Heeellllppppp!

OK...first, I am a complete IDIOT when it comes to computers/software. With that established, I will just further say I know basically enough to "use" the damn things....barely.

I just bought (at a garage sale) an HP Omnibook 6000 (paid $150 for it), with a Targus USB optical mouse, some kind of Chinese speakers (powered), a microphone. It has a BUNCH of "antivirus/antispyware" programs installed. (Hell, it's got a BUNCH of programs installed, PERIOD, and I suspect half of them aren't even needed and just basically duplicate other programs.) I have several questions.

1. I ran the antivirus/antispyware programs, and according to them, the system is "clean." [AntiVir Personal, AVG-Free, Avast HE, Spybot S & D, Ad-Aware SE Personal, SpywareBlaster, Yahoo Antispy, Netscape Spyware Scanner.] Are ALL of these really necessary? And if not, WHICH ONES should I keep? (And are the Yahoo/Netscape scanners worth a shit?)

2. This thing has THREE "Office Suites" in it: 602Pro, OpenOffice, and Microsoft Works. Any advantage in having THREE of them? WHICH is "best?"

3. This thing has Windows Media Player, Real Player, Media Player Classic, WinAmp (I don't know what all it does, but it sure does LOOK cool!), QuickTime Alternative/iTunes, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave, and "BearShare w/built-in player." Are ALL of these really necessary to play all the music/video types? And if not, WHICH should I keep?

4. This thing has "Java Runtime Environment, update 6," whatever the hell that is. Is that a good thing?

5. It's got Yahoo and Google tool bars, and the "Google Pack (without Norton Antivirus)." Google Desktop, Updater, Earth, Talk, etc.

6. It's got MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk. (I suppose one would have to keep all of them....they probably don't hook into one another, right?)

7. It has Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox and Opera Browsers. (Damn, that Firefox & Opera are FAST....should I keep THEM and get rid of the others?) Appaently there are a number of other things installed WITH a couple of these browsers, because Firefox has the local weather splashed all over it, and Opera

has about a dozen "panels" leaking out of it.

8. According to the "spec sheet," this thing has a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, and a 20GB hard drive. "Free space" is at 57%. [There is a ton of music....but I'll keep that as it is all rare old rock, like Iron Butterfly, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ry Cooder, etc. Also a movie....the BBC coverage of the "Roswell Incident," so I'll keep that, too.] "System Restore" is set at 1GB. Can that be cut down safely to maybe 500MB? "Paging File" is set at 500MB....is that good? Oh, yeah, and there is a program called RAM Defrag installed....should I use that?

9. Other "programs" include CCleaner, TonyArts Easy Cleaner, RegScrub XP, Big Fix, Index.dat Suite, NTI CD Maker.....are these SAFE to use?

10. It also has Adobe Reader, and dumb as I am, even I know that is a necessity.

Oh yeah, one final question (at least for now).....is this thing worth the $150 I paid for it, or is it a glorified piece of shit? I'm afraid to click on half this stuff because I have NO IDEA what the hell it does, and I don't want to screw this thing up...just in case it is a GOOD laptop. ​

 

CHASLANG: Feel free to move my post to whatever forum is appropriate. I will uninstall all but AVG, and Spybot/Ad-Aware. Will also TRY to follow your suggestions in that link to your other post....think I'd better get the MS Java removal program rather than try to "do it myself," because just sure as there are little green apples I'd screw it up! THANKS!