Urgent Updates Were Installed Yesterday

Due to an previously unforeseen issue with a 3^rd party website used by Mercury Systems, it was necessary to forcibly update the Mercury Systems software on all customer’s servers yesterday evening.

A few of you know about this already, however most customers will not be aware of the issue.  Either way, your systems are now fully updated and working.

If any of your client pc’s still have the previous version open, please close the program and re-open it again before using.

What screen resolutions are you using on your pc’s / laptop’s …?

I need your assistance please.  At the moment all Mercury Systems screen forms are designed to fit a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels.  However resolutions have been getting higher over the last few years, and if customers are generally using these higher resolutions, I can modify certain forms (e.g. client details, job details, stock record) so that they can display more information by making them physically bigger.

Therefore, please would you be able to spend a few minutes to compile a list of the screen resolutions from all pc’s / laptop’s that are used for running Mercury Systems?

Alongside the resolution, can you note the username, and whether the machine is a pc or a laptop.  E.g.:-   “FRED BLOGGS, LAPTOP, 1400x900“

How to do this:-

On Windows XP, right-click the desktop surface and click ‘Properties’, click the ‘Settings’ tab, and note the current resolution.

On Windows Vista, right-click the desktop surface and click ‘Personalize’, select ‘Display Settings’ from the list, and note the current resolution.

On Windows 7, right-click the desktop surface and click ‘Screen Resolution’, and note the current resolution.

I would be grateful if you could email me the results in the next week or so.

New Year – New Updates…

The latest build of Mercury Systems is now available – please contact me at some point if you would like me to schedule an update of your software.

If you are used to updating the software yourself (because I have shown you how), please carry out the update at a time when I am around (i.e. after 1:30pm weekdays), and don’t forget to update any stand-alone laptops at the same time if you have them.

Mercury Systems works perfectly on new Microsoft Windows 8 Operating System

Windows 8 is Microsoft’s new operating system designed to compete with Apple iPad’s, Samsung Galaxy’s and the like, and uses the new ‘Metro’ user-interface.

Last week, Mercury Systems was installed for the first time on a new touch-screen laptop running Windows 8, and I am happy to report that everything worked perfectly.  The customer had purchased a Dell XPS-12 flip-screen laptop, and being a touch-screen meant that he can now record customer signatures directly into Mercury Systems.  As it is a Windows device (i.e. not using Apple IOS or Android operating systems), he can also run Mercury K-Base to look up installation guides, parts diagrams, service bulletins etc. and run other Windows software, just as he can in his office. 

If you are considering giving smartphone or iPad devices to your engineers, it may be an option to equip them with a Windows-based touch screen device instead, such as the XPS-12, so that they can run standard Windows software.  Currently these are expensive devices, however the prices should fall over time.

(FOR OFFICE-BASED USERS, at the time of writing I still recommend and prefer Windows 7 if you can manage to obtain it from your pc supplier)

(note:  do not buy a device with ‘Windows RT’ operating system installed.  Windows RT is designed for tablets, however is it not backwards-compatible with any software that you are currently running on your office pc’s.  The device must be running either Windows 8 or Windows 8 ‘Pro’ operating systems if you want to run ‘traditional’ Windows software such as Mercury Systems)