New Laptop..1st things to do?

AceHBK

Master Black Belt
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
1,325
Reaction score
14
Location
Arizona
Hey everyone,

I got a new laptop this past friday and what are the first things that I should do with it? I have a desktop which still runs great and I do all my d/l'ing on and software tests on and will continue to do so and it has XP.

My new laptop came with Vista and I know nothing of Vista except the few times I have used it on someone else's pc, I hated it. I feel tempted to change the OS from Vista to XP but I am wondering what will I loose if I do so.

I was going to take that resource hog (Norton) off and replace it with NOD32. Below are specs to my new laptop. I paid less than $1000 for it brand new so I couldn't pass it up. And I really wont do any gaming on it.

http://www.jr.com/toshiba/pe/TOS_X205SLI5/

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 

Bob Hubbard

Retired
MT Mentor
Founding Member
Lifetime Supporting Member
MTS Alumni
Joined
Aug 4, 2001
Messages
47,245
Reaction score
771
Location
Land of the Free
Remove Norton or McAfee.
Install Grisoft or another system friendly free AVS.
Install Adaware and/or Spybot spyware protection
Check that firewall is up and running correctly.
Make sure all Micro$oft updates and security packs are installed.

Bout all I can think of at the moment. :)
 

Andrew Green

Grandmaster
MTS Alumni
Joined
Aug 1, 2004
Messages
8,627
Reaction score
452
Location
Winnipeg MB
Windows update -> repeat half dozen times until its doesn't do anymore.

get rid of all crapware that came installed on it

Anti-virus

Anti-spyware - run a full scan

a browser other then IE

Pass out (after dealing with Vista's Access control crap you'll have been drinking pretty heavily)
 

MBuzzy

Grandmaster
MTS Alumni
Joined
Aug 15, 2006
Messages
5,328
Reaction score
107
Location
West Melbourne, FL
Delete basically all of the software that came installed on it. Especially if it requires you to join AOL or any of the other providers.
 

terryl965

<center><font size="2"><B>Martial Talk Ultimate<BR
MTS Alumni
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
41,259
Reaction score
340
Location
Grand Prairie Texas
What you already did log onto MT and start quality threads.
icon14.gif
 
OP
AceHBK

AceHBK

Master Black Belt
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
1,325
Reaction score
14
Location
Arizona
lol@ Terry. This place was the first place I thought of when I turned my laptop on.

I will do as everyone suggested, thank you!

When removing all this bloatware, should I just use the uninstall software from the control panel or should I get a program to remove the pre-installed software? I know some people say you should use a program instead of just the basic uninstall through the control panel.

Should I just keep Vista and learn it or drop it for XP?
 

terryl965

<center><font size="2"><B>Martial Talk Ultimate<BR
MTS Alumni
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Messages
41,259
Reaction score
340
Location
Grand Prairie Texas
I know Ace, you know I know nothing about computers so best of luck.
 

fireman00

Brown Belt
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
478
Reaction score
11
Location
New Jersey
as long as your laptop has 2Gig of RAM you'll have no issues with Vista. I've been running it for 8 months an no problems. Remove the bloatware via "add/ remove programs" in Control Panel (you might want to revert to the "classic view") to make things easier. Once you've done that look for any directory(s) that might be used to reinstall the crapware - they're just taking up space.
Install Firefox.
Take off Norton and go with AVG (or the app of your choice).
Run defrag.
 

Mimir

Brown Belt
Joined
Aug 16, 2008
Messages
440
Reaction score
6
Location
Missouri
You might want to limit the Gadgets that you have running on the side (or turn them off completely) as they take memory and resources from the computer. I second the recomendation of 2 gig minimum memory.

Make sure you keep the anti-virus up to date as well as the windows updates.
 

Jade Tigress

RAWR
Lifetime Supporting Member
MTS Alumni
Joined
Mar 11, 2004
Messages
14,196
Reaction score
153
Location
Chicago
Ya know, I got a new laptop a couple months ago that has Vista, and I haven't any problems with it. I like it just fine. :)
 
OP
AceHBK

AceHBK

Master Black Belt
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
1,325
Reaction score
14
Location
Arizona
Ok, THANK YOU TO ALL!!!

I got rid of the excess bloatware and did the MS updates.
For now I am using AVG free anti-virus to "keep me safe" lol
I need to get Ad-aware which I just remembered.

What other programs do you all think are good to have?
I was thinking about a uninstaller and Tune Up utilities.
 

jim777

Master Black Belt
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
1,014
Reaction score
31
Location
Blackwood, New Jersey
I would keep Vista, definitely, and I would also have kept Norton Anti Virus. Of all the others mentioned here, Norton is the only one that will cure a virus embedded as an object in another file. (For example, a spreadsheet table infected with a macro virus, like Slacker, embedded in a Powerpoint presentation). Norton is worth the hit for what you get, which is industrial strength protection. McAfee is absolutely the worst.

I would also make a ghost image of your hard drive as soon as its "ready" and keep it hand in case something ever destroys your system.
 

Latest Discussions

Top