Also I have two nieces ages 14 and 15 that have been using this thing without any kind of restrictions that I can find anywhere, and quite frankly that has me a whole lot worried.
It should. There's a lot of malware that takes advantage of people by getting them to impulsively click a link, or download a file. Much of the crap I see (and have to avoid) while surfing is aimed at either teenagers "impulsivity" and/or inexperience. Security considerations ought to be priority #1 given they are on the 'net. Obviously there are others, but your instinct is dead-on in the wasy (I assume) you meant it.
My mother does her banking on here does that need to be backed up and how do I do it?
I do my (Bank of America) banking on-line and the answer is really no, IMO. They have a Server with all the records saved. The only consideration (I think) is that of having to set up the account again, with the password and whatever other User-input security information that may be necessary. Unless her banking is extraordinarily extensive (I can't imagine how, but it's banking and therefore important to consider carefully.) A call to the bank should resolve this. B of A has Tellers with specific training in "on-line" transactions now, so you should be able to find someone at the bank to give you an authoritative answer, rather than my flea-bitten one.
Wiping the slate clean and starting all over sounds like my best option, and In the process hopefully I can get a better understanding of this contraption and how to use the parental controls to where the girls cant get around them, they are much more savy about the machine than I am.
This is exactly right, and I think this is how most people gain their computer skills, by solving real-world problems in real time. The learning is an investment, and I can tell you from my experience that it really pays off in the sense that none of these problems ever happen "just once" in your life, so every lesson reduces the risk, damage and time you will lose in the future. It's like being able to replace the Starter or Alternator in your car, only these parts go bad about every 30 days.
Is there a way I can see where they have been in here by the way?
Internet Explorer saves the History of where the User "has been" by default, but it can be easily enabled or disabled, and the history can be deleted. There are advanced methods of really "locking down" what can or can't be done. It depends on the level of discipline you have. The easiest way is to simply disallow them from deleting the history file, but how effect that will be will depend on human factors rather than technological. But the Security concerns are valid, common and the information is available here. Any substantive discussion should really take place in another thread, however.
I belong to a couple of gaming places but I know the passwords and stuff so I am assuming I would just go back to them and reopen them where I left off, the same with recipe sites and such, nothing very critical I can think of and after the system crash lost a bunch of stuff anyway.
Like the Banking question, its a simple matter of reinstalling the software and remembering the passwords. No back-up necessary.
And I was looking at the uninstall norton page in the securities forum and I am pretty sure I would screw it up, yes go ahead, paint me a moron.
The Norton uninstall CAN be hairy, and it's looming presence in the future is a good arguement for the nuclear option of reformat & reinstall.
Some experienced Users believe that this is good to do on a routine basis (as often as every 6 months) whether there are problems are not, as a part of "General Maintenance". Personally I am WAY on the other side of the spectrum, and have (for example) been plagued by niggling little problems for the last 6 months that I should have cured by a reinstall long ago.
But I use these problems as learning opportunities, and so keep them around as "things to do when I am bored" projects.
"Screwing things up" is a critical part of the learning process. One component of learning to assume full control over your operating system is to develop a healthy sense of respect for the possible consequences of your actions. There are some areas where you can mess with XP all day long and make no difference to it's basic operations, however there are some things a User could do that will cause instant and catastrophic failure.
Such as the untrained use of the command "FDisk" which a previous version of this Unit once used on my workstation (at work) because the system had some minor and annoying problem. R-E-S-P-E-C-T
You have to really, really completely and irrevocably blow up a system before you can truly have it (respect), IMO. Better sooner than later, and the best lessons are frequently the most painful.
/end caffienated and rambling dissertation...
