The live in IT department no longer lives here
A while ago I cleaned off stuff from our old Dell Windows XP PC and gave it to my ex-wife. She’s complained of all sorts of problems, and no longer has a live-in IT department to fix it for her. I got to look at the PC this weekend, better than listening to the complaints about email not working, applications hanging on start and slow performance. So what did it take to fix it?
- Close down the Internet Explorer virus vector
- Install FireFox 2.0
- Install the the FlashBlock extension for FireFox
- Remove IE from the desktop, Quick Launch and Start>Programs
- Run a full virus scan with the Norton AntiVirus that was already installed
- Trash a bunch of infected old email attachments
- Fully remove Norton AntiVirus
- That accounted for many problems, including the usual ccapp.exe hanging on logout crap
- Remove a bunch of old unused applications (broken Logitech utilities, Palm Desktop, other crap)
- Remove over half a dozen bloated craplets (systray utilities)
- Install a bunch of Windows software updates (and chose not to install many, many more)
- Made sure the local firewall was configured and working
- Install Microsoft Windows Defender, update definitions and do a full run of Defender
- Install the latest version of iTunes
- Remove the Administrator privileges for my (young) son so he can’t trash the system
- Change a bunch of file permissions so he can still access things
- Got the Brother laser printer working
- Installed PCL and PostScript drivers
- Configured network share printers
- Look at why outgoing email is hanging
- The hosted SMTP server at att.net is not responding, Outlook setup appears to be OK, confirmed it is not the local firewall, I’ll leave the ex-wife to solve that one.
The end result is the Dell feels relatively zippy, downloads, log on and off and reboots happen more quickly, the printer works. My largest gripe is with Norton AntVirus, it is unusable, it is the virus. Norton needs to go away and die.
My reward? A Peet’s latte and not having to listen to future complaints.
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While here she read this blog entry. “Well I also did more than just get you a latte, I made these muffins for you as well” she said. Ah come again? “Well I made the muffins so you did’nt have to”. I guess that is fair, even if I don’t get to eat any :-(
Being politically correct, cup cakes are discouraged at school, home made carrot muffins, nut allergy safe, smothered in cream cheese frosting are apparently ok.
Comment by darryl — February 2, 2007 @ 1:18 am