Setting up a new computer !!!
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Many new computers from brand name companies (Dell, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba etc.) come pre-bundled with a lot of software, many of these being shareware that expire.Check the CD's that came with your computer, there should be a restore CD. If you are lucky, one CD is the operating system and other CD's include programs and drivers. The easiest thing to do here is to reinstall the operating system clean, then use the drivers CD to restore your drivers. You can do this by inserting the operating system restore CD into a drive and reboot. Remain disconnected from the internet during the reinstall. Optionally, you can install programs you wanted from the program CD last. Now, you should have a lean install without all of the garbage that came preloaded. I have found this to be faster then the alternative, which is to go to add\remove programs and start uninstalling programs. It has taken me up to 3 hours to remove the garbage. Do not purchase tweaking from large stores like Best Buy, who only disable startup items and charge you 40 bucks or more plus try to sell you more software. You will be amazed at the speed difference.Of course, you might have a restore cd with all the bundled apps, or no install d at all! In this case, disconnect your computer from the internet, then begin uninstalling anything you do not use. After this is completed, and you have installed tools from the list below, be sure to do basic computer maintenance to clean things up Removing startup items and cleaning your drive and registry are simple and SAFE steps you should do. Also, disk defragmentation will be needed and can take hours.
Now be sure to protect your computer with required tools, choose one from each below, unless noted otherwise
Anti-Virus: AVG Free Edition - AntiVir - Avast! Home Edition.
Firewall: Zone Alarm - Sygate Personal - Kerio Personal - Outpost.
Spyware Protection: SUPERAntiSpyware - Ad-Aware - Spybot - SpywareBlaster.
Spam protection: SpamFighter Standard - SpamPal - SpamPal - K9.
Programs to protect you (optional, can install one or all): SpywareBlaster - SpywareGuard - BugOff - McAfee Site Advisor.
Finally, this was a lot of work, it can take 2 to 5 hours to complete! Dont waste this time, get your email and personal settings done, then back up your computer so you have a personalized recovery CD and you will not have to go through this again.
