Any suggestions for a new user

My brother just got his first computer, Acer aspire 5002, windows xp home. Since he's 59 and a total newb is there any free utilities that might help keep him out of trouble and running smoothly, other than the obvious anti virus (avast) and firewall (ZA). Something like norton utilities or something like that but free if possible. Anything that might save him some of the frustrations most of us experienced starting out, since I kinda talked him into joining the 21st century I want to make it as ez as possible.

 

For maintenance, I've learned to use Ccleaner (Crap Cleaner), Clean Up!, Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad Aware 6.0. It keeps my computer running free of bugs, spyware, etc. All of these can be downloaded here at MG.

 

thanks, good suggestion, I use those myself and will be installing them on his, I was just wondering if there was a free utility that would function like Norton Utilities to help him avoid other headches. I have an old version of it on mine (I'm still running ME) and it was a big help to me a few times in correcting problems with windows etc. but I'm not familiar with XP, maybe it's not even necessary with XP.

 

I have XP and got rid of my Norton 2 years ago. To replace it, I use what you already know of - ZA and Avast! I haven't had any problems and as you know, they're both user-friendly and self-efficient. When I had Norton (and before I knew what maintenance upkeep really was for a computer) I had to System Restore frequently. Now that I do all that I listed, I don't even remember that the option is available. I'd show your father how to do System Restore just in case. I'm not an expert as many others on this site are...but I hope this helps. Stephanie