What to Do About Windows 10?

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If your computer runs Windows 10, you undoubtedly have received one or more alerts about upgrading to Windows 11 before the end of life for Windows 10 support on Oct. 14, 2025.

First, if you lump these alerts into that “shrug basket” of fake alerts we have been conditioned to toss them into, know that Microsoft will actually be ending support for Windows 10 on Oct. 14.

Second, you have three options depending on your situation:

  1. If your computer can run Windows 11, you can upgrade it before the deadline
  2. If your computer can’t run Windows 11, you will need to buy a new computer with Windows 11 on it before the deadline
  3. If your computer can’t run Windows 11 or you don’t want to upgrade, you can purchase a one-year Extended Security Update (ESU) that will allow you to run Windows 10 for one more year securely.

On Option 1, I generally recommend not upgrading Windows 10 computers older than 5-7 years (residential computers) or 3-5 years for business pc’s. If yours happens to be 3 years old or less, then an upgrade could make sense.

On Option 2, prices for new computers remain higher than a year ago, but could rise much higher with the implementation of tariffs. You can wait to get as much use out of your Windows 10 computer as possible, but it could be costly in the long run.

On Option 3, the cost for the ESU is $30 for a residential user and $61 for a business user. That will provide you with important security updates for future vulnerabilities but will not include bug fixes, feature improvements, or technical support from Microsoft.

For advice on these options, contact me at 302-537-4198 or ericm@flexitechs.com.

Two Monitors More Productive Than One?

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Sometimes as my brain switches back and forth repeatedly between my two monitors and focus becomes more difficult, I wonder if I’m really more productive with the second monitor.

Common sense says we would be with a second screen to avoid time lost to switching back and forth between applications using the Task Bar or minimizing and maximizing screens.

But with so many windows open in so many applications, does a second screen actually improve productivity or does it just provide a second place for open files and windows to hide from us?

This Issue Has Been Studied …

As you might expect, someone has studied this phenomenon to determine if and how much a second monitor improves the typical employee’s productivity.

Jon Peddie Research looked at using two screens on a desktop computer or laptop for several years. It found that overall, employees in all types of jobs improved  productivity by an average of 42%.

Perhaps intuitively understanding that, companies increased their use of second monitors by an annual compound growth rate of 10 percent from 2002-2017, the study found.

The company’s namesake put it simply, saying “The more you can see, the more you can do.”

What Can Using 2 Screens Do For You?

  • A second monitor allows you to do more in less time because you can keep programs that need to be open all of the time, like email, always open on one screen while you work in other programs on the second screen.
  • Side by Side comparisons of data or files or images is also easier. Trying to get two windows up on a single screen side-by-side can be frustrating with time spent resizing the windows to get them to fit side-by-side on a single screen. With two monitors, you can fully open both windows in plain view
  • During online meetings or video calls, a second screen allows you to continue the meeting as you check email or review notes without minimizing the meeting window. With dual screens, you can choose which screen you want to share during meetings and still have apps open on the other screen that no one can see.
  • Laptops are great for portability but not so much for screen space. Connecting your laptop to a monitor can make it like working on a normal desktop PC. You can mirror your screen or make use of the laptop screen for some activities while using the larger screen for others.
  • A second monitor is a relatively low-cost productivity booster with a sweet ROI. A monitor can typically be purchased from $125 to $250 and for that your employees get a 42% average productivity increase with no significant learning curve.

For assistance in picking out and setting up second monitors for your employees, contact us at 302-537-4198, ericm@flexitechs.com, or our Contact page at https://flexitechs.com/contact.

Financial Advantages of Managed Services for Small Businesses

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Financial Advantages of Managed IT Services for Small BusinessesWe’ve released our latest Report, “The Financial Advantages of Managed IT Services for Small Businesses”, detailing how Managed IT Services from a locally owned and operated Managed IT Service like FlexITechs can save your small business money and increase uptime, productivity and security at the same time.

We’ve examined the wages and benefits for different levels of IT employees on Delmarva and Benefits nationally and compared the cost of internal IT staff or having employees do their own troubleshooting with assistance from external computer repair companies to the cost of having a Managed IT Service handle the typical Delmarva small business’s IT support.

You can obtain your copy of the report here.

As always, you can contact me personally at ericm@flexitechs.com or the company by phone at 302-537-4198 or by filling out our Contact form.

 

Do I Really Need to Switch to Windows 11?

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Windows 11

The Top 5 Questions about Windows 11

Do I really need to switch to Windows 11?

That question will likely be asked millions of times in the next few months.

The Answer? No.

If your computer is not compatible or can’t run Windows 11, you don’t have to upgrade.

On the other hand, if your PC is compatible with Windows 11 but you find the upgrades unnecessary for your current workflow, there’s nothing wrong with staying with Windows 10.

Even Microsoft said that Windows 10 is still the right choice for those who aren’t ready to transition to a new operating system.

In fact, they made sure of this by scheduling an update for Windows 10 later this year.

At the same time, the company will continue supporting Windows 10 until October 14, 2025.

This gives you about four years to think about upgrading to Windows 11 or switching operating systems altogether.

How do I Switch from Windows 10 to 11?

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If you’re ready to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11, consider the first three questions in this series first and your computer’s compatibility with Windows 11.

Windows 11

The Top 5 Questions about Windows 11

After doing so, you need to go to the Windows Update section of your Settings. There, you may see a link to download and install Windows 11 if Microsoft has determined your computer meets the hardware requirements to do so.

If you see it, click the Download and Install button or link and follow the prompts to perform the upgrade to Windows 11.

If you don’t see that, click “Check for Updates” and see if it gives you the link to download and install Windows 11.

If not, download and run the PC Health Check utility from Microsoft.

If the utility deems your computer suitable for the upgrade, see if you get the “Download and Install” button and if so, follow the prompts to upgrade to Windows 11.

Of course, this is Microsoft and at times the procedure won’t be as simple as advertised. Case in point — I have already seen that my 2-year-old Lenovo Desktop with 3.6 ghz processor and 8GB of Ram and 256GB SSD hard drive does not qualify for the upgrade because the processor does not match an obscure setting that Microsoft has decided not to support.

If you don’t see the Download and Install button or link or Windows Update or the PC Health Check utility tell you you can’t upgrade your PC to Windows 11, contact us at FlexITechs to take a look for you.

As always, these upgrades will create conflicts with existing applications and hardware. So, if you need to buy a new computer make sure your existing applications and peripherals will work with Windows 11. For an existing computer, we recommend waiting a couple of months for the bugs to reveal themselves before upgrading.

Tomorrow’s Question — Do I Really Need to Upgrade to Windows 11?

Does Windows 11 Come with Office?

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Microsoft Office 365The succinct answer is No.

The longer answer is Office hasn’t been included with Windows for ages but has always been available by purchasing it.

The same is true of Windows 11. You have to pay for a Microsoft Office subscription to use it with your Windows 11 computer.

But if you have an existing subscription to Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), then you’re all set. You just need to install the Office suite after upgrading to Windows 11.

Note that support for older versions of Office (2010 and below) has been discontinued since last year. So if you’re still using that, you should upgrade your Office as well to avoid unnecessary risks and compatibility issues.

As always, these upgrades will create conflicts with existing applications and hardware. So, if you need to buy a new computer make sure your existing applications and peripherals will work with Windows 11. For an existing computer, we recommend waiting a couple of months for the bugs to reveal themselves before upgrading.

Tomorrow’s Question — How Do I Switch from Windows 10 to 11?

Can My Computer Handle Windows 11?

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If you’re buying a new computer that has Windows 11 on it already, you can rest assured that the computer can handle the new operating system as long as it’s not a cheap come-on spit out by a manufacturer to lure you into buying it.

Windows 11

The Top 5 Questions about Windows 11

However, if you have  an existing computer and wonder if you can upgrade it to Windows 11, it might not be that straight-forward.

In many cases you can open Windows Update and it will tell you if your computer is ready for Windows 11 or not.

Microsoft has also provided the PC Health Check utility that you can download and run to determine if your computer can run Windows 11. You can download it here.

These are Microsoft’s minimum requirements for running Windows 11 but you will likely need to double or triple the processor speed, RAM and hard drive storage:

  • At least a 1GHZ dual-core processor
  • 4 GB of RAM
  • At least 64 GB of storage
  • A graphics card compatible with DirectX 12 or later, with a WDDM 2.0 driver
  • 720p display, at least 9” diagonal size, with 8 bits per colour channel
  • TPM version 2.0
  • UEFI, Secure Boot capable firmware

As always, these upgrades can create conflicts with existing applications and hardware. So, if you need to buy a new computer, make sure your existing applications and peripherals will work with Windows 11. For an existing computer, we also recommend waiting a couple of months for the bugs to reveal themselves before upgrading.

Tomorrow’s Question — Is Office Available in Windows 11?

 

Top 5 Questions About Windows 11 – Comparison to Windows 10?

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Microsoft has a habit of backtracking on proclamations about its software, such as … “Windows 10 will be our last Windows operating system”.

Famous last words …

As you may or may not know, given that Microsoft has hyped its newest operating system far less than its predecessors, the company has made Windows 11 available to manufacturers and consumers.

Manufacturers have begun shipping new computers with Windows 11 while availability for upgrades to existing computers depends on where you fall in the phased-in upgrade rollout.

Microsoft calls its latest operating system the “Windows that brings you closer to what you love.”

I won’t pretend to know what such marketing drivel means, so over the next five days we will just answer “The Top 5 Questions You Might Have about Windows 11”, starting with Question 1:

What’s the Difference Between Windows 10 and 11?

Microsoft claims it significantly boosted performance, functionality, and style in Windows 11. Here’s a rundown of the new OS’s major upgrades:

  • Windows gets a makeover —  If you’ve used Apple or Chrome, you might see similarities between them and Windows 11. Microsoft’s attempts to copy its competitors always seem to be clumsy (i.e., Edge). If I want Apple or Chrome, I’ll just use those. Anyway, Windows 11 also has tightly rounded corners and taskbar icons are permanently centered. But at least the handy Start button lives on.
  • Streamlined Productivity Functions — Microsoft made many small upgrades for Windows 11. For one, your PC will now remember the last layout of your choice when docking. Each of your virtual desktops can also have a different background. Also, widgets are back like never before. And Windows 11 features a Snap Layout function that lets users choose from a variety of layout options with a single click.
  • Teams Ingtegrated into OS — With hybrid work becoming normal globe-wide, Microsoft upgraded its Teams application. For example, Teams now integrates into the operating system, which allegedly makes it easier to communicate with family, friends, and colleagues.
  • Improved Gaming Support — The Xbox app in Windows 11 supports Xbox Game pass and Cloud gaming.
  • Android Apps on Your PC — Microsoft has integrated Android apps on Windows 11 computers with a catch … we’re not yet sure if these Android apps will work optimally on a PC.

As always, these upgrades will create conflicts with existing applications and hardware. So, if you need to buy a new computer make sure your existing applications and peripherals will work with Windows 11. For an existing computer, we recommend waiting a couple of months for the bugs to reveal themselves before upgrading.

Tomorrow’s Question — Can My Computer Handle Windows 11?

Practice Good Tab and Window Hygiene

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If you notice your computer running slowly, particularly on the Internet, you could be the “victim” of a server on the other side of the globe run amok.

In the past year, one of the biggest causes of slowness on computers has been the proliferation of multiple servers serving up the text, graphics, video, audio and ads that make up so many of today’s web pages.

All of those servers consume bandwidth, processor and memory and if you have more than a handful of tabs open that’s a lot of servers churning away to display the elements on those pages.

If you’re busy on the Internet and bouncing from one page to another while keeping previous tabs open to return to, it would not be uncommon to see a dozen or more tabs open on a computer. And yes, I am guilty of this myself as I remote into computers, research problems and catch up on the latest advances in technology.

I have seen users with as many as 40 web pages open in separate tabs at one time. You can bet their computers were crying “Uncle”.

The same goes for program windows like Outlook, Word, Excel or Adobe Reader. I’ve seen users with dozens of these Windows open with the resulting high resource usage bringing their computers to a crawl.

The best way to deal with tab and window creep is to run through the tabs at the top of your browser or the windows in the programs you have open and close the ones you don’t need at that moment.

You can always bookmark those pages if you think you want to return to them later.

How Managed IT Services Reduce Unexpected Downtime Costs

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We hear it over and over. “This is NOT a good time to be having computer problems!”

Truth be told, there never is a good time to have computer problems.

A Managed IT Services Provider (MSP) such as FlexITechs can alleviate unexpected computer problems with remote monitoring and maintenance that first, prevents common problems and detects minor issues before they become major headaches resulting in downtime, and second, can do much of that work remotely and after hours so you don’t lose time working.

In short, we take the inconvenience out of computer problems.

We can see when your Internet goes down, see when software is installed or uninstalled that might cause a problem, restrict all of those Windows updates and their time-consuming restarts to after hours, detect that your hard drive is filling up and free up space, and a host of other issues and maintenance tasks to reduce the disruption of unexpected downtime.

Often, we will know you have a problem and take care of it before you know yourself.

We all know downtime can be costly, both with tangible and intangible costs.

In a 2020 survey of small and medium business owners, Infrascale, a cloud-based data protection company, reported that:

  • 37 percent of SMBs said they lost customers to downtime
  • 17 percent said they lost revenue to it
  • Almost 25 percent said their network has gone offline in the past year.
  • More than a third don’t know what the cost of one hour of downtime would be for their business
  • 27 percent said downtime would cost less than $10,000 an hour, 26 percent said it would be between $10,000 and $20,000, and the rest said above $20,000 per hour
  • 29 percent cited business disruption and 21 percent lost employee productivity as the biggest downtime risks for their company

With downtime creating so much risk, turning the nuts and bolts of the network over to an experienced MSP makes even more sense, particularly when the cost of doing so would be significantly less than in-house IT staff and probably less than handing IT tasks over to an employee with other responsibilities.

We will learn your IT setup so we can rectify any problems in short order, be available to answer employee tech questions, and most importantly, respond quickly when an issue does arise, with a 1-hour response time guarantee.

We will also take the time to understand your business, your goals, and how technology can help you achieve them.

On the financial side, you’ll have a budgetable flat monthly rate to pay instead of costs that match the unpredictability of downtime in unmanaged networks.

There’s no reason to wait until disaster strikes to start looking for help. Learn more by calling us at 302-537-4198, emailing me personally at ericm@flexitechs.com, or submitting our Contact form.