- Ask questions. Most knowledgeable people have compassion for those with less knowledge.
- Go to internet forums to ask those questions.
- An example of a help forum is this one: http://computerhelpforum.org/forum/portal.html
- Most forums require you to register to ask a question.
- Writing effective subject lines for your post will get you a lot more help. For example, typing "HELPPPPP" in the subject line may get you ignored. Typing "Mobo will not boot up, I'm new at this" will probably get you a lot of help.
- Usually the posters (people) at the forums will want exact details about your hardware (your physical equipment like your processor and RAM and hard drives, etc) and software. If you don't know that information, download this program and use it for free: Everest AIDA64 It will tell you exactly what is "in your computer".
- RTFM. That practice alone will save you untold hours of frustration.
- Backup your data (files, documents, photos, etc) daily, or at least weekly. HDD's (hard drive disks or hard drives) do fail, especially after a few years of usage.
- If you get too frustrated working on something, turn your box off and go relax for a while or at least do something else. That really helps.
- Even computer experts have problems. You will have problems, so it's not always your fault.
- After 17+ years, I'm still learning things. "Old dogs" can learn new tricks.
- Obvious point, but it helps a lot if you are aware of exactly what you wish to do with your machine. Want to edit videos and movies ? You need to learn one skillset. Want to publish a blog ? Another specific skillset. Want to become an excellent PC (personal computer) gamer ? Another skillset. You get the point.
- Despite what anyone says, you do NOT have to have a huge one or two terabyte hard drive, unless you plan on saving a lot of digital video or digital audio. Text files don't take up much room usually, which includes emails.
- I encourage you to subscribe, or least read at your library, one or two computer-related magazines. My very first one was PC World. It's a great magazine and aimed at the lower to middle range knowledge level. I now read Maximum PC magazine, which is aimed more at the middle to higher knowledge level crowd with a heavy emphasis on gaming. There are other computer-related magazines, of course.
- Another great forum to ask questions is here.
- When I purchased my first PC in 1996, I literally knew almost nothing. I had to figure out how to get on the internet from scratch. First step was, attach the dial-up cable to the wall. I knew that little.
- People of any age can learn how to operate a Windows-based computer proficiently.
