Shaw Computer Services

08/26/2026

A hard drive gave us a warning this week. Not a failure — a warning. Slightly slow, a few reallocated sectors, the kind of thing nobody notices until it’s gone.
Because that machine was on a maintenance plan, we caught it, scheduled a swap, and replaced it on-site during their lunch break. The owner never lost a minute.
The drives that fail catastrophically and the drives that get replaced calmly are the same drives. The difference is whether anyone was watching.

08/24/2026

Kids are back in school, which means new accounts, new apps, and new passwords scribbled on sticky notes.
A better way for the whole family: a password manager. One master password, strong unique passwords everywhere else, and parents can help manage the kids’ logins.
Which one? For most families, the free tier of a reputable manager is plenty. Ask us and we’ll recommend one that fits — takes us 30 seconds, costs you nothing.

08/21/2026

08/21/2026

Settle a debate: what’s the oldest computer still running in your house or business?
We’ll go first: we recently serviced a Windows 7 machine running a piece of equipment older than some of our customers. Still going. We don’t recommend it — but we respect it.
Drop your oldest survivor in the comments. Bonus points for photos.

08/19/2026

Running a business without IT support usually works fine — right up until it very much doesn’t.
Shaw Computers supports Utah businesses with managed IT: monitoring, backups, security, and a real human who answers when something breaks. No call centers, no ticket black holes. You call, we show up.
If your current setup is “the owner’s nephew is pretty good with computers,” let’s talk before September gets busy.

08/17/2026

Free tip, no strings: go turn on two-factor authentication on your email today. Right now. This post will still be here when you get back.
Your email is the master key to everything — bank resets, business accounts, all of it. Two-factor is free, takes five minutes, and stops the vast majority of account takeovers.
If you get stuck setting it up, comment or message us and we’ll point you the right way. No charge for pointing.

08/14/2026

Today is National Navajo Code Talkers Day.
In WWII, hundreds of Navajo Marines transmitted battlefield messages in a code built from their own language. It was fast, it was precise, and it was never broken — one of the greatest security achievements in history. President Reagan designated August 14 in their honor in 1982.
Here in Utah, that legacy sits close to home. We work in security every day, and the Code Talkers’ lesson still holds: the strongest protection comes from people, not just technology.
To the Code Talkers and their families: thank you.

08/12/2026

Another lesson from Jeremy’s fire service days: we never rolled out with equipment we hadn’t checked. Every shift started with putting hands on the gear — because the worst time to find a dead flashlight is inside a dark building.
Same rule applies to your business tech. When did someone last put hands on your backups, your firewall, your server room? Not glanced at a green light — actually checked.
That’s what a Shaw maintenance plan is: the equipment check before the emergency.

08/10/2026

Buying a laptop for a student? Three things matter more than the ads suggest:
1. Battery life beats speed. A slightly slower laptop that lasts all day wins.
2. SSD is non-negotiable. It’s the difference between 15-second and 3-minute startups.
3. Don’t pay for gaming specs they won’t use — unless they will, in which case pay for exactly that.
Not sure what fits your student and budget? Message us — we’ll give you a straight answer, even if the answer is “the one on sale at Costco is fine.”