When I bought my laptop, I was amazed at how many "other" things I HAD to have. Many of them you need toi know the size of the laptop (like the shoulder bag I bought; the one I LIKED was too small. ) I see someone mentioned a jump drive, yup that is a great one, works no matter which one she buys. Is she planning to buy the laptop at the sales on the Friday after Thanksgiving? That would still leave plenty of time for ANOTHER shopping trip to get the bag for it.

Staples sells retractable connectors for your laptop to connect to the printer it's about $10, and that was a great item for me. (The printer is set up connecte to the desktop.) I also got the mouse with the retractable cord, easier for me than worrying about batteries. The laptop I decided on did not come with Microsoft Office (home / student edition) only with MS Works. So I bought that as well.