Welcome to VicLovan.com! Computer help and how-to, and maybe a little about me.
I am a computer technician who does mostly on-site desktop support, software and hardware, in the “Metro East” and greater St. Louis metro area. I have been doing this for a few years now, my rates are fair and if you are need something quick I can often do that with a phone call and a remote control session through the Internet. See the “Client Help” page for my rates and if you want to call me, click the “Call Me” button, fill in your number, and the call will be made automatically, without any cost to you, other than your normal local calling, tax, and mobile minutes, provided you are in the continental forty-eight states. If you are concerned about the time, leave me a message on the “Contact Me” page with a time that is good for you, including your email, phone number, time you want me to call, and I will do my best to call at that time.
I have come across quite a few tips, time savers (and time killers), and just plain great programs over the years. If you are thinking about something to look for, do a search, that is the fastest way around the site. I have a menu system that is pretty good, a site map which is extensive, links to the pages on the side of every page, but the search is the fastest. Also if you try to go to a page that has a broken link, the site will automatically return search results for what it ‘thinks’ you were looking for, cool huh? On this site I try to point you in the right direction for having a computer that will be as trouble free as possible and still let you enjoy “all the cool stuff the kids are doing these days”. I do show off a bit of my photography and you are welcome to download through Picasa the pictures that are shared in my public albums. I try to keep the site updated as well as possible and there is not much here that kids should not see, but you need to be the judge of that. I ask that you use some common sense when downloading from this site, or any other for that matter. See my disclaimer at the bottom of any page or on the disclaimer page itself, and take it to heart. If I am doing the work for you and something goes wrong I will try to get it repaired, but there are no guarantees in software, things can, and do, go wrong all the time. I will be fair, if you will. You will probably figure out that I like the Google products and services and if that makes me a Google “fanboy” then so be it, they just keep giving us great stuff. You will also figure out that I can be very opinionated(most geeks are) about the products mentioned on this site, excluding the “News” portion of the site(more on that later), and the only way for you to know I am right is to read other similar sites and do your own research. The way I look at it is simple, if I send you down the wrong path, then you will not return. Now about the “News” portion of the site, it actually gets a fair amount of traffic through web searches. I have it get news feeds from several of the sites I read to keep up on the latest news mostly for my own benefit so I can see the articles in one place, share it, and have my own copies of the article in case those sites go down. That way I can also search for it later.
After you’ve installed Windows, the following link will give instructions and links for almost everything you will need for a completely up to date computer. Fully tweaked for performance and functionality. Most of the rest of the downloads can be found on the “Downloads and Tips” page linked to from the menu.
START HERE!!! – How To: For new computers, computers with a fresh Windows installation, or computers that just need the basics.
The downloads (2009.04.12 check for all the Microsoft updates) and pics will continue to be updated so you’ll just have to check back at least monthly.
There are links to pages and programs that are hosted on this site and on their own servers. Some of the bigger files are hosted here, such as the AutoPatcher files so that I can contribute to cut down on their bandwidth, for convenience, and faster downloads. I have quite a bit of bandwidth now so I don’t mind sharing, and if the load gets to be too much I’ll throttle it back. Basically that means that you should be able to download from here anytime. As I get time I’ll be adding files for download directly from this site. The AutoPatcher files come out monthly so you’ll just have to come back to get the updates.
One important thing to note about the programs I link to are that they are almost all free. Some of the programs may have extra options that do have a small cost, for instance Picasa Web Albums are free for the first 1GB (and counting!), but if you would like more space they offer it for an additional $5per year for 10 Gigabytes, or $20per year for 80 Gigabytes all the way up to $4k+ for 16Terabytes! I will try to always find programs that are free if possible.
If you have any suggestions, please email me at vic@viclovan.com (feel free to use the “Contact Me” page) and let me know. Thanks for visiting.
Vic