These are some of the things I have come across in my first few weeks of using the internet.

Screen Resolution

My screen resolution was set at the minimum when my machine was delivered. I didn't discover this until about two weeks into my use of my wonderful new PC. I only discovered it when I had a particular problem.
Changing the screen resolution to a more generally used setting can make a significant difference to how you perceive some websites. If you don't have good settings you may find yourself having to use a drag bar to see things on the right of the page. Its unclear to me so far if it has an affect on how video is seen.

It is easy to check, and change if necessary,

In the basic window move your cursor so it isn't pointing at anything. Press the right click on your mouse.

You should see a menu. At the bottom there is Properties

Left click on Properties

You should get a new window opening

At the top of this window there is a list (going from left to right)

Move your cursor to point at the 'settings'

right click

Move your cursor to be above the icon that can be dragged. Do a left click holding it down. Move your mouse to the right until the numbers 1024 and 768 appear.

Fraud

I like to think I'm not open to fraud. But I almost fell for one in my early days of using the internet. I was set the question that 'these are the viruses that have been found on your system'. This implies that my (your) security package is not up to the job. My reaction was to say yes, you could be right, so I went along with it. Maybe what I have bought is lacking. It took a lot of well knowledgeable people to restore my system to operational. You must have a well respected security package. Do not loose faith in it. Close any such attempts, do not give any succor to the parasites.

P2P

If my understanding is correct then this means that your PC can be hijacked. For me the prime instigator of this is 4oD. If P2P is being implemented on your PC it might cause considerable harm to your usage.

Sound

Are you having difficulty hearing video clips, or music, or other things you have gathered. My system was like that. No matter how much I turned up the volume on my speakers or on the sound icon on the task bar there was a DVD I couldn't hear easily. My system came with some strange settings. This is what you do.

left click on the start icon

Move your cursor to the control panel

left click. You should get a window giving various options. Left click on 'Realtek Sounds'. Look at the panel to the left. Move the cursor to 'advanced Options'. Left click. You should see a view that includes 'wave','SW synth','line volume','CD volume'. What these mean I have no idea, but some of them (in my case 2) were set at the minimum. Change their settings to maximum. In would appear that sound comes into our PCs at different settings so make good use of the manual volume control on your speaker(s).