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Directive has been serving the Oneonta area since 1993, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Tip of the Week: Stop Apps from Invading Your Privacy

Earlier this year, a location data broker called Gravy Analytics suffered a huge data breach that compromised a dataset with 30 million points from devices all over the world. With this data, hackers can track users and their movements through healthcare, government, and military facilities.

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Here’s Your Strategy to Upgrade Away from Windows 10

With the end-of-support date for Windows 10 looming later this year–October 14, 2025–you need to take action now so you don’t find yourself in a difficult situation. We have some tips for you as you make this transition, so we encourage you to use them to upgrade as quickly as possible ahead of the end-of-support date.

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Tip of the Week: Stop Location Data Collection on Your Mobile Device

At the beginning of this year, a massive data breach struck a location data broker called Gravy Analytics and took possession of a dataset with 30 million points from devices worldwide. This data could potentially be used to track individuals and their movements, tellingly, through healthcare, government, and military facilities. 

Unfortunately, nothing can be done about data that has already been breached, but preventative steps can and should be taken to protect your business. Let’s discuss how to prevent your applications from tracking your movements.

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Tip of the Week: Getting Windows Off Ghost Screens

If you want more productivity from the workday, then multiple monitors can help you achieve this goal. You might run into the issue of “ghost monitors,” though, where your PC believes you are connected to screens when you’re not. If you experience this issue and your application windows are off-screen and unobtainable, you’ll find this week’s tip helpful.

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Tip of the Week: Simple Privacy Steps on Android

Your Android device offers a lot of capabilities in its little frame, with many people relying on theirs to keep their lives organized and generally handled. Many businesses even rely on Android mobile devices. This should only reinforce how critical privacy and security are.

In light of this, we’ve shared a few simple tips anyone can do to help make a smartphone that much more secure. 

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Tip of the Week: Working Effectively with Your Help Desk

Reaching out for support involves admitting that there is a problem in the first place—a sore spot for some individuals. It can also be time-consuming, which is more of an issue for busy individuals. However, with the right approach, you can make asking for help during the IT support process much easier.

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Tip of the Week: New to Bluesky? Here’s How to Find Accounts to Follow

Bluesky is the new kid in town regarding social media platforms, which means that most users may not have a significant following on it yet… and new users may not be following many at all. However, a few baked-in options make it much simpler for the latter to curate their experience on the platform.

Let’s go over how a user can find new accounts to follow on Bluesky.

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Stuck on a Problem? Just Step Away (Seriously, Take a Break)

Sometimes problem solving requires you to step away and think about the issue at hand. Consider any great strategist out there and you’ll understand that it takes time and calculation to make moves that will benefit you now and in the future. Today, we’ll explore how you can be more productive through strategic pausing.

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Tip of the Week: How to Finally Break Up with Your X (Account)

X The Everything App®, formerly Twitter, has been experiencing a massive user loss for the past few weeks, with everyone from celebrities to average people evacuating from the platform. If you wish to join them for any reason, we’re sharing the process for fully extricating yourself and your data from this specific social media network.

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Tip of the Week: Handy Shortcuts for Quickbooks Convenience

Financial management and accounting are two business needs that apply to all organizations of any size or industry. Fortunately, these organizations have access to tools like Intuit QuickBooks to help them fill these needs in a way that is accessible and convenient.

Let’s review some shortcuts to help you be more productive in managing your business finances via QuickBooks.

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Reposition the Taskbar in Windows 11

Windows 11 takes a page out of Apple’s design playbook and features a taskbar that, instead of being off to the side, is smack in the middle of the toolbar. While some may like this change, others may not.

Fortunately for these others, a simple setting change can return the taskbar to its familiar place like on older versions of Windows.

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Tip of the Week: 4 Windows 11 Desktop Tricks to Master Your Workstation

Windows 11 features a robust desktop environment with a lot of neat tricks and customizations to work more effectively. Controlling your Windows desktop experience can enhance productivity and streamline the way you interact with your computer. In today’s blog, we give you four tips to help you customize and manage your Windows environment more efficiently.

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Tip of the Week: Steal These Google Apps Shortcuts to Improve Productivity

Does your business use Google Workspace for its productivity solution? If so, we’ve got a tip for you—several, in fact, as we explore the various shortcuts available to expedite your productivity. Let’s take a look at some of the lesser-known shortcuts and how your business can use them to power up its efficiency.

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Tip of the Week: Overcome Large Projects with the “Just One More” Mindset

Have you ever had one of those projects where you struggle to make meaningful progress because it just feels impossible? While reflecting and thinking through how to approach a challenge is helpful, it’s not always in your best interest to slow down. Sometimes, it takes a little brute force to push through and complete an important task.

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Tip of the Week: Stop LinkedIn from Using Your Data to Train AI

Artificial intelligence is everywhere, and it is making data more valuable than ever. This is because AI platforms rely heavily on data to function effectively. Many platforms and services collect data from their users to fuel these algorithms. LinkedIn has recently been found to do this—by default—without properly informing its users or updating its terms of service.

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Tip of the Week: Sharing Large Files Efficiently

Collaboration is key to modern business operations, and that often involves sharing files of various sizes. Historically, sharing large files has been a challenge, but technology has made this process much easier. Here are some simple ways to share large files with your team.

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Tip of the Week: Use Google Lens for Greater Search Functionality

Google Lens lets you do some cool things with your mobile device, even if it sometimes feels a bit niche. Google Chrome also has functionality that allows you to use Google Lens to search for anything visible in the browser. For example, it can detect images and text, or still images captured from video, to return results.

Today, we want to highlight how you can use this neat functionality!

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Tip of the Week: How to Properly Calculate Time in a Spreadsheet

It isn’t a secret that working with different times in a spreadsheet can be a real pain… even if you’re just trying to add them all up. Fortunately (and a little unsurprisingly), this is because these programs have a specific function to accomplish this.

Let’s review the process you should follow in your spreadsheet program, whether you use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

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Leverage Gmail’s Priority Inbox to Your Advantage

If you are a Gmail user, you might have noticed the different inbox categories available. This makes it much easier to reach “inbox zero.” With the “priority inbox,” you can achieve this feat without so much as breaking a sweat—unless you count sweat from how much you’re laughing at how easy this tip is to pull off.

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Tip of the Week: Signs that You are Probably Being Scammed

Being scammed—in either the professional or personal sense—is a scary thought. To avoid this outcome, we must be vigilant all the time now.

Of course, it also helps to know what to look for.

Let’s take a few minutes to go over a few warning signs and red flags that something is likely a scam.

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Our business began its journey with the purchase of a personal computer back in 1992. This purchase ignited a passion with Chris Chase, our CEO, and there was no stopping its momentum. Less than one year later, he had his first IT support client (and...

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