Joseph Moran

2/06/2015-Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct an error regarding which versions of Windows include the Restore Previous Versions feature. A small business owner and frequent contributor to Small Business Computing, Joe Moran has provided small business clients with IT consulting and tech support for nearly 15 years.  In this article, he relates […]

When you’re in the market for a new piece of technology, hardware specs and price typically weigh heavily in the decision-making process. But when choosing a smartphone, those aren’t the only considerations, nor are they even necessarily the most important ones. You also have to factor in the characteristics of the phone’s ecosystem (i.e. the […]

There’s a lot riding on the next version of Windows. Although immensely popular over the years, the operating system’s more recent history has been somewhat checkered. It started back in 2007 with the launch of Windows Vista, the long-awaited upgrade to Windows XP that ultimately turned out to be much-loathed due to various performance and […]

Smartphones and tablets have helped small business workers make great strides in mobile productivity, but they’re of limited use when it comes to dealing with paper. While you can “scan” documents and photos using a smartphone camera and a specialized app, the process can be cumbersome and the image quality underwhelming. Fujitsu’s $229 (MSRP) ScanSnap […]

Every small business should back up its data regularly, yet too many don’t do it often enough—or in some cases, at all—largely because of the considerable time and effort that’s typically involved. That’s why the best small business data backup products protect the maximum amount of data with minimal hassle. By that standard, HP’s RDX […]

Small businesses generally have two options for backing up data—local and cloud. The former (backing up to a storage device located on company premises) will usually get you out of a run-of-the-mill jam such as a hardware failure or malware infection. Cloud backup lacks the convenience and immediacy of a local backup, but—in the event […]

Not that long ago a laptop was the undisputed workhorse of a small business road warrior. These days, mobile workers looking for an equally mobile computer are just as likely to consider a business tablet, provided it can run the same stuff (i.e. Windows software) as a laptop. HP’s Pro Tablet 610 G1 PC is […]

Social media may have eclipsed email as the fashionable way to communicate in some circles (not Google Plus circles, because who really uses those?), but email remains a critical tool for small businesses and a principal means by which actual work gets done. Although email has been a workplace mainstay for nearly two decades now, […]

It’s been a year-and-a-half since Windows 8 debuted with much fanfare, but that doesn’t mean it’s garnered very many fans—as evidenced by how few people seem to use it. According to NetMarketShare’s May 2014 numbers, Windows 7 commands a 50 percent share of the desktop operating system market, while the nearly 15-year-old Windows XP—which was […]

Lately, it seems that each new week brings a fresh revelation about a website security breach and an urgent call to change your password on said site, as well as any other site where you used the same password (admit it, you do this). Most recently, a serious flaw was discovered in the ubiquitous OpenSSL […]

Technological innovations such as smartphones, tablets, and inexpensive cloud-based data storage have significantly increased productivity for today’s mobile worker. Nevertheless, there are times when you may need to work with a particular application or file stored on a conventional PC that’s sitting back on a desk at the office, at home, or anywhere else you […]

We recently reviewed Spiceworks 7.1, a product that helps you monitor and manage the myriad PCs, printers, and other devices that reside on a small business network. Managing devices on a LAN is certainly important, but it’s just as important—if not more so—to keep close tabs on the customer-facing pieces of your IT infrastructure to […]