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The ABCs of Windows Shortcuts

Naturally, almost every letter of the alphabet on the keyboard has a shortcut assigned to it:

• WinKey + A opens your Action Center.
• WinKey + B highlights your notification area.
• WinKey + C launches Cortana in listening mode.
• WinKey + D toggles Show Desktop and the previous state.
• WinKey + E launches File Explorer in the Quick Access tab.
• WinKey + F opens the Microsoft Feedback hub.
• WinKey + G opens the Game Bar tools, if that’s how you spend your time at home.
• WinKey + H opens the Dictation toolbar.
• WinKey + I opens your Settings.
• WinKey + K opens the Connect pane to connect to wireless displays and devices.
• WinKey + L locks the device.
• WinKey + M minimizes all open windows.
• WinKey + O locks the device’s orientation on tablets and mobile devices.
• WinKey + P opens the Project pane.
• WinKey + Q opens Search.
• WinKey + R displays the run dialog box.
• WinKey + S launches Cortana in typing mode.
• WinKey + T cycles through the apps on the taskbar.
• WinKey + U launches the Ease of Access/Display Center to manage your screens.
• WinKey + V opens your clipboard app to view things you have copied to your clipboard with Ctrl + C.
• WinKey + X opens the advanced, Secret Start menu.

Adjusting Your Open Windows

Some of Windows’ shortcuts are designed to help the user arrange their display to the appearance that best suits their needs. For instance:

• WinKey + Left/Right Arrow will take the active window and adjust it to fill the left or right side of the monitor it is displayed in. 
• WinKey + Shift + Left/Right Arrow will move the active window over to another display.
• WinKey + Up Arrow will maximize the active window. 
• WinKey + Down Arrow will minimize the active window.

There are, of course, many more Windows shortcuts to take advantage of, as well as plenty of other tips to help make your workday more efficient. We often share them in this blog, so make sure you come back often to check in!

Are Your Vendors Properly Protecting Your Information?

We’ve seen businesses have a litany of challenges protecting their sensitive data over the past several years, and as threats get more sophisticated it poses more problems. Additionally, many businesses outsource a fair amount of their operational and support efforts and that can have a negative effect on their security. 

So, how do you know that your vendors are protecting your information?

You ask them, of course. 

Before you onboard any new vendor, you should come up with a questionnaire that asks the right questions about how they handle their own cybersecurity, and more specifically (and importantly) how they go about handling your information. 

At Digital Seattle, we do this for all of our clients to ensure that they are partnering with reliable companies that, at the very least, are attempting to do the right things to protect sensitive information. 

Questions You Should Ask Your Vendors

The first thing you should consider when making up some questions to ask your vendors about security is: do you understand the answers? If you don’t know what you are doing, you could just assume any thoughtfully answered response would be sufficient. This is far from true and is a liability, especially in trying to ascertain what risk your business is facing by doing business with a company. We can’t stress enough that if you don’t have someone that knows what they are doing, you need to find someone, as this will serve you much better in times like this.

Let’s go through a couple of important questions you should ask if you do have the competence available to sufficiently measure risk from the answers:

1. Do you collect, store, or transmit personally identifiable information (PII)?
2. If so, do you store your PII onsite or in the cloud?
3. How do you provide users access to the PII you store?
4. Can PII be accessed remotely?
5. Do you constantly monitor all services, systems, and networks?
6. What regulatory bodies does your business operate under? Do you have proof of compliance?
7. What kind of encryption do you use for data-at-rest? Data-in-transit?
8. Do you consistently patch your software? 
9. Do you have mobile device management and IoT management systems?
10. Do you utilize legacy systems that aren’t supported by manufacturers?
11. What cybersecurity tools do you use?
12. Do you have language in your agreements about vendor cybersecurity? 
13. How are your continuity systems?
14. How would you go about the situation in the event of a data breach?
15. What authentication procedures do you use? 
16. Do you train your employees on the best practices of cybersecurity?

There are many more questions you can ask, and you should ask them if you find them necessary. Vetting your vendors is a great way to know if they have your best interests in mind. 

If you would like to partner with a company that not only has your best interests in mind, but also can help you ascertain if your other partners do as well, give Digital Seattle a call at (206) 709-9556 today.

About VoIP

Despite its popularity for residential users over the years as cable and telephone service providers have been making the switch, VoIP is all business. It is a telecommunications platform that uses your company’s existing broadband Internet connection to send and receive calls, texts, video and more. Many popular communications tools use VoIP for their communications purposes including Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Apple’s Facetime.

In a business sense, however, you may wonder how those tools could handle high call volumes. After all, how can it be a business tool if it doesn’t support the needs of your customers and staff? Today, there are enterprise-level VoIP platforms with all the bells and whistles a business operating in 2021 requires.

What Makes Hosted VoIP Different? 

Obviously, if you’ve been using a telephone system through a telecom provider, you may think that this tool can’t possibly fit your needs. You may think that telephone systems are all the same. They are going to cost your business an arm and a leg and will cause you to make some pretty tough decisions. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Here are three features that make VoIP a better option for the growing business. 

Overall Cost

Dollar for dollar, VoIP systems are simply less expensive. Not only will you be using infrastructure you already have in place to fuel your phone system, you immediately reduce your recurring expenses. Apart from the platform set up and the purchase of some Internet-capable telephones, your upfront costs are minimal. What’s even more valuable is that many hosted VoIP platforms offer a softphone option that allows any smartphone to potentially be used as a business phone. This all but eliminates the costs that your business would be looking at on the mobile side of things. 

Simplicity

The simplicity of adding and removing lines from your VoIP plan makes managing a VoIP plan for several users easier. No cables, no office renovations just to get people phone lines. Simply plug your VoIP-enabled phone into a workstation and it is ready to configure (which also takes just minutes). As mentioned earlier, the softphone option makes mobile calling much simpler and takes very little time to set up.

Functionality

VoIP stands out in so many ways that you never really hear about the superior functionality made possible by using an Internet-based phone. Not only are your calls clear and crisp, with VoIP your business can add from a whole list of features that include:

• Audio and video conferencing
• Call forwarding
• Personalized extensions
• Call routing
• Call recording
• Automated receptionist
• Call queues
• Instant messaging
• Text messaging
• Integrated voicemail

...and much more.

If you are in the market for a change, and would like to cut your monthly communications costs and get a valuable tool for your business that works both in and out of the workplace, call the IT professionals today to talk about our VoIP platform at (206) 709-9556.