http://www.mspcomparison.com/ http://www.mspcomparison.com/images/stories/web_links.jpg http://www.mspcomparison.com/ 130-180 http://www.mspcomparison.com/component/content/article/941-utilities/130-ninite-pro.html Ninite Pro is surely one of the best tools to have in the MSP's 'toolbox', the time it saves is massive. Basically once you have subscribed you download a small application from the Ninite website. From this you can choose any or all of the 80+ Windows applications and utilities to install on the PC or server very quickly and easily. Essentially there's one click to choose each application and then one more to install. Ninite then fetches the very latest version of the application from the vendors website and silently installs the application without any of the accompanying junk or toolbars that occasionally attach themselves to utilities. The correct 32 or 64-bit version of the software will also be selected automatically. Ninite can also upgrade installed applications just by selecting one option and then clicking 'Install' and Ninite takes care of itself. The Pro version also allows you to use the command line to control Ninte even further. In an MSP environment, the power of this is brilliant. Ninite already has instructions for integrating Ninite into Laseya, GFI, Level Platforms, Labtech and many more. The ability to script installs and updates to an estate of PCs and Servers is a winner. When you run Ninite Pro it downloads all the executables to a folder. With command line switches, this can also be used to create both offline installers for copying onto a thumb drive if you know you won't have a good net connection. You can also put the downloads folder onto a network share to save on bandwidth. Ninite checks the latest version online with the latest in the cache folder and only gets the file once off the net and then other PCs get the file from the central cache. There is also a Linux version, currently with about 15 apps. Overall this one tool has saved us endless hours installing and updating hundreds of PCs and is worth every penny and then some! 5 Gold Stars!!! ]]> Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:22:05 +0100 127-179 http://www.mspcomparison.com/component/content/article/942-optimisation-cleaning/127-tuneup-utilities-2011.html I don't normally give all 5s for a product but this one really hit a home run in delivering all that it promises. It leverages more than a few Windows tools that you should be using anyway and adds a few clever features of its own. To give this a true road test I loaded on my wife’s computer. The one the kids get on all the time... My wife was complaining that her PC was freezing up and running painfully slow. After running most of the basic utilities the performance of her computer was noticeably improved. The full version of this software runs $49.00 and is good for up to 3 PCs. Not bad for a good set of tools for around the house. They also have a free 15 day trial so you can judge for yourself if it’s worth the coin. The only thing it was missing was a backup solution but then again I guess a backup doesn’t improve performance that is its claim to fame. Now if you are reading this I assume you are an MSP and are thinking, “What does this product have to do with MSP software?” The truth is, it doesn’t. At least not yet. I can imagine in my crystal ball a day in the not too distant future where pieces of TuneUp are deployed and managed via an RMM tool and either billed as an additional recurring service or included for value add. I’ll keep you up to date if I hear anything in that area but until then, don’t be afraid to push this out to your do-it-yourselfers or, if you are still living in the stone age and selling block hour/monthly maintenance contracts then this might be handy on your thumb drive. ]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:38:45 +0100