Craig Rettig.com

I've written and released a new piece of software: FreeBooks.

If you like to read, but hate paying for books, you should find it useful. More information and download links at the link.

This has become a hobby of sorts with me, and I've found I can earn a few bucks on the side. I post the occasional want ad saying I will take (not pay for) old PCs off people's hands, explaining they don't have to pay any disposal fees, it's more environmentally conscious, blah-blah-blah. I like coming home from work and finding one or two computers sitting on my front porch.

What I do then is fix them up, set them up with software, and then turn around and sell them. Because they were free, I can take pretty much anything for them, often undercutting other sellers. All I need to be conscious of is any money I spent fixing them, and what other equivalent PCs are selling for.

Here are the steps I take:

Assess the Situation

Primarily, the systems I get were just replaced with newer models or got so spyware- or virus-ridden the owner thought they were broken. As much as I try to explain this, the owner typically doesn't care and just wants rid of it. Hey, I explained the situation, so my conscience is clear.

On the rare occasion a piece of hardware is bad (usually the power supply or hard drive), I'll just replace it with one of the ones I have lying around from old systems that were unfixable due to blown motherboards, etc.

I may also upgrade the system if I have the extra equipment. Typically this just adding more RAM, adding a network card, or replacing the CD drive with a CD-RW. I try to use equipment I already have, but occasionally I'll spend a few bucks if the part is cheap and I can find a deal somewhere.

Occasionally, people will just drop off the box, so I'll need to make a trip to Big Lots to get a mouse and keyboard for around $10.

Get Original System Information

Download and install PC Wizard. Print out the Hardware and Configuration settings along with the driver information. When we reinstall Windows, we'll need the Product Key, and we'll probably need to go out and find the drivers online, especially since the original owner probably never bothered to keep them current.

I recommend using a PDF print driver (such as doPDF or CutePDF) for this since it can be quite long. Plus, you can use the Search feature in your PDF reader to find what you're looking for. If using this option, be sure to copy the PDFs to a flash drive or another PC since you'll be wiping the drive in a few minutes.

Wipe the Drive

I've always got a copy of Darik's Boot and Nuke on hand, so I just boot with this and wipe the entire system.

Then, I boot again with the GParted LiveCD to drop any partitions and recreate them. Typically for resale, I only create one partition using the entire disk. Yes, I understand good practice is to partition into several drives, and I do that with my own PCs. However, the average home user gets confused when you do this, so I leave it as one.

Reinstall Windows

Before the Linux advocates jump down my throat, let me just say that I've tried selling PCs with Linux on them, and no one buys them. Average home users are scared of learning something new, and my fellow geeks already have old PCs lying around and don't need another. So for right now, Windows is the way to go.

After years of owning multiple PCs, I've got nearly every version of Windows on CD, so I do a fresh Windows install. I use the Product Key and driver information I got from PC Wizard to help identify everything quickly.

This, of course, is followed by one or more visits to Windows Update to get all the security patches, etc.

At this point, defragment the hard drive.

Optimize Windows

Once I've got Windows installed, I'll head over to Black Viper's Web Site and use his OS recommendations to speed up the PC.

Then, I'll download the appropriate version of TweakUI and turn off crap like window animations and the like to further improve performance.

At this point, it's time to start installing software. I'm going to present three lists here: one for 9x/ME systems, another for XP/2k, and a common list for either. Which version of Windows depends on what was on the PC originally and how much horsepower the PC has.

9x/ME Software

• Web browser: Opera — Although I prefer Firefox, Opera has a much lighter memory footprint, and if the old machine only has 64 MB of RAM, I'll take any advantage I can get.
• E-mail client: Many folks are using an online e-mail site these days, but if they want a local software, I'll just set up Opera's e-mail client as the default since it's already installed.
• Word processor: AbiWord — I'm always tempted just to make them use WordPad, but most folks want something a little more robust, and AbiWord seems to do the trick without too much overhead.
• PDF reader: Foxit PDF Reader — I find most people that are buying my older systems are usually going to be on dial-up. Since Adobe Reader's updates tend to be in the 20MB range, this is a near-impossibility. Foxit weighs in at around 1.5MB, which makes it the clear choice.
• Notepad replacement: TheGUN — 9x/ME's version of Notepad is abysmally weak on functionality, and I just replace notepad.exe entirely with TheGUN. If anyone's ever noticed, they haven't said anything.

XP/2k Software

• Web browser: Mozilla Firefox — If I've got the resources, I think Firefox is the way to go. The customizability alone is worth any overhead. If I know enough about the end user(s), I'll often go ahead and add various extensions to suit their particular needs.
• E-mail client: Again, I'll check if they use online e-mail or not. If they want a desktop client, I'll usually go with Mozilla Thunderbird for most of the same reasons as Firefox.
• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org — While most people are familiar with Microsoft Office from their day jobs, OOo makes a good free substitute.
• PDF reader: Adobe Reader — Yeah, Adobe is getting to be real bloatware, but it also has the best-looking text and graphics, so again, if I've got the horsepower and bandwidth, I'm going to use it.
• Multimedia: K-Lite Codec Pack — I install the full version of this so the user can open nearly every video/audio format they'll come across.

Common Software

• Compression utility: TUGZip — TUGZip supports all the compression formats the average person is going to encounter. It's interface is similar enough to WinZip's to not require much of a learning curve.
• Anti-virus: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition — I used to recommend AntiVir, and that's what I use on my home system because of its low footprint. However, AntiVir now throws a pop-up every time it updates, which annoys a lot of users and makes them think their PCs are spyware-infected. AVG currently doesn't do this, plus it still supports 9x/ME.
• Anti-spyware: Spybot — Search & Destroy — Since the PC is "new" it's not spyware-infected yet. However, it's a good idea to use Spybot's "Immunize" tool to prevent at least some spyware infections from even happening.
• CD Burner: DeepBurner — If the computer has a CD-RW, I'll add this on since the Nero or Roxio CDs were most likely lost by the original owner.
• System Cleaner: CCleaner — This is more for me, as I'll clean up the system once everything's installed.

Final Steps

That covers nearly every piece of software the average user is going to use, with the exception of an instant messaging client. I used to put Miranda or Trillian on, but most people typically only use one network and end up downloading and installing that specific client anyway, so I no longer bother.

Once everything has been installed, I'll run CCleaner to clean out the temporary folders. Then I'll reboot and defrag the hard drive again.

At this point, I'll take a few pictures, create an ad on craigslist (nope, not mine), and usually get an offer inside of a day or two.