Andy Rathbone » Upgrading and Fixing PCs For Dummies http://www.andyrathbone.com For Dummies books Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:06:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Where can I still buy Windows XP? http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/09/21/where-can-i-buy-windows-xp/ http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/09/21/where-can-i-buy-windows-xp/#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:07:38 +0000 Andy Rathbone http://www.andyrathbone.com/?p=624 Windows MilleniumQ: I’m a 51-year-old newbie to the Internet. I have an old Dell Dimension 8100 that I bought as a used PC. It runs Windows ME. It has a 40GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM. The hard drive still has a lot of free space. It has Internet Explorer 6. (I’m told that’s being phased out by Google.) I have your books Windows Me For Dummies and More Windows for Dummies. I would like to know if I could find a disc to install Windows XP, or if should I buy a new PC.

A: You can still buy a Windows XP Home upgrade CD through Amazon. If you don’t plan to play computer games or do much video work on your PC, you can still get by with Windows XP. But if you want a PC that will last longer and do more, it’s probably time to invest in a new PC.

As for Internet Explorer, nobody’s really happy about Internet Explorer 6 still being around. You can still use Internet Explorer 6 to run searches through Google, but Google’s Gmail program doesn’t work well with that antiquated browser. Your quick ‘n’ easy solution is to upgrade to Firefox, a free alternative browser that’s light years ahead of Internet Explorer 6.

]]> http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/09/21/where-can-i-buy-windows-xp/feed/ 0 How do I add Bluetooth to my PC? http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/09/02/i-need-bluetooth-for-my-pc/ http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/09/02/i-need-bluetooth-for-my-pc/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:29:11 +0000 Andy Rathbone http://www.andyrathbone.com.unixweb-1.nethere.net/?p=397 Q: I bought a Rocketfish bluetooth wireless mouse, and it didn’t come with a receiver to plug into the computer. I read on the back, and it said I needed a Bluetooth-enabled computer. Is there anything I can buy to make my computer Bluetooth-enabled, like a receiver or something?

A: A group of companies created “Bluetooth” as a way of creating “cable-less” gadgets. Wireless computing, lets you connect to the Internet from several hundred feet away; Bluetooth, by contrast, has a range of a few feet. But that’s fine for a mouse, cell phone, keyboard, or other commonly used gadgets.

Many laptops come with Bluetooth built-in. To give your desktop PC those same Bluetooth powers, simply plug a Bluetooth adapter into one of your desktop PC’s USB ports. Available on Amazon and many computer stores, the adapters let your PC exchange information with Bluetooth devices like your mouse. Bluetooth adapters are fairly inexpensive, and since they plug into a USB port, you can also easily move it to whichever of your PCs you happen to be using at the time.

]]> http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/09/02/i-need-bluetooth-for-my-pc/feed/ 0 Adding a second PC to a wireless network http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/08/31/adding-a-second-pc-to-a-wireless-network/ http://www.andyrathbone.com/2009/08/31/adding-a-second-pc-to-a-wireless-network/#comments Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:06:58 +0000 Andy Rathbone http://www.andyrathbone.com.unixweb-1.nethere.net/?p=392 Vista Network IconQ: I have a desktop PC in Windows XP Professional. I bought a laptop (Aspire) with Windows Vista. Can I use the same router to use the internet with both computers? The router I bought is wireless.

A: Yes, you can use the same wireless router with both your old desktop PC and your new Acer laptop. Most wireless routers support dozens of simultaneous wireless connections. You just need to enter the same wireless information into your laptop that you entered into your desktop PC, specifically, the wireless signal’s Name (SSID) and security type (WEP, WPA, etc).

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