NRC Newsletter - September 2017
In this issue
Single sign-on
Following up on last month's discussion about how passwords will be changing and getting easier, let's talk about Single Sign-On (SSO). Wouldn't it be nice if you only had to remember one password? There are products out there that can help make that goal a reality…or at least minimize the number of passwords that need to be memorized—or even worse—written down somewhere.
One such product that helps overcome this issue is LastPass. LastPass says they store your passwords securely in a central location, and all you need in order to access these credentials from anywhere is to know one master password. It is a pretty handy product: Several NRC employees use it to great advantage.
In the last few years, Microsoft has been advertising SSO using Azure Active Directory—basically the same authentication system used by Office 365—to help users autologin to services such as Box, Google Apps, Citrix, Facebook and thousands of others. We'll test out some of the features in coming months and report back in a future newsletter article. If the results are good, we'll begin rolling Azure AD SSO to appropriate companies.
Office Ribbon Cutting & Party!
New River Computing and Green-Eyed Designs invite you to our back-to-back Ribbon Cuttings and Grand Openings of our new locations on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at noon. Come celebrate at our new office at 104 Hubbard Street in Blacksburg for an official ribbon cutting ceremony, sponsored by the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
- Meet key community leaders.
- Get acquainted with business leaders.
- Enjoy lunch & refreshments.
RSVPs are not mandatory, but if you drop us a line before the event, it will help make sure we have the right amount of grub. Feel free and email me, jeff@newrivercomputing.com.
Congrats to Gay and Neel
Congratulations to Gay and Neel, Inc. as they celebrate their 25th Anniversary. Gay and Neel has been a long-time customer of New River Computing, and one we've always admired. In fact, Gay and Neel was Jeff's first client dating back to 1999. We wish Gay and Neel continued success! Looking forward to the 50th!
Customer accolade
Anne Brinckman, Esq. of Brinckman & Brinckman, PC had this to say about New River Computing: "…customer service and support with NRC has been amazing…it is really nice to have quick service but also to work with cheerful, fun folks!" Thanks, Anne!
Pinning Apps to the Taskbar
The other week I was working with an otherwise-savvy user on some SharePoint planning. While playing with Word or Office or something, I was surprised she was not aware of pinning applications and documents to the taskbar. Pinning apps to the taskbar and documents to what's called the "Jump List" has been around since Windows 7. Using this feature saves enormous numbers of clicks and rummaging around for documents. In hopes of saving clicks for other users, we thought we'd review how to pin apps and documents to the taskbar.
Since Windows 7, users have had the ability to pin applications to the taskbar. This is a mighty handy feature for those that regularly use certain applications. Here's my taskbar:
Most of the icons got there by realizing I want to have a running app available whenever I'm on the desktop. I'd pick a running application and right-click on the taskbar icon and choosing "Pin to taskbar":
You probably recognize some of the icons, for example, Excel and Word. Here's what I find really cool: When you right-click on one of the icons, you can see the recently-accessed documents in that application. For example, here is a list of my recent files in Excel along with my pinned list, which is called a Jump List:
It is easy to add a recent item to the pinned list: Just right-click and select "Pin to this list":
Since all my documents are on 365—either on SharePoint or OneDrive—getting at my most common apps through the taskbar saves time and effort. If you're on Windows and aren't pinning apps or pinning documents, do yourself a favor and give it a try. You'll be glad you did.
Here's a quick how-to by some random YouTuber, and you can find more info from PC World here.