My daughter's Dell just arrived and she wants me to set it up for her. So

 

Update Windows

Update Anti-virus

Add Anti-Spyware

Install Office Suite

Install iTunes

Add photos of dad

Anything I'm forgetting?

Buy her a Mac.

Took care of the post for ya Jim

set up her homepage as soxtalk.com and give her a nice white sox wallpaper

set up her homepage as soxtalk.com and give her a nice white sox wallpaper

 

LOL. I forgot about her browser. I have until 9:00 pm to have this in her hands. She can't wait. Of course there is the obligatory two hours of Microsoft updates.

She is asking for a good screen grabber, any choice downloads? preferably free. I always use the cut and paste into Paint, I guess there are better options.

Here's a good desktop site:

 

http://interfacelift.com/

Here's a good desktop site:

 

http://interfacelift.com/

 

cool, thanks

Downgrade to XP.

 

Consider adding Kaspersky as protection if she's had virus problems in the past. It's really the best anti-spyware/virus/firewall protection you can buy. One of the few (maybe only?) that has EVERY noted threat out there. And they update their threat protection list daily.

Edited April 9, 200818 yr by BobDylan

Yeah I made that mistake with my laptop R.E Vista, especially for games.

 

Actually while we're on the subject, what's the best gaming laptop out there ATM (I'm also talking value wise), if anyone has any ideas.

She is asking for a good screen grabber, any choice downloads? preferably free. I always use the cut and paste into Paint, I guess there are better options.

 

For a screen capture you can use Snag It.

 

Here are the basics.

 

Remember to make sure her firewall is on, and that the Automatic Updates are set to download and install automatically.

 

If you are running Vista or XP and need to use IE then use IE7 and run it once, so you can setup the phishing protection and turn it on. Or use Firefox and ad adblock to it.

 

http://www.winpatrol.com/ Runs in the system tray and alerts on changes to startup behavior.

 

Make sure you download the latest adobe reader. The version that may have come with the laptop may be vulnerable to some security issues.

 

 

For a screen capture you can use Snag It.

 

Here are the basics.

 

Remember to make sure her firewall is on, and that the Automatic Updates are set to download and install automatically.

 

If you are running Vista or XP and need to use IE then use IE7 and run it once, so you can setup the phishing protection and turn it on. Or use Firefox and ad adblock to it.

 

http://www.winpatrol.com/ Runs in the system tray and alerts on changes to startup behavior.

 

Make sure you download the latest adobe reader. The version that may have come with the laptop may be vulnerable to some security issues.

 

Thank you, she's a Firefox user, I did not install adblock (damn I forgot). I did update Adobe and the usual ad ons. I set up a folder on her desktop called weekly and told her to open it and run each program. I'm thinking I may just buy an anti-spyware program so it will happen automatically.

 

I just came back from helping her through a network snag. My ex turned off all security. No firewall, no passwords, nada, nothing.

Uninstall all the garbage Dell pre-installs to lower the cost of their computers, too.

 

Oh, and install this since you're a FF user: http://noscript.net/

 

Call me paranoid, but I don't like when sites run 3rd party scripts on my browser...ever.

Uninstall all the garbage Dell pre-installs to lower the cost of their computers, too.

 

Oh, and install this since you're a FF user: http://noscript.net/

 

Call me paranoid, but I don't like when sites run 3rd party scripts on my browser...ever.

 

 

Good catch.

 

We have used http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ to clear a lot of the automatic garbage that is packaged with machines. For the most part we dont deal with it because we run a standard image, but occasionally we get a user who buys a laptop on their own, and then complains when those auto-installed apps break something.

 

 

 

 

Good catch.

 

We have used http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ to clear a lot of the automatic garbage that is packaged with machines. For the most part we dont deal with it because we run a standard image, but occasionally we get a user who buys a laptop on their own, and then complains when those auto-installed apps break something.

 

I often go above and *way* beyond with my personal computers and computers in my family. I'll manually uninstall all the garbage, run crap cleaner on them (ccleaner.com), run a registry defrag/optimize (auslogics.com - regdefrag) and then defragment them (auslogics.com - diskdefrag), and on top of that I'll harden the OS by disabling just about 50% of the default started services that run (services.msc) which are useless for 99% of the users out there.

 

I'll also rip crap out of my startup folder and run sequence from the registry. For example, anything that NVidia loads via the run directory in the registry is *not* necessary, so I remove it.

Edited April 9, 200818 yr by Y2HH

While we are asking questions, anyone want to recommend a solid laptop for someone who needs to run a bunch of streaming programs for trading, without it having a crazy price tag?

What sort of price tag are you looking at?

Under $1000 would be nice, less would be even better...

slickdeals.net

 

keep your eye out there...they are always posting sick deals on laptops...and such

Under $1000 would be nice, less would be even better...

 

Anything. Seriously. Most any laptop you buy nowadays is more than good enough for ANY task besides gaming. Just make sure you have 2 GB of RAM or more, and you're set.

The Toshiba Satellite A200 got voted as the best value model down here in a PC User Magazine down here a while back.

 

Here are all of the Satellite models (around your price range);

 

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cfam.to?coid=-26377

 

Also here is the laptop I'm looking to upgrading to.

 

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pa...ode=SKU-DEFAULT

*BUMP*

 

My computer's not long before it will be ready to kick the bucket.

 

I recently got an external HD for backing up some essentials. I've stored all my entire documents folder of pictures, music, etc. Is there anything else that would be wise for me to be storing on here?

*BUMP*

 

My computer's not long before it will be ready to kick the bucket.

 

I recently got an external HD for backing up some essentials. I've stored all my entire documents folder of pictures, music, etc. Is there anything else that would be wise for me to be storing on here?

If you can just mirror your entire drive, why not do it?