New Laptop! ... Help?

[Mattarias, King.]

Well, as goes the thread titles, I just acquired myself a rather nice dell d630 laptop (college issue.. still, an excuse to get a lappy! :smallsmile: ), and I want to customize it, make it mine, and make sure nobody else makes it theirs. So, I was wondering if any playgroundian techies can help me:

Make my (xp powered) laptop ask for a password when I log in?

Find an awesome fire theme for my laptop? (or at least turn the toolbar and window things red?)

Find some nifty games/programs/firefox plugins? This thing's a bit boring..

Also, I keep losing my connection to my wireless... connection. thing. :smallconfused: I tend to give it a quick-fix by clicking that 'repair' button on the window after I click the balloon that says "your connection died, fix it, dood.", but that only lasts so long.. Anyone know what to do?

I'd -really- appreciate the help. I grew up playing games run on DOS. I consider myself computer savvy, bu I've never really used XP before..

[Tarnag40k]

XP? i thought all new comps whent to vista.


we'll need more info on the wireless. I just set up a wireless in my home and it was a P.I.T.A. yeah.

[Mattarias, King.]

I had an option between XP and vista. I chose the one compatible with all my stuff. :smallamused:

Also, what kind of info?:smallconfused:

[adanedhel9]

To require a password to log in:

Start, Control Panel, User Accounts. Click your user name, then "Create a Password". Fill in the following page, and hit the "Create Password" button. If you have more than one account on the laptop, hit back, click another user name, and repeat, until every user has a password.

[Mattarias, King.]

To require a password to log in:

Start, Control Panel, User Accounts. Click your user name, then "Create a Password". Fill in the following page, and hit the "Create Password" button. If you have more than one account on the laptop, hit back, click another user name, and repeat, until every user has a password.

Oh, thank you kindly. :smallsmile: I feel safer already.

[Samiam303]

Secondly, to be even safer... What's your antivirus situation looking like? If you don't have a decent one already, the free version of AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/) is actually a really strong piece of software.

[Mattarias, King.]

Hm, interesting.. I have... sophos, I believe. Is that good?

[Samiam303]

Well I've never used it, but looking around the internet, it sounds to be fairly solid as well. You should be just fine!

[Mattarias, King.]

OK then. Thank you! :smallsmile:

Sidenote: scrolling with this thing is a literal pain. there's no scroll bar thing at the edge of the touchpad.. mouse.. thing. Anyone have any idea how to make things scroll better?

[tannish2]

buy an actual mouse, you might need one that plugs in through USB, but it will still be worth it, touchpads SUCK

[Mattarias, King.]

Ok then. I thought as much. :smallconfused:

[Vampire包子]

OK then. Thank you! :smallsmile:

Sidenote: scrolling with this thing is a literal pain. there's no scroll bar thing at the edge of the touchpad.. mouse.. thing. Anyone have any idea how to make things scroll better?

Buy a USB/Wireless mouse. Easy to buy a cheap cordless USB, can get one for $10-20.

There`s a thread　on firefox already, and googling Windows XP fire theme would not be a bad start.

[Mattarias, King.]

Wireless rodent. got it. I haven't spotted that firefox thread. I'll check it out. :smallconfused:

And I did google that, but you'd be surprised at the amount of spam and scam going on.. I'll try again, though. Thanks.

[Vampire包子]

Here are some examples of rodents, (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=USB+mouse) I got a logitech, quite happy with it. If you just need to scrool get something cheap. If you plan on gaming/other uses, upgrade. Shop for your needs, BestBuy, Circuit City, WalMart, or any major retailer that carries electronics should have what you need.


Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53767&highlight=firefox) is the firefox thread. Many people listed their favorite addons/extensions/themes.

Just googling XP themes, and finding forums/despositories, is probably the best way to find it. My first search brought me to some decent sites, though I did not look at any, so, cant give ya too much here.

Edit--Check out the free anti-spyware thread too. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53325&highlight=firefox)

[Mattarias, King.]

Oh dear, sorry for my late reply. :smallredface: I got distracted by the firefox thread and just downloaded search and destroy. ^^; eheh, thank you kindly!