Father’s New Dell

And so my father’s new Dell PC came in. It’s a Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 that came with 22″ Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor. Might be a little overkill for my father, but that was the best that I could get for him based on his budget. Since he’s purchasing a new computer, I might as well recommend him one that is rather future proof. Haha… The imperfections of owning a “PC” (a.k.a. non-Mac computers) hit me when the following occurred whilst I was setting up the computer. My parents were actually complaining and asking quite a lot of questions which highlighted several problems.

1. Massive mess of wires

Now I understand why Dell displays only a monitor and the CPU unit on their website. Because they know you’d not purchase the unit if they had shown you the number of wires and power cables that the whole set up will have. This is a huge difference compared to an iMac experience. Oh wait, Apple’s website has already spelt out the difference… Haha…

2. Vista problems

Other than the usual entries required during the setting up process of the computer, Vista actually hogs up to 10 minutes of your time to perform a benchmark test on your computer. Aim of this test is to give you a Windows Experience Index. I quote:

The Windows Experience Index is a new feature built into Windows Vista that is designed to help you better understand how well Windows Vista and other software will perform on your PC.

Wow… But do you seriously need so much time to understand the new PC? My parents who didn’t know what Windows Experience Index is asked why it takes the PC so long to boot up. “Why does the computer take longer even when it’s supose to be faster?” Good question Mr and Mrs Ng, I guess the answer is Dell/Microsoft don’t understand the general consumers. My suggestion to Dell: Perform the benchmarking in your factory before you ship it out. Just let my parents use the computer once it’s out of the box.

3. More problems

Dell so thoughtfully installed McAfee Security Center to “ensure your PC is protected from hackers, viruses, spyware and spam.“  Catch is, it’s only a 30 days trial. Way to go~! My recommendation: uninstall the crap software and replace it with a free alternative: AVG Free which provides basic antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows. My parents noticed that and wondered how a family without a person who knows such details can use a computer without hitting brick walls. I wonder too… Hmm…

nzj’s Recommendations

If you are setting up a new computer for your parents, other than the obvious route of buying a Mac (haha…), here are some other things that you can do for them:

1. Install Google Chrome or Firefox and make either the default browser. Internet Explorer has too much security issues and complications that an unattended computer may face. Not really safe for parents to use since they may click “Okay” or “Yes” too easily.
2. Educate them UAC. Also known as User Access Control, the newly added feature in Vista prevents “potentially dangerous software from making changes to your computer without your explicit consent.” For example, one day if your parents are using the computer typing or playing some online game when the whole screen turns grey and shows them something like this:Ask them to be alert, panic, and not click Allow. This can actually prevent a lot of mishaps happening on a PC.
3. Install VLC media player and make it the default media player. With so many video codes abound (DivX, xvid, H.264…), this is one media player that can handle them all. (With the exception of Real videos but I am assuming that no one uses that anymore.) This removes the need of installing an individual codec pack for each codec and saves your parents confusion and hassle.

Hmm… That’s all that I can think of for now. Alert me if you have more tips or questions~! Time to work on my FYP progress report…