USB drive and press return
4. The netbook will boot from the USB drive and the installation will begin
5. Install as normal.
I hope this helps someone, and if not, at least I’ll know where to look the next time I need this information.

How Printer driver problems Comes

The printer driver that you installed when you set up your printer tells your parallel port how to manage the data being sent to the printer. Different makes and models of printers require precise software to effectively manage their particular applications.

One of the most common printing problems is that an incorrect or defective printer driver is being used. This can result in all sorts of strange gibberish on the printed page. If you selected the wrong printer driver for the printer you are trying to use, you may need to purge the print jobs that are hung up in the spooler as well as reset the printer to remove any bad data that remains in its buffer.

Purge the print jobs first. You can do this in Windows 95/98 by clicking on Start, Settings, Printers, and then clicking the icon for the appropriate printer. When the window for the printer opens, click Printer in the upper-left corner and then click Purge Documents.

Now reset your printer to remove the last traces of the “poison” still in the printer’s buffer.

It’s also possible that you have the correct printer driver but that it isn’t configured properly for the amount of RAM installed in your printer. If the driver is set for more RAM than the printer actually has, an overflow can occur. This might go unnoticed for a long time. It may appear only when you have a large print job or pages with lots of graphics.

Source:
http://www.examiner.com/x-8155-Seattle-Internet-Examiner~y2009m7d22-Internet-Security-101-Why-do-I-keep-getting-spyware-and-viruses

How to Print two pages per sheet

The main trouble with printing 2 pages on a single sheet is that some older inkjte printers won't print very close to the bottom of the page, which translates to the right margin of a two column sheet. This can result in uneven margin sizes. Laser printers, and most modern inkjets can cope just fine , some times problem may come in printers and you will need to take printer support from computer support company.

Adjusting Microsoft Word
The first step is to change the page layout from the usual portrait to landscape. Click on the file menu and select page setup.. . You may need to click on the little double arrow if Word is not showing the whole menu. Now click on the Layout tab, and select landscape for the orientation. Now click ok to save the changes.

The next step is to get word to split this wide page into two columns, so each one will be A5 in size. Click on the format menu, and select columns. The simplest approach is to just use the presets and choose the two column layout. Make sure apply to field at the bottom of the dialog box is set to Whole Document and click ok to save the changes.

Remember that now we are printing A5 pages, you may want to use a slightly smaller font size than normal so that the text looks the right size for the page.
The same steps as above can be used for making 3 column handouts as well.

Source:
http://windows.gumph.org/content/printing/printing-two-pages-per-sheet.html

Disable useless Vista Features

If you installed Vista operating system of Microsoft yourself and have problem in installing previous Windows Operating System, you surely noliced that Vista hardly asks any questions about your computer—and what you plan to do with it—than did prior Operating System.

Windows Vista makes all kinds of assumptions about your computing habits and the features you may or may not need, and it inevitably installs some overhead that you simply don't need. You can get rid of it. Windows XP had the Add/Remove Windows Features button in the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs applet, and Vista has something like it.

1. Open Control Panel and click Uninstall a Program to launch Vista's Uninstall or Change a Program Window. In the Tasks pane on the left, click Turn Windows Features On or Off.
2. Check the list of features. Each feature is preceded by a checkbox which, if filled, indicates the feature is installed. If you hover the mouse over a feature, a help tooltip appears to tell you what it is.

3. Uncheck any feature you don't need. Some of the features are headings with a sub-list below them; just click the little + sign to expand.
For my gaming system, I've purged everything except:
• Some of the games
• XPS Viewer (under .NET Framework 3.0)
• Remote Differential Compression (a network optimizer)
• Windows Ultimate Extras
Note that when you uncheck features, you're not removing these features from your system; you're simply turning them off so they don't sit in the background eating up resources. You can turn any of them back on by invoking this window and filling the checkboxes.

Source:
http://vistahelp.blogspot.com/

Technical Support Services Offer Everything Needed For Your Os Experience

There are various operating systems available in the marketing like Linux, MAC & Windows. Each operating system designed by different vendors. Windows has been designed by Microsoft. Linux being an open source has been built under GPL license & is freely available in the market. MAC being another operating system in the market has been designed & coded by Apple Computers.

Windows 1.0 was released by Microsoft & first came into existence in Nov 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in Graphical User Interface (GUI). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced previously. After this Microsoft never looked back and kept on releasing the new versions of windows in the market after collecting the user feedback. Slowly & gradually Microsoft became one of the biggest brands in the market with the operating system.

As the new versions of the operating systems were released new features were added to each version. The problems or the limitations found using online Microsoft windows vista tech support sites or other sources which were found in the earlier versions were fixed in the newer versions and an attempt was always made to keep themselves a step ahead of the technology or the need of the user. Slowly and gradually Microsoft identified a way to collect the information from every user by the way of error reporting & submitting the details of the error directly to Microsoft Support. This way of collecting the information from the user and identifying the problem was appreciated by the other technical support or service providers and followed by them.

Today being a big organization Microsoft has outsourced its computer tech support services to various vendors in the world located at various locations. These vendors serve Microsoft customer’s at some cost or free of charge depending on the kind of technical support required. Microsoft has also launched this on online windows tech support services and help related to the common issues that a user faces to minimize the cost and save the time of the user which can be viewed at support.microsoft.com.

As the technology was worked upon Internet came into existence which was a revolution in the market as the entire world was at a mouse click. In the early 90s—the dawn of history as far as the World Wide Web is concerned—relatively few users were communicating across this global network. They used an assortment of shareware and other software for Microsoft Windows operating system.

In 1995, Microsoft hosted an Internet Strategy Day and announced its commitment to adding Internet capabilities to all its products. In fulfillment of that announcement, Microsoft Internet Explorer arrived as both a graphical Web browser and the name for a set of technologies.

In July 1995, Microsoft released the Windows 95 operating system, which included built-in support for dial-up networking and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), key technologies for connecting to the Internet. In response to the growing public interest in the Internet, Microsoft created an add-on to the operating system called Internet Explorer 1.0. When Windows 95 with Internet Explorer debuted, the Internet became much more accessible for many more people.

Internet Explorer technology originally shipped as the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Microsoft Plus! For Windows 95. Internet Explorer replaced the need for cumbersome, manual installation steps required by many of the existing shareware browsers.

After traveling a long way a new operating system would hit the market with the name Windows 7 which is expected to be more user friendly & secure than the earlier operating systems released in the market. The default browser expected to be is Internet Explorer 8.0 with this new operating system which would be released this year by Microsoft.

Source:
http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/technical-support-services-offer-everything-needed-for-your-os-experience-786106.html

Fix “Windows boot configuration data file is missing” Error

As we all know that Microsoft's Windows based Operating Systems
are one of the commonly used operating system all over the world but these operating systems is exposed to several threats.

Some of the common issue associated with Windows based computers are
1 Malfunction of operating system due to the Virus or other malwares.
2 Due to the corruption of the registry or some other files.

If all these get issue get more severe it lead to no boot issue , one of the common issue with Windows based operating system is “Windows boot configuration data file is missing”

Symptoms of this error
When we start our operating, we receive the following error message.
File: BootBCD
Status: 0xc0000034

Causes for this Error
This error is caused due to the following reasons.
1 The Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr) entry is not present in the Boot configuration data (BCD) store.
2 The BootBCD file on the active partition is damaged or missing.

How to solve this Error.

Method 1:
1 Repair the BCD store by using the Startup Computer Repair option
You can use the Startup Repair option in the Windows Recovery Environment to repair the BCD store. To do this, follow these steps:
1 Put the Windows Vista support installation disc in the disc drive, and then starts the computer.
2 Press a key when you are prompted.
3 Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click next.
4 Click Repair your computer.
Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click next.
5 In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Startup Repair.
6 Restart the computer.


Method 2:
Rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool
If the previous method does not resolve the problem, you can rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:
1 Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then starts the computer.
2 Press a key when you are prompted.
3 Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click next.
4 Click Repair your computer.
5 Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click next.
6 In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7 Type Bootrec /RebuildBcd, and then press ENTER.
If the Bootrec.exe tool runs successfully, it presents you with an installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type yes. A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully.
If the Bootrec.exe tool cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order in which they are presented. Press ENTER after each command.
Bcdedit /export C:BCD_Backup
ren c:bootbcd bcd.old
Bootrec /rebuildbcd
8 Restart the computer.

If we are not able to solve this error by both the above methods then try method 3

Method 3:
Rebuild the BCD store manually by using the Bcdedit.exe tool
If the previous method does not resolve the problem, you can rebuild the BCD store manually by using the Bcdedit.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:
1 Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then starts the computer.
2 Press a key when you are prompted.
3 Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click next.
4 Click Repair your computer.
5 Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click next.
6 In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7 Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

cd /d Partition:WindowsSystem32

8 Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
bcdedit /enum all
9 In the Windows Boot Loader section of the output from this command, note the GUID that is listed for resumeobject. You will use this GUID later.
10 Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
bcdedit -create {bootmgr} -d "Description"
11 Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
bcdedit -set {bootmgr} device partition=Partition:

12 Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
bcdedit /displayorder {GUID}

13 Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
bcdedit /default {GUID}

14 Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
bcdedit /timeout Value

15 Restart the computer.

Source:
http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/fix-windows-boot-configuration-data-file-is-missing-error-958873.html

How to Make older programs run in Windows XP in Compatibility Mode

Installing any software or application program in Windows XP or Windows Vista can be a major issue. There can be several reasons for this, for example drivers might not be compatible with the operating system or anything as such. But the most common reason for such issue is the compatibility issue. For example you have attached a web cam to your computer having Windows XP, and you try to install the drivers for that Web Cam, but you are not able to install that drivers for the same reason of compatibility issue.

The Compatibility mode of Windows XP does that for us, Windows XP support compatibility mode “Runs the program using settings from a previous version of Windows”. Try this setting if you know the program is designed for (or worked in) a specific previous version of Windows.

Run the Program Compatibility Wizard

We should run the Program Compatibility Wizard before you try other ways of updating your programs or drivers because it identifies compatibility fixes written specifically for Windows XP. If the wizard does not solve your problem, you can try other steps listed at the end of this article.
To run the Program Compatibility Wizard:
1. Click Start, and then click Help and Support (online computer support).
2. Click Fixing a problem, and then click Application and software problems.
3. Under Fix a problem click Getting older programs to run on Windows XP.
4. Read the instructions and then click the Program Compatibility Wizard.

Set Compatibility Properties Manually

As an alternative to running the program compatibility wizard, you can set the compatibility properties for a program manually
To set the compatibility properties for a program manually:
1. Right-click the program icon on your desktop or the shortcut on the Start menu for the program you want to run, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Compatibility tab, and change the compatibility settings for your program.

After selecting the proper OS is the compatibility mode we need to reset the three fields under “Display Settings” if an older program requires 640×480 resolution or 256 colors.
Click Apply.

Source:
http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/how-to-make-older-programs-run-in-windows-xp-in-compatibility-mode-937915.html