The G1ft 0f a C0mputer, 1s The G1ft That Keeps 0n G1ving!

These days computers are used for nearly everything. The power of owning a computer can be infinite, allowing an individual to connect with nearly every aspect of society. It can be used for business, play, writing, reading, connecting, talking, pictures, editing, art, buying, selling, trading and even more; I do not think it is an exaggeration to say it can be used for nearly everything. The only exception to this would be physical activity, yet there are computers that help assist with tracking that too.

Above is a picture after I finished setting up the computer for my aunt, uncle and my cousins after we had thanksgiving. I did this because I feel it is important and would benefit them all if they could have a functional family computer to use any time they wanted. I am not really a techy but In this case I had a greater amount of technological knowledge than everyone else in the house. So I was by far the best help there was. My aunt kept on apologizing that it was taking up so much of my time. Even though it took up the whole day I was still happy to do it for them because I saw value in the potential of what it could offer them.

I organized all their wires, connected the printer, and made everything tidy as you can see (should have made a before and after picture). Here is the computer they had set up before I helped them set up their newly donated computer.

The old waaaayy outdated Windows XP hardware

It is an old Windows XP computer with only has 1 GB of ram and a very old processor with less than two Ghz to work with. After looking at the specs I could not imagine why they were using this. I asked them if they used it and they told me no. They said the only reason they had it set up is because they were told that they needed a computer connected to the internet modem so that the WiFi internet would work (after some testing, this turned out not to be true). Since they were not using this computer, there was no personal data on it, it was an easy decision to let go of the computer.

Before my other aunt left earlier than I, she had her old computer that she brought and asked me to set up for them. I asked everyone in the family if they where interested in having their own computer in their room (since I now saw two in the room); Almost all of them responded that they didn't need it because they had their phones. I tried to explain to them that even though a phone is a type of computer it does not replace an actual computer interface. My word fell on deaf ears, only confusing them more. If I had not set it up, it would have stayed in this box forever and would be forgotten.

Continuing to set up the computers anyway

Computer #1 - The Windows 7

Despite the families lack of enthusiasm I continued to set up the computers anyway. The first computer I set up (which was my aunts old computer) was a window 7. The specs were waaay better than the XP, so I was excited for them. With 4 times more ram than the XP had, a better processor and graphics card with 1 more GHz.

Computer #2 - The Windows 10

I saw another computer that was also in a box not doing anything at all. When I ask about it my aunt said they bought it 2 years ago for 150$ (bad deal) from a Groupon advertising refurbished computers. She continued to tell me that it became so slow that they were not able to do anything with it productively, so they just decided to pack it up in a box and never use it again. I told them that it was worth taking a look at and maybe I could increase the speed by finding the problem with it. I set it up in the other corner and started working on it while simultaneously working on the other one I set up.

First I turned it on, typed in the password and logged in. It took a very long time to load past the password screen. After it finally loaded, I immediately started task manager to see what was taking up so much processing power. I saw all the extra new (IMO) shitty apps that windows 10 added like cortana, graphical interface and windows one drive that were taking up space but those weren't the main cause of it. I checked the specs of the computer and they seemed fine. The processor and graphics card could be better, preferable with more GHz but It should be able to handle window 10 better and faster than it currently was.

I continued to look and found something, that I couldn't Identify under its name, that was taking up to 41% of the processing power at all times. This was with all applications being closed, so it was something running in the background of the computer. So 56-60% was being used up at all times when no applications were opened. When I opened up the internet browser, the CPU usage shot all the way up to 99% usage. It made sense to me now why they abandoned the computer.

Since the knowledge I had was not able to identify what was taking up 41% of the processing power, I decided to transfer all valuable data that she had on there to a USB drive I owned and set a clean restore to take place for the windows 10. It took at least two hours for it to fully restore. Once I finally saw it turning on, I was curious to see what result were acquired by restoring it.

After opening up task manager, I realized that the restore process was successful! It was only using 10-25% now while all applications were close. That one background process (that looked identical to the regular window processes) that was taking up 41% was now gone. Was pretty weird, part of me wishes that I did explore more to figure out what it was.

Installing the Drivers for the Printer

This was probably the hardest part for me, as this printer was significantly outdated. The Printer was an HP Laser jet 2420. When I visited the website for driver downloads there were multiple options. I tried them all without success. I am not sure what I did the second round that eventually worked but I finally was successful with printing a page. There was three drivers to choose from: open script, PCL5 and PCL6, eventually I managed to get it working with PCL 6. Basically after choosing different combinations on the installation window, I finally got the printer working.

Final Step! Important Software to Add!

Since it was an 8 hour drive to their house, I knew I wouldn't be back anytime soon. So I wanted to give them all the best software applications they could possible use. I simultaneously installed the software I wanted to add on both the family computer and my aunt's personal computer.

First I had to save them from the internet explorer browser, so I downloaded Firefox for them.

Made sure to pin firefox in the windows tool bar and delete all shortcuts to internet explorer so no one would be able to access it easily. I really see no reason why anyone should ever use internet explorer when there are so many better options.

Then I decided they needed a malware protection, So I downloaded Anti-Malwarebytes. Made sure to teach them how to periodically scan for malware. Forgot to give them a virus protection software though :(

Then I downloaded Adblocker Plus, to significantly increase there browsers loading speed by blocking all excessive ads. I accidentally forgot to teach them how to use it though in case a website requires it to be turned off to access, Oops.

Then downloaded The online gaming platform called steam for my little cousin! No not steem, the other steam, the one that was created before steemit. Earlier I made the mistake of telling him to do it himself by searching for "steam download" in the search engine. He ended up accidentally downloading this browser software with a similar name that took over firefox. It set itself as the home page and the main search engine. I had to figure out how uninstall it because it wasn't in the "add and remove programs". I finally found the uninstall link in the browser that it had taken over, of course it would be in the most obvious place. Now that the real steam was download he could play his mineraft and terria ^_^

Then I remembered one last tool that would be helpful. They needed something to unzip compressed files. So I decided to download the open source 7-Zip. It a great tool that does the job and is better than winrar in my opinion.

These were the only software applications that I could think of that would be useful to the general user. I know that there is more but I could not bring them to my mind in that moment. If anybody else can think of any that could've been useful to them it would be much appreciated if you could mention that software in the comments, Thanks!

Teaching The Masses Basic Computer Knowledge

These days with the general user, computers support people more than people support computers. I believe that it is important that we teach those closest to us the very basics to be able to sustain their computer device and how to make the most use out of it. Even though It took me a full day to completely finish setting up both the computers to be efficient, it is something I would choose to do again ever time to help someone in this situation. Computers are an important tool that I believe can strengthen all aspects of our life. Give a person a smartphone and they'll youtube videos and then play candycrush for a day, teach a person how to use a computer and they'll accomplish all of their goals for years!!

If you have any stories of when you helped a close friend or family member with something computer related, feel free to share that in the comments, I would love to hear about it ^_^

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