Hello! I’m Dan Gookin, author of way too many books in the For Dummies series, as well as other books on technology and computers. Some of my recent titles include PCs For Dummies, Laptops For Dummies, Microsoft Word For Dummies, and (most relevantly) Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies.

The idea of getting help with your computer should come as naturally as getting maintenance for your car or mowing your lawn. Though it’s said that computers are “easy to use,” the truth is that computers are not easy to understand.

If you understand a computer, and all that horrible computer science, then you can appreciate what a computer does. But because computers are sold like washing machines and toasters, people are often at a loss as to what to do or where to go for help.

It is my hope that this blog takes you one step closer to appreciating the task of keeping your PC up and running. Along with the good folks at PC Live, that’s a worthy endeavor. It’s doable. After all, you bought your computer to do things — surf the net, e-mail, word process, create, play games, listen to music, work with digital photos or video, and all that fun stuff. You most likely did not buy your computer so that you could spend all day fixing it.