Geoffrey De Smet
Lately I 've had some requests from family members to setup their new computer so it's secure and easy to work with. Hoping to avoid repeatable mistakes, I 've written a checklist.
This setup is for normal end-users using Windows. It works both on new computers as already working ones. All this software (except windows) is free of course.
To fix Windows.
You 'll need to use Internet Explorer for this. You could also just do Start/All programs/Update windows. Repeat this untill the site says no new updates found. Ussually Windows needs to reboot for every service pack so this will take a while.
To surf the web safely and comfortably.
Firefox is a web browser. Always use this one in favor of Internet Explorer to avoid spyware/addware. It also offer a much better user experience.
To detect computer virusses. The free version keeps itself up to date which is very important for a virus scanner.
To check your e-mail comfortably.
You can get a free Gmail account and use it with Thunderbird instead of the web interface.
To write texts, create spreadsheets or do presentations. Works with MS office files (doc, xls, ppt, ...).
To watch films in any type (divx, mpeg, avi, ...).
To edit and create images (png, jpg, gif, svg, ...).
Inkscape is great for drawing perfect scalable logo's, The gimp is ok for editing photo's and Dia is great for drawing technical diagrams (networks, houses, ...).
To edit and create music files (mp3, wav, ...).
If you're looking for a free and user-friendly alternative to Windows, I can recommend Ubuntu. Most of the software above is default installed or 1 click installable on Ubuntu. However, most of the latest games don't work on Ubuntu, except for simple games (such as Tetris) which are also 1 click installable.
