How To Set Up Your Pc

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

Only a new PC isn't similar a new car; yous tin't only turn a central and put the pedal to the metallic. Okay, peradventure you can—but you shouldn't. Performing just a few simple activities when you lot first burn it up tin assist it exist safer, faster, and amend poised for the future. Hither's how to fix up a new laptop or desktop computer the right way, pace by step.

Run Windows Update on your new PC

The first step is by far the about tedious. You shouldn't muck around on the web unless your copy of Windows is fully patched and upward to engagement, period. At present for the bad news: Depending on how long your PC sat on the retail shelf, this could take minutes—or hours. Either way, it has to get done.

Microsoft releases new Windows patches at least once per calendar month. The most recent "major" upgrade for the operating system came in the grade of the ho-hum Windows 10 November 2022 Update; those larger "milestone" releases occurred twice per year in the past, but will slow to one per year in the future. Windows 11, 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 primal security fixes and notable new features.

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

Start, make sure your PC'southward connected to the internet. In Windows 10, open the Start menu and caput to Settings>Update and security >Bank check for Updates. Your arrangement volition search for updates, and find some. Download and install them, then reboot your calculator and exercise information technology again… and again… and again… until the update check fails to return new entries. Hopefully information technology won't take too long, but in worst-case scenarios updating a new computer can take an hour or more.

On the bright side, Windows will download and install new updates as they gyre out in the future. You just take to get over this initial hump!

If your new laptop came with Windows x installed, you lot may meet the pick to upgrade to Windows 11. We recommend skipping Windows eleven for now. There's not merely a new interface to learn, simply the fresh-out-of-the-oven operating system also has multiple rough edges and outright bugs in these early on days. Experience complimentary to read our exhaustive Windows eleven 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 lot're wearing someone else'due south shoes. Information technology tin can be done, just it ain't pretty. Hither are direct links for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera if Border isn't your thing.

Chrome has been our go-to pick for years, but the Chromium-based version of Microsoft'due south Edge upset the long-time champion in our most recent round of web browser testing. Border is the all-time browser y'all can use correct now if you don't mind breaking away from Chrome, and amend nevertheless, it'south Windows x's default. If your tastes lean more exotic, you could always dabble with one of these 10 obscure, highly specialized browsers, too.

Ready your new PC's security

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

Windows ships with Windows Security enabled by default unless your laptop or desktop includes a third-party antivirus trial. Windows Security is a solid, if not overly detailed solution that's dead-simple to apply, neat at sniffing out malware, and probably skillful enough for most people. It isn't the most full-featured anti-malware solution out there, though. Yous can't even schedule scans! PCWorld's guide to the all-time antivirus for Windows PCs can help you find all the correct tools to proceed your PC protected.

We also have a guide to building a solid free security suite, simply information technology takes more legwork and hassle than premium antivirus options.

Clean your estimator'southward bloatware

With your defenses up, it's time to start shoveling the crap out of your PC.

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

The easiest way to jettison the junk is by typing "Add and remove programs" into the Windows search box, then selecting the option that appears at the top of the results. Go through the listing and uninstall any unwanted programs. Don't delete apps from your hardware'south makers—leave software from the likes of Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, and HP or Lenovo alone, for example—only experience free to wipe out whatsoever bundleware you come across. Some of the about normally preinstalled apps are antivirus trials, Dropbox, Candy Beat, Netflix, Spotify, "App Collections," and others.

If y'all'd rather nuke everything from above, Microsoft too offers a downloadable tool that installs a clean re-create of the most recent version of Windows x Home or Windows ten Pro just without whatsoever apps that aren't office of Microsoft'southward default Windows 10 setup. It seriously doesn't mess effectually, as Microsoft drives dwelling house 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, support apps, and drivers."

This tool will wipe out any product keys or digital licenses associated with that software too, so if you want to keep some of the software beingness blasted away (like Role, say), be certain to jot down the product central earlier using Microsoft's fresh-kickoff tool, using something like Belarc Counselor to find it.

Fill your new figurer with software

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

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

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

Head towards Ninite when it comes time to actually install all that software. Ninite lets yous install numerous free applications of your choice all at once, fifty-fifty going and so far equally to automatically disable the bundled crapware that many free programs effort to sneak in as part of the installation procedure. It's 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 might be uncomfortable with its radical new Start carte and taskbar design. Consider checking out StartAllBack or Stardock's Start11 if so. Both of these $5 programs help you reconfigure the look and feel of Windows 11 in ways the operating arrangement itself doesn't. Y'all can take it dorsum to feeling normal in no time.

Support your new computer

After all that, your PC is finally set to stone: It's safe, up to appointment, scrubbed costless of junk, and full of software fine-tuned to meet your specific needs. The end is in sight! But we're not done juuuuuust yet.

Now that your PC's in fighting shape information technology's an ideal time to create a clone or paradigm of your master hard bulldoze—the i Windows boots from—and save it to another hard drive. A clone or image creates a snapshot replica of your bulldoze, which you lot tin can employ to boot up Windows if your principal drive gives up the ghost. Having an prototype of your system in its current updated, bloatware costless, customized land prevents you from having to exercise all that legwork over over again if y'all ever have to reinstall Windows for any reason.

So what'southward the difference between a clone and an image? Essentially, a clone creates an exact copy of your difficult drive on another drive—files, master kicking record, and all. The clone consumes the entire hard drive, merely it's plug-and-play if you e'er need to use it. Images, on the other hand, create a single, mammoth file containing all the stuff on your PC. It takes a bit more work to become an image backup ready to roll after a disaster, only y'all have more flexibility in how you shop it, since information technology's substantially just a great big file. Lincoln Spector has a more than detailed comparison if yous're interested.

There are excellent backup tools bachelor that allow you create clones and images, which we cover in detail in PCWorld'south roundups of the all-time Windows backup software and best online backup services. Don't want to pay for information protection? We've besides rounded up the all-time free backup options, and if you don't mind performing more technical gruntwork to save some cash, we explain how to use Windows' native imaging tool stride-by-step in PCWorld's guide to creating a free, foolproof backup system. Use something though. Regular backups are your information's merely savior if disaster strikes.

Optional: Update your new PC's drivers

This pace isn't for anybody. Few things tin can introduce troublesome ghosts in your car faster than a driver that refuses to play prissy for any reason. If your from-the-box desktop PC is working fine and yous only ever plan to perform basic tasks like surfing the web, working with Part, and stuff like that, feel costless to forget your computer even has drivers and keep on keeping on. Windows Update should've snagged reasonably new drivers for your hardware anyway.

device manager update — You'll spend some time staring at the Device Manager if yous built your own PC and need to update your drivers manually.

Merely if you cobbled together a DIY rig or are rocking a gaming machine, it'due south a good thought to see if newer drivers are available for your hardware. Windows Update isn't ever on the haemorrhage edge of driver updates, and new drivers for, say, your motherboard or network carte du jour can provide beneficial feature and operation updates. Gamers will need to update their graphics card drivers fairly often to ensure optimal performance in the newest games. (Fortunately, you can do that hands using Nvidia and AMD's must-have graphics suites, and they'll let yous know when new ones are bachelor.)

PCWorld'south guide to updating your Windows drivers has all the info you need to proceed. It was written for Windows 8, but if you search for Device Managing director in Windows ten or xi, all of the same steps outlined in the commodity yet apply. If a commuterdoes somehow manage to bork your PC, fearfulness not, equally Windows automatically creates a System Restore Bespeak when you install new device drivers.

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

Optional: Larn about your new computer

Now that all the difficult work is done, take time to learn all the nooks and crannies of Windows—at that place'south 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. Y'all'll pick upward a lot of helpful knowledge. We've also got a roundup of Windows 11'southward all-time subconscious features.

Wrap-upwards

At this point you're pretty much ready to roll. Sure, at that place are some other tasks you should perform, such as moving over files from your old PC and saving the product keys for Windows and your other installed software (once more, Belarc Advisor rocks for that), but you can do all that at your leisure. For now, just savour in the glory of owning a new PC, secure in the knowledge that it's fully optimized, protected against attack, and recoverable if disaster strikes.

Enjoy!

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