People spend a lot of time with their web browsers and as the person responsible for making someone comfy with their new computing environment, part of your job is to ensure they have a similar experience with that web browser after the upgrade. My wife had never seen Safari 4's Wall-o'-Sites and didn't care for it. (Fact is, neither do I.) For this reason, pay attention to how the browser once looked and try to duplicate that look after the upgrade.

In my case that required opening Safari's preferences, clicking the General tab, and choosing Empty Page from both the New Windows Open With and New Tabs Open With pop-up menus and leaving the Home Page field blank.

A good auto mechanic test drives a car before returning it to the owner. And during that test drive, the mechanic steps on the brakes at least once to make sure the car stops properly.

The example for us upgraders is that while the Mac may seem like poetry in motion when it's operating, it's essential that we go all the way--start it up, use it, and then . Seems that the HP printer installer on my wife's iMac left some cruft running that wasn't visible from the Dock. And that cruft was enough to prevent the Mac shutting down. I was able to launch Activity Monitor and kill it, but this isn't something she would have known how to do.

Have humbling upgrade tales of your own? (You know you do.) Share them with us in the warm and supportive environment we call the Macworld Forums.