Andrews Family

Strongly Recommended
Recommended
Other Useful Stuff
Other Geek Stuff

Strongly Recommended

Anti-virus
Running anti-virus protection is essential. Which one you use isn’t that important to me since most of major ones like Norton and McAfee do equally well protecting the average home user. That is as long as they are running and up to date. But most of the commercial anti-virus products charge a yearly subscription. Also, most of the major commercial software package also try to do more for you than just prevent you from viruses such as improving your PC’s performance. My experience is that all that extra stuff isn’t needed and just slows you down.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - This is a free version but it does really well, it just doesn’t have all of the configuration options that paid versions have. For example, you can’t configure when it scans or when it downloads updates. The good thing is that since you can’t configure it, you also can’t “mess it up”. We use it on our laptop and it has worked as well as the paid versions. Virus protection is a must have and just as important as it is to keep the virus definitions up to date.

Automatic Updates for Windows XP
I highly recommend having Automatic Updates turned on to make sure you have the latest critical updates from Microsoft. It is probably on by default, but you can set it up by going to Start>>Control Panel>>Automatic Updates.

Don’t Install Unnecessary Software
Unless it is something you know is a quality piece of software AND you really need it, don’t install it. The quickest way to have problems with your computer (like it running slow) is to install a bunch of un-needed software. It is tempting with a fast Internet connection to just try software out, but I’d stay away. Even high quality software can slow your computer down. Often times software sets small pieces to start when the computer starts up and does things like checking for updates or making the program load faster when you click on it. All of these small programs end up running and added together can significantly slow down your computer. By the way, if you want to make me upset, and I mean really upset, you can do one of two things: touch my computer screen and leave finger prints all over, or install a piece of junk software on my PC.

If you think you need that additional Instant Messaging software client (which undoubtedly will add another icon to the system tray) then check out GAIM below.

You may think you can just uninstall all of this additional software but it will likely leave junk behind. Software companies spend 95% of their time creating the program, 4% creating the installer so that you can use it, and maybe 1% on the uninstaller. New computers these days are a means for advertising and come loaded with tons of trial software and other ‘crapware’. If possible I recommend installing the OS from scratch, otherwise I recommend uninstalling all this unnecessary software as mentioned in my page on my Optimizing Windows XP.

User Accounts
I recommend having one account with Administrator privileges and a separate ‘everyday’ account with restricted privileges. The main thing that Administrator privileges gives you is the ability install/uninstall software. This is a good buffer to make you think twice before installing software. If you really want to install it, you just log in as the Administrator and install it. You can set up user accounts by going to Start>>Control Panel>>User Accounts.

 Note: Since a limited user can not install software, if you want Automatic Updates to work it needs to be set to “Automatic (Recommended)” from the administrative account. Then it will download and install the updates regardless of the user privileges.

 Tip: If you are logged in as a limited user you can run programs as another account by right clicking on it and selecting “Run As”. Then you can enter the credential of an administrator and not have to switch accounts.

Anti-Spyware
Windows Defender - Microsoft actually provides free anti-spyware software called Windows Defender. There are good free anti-spyware applications ot there, like Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition, but it requires you to run it manually, which most people don’t remember too. Windows Defender is always running much like an anti-virus software so you are always protected.

Backing Up
There are lots of different ways and software programs that can be used to back up parts or even all of the information on your PC. No matter how you decide to do it, you should backup the important data such as your financial records (including Quicken or Microsoft Money files), digital pictures, videos, email, and anything else that you don’t want to lose for good. If you don’t backup or if you keep putting it off; you will end up being sorry. A computer’s hard drive is a mechanical system with moving parts so even if you are careful to prevent viruses, eventually one of those mechanical parts will fail and your drive will be a paper weight. Back things up to a different physical media, such as a CD, DVD, or another hard drive in another PC. I backup occasionally to another PC since I have several and then also backup to DVDs once a year and put them in a safety deposit box. That may seem overkill, but if there would happen to be a fire we would have a copy somewhere else. If you don’t have a safety deposit box, you can keep your remote backups at a friend’s or relative’s house. Believe me when I tell you, you’ll be sorry when your hard drive crashes if you didn’t back up.

Data Management
Another of the biggest problems most users have is where they save their data. I recommend coming up with a scheme and sticking to it. There are lots of different schemes but just come up with something that work. It could be as easy as saving everything in “My Documents”. Since I have two hard drives, I save all of my files to a folder scheme on my second drive. That way if Windows gets messed up, I can reinstall Windows on my first hard drive and my data will still be there on the second drive. But data management isn’t a substitute for backing data up, it just makes it easier to do so.

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Recommended 

Digital Pictures
Digital cameras are great because you can take so many pictures and it doesn’t cost anything. But all those pictures don’t do any good if you can’t find them or never look at them. The first thing is that you have to copy the pictures to your computer. I recommend making a “Pictures” folder with all of your other personal data and then store your pictures in folders named for the year and month they were taken- such as “2005_01”. It is easy to do and a month seems to be a pretty good dividing line. Using “01” instead of “1” makes them alphabetically sort to the correct chronological order.

To organize further I’ve started using Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 which lets you tag photos with categories and create virtual collections. It isn’t free and is actually a little price but I was able to catch it on rebate. I think it is worth it if you are into photography. Picasa, from Google, is a free alternative which is also good and highly recommended by other source although I haven’t used it much. Picasa would probably be more than enough for the average home user. Both of these software packages not only help you organize your pictures so that you can find what you are looking for but they also include the ability to edit your photos. One of my favorites is the feature to automatically adjust a picture to improve color and lighting which can really improve your photos with very little effort.

I also recommend showing your pictures off. Make prints, DVD slide shows, or whatever you like to show off your pictures. Ordering prints on-line is easy and cheap or you can save on shipping and go to a store. Buying prints is quicker and easier than buying photo paper and cutting your own photos out.

If you’re interested in getting a digital camera let me know, I have a guide for that as well. 

Email Account
Gmail – A free web-based email account. It has more storage then you would ever need and has good spam filtering. The best part is that it is free and has POP3 access, which means that at home you can have it automatically download you email messages into Outlook and you can still check it on web if you aren’t at home. You can’t just sign up (you have to be invited), but I can send you an invite if you are interested.

Passwords
Eventually you will end up with a bunch of passwords to different things and most people end up using the same password for everything which isn’t a good idea. So I recommend using a password safe program.

KeePass Password Safe – Good program to store passwords for things like on-line shopping accounts, on-line banking, etc… It is Open Source, meaning it is free. This is an easy (and safe) way to keep track of all of you usernames and passwords.

Wireless Internet Router with Hardware Firewall
If you have high-speed Internet and multiple computers, I recommend a hardware firewall to protect your PC, also because it gives you wireless Internet which is useful if you have more than one computer.  Most routers have a hardware firewall built in and a wireless router gives you wireless Internet in your house and only cost about $20 after rebates. The cost of wireless equipment is often cheaper and a ton easier than doing things hard wired.

Disk Utilities
Periodically it is good to defragment or “optimize” your hard drive. Windows XP has a built in tool which will check how fragmented your drive is and defragment it for you which can be found at Start>>All Programs>>Accessories>>System Tools>>Disk Defragmenter. There is also a Disk Cleanup utility to clean up and create free space on your hard drive.

File Searching (Indexed)
Google Desktop Search  - Lets you instantly search the files on your computer. So if you know you have a Word document somewhere on a topic you can just search and find it. Since it indexes your files, it just searches the index. It also gives you the option set Google as the default search site for Internet Explorer.

Office Suite
Open Office – If you don’t have a copy of Microsoft Office, don’t worry because Open Office is very good. It is very similar to Microsoft Office and can open documents from Microsoft Office and can even save files for Microsoft Office. Best of all it is completely free. If you have any doubts, give it a try and then see if you are willing to part with your hard earned money.

Other Useful Stuff

Update Applications/Components - If you are using a limited user account rather than an administrator account it can get annoying when you visit web pages that need the latest versions of these components.

Adobe Reader - I recommend deselecting the additional tool bar software they try to bundle in when you download it. After it is installed or updated then:

• Edit>>Preferences, select "Do not automatically check for updates"
• Edit>>Preferences, Startup deselect "Show Messages and auto update"
• Uninstall Adobe download manager (Control Panel>>Add Remove Programs)

Java

• Control Panel>>Java>>Update>>Update Now, I also disable checking for updates automatically.
• If Java isn’t installed you can get it here. Its commonly used in web pages.

Update/Install Macromedia Flash
Update/Install Shockwave

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Instant Messaging
MSN Messenger- To use MSN Messenger you need to first have MSN Messenger installed which you may already have but I’d recommend getting the latest version. Then when you launch MSN Messenger you can login or click the link to “Get a New Account” and follow the instructions. You can use any email address for your MSN account, for example I use my @gmail.com address, so you don’t have to sign up for a new Hotmail account. Then once you are signed in you can go to Tools>>Options and customize it the way you want. I have it automatically startup when I log into Windows and I also do not have it show “MSN Today” when it signs in. One reason I prefer MSN over other IM services is that it does video chatting well.

GAIM – An open source Instant Messaging client which supports multiple protocols such as Yahoo Messenger, MSN, Google Talk, and more; and it allows you to be logged into more than one at a time rather then running all of their own clients individually. A drawback to GAIM is that it doesn’t support audio or video conversations. So if want to do that I’d recommend MSN Messenger. If you are on Mac and want to do video conversations to people who have Windows I think your only option is to use AIM.

PDF Creation
PDFCreator – If you need to share something with other people a PDF file is a good choice. This is how most companies distribute manuals and documents since the software to read it is free and available for all platforms. This free open source software acts like a virtual printer so from any program you can print to this virtual printer which creates a PDF file which you can then share or email.

DVD Backup/Copying
DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc or just save it to your hard drive. Commonly, purchased DVDs have copyright protection which prevents you from copying them. DVD Shrink is able to defeat copyright protection, which isn’t illegal, but what you do from there could be. But it isn’t illegal to make a copy of your kid’s favorite DVD so that you have a back up just in case it gets scratched. 

Web Authoring
Nvu – Although I haven’t used it yet, I’ve heard it is good and I plan on giving it a try to see how it compares to Microsoft FrontPage. Plus it is Open Source and hence free. Check with your Internet Service Provider to see if you have free web-space with your Internet access. But web hosting and web development really would need to be it’s own discuss outside of the scope of this document.

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Other Geek Stuff

Text Editor
Notepad++ - This is an open source text editor. It’s included in the "Geek" category because if you are interested in this it is likely because of it’s ability to do syntax highlighting for different programming languages.

FTP
Filezilla – Open source File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client program. FTP is commonly used to upload files to a web server. Internet Explorer can do FTP but this program has more features and is very handy if you use FTP. There is also a server version so that you can run your own FTP server. But before you do that and pass it through your firewall, make sure you know what you are doing so that you don’t let unwanted people in.

Linux
Interested in seeing what Linux is but you aren’t ready to commit to installing it on your PC. Try a Live CD/DVD like Knoppix. Basically it is a bootable CD or DVD that will run Linux from the CD or DVD without needing to be installed. So you can test drive it and use it without having to commit to it. It can also be a good troubleshooting and recovery tool in case your operating system goes down.

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