Photo Editing

This is a TOUGH one. Most people get lost with the bare basic tools used to retouch and edit a digital photograph.

I have tried quite a few photo editing tools. Obviously, Adobe Photoshop is the premiere commercial photo editing tool. If you have the $649 or $999 to purchase it, I highly recommend getting Photoshop CS3.

If you are on a budget, then I would recommend the GIMP. It is free and runs on several different operating systems, including Windows 2000/XP/Vista.

Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/windows/
Gimp Windows Installer: http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/
Gimp 2.2 Documentation: http://docs.gimp.org/en/

It is actually a decent photo manipulation tool, provided you spend the time going thru the documentation.

There are several other free programs I have checked out. Photofiltre Free seems promising, so you might want to try it and see which you like better. Or just have both on your system and use each depending on your needs.

http://photofiltre.free.fr/frames_en.htm

Office Suite

There are a few commercial choices on the market today.

For MANY people, 90% of the features of Microsoft Office, Corel Wordperfect Suite, or others are superfluous.

There is one good free alternative, of course.

http://www.openoffice.org/

OpenOffice is a word processor, spreadsheet, basic publishing and drawing tool for free. It can open Office 97/2000/XP/2003 documents also. That makes it pefect for most users.

The tools and functionality in OpenOffice are on par with Office 2000 or Office XP. Your computer probably came with Windows, or you spent $200 for a copy of Windows (hopefully XP or Vista). But your computer is kinda useless without the ability to generate documents, so a quality free product is essential IMHO.

Antivirus

EVERY single computer should be running antivirus software. It is the condom for your computer - without it, you could be exposed to nasties.

There are a few ways to protect your Vista/XP/Win2000 system. A free antivirus program is the first way.

Avast is good.
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

AVG Antivirus Free Edition works well also.
http://free.grisoft.com/

Run ONE of these, not both. My own computers use the Avast product.

You can run an online virus/spyware scan using the Trendmicro Housecall online scanner. Open the link to Housecall using Internet Explorer, not Mozilla Firefox.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Now you do not have any excuse to run around the internet unprotected.

XP or Vista?

Wow, a lot of customers do not want to switch to Vista.

I cannot blame them. When asked what I run on my work laptop, I have to admit it is Windows XP SP2.

Why? Simple - my industry-specific apps (networking tools like sniffers, scanners, etc..) work with XP, but not with Vista.

Many clients have industry-specific apps - stuff they spent a lot of $$$ to run their businesses. And they don't want to spend $6000 to upgrade 20 workstations, then say $10,000 for a new version of the business management software, then $150/hr to have a consultant install the new system.

I wouldn't do it either.

Vista is great for a home user with multimedia needs - my own home computer runs Vista Ultimate. I play DVDs and movies I rent online to my TV. Same with music. I can do neat photo shows. I even run my Adobe Editing and Voice Dictation software on Vista.

But I wouldn't want it for Business. And I am a paid Microsoft Consultant. Go figure - Vista is sort of like getting Windows ME - why did they even do it?

What computer to purchase?

I tell all my clients the same advice.


If you rely on the computer 24x7x365, then support is more important than the computer itself. Dell, HP, IBM offer great support contracts that I recommend. Get the ONSITE contract, so a tech comes to you when you need it, nationwide.


If you do not require that your computer is online all of the time, the don't worry about the brand. They all suck at times.

I tend to assemble my own PC at home so I can choose the components individually. I currently run a Gigabyte motherboard with an Athon Dual Core 4200+ processor. It has 2gb of ECC memory. I have 2 300gb SATA drives. Video speed was important, so I run an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS with 320mb of RAM. My burner is a cheap Sony 8x DVD burner, and it will get upgraded when it breaks. It has the usual array of USB goodies, like a headset/mic for voice dictation, a USB webcam, and a wireless keyboard/mouse.

And yes, I am running Vista Ultimate, 64-bit edition. It works well and doesn't crash. However, some stuff won't run on it (older apps mostly), and I wouldn't be running it if I haden't gotten the copy for only $50.

Antispyware Recipe

Us Microsoft Consultant types are regularly asked what we do to keep our personal computers free of spyware 'crap'. Of course, people are only interested in the free stuff.

I only use 2 types of antispyware, both free.

First, Windows Defender:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

It works sort of well, but has quite a few flaws that can be exploited. So I added a HOSTS file (that I update every few months) to block major offenders.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

These 2 seem to work very well.

If you are tech savy, then you can add 2 more layers of antispyware defense to your system. First, install Mozilla.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Then install Privoxy, and configure mozilla to use Privoxy.

http://www.privoxy.org/

Just about nuthin gets thru privoxy, defender, the hosts file, and mozilla all running. And you didn't spend any $$ on your defense.

However, your best bet is to stop trying to get free porn!!! Stop gambling online!!! These 2 types of sites are the largest contributors to crap on your PC.