A Guide to Using Computers and the Internet

This will be the reader’s digest version an overview of getting set up with cheap and/or free ways to get you set up with a great system. 

Basics - The Hardware side

This is the very beginning of getting started. If you already are comfortable with your rig, skip this section.

1. Get a computer. This is obviously the most important step of this guide. You must choose carefully what kind of computer you want. Adhere to this blog post to keep in mind what’s important when purchasing your laptop/desktop PC. If you want great all-around computing, I’d advise at least 4GB of RAM with at least 500 GB of space. If you are planning on moving around a lot or using your computer as a student to take notes, you should get a nice laptop. I’d go for Asus or Apple hardware. If you’re fine with being less portable, I recommend a desktop. With desktops, you will always get a better bang for your buck. You can also easily add more monitors, change them out at your leisure, and switch out the keyboard. Desktop computers are also more easy to customize in general. For any purchase you make, I’d advise either building it yourself with parts, or getting a whole machine from NewEgg. I’ve seen the best quality, price, and options from that website.

(There is a lot to making sure you get a good computer, especially if you’re building a custom one. I may make a more detailed post on that later).

2. Get a solid mouse and keyboard. You will be using these a lot, so look up reviews, watch videos, and try keyboards and mice until you find a pair you really like. Remember, you can adjust thing like typing speed, cursor sensitivity and more on the software. So just focus on how the mouse feels in your hand and how the keys feel when pressed. It’s up to you whether or not you want wireless, wired, ergonomic, thin, thick, light, heavy, or slick. Try all of your options. 

3. Get a comfortable chair and a good desk. Unless you already have a designated space for computing, it’s extremely important to get a good comfortable chair for the hours upon hours of time you spend at your computer. If you need a decent chair cheaply and quickly, look at a thrift store. You can find some great ones there! Also goes for desks if you need them.

4. Consider buying an electric fan. You want to try and keep your computing environment as cool as possible, and using a fan is a great way to do that. 

5. Buy cleaning supplies. This may involve a can of compressed air for combatting internal dust, a cleaning cloth, a screen protector, a cover case, or whatever else you feel is appropriate for keeping your hardware in good condition. 

6. Buy a power strip. Not only will you need a lot of outlets to plug in your electronics, but you’ll want a surge-protected power strip to protect them. This device kills two birds with one stone.

Next Steps - The Software Side Windows or Mac? The computer’s operating system will play a large role in your computing experience. This is just one question to consider on the software side.

Note: Much of the software can be downloaded at my computer help site here. Also, I strongly encourage you to visit Ninite.com. It’s an awesome website for installing must-have apps in bulk!

1. Decide what OS you want. If you want OS X, I wouldn’t attempt to go the Hacintosh method (running OS X on a Windows OEM machine), although it has been done. Grab a MacBook Pro. Those things are beasts! They can stand a lot of heat, are portable, and do a good job overall. If you want Windows, I’d go with either something form Asus (desktop or laptop) or HP (desktop). You could even purchase a MacBook Pro and run OS X’s BootCamp and put Windows on your Mac. It’s a great option and I can attest that it works (Parallels is another option for running OS X and Windows simultaneously). 

2. Get Virus Protection. If you’re running Windows 8, Windows Defender is built in and does a great job, but I’d also install MalwareBytes for Malware. If you’re running Windows 7 or before, download Microsoft Security Essentials and MalwareBytes. If you’re running OS X, I recommend Sophos Antivirus Protection (the whole “Macs never get viruses is a fallacy, by the way. Always be protected). Note: You do not necessarily need to pay for an antivirus program. Norton, McAfee, AVG and others do a lackluster job, and I generally don’t recommend them.

3.  Get a decent browser. And by decent browser, I pretty much mean Google Chrome. Although each one has its benefits, I’ve found Google Chrome to be the best for me (although I use Firefox and Internet Explorer as well). No matter what browser you use, make sure to utilize bookmarks (Ctrl+Shift+B to toggle view on Windows, Cmd+Shift+B to toggle the view on OS X). Using bookmarks/favorites saves lots of time and allows you to get to the websites you care about quickly. Ctrl+D (Windows)/Cmd+D (Mac) will favorite the web page you are viewing. Name it something you will understand, and put it in a folder to start organizing your bookmarks. Also, make sure to utilize a browser’s third party addons from their store. Look up reviews to find the best ones. 

Google Chrome users: Get these addons. Addons are great features and here are a few I recommend to anyone:

Adblock - Blocks ads on webpages. Make sure to turn it off to support the sites you care about, though! FB unseen - Removes the “Seen by” from your friends message inboxes, so  they won’t know whether or not you’ve read their messages. Helpful in plenty of scenarios… Readability - Removes the clutter and lets you read the webpage in a clean, simple interface. Helpful for printing online articles, too. WiseStamp - Email signature creator for Gmail. Helpful for embedding a picture, phone number, social icons, and more into each of your emails.

Firefox users: Get these addons.

Adblock Plus - Similar to Adblock for Chrome. VideoDownloadHelper - Great addon for downloading YouTube videos in HD and other content sources.  DownThemAll! - Download manager/accelerator that makes it easy to mass-download content from a webpage. 

4. Get tools to make your PC faster. Download CCleaner for Mac and Windows. It will remove temporary files stored on the system. Make sure to utilize Disk Cleanup, Defragment and other features on Windows as well as OS X’s Disk Utility Manager tools. Regularly run these programs to keep your computer running smoothly. Keep track of the files that take up the most space by using WinDirStat (for Windows).

5. Get photo editing software. Right now, Adobe’s website is practically giving away it’s CS2 Adobe Creative Suite for free! Although they are optimized for older operating systems, they still work (on Windows, anyway. I had a harder time trying to get the Mac version to work on OS X 10.8 / Mountain Lion). Other great free programs are Gimp (or GimpShop for Windows), Inkscape (for Mac, also available in the Appstore), Paint.NET and Irfanview are also great tools. A program called InstantEyeDropper for Windows is helpful for grabbing a Hex code of a color. 

Modern UI-specific photo software: Syncfusion’s MetroStudio and Microsoft Expression Design, both free. 

6. Get a word processor. If you’re a student, this is a must-have. Arguably all of Microsoft Office is really a must-have. If you’re a student, look out for student discounts and deals, as Microsoft often has cheaply-priced copies ready to hand out to students. You can get Office 2013 for Windows, or Office 2011 for Mac. iWork works well if you’re running OS X as well. If you don’t want to spend money, iWork is rolling out on iCloud for web use and Microsoft’s web versions of Office are online as well (integrated with SkyDrive). Google Drive also has Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Presentations which are great web apps (and free). 

7. Get a remote access program. Have multiple computers? Or need to access a computer from another one? Download TeamViewer. It’s free for non-commercial use and its extremely useful for managing multiple computers from just using one. 

8. Download legit video editing software. Video editing is good skill to have. Windows Movie Maker is a solid program for Windows (although it lacks advanced features), and iMovie is a very good application for OS X. Not everyone can afford Adobe After Effects, or Final Cut Pro, but keep on eye out on free programs. A cheap alternative (not free) and a SOLID movie editor is Cyberlink PowerDirector. It has a lot of advanced tools and it very user friendly for editing and producing video content. 

9. Run updates regularly. Don’t put off or ignore updates unless you absolutely must. Otherwise they will stack up and become a hindrance. Not only that, but you won’t be running the potentially best, most secure version of the software you paid for. Also - Java is not evil, it improves your web experience. Please install its updates. 

10. Laptop users - keep your laptop charged. Don’t let the battery run out due to your negligence. Charge it whenever you can! You’ll thank yourself later. 

11. Use cloud storage. I can recommend Dropbox or SkyDrive for Windows and Mac. In case of a hard drive failure, it’s important to keep your most important files in the cloud so they’re safe and accessible anywhere. Many student friends of mine lost their 7 page essays due to computer/hard drive failures and that should NEVER happen to anyone. Dropbox and SkyDrive puts a folder on your computer that constantly synced with the cloud, to make sure you can recover your most important files. 

12. Get a client to organize your computer games. I can recommend Steam for both Windows and Mac. You can load all of your games onto it and its a great way to organize and keep track of your gaming library. 

13. Get video chatting software. You can use Skype, which is the most common, but if you want multiple video chat for free, I recommend Oovoo or using Google+ Hangouts. 

14. Get a versatile video player. Sometimes your camera creates your videos in strange file formats. When Windows Media Player/iTunes can’t play them, you need VLC Player. This beast video play can play pretty much any media file. 

15. Get a music library organizer/player. Zune (Windows only) is my personal favorite, but iTunes and Spotify work, too (Mac or Windows).

16. Get an archive opener. I recommend 7-Zip. It’s free and the most versatile manager. You use these programs to open .zip files. 

17. Adjust your power settings. This is especially important if you have a laptop. Adjust when your computer goes to sleep, powers off, etc. This will vary depending on how you want to use it. 

Good Computing/Internet Habits

Adhere to these to have a stress-free computing/web experience. 

1. Clean your computer regularly - software and hardware. Use the installed programs to clear junky files out of your system, and cleaning supplies to clean the hardware of your machine. 

2**. Organize your files.** You will likely be downloading/managing a lot of files. Use the folders into the OS and create subfolders to group your files. Think ahead - create a method to your madness early. You don’t want your Downloads folder to become your single directory for…everything. 

3. Keep your passwords SECURE. I wrote all about that in a previous post. This is important to enjoying the many services you will be using on your computer and on the web. 

4. Find a secure, safe way to keep track of your accounts/passwords. You’re liable to forget your credentials every once and a while, so find a safe way to keep track of them. I keep a list somewhere of all of my online accounts, with hints to my passwords. If I forget, I can refer to this list. 

5. Don’t install bloatware and a ton of useless programs. Let’s be honest, are you going to really need that Kitten Internet Toolbar? If you don’t really need it and it seems sketchy, don’t download it.

6. Read each step when installing a program. Oftentimes, freeware will try to trick you into installing extra programs you don’t want. READ CAREFULLY everything that is check-marked by default, and when in doubt, select “Custom” rather than “Express” to make sure these settings are what you want. 

7. Submit your credit card information sparingly. If you don’t see an “https://” preface in the URL, do NOT submit your credit card number or other information. You must make sure the website is secure before giving personal information.

8. If you’re a Gmail user, utilize labels and filters. This will help you organize your mail. For example, every time I receive an email from my University, it gets labeled. I can also label other relevant messages. So if I ever need to see messages only from my University, I can view my label to find them. It will make finding that lost receipt or random bit of account information that much easier. 

9. Keep your drives open when unused. This includes safely removing USB drives when you disconnect, and not leaving in DVD/CDs in your disk drives. 

10. If you’re not sure, don’t do it yourself. If you aren’t sure if a site is secure, a program is good, your files are deleted, whether or not it’s a good idea to upgrade your OS, or mostly anything else, make sure you get some advice from a knowledgeable friend. If you don’t have a tech-savvy friend to talk to, go onto help forums. EightForums.com is a great resource for Windows 8 questions and Apple support is excellent, too. 

11. Take a break. It’s easy to spend long amounts of time on your computer. Make sure you take breaks to stand up, move around, and stretch. Take a walk. Go outside. Do something active. Keep your health in mind.

If you have any questions on any of these steps, feel free to visit my PC Help website or send me a tweet (@davidvkimball).