Bob's Computer Service

Word Wednesday

Did you know Microsoft 365 automatically saves your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files as you work, no more losing hours of progress to an unexpected crash or accidental close?

AutoSave is turned on by default when your files are stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. You'll see it in the top-left corner of the app. If it's toggled off, flip it on and let Microsoft 365 do the work for you.

It's one of those features that sits right in front of you every day, worth knowing it's there and making sure it's working for you. Give it a look next time you open a file!

Your computer says it is clean.

So why is your email still doing things you cannot explain?

You changed the password. You ran the antivirus scan. Nothing was found.

Then a customer tells you they received an email you never sent.

That is when the problem becomes bigger than simply asking whether there is malware on the computer.

An attacker may already have access to the email account through an active session, a hidden forwarding rule, a suspicious inbox rule, a browser extension, or a changed security setting.

For a business owner, that email account may connect to customers, invoices, banking alerts, Microsoft 365, cloud storage, password resets, and years of important information.

A clean computer is good news.

But it does not always mean the attacker is gone.

My latest article explains what I look for when an email account keeps getting compromised and why simply changing the password again may not solve the real problem.

The Computer Is Clean. So Why Does Your Email Keep Getting Hacked? - Bob's Computer Service Antivirus came back clean but your email keep getting hacked? The compromise often lives in the account, not the computer. What real cleanup should check.

Your computer was fast when you first got it, now it feels like it's dragging. You haven't done anything wrong, but something has clearly changed.

Over time, Windows accumulates startup programs, background processes, temporary files, and software that all quietly compete for your computer's attention. Most of it was installed without you realizing it, bundled with other software or added by apps that want to run the moment your PC turns on.

The good news is that a slow computer is usually fixable. Trimming startup programs, clearing junk files, and keeping Windows and your drivers up to date can make a noticeable difference without spending a dime on new hardware. 🛠️

If your PC is feeling sluggish, don't assume it's time for a replacement just yet. Sometimes all it needs is a little housekeeping, and if you'd like a hand, Bob is just a call away.

This Week in Tech History

The First Emoticon is Born September 19, 1982

Before emojis lit up our text messages, there was the humble emoticon. On September 19, 1982, computer scientist Scott Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University typed out what’s widely
recognized as the first documented emoticon:
:-) for jokes, and :-( For serious messages.
At the time, online discussions on message boards often got lost in translation—sarcasm looked like seriousness, and humor fell flat. Fahlman’s simple sideways smiley gave digital conversations something new: tone.

That little arrangement of characters became the bridge between cold text and human emotion. From there, the idea spread across early bulletin boards, Usenet groups, and email, eventually evolving into the colorful emoji keyboards we can’t live without today.

Think about it: whether you’re sending a 🙂 to lighten the mood or a 😂 to show you’re cracking up, you’re continuing a tradition that started over 40 years ago. Without that first smiley, our digital world might still feel a lot less… human.

👉 What’s your most-used emoji or emoticon these days? Drop it below—we’ll see if the classic still holds up! 🙂

What if someone got into your email tonight?

Could they only read your messages?

Or could they figure out where you bank, which cloud services you use, who your clients are, where your files are stored, and which accounts they could try to reset next?

That is what makes email security so important.

For many people and small businesses, email has quietly become the master key to a huge part of their digital life.

The scary part is that an attacker doesn't always want you to know they are there. Sometimes quietly watching your inbox can be far more valuable than immediately locking you out.

In my latest article, I explain why protecting your email deserves more attention, what a criminal could learn from a compromised inbox, and a few of the protections every business owner should be thinking about.

Ask yourself one question:
If someone got into your email tonight, what else could they reach?

Your Email Account May Be the Key to Everything Else You Own - Bob's Computer Service Your email is the account that can reset all the others. Why email account security deserves more protection than most Springfield MA businesses give it.

This Week in Tech History

September 9, 1995 – The Sony PlayStation launches in North America
Believe it or not, the PlayStation almost wasn’t Sony’s console at all. In the early 1990s, Sony was collaborating with Nintendo on a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo, known as the “Nintendo PlayStation.” At the last minute, Nintendo pulled out of the deal.
Instead of backing down, Sony doubled down—and the rest is gaming history.

What changed everything?
The PlayStation became the first home console to ship 100 million units worldwide. By using CDs instead of cartridges, Sony provided game developers with more storage, lower costs, and the freedom to experiment. That led to massive, cinematic experiences like Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil—games that proved video games could be as deep and emotional as movies.

The long-term impact
The PlayStation didn’t just compete with Nintendo and Sega—it redefined the gaming industry. It popularized 3D graphics, gave us the modern memory card system, and helped elevate video games into mainstream culture. Today, PlayStation is one of the most powerful brands in the tech industry, still pushing the boundaries of digital entertainment nearly 30 years after its inception.

Fun fact: Only about 200 prototypes of the abandoned “Nintendo PlayStation” are known to exist and one sold at auction for over $300,000!

Do you remember firing up that original gray PlayStation? Which PS1 classic stole your free time—Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, or Gran Turismo? Drop your favorite below! ⬇️

Yesterday, a cyber incident disrupted Springfield Public Schools badly enough that classes had to be canceled.

Think about that for a moment.

A large organization with thousands of students, employees, technology systems, and dedicated IT resources was forced to stop normal operations because critical systems were unavailable.

Now imagine the same thing happening to a business with five employees.
Email stops working. Shared files cannot be reached. Customer information is unavailable. Computers may not be safe to use. Suddenly, what looked like an IT problem has become a business problem.

We still do not know exactly what caused the Springfield Public Schools incident, and I am not going to speculate.

But the lesson for every business owner in Springfield MA is already clear.
Cyber incidents do not only happen to huge corporations somewhere else.
They happen right here in our community.

The best time to find out whether your security, backups, and recovery plan actually work is while everything is still working.

I wrote about what local businesses can learn from what happened in Springfield and the practical protections every business should be thinking about.

If It Can Shut Down Springfield Public Schools, It Can Happen to Any Business - Bob's Computer Service If a cyber incident can Shut Down Springfield Public Schools, it can happen to any business. Learn why small companies need MFA, tested backups, limited access, and a recovery plan.

QuickBooks works perfectly for one person in the office.

Everyone else waits.

Reports crawl. Invoices take forever to open. Someone restarts the computer, and suddenly nobody can access QuickBooks.

The problem might not actually be QuickBooks.

I still see small businesses where the entire QuickBooks company file has quietly become dependent on one employee’s computer. That computer was never meant to be a server. It just became one over the years.

And that creates a bigger problem than frustration.

What happens if that computer crashes, gets infected with ransomware, or does not turn on tomorrow?

Your accounting history should not depend on one computer behaving perfectly every day.

In my latest article, I explain why QuickBooks can be fast for one employee and miserable for everyone else, what proper QuickBooks hosting should look like, and why backup needs to be part of the conversation.

If this sounds familiar in your office, it may be worth reviewing the setup before a slow QuickBooks issue becomes an accounting emergency.

Why QuickBooks Is Fast for One Person and Miserable for Everyone Else - Bob's Computer Service QuickBooks flies for one person and crawls for everyone else? The problem is usually where the company file lives. A Springfield MA look at QuickBooks hosting.

This Week in Tech History

📅 September 4, 1998 – Google is founded

Two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, launched a small search engine project out of a California garage—calling it Google, a play on the word “googol” (the number 1 followed by 100 zeros). Their goal? To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and helpful.

At the time, search engines like Yahoo!, AltaVista, and Ask Jeeves dominated the web, but most of them listed pages based on keywords. Google’s innovation was its PageRank algorithm, which analyzed the relationships between sites, delivering far more accurate results.

Here’s the wild part: In 1998, Google’s founders actually tried to sell their search engine to Yahoo! for just $1 million. Yahoo! declined, thinking search engines weren’t that important. That decision is now remembered as one of the most significant missed opportunities in the history of technology.

Fast forward to today:
• Google is a global giant, with products from Gmail to YouTube, Maps to Android, and its parent company, Alphabet, valued at over a trillion dollars.
• The word “Google” has become a verb in everyday life—“Just Google it.”
• Its dominance has reshaped how businesses market, how people find answers, and even how we think about knowledge itself.

From garage startup to digital empire, Google’s journey demonstrates how the right combination of innovation, timing, and vision can transform the entire world.

Did you know? The very first Google storage system was built from LEGO bricks, holding ten 4GB hard drives—tiny compared to the cloud-powered data centers Google runs today.

Thinking about factory resetting your computer because something just isn’t working right?

Be careful before you click that button.

A Windows reset can remove programs, settings, email archives, accounting data, and other important information that may not be stored where you expect them to be.

Even the option labeled “Keep my files” does not mean that everything you care about is protected.

Before wiping your computer, make sure you know what is actually causing the problem and that everything important is safely backed up.

Read my latest article before you reset your PC. It could save you from a much bigger problem.

Before You Factory Reset Your Windows PC - Bob's Computer Service A factory reset erases more than you expect. Before you factory reset your Windows PC here is what to back up first, what a reset will and will not fix, and when it is the wrong answer.