You could install Ad-Aware for free, so she can maintain a sweep of spyware later on:
http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php

Also... I have had great luck using Avira AntiVir anti-virus program. It is completely free, and updates regularly all on its on as the default. MUCH better that McAffee or Norton... and did I say it was FREE?
http://www.free-av.com/en/download/index.html

And..... here are some cool waterfall pictures if you'd like to give her a cool background picture on her desktop:
http://grandcanyon.free.fr/images/cascade/thumb.html

The best way I found to save these particular ones, was to right-mouse on the thumbnail, and select open in new window... then right-mouse on the picture in the new window and select "Save as..."

when you do that it's not actually disabled but the icons and shortcuts to it are removed.It will still pop up with certain applications and if you use the run function just type iexplore in the run box and there it is.

That's cool.

I'm done with her computer and now wishing it was mine just because it's a little faster and has a lightscribe on it..haha. However, let's keep this going and turn it into computer tips if you all would like. I love hearing about little things or places people go and do to change the look and feel of your computer to make it your own.

I use the yahoo widget service for the desktop weather widget (no, it's not like weather bug). It's customizable down to color, look and font and gives you a 5 day forecast for your town right on your desktop. I've never had an issue with resources with it and it saves me from having to click on the weather page every day.

What kinds of things do you folks put on your desktop? Other than my widget and a FEW shortcuts, mine is bare. I usually use a recent picture of our family at a function or something as my desktop background. I have no screensaver or hibernation in use.

Oh and I like igoogle. You can personalize your home page with local content and bits of webpages you frequent. It also allows you to view your gmail from the home page.

C'mon....I know there are more geeky people out there..
Who has a cool obscure web page they frequent or a neat new application?

there is also a way to edit iGoogle so that the top of the screen has a background that changes with the time change outside. At night, it with be a night scene, in the morning it shows sunrises... at mid-day there is a sun in the sky... pretty neat.

Yes! It's built into the themes. They have some nice user made themes too.

I could explain file sharing of movies, mp3s. complete audio discographies, eBooks, software and other stuff if anyone were interested... it takes a while to explain, with links but if its not "over the top" for some, I'd be happy to explain in detail.

I am also well-verse in the bittorrent world... there is SO much out there that people can access... woowoowoowoowow!

I have a few ways of archiving files and compressing them for e-mail attachments. My first application I always install at every new computer is one a lot of folks will know about, it is called "WinZip." You can purchase it, or the free demo works really great.
http://www.winzip.com/index.htm

Another much like WinZip is called "WinRAR". WinRAR has just a few more features than WinZip, so I tend to install both on a new install. It too can be purchased, or again has a very functional free demo.
http://www.rarlab.com/

And.....

If you have an even bigger group of files or one single file that is too big to attach to an e-mail, check out this page:
http://www.yousendit.com/

The YouSendIt system works like this... you upload a single file up to 100MB (or more if you want to pay, you can send 1GB in one shot for a price...) to the server they maintain. When the upload is complete, the person you are sending the file to gets an e-mail message with a hyperlink to the download. They click on the hyperlink, and the download can be started that way, instead of attaching a file to an e-mail.

The file is then kept on the YousSendIT server system for a total of 7 days, or 100 downloads, which ever comes first.

A great way for engineers to send drawings from plant to plant, or musicians to send larger .wav (Windows) or .aiff (Mac) files to fellow musicians anywhere on the planet. Or, you can use WinZip or WinRAR to back up a who;le bucnh of your favortie hi-res pictures, and send them at one time to family members.

:-)

Resident computer geek,



TelephoneMan

The only problem I have with DELL as a company now, is that as of a few years ago, and due to the trade door being opened for profitable globalization, they now have all of their home tech support based in Bangalore, India. I believe the company that helps DELL out with this is InfoSys, who's main office is in Bangalore.

So if you get a thick-accented English speaking tech support individual when calling in to DELL (Gateway and others have done the same thing...), that's why.

My last DELL experience went something like this... and remember I am a computer tech, and I can build my own computer from scratch... The tech support person asked me to spell my name 7 times. My name is Jim. J....I....M.... I am not exaggerating... I counted how many times I had to repeat the same thing...

Then I was under warranty with DELL for 3 years and my CD drive went out. When the floppy had failed, all they did was send me a new floppy, I swapped it out, and sent the old one back in the same box, with a shipping label they provided.

It would have been just as easy to do this with the CD drive but... NOOOOOOOOOO.

The tech from India could not understand that I was a highly capable computer tech, and his script that he was paid to read would not allow him to deviate creatively as did the tech support person who had simply sent me the floppy.

Soooooo...

Before I could make it straight with him, he told me he was sending a tech support technician to my last address on the DELL account. Which was my parent's house, 120 miles away!!!!!

I rushed to my truck, drove 120 miles across the state, and arrived JUST ahead of the tech guy. Who took 10 minutes to replace the cd drive... which I could have done myself, had the tech support guy been able to understand U.S. English.

What a pain in my a$$.

So from now on, I steer clear of DELL, not because of computer quality, but because of their globalized/off-shored tech support.

Now I just build my own machines and maintain them myself.

I just built a machine that in the DELL web site would have cost me $3,500... if I would have bought the same machine from Apple (a Mac)... it would have been $5,500.

My cost by being thrifty, buying all name-brand components and some of the best I could find?

$957.32

It pays to know about the guts of a computer.....

I use yousendit a lot.....used to use image shack some too. It was a quick way to send stuff to friends from my computer chat room.

Love your tips telephone man!

You maybe able to flip the monitor screen upside down on some Dells using the following key combinations. Hold down the following keys at the same time.

ctrl, alt, page up, or page down,
ctrl, alt, arrow keys.

Just giving her Firefox 3 is mean.

I downloaded it for my applemac and it freezes and stutters and stops a lot. It has lots of bugs. I finally had to go back to safari.

Mozilla products are awesome. I assume your issue is the Mac compatibility.

too late, but I'm storing that info...haha

For storing or sharing pics, I use PhotoBucket:

http://photobucket.com/

One of those web addresses that doesn't have a "www" before all of it...

If anybody has a free mp3 hosting site, please share. I have a ton of music I have written that I'd love to share.

...............