Greetings everyone!

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Ken Hughes. I live in Essex year round and for the past 4 years I have provided in-home IT services to residents of Essex as well as the greater Champlain Valley. From time to time, I share with my clients tips and tricks on how to improve their digital lives. Beginning with this post to the Essex on Lake Champlain blog, I will be sharing those same tips and tricks with all of you, too! Please feel free to contact me (details below) at any time if you need assistance or information. I’ve got your back!

First, a couple of highlights …

• http://www.macmanessex.com is my newly updated website. You can make payments via PayPal at my website or you can encourage friends to join this listserv for free.
• I am presenting a FREE technology class in Westport, NY on March 3 at 7pm at the Heritage House. Please feel free to stop by and join the conversation!
• If you’re on Facebook, I encourage you to become a friend of MacMan, which is an area where I post additional technology ideas, articles as well as things I learn from time to time.

And now, on to updating …

A large percentage of time I spend with my clients is devoted to making sure that computers and technology is up-to-date. I find that many problems can be solved (and some indeed can be created, but I can solve them generally) when updates are installed. The purpose of this article is to share what I believe is where computers and technology should be as of this writing. If you have specific questions about your situation, please don’t be shy … contact me!

I also find that people don’t upgrade their computers because they are asked to do so when they are in the middle of something else. It’s fine if you put if off, but please don’t do so indefinitely.

***Important reminders***
Always back up your computer before you run an update!

These updates are recommendations … not requirements.

Mac/Apple computers

• The latest operating system (OS) (as of this writing) is 10.11.3 (El Capitan). I recommend this upgrade for anyone who has a Mac computer with an Intel i3, i5 or i7 processor only ( > About this Mac). If your current OS is 10.6.8 or your processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo, I don’t recommend the El Capitan upgrade.
  • If your Mac is an Intel Core 2 Duo AND you already upgraded to OS 10.7.x, 10.8.x, 10.9.x or 10.10.x and you aren’t sure whether you should upgrade or not, we should talk. These operating systems were necessarily designed to work on this older processor which makes the decision to upgrade/not to upgrade a bit more challenging. I can help you figure this out.
• The latest version of Firefox is 44.0.2. To check for your version, click on the Firefox menu > About Firefox
• If you use Google Chrome, the latest version should be v. 48.02564.109 (64-bit) (as of this writing). You can check on your version on a Mac by going to the Chrome menu > About Google Chrome
• I use Microsoft Office 2011 on my computer, and the latest version is 14.6.1. Regardless of your year version of Office (2004, 2008 or 2011), you can check for the latest update in the Help menu > Check for Updates of any Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Windows/PCs

• Windows XP – if you are on Windows XP, Microsoft no longer supports upgrades for your OS. Therefore, you have no upgrades to install. That being said, this isn’t the safest situation to be in if you’re using the internet and I would welcome a conversation with you about upgrading your computer hardware to something more modern (even though XP was solid as a computing platform.)
• Windows Vista – if you’re using Vista, please do not attempt to upgrade your computer. I have made such attempts on Vista for my clients and it has led me down a very unhappy path on more than one occasion. This is a failed OS and I recommend a new computing platform. This OS puts me on pins and needles.
• If you are using Windows 7, I recommend staying there (despite the numerous attempts Windows is pushing to get you to upgrade to Windows 10). It’s solid and still relevant to today’s computing. Let sleeping dogs lie. 🙂
• If you are using Windows 8/8.1 … I believe that Windows 10 is a slightly better option and would recommend upgrading from Windows 8/8.1 to Windows 10.
• If you’ve already upgraded to Windows 10, you’re there, for better or for worse. Most of my clients do not like Windows 10 … I’ve had several who have attempted to go back to Windows 7 successfully and not-so-successfully.
• The latest version of Firefox is 44.0.2. To check for your version, click on the Firefox menu > About Firefox

iPhones/iPads

• iPhone 4 family and earlier – I recommend staying at the iOS that you are at now. The more you upgrade, the slower your iPhone will be.
• iPhone 5 family and iPhone 6 and 6s families – the latest iOS for these phones is 9.2.1 (as of this writing) and I recommend this upgrade.

Adobe Flash/Silverlight/Java

• Adobe Flash – This program is designed to help improve interactive experiences on your internet browser. Please be VERY careful about upgrading Adobe Flash. There are MANY services out there that claim to be Adobe Flash, but are not. https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ is the official website for upgrading your Flash player.
• Microsoft Silverlight – This application allows websites like Netflix to function. https://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/Default.aspx is the official website to check your version again the latest. If you visit this website and see information like that of the image below, then your Silverlight is out of date and should be upgraded.
  
• Java – I always encourage my clients to have the latest version of this on their computer. To check to make sure you have the latest version of Java, please visit http://www.java.com and click on Do I Have Java? If nothing appears, then you probably don’t have it and I would encourage you to get it.
  • Java should be Version 8 Update 73 built 2 (release date February 5, 2016)
    Please go slowly through this installation. Java does attempt to make changes to your browser settings (changing your search provider from whatever you use to Yahoo!) … I don’t recommend that change.
  • Google Chrome and Java installations do not play well together. If you are going to attempt to update Java, please do so using Safari, Firefox (preferred) or Internet Explorer. Microsoft Edge (Windows 10) may/may not play nice with Java installation.

When finished with all installations, make sure to go back into your Downloads folder and throw away the downloaded files. They are no longer of use to you. Also, make sure your Desktop is rid of any installer files, too!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end! I hope that this information has helped. As always, please contact me with any questions you may have.

Thanks!
MacMan Ken Hughes
yourmactutor@gmail.com
518-578-9112