Manage Windows 10 Storage

Windows 10 has some great options for managing your storage.  Not only can you see how much space you’re using on the hard drive, but you can also see what’s taking up space. Let’s take a look at the options. First, select Settingsfrom the Start Menu.

Then choose System.

Choose Storage.

A screen will open showing how much space you’re using.

This is also where you can see the default save locations for different types of files on your PC.

Click or tap on “This PC” and you’ll see a much more detailed view of storage. You can tell how much space items like Apps, Documents, and Pictures take up on your device.

You can also manage your files from here. If I tap or click onPictures, the option to View pictures will appear. Click on that and file explorer will open, allowing you to see, arrange, move or delete images.

If I choose Apps & games, I’ll see a list of installed apps.

Tap or click on an app and you’ll see the option to move or uninstall the app. (That’s not available for all apps. Some are built into Windows 10 and can’t be changed.)

Tap System & Reserved and you’ll get a closer look at System files and Virtual memory.

This feature is great for helping you get a quick overview of your storage. Check it out.

Computer Support @Flexures Concepts.

IT Support from Flexures Concepts  provides you with more reliable performance and more predictable expenses. That means you get more value from the technology you've already invested in, while actually reducing the total costs of IT problems and the resulting downtime.

Computer Support

Stop worrying and keep working
When something goes wrong with your IT, everything grinds to a halt. With IT Support from Flexures Concepts , you won't have to worry about what happens when there's a problem with your technology, because we'll be on call to ensure things are always running smoothly. That means you can minimize downtime and better predict your IT expenses.With IT Support from Flexures Concepts you can expect:

Peace of mind - knowing your technology team is always ready to assist you
Less downtime - we identify and fix issues before they affect your business
Fewer disruptions - we provide services quickly to get you back on track
Predictable budgeting - from one company you can trust

Always a perfect plan from Flexures Concepts.

Companies all have different requirements when it comes to their IT and computers. Some may just use their IT for administrative tasks and just want a reliable system that is simple to update. Other organizations my run several hundred machines and use them for all their communications, scheduling and appointments. But whatever your needs, Flexures Concepts can tailor you a perfect solution. To make things easier for you,
we offer three separate plans depending on what your company does and what levels of IT management you require.

Flexures Concepts  Basic Plan (Block Hour Contract)

Flexures Concepts Preferred Plan

This is the most popular contract that we provide as they offer great peace of mind. Our preferred customer contracts will fully cover you – in terms of IT management, security monitoring. These are provided in six-month, one-year, and two-year increments.

Contract Benefits:

4 hour service response time
24 hour, 7 days a week service
Live Help Desk
Semi-Annual Security and Backup Audits
24/7 Monitoring and Onsite Support
Plus a Direction
We set up goals and timelines for project completions so you always know you are moving forward.

Included Costs:

Antivirus Fee’s
Malware Protection Software Fee’s
Security Audit Fee’s
Secured Offsite Backup
LogMeIn Pro
Reduced billing rates

Services Provided:

Antivirus and AntiSpyware
Antivirus Management with Anti-Virus updates every 4 hours.
Includes Antivirus licensing fee’s for servers and workstations.
Includes Malwareware Bytes Pro Licensing fee’s for workstations.

Secured Offsite Backup

System Updates

Third-Party Updates – Adobe Reader, Acrobat, Flash, AIR, Shockwave, Java, Apple QuickTime, iTunes and Mozilla Firefox are all kept up to date for you.

Proactive Monitoring

24/7/365 Remote Network Monitoring with Automated Alerts
Daily monitoring of desktops and servers for hardware failure, software conflicts, hardware diagnostics.
Preventive Weekly Hardware and Software Audits on Performance, Patches, and Updates.

System Maintenance

PC Performance Tuning is included. Each maintenance task is performed utilizing the most expedient and unobtrusive method available, including automatic/remote, manual/remote, and manual/on-site.

Security

Periodic security checks on your Antivirus, Spyware, Firewall and Server.
Includes Network Security Assessments Licensing / Use fee’s
Compliancy and Policy Management on All PC’s

Remote Support

Allows our technicians to support you from our office.

LogMeIn Pro

End User Remote Access and Printing to any PC’s that are being monitored 24/7
Includes LogMeIn Pro Licensing fee’s

Online Customer Portal

Tracking system with client access to all open and closed tickets, invoices, and reporting.
Client Communicator with Self Help on all Desktops
Submit service requests online via the portal or email and view the status of each request at any time.

Live Help Desk

Live answer Help Desk 9:00am-5:00pm, Monday-Friday

Project Consultation

Flexures Concepts will be available to answer any of your IT or office integration questions

Let us answer any questions you have about our managed IT services. We’ll show you the simplest and most affordable way to keep your IT network in top form.

There are questions that could appeal to every age (some may need a bit of creative adaptation).

There are questions that could appeal to every age (some may need a bit of creative adaptation).

Self-esteem is
Self-worth is
Self -confidence is
When do you feel your highest self-esteem? Describe the place, situation, etc.
What is it about other people that "invites" your self-esteem?
How do act when you have good self-esteem?
How would an observer describe you when your self-esteem is high?
Can you remember a painful/negative experience you had which involved self- esteem? What made it painful/negative?
Have you ever observed another person having a painful/negative experience with self-esteem? What made it painful/negative?
What is your favorite way of esteeming others? What do you like about it?
What one word do you most associate with "self"?
What one word do you most associate with "worth"?
How do your ideas about self-esteem reflect your lifestyle?
Where do you get your self-esteem?
Among the people you know, who has the best self-esteem? What makes it so good?
How are self-esteem and family dysfunction related?
How do your ideas about self-esteem reflect your personality?
How do your ideas about self-esteem reflect your life experiences?
How do your ideas about self-esteem reflect your values?
Self-esteem, either you have it or your don't. True or False, and Why?
Once you have high self-esteem it doesn't change. True or False, and Why?
High self-esteem is conceited or egotistical. True or False, and Why?
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to develop their self- esteem?
What blocks or gets in the way of you having better self-esteem?
Can you recall a childhood memory related to self-esteem?
How are self-esteem and happiness related?
How are self-esteem and being perfect related?
What thoughts do you have about the differences between the way men and women view self-esteem?
What thoughts do you have about how self-esteem helps you meet the challenges of life?
What are the "key ingredients" to good self-esteem?

Here are nine ways to use these questions:

Ice-breakers
To increase self-awareness
To de-bunk myths about self-esteem
As a classroom exercise in values clarification
As part of human relations training
As part of individual, group or family counseling
To help parents and children understand each other better
Add them to your existing self-esteem class exercises
Gather the group's responses and post them for all to see
What other ways can you think of to use these questions? What other questions can you think of? Let me know and we can share your ideas with our readers in a future issue of Self-Esteem Today.

Cloud, Collaboration and Today’s Workforce

Businesses are looking to digitally transform their companies. IDC predicts that by the end of 2017, two-thirds of Global 2000 companies will have digital transformation at the center of their corporate strategy. No matter the industry, businesses of all sizes are prioritizing having modern infrastructure, easy-to-use tools and programs for their workers, best-in-class devices and making things easy for their customers. A truly digital businesses share a common trait: they collaborate differently.

In my perspective, there are two main ways that the nature of collaboration has changed:

Sharing access – The era of email attachments is coming to a close. In the cloud era, instead of passing a document back and forth, documents are co-authored – edits are made live and in real-time.
Crossing distances – The cloud allows team members to collaborate and communicate from anywhere. So the “office” of a contemporary company is wherever its workers happen to be at the moment.

For those of us who have been in the workforce awhile, these advancements are phenomenal, because the paradigm used to be so different. But those newer in the workforce have difference expectations.

To them, sharing access and crossing vast distances don’t really feel like advancements. Having grown up alongside these technologies, collaboration is just a part of work. In fact, that is the only conceivable way to work. Any business seeking to transform to be more cloud-ready and digital has to take this into account to bring in the best new talent to their teams.

Everyone knows that technologies like social media have completely changed the dynamics of corporate recruitment and hiring. But technology has also become a consideration for workers as they weigh their job options.

Modern workers spend the majority of their day interfacing with technology, so antiquated tools can be detrimental to their job satisfaction. In fact, a recent survey we conducted, showed thatmillennials in the workforce demand adequate technology to do their jobs. More than 90 percent of respondents said the latest technology was important in choosing an employer.

To appeal to these workers, business leaders have to recognize how they prefer to get their work done.

Shared access — How are files shared and edited at your company? Do you ever lose track of where something is or which team member “owns” it? These are hindrances that today’s workers will find it hard to tolerate. And collaborating via the cloud all but makes them obsolete.
Crossing distances — How do you organize your teams? Based on where people are located, or on who has the right skills and experience for a project? The best employee for the task may not be right down the hall from you. And the best new hire for your company may not be in the same city as you.

One great example of this modern way of working is an SMB out of the U.K., Bounce Foods. The company is the creator of Bounce Energy Balls, a healthy choice for people snacking on-the-go. Bounce Foods, like many high-growth companies, was faced with effectively managing a growing customer base, while rolling out new products and working to expand into new stores. Making the right technology decisions was a key to their success and ability to scale.

In order to keep up with their accelerated growth, Bounce Foods needed to choose tools to better collaborate internally and engage with customers externally and also keep track of processes, resources and information. As their business became more complex they decided to move to Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Azure, Dynamics CRM and Office 365 with Power BI. These solutions helped them to scale their business.

Now, they are able to quickly respond to demand and instantly collaborate on what needs to get done. Their employees are more efficient and are able to deliver better customer service, retailer’s questions are quickly answered by the right people in the company, they can appropriately manage their stock and the overall company is better informed and better connected. Bounce Foods has scaled from 200,000 Bounce Balls per month to 600,000 in just two years. And today their product is sold in major supermarkets, gyms and retail stores.

It’s this level of technology and collaboration capabilities that employees now expect from their employers. The flexibility of the cloud is massively appealing for fast-growing companies. The functionality that it provides can in turn help ensure that companies are appealing to the right type of employee.

Every business and every business leader has to prioritize not only the needs to digitize their company but also how to enable the collaboration that workers today expect.

Using the cloud to expand your concept of collaboration doesn’t just introduce new efficiencies for your organization, it can help make your company more attractive to the best and brightest in today’s workforce.

Making Science Fiction Reality Through Digital Transformation

It’s time to fundamentally rethink your business. If you’re in the auto industry, for instance, are you predominantly manufacturer, or are you really in the business of getting people from Point A to Point B—and if so, what are all the myriad ways you can accomplish that goal?

That’s the sort of question you start to ask yourself when you sit down with Marc Wilkinson, chief technologist at Hewlett Packard. In talking to Wilkinson, you can’t quite help but see yourself at the precipice between traditional business and a digital future that not everyone is prepared for. Here’s some of what we gleaned from our own chat with Wilkinson during Microsoft Envision 2016.

Emerging digital business models allow for many different solutions to traditional needs, even those that were once considered fantastical. If you don’t push yourself to reinvent, you might find your business disrupted in ways you never considered possible.

“We’ve got to sow the seeds. Science Fiction has been written for… decades, and has been sewing the seed [of digital transformation] in the minds of the younger generations that come up. But I think that organizations, particularly big ones, have to understand the multiple ways of engaging with people… you can’t just do one size fits all.” – Wilkinson

But not all risk comes from inaction. All too often Wilkinson has seen companies go a step too far, losing sight of their core principles as they navigate their way toward an uncertain future.

“Boiling the ocean is the first, you know, stab people go to, and usually the first failure.” – Wilkinson

Instead of boiling the ocean, Mark encourages us to distill it—to question every approach, finding those solutions that truly do the job best. You may often find that you’re already doing things right, but don’t be surprised when you find new options in arenas you thought you knew inside and out.

Why “Business Needs” Are Passé

Business technology has long been based on needs. Software, devices and programs have to live up to the expectations of users so they can get their jobs done.

But shouldn’t we expect more by now? Can’t technology make things better and not just good enough? With powerful mobility and visual interaction available today, thinking about what a business needs is thinking too small. Technology should also push your organization further.

Your teams will probably always need certain software, certain processes and certain data to do their jobs. But now, technology also makes it easy to raise the bar and give them access to tools beyond their needs so they can be more effective than they ever thought possible. Innovation and strategic thinking suddenly become possible at all levels.

In today’s consumer-obsessed world, we’re all out to delight the customer. But, shouldn’t we start by delighting our employees, our businesses and ourselves? Here are the two things your business technology should achieve to move your company beyond needs and into a powerhouse space of productivity and innovation:

1. Visual interaction

Visuals matter in today’s business environment. And when internal teams and customers can interact with visuals, the capacity of seeing their work in action matters even more. Creativity doesn’t wait until you’re back at your desk. With the right tools, innovation and development can happen in real time.

For some time, we have been able to create cool graphics and other visuals that keep people engaged in presentations and collaborative meetings. But now, we can interact with a presentation’s visuals or a creative design in real time. We can show clients an actual 3D model rather than just a picture of it, and make an in-the-moment adjustment. The visual apps and software available on powerful lightweight devices make meetings more than just a one-way interaction.

Drawing or making handwritten notes right on a document and not having to deal with complicated software editing tools or, worse, printing and scanning—that’s productivity. And, seeing charts, images and videos on screen rather than on paper, allows you to update, change,zoom and interact with these graphics with the touch of a finger. The result? Projects get done faster.

And what about metrics? Having the latest data immediately available is important, but visualizing that data moves the question of “what do we do with this information?” to a much earlier stage in the conversation, making it easier to project what’s next.

2. Power mobility

Interactive visuals are amazing for enabling better collaboration—whether internal or client-facing. Another enabler of collaborative success? Power mobility.

Mobility is nothing new for most businesses with employees constantly on the go and accessing work remotely. Working during the commute, working from home, hosting virtual international meetings—these are all commonplace. But being in touch is not enough to drive a more productive business.

Outside the office, users need their portable device to do exactly what their in-office device can. “Lite” versions of in-house software just won’t move the needle for on-the-ground engineers or product development teams working offsite with a customer. They need complete access to powerful tools, so calculations can happen in the field, reports can be generated during a last minute off-site meeting, and models can be designed wherever inspiration strikes.

Powerful mobility utilizes the computing power of a desktop on a lightweight, portable device. Advanced software, intense spreadsheets and calculations, 3D modeling, video editing—all of these critical business processes and more should be available to your mobile workforce.

Today, power, mobility and visual collaboration are driving business. Isn’t it high time we move beyond basic needs and start doing business better?

How to manage free Hyper-V Server and Windows Server Core

Microsoft released Windows Server 2016 TP4, making lots of exciting new features available to the public. How to access all the different versions of free Hyper-V Server and Windows Server Core if you need to maintain older versions on site? Managing everything from a command line is very time-consuming.

The easiest way to manage multiple versions of Hyper-V is to use vtUtilities.

vtUtilities support multiple versions of Windows Server which means you can run WinServ 2016 TP3, WinServ 2008/2008R2, WinServ 2012/2012R2 side by side.

One of the greatest  advantages of vtUtilities is that you can manage Windows Server 2008R2/2012R2 as well as Windows Server 2016 (now available as Technical Preview) from Windows 10 as well as from Windows 7 and Windows 8. Please note, what Windows Server 2016 is still under development and thus technical support is not available for this version of Windows.

Here are configurations supported by vtUtilities :

Hypervisor version                          Windows version

WinServ 8R2                                    Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1
WinServ 2012                                   Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10
WinServ 2012R2                              Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10
WinServ 2016TP4                            Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10

vtUtilities present a number of capabilities what go far beyond the basic maintenance tasks such as creating or removing virtual machines and managing them locally and/or remotely. 

The tool offers a unified  GUI console that provides centralized administration of Hyper-V hosts, virtual networks & clusters and can replace such tools as Hyper-V Manager, Failover Cluster Manager, PowerShell and RSAT.

vtUtilities can be installed locally on Hyper-V host allowing to troubleshoot and fix network connections and related problems what cannot be resolved via remote management.

vtUtilities designed to  provide the GUI for 

Replication, including support for extended replicaGuest migrationVHDXVirtual Fibre Channel AdaptersVirtual Network Management ( including the management of virtual connections and bindings)Advanced Virtual Switch Management (including port-level access control)File system views and operationsGuest configuration management (including support for Gen 2 virtual machines)Server manager viewNew virtual machine wizard, Import virtual machine wizardHyper-V settings managementDiagnostic and troubleshooting (including real-time performance monitoring of host and guesta, access to Hyper-V event log and asynchronous Hyper-V tasks history)Failover Clustering for high availability 

The latest version of vtUtilities features a GUI with integrated Cluster Management. 

Hyper-V clustering is supported on Widows and Hyper-V Servers 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 and features support for cluster summery information (including failover clustering events) and
cluster nodes management.

You can connect to the existing clusters by using vtUtilities 'Select View' dialogue:

Discover all Hyper-V clusters in AD:

Overview cluster summery information and get easy access to the selected Windows failover cluster events
View and manage status of cluster nodes
View and fully manage cluster roles

Virtual Machines result view in vtUtilities Cluster Manager displays a list of all VMs configured for high availability with a possibility to start/stop a corresponding cluster node, move VM or its storage to a different cluster node, configure (add) another VM from any cluster node as highly available or remove cluster role for highly available VM.

Hyper-V Replica Broker

Installation of vtUtilities

The product requires a 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10 and any version of Windows Server you're intending to use: Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 and the latest Windows Server 2016 TP3.
vtUtilities also can be used on 64-bit versions of Windows what don't support Hyper-V role.
Other prerequisites include x64-based processors and .NET 3.51 or later.
See our getting started guide for instructions.

Pricing 

One-time fee $120 for a permanent license.

Trial

A 7-day free trial for registered customers can be downloaded here  vtUtilities Free Trial