non-computer user

You can get an up-to-date Flash player from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Do not download it from anywhere else, particularly from site which tell you you need to update it - they are often malicious.

It's been suggested that if you have problems with the installation this Adobe link is preferable: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html - both links are safe. The latter downloads the installed from the link; the former downloads it only when you start the installation; it's the same final result.

Do not download any 'cleaning' programs for your Mac. You don't need them, and they do a lot more harm than good.

The administrator is you - the login required for whichever user account on your Mac is the admin one. If there is only one account that has to be the admin account, and you would use the password you use to log into that.

If you do not know the administrative password then reset the password by:

OS X: Changing or resetting an account password

Forgot Mac Password? How to Reset Your Mac Password (with or without CD)

Change the Admin Password with Mac OS X Single User Mode

Reset mac mini admin password: Apple Support Communities

Never trust and always verify. Any site that tells you to "do this" or MacKeeper or MacCleaner or dozen others. And the advice to only download and install Flash when you are 200% certain you are on www.adobe.com first.

You are a computer user, maybe not up to speed and tech savvy as you would wish to be to feel more secure.

Only the admin or owner - which is what 99.9% users are and they don't setup limited access accounts unfortunately, can install or make changes to a system.

Not sure about laptops and support but Apple ended providing new security updates and patches and updated Safari for 10.6.8, so you may want to start if you have not already using http://www.firefox.com for web browser but not Chrome, it is a resource and memory hog and does not run well on OS X

And to be sure you system does not have any lingering issues, and to help us Etrecheck can be useful

http://www.etresoft.com download Etrecheck, run it, paste the output to a thread reply.

http://www.everymac.com is a helpful listing of all Mac models, maximum RAM, OS and other items.

kennyfrom homerville wrote:

i don't understand the user account,who would be the user? the owner or me?

You're saying that it's not actually your computer? The person who initially set up the computer created a 'user account' - it's possible to have several but probably you have only one. When you are running the computer you are in this account. A single user account must be an admin account, and thus require a password. When you boot up the Mac are you asked for a password? If so, that is the password for installing software. If the computer is set to boot without requiring a password then whoever set it up should know what it is. If they don't, they will have to go through the process indicated above by illaass. This will require the installation disks.