Yesterday night around 9 (I didn't know delivery workers worked that late) I received my parent's new eMachine computer that I bought them for Christmas. I was a bit worried because the tracking information said that it was delayed due to a train derailment. Besides a scratch on the case the hardware was all ok, no noticable train derailment damage.

I waited for the computer to warm up and then fired I it up. It is incredibly fast....waaay faster than my machine.

Here are the steps I took to make it a bit more user friendly for my parents:

- I then decided to load it up with parent safe software (firewall, anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-phishing).

- I configured it to run under a user account instead of admin.

- I configured it to automatically download security updates.

- I added a tool so they can find out their IP address so I can remote desktop into their computer and fix things for them. Plus I added a remote desktop shortcut on the desktop so that they can find it easily.

- I added the Google toolbar since they often ask me "how do I find stuff on the internet".

- I added links on the IE toolbar to just about every site they would want to visit (including this one).

- I added Microsoft Office.

- I installed the .NET framework 2.0 just for kicks.

Hopefully they will use the computer now that they have one that is over 200mhz. I hope I didn't miss anything further. If anyone has any ideas of software that will make my parents foray into the computing world easier, I would be happy to hear it.