MAC user purchasing first PC! HELP

[directoryczar]

Hi,

It's not really my first PC but my last PC ran Windows 3.11...I haven't had a job with a PC involved in YEARS.

What I need desperately are URLs for websites that will point me to the best of breed freeware and indispensable utilities for PCs running Windows XP. If someone asked for this for the Mac...I would point them to versiontracker [versiontracker.com] and chez mark [chezmark.com], for instance. When I search around I have trouble sorting out the quality from the junk and I don't have time to do endless trial and error installations.

I also need a quality resource for Windows technical help. I assume that there's not a lot of resources aimed at very experienced computer users who don't do Windows, but I'm trying to avoid places that assume I'm a friendly grandmother looking to "get the Internet on my computer"

Capeesh?

<snip>

[edited by: lawman at 12:02 pm (utc) on Mar. 27, 2004]

[Llama]

[download.com...]
Use that. Look for software of interest, look at the ratings, and then read all of the program's negative reviews. Positive reviews usually are pretty horrible: "Great program. DL Right away 101!111!"

As for help for trouble with it, [annoyances.org...] is pretty good.

With a week of looking around you'll find what you need. The rest will come from trying to sort out problems with it.

[Josefu]

Are you MAD? : )

Would you care to explain why you're switching to PC? I'm definitely interested. Are you a CAD user or Terrain geologist or something technical like that? There's quite a few fields like that that mac just can't cover. My wife, for example, wants an embroidery mapping application and there's not one to be found for OS X.