{"id":4865,"date":"2023-11-25T14:25:49","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T08:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/?p=4865"},"modified":"2024-06-10T14:33:19","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T09:03:19","slug":"computers-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/2023\/11\/computers-getting-started\/","title":{"rendered":"Computers \u2013 Getting Started"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re new to computers, and not very tech-savvy, you may be avoiding getting yourself a device of your own. But setting up a new computer is really not that hard to do. And, it doesn\u2019t require much technical know-how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve been working with computers since the early nineties. In that time, I have setup or upgraded dozens of laptops and PCs for friends, family and myself. Here is my secret sauce for getting started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Given a choice, get a Windows-based machine (Windows 11 as of 2023) \u2013 I prefer&nbsp;Windows&nbsp;computers since they are easy to use, easy to service and easy to get help from friends &amp; family, should the need arise<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I only use official,&nbsp;licensed software&nbsp;on all my machines \u2013 Local vendors or friends may offer you pirated copies of popular software, but it is always better to use official versions; You get official support from the software maker, and these are not prone to malware or viruses as much<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I use&nbsp;Microsoft Office&nbsp;(2019 desktop edition) for my productivity suite \u2013 Its \u2018Home\u2019 edition includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and it remains the world\u2019s most popular office suite; If you are on a budget, you can also use the (free) online version of Office, but you will need a good Internet connection to access it whenever needed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I use&nbsp;Google for Mail, Calendar and Cloud storage&nbsp;of files \u2013 Again, this is the world\u2019s most preferred solution and free for use (up to 15GB of storage); Google\u2019s online service also offers a powerful alternative to MS Office with Docs, Sheets and Slides, all free for online use<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I use a&nbsp;Microsoft account&nbsp;to log in to any and all Windows devices \u2013 This helps remember my Windows preferences, system setup, etc. It also works seamlessly with OneDrive cloud storage, which I use to work on any temporary files, or those that I need across devices<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I sync-up my profile and bookmarks via Microsoft&nbsp;Edge browser&nbsp;across all my devices (including mobile phone) \u2013 Edge is a fast, secure browser with built-in AI tools you can use, thanks to CoPilot; This also gives me access to my bookmarks across devices and platforms, with all my favorite services already logged-in!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s it! A simple, and straight-forward process to get you maximum mileage with minimum fuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>P.S. If you are in the market for a new computer, you can just\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.in\/b?_encoding=UTF8&amp;tag=thisworksdotin-21&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;linkId=f41cbc9c5ccb0f17a302053d35c892d1&amp;camp=3638&amp;creative=24630&amp;node=976392031\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">order one from Amazon<\/a>\u00a0or your local Electronics store, and set it up using this simple guide. If you have one already, you can optimize your setup with some of these tips&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re new to computers, and not very tech-savvy, you may be avoiding getting yourself a device of your own. But setting up a new<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,11,14],"class_list":["post-4865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-resources","tag-technology","tag-work"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4872,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865\/revisions\/4872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}