I will be doing some initial work on a computer I bought for my parents. My goal is to install only the software that they need and that that software be as unintrusive as possible.

I bought them a Dell computer with some pretty decent specs. At work I have been soliciting recommendations for essential software that meets the criteria I mentioned above.

SUPPORT: I may be purchasing a subscription to gotomypc. My intention is to use this subscription to provide technical support should they need it. Beyond that I got them the three year warranty that comes with Dell technical support.

ANTI-VIRUS: I was told that Microsoft Security Essentials was a very good, free product. It updates itself automatically and doesn't cripple the performance of the computer (which I gather some other anti-virus software does).

DEFRAGMENTATION: Apparently Windows 7 still runs on a filesystem that can easily become fragmented. I will be placing DeFraggler on the computer. Once again this is software that runs in the background and will do what is needed without bothering the user.

BACKUP: For backup I am still deciding between Mozy and carbonite.

PHOTO ORGANIZATION: I was running a Gallery2 installation on my VPS and used it to host my pictures and pictures my parents took. Initially I had wanted my entire extended family to use it, but that never really worked out. I finally realized that running this server was ridiculous considering all of the high quality (and free!) image hosting sites. I decided on Google's Picasa Web which is an on-line service that integrates well with their Picasa image organization software. It also supports Linux along with Windows.