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| Written by GreyHead |
| Sunday, 12 October 2008 05:47 |
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Q: My friend has just got her first computer. She wants to email and chat to her family and friends, maybe browse a bit and write the odd letter or document. A: Never the easiest question as we users take so much for granted. How can you make a set-up simple enough that she can find her way around without needing too much support. When I was asked this last week it took me a while to work out an answer. In the end I removed as much of the pre-installed junk, trial software and other stuff as I could in the time I had available (frankly, it would have been better to have bought a copy of Vista or XP and doen a fresh install). Then I installed Google Chrome - the new Google browser. It's still in beta but in my trials it seems pretty good. And it has the great benefit of being simple with a clean and fairly clear interface. From Chrome I set up a gmail account, simple and and lives in the browser. Chrome creates a custom 'home tab' with images of the most frequently used pages so a few refreshes got Gmail on there. Then Google docs with Gears so that she can click the Documents link in Gmail and access a perfectly good word processor that will keep her documents available on or off line (or from another computer). Finishing the Google binge I installed Picasa for her to keep track of her pictures. Again it will link from the Gmail page and it's a free install. A few other odds and ends in the background. AVG Free virus scanner, an updated Windows Defender, many Vista upgrades. The Skype and Windows Live Messenger to give her communications access and the ability to do video chat. That's pretty much it. One satisfied customer. Bob PS I also installed OpenOffice but I doubt that it will ever get used. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 October 2008 17:40 |