Maintenance Nights start this week – from 27/2/12
Maintenance night is a pre-determined night each week that we will use to perform downloads, updates and scans on your PC. We’ve already written and emailed the details so hopefully you will have been forwarded the information about when your night is. If not – the night is determined by company name as follows:
| If your company name starts with: | Your maintenance night is: |
|---|---|
| Numbers and ‘A’s | Monday |
| B – I | Tuesday |
| J – R | Wednesday |
| S – Z | Thursday |
The maintenance will happen overnight and in the early hours of the morning and will be completed by the time you start to use your PC the next morning.
These days there are so many downloads, updates and scans required that they would impact on your PC if we did them all during the day.
It’s a fixed predetermined night each week so that you know when to leave your PC on overnight and we know when to carry out the maintenance for you.
What do you need to do?
It’s very simple. We will do all the hard work for you. All you need to do is make sure that on your maintenance night your PCs are left on but you have logged off. Don’t worry if the odd one is forgotten, it will be picked up the next time around.
The following FAQs should answer most of your questions about Maintenance Night.
We will also pop up a Red Zed message in the afternoon of your Maintenance Night to remind you to leave your PCs on.
Why is regular PC maintenance important?
Regular PC maintenance reduces the number of problems that you will have over the life of your PC and helps it to run as fast as it is capable of running.
It’s very similar to maintaining your car. Without regular maintenance your car would be prone to breakdowns and may run more slowly. I’m sure we can all recall that our car often feels healthier and a bit sharper when we get it back after a service.
Why is Ziptech moving its clients to a fixed weekly PC maintenance night?
We are moving to a fixed maintenance night once a week so that the maintenance is done out of hours without disruption to your working day. The maintenance will happen in the early hours of the morning and will be complete by the time you start to use your PC the next morning.
These days there are so many downloads, updates and scans to do that they would impact on your PC if we did them all during the day.
It’s a fixed predetermined night each week so that you know when to leave your PC on overnight and we know when to carry out the maintenance for you.
What happens to my PC during the PC maintenance night?
During the night we will perform the following regular maintenance tasks to help your PC run better:
- Update the antivirus and anti-spyware software to make sure it is 100% up to date.
- Scan your machine for viruses and spyware.
- Scan your machine for any missing Microsoft Windows and Office patches.
- Install any missing Microsoft Windows and Office patches.
- Run a disk defrag to make sure that your hard drive is working at its optimal level.
- Run Check Disk on hard drive to identify any errors and either fix them if possible or mark them as unusable so that you don’t save data to them.
We will introduce more maintenance routines over time as they become available.
When is the PC maintenance night?
We don’t do all the maintenance work for all clients on the same night. Maintenance takes place on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights – not on Friday or on weekends.
Roughly one quarter of our clients have their PC maintenance done on each of the 4 nights.
All your organisation’s PCs will be done on the same night.
How do I find out when my PC maintenance night is?
You’ll find confirmation of your Maintenance Night at the front of your letter or see the table below. The night is allocated by company name and this ensures we have an even distribution of maintenance during the week:
| If your company name starts with: | Your maintenance night is: |
|---|---|
| Numbers and ‘A’s | Monday |
| B – I | Tuesday |
| J – R | Wednesday |
| S – Z | Thursday |
How do I remember my PC maintenance night each week?
We will send you two brief pop up reminders on your PC on the day of the maintenance night.
The reminders will not appear on Macs or Servers as they do not run these routines. We will look at introducing them to Macs and Servers in the near future.
What do I need to do to prepare for the PC maintenance night?
It’s very simple. All you need to do is:
- Close any documents or applications. This is because some of the updates may require that the PC is rebooted. If you have any unsaved documents or applications open you may lose the data.
- Log off your PC. You can do this by clicking on the start button on the bottom left of your screen and choosing the “Log off” option from the menu. It varies slightly depending on which version of Windows you have, but it looks something like this:
- Leave the PC running. You can turn the screen off if you wish to.
What happens if I don’t leave my PC on for the PC maintenance night?
If your PC is not on during the PC maintenance night the maintenance routines cannot be run. However it will “catch up” on the next PC maintenance night when you leave your PC on.
If I’m a laptop user do I need to do anything differently from the PC user?
The only thing you need to do is make sure your laptop is plugged into a power source and does not switch itself off during the night.
What happens if I have my laptop out of the office on the PC maintenance night?
Your laptop does not need to be in the office. It does need to be left on and connected to the internet.
If you miss a maintenance night don’t worry you will get all the updates on the next maintenance night.
What happens if I leave my PC on, but forget to logoff?
The updates and scans will run but if the PC needs to reboot it will prompt for a ‘reboot or continue’ and wait for a response. If there is no response no further updates will happen. When you come in the morning we advise you choose the ‘reboot’ option so that updates can take place.
I have a Ziptech supported PC at home. What do I do with this?
Your PC does not need to be in the office. It just needs to be left on and connected to the internet.
What happens if I am using my PC when the maintenance starts?
The PC will run slower than usual. Updates and scans will run but if the PC needs to reboot it will show a prompt screen ‘reboot or continue’ and wait for a response. If there is no response no further updates will happen.
What happens if I am overseas with my laptop?
Maintenance can happen as normal, even overseas, provided that it is connected to the internet.
What if I am in a hotel or on a 3G dongle and have a slow connection?
If the machine is switched on it will try and update as usual. If it is switched off maintenance will be performed on the next maintenance night that it is on and connected to the internet.
What do I do if I have a Mac?
Maintenance will not take place on Apple Macs as we don’t currently install Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware on them. However we will be introducing updates to Macs in the near future.
Will we turn your PC off?
No – the PC will remain switched on but logged off. This is in case you need to remotely access your PC.
Will maintenance night happen on all PCs?
All PCs that have a Ziptech agent on them will have this routine maintenance service.
Maintenance will not take place on PCs without the Ziptech support agent.
Maintenance will not take place on Apple Macs, though this will be introduced in the future.
