What else would you recommend we start with?

Hi,

My Wife is the lucky new owner of a 13" MacBook Air. I wanted her to have a Mac as she's not very computer literate and needs something that doesn't require too much input to remain secure. I'm reasonably proficient with Windows, some knowledge of Linux and would love to play on the Mac - however I don't want to have too much input, as my Wife needs to be the one that is able to manage her OS.

That said:-

I have worked with her to enable the Wi-fi. (just using trusted local network, so software firewall not yet enabled).

We've also added the registered version of SuperDuper! as a complement to Time Machine.

What if anything, are considered to be other key basic alterations/additions to the original install that add to usability/security?

Thanks for any help,

Andy.

Along with Flash, grab Flip4Mac (only the free version) and Perian to play just about any codec she'll run across on the web.

Behind your router's firewall, not much else to do. No viruses to worry about and really no other malware. At this time, stay away from pirated software and downloading codecs from porn sites and you're safe from the couple of trojans in the wild.

My experience - Teach her to use Software Update or have it set to auto check and you'll go from having to "fix" the wife's machine once every 6 months or so (no matter how much security you put on her Win box) to not really needing to touch it except to load the next versions of the OS on it for her.

Maybe grab a password manager if planning to log in anywhere on an open network.

Thanks bobtomay - I'll follow those suggestions up.

See my this essay on this topic.

chas_m said:

See my this essay on this topic.

Click to expand...

Thanks chas, that looks to be pitched just right.