The Reset feature is designed to reinstall Windows 8 in the event of a crash. So, for example, if your PC crashes and you are in the predicament of having to reinstall the OS, apaprently the simply touch of a button will allow you to do this.

Refresh is apparently designed to do the same thing, but keeping your personal files and folders.

I guess this is a more advanced backup and recovery feature, but made simpler by simply needing to only push a button. As Microsoft put it, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could just push a button and everything is fixed?”.

More details can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/04/refresh-and-reset-your-pc.aspx

If we hear any more I will of course update the blog and our Twitter account .

We would like to thank all clients for their patience while Southern Electric dealt with the issue. We have this week had to replace two UPSs and purchase a backup generator to ensure services stayed running for our clients and while there was downtime, we worked around the clock to minimise the impact and to keep everything going.

At around 08:30 one of the phases did go down and we were quick to react. We switched everything over to the backup generator in minutes, the new UPS did its job keeping up the majority of the servers but identified a couple that didn’t stay up. Throughout the morning we had phases up and down, but the UPSs kept everything up during this period.

We had some replacement batteries in this morning to replace the batteries that got killed in another UPS due to the power outages. With that now in place we are confident that the UPSs will now hold to enable us to switch over to a working power supply when needed. The backup generator continues to run and give us the power needed.

The Southern Electric engineers have been in today and have told they may have found the fault but are checking for any others before they go digging. Should they still not be able to resolve the fault today we do plan on having someone here overnight to cover the night duty once again to ensure your services are up and running.

Updates to follow, thank you once again for your patience and we can assure you we continue to monitor the situation 24 7.

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Therefore, one of our engineers will man the office overnight tonight to keep an eye on everything. In the event of a power failure, he will ensure the backup generator is running and services are switched over to the backup power.

He will also be covering the phones so if you do need to get in touch at any time over the night please do not hesitate to call us on 01489 589924.

Following some minor incidents overnight (of which one of our engineers stayed in the office all night to monitor and manage), we appear to have not had any other incidents so far today.

The local substation (which has been causing the issue) all morning has been surrounded by Southern Electric vans and engineers, together with testing equipment and a digger. We managed to talk to them while on site and one of the engineers came into the office to explain what has happened so far.

They know for certain that there is a problem with one of the underground electricity cables. This fault keeps blowing one particular fuse at the substation, which is then replaced each time. They have installed monitoring equipment at the substation which will find where the fault is on what line. What they have also done is installed some equipment that should bring power back on in the event of another power cut within seconds.

Once they have found the fault, they will inform us and let us know what the next course of action will be.

Our backup petrol generator is still functional and helped keep equipment going and bringing equipment back up overnight. Our permanent backup generator arrived and are currently awaiting for the wiring to go in. Until that point, the backup power generator will provide power when needed. The new UPS we installed yesterday is also up and working.

You can follow updates on our Twitter page. I will be keeping both our blog and twitter updated as soon as we have news.

Again, we apologise for any inconvenience caused while we battle on with the power cuts, but we would like to remind everyone that we are working flat out around the clock to ensure services keep running as that is our number one priority.

Updates to follow.

Despite this, we have replaced the UPS that the power outages broke and we have installed a backup generator outside that we can manually switch over to if required. Servers and services all seem to be up and running.

As a result, we are unable to provide Prometric tests this week due to the intermittent power issues. If you had an exam booked with us, you should be hearing from Prometric soon who will reschedule your exam.

We will of course keep all of our clients updates on the progress. We would like to thank all for your patience and apologise for any inconvenience the power cuts have caused. We are however working flat out to ensure that everything stays running. Our telephone number is still operational, 01489 589924 should you need to call us.

The update we received from Scottish and Southern Energy Fault department is that there is an issue with the power lines to the estate, which is affecting all three phases that power the estate, as well as our offices. They have not put a timeline to when they will finish testing the line to check for errors but have told me they will endeavour to keep us informed.

As it is not just one phase that is affected, we have to adapt to every power outage and respond as necessary. While downtime is occuring more frequently than we ever expected, our engineers are working flat out to ensure downtime is at a minimal.

Our phone system is powered seperately so you should always be able to get hold of us by telephone. We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing our clients and while we are doing our best to keep servers going, power to the estate is something that is out of our control. But we continue to work flat out to ensure you, the client, experience minimal downtime as possible.

To assure our WordPress users, I am in the process of checking all of our sites to check that Timthumb is not installed and if it is, to ensure it is updated.

if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

As for our clients who are on a BES service, you shouldn’t have had any problems throughout. If you are a BIS customer then you should see services have returned back to normal. Call us if not.