How To Set Up New Windows Laptop

So you've got a new computer. Awesome! That humble metal box is the central to a wide world of potential. It can assist you with everything from juggling your finances to keeping in bear on with your family to blowing off some steam on, uh, Steam.

But a new PC isn't like a new machine; you lot can't just turn a central and put the pedal to the metal. Okay, maybe y'all can—but you shouldn't. Performing just a few elementary activities when yous start burn down it up tin can help information technology exist safer, faster, and better poised for the hereafter. Here's how to prepare up a new laptop or desktop computer the correct style, step by step.

Run Windows Update on your new PC

The starting time step is by far the about tedious. Y'all shouldn't muck effectually on the web unless your re-create of Windows is fully patched and up to date, menses. Now for the bad news: Depending on how long your PC saturday on the retail shelf, this could take minutes—or hours. Either way, it has to go done.

Microsoft releases new Windows patches at least once per month. The most recent "major" upgrade for the operating system came in the form of the ho-hum Windows x November 2021 Update; those larger "milestone" releases occurred twice per year in the past, only will slow to i per yr in the future. Windows xi, on the other hand, just launched in October, so laptops with that installed should be pretty current. If your computer isn't fully patched, you could be missing key security fixes and notable new features.

windows update — Keep updating Windows until it says yous're all caught up.

First, make sure your PC'due south connected to the internet. In Windows x, open up the Start carte du jour and head to Settings>Update and security >Bank check for Updates. Your organisation will search for updates, and find some. Download and install them, and then reboot your computer and do information technology again… and again… and once again… until the update check fails to return new entries. Hopefully information technology won't take too long, but in worst-example scenarios updating a new computer tin take an 60 minutes or more than.

On the bright side, Windows will download and install new updates as they roll out in the hereafter. Yous simply have to get over this initial hump!

If your new laptop came with Windows 10 installed, you may see the choice to upgrade to Windows 11. We recommend skipping Windows 11 for at present. There'southward not but a new interface to learn, but the fresh-out-of-the-oven operating system also has multiple rough edges and outright bugs in these early days. Feel free to read our exhaustive Windows 11 review and decide for yourself if it's offered, though.

Install your favorite browser

Surfing the web in an unfamiliar browser is like trying to tango while you're wearing someone else's shoes. Information technology tin be done, but information technology ain't pretty. Here are straight links for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera if Edge isn't your thing.

Chrome has been our go-to choice for years, but the Chromium-based version of Microsoft's Edge upset the long-time champion in our well-nigh recent circular of web browser testing. Edge is the best browser you can use correct at present if you don't mind breaking away from Chrome, and better nevertheless, it's Windows ten's default. If your tastes lean more exotic, yous could always dabble with one of these 10 obscure, highly specialized browsers, too.

Set up your new PC'due south security

Now that you lot've slipped into something more than comfortable, information technology'southward time to get your security ducks in a row.

Windows ships with Windows Security enabled by default unless your laptop or desktop includes a tertiary-party antivirus trial. Windows Security is a solid, if not overly detailed solution that's dead-simple to utilise, great at sniffing out malware, and probably practiced enough for near people. It isn't the near full-featured anti-malware solution out there, though. You tin can't even schedule scans! PCWorld'southward guide to the all-time antivirus for Windows PCs can help you discover all the right tools to keep your PC protected.

We also take a guide to building a solid free security suite, but it takes more legwork and hassle than premium antivirus options.

Clean your calculator's bloatware

With your defenses upwardly, it'due south time to start shoveling the crap out of your PC.

You can skip this step if you lot congenital your own Windows PC. Straight Windows installations don't come with excess junk cluttering upwardly your difficult drive. Just boxed PCs from big-proper name PC makers are inevitably brimming with bloatware.

The easiest style to jettison the junk is by typing "Add together and remove programs" into the Windows search box, and then selecting the selection that appears at the summit of the results. Go through the list and uninstall any unwanted programs. Don't delete apps from your hardware'south makers—get out software from the likes of Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, and HP or Lenovo lonely, for example—but feel free to wipe out any bundleware you lot see. Some of the most commonly preinstalled apps are antivirus trials, Dropbox, Candy Beat out, Netflix, Spotify, "App Collections," and others.

If you'd rather nuke everything from in a higher place, Microsoft also offers a downloadable tool that installs a clean copy of the virtually recent version of Windows 10 Dwelling or Windows ten Pro but without any apps that aren't office of Microsoft's default Windows 10 setup. It seriously doesn't mess around, as Microsoft drives home in the tool'southward description: "Using this tool will remove all apps that don't come standard with Windows, including other Microsoft apps such as Office. It will also remove most pre-installed apps, including manufacturer apps, back up apps, and drivers."

This tool volition wipe out any product keys or digital licenses associated with that software likewise, then if you want to proceed some of the software being blasted away (like Office, say), be sure to jot downwards the production key before using Microsoft's fresh-showtime tool, using something like Belarc Advisor to discover information technology.

Make full your new calculator with software

Why would you scrap all that junk and clutter? To make room for your ain stuff, giddy. New hardware merely begs for software to match!

Outfitting your rig is an intensely personal affair, but if you're looking for suggestions, PCWorld has a guide to the best free programs that are so helpful, so handy, so downrightuseful that they should exist welcome on pretty much any PC. These review roundups and software guides can also directly y'all towards some of the best programs around:

The best costless Microsoft Role alternatives
5 free Windows power tools we can't live without
The best password managers
The all-time PDF editors
seven free programs every PC gamer needs
The best VPNs
5 gratuitous Photoshop alternatives for Windows
How to play DVDs in Windows 10 for gratuitous

Head towards Ninite when information technology comes fourth dimension to actually install all that software. Ninite lets you lot install numerous free applications of your choice all at in one case, even going so far equally to automatically disable the bundled crapware that many free programs attempt to sneak in as part of the installation process. It'due south a wonderfully handy tool that takes the pain out of loading up a new PC.

If your new laptop came with Windows 11 preinstalled, you lot might be uncomfortable with its radical new Beginning menu and taskbar design. Consider checking out StartAllBack or Stardock'southward Start11 if then. Both of these $5 programs assistance you reconfigure the look and feel of Windows eleven in ways the operating organisation itself doesn't. You can have it dorsum to feeling normal in no time.

Support your new computer

After all that, your PC is finally prepare to rock: It'south prophylactic, upwardly to date, scrubbed free of junk, and full of software fine-tuned to run into your specific needs. The finish is in sight! Merely nosotros're not washed juuuuuust yet.

Now that your PC'south in fighting shape information technology'south an ideal time to create a clone or image of your primary hard drive—the one Windows boots from—and salvage information technology to some other difficult drive. A clone or image creates a snapshot replica of your drive, which you can utilise to boot upwardly Windows if your primary drive gives up the ghost. Having an prototype of your system in its current updated, bloatware free, customized state prevents you from having to do all that legwork over once again if y'all always take to reinstall Windows for any reason.

So what'south the departure between a clone and an epitome? Essentially, a clone creates an exact copy of your hard bulldoze on another drive—files, main boot tape, and all. The clone consumes the unabridged hard drive, but it's plug-and-play if y'all ever need to use information technology. Images, on the other manus, create a unmarried, mammoth file containing all the stuff on your PC. It takes a bit more than work to get an image fill-in ready to roll after a disaster, merely you take more flexibility in how you shop information technology, since information technology's substantially only a nifty big file. Lincoln Spector has a more detailed comparison if yous're interested.

There are excellent backup tools bachelor that let you create clones and images, which we comprehend in item in PCWorld'due south roundups of the best Windows backup software and best online fill-in services. Don't want to pay for data protection? We've also rounded upward the best complimentary backup options, and if you don't heed performing more than technical gruntwork to save some cash, we explicate how to use Windows' native imaging tool step-by-step in PCWorld'southward guide to creating a free, foolproof backup system. Use something though. Regular backups are your data'due south only savior if disaster strikes.

Optional: Update your new PC's drivers

This step isn't for everyone. Few things can introduce troublesome ghosts in your machine faster than a driver that refuses to play overnice for whatsoever reason. If your from-the-box desktop PC is working fine and you only ever program to perform bones tasks like surfing the web, working with Office, and stuff like that, feel free to forget your computer even has drivers and go on on keeping on. Windows Update should've snagged reasonably new drivers for your hardware anyway.

device manager update — Y'all'll spend some fourth dimension staring at the Device Manager if you built your own PC and demand to update your drivers manually.

But if you cobbled together a DIY rig or are rocking a gaming machine, it'southward a good thought to see if newer drivers are available for your hardware. Windows Update isn't always on the bleeding border of driver updates, and new drivers for, say, your motherboard or network card can provide beneficial characteristic and performance updates. Gamers volition need to update their graphics card drivers fairly often to ensure optimal performance in the newest games. (Fortunately, you lot tin practice that hands using Nvidia and AMD's must-have graphics suites, and they'll let yous know when new ones are available.)

PCWorld's guide to updating your Windows drivers has all the info y'all need to proceed. It was written for Windows eight, but if y'all search for Device Manager in Windows 10 or 11, all of the same steps outlined in the article still apply. If a driverdoes somehow manage to bork your PC, fear not, equally Windows automatically creates a System Restore Point when you install new device drivers.

And iftrue disaster strikes in some bizarre, extreme example, you've got the backup image you've created—right?

Optional: Learn most your new reckoner

Now that all the hard work is done, have fourth dimension to acquire all the nooks and crannies of Windows—there's an awful lot of surprisingly powerful, downrighthelpful tools and tricks hidden in its depths. Check out PCWorld's guide to the all-time Windows 10 tips, tools, and tricks, which we update with every major Windows update. You'll pick up a lot of helpful knowledge. We've as well got a roundup of Windows 11's best subconscious features.

Wrap-up

At this point you're pretty much ready to roll. Sure, in that location are some other tasks you should perform, such as moving over files from your old PC and saving the production keys for Windows and your other installed software (again, Belarc Advisor rocks for that), but yous tin can practice all that at your leisure. For at present, just savor in the celebrity of owning a new PC, secure in the knowledge that it's fully optimized, protected against set on, and recoverable if disaster strikes.

Bask!

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Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/419905/how-to-set-up-new-computer.html

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