This is one of the el cheapo models, the Acer special from Newegg. So far I've been able to keep him off the internet, but after this weekend he'll be hooked up.
He did order a 512 stick that I'll put in for him this weekend. I would like to set up his machine to run as quick and clean as possible.
So far all he's done is load MS streets and trips and got the gps to receive, so the machine is still clean, but I'd like to help him keep it that way.
After some initial setup I'm going to go to MS, from behind my router, and get most of the patches and updates. It came preloaded w/xp home- sp2, BTW.
After that I'm going to load avg free, adaware, spybot, and spywareblaster.
Then I'm going to run Belarc advisor and PCpitstop. Maybe do a few tweaks from XPTC, nothing fancy, to tighten his machine up a little.
Oh, yeah, I will be changing the admin. password and setting a few things in the BIOS. I did have him check the system specs and his cpu is running a little slow (1.6ghz - 2800+) so I might see about stepping that up somehow, or not.
He's only going to use this machine for surfing the internet, email, watching a movie now and again, and gps navigation. He understands about the low battery life (1.5 hrs) so we've got an APC inverter for his vehicle.
So, does anybody have any thoughts or tips for me? Anything major that I've missed? I'll appreciate any feedback.
He did order a 512 stick that I'll put in for him this weekend. I would like to set up his machine to run as quick and clean as possible.
So far all he's done is load MS streets and trips and got the gps to receive, so the machine is still clean, but I'd like to help him keep it that way.
After some initial setup I'm going to go to MS, from behind my router, and get most of the patches and updates. It came preloaded w/xp home- sp2, BTW.
After that I'm going to load avg free, adaware, spybot, and spywareblaster.
Then I'm going to run Belarc advisor and PCpitstop. Maybe do a few tweaks from XPTC, nothing fancy, to tighten his machine up a little.
Oh, yeah, I will be changing the admin. password and setting a few things in the BIOS. I did have him check the system specs and his cpu is running a little slow (1.6ghz - 2800+) so I might see about stepping that up somehow, or not.
He's only going to use this machine for surfing the internet, email, watching a movie now and again, and gps navigation. He understands about the low battery life (1.5 hrs) so we've got an APC inverter for his vehicle.
So, does anybody have any thoughts or tips for me? Anything major that I've missed? I'll appreciate any feedback.
