Music and DVD playback

If your computer won't play dvd movies then you will need to get something that does. Annoyingly Windows media player often falls over at this point as it does not come bundled with the right codecs, however there is a codec pack that you can download for windows media player and you can get that HERE.

Alternatively there is VLC media player, a free offering that plays virtually anything you gan give it. you can get it HERE

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Sending large files accross the internet

There are times when you just need to send someone a file or files that are too big to go via email, the post would be too slow and the person you want to send them too is miles away.

Although most email providers can handle attachments of 10mb and more this can fail as some file types can easily be excluded and servers and email software can have issues that get in the way. However you can send it online.

There are quite a few free offerings out there that will allow you to send a file to an email address. Basically you go to the website of the company who offer the service and type in both your own and the email address of the person that you want to send the file to, click a "Browse" button to choose the file from your computer and hey presto, the file gets uploaded. The person you are sending it to gets an email with a link they can click on to securely download the file.

However, if you have several pictures or files to send you will need to put them in a "zip" folder. In its simplest form just put the files you want to send into a folder then right-click that folder (see image below) and from the "send to" on the menu choose "compresses (zipped) folder, once done a zipped version of the fiolder will exist in the same location ready for you to send.

One of the free services I have used is http://www.sizablesend.com/

There is no software to download and you can send up to 2Gb file size.

Just add the email addresses and click on "select files".

Browse for the file / folder you want to send

When it's done it may look like it's not but by the time you get to this screen an email is already on its way to the person you sent it to with a link to download it.

AntiVirus Recommendations

Avira Antivirus

Avira Antivirus Premium This is an excellent choice and one I use myself.

Service

When you bring your computer in for service it is always given a quick check over for any obvious major faults before any work is carried out, this is to ensure no time or money is wasted. Once this is done the computer is then subjected to a basic hardware test of the main components to ensure there are no hidden problems before we start.

We all know that simply re-installing windows is an easy route to a repair but its always a last resort, basically if your system needs to be re-installed then it really is the only way to fix it. Also any important data is always backed up to ensure you lose nothing.

So what do I do:

• Hardware and software fault diagnosys
• Hardware and software upgrades
• General cleanups and health checks
• Virus and malware removal
• Macintosh repairs

Anything not listed here just ask.