Few days ago, I bought my Desktop PC from Lucknow to Delhi as I am more avid fan of a desktop then laptop. So now the need was to buy a computer for my home in Lucknow, something my dad & sisters can easily use.

Few days ago, I went to Nehru Place to buy a laptop for my friend, he was eyeing netbook which had all Intel Atom CPU & were available for Rs 20,000 approx. However, he wanted to run Windows 7 on it & doubted the power of Intel Atom with Intel GMA 500 onboard graphics which is like default on all the Netbooks out there. He wasn’t wrong actually, Intel Atom doesn’t have sufficient power to give a good Windows 7 experience.

Then we saw something which we really like & found totally worth it. We found Samsung R517 Laptop for just Rs 25,000 which comes with FreeDOS & no other OS. The reason it is available for this cost is due to the exclusion of an Operating system which reduced some price slightly in the MRP. I bought this laptop for my family today.

By looking at the laptop, you can easily confuse it with Lenovo ThinkPad R series laptops. Even I was confused when I saw it for the first time. Samsung has tried to go with a no-frills, no-jazzy look with this laptop. Its a simple, plain laptop which has enough potential & power as primary laptop for my family who uses a computer ones in a while only & there tasks constitutes of browsing, Microsoft Office, chatting, watching movies, music etc…. but the most important thing to note here is that they don’t use the computer everyday. There, it opens ones or twice a week only.

Keeping this in mind, I decided to buy this laptop for my home too as I did not want to spend a lot of money & wanted something which can hold Windows 7 easily & can be used for the next 3 years without even touching.

The laptop configuration is as follows :

Intel Pentium dual core T4200 running at 2 GHz with 800 MHz FSB

15.6” glossy screen with a resolution of 1376X768px

2 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM

250 GB 5400 RPM Samsung SATA2 Hard disk

Intel GMA X4500 onboard graphics

Realtek 5.1 channel HD audio

rest as usual, like Wi-Fi, etc. One thing to note that there is no Onboard Bluetooth. I wonder why Samsung decided to exclude it. I bought a generic Bluetooth dongle with it for Rs 150 anyway.

For full configuration, check Samsung’s Product page for R517

The right hand side of laptop has only the DVD writer while the left hand side contains 3 USB Port, one Wired LAN port, Audio & Mic ports & one VGA Port to attach external monitor.

Like I said, simple yet effective package. There isn’t what people won’t need & it is sufficient for most people as far as hardware peripherals are concerned.

I decided to install Windows 7 home premium & decided not to install pirated software as long as not required. I was surprised to see that we can make a fully working Windows system without paying anything for the software. Here is what I used :

1) Browser : My family uses a browser the most. Internet Explorer 8 is given in Windows 7 by default but I decided to install Google Chrome official version with extensions like Adsweep just because it is faster then IE 8 when it comes to opening websites. Also, Chrome integrated well with Windows then even Firefox. Firefox would have been too alien for them as IE 8 or Google Chrome are good enough out of the box while Firefox needs a lot of extensions to make it look good.

2) I decided to use Free Download Manager which easily integrates with both IE 8 & Chrome. It automatically takes over Chrome’s downloader using a Netscape compatible dll.

3) Chatting : Personally, I have moved to Digsby, but my sister still prefers to use individual messenger clients because  they provide better features like the PhotoShare of Yahoo messenger etc. I install what we all are used to using, latest version of Google talk, Yahoo messenger, Skype & Windows Live Messenger.

4) Office suite : Though I could have given them OpenOffice, but just because I had a license spare & my sister is more used to Office 2007, I gave her Office 2007 Student edition as she only needs Excel & Word.

5) E-Mail : Well, she is better off using Web mail clients considering the huge space in GBs that they allow today.

6) Windows Live Suite & applications : This is something worth noticing. With Windows 7, Microsoft has tightened the integration between Windows Live apps & Windows. Frankly speaking, everything is already given which is just a download away. I install Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery & Windows Movie Maker which is enough for the way they use & manage videos & images. Considering I also have a Sony CyberShot digi cam which I will be giving at home, it is easier to import images from the memory card to my picture folders automatically.

7) For security, I decided to stick with a properly configured Windows Firewall, Windows defender & Microsoft Security essentials antivirus. These 3 integrate beautifully in Windows 7 & they run like “Set it & forget it “. Besides, its free & sufficient enough. I also turned on UAC.

8 ) I am an old fan of Yahoo! Widgets, so I installed this instead of using Windows Gadgets.

9) For image editing, I decided to stick with paint. Usually, there isn’t much editing they will need, except for resizing, cropping etc which paint is good enough to do.

10) InfraRecorder for CD Burning. Though I taught my sister to burn Data CD & DVD using Windows 7’s inbuilt Disk Burning utility too

11) Peazip. Its a simple & free no frills Archiving utility. Right click & select “extract”  for ZIP, RAR etc or right click & select “Add to Zip”. That’s all

Sticking to only the default configuration helps. Things are tightly integrated & now all they have to do, is to open the laptop & use it without worrying about anything.

The Microsoft® Windows® XP Winter Fun Packs provide enhancements and tools to help you have more fun with Windows XP this holiday season.  The Fun Packs include a wide range of winter-themed content, designed especially for Digital Music with Windows Media Player 9 Series, Digital Photography with Windows XP, and Home Video with Windows Movie Maker 2. The Fun Packs also include links to bonus content including Games for Windows XP, and more. Enjoy!

This document provides installation instructions and other information that will help you get started.

The Windows XP Winter Fun Packs available from www.microsoft.com/holiday include:

• Windows Media Player 9 Series Winter Fun Pack 2003
• Windows Movie Maker 2 Winter Fun Pack 2003
• Windows XP Digital Photography Winter Fun Pack 2003
• Bonus: Games for Windows XP

Note: Great care has been taken to ensure that the Fun Packs operate as they should, however they are unsupported. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about the Winter Fun Packs. The Windows XP Winter Fun Packs are for Windows XP only.

The Windows XP Winter Fun Packs, including the documentation and information provided, are for your personal use and are subject to the terms and conditions of the end user license agreement presented during the Windows XP Winter Fun Pack 2003 installation process.

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