Question Advice Appreciated

[Novel8]

I have an unusual situation and wondered by mentioning here i could get some advice. I am in my mid ' 90's, male. I am not computer illiterate, being on them since the good old days of Commodore 64. Now, as I have aged, as we all will eventually if we're lucky, but with that luck comes some hard knocks.....ie ...losing 20-20 to low vision, difficult in some hearing. I bought a year ago, a Dell refurbished laptop that came with lots of bells and whistles that I lacked. It came with both win 10 and updated win 11. Up till then I had been using win 7. ...so i was a stranger to win 10 and 11. Now. as time goes by so fast i am considered low vision even with prescribed eyeglasses, Under those conditions I cannot tweak the pc like I use to. I could use someone to show me how to setup a browser like Firefox and Thunderbird emails. I also want to be able to see better on the screen with certain themes and color and text font size.The one thing that disturbs me. is my age, and having someone that I can trust. I have family, bot I was the one they had all asked me for help when they started show pc interest, until the last few years they gave up on laptops and windows altogether an

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Well, fair play to you for pressing ahead, and also for being a nonagenarian! Congratulations. That is a great life achievement.

I guess in terms of this forum, it's not the optimal way to be able to help you. However, there are lots of resources that can help you. For example, this is from Microsoft and how to set up a PC or laptop with Accessibility options, that may benefit you, like Coratana (although this is mostly dead now), Narrator, Magnifier, Contrast, Font size among other options.

Here's the link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us... you can access,All Settings > Ease of Access.

There are many versed users on Tom's forum. Leave this thread open, and I'm sure other users will have suggestions too. We are glad to help

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[COLGeek]

In addition to Roland's excellent advice, installing Firefox and Thunderbird are pretty straight forward.

Download Firefox here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/windows/

Just run the installer and follow the prompts.

Thunderbird can be downloaded here: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/

Configuring it is a bit more complicated than installing Firefox. What email service provider do you use?

 

[Novel8]

Perhaps I didn't made myself clearer, I did download the latest FF browser and Thunderbird, and like you said, "configuring is something ekse, even with good vison, Let me give u an example with both of those programs that i have encountered and with my low vision, its nigh impossible to get it setup correctly. When I tried to setup my email in TB, it asks me "lets get your existing email started". I repond to all queries and i see the final data it gave me ,,,Fine the problem is that there was no way to finalize it and try to enter 2 other emails that I had in the past Even successfully on the first and only email i did setup, it doesn't show up. As for FF browser, after installing it i could not find the typical tool bar where i could enter a website address. The little research I did on FF it said to go to Menu, choose more tools and then customize and pick toolbar. I downloaded the latest FF and my menu did not go that far. BTW, this is with Win 11. whch i am completly in the dark with.

 

[Lafong]

It's tough to help you remotely without looking over your shoulder.

Thunderbird:

Did you get as far as seeing a "tools" menu at the top of the screen?

Under that "tools" menu, you should see "account settings" where you have to fill out a bunch of things for each email address you want to use.

Who is your ISP?

Do you have just one email address or several?

Are you trying to retain access to emails you have received or sent in the past? That would require "importing" those messages, which can be a hassle.

Or do you just want to set up email from this day forward with nothing to be imported?

 

[Lafong]

As for FF browser, after installing it i could not find the typical tool bar where i could enter a website address.

Did you get far enough so you can see these choices at the very top of your screen?

File, edit, view, history, bookmarks, tools, help

Are you aware of the "settings" choice under the "tools" menu?

 

[Novel8]

Thank you all . I wish I coud see as good as I see replying here, but for some reason, the system. websites and browsers all have their kinks. I think I chose High Contrast among a few others previously which did not help. I am more confident if I could only get the right theme so I could see what I am doing. As of now. I have installed Open shell cause it suppose to be easier to navigate as win 7, but unfortunalely I cannot see the apps such as Firefox and Thunderbird clearly. I wish it was as clear as this post. As FAR as I recall FF menu only showed me 3 options which i have forgotten by now. Yes i do have more than one email account and all of AOL. Verizon is my provider for the internet. If someone can steer me, if its avaliable to a theme such as i see here at least in TH. and I may be able to have less problems. Like I said earlier. the systems and websites differ in themes and that is not good for my sight. BTW, vould someone tell me what is the sight they see when they boot up win `11? I am usualy met with the pesty Mcfee program.`