E-mail scammers and hackers will never miss an opportunity to try and get their hands on your personal details and will try almost anything to get them. This February marks Scam Awareness Month and therefore we will share details of some of the top E-mail scams circling the web and appearing in your Inbox.

The DVLA Scam

Scammers often choose to take on the identity of official organisations and as such, recently they have been recently fronting themselves as the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) trying to get license holders to update their details online and threatening that failure to comply would lead to you losing your license and possibly having to take your driving test again.

However, upon closer inspection, the poor language and grammar mistakes (in some of the versions seen, the email reads that people have to ‘verify there driver’s license details’) start the alarm bells ringing. The best thing you can do if you receive a similar email is to hit the delete button.

The Job Opportunity Scam

Due to the current rising levels of unemployment, this scam can draw those looking for work in and capitalise on their circumstances. Upon first reading, the email seems genuine enough and doesn’t ask you for any personal information. However, when you respond to the email itself, you will then be sent an ‘application form’ to fill in which asks for details which a fraudster can use to impersonate yourself and borrow money under your name.

If you receive an email of this kind, you should first of all look up the company/recruitment organisation that the email says that it is from. However, don’t click any links given to you in the email. Most recruitment companies don’t just send out emails without having seen the CV so it is wise to check. Also keep an eye out for spelling/grammar mistakes. Numerous mistakes should serve as a warning that this is most likely a scam.

The Bank Account Scam

Another long time favourite scam of scammers and hackers are the ones where you receive an email alerting you to the fact that somebody has been trying to access your account illegally and that you need to reactivate your account and change details.

These emails always contain a link to the bank’s website, which isn’t real and designed for one purpose only: to get a hold of your bank details.

If you receive emails like this, follow the same steps as above: check for spelling/grammar mistakes and remember that your bank should never send any request for personal details and if they do, they include personal information which only they have access to which shows that they are genuine.

The Prize Winning Scam

Scammers have always loved to try their luck with a good lottery scam. They send you an email which tells you that you have won a vast amount of money and that they need details from you so that you can claim the prize.

These scams are one of the easiest to spot and therefore the easiest to avoid. If you cannot remember entering a competition or lottery, then it is obviously going to be a scam. Just hit the delete button.

The Investment Opportunity Scam

In the current economic climate, most of us would welcome a decent return on our money especially with savings rates so feeble. However, the criminals have also cottoned onto this fact and have set up various scams which could end up costing you more than you think.

You receive an email out of the blue, offering you a once in a lifetime to invest in a scheme which promises substantial returns on any money invested. All you have to do is to set up an account with the brains behind the scheme and you’re in, hook, line and sinker. The creator not only gets the initial cash you invested, but also your personal and account details.

If you receive an email like this, just keep in mind the saying: if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Plus, would you really want to hand over your money to a faceless stranger that you have never met?

If you would like to read any of our past articles, please feel free to visit our Previous Articles and remember: When it comes to scams like these, a little bit of common sense can save you a whole lot of time.

Welcome to our latest Microsoft Excel Tip. This tip will be gold to those who work with a split sheet or have a couple of worksheets open in different windows. Are you tired of each time you open Excel, you have to spend time arranging your worksheets before you start working? Then read on, this tip is the answer you have been looking for.

Once you have split your sheet or have organised and arrange the multiple sheets you use, follow these simple steps to save the view in Microsoft Excel 2007 & 2010.

1. Click the View Tab and select Save Workspace in the Window group.
2. Save the view as an XLW file. This should be the default file type anyway and then just name the file and click Save.

The next time that you work with this workbook, instead of opening the XLSX version of the file, open the XLW version. Excel will open the same workbook with all sheets intact, but it will just open to the view you work with most.

If you would more handy Excel Tips, feel free to visit our Microsoft Excel Tips page.

If you would like to learn more about Excel, then book yourself on one of our Microsoft Excel Training Courses.

There is a simpler and more effective way to help you feel a million bucks: Look for a career in IT and look into the process of gaining Microsoft Certifications such as the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certification.  According to Maggie Berry, Marketing Director of the website womenintechnology.co.uk, being in possession of IT Skills can make you alot more attractive to potential future employers.

“Students who decide to invest in developing their IT Skills are really going to stand out against the competition and have the best chance of launching a successful career in what is a rapidly growing and exciting industry.” She is quoted as saying.

She also believes that 2011 will play host to an increase in the amount of jobs available in the UK’s IT sector. She also sees the sector in its current state a male dominated sector due to the lack of females who have the skills required for the tasks at hand. With more women leaving the sector each year than those entering, there is an overall shortage of qualified and talent women within the IT sector.

Those women looking to enter the IT sector could use this fact to their advantage she believes, with many companies being keener to hire female talent in more technology roles, female applicants holding good IT experience and qualifications will have no problem securing interviews for their desired roles.

If you are looking for Technical Training Courses which can help you achieve that million dollar feeling without the need for a scalpel, then you should browse our Microsoft Windows Server Training Courses to help give you the push start to do something new and achieve the Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) certification in addition to the MCITP.

If you are interested in gaining the MCITP Certification, we currently have a bundle offer available to have you MCITP Ready in Just 15 Days!

Are you tired of using the same old plain backgrounds in your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations? Well now there is a way where you can use your own captured images to great effect as custom backgrounds in your slides.

In this Microsoft PowerPoint tip, I will explain how you can use a photo to its maximum potential as a background and edit it without the need for expensive photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, using a simple PowerPoint tool for instant effective results.

To begin, follow these simple steps:

1. Display the slide or the slide master.
2. Insert a photograph by going to Insert and select Picture. Here you can choose to use a digital photo that you took yourself or any other image that you have saved on your machine. If, however you choose to use an image from the Clip Art collection, go to Insert and select Clip Art.
3. With the photo selected, resize it or use the Crop button on the end of the Picture Format toolbar to crop it so that it fits the slide.
4. With the picture still selected, select the Recolor option and select Washout from the options available, as you see here encircled.
5. Your image will now be lighter meaning that your text will now show above it clearly. There you have it; your image will now serve as the perfect background to your slides.

If you think that the image is too light/dark, just use the Brightness & Contrast controls until you have it to your liking.

If you would like to read more tips, visit our Microsoft PowerPoint Tips page.

If you would like to learn more about Microsoft PowerPoint, you ought to book yourself on one of our Microsoft PowerPoint Training Courses.

Microsoft has this week released the first Service Pack (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. For the time being however it is strictly in the hands of manufacturers and will be made available to the general public from the 22^nd February.

The SP1 update will give minor security updates to Windows 7 even though some have already been made available via the Windows Update Function. The update will also include support for the RemoteFX & Dynamic Memory Features.

RemoteFX is a feature designed to improve the visual capabilities of Windows 7 Remote Desktop clients connected through the Hyper-V role to a Windows 7 virtual machine. Improvements with this update include many 3D graphics capabilities as well as some OpenGL, full motion video, and USB redirection support for Hyper-V Windows 7 virtual machines.

Dynamic Memory will allow administrators to increase the virtual machine density without compromising its security, scalability and performance.

“Together, these technologies will drive down the end-point cost and reduce endpoint power consumption to as little as a few watts,” said Microsoft in the blog.

If you are interested in reading more of our articles, feel free to visit our Articles page.

If you are interested in partaking in some Windows Server 2008 Training Courses, take a look at our range of courses or give us a call and one of our trainers will be more than happy to talk with you.

Welcome to another Microsoft Excel Tip. This tip will aid those who are currently using the 2010 version of Microsoft Excel.

Have you ever wanted to view the formulas in your spreadsheets instead of the results? Well now there are a couple of ways to do this, one involving a single key on the keyboard whereas the other takes a little more time. Below I will tell you both ways on how to do this and you can choose for yourself which you prefer.

The quickest and simplest method to achieve the showing of formulas rather than results is use a two-key keyboard shortcut: Ctrl & the tilde key. For those unfamiliar with the tilde key, it is the ~ key above the large Shift key.

The second, slightly more time consuming way consists of the following steps:

1. Open the File menu, select Options and click Advanced.
2. Scroll down to Display Options for this Worksheet and check the box beside the option: Show Formulas in Cells instead of their calculated results.
3. If you wish to see the results again, just uncheck the box.

If you would like more tips, feel free to visit our Microsoft Excel Tips pages.

If you would like to learn more about Excel, then you should book yourself on one of our Microsoft Excel Training Courses.

Last year we informed you that we were now offering Windows Server 2008 Training Courses for those individuals who were looking at becoming Microsoft Certified to help them achieve more in their careers or move into new career fields.

MCITP: Server Administrator (Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator) is the leading certification you can achieve for Windows Server 2008. Having this certification on your CV makes a big impression on potential employers as it proves to them that you are more than capable of handling, using and troubleshooting Servers. It will also distinguish you from others applying for the same job who have similar experience but don’t have the certification.

Some of the roles that you could apply for after gaining the certification include Windows Server Administrator, Network Administrator and Server Systems Administrator.

Certification can also lead to a bigger pay packet and your job satisfaction will be sky-high with research suggesting that people with Microsoft Certification show more competence, have better productivity and are more highly regarded by their employers, co-workers and clients.

To aid in the achievement of the future budding Server Administrators out there, we have put together a special MCITP course package which will fully prepare anybody interested in gaining this certification to take the required exam needed to attain this certification. This course packages consists of the following 4 courses:

Course 6421, Configuring & Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure

Course 6425, Configuring Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services

Course 6426, Configuring Identity & Access Solutions with Windows Server 2008 Active Directory

Course 6430, Planning for Windows Server 2008 Servers

If you choose to take these 4 courses separately, the cost would equate to £2800 excluding VAT, however if you choose to take them as a package and pay for them all at once, we will offer them to you for the reduced price of £2248 excluding VAT, a saving of over £600!

The package can be taught in a minimum of 15 days and has the full benefits which accompany all of our Training Courses.

For previous articles, please visit our Articles page.

Welcome to another Microsoft Word Tip. In Microsoft Word 2010, attaching a template to a Word Document isn’t as easy as in its 2003 ancestor. This tip will guide you through the process of attaching the template simply and easily.

To attach a template to a Microsoft Word 2010 document, follow these simple steps:

1. Open Microsoft Word 2010 and click on the File tab. Then select Options in the left task pane.
2.  Select the Add-ins option in the left task pane and then look for the Manage dropdown menu at the bottom of the window which shows up.
3. From this menu, choose Templates and then click Go.
4. Click the attach button and double-click on the template file you want and select OK.

If you are looking to attach a template to a Microsoft Word 2007 document, then the steps to follow are similar to the ones above except the first step.

If using Microsoft Word 2007, then the first step would be to click the Microsoft Office button and select Word Options.

If you would like more tips, then feel free to visit our Microsoft Word Tips page.

If you would like to learn more, then you should book yourself on one of our Microsoft Word Training Courses.