King County’s intranet, KCWeb, is your one-stop shop for employee news, information and the tools you use every day. Make KCWeb your home page: In Internet Explorer, make sure you’ve closed all open tabs, then open Internet Explorer for the desktop. Tap or click Tools, and then tap or click Internet options. Under the General tab, enter the web address https://kcw.kingcounty.gov/, and then tap or click Apply. You’ll need to restart Internet Explorer to see your new home page. You can change your home page at any time, or set up multiple home pages that will… Read More

With another recent cyber virus, it’s important to remember to beware of phishing attempts here on the King County network. KCIT would like to remind you that phishing is the practice of sending emails that look like they are from reputable sources in an attempt to obtain information which gives outsiders access to King County systems. The goal is to get personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers. Phishing is a constant threat to every organization. Remember, if you receive an email asking you to provide any information, especially your login name and password, this could be phishing and you… Read More

KCIT is making it easier to download the apps you need without having to contact the Helpdesk or require someone with special privileges on your PC. In the past, apps had to be installed by a technician with special rights.  Now apps can be self installed when it’s convenient for the end user. Every month, we are putting more apps in the King County App Store known as the Software Center on your PC. To get there, go to the windows icon in the lower left corner. Click and you will get… Read More

If your desktop looks like the picture to the left, then it’s time to clean things up a bit. Not only does a cluttered desktop make things harder to find. Once you’ve gotten that messy desktop under control, make it a habit of keeping it organized, and transfer those same ideas to the rest of your files and folders too. The easier it is to find what you’re looking for, the less time you’ll spend frustrated. This Tech Tip is courtesy of Life Hacker. <p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/33081776″>Designing and Creating an Organized Desktop –… Read More

Go shopping at the King County Skype store then contact your telecom rep and let them know what you want. Here’s the link to County telecom lead. Copy and paste if needed: https://kc1.sharepoint.com/teams/ITOP&#8230;

Scale is a large part of design, sometimes literally. In a very basic definition, scale is the deliberate sizing of individual elements. Scale can help us make sense of designs and images, but, scale doesn’t always have to be based on realism. You can size your elements dramatically large or small to create stunning effects and to signal which parts of your design are more important and which are less. For example, check out this poster for the movie Drive. In this poster, the lead character has been scaled up dramatically, drawing attention… Read More

S4B groups are like email groups only better. With S4B, you can Instant Message, make a quick call, or set up skype meetings for the future – just to that group. The group an include internal and external team members. This video shows how to create then add members to your group.

By now you have all probably heard about the WannaCry ransomware attack. This did NOT affect any King County Computers, laptops, tablets or devices. This is the benefit of “Enterprise Security” and having all our devices on the same King County system. When IT/Microsoft rolls out a patch, it patches your device and you don’t even know it. But let’s move onto your personal devices. It’s very important to install security patches when the alert pops up on your phone/laptop/desktop/tablet. It’s also important to have an anti-virus protection installed and up-to-date. Think… Read More

Most of the time, you can instantly get a sense of whether or not a given photo was taken by an amateur or someone with a lot of photographic experience. This is because amateurs don’t have a feel for composition, and good composition is the soul of a great photograph. Composition is the placement of every element in a photograph. It describes how a photo is “composed,” which implies intentionality. Someone who pays no mind to composition can only take good shots by coincidence. On the other hand, once you truly have a… Read More

This week’s tech tip is a video daily double! We teach you how to access your King County email on an iOS device (aka iPhone).  The video profiles me (a total novice) walking through the steps as Myranda Miller (our Mobile Device Management expert) provides direction. It’s 7 minutes long. We’re working on an Android version of this next. Enjoy!