What kind of progs do your average computer users need?

[Demosthenes]

So I've been talked in to going over to a friend's house to help them set up the new family computer. The users will be a 17 year old female (my friend), 15 year old female and their mom. I'm burning a cd right now full of all the progs I can think of they'll need.... they'll be on dialup and the last thing I want to do is sit around witing for it to finish.

So what I've got going right now:

AIM
Winamp
Winzip
Acrobat Reader
Latest media player
Napster
Morpheus
iMesh (maybe)
Audiocatalyst
--------------------
So, does anyone have any other suggestions? I don't exactly want to end up making multiple trips over there to help install some software they've discovered they need. Thanks in advance!


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[gopunk]

ms office
audiogalaxy (better than the others imho)
norton antivirus

 

[AthlonMan]

Okay.

MS Office or Corel Word Perfect Suite
Norton Anti-Virus
ACDSee
Adobe Photoshop

 

[Demosthenes]

I have Office XP, forgot to add that. I also have photoshop......... I may install that, who knows maybe in a while someone in the family will want to do some graphics work. Dang, I don't have a virus scanner though.. need to look into that.

 

[VBboy]

Jpegs... LOTS of Jpegs.

 

[TunaBoo]

Webcam that auto aims for the boobs and gives u a live camera feed.

 

[slakhead]

Opera (the web browser)
http://www.opera.com/download/

Trillian (icq, msn, aim, yahoo messengers all in one program)
http://www.trillian.cc

and Star Office for word processing, etc.
it is an office suite that can stand up against MS Office quite well.
http://www.sun.com/staroffice/

Enjoy!

 

[Demosthenes]

Haha.. whew, I think that may be over-estimating what a couple of teenage girls will be interested in. I have managed to get my hands on a good virus scanner, though.

And Tunaboo... believe me, I'd love to have one

 

[gopunk]

hate to break it to you guys, but the average computer user wants a program that's the standard, not the underdog. so ms office and internet explorer would be my bets.

and i'm not sure the average computer user would need something as powerful as photoshop.

 

[lilnnjaboy]

I really really really really recommend the web cam thing....please send me the IP

 

[TunaBoo]

<< I really really really really recommend the web cam thing....please send me the IP >>



Me 2

 

[Paul]

Haha, how about device drivers? Those can take awhile to hunt down. Operating System, DivX Codec, RealPlayer, Quicktime, WebWasher, Distributed.net, Weatherbug, Image Editor.

Is this a brand name Dell, Compaq rig or a custom job with no software?

 

[McCarthy]

OS - duh
Device drivers - a MUST
IE 5 w/ Outlook Express for email, set them up with multiple identities so they're not reading each other's mail by mistake (only on purpose)
Realplayer/Winamp - Turn the #&amp;%! startcenter off in realplayer
Winzip/Acrobat, good ideas.
I'd put Media Player 6.4 on personally. Smaller/faster and plays everything 7 does for me.
Isn't Napster pretty much dead? Haven't been there in months.

More to the point, tweak it so there aren't 80 things loading at startup, get it as trim and fast as the hardware allows. Gaurantee you they'll load it down, give the poor thing a fighting chance. This includes streamlining the start menu. Even put shortcuts to common programs on the desktop to make it easy to get started with, especially if mom isn't terribly computer savvy. What about a printer, scanner, other devices? Grab those drivers and set them up before you leave.

And you webcam horndogs, jeesh. They're 15 and 17. Damn, guess I'm getting old.

--Mc