3 Essential Tips IT Leaders Should Share with Staff and Customers
Our consultants rarely come across a question that hasn’t been asked before. Experience and stats collected over the last 15 years, from more than 4 million end-users, prove that most callers have problems with the same general areas of an application or operating system. And although navigating through a few levels to open an application doesn’t seem time-consuming, when you add up the minutes it takes to open it a few times a day, every day of the workweek, and scale that across a company with 3,500 PC users, the productivity loss becomes significantly more substantial.
Do you regularly “store” things in your trash can at home, just in case you might need them?
Everyone wants to be more productive, especially in a time when workers are being asked to “do more with less,” and are even being asked to itemize or quantify what they’ve accomplished in a day. Boost productivity instantly by sharing this list with your IT staff and customers. Chances are, if your help desk is not receiving these types of calls, your customers don’t know it’s there to help and they’re seeking assistance elsewhere, if at all.
1. Pinning applications to your start menu. Tedium is clicking through a half-dozen layers of folders every day to open the same application. One solution is creating desktop shortcuts, but they clutter your workspace. Then there’s the “Pin to Start Menu” feature in XP and Vista, which allows you to “pin” applications to your start menu with a right-click. One or two steps instead of six or seven can add up over time. Stealth.
2. Safely remove hardware. You faithfully back up your non-network files with a thumb drive, but when you finish copying them over, you yank the drive out of the slot without ensuring it has stopped running. Tsk, tsk. Such carelessness usually will not cause permanent harm, but can damage your files or even your device. Removing it properly is as important as backing up your work.
Here’s how:
- From the Notification area (next to the clock in the system tray), right-click the Safe Removal icon (usually has a green arrow).
- Click Safely Remove Hardware.
- Click on the device to be unplugged or ejected in the Safely Remove Hardware dialog box.
- Click the Stop button.
- In the Stop Hardware device dialog box, confirm the device to be unplugged.
- Click the OK button.
- Click the Close button in the Safely Remove Hardware dialog box.
3. Don’t be a trash-picker. When tidying up friends’ computers, I ask them this question regarding the trash bin: “Do you regularly ‘store’ things in your trash can at home, just in case you might need them?” They always reply with “no.” To which I reply, “So why do you hoard items in your recycle bin at work?” It almost always helps them to appreciate the importance of letting go, of emptying recycle bins and clearing temps regularly. You should do the same. Your computer will run faster, but I cannot promise your workspace will smell any better.
Have great tips or other commonly asked Help Desk questions to share? Post in comments or send us an e-mail.
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