CantBarsed Guide - Sharing a computer with the family...
Take one family computer, let kids loose on it for a few weeks and you'll find:
+ The hard disk is full of games.
+ Boxes keep popping up telling you "skaterboy19" and "hippychick81" are online
+ There's no ink or paper left in the printer.
+ The keys on the keyboard have been swapped around (it was not me!).
+ The computer runs a lot slower than it did before (if it works at all!).
+ Viruses and uninvited popups - most likely dozens of them!
Hard Disk full of games
The problem with games is they take up huge amounts of hard disk space and the more games are installed the more unreliable most systems become. Games often conflict with each other or home office software. Apart from fostering, the best solution is to start saving for a second machine for yourself or the kids! For new systems check out Comet and Dell. If you're on a tight budget you could add a second hard drive or check out Morgan Computers who specialise in surplus and end of line computers, printers etc.
Unwanted pop-ups
The boxes which keep popping up are Microsoft Messenger (MSN) alerts and can easily be turned off.
Click on the head and shoulders icon in the system tray (bottom right of screen) then select "Open". In the "Tools" menu select "Options..." and click on the "Preferences" tab. Uncheck the "Display alerts when contacts come online" option and they are history.
Of course the kids will just turn them back on again so consider creating separate "Users"on the PC then everyone gets their own My Documents folder, desktop layout and programs ready to use when they log on. Windows has offered this feature for years but with Windows XP it's now a breeze to set up and use. Windows XP has another major advantage over earlier versions of windows - programs run in isolation from each other so if a program crashes it can be terminated without crashing the computer which which means a lot fewer reboots - ideal for machines with lots of games installed!
If you can't afford a second machine or simply don't have the space a copy of Windows XP or the upgrade edition, if you qualify, is money well spent.
No ink or paper in the printer
Remind everyone of their green credentials, restrict them to a cartridge a month, offer them extra pocket money in exchange for buying their own ink and paper - Good luck, none of those worked for us so any ideas gratefully received!
The best you can hope for is to buy consumables at the best possible price and limit the damage. Check out Calibre Computing and The Inkjet Factory who both offer a reliable service at low prices on original and replacement cartridges. Give the "clone" cartridges a try because, in our experience, they're fine for everyday use and save you even more money.
The green option is to buy recycled cartridges direct from the Inkcycle recycling factory which saves money and helps ease pressure on our landfill sites. Inkcycle recover over 350,000 ink jet cartridges every year and produce recycled cartridges every bit as good as the originals - or your money back.
Viruses and uninvited popups
If the computer doesn't have up-to-date anti-virus software (by which we mean less than a week old!) set to scan ALL your incoming mail it's odds on your machine is already infected - DON'T PANIC! Most days a bunch of spam and viruses turns up in our mailbox only to be filtered out and deleted by Mailwasher Pro BEFORE we download anything to our computer. We also use the McAfee suite of programs which includes McAfee VirusScan, Personal Firewall, AntiSpyware and Internet Security products to squash anything that makes it past Mailwasher.
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