Some of the major things I advise computer consultants to look for in an initial IT audit with a new computer consulting prospect or customer are up-to-date software licenses. Surprisingly in the small business arena, pirated software can be a big problem (particularly with micro small businesses that have between 1 and 10 employees). They think they can escape the radar because of their very small size in the grand scheme of things. However, we've seen in recent years that people can and do get caught - both home users and business users - when they use pirated software in their daily lives. It seems interesting that Microsoft would change the way it handles piracy issues with Vista. While I don't personally use Vista, from what I have learned and seen about the software package's many problems in just its first year or so of existence, I wouldn't be surprised if there were real issues surrounding the disabling of legitimate copies.
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Some of the major things I advise computer consultants to look for in an initial IT audit with a new computer consulting prospect or customer are up-to-date software licenses. Surprisingly in the small business arena, pirated software can be a big problem (particularly with micro small businesses that have between 1 and 10 employees). They think they can escape the radar because of their very small size in the grand scheme of things. However, we've seen in recent years that people can and do get caught - both home users and business users - when they use pirated software in their daily lives. It seems interesting that Microsoft would change the way it handles piracy issues with Vista. While I don't personally use Vista, from what I have learned and seen about the software package's many problems in just its first year or so of existence, I wouldn't be surprised if there were real issues surrounding the disabling of legitimate copies.