So you just got a new computer for Christmas. Now what?

With the economy the way it is the price of the personal computer has reduced so drastically that many people are finally able to own one. I am writing this article for the first timer who just got a new computer this Christmas as a guide to places you can go to get help and point out some free utilities that will make your life easier.

First of all of course I am assuming since you are reading this that you have figured out how to get your computer hooked up to the internet. This was probably accomplished by the ATT, Time Warner, Wowway, Directv, AOL, Geek Squad or whatever guy coming to your house, plugging in a box, running a utility on your computer, handing you a sheet of paper and Saying, Yup, you're all hooked up Maam, I gotta go call in..y'all have a nice day. You are left holding a stack of papers and trying to sort through the ugliness of it all.

If you just plugged your computer into the internet the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT thing you want to do is Update, Update, Update. Assuming your computer is running some version of Windows be it Windows XP or Windows Vista you need to go out to the Microsoft Windows Update site BEFORE YOU GO ON ANY OTHER WEBSITE! To get to the windows update site open your Internet Explorer browser and click on the Tools Menu at the top and choose Windows Update from the drop down. One of two things will happen depending on what version of Windows you are running. If you are running Windows XP a new screen will popup and you may get a prompt asking to run ActiveX controls. Click OK. You may need to right click on a bar across the top of the screen and choose Allow active X control. Then you should click on the Grey Express button to start searching for updates. Once all updates are found Microsoft will give you a list of them. Click on the Install now link to install all of them. Wait until they are done installing. Click on Reboot if you are prompted to.

When the computer comes back up. Repeat the above procedure Over and Over and Over again until there are no critical updates left. DO NOT GO ON ANY OTHER WEBSITES UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE THIS! If it is Windows Vista you are using another Window will pop up with a yellow box you need to click on to search for updates. Search for updates, allow Windows to install them, reboot if necessary, repeat, until it tells you there are no more updates. If you do not do anything else in this article to your PC this is the THE most important piece of inforamation you should take away from it.

Now your PC is updated and protected for the most part but you are still not ready to go off into the annals of the World Wild Web. If you did not have Microsoft Office and want to install that install it now. Put the disk in, follow the prompts, install it. If you are Windows XP go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/FX101859091033.aspx otherwise if you are Vista go back to the Microsoft Update site and keep updating until there are no more. Lather, rinse, repeat. Install any other Microsoft software repeat.

Antivirus is next. Some computers come with Antivirus preinstalled or a trial version installed.

Whatever it is unless it is Microsoft Live Onecare, Mcafee or Trend, go to your control panel from your start menu and choose programs (or add remove programs on XP) and uninstall it and then go back to Best Buy or whatever computer store you bought it from and demand a discount on one of those packages because you just paid $500 for a computer from them and the AV software they installed is for the most part crap. There are free antivirus programs out there and I have written about them, but it is worth $30 to protect your investment and your time is worth more than that. Spend a weekend(weeks maybe even) without a PC while someone cleans off a virus for you and you will know what I mean. Symantec/ Norton Antivirus is just an OK product compared to Trend or Mcafee. Just trust me on it. One of my first jobs in IT over 25 years ago was as a Virus Technician at NASA Glenn (former Lewis) Space center. I've followed these products and know what is and isn't going to be useful.

Now install the Antivirus of your choice. Go into the program and run the update feature. Keep running it until there are no more updates. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now your experience on the web is useless unless you have 3 utilities installed on your computer and they are now owned by Adobe. They are Acrobat Reader, Shockwave, and Flash. The 4th program you'll need is Sun's Java. You may as well do these first.

Lets start with Shockwave first. Go out to the Adobe website at http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/ Click on the Yellow button that reads "Agree and Install now" If you are running Vista you may have to click OK on a User Access Control prompt

Uncheck the box to include Norton Security scan in the popup if you get it and click on Next, you may get a yellow bar across the top of your browser that you have to right click your mouse on to allow the installation. If all goes right shockwave will finish installing and you will be done.

Next lets install Adobe Flash. A LOT of websites require Flash. Head on over to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Click to uncheck the box in front of "Free Google Toolbar" (you don't need it) and then click on the yellow Agree and install now button. You may have to click inside the box on the next screen on the Green Shield and choose Install ActiveX and then continue or Allow on the Windows Vista User Access Control prompt. Then Click Install in the next popup window. Flash should then be installed and you are done.


Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF's at http://get.adobe.com/reader/ is installed in much the same way as the Flash Player. Be sure to click to UNCHECK the box in front of Free Google Toolbar and then click on the download button. Right click on the yellow bar across the top of your Internet Explorer browser window and choose Install Activex control from the drop down. If you have Vista as your Operating system click Continue on the User access control prompt that comes up. Next click on the Install button in the popup window. Follow the prompts to finish Adobe Reader installation. Note that there are other free versions of PDF readers like Foxit but Adobe is the industry standard.

Finally you will need Java installed. Go out to http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
and click on the blue button that reads "Java Download" , if you are Vista, click Continue in the User access control popup you get, allow any other firewall prompts you may get. Then click on Install in the popup. The java installer will download java. Accept the license agreement by clicking on the accept button. Then click on Finish when it is done. Watch for check boxes along the way prompting to install MSN or Google Toolbar and uncheck those boxes if they come up.

Now you are ready to enjoy and surf the web. Try out your new installs over on my Stressedpuppy games Site at http://www.stressedpuppy.com/ it makes use of many of the plugins we just installed! Happy computing!

Here is an additional tip from Microsoft on what to do before you connect your computer to the internet: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/advanced/xppc.mspx

3 Useful Websites to save your Favorites or Bookmarks Online

When you constantly move from computer to computer be it from home to office or to your phones browser or at the library the constant that stays in place is that you are probably always going to the same websites most of them time. Sure you can save your bookmarks in an html word file and carry them around on a USB flash drive with you or save them online in an email but there is another way.

There are a plethora of different internet sites that provide ways to save your bookmarks online but in this article I am going to describe some of the sites I have tested and tried and use frequently and give you instructions on how to set up bookmarks on each one.

Google Bookmarks
One of my favorite online sites is iGoogle. You must have a Google account in order to access iGoogle but once you do it is a simple thing to make yourself a home page that contains all of your favorites/bookmarks as well as favorite newsfeeds and applets. Go to http://www.google.com/ig and click on sign in up in the right and corner and sign in on the next page using your Google username and password. If you do not have one you can create one by clicking on the link that reads "Create an account now". You will need a current email address to set up the account but the form is fairly simple. You can use Google for all of your needs like for email with Gmail and editing and sending pictures with Picasas. Once you have a Google Id you have access to all of these great features. Look here for all of the cool free Google services available to you.

So now that you have a Google ID go to the above iGoogle page link click on Sign in, up in the right hand corner and enter in your Google username and password on the next page. You will be logged into iGoogle and are now ready to set up your iGoogle page.
You can add all sorts of things to your iGoogle page but I am only going to describe how to set up bookmarks/favorites here.


On your page you will see a link in the upper right part of the screen that reads "Add Stuff" like in the picture above. Click on that. Then in the search for gadgets box on the right top of the page, like in the picture below, type in the word Bookmarks and click on the search button.
The first result you get will be for the Google Bookmarks Gadget and look something like below. Click on the Add it now button to get it into your iGoogle page.

Now click the back to iGoogle home link in the upper left part of the page to get back to your iGoogle page. You will now see at the top of your iGoogle page the bookmarks gadget for you to start entering in and saving your bookmarks. Just click on add bookmarks and you can start creating a list of all or your Favorites/Bookmarks that will always be available to you on the iGoogle website at http://www.google.com/ig once you have added them in.

My Yahoo
I like the way Yahoo handles bookmarks/favorites quite a bit. You do need to sign up for a Yahoo account but once you do it is quite simple to get your bookmarks going. First go to http://my.yahoo.com/ You don't really need a Yahoo account to customize the page but you won't be able to move from workstation to workstation or add bookmarks if you don't set one up. Once you have a Yahoo account sign in at the My Yahoo page and click on the +Add Content button in the top left of the screen. We are again going to type in the word Bookmarks in the searchbox in the upper right of the screen and click on the magnifying glass to search.

Above is an albeit fuzzy image of what you will see as a result. The first choice on the left will be Bookmarks, click on that icon to add it and then click on the yellow I'm Done button on the bottom left. You will now have the Bookmarks Gadget on your My Yahoo page and can go about adding bookmarks to it by clicking the Add Bookmark link. You can import your current bookmarks from Internet Explore and Firefox by clicking on Manage at the top of the Bookmark applet and then Tools in the upper right part of the blue bar on the following page. Follow the instructions to import your bookmarks into your My Yahoo.

Delicious.com
Delicious.com is a social bookmarking web site that allows you to add a gadget right on to your Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox toolbar to add bookmarks as well as add them online. You certainly can't add the gadget to public computers but can do it on your home computer. Go to the signup page for Delicious at https://secure.delicious.com/register and fill out the form. You will them be able to go to the login page and get started bookmarking! Once on the Delicious bookmark screen you can import your current bookmarks. In the upper right of the screen click on the Settings Link. Click on the "Import\Upload Bookmarks" link and follow the instructions on the following pages to upload your bookmarks to Delicious. Click the "Bookmarks" tab at the top of the page to see your bookmarks. Click on "Save a new bookmark" in the upper right of the page to create your own and add a new bookmark to your page. You can create categories and sort and search through your bookmarks. Check the help pages for tips on how to best use Delicious at http://delicious.com/help Click the Home tab at the top of the page to see some of the most popular sites other users of Delicious are bookmarking and which ones are the most populr. While browsing the web you might see the Delicious logo at the bottom of articles or on blogs. You can click the delicious link while logged into delicious to add the page to your bookmarks.

While Delicious is probably the most popular and most used, About.com has a good list of 9 other Social Bookmarking sites out there on the web you can try out at: http://websearch.about.com/od/bestwebsites/tp/freebookmarks.htm

And here is a link to a blog at Mashable who has 50+ social bookmarking sites!
http://mashable.com/2007/08/08/social-bookmarking-2/

Now social bookmarking sites are not the same as say Yahoo or Google bookmarks but they are useful alternatives. Some sites require a lot more work than others. You just need to find one you like and stick with it. With social bookmarking sites you have the benefit of users ranking web sites as to their usefulness so it helps you weed out ones that are most helpful.

One of the social bookmarking sites I recently came across that appears to be fairly new is http://www.yattle.com/ .
Simple to sign up for an account, respond to confirmation email and you are ready to login and start creating bookmarks. There is a microblogging feature on this site like Twitter also.
The site claims to be in its alpha stages so tread lightly.

That is one of thing that scares me about all of these social bookmarking sites. Some come and go rather quickly. That is why it is important to back up your bookmarks to a USB Flash Key drive every so often (hopefully the site you choose allows exporting of your bookmarks) in case the unforeseeable happens and the web site disappears. That is probably not going to happen with Google, Yahoo, or Delicious (the three I mention above) but always err on the side of caution.

Download Pick: Veeam Software Vmware VI3 Monitor

Veeam Software has released a neat little monitoring utility for your VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 servers called Veeam Monitor.

"The Veeam Monitor Free Edition is an easy-to-use VMware monitoring solution designed to meet the day-to-day needs of VMware administrators who need real-time performance monitoring and alerting. Built from the ground up specifically for the virtual world, Veeam Monitor provides a bird’s-eye view of key performance metrics across your virtual ESXi infrastructure."

For more information see:
http://www.veeam.com/esxi-monitoring-free.html

"With Veeam Monitor, you can view real-time resource usage data for any virtual infrastructure object or collection of objects, as well as known infrastructure events, all on a single screen. This allows you to finally see your virtual infrastructure as a unified entity, not just a collection of isolated hosts and guests."

Download it from:
http://www.veeam.com/download.asp?step=2&license_type=36

Internet Explorer 8 will probably break websites but has compatibility view to "fix" the problem.

The hits just keep on coming. Many websites will break when Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 out to the world very soon.

By the end of 2009 it will be on Millions of computers.

One of the features Microsoft has added is called “Compatibility View” which will help show those pages which do not conform to the new standards. You will be able to download a list of not compatible sites from Microsoft into your browser (a pain) so that they show in compatility view.

Something else IT will eventually inevitably have to manage. Sigh… for more info see here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/12/03/compatibility-view-improvements-to-come-in-ie8.aspx

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ajaxWindows YAWOS (Yet Another Web OS)

Well I have written about a few of the "cloud" type Web OS tools out there including G.ho.st and Windows Live Mesh to name a few but today I would like to tell you about AjaxWindows. AjaxWindows is a project funded by Michael Robertson of MP3.com, Linspire(aka Lindows) and Mp3tunes.com fame. AjaxWindows is an online full desktop that includes word processor, email client, IP telephony with an app called Gizmocall, instant messaging and more. Ajax Windows is best run under Firefox but can be run under Internet Explorer once an active X control is installed.

As its name implies ajaxWindows uses javascript so you must have that enabled within your browser in order to run it.

ajaxWindows does not contain a built in browser, rather it uses an application launcher to use your local machines browser. This makes sense because you can't use the program in the first place if you haven't got a browser installed on your computer.

The site uses something called SyncWizard which will help you Sync your files and mobile phone, pda and even your Amazon Kindle info up to your online ajaxWindows desktop.

You can sign up for an account at the below URL:
http://www.ajaxwindows.com/apps/windows/content/index.html

Here is a demo video of Ajax Windows.