Tech-assistance app Soluto will be the first non-US app to be released on the Windows 8 Store, the details of which will be revealed today at Mobile World Congress as part of Microsoft’s Keynote.
Soluto is effectively an IT helpdesk amongst friends and family. Users can set up computers as either clients or as a server, which means the more tech savvy supervisors can administer, update, and solve problems on their friends’ computers.
Soluto co-founder and CEO, Tomer Dvir, discussed the announcement and what it means for the fledgling Israeli company.
"Soluto was founded in order to help as many as possible enjoy technology more. The computing world is increasingly divided into two groups of computer users and the larger one of the two is those that aren’t techie – like my mum for example. She’s one of the reasons we started the company. Now we’re one of the first apps for Windows Store, its a privilege," said Dvir.
The Israeli start-up based in Tel-Aviv originally launched with its ‘anti-frustration software’ – it basically analysed your system and installed updates that sped up web browsing, boot times and analysed program crashes.
The software now goes further and operates as a remote client, so friends and family with some technology knowledge can keep their less tech savvy friends up to speed – without paying a fortune in IT costs.
Content from our partners
Soluto now installs security updates, apps and software (such as Skype and Dropbox), and Dvir says is constantly adding apps as needed. It will also do silent app updates and operate while the client machine is off – so the end user doesn’t have to do anything.
Soluto also allows a computer to be monitored from anywhere in the world, checking memory usage, available disk space, CPU temperature and more.
"It’s also very safe and secure. We made sure that the people helping with PCs cannot see any personal files, desktop or browser history on the computer they are working on. It keeps it anonymous," said Dvir.
Dvir says the company was founded on the principle that people using technology ‘should be happy’ and concentrating on the experience, rather than stressing over updates, system crashes and long boot up times.
The interface was specifically designed to provide this ease of use, Dvir describing it as ‘simple, playful and fun’ and most importantly, clean.
The company adapted its Soluto software to the Windows Metro interface by working on the Windows 8 Beta developers preview last year. Dvir said the new platform was easy enough to work with.
At the time of the interview, the Soluto team were unsure how much stage time they would be getting as part of Microsoft’s Windows 8 demo, but remain very flattered to be on what is a very exclusive list. Dvir said Microsoft is being extremely picky about what is available on the store to keep the quality up and avoid some of the pitfalls of the spam riddled Android App Store.
The app will be free to download for all users up to five machines. Enterprise users pay a license fee for between 6-60 machines. The company may focus on even larger enterprise operations in the future.
Soluto is currently available on all Microsoft operating systems back to Windows XP. The company has not ruled out adding other mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets from other platforms in the future.
