Ptnsystems

Ptnsystems PC, NAS and Mac support, website design, branding and photography services for homes and businesses

Ptnsystems offers PC and server support, website design, and photography services for homes and businesses in Dorset including: Swanage, Wareham, Corfe Castle, Studland and the surrounding areas. We create fully responsive websites with photography and design services, web advertising campaigns, search engine optimisation, domain registration, website hosting, artwork and logo design. What's more,

you can edit your website with our online content management systems. If you need any help or advice, please contact us or pop in to our offices in Swanage, we are open daily from 9am.

Glad to have helped The Focus Centre in Swanage with the WiFi and network install, multiple networks and buildings shari...
31/03/2026

Glad to have helped The Focus Centre in Swanage with the WiFi and network install, multiple networks and buildings sharing a common internet connection.

Ptnsystems has a selection of older desktop & tower PCs (HP & Fujitsus), Macs & monitors which are surplus to requiremen...
06/02/2026

Ptnsystems has a selection of older desktop & tower PCs (HP & Fujitsus), Macs & monitors which are surplus to requirements, all have solid state drives and capable of running Windows 11/Mac Sequoia so perfectly serviceable. If you need something cheap and cheerful just pop in and see what's available.

https://ptnsystems.com
Unit 9, Purbeck Business Centre, Swanage.
01929 475828

Yes, it's an AI generated image by the way (I've got some credits I need to use up.)

Microsoft’s MalaiseIt's hard to escape the acronym AI from daily life at the moment, and whilst this undoubtedly offers ...
02/02/2026

Microsoft’s Malaise

It's hard to escape the acronym AI from daily life at the moment, and whilst this undoubtedly offers some extraordinary benefits, there are some who are yet to be convinced. There are some worrying signs from the industry that the current level of AI investment may be a little misguided, especially when it removes software engineers from their day job, keeping existing systems running smoothly. The constant updating/fixing/updating cycle, involving the Windows operating systems and software, makes it seem like the mechanics have been laid off or moved into the sales dept.

Furthermore, the forced integration of Co-Pilot, OneDrive and other data-hungry tools is turning the Windows operating system into what feels like a bloated advertising platform for AI and cloud storage. Ptnsystems has, on many occasions, highlighted some steps to enable you to work without these annoyances and spend a lot of time removing this bloatware from customers’ PCs.

This pernicious business model seems worse than ever, and after 25 years of working with Microsoft, I personally feel it's now at an all-time low. It is still possible to operate your PC using a local account, backing up to your own devices and, with some determination, you can turn off/uninstall many of these bloated applications that come preinstalled on your PC. Unfortunately, it does seem that Microsoft are determined to close these doors to end users and force them into the cloud-based, software as a service, subscription model, as recent iterations have proven.

The recent announcement in November that Microsoft plans to make Windows an agentic OS received quite a backlash, and this, together with all the broken update issues have allegedly given the company quite a few headaches. This hasn’t stopped big tech from making ill-advised marketing pushes in the past though.

Because of this, we would recommend looking at other operating systems (as well as Windows) when it comes to replacing your current hardware. The price and reliability of the Mac operating system now makes this a realistic alternative to Windows, as well as others such as Chrome OS, Zorin and free Linux versions. Moving away from Windows comes with its own set of problems, and not for everyone; hopefully, this is just another cycle of good/bad operating systems that Microsoft is famous for. Let’s plug and pray.

02/02/2026

2FA (Two Factor Authentication)

Businesses with online platforms are increasingly relying on AI, chatbots and helpful redirections to their own FAQs as a loose interpretation of customer support. It is therefore more important than ever that keys are stored securely and checked from time to time to ensure they fit the locks, as calling a human to help becomes a distant memory.

Two-factor authentication has been available for some time, and many businesses are employing this as a secondary method of authentication when it comes to logging in to web-based services. This is generally an excellent barrier to having your account compromised, as a simple username and password are insufficient to allow access, but the problem arises when backup email accounts and telephone numbers, used for this purpose, become unavailable.

Your backup email account may not have been used for some time, or the account is linked to some other paid service so if you no longer have access to old mobile phone numbers, or worse, used a landline number during setup, then accessing a problematic account can be a big pain (and sometimes impossible).

It’s advisable to occasionally log in to your web-based platforms and check the backup information, listed under your profile, is still relevant, removing old backup email addresses, landline numbers, etc. and making sure any listed mobiles are still in use. If you are unable to provide the required backup methods, you could add the email address, or (mobile*) number, of a trusted friend as a means of authenticating (*few landlines support text messaging so best not to use this method).

Unfortunately, some platforms offer no support, other than confirming your identity through alternative email addresses and phone numbers, and we've seen some real-world problems that this can cause, if the information is outdated or inaccurate.

Microsoft Office 365, Hidden Pricing OptionsOffice 365 is the name given a certain suite of products most of us know as ...
09/09/2025

Microsoft Office 365, Hidden Pricing Options

Office 365 is the name given a certain suite of products most of us know as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and others; this software has never been free to use and was often installed via a CD/DVD bought in a shop/online and installed with a license number/key. The move towards online storage and product delivery meant Microsoft were soon able to sell this as a subscription, rather than a one-off item (software as a service), so we now need to pay an annual charge for the privilege of using their software.

If you have one of these products installed, you can see who the license is assigned to by looking to the top right-hand side of any open document, where you'll see a small circular icon with the registered user's details.

Last year, Microsoft suddenly increased the cost of Office 365 by at least £30 (depending on the version you subscribe to) under the premise that you were getting extra wonderful AI features, and if you simply allow the subscription to renew, you'll end up paying this new price. What they didn't tell you is that there is an option to pass on the AI and continue as you were with the "Classic" version.

To pass up on the suddenly expensive AI/smart version, log in to your Microsoft account, look for subscriptions, look for the cancel subscription option and the cheaper, perfectly adequate version of MS Office becomes available.

This link should lead you to the login page, you'll need your details, and it's worth doing sooner rather than later if you want to make the savings:

https://account.microsoft.com/account

https://ptnsystems.com/
https://swanagewebsitedesign.co.uk/
https://swanagecomputers.co.uk/

Recommended Settings (for who?)It's up to you, of course, but if you couldn't care less about the information advertiser...
03/09/2025

Recommended Settings (for who?)

It's up to you, of course, but if you couldn't care less about the information advertisers hold about you and think Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. have your best interests as their priority, then those big buttons saying (Yes), (Recommended), (I Agree) are the ones to press.

If, however, you'd rather not instantly share your browsing habits with 140+ other vendors, not sign up for some (seemingly) free online storage (which will later cost you 10x its value), then it might be worth looking for the smaller (no thanks) or (preferences) buttons.

Data is big business, and (Recommended) buttons invariably mean recommended for someone else rather than you. Of course, it's much easier to press the big blue button and move on to the website content rather than turning off individual cookie preferences and it's also quicker to say yes to all the dialogue boxes when setting up new hardware and software, but there's a very good reason why this is the easy option.

Truly free is a rare commodity these days, so you may find your data is the true cost of those free apps and website approvals.

Windows 10 End of Life October 2025

We've already upgraded a great many of our customers' devices from Windows 10 to 11, and in most cases, it's been possible without having to upgrade the hardware (Microsoft's compatibility warnings should be taken with a large block of salt).

Windows 10 becomes end-of-life on October 14th, which means Microsoft will no longer issue updates and fixes for this long-standing operating system. This doesn't mean it will immediately self-destruct or stop working, but it wouldn't be wise to expose any Windows 10 hardware to the internet after this date.

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Unit 9 Purbeck Business Centre
Swanage
BH191AU

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 3pm
Thursday 9am - 5:30pm
Friday 9am - 5:30pm

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