The main program file you downloaded is a standard .msi file (MicroSoft Install). Double clicking it will begin the installation process. It is very easy since there is nothing to decide - just accept all the defaults. The end result will be a few files in C:\Program Files\Sue Center, many in C:\SueCenterData, and 3 new shortcuts on the desktop.
There are 2 important things to be aware of before starting Sue Center for the first time.
- Before double-clicking on the Sue Center shortcut verify that the resolution of the monitor is set to the standard of 1024 by 768 or for wide screen monitors 1280 by 768. (Do this by right clicking on a blank area of the desktop and choosing Properties-Settings (or on Vista Personalize-Display Settings). This is what the default configuration file expects. Once this is set you can double click on the Sue Center shortcut and try it out!
- Microsoft XP (and certainly Vista) will pop up a cautionary warning dialog when Sue Center tries to access the internet for the first time. You need to make sure that you "Always Allow" the program sc.exe to access the network. If you don't do this, email and mailme and synonyms will not work at all.
When your initial evaluation is over and you want to start using it for real you'll need to do a one-time configuration for your own name and email settings.
Be sure that Sue Center itself is not running while you are doing the configuration below.
Start the configuration program with the desktop shortcut named 'Sue Center Configuration'. The configuration page has the gory details on the multitude of things you can configure. Luckily there are only a very few things that are required to personalize it for the user:
- Under the 'Misc' tab enter the user's first Name and verify that the My Documents and My Pictures paths are correct. At the bottom put your local zip code so you can get your city's weather report with the "MW" MailMe command. Below this put your area code (U.S. only) for use by Skype.
- Under the 'Email' tab you need to enter the user's Full Name and the details of the incoming and outgoing servers. This information is the same that you would enter into any standard email client such as Outlook. There is a button at the bottom of this tab to test and verify that the email settings are correct.
- Finally, you can change the name of the shortcut on the desktop so that it says "Charlie Center" or "Karen Center" or whatever your user's name is.
There are a few optional things you can do to fine tune the configuration:
- Make the cursor black and large. In the Control Panel choose Mouse-Pointers. Select the Scheme named 'Windows Black (extra large)' and say 'OK'. Also see this link for additional large cursors.
- Have Sue Center start up at boot time by dragging and dropping (copying) its shortcut into Start => Programs => Startup.