Help Desk FAQs: Top 5 Questions Answered

June 10, 2025

Our Help Desk team answers a wide range of questions each day, from the highly technical to the simply curious. Over time, we’ve noticed a handful of common questions that come up again and again. Whether it’s about improving workflows, troubleshooting a hiccup, or just figuring out the best way to get something done, these questions reflect the real-world needs of the people we support. So, we thought we’d share 5 of the most common questions we receive along with our go-to answers.

1. “How do I turn this document into a PDF?”

If you need to turn a Word or other document into a PDF—and you don’t need to edit that PDF afterwards—the conversion is as simple as using a built-in Windows feature called Microsoft Print to PDF.

Adobe and other PDF handlers also have this feature. However, we find using the built-in Microsoft Print to PDF as the best method is it does not require a third-party application and it very rarely malfunctions. Simply “Print” your document to the Microsoft Print to PDF printer, which should show up in your list of printers on any Windows operating system. It will ask where to save your PDF, and done!

Need to make an edit? Re-open your Word document, make your edit, and go through the “printing” process again.

2. “Why did I get locked out of my work account?”

Getting locked out of your work computer can be a frustrating situation for anyone, especially when it happens on a particularly busy day and everyone needs you to get everything done five minutes ago.

You’ve likely heard and seen in the news that businesses are a primary target for hackers seeking to compromise accounts, gain access, and do all sorts of criminal activity. In response to this, the technology industry has come up with several layers of security to protect businesses against these risks.

Kite Technology stays ahead of the game by using the latest and greatest of security tools and features to keep your account as secure as possible. Much of that security is automated. Meaning that as soon as the tools detect any unusual activity, they will take action, immediately locking down accounts to prevent damage or data loss.

The good news is that Kite Technology has an entire security team dedicated to responding to these alerts. Their #1 priority is to address, resolve, and get you logged back into your account as soon as possible.

If you find yourself in this situation, rest assured the security tools have done their job to keep your account safe. If your organization works with Kite Technology for their Managed IT Services needs, give us a call right away so we can assist getting you back to work as quickly as possible.

3. “Does having the Microsoft Authenticator app installed on my phone give my company access to my personal data?”

It is important to keep a boundary between work data and personal data. We know our clients feel the importance of this, as we frequently hear concerns about installing the Microsoft Authenticator to personal phones. Microsoft Authenticator is required to use for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to gain access your work data.

The answer to this common question is easy: nope! Installing the Microsoft Authenticator on any of your mobile devices does not give your organization control over your phone nor access to any of your personal data.

In fact, the Microsoft Authenticator can be used as your app of choice for most other MFA needs. I personally use it for MFA for my bank account login, personal email, gaming accounts, and other sites. Any account I use online, I always set up MFA, and I use the Microsoft Authenticator app. It’s free and works great!

There are other MFA apps out there to use, but we recommend Microsoft Authenticator. We also recommend always using an app and avoid using text-message-codes for MFA. Text messages can be easily faked and used for account compromises.

4. “Can you get me access to mailbox/shared drive/group?”

Yes, we can! However, we first need approval from a decision maker from your business. The approval process we have is to protect both you and the organization you work for. To make the request efficient, you can have the designated approver at your business send in the request on your behalf, and we’ll get it done as soon as possible.

5. “How do I share this file with someone outside my company?”

The answer to this question depends on some factors, like the amount of data, the type of data, and the required frequency of this data share. Is it a one-time share or an ongoing collaboration of shared data?

Typically, email is limited to small amounts of data. If you attempt to send very large attachments in an email, you will likely receive a bounce-back notification that says that you have exceeded the allowed file size. These limitations are set on pretty much every email server to prevent email transmit congestion, storage limitations on email servers, and throttling from security services that need to scan every email to check for malicious things.

Our recommendation for sharing large amounts of data externally is typically OneDrive and/or Sharepoint. OneDrive and Sharepoint use the same technology, but sharing from them is different and will depend on your specific situation. So, send us a ticket letting us know what you need to share, to who, for how long, and our technicians will guide you through the best way to do so!

Have tech questions? KiteTech has answers!

Have some tech questions of your own? Well, if your business is already working with Kite Technology as your Managed IT Service Provider, hop on over to our Client Portal to ask your question or report a problem! A technician will be in touch with you to help you resolve your question.

If you’re not currently working with Kite Technology Group, consider working with us for your IT needs! Our comprehensive suite of Managed IT services plus our amazing staff of technicians, engineers, consultants, and Client Experience Managers have worked tirelessly to help the people we serve. Want to know what clients are saying about what our team is like? Check out our Client Experience page!

Start a discussion of your IT needs and strategy by contacting Kite Technology today!