All expecting parents have readWhat to Expect When You ’re anticipate , because when that little sheaf of joy drops out of mommy , you ’d better be ready with lots of paper towels and a whole lot of specialized knowledge about what to do from that moment forward . Though it ’s not quite as messy ( or scary ) , setting up a young PC requires a similar sort of informed glide path if you need to raise it in good order from the moment it squirt out of the Fedex motortruck and into your life .
You ’ll be tempt to cull it up and coo , “ Who ’s a widdle PC ? , ” and then like a shot benchmark the shinola out of it . We see the impulse , and the excitement , but hold your horses , cowboy . You ’ve cause to take it slow with a new rig , and get it set up correctly the first time , or else all your next efforts will be for naught . That ’s where we come in . We ’ll show you how to sic up a PC the right way !
In this handy guide , we ’ll show you what to do with your new personal computer in those first all important out - of - the - loge moments , and will adjudge your hand all the style from the first boot until the microcomputer is ready to run its first benchmark . With our help , your big bucks of bits will quickly grow from a fragile , schizophrenic rig to a fully up - to - engagement , dogshit - free simple machine that ’s secure , tweaked for maximum performance , and ready to make daddy or mommy proud . Sniff — they boot up so tight !
You just unbox your new background , all - in - one , or laptop , but do you really experience what ’s inside of it ? After all , like doctors , attorney , and diary keeper , system detergent builder make mistakes , too . It ’s a estimable time to snaffle the spec sheet that came with your microcomputer and do a spry organisation stock list to check that that if you paid for a machine with a $ 230 CPU , you actually pay off that CPU . you could stab and poke at through the glasses using putz such as CPU - Z ( www.cpuid.com ) and GPU - Z ( www.techpowerup.com ) and contain the machine Manager and BIOS / UEFI for computer hardware IDs , or just run a system audited account using Belarc Advisor ( complimentary fromBelarc.com ) . Belarc Advisor will query the ironware and computer software in your PC and demonstrate you with a goodly list of everything that ’s installed . Pay particular attention to what CPU is in your box , the SSD and HDD models and capacity , as well how much random-access memory and how many DIMMs are installed .
The inventory is n’t enough , though . You should also affirm some key parameters to check that your box is running at speed . Run CPU - Z while also running the Prime95 ( www.mersenne.org ) tension test to record the clock speed the flake is running at . With various turbo techs being pushed , you might also want to see how your chip performs under light loads . We generally launch the Sunspider web browser bench mark ( www.webkit.org ) to endeavor to coax turbo speed out of our CPUs . While you have CPU - Z running , flick the Memory tab key and verify that your box seat is operate the right memory channel .
Those of you running an SSD on anIntelsystem should verify that the drive is sneak up to a SATA 6Gb / s embrasure and that Trim is enable . Just download Crystal Disk Info ( http://bit.ly/UKzt0 ) to see what state your SSD ’s run state .
Old - timer , aka geezer , will remember when every young PC would ship with a set of restore discs . Well , buddy , those days are over for most big PC manufacturers . And do n’t you chaff yourself ; even thoughWindows 8has the capability to factory reset itself before your lunch break is over . Windows 8 ’s reset feature film wo n’t do squat if your HDD or SSD decides to go to the south on you , or if some OS fracture or infection is so bad you need to atomize it from orbit .
It ’s not that Microsoft is foreclose PC vendors from allow for restore medium , either — it ’s just that most PC OEMs do n’t want to pay for it anymore . Why bother if they can make you burn it instead ? To be fair , the vast majority of folks never have issues and bound off this step . We , however , like to hope for the best but plan for the bad , so burn the phonograph record before your drive blows a motivator is the proper course of instruction of natural action .
Every major OEM seems to handle restore record differently , so hunt down around on your organisation for the public utility and look for the “ factory restore disk ” feature . When we set up a new boxwood for Aunt Peg recently , the first thing we did was burn a circle of restore disk and then taped them to the back of the machine .
If your new notebook does n’t have an optical movement , consider create a recovery USB cay , which most manufactory public-service corporation funding as an alternative to create magnetic disc . Just verify it ’s large enough . A Windows 8 Pro initiation asked for a minimum of 23 GB for our factory figure of speech .
Rather than attempt to remove the megabytes of trialware your OEM has preloaded on a Modern machine , some enthusiasts prefer to waive the 60 minutes spent uninstalling undesirable crap and reach mighty for the atomic launching computer code rather . Yup , that ’s correct , they take a utterly honorable , marque - new personal computer and directly nuke - and - pave over the OS with a full , clean install . In the days ofWindows XP , such an choice probably made a lot of sense , but factory preinstalls of the O from large OEMs are quite complicated and messy . What ’s more , the factory - restore will quite in all probability contain all the same trialware . While nuke the OS from orbit was perfectly acceptable to many of us years ago , these days we think it ’s just easier to declutter the box by mitt first ( continue reading below ) .
Still , there are time when the atomic selection is preferred . Some OEMs prefer to ship with a 32 - bit interpretation of the OS instal for compatibility reason , but make both the 32 - chip and 64 - fleck versions available . In this case , nuking the OS and reinstalling the 64 - bit version is required if you desire to upgrade .
With your fresh microcomputer connected to the cyberspace , the absolute first matter you should do is manually run Windows Update . Once it ’s done , run it again . Why ? It ’s not becauseWindows 7and Windows 8 are particularly soft targets , but as the earth ’s prevalent operating organization ( well , Win7 anyway ) , they ’re essentially the biggest fair game around . With the dangers of infected Flash ads , JavaScript effort , and an untold number of threat poised to attack unpatched auto , cram into the net with an unpatched box is about as wise as run buck raw and blindfold into a cactus eyepatch .
So before you step one understructure onto the net , hunt down Windows Update at least twice — some update require the comportment of a preceding update to be installed . Then you’re able to flow out to pimp the other much - needed utilities and tools for your new PC . On Windows 8 machines , go to the Modern UI and start to type update . On Windows 7 , go to Start and seek for update .
Former Maximum PC columnist Alex “ The Saint ” St. John said it well : “ Drivers , she is always a - broken . ” OK , we added the Mario Brothers ’ time construction and accent for style , but he was right on . driver are commonly a work in forward motion and they are often the cause of organization wonkiness , even on brand - larrup - newfangled machines . In fact , fresh machines are often the ones most in need of update driver , given their state - of - the - nontextual matter hardware . Case in point , we unboxed a brand - spank - new Windows 8 notebook computer for some examination and immediately had to update no fewer than four driver .
This is where the big - boy “ level 1 ” OEMs often have the edge over the lowly companies . Most pack their own equipment driver update applications that will hunt down the latest equipment driver for their machines . On anHPWin8 laptop , for example , rather than having to furrow down individual driver , the HP update app did the work for us . This can influence against you on social function , though , as handsome troupe often do n’t want headaches , so once a driver reaches a sure grade of stableness , they do n’t campaign new updates unless utterly needed , even if the new driver may add improved feature film or public presentation . Then , a manual search will produce more substantial results .
If you do n’t need to hunt for every single twist driver by hand , there are alternatives , such as Slimware ’s SlimDrivers Free ( www.slimwareutilities.com ) . This utility utilise “ crowdsourcing ” to do what the large OEMs do with their driver updaters . Running SlimDrivers Free on another big OEM laptop , for example , give 14 update driver , while the OEM ’s update tool said nothing new was available .
Which drivers do we typically urge that you update on a new box ? The most obvious are GPU number one wood . Next up would be chipset drivers . We will sum up that results of number one wood updates will vary depending on your O . Windows 7 is quite mature and drivers at this point are improbable to add much beyond bug fixes . Windows 8 , though , is constantly changing , so GPU , chipset , sound recording , USB , mesh — basically everything — should be tick off for Modern driver and generally installed .
We used to think the formal soundness that if it ai n’t split , do n’t intermit it by touching it , but not anymore when it comes to the BIOS . We ’ve experienced so many fits of bizarreness that were furbish up by updating the BIOS in the last yoke of years that we now urge updating the BIOS / UEFI as a top priority on a raw PC . We ’ve seen Wi - Fi that would n’t install in good order get posit with a BIOS update , and overclocking - extend - whacky similarly remedied , so we say just do it . Even on notebooks , which many the great unwashed consider do n’t involve a BIOS update , an updated BIOS can objurgate serious performance issues . slip in stop : The BIOS often has direct ascendancy over acoustic on a laptop computer . Updating the BIOS could add new fan profiles that either make the laptop quieter or enable higher turbo clock speeds because the devotee will twirl up higher . You plainly do n’t know . Even more interesting , newer simple machine , specially new laptop computer , often benefit the most from BIOS updates , as the engineers tweak them in reaction to the feedback they ’re get as the products actually reach consumers ’ hands . Since BIOS updates are often handled differently for each microcomputer , we ca n’t walk you through it step - by - step , but we recommend that you visit your vendor ’s web site to check the BIOS version and/or go any build - in update public utility to check for a new BIOS .
Do you know how you pose your PC at such a fantastic price ? Well , it ’s partly the event of the preinstalled and subsidised trial software system . So while you gnash your teeth at the 12 test apps clogging your hard drive , remember those same software vendors helped pay for your new semi .
So please mouth a quiet thank you and then download PC Decrapifier ( www.pcdecrapifier.com ) stat . This handy public utility company will get you chop-chop and easily uninstall most of the preinstalled software in one undivided swipe . And after you ’re done bollix up out the 100 of megabyte of trial package with as much elbow grease as it takes you to eat a delicious Big Kahuna hamburger , also thank your PC for even letting you uninstall the trialware , unlike your blasted smartphone , which has precious , precious space being wasted by trial apps you never , ever apply , either . Freedom !
You just spent an hour decluttering your new PC of test applications ( if you did n’t use PC Decrapifier ) , now it ’s metre to clutter up it up — your way . Rather than download each app one - at - a - sentence , point your internet browser atNinite.com . Once there , you ’re demonstrate with a page of popular applications that just about everyone installs on a raw machine — Chrome , Dropbox , Foxit Reader,7 - Zip , Steam , TeraCopy , Revo , Digsby , VLC , etc . Simply scroll through the tilt see for an app , utility , or runtime that appeals to you and check the box . Once you ’ve pluck from the menu of software system , click the Get Installer clit and you ’ll get a small executable to download . Once you ’ve downloaded the executable , run it , and Ninite will mechanically download and set up the software you selected . Just motor on down to the In - N - Out Burger near Radford , grab your lunch , issue forth back , and voilà , it ’s done . The only improvement we wish Ninite had is an enthusiast utility selection that includes CPU - Z , GPU - Z , and other handy - smashing tools we all habituate .
While we ’re on the subject of installing software program , if you ’re planning to install innocent antivirus software , you could do that as well with Ninite , which gives you the alternative ofMicrosoft Security Essentials , Avast , andAVGfor real - time scanners ; andMalwarebytes , advertizement - Aware , andSpybotas secondary , on - demand scanners . SuperAntiSpywareis also an option but the app has real - time tribute , which may be an issue for any Ab app you run . More on this after , but if you ’re going the cheap route with AVG , MSE , or Avast , now is the clock time to do it , or put in a give solution . For your info , Windows 8 boxes follow out of the , um , box with Microsoft ’s creaky - old Security Essentials installed and running .
Your piece of work is just getting started after you ’ve installed an Ab product . The old - school scan - your - drive - for - an - infected - file modelling has long been worthless . These years , malware often is set up in a nanosecond , using zero - day infections via broken web web browser plugins and scripting exploits . As much work as Microsoft has done to raise security in Windows 15 ( 7 + 8) , that does n’t help if you have an unpatched translation ofQuickTime , VLC , orAdobe Reader .
First , may we recommend that you consider pay for a secure Ab ware such asF - Secure , Kaspersky , Norton , orBitDefender , among others ? These products are highly snitch for their ability to wiretap zero - day approach , and with rebate you’re able to get enough keystone to breed all your twist for a few dollars a year . If you ’re too tinny , view usingAVG Free , which is better at finish zero - twenty-four hours onset than Microsoft ’s Security Essentials product . MSE is the least bothersome , but it ’s lose a lot of luster of late .
With a proper Ab app in place , you now postulate to be suspicious of your web browser plugins . We recommend weekly checks of your web browser usingQualys BrowserCheck . This free World Wide Web creature will arrest your web internet browser ’s plugins to see if they ’re the latest available . The average and advanced options offer checks of all browsers as well as Windows Updates , too . proceed your program updated is also a Florida key to avoiding infections . For that , we turn to Secunia PSI or the World Wide Web - found OSI ( www.secunia.com ) . Secunia ’s tools will check your installed apps and inform you if there are any risks , and either mechanically download them or offer you a download link .
Running two Ab apps is not recommended , but keeping one around for a second public opinion is n’t a unsound approximation . We often keep Malwarebytes installed just in grammatical case we postulate it . You should also consider instal VirusTotal Uploader ( www.virustotal.com ) . This lets you good - black eye - click a data file to have it sent to VirusTotal where it will be analyzed by more than 40 computer virus engines . Even more trick , if you surmise a process is mal , you’re able to use the VirusTotal Uploader to send the executable that is course the process to be analyzed .
This is only the tip of the iceberg . Just remember security guru Bruce Schneier ’s words : “ Security is not a merchandise ; it ’s a process . ”
The arrangement - restore magnetic disc you make earlier will get you back in business enterprise should you have a total meltdown , but you should also strongly look at determine up a backup architectural plan now , not a day after your ride has died and you ’ve lost all your information . For those time , we ’ve find Window 7’sBackup and Restore to work amazingly well . You ’ll need a second drive on the car for the backups ; we extremely urge that its capacity is equal to or big than that of your elemental parkway . Remember to listen the word of advice that one is none and two is one .
With a USB optical drive plug in or a second HDD in place , use Backup and Restore to create a system image , and then burn a boot disk that you will need should your drive go bad . Now , also define up a Indian file accompaniment from your primary campaign to your subaltern crusade and set it for a docket that you ’re comfortable with . In the event of a primary drive failure , just substitute the cause , kick to the restore platter you create , and aim it at your backup figure of speech and files . When completed , you should be back in action with access to the files you had just before the loser .
Windows 8 users can fix up the same file and image support system from Windows 7 , but it ’s call in Windows 7 File Recovery . Just pull up hunt and start typing data file recovery and face under preferences to get at the same public utility . Win8 in reality has dissimilar options : File History will produce backups on a file every hour , whereas Windows 7 File Recovery will run only once a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . What ’s better ? Since our time and data is invaluable , we do both . register account is the Omega 13 of championship that lets you , say , go back to a file variation from three hours before . Refresh is a great feature that “ resets ” the osmium but it wo n’t facilitate if the drive has give way . In that case , having a disk image and Windows 7 File Recovery fill-in lot allow you throw off in a Modern drive and be back up and run in a yoke of hours , rather than the usual 12 hours of manually instal apps and recover mount .
For more information on how to transplant your files and tweak Windows 8 to your liking keep reading over atMaximum PC . [ Top simulacrum : Mny - Jhee/ Shutterstock ]
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