Category: Tech support

  • Software Spotlight: Spacemonger

    Some software comes and goes, and other software is there for you for the long term. Spacemonger is one of the latter category. Simply put, it scans a hard drive and shows you what’s on it using blocks to represent relative file/folder size, like so: I first came across it back in 2007 or so,…

  • Why techies start with first principles

    As a tech support specialist, I often have to guide the end user through basic troubleshooting, and this often resolves the issue. I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating, in particular because it reinforces the lesson. The number one biggest error many techs make when diagnosing problems for users, be it on the…

  • Five tips for giving better tech support

    Having worked in tech support for fifteen years, I find I still enjoy my work. Yes, at times, I feel like a target at a live fire exercise, but at the end of the day, I still find fulfillment in knowing that I am able to help my users. Here are five tips to giving…

  • How to run a PowerShell script

    As has been the case so many times before, this week I’m bringing you the direct result of a customer request. The customer in question needed to know how to run a .ps1 script. As you may or may not know, double-clicking the script defaults to editing the script. At any rate, here’s how you…

  • iMovie: Change project resolution

    I’ve been using Adobe Premiere pro for a while now, but am finding that I can’t really defend the cost of Adobe Creative Cloud. While having multicamera support has been very nice, the product quite simply is cost prohibitive for me, especially as it really only offers a single feature I need; the ability to…

  • Understanding our metrics

    Last week, I defined the three KPIs I believe are what you need to understand how well your support department is operating. Defining them, however, is just part of the job; if you don’t understand what they are telling you, you might as well not bother measuring at all. Let’s look at each in turn:…

  • Key metrics for support departments

    Metrics – often referred to as “Key Performance Indicators” or simply “KPIs” – are a necessity, regardless of your field. If nothing else, it’s nigh impossible to say anything meaningful about performance without them, and improving the performance is turned from something quite achievable. to a Sisyphean task. What’s measured improves Peter Drucker It is…

  • Thoughts on SPOC and responsibility

    An important principle of ITIL is that all requests should go through a single point of contact (abbreviated to SPOC). What this means, is that a single channel should be defined for the reception, classification, and distribution of a request or incident. Crucially, it does not mean that all contact with the customer should be done…

  • Drives mapped through login scripts unavailable from Windows Explorer

    Every so often, a customer will call in, saying that they are unable to access one of the servers that are mapped through their login script. There are generally two reasons for this; either there’s an issue with the network connection, or the drive letter is already being used for another device. To troubleshoot the…

  • Applying Kanban to IT support work

    Ask anyone who has a glancing familiarity with Kanban what they know of it, and one of the (if not the) first things they will mention, is the use of a kanban board. This is true; the kanban board, whether physical or digital, is one of the most visible parts of the Kanban method. It is…

  • Find out what user has a file open

    One of the questions that pop up every now and again, yet not often enough for me to consistently remember how to do it, is some variant on “What user is blocking my file access?” A user will typically call in, complaining that they are unable to open/edit/delete a given file on a file share,…