New PC - What do I need to do?

The box arrived!!,
Sweaty palms,
Heart racing,
Quick, quick unpack and get it on the Inter net!!!

Woa, Hold on just 1 second or a day or 2...

I know you are excited about the brand new spanking super cool PC you just received but there are a few steps you NEED/MUST take to stay secure as long as possible.

 Yes but, but let's just plug it in PLEAAAAAAAAAAAASE

 Listen!
If you would like to survive this war zone we call the Internet then you need to read this and take precaution.
List of stuff you might have to download from the Internet from a PC you can trust to be clean:

  1. An anti virus software of your choice, both of these have a FREE version: Avast, AVG
  2. An Internet browser: FireFox, IE7 or later (you should NOT go on the Internet with any IE version earlier than IE7)
  3. For super secure systems: MS Steady State (Win XP and Vista only), Comodo Time Machine and or Comodo Internet Security
  4. Software to remove unwanted software from your new PC Decrapifier

Now follow these steps and reboot after every step to be safe:

  1. System and disk protection: Install Windows Steady State or Comodo Time Machine or Comodo Internet Security . This is software that can make a local image of your disk and roll back to the known state if anything goes wrong. Please note you need to research these tools your self, but one note on Comodo software: We have used it on various PCs successfully even though some people had horrible experiances with this software.
  2. Remove unwanted applications: Most new PCs come with a LOT of Crapware (a technical term for software most of us do not want but are placed on our new PCs. Usually this is trial ware that you will need to buy at some point in time and the PC vendors get payed to install it on our new PC, it is like paying for an ad by the software vendor). We have used Decrapifier with lots of success many times. After Decrapifier is done then go through the "Add and Remove Programs" of Windows and remove any unwanted software that is left.
  3. Install an AV system: Anti virus software is a VERY good Idea so choose your favourite and install it.
  4. Install a web browser: If you have IE7 or later and you do not want to use FireFox then you can skip this step, else you need to install FireFox and or IE7 or later. We prefer FireFox with the No Script plug-in.
  5. Firewall: Make sure your Windows firewall is turned on especially if you do not have an extra firewall besides your router!
  6. Get Online: Connect your PC now to the NAT firewall router (most new broadband routers are NAT firewalls)
  7. Update: Now update Windows through the normal procedure.

Other software you might like:

  1. If you do not have MS Office you might like Open Office.
  2. If you do open text files or like to see files as they are then Notepad ++ is the thing for you.
  3. If you like MS Paint then try this improved one Paint.Net

 

 

Blogs to watch out for:

  • How to make your router more secure
  • Free and open source software
  • Viruses and what to do if your PC get one

 

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