New Laptop

goldthornwolf

Hi all,

Just got my brand new laptop delivered.

Can anyone advise what steps i need to take when setting up my laptop for the first time, i've heard of people defragmenting, partitioning drives, uninstalling brand software, etc - what do i do to ensure i have my new machine working at its peak level?

MoneySavingUser

You don't really need to defragment windows 7 as it does it in the background when you're not using it

You can set up partitions to split things up if you like - it might already be partitioned - how many hard drive letters show in my computer?

you can remove any branded/pre-installed programs that you don't want/need from programs and features inside control panel

goldthornwolf

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

You don't really need to defragment windows 7 as it does it in the background when you're not using it

You can set up partitions to split things up if you like - it might already be partitioned - how many hard drive letters show in my computer?

you can remove any branded/pre-installed programs that you don't want/need from programs and features inside control panel

I will get back to you when i turn it on... currently occupied with my other bundle of joy (my 4 week old son)

:beer:

MoneySavingUser

goldthornwolf wrote: »

my other bunle of joy (my 4 week old son)

:beer:

congrats

RussJK

Some quick advice:
Don't activate any of the security e.g. Norton, McAfee, Bullguard. Just uninstall them, and look for the specific removal tool afterwards, e.g. google "Norton removal tool".

PCDecrapifier is very useful for making suggestions of what to uninstall: http://pcdecrapifier.com/ (even though many in this country think it's a swear word for some reason?)

Startuplite is good for making suggestions on what to disable at startup (http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/startuplite)

Install a decent AV, e.g. Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast. Best to skip Avira at the moment. Put Malwarebytes on it as well, and use it for regular QUICK scans. Disable Windows Defender.

Use Firefox, Chrome, or Safari with Adblock Plus, and subscribe to both Easylist and Malware Domains subscriptions (http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions). If using Opera, it has an Adblock program. If using IE9, subscribe to Fanboy's adblock list (http://www.fanboy.co.nz/ie.html)

Use Revo Uninstaller and uninstall any other stuff you don't want (http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html).

Put something like Norton DNS or Comodo Secure DNS for a bit of extra security - basically a web filter, and should have no performance hit and potentially makes browsing a bit faster during peak times. Test with youtube to make sure it doesn't slow anything down, should be okay. http://nortondns.com/ http://www.comodo.com/secure-dns/

Install all the recommended Microsoft Security updates.

Use CCleaner, and make sure you are happy with everything that is on the Startup list. At worst, just re-enable anything that you later find you need.

closed

create a recovery disc, and consider a backup strategy

23n1th

Visit this http://ninite.com/ and find and install most of the software you'll ever need in one go.