We’ll be sharing some important news this week about Clayton Computer and our services. Stay tuned!

If you are looking for a downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7, you may just be ARE  out of luck. Due to the secure boot mechanism, that uses an EFI instead of Bios that only allows a Windows O/S loader, you’ll have a hard time loading the operating system of your choice onto your newly purchased computer.  In other words, Windows 8 has been hard wired into the chipset of your new computer. So even if you were to replace the hard drive, the motherboard has been pre set to look for Windows 8 or some other secure operating system, and up till now Ubuntu is the only one I know of. Other certified operating systems may come along but windows 7 isn’t one of them.

In order to load an operating system on your new machine, you will have to have an operating system that is secure boot certified. This means your options just went from Windows 8 or Ubuntu. As of today, Microsoft does not plan on making Windows 7 Secure boot compliant.

In the end, this may just be the time to get off the train, and start heading in a new direction. Ubuntu thankfully has evolved into a very usable operating system that is user friendly, has tons of free software, and is virus free.

If you have never considered a Linux Operating System, call Clayton Computer and let us demonstrate one for you. We can also build custom PC’s with Ubuntu loaded on it. We’re also available if you need training and support.

It’s free, it works, and it’s really cool.

If you are in the market for a new laptop, you probably feel like everyone else looking at new laptops right now. Underwhelmed! You look at a hundred different laptop models and all of them look alike with an exception here or there. All of them have near the same specs, and most of us have no idea what that means. So you search for the phrase “What’s the Best New Laptop” or “Top Three Laptops” or something like that. Only to find that you get nailed with results showing you ads for more laptops that all look the same. Where can you get an honest opinion on laptops? After a decade of being in the computer business, I still don’t know.

So unlike every other page on the internet, I’m not going to give you a Top 3 list of best laptops or a Best Laptop of 2013 list. All that stuff is worthless. If I could go back and find a list of all the lies proliferated by those fake web results that all end up having a link to sell you same products they just wrote about (coincidence). And forget the techno rag magazines altogether.

So what does the owner of a computer repair shop actually suggest?

Personally I like Lenovo, they’ve been rock solid for several years now and they are usually pretty cheap. Solid warranty, good product. My next suggestion is then load it with a lunux O/S if you can. Ubuntu seems to be very user friendly.

Now, if you do those two things, it will be likely forget where you ever got this advice long before you ever come see us for any sort of repair. Now that’s straight talk from the owner of a computer repair shop that’s been around for over 20 years. Lenovo + Linux = Win

If you have found that you suddenly have a new browser or you start to see “conduit” in the linked results of your browser, you have been a victim of a fraudulent browser hijacker called conduit. While conduit, also has other various names dug deep into your operating systems registry that goes by, Conduit seems to be the one most people with recognize.  Conduit looks like a legitimate web browser but do not be fooled. The results that you will get through a conduit hijacker are sham sites that are full of ads, spyware, and key loggers. While conduit will allow you to use your web explorer, it’s advised that you DO NOT continue to use a machine infected with this virus.

Here is the bad news, Conduit/babylon is very well funded now. They are all over the web now, and you can the virus from almost anywhere now. Even worse, is that the major anti-virus software don’t stop it, nor will they uninstall it!

There are a lot of people that claim to have a quick one shot fix for removing conduit. Speaking from first hand experience, by the time you read a how to guide, Conduit will have updated again and it will be that much harder to take off. Conduit seems to install at a root level and even if you remove it, it’s likely it will come back again soon since it’s buried in the registry.

How can you get it fixed? Well I hate to say it, but this one is hard to fix! Very hard, some of the software that can take it off, can also take out good files that you need if yo don’t know what you are doing during the removal process.

Conduit is becoming a problem of epic scale that only seems to be getting stronger every day! Find a professional that has been successful at getting conduit off a system and keeping it off.