When you buy a new computer, it is rarely ready to use straight out of the box. There are usually things you need to do it: things to make it safe to use on the net, thing to do to set up the applications you want to use and things to do to optimise the performance of the computer. I’ve compiled a list below of the steps I take when setting up a new computer. Please comment if you think I’ve missed something out or think the order is wrong.
Please note that I’m assuming the computer has Windows XP/Vista installed already, and that you are booting up the computer for the first time and gone through the initial wizards and usual registration rubbish it wants you to do.
- Install Firewall and AV - Before you do anything you need to make sure your spanking new system has some sort of protection against viruses, worms and other forms of attack. It’s unusual nowadays for a new system to come without a security suite (or at the minimum an antivirus package and a personal firewall) preinstalled. However, if you don’t have one, you must install one. There are quite a few commercial packages available (Norton and McAffee/Network Associates being the most common two) but if you can’t afford that, there are some perfectly good free packages available on the web. For antivirus software, take a look at AVG Antivirus. For a basic free firewall, try ZoneAlarm. Remember, ideally you should download these on another protected machine and put them on CD and install them on your machine from the CD.
- Setup Your Internet Connection - I’m assuming here that everyone is on a broadband connection and not 56K dialup! Now I can’t give specific advice on how to setup an internet connection for every single ISP because they vary a lot, plus some people will connect to a network or a proxy so I’ll just leave this section here, but its important to get your internet connection up and running!
- Update Firewall and Antivirus - Now you have your security system and internet connection in place, you need to download any updates for your AV and firewall programs. This ensures not that your system knows about the latest viruses and the like, but also you have any patches installed which may fix vulnerabilities in the programs themselves! This should then be schedule to run regularly - I’d reccommend every day, but if your computer isn’t on all the time or you use it infrequently then I’d schedule it for at least once a week.
- Activate/Update Operating System - I rolled this action into one. If you haven’t done so already, activate/authenticate your OS (probably Windows if you need to do so). This (should!) ensure your copy is then fully legal and will run without any restrictions. The next thing to do is to run Microsoft Update (formerly known as Windows Update). This will check your system and install any updates or patches for your system. In the first instance make sure that you install the critical updates; the others can be installed at a later date. Critical updates, as the name suggests, are updates that are deemed to be highly important, usually security related, and should be installed as soon as possible. You may have to go through several cycles of detect/install/reboot before all critical updates are installed. This may take some time, especially if you have to install Service Packs too.
- Uninstall Preinstalled Rubbish - Practically all computer vendors supply their machines preinstalled with software other than the operating system. Some are essential utilities for managing parts of the hardware (for example, additional buttons on keyboards may have a utility to configure their function), or perhaps some trial software (for example, a six-month subscription to Norton AV). Others are intended to be useful but are often the opposite (an old Packard Bell system I once had included a Packard Bell internet browsers, based on IE5, but it turned out to be slower and more cumbersome than IE itself!) All of this extra software is taking up hard drive space and possibly slowing your machine down. Go to Add/Remove Software in the Control Panel and remove any software that you are certain you don’t need and you don’t want.
- Install Your Hardware - Now’s the time to install your hardware. I wouldn’t recommend at this point installing every single piece of hardware you own, just the essentials. Maybe your wireless USB mouse, your printer and external hard drive. Install them one at a time, rebooting between each one (probably not needed but it ensures any tasks that need to done after rebooting are completed before you install the next item) and quickly use your system to make sure its stable.
- Install Your Software - Once your hardware is sorted out, you can install your software. Just do this the normal way but I would recommend trying them out as you install them. This way its easier to pinpoint what may have caused any errors from software conflicts.
- Copy Over Document Files - A nice easy step. Copy document files you might need from your old system to your new own, or from backup CDs (you do keep backups I hope!) I would recommend an external hard drive in the long run - that way you can just unplug from the old system and plug it in to the new, plus it saves on space on your new machine.
- Defragment Your Hard Disk(s) - Once you’ve finished with the heavy disk activity (installing/uninstalling programs, copying/moving files, etc.) then you should defragment all of your hard drives. This is found (in Windows XP anyway) under “All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter”. All of that disk activity would have possibly left your disks with some fragmented files on, which can impede performance. By defragging your hard drives your files will be held in a continuous space on your hard disk, speeding up disk activity.
- Change Control Panel Settings - Finally, you can customise you system to your requirements, from changing the desktop wallpaper to adjusting the size and location of the swap file (note that this is best done before you defrag). You can optimise the performance of your system here too, but that it for another post!
So there you go. This is by no means a definitive list - the sheer number of system configurations and options makes this impossible. This is just a guide as to the steps I recommend when you set up a new computer to ensure it is protected and ready to use.
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[5.Uninstall Preinstalled Rubbish]
Lol, too many machines (especially laptops!!!!) are preloaded with so much junk from the factory that it is mindboggling. For this very reason, I prefer to do a clean install right after I take it out of the box, so that I can set it up the way exactly the way I want to, without wasting time. Often a clean install is less painful than removing all the bloatware and streamlining the settings. Ofcourse, you do need a legal OS disc for this.
Also, you are right, defragmentation is important. So many people don’t realise this, and complain about slow drives, when it is in reality file fragmentation that is causing problems. I always have Diskeeper Pro running on the auto defragment mode on my drives. Keeps them defragmented without my intervention and does a great job. Diskeeper is a useful program for keeping the drives in good shape, IMO.
Thanks for informative post! I use this schema already.
By the way, what can you say about all-in-one suites at all? I use this one. Agnitum Outpost Security Suite. It includes firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-banner, anti-spam plugins. I really like the app for its functionality and stability, but want to hear some comments.