A short guide for anyone who has just bought a Windows PC or Laptop

Switching on

Once you’ve plugged everything in, there will probably a few ‘registration’ screens. It’s wise to spend a few minutes reading these carefully, don’t just blindly click ‘yes’ or ‘next’ for each one.
For example choosing to register the PC for it’s guarantee is a good idea, but do you really want to receive an email when the manufacturer brings out a new model of computer? (probably not)

Creating the ‘recovery disks’

This is important, so don’t be tempted to skip it! The manufacturer usually provides a utility which helps you create these (you’ll need a few blank DVD disks, or maybe a USB stick), when the process has finished you should have in your hand maybe 2 or 3 disks. Label them and keep them somewhere safe. These disks will prove invaluable if the computer’s hard disk ever breaks (which it will, one day). I’ve worked on computers where the owner doesn’t have these disks, and the only options are to buy a set from the manufacturer (approx £40) or buy a new Windows license (about £65), so you see that spending half an hour now will save money in the long run

Windows updates

It’s likely that since the PC was manufactured, Microsoft have released many ‘updates’ for the Windows software. Throughout the computer’s lifetime these will automatically be installed once every few weeks and you’ll hardly notice this happening, but it’s likely there may be a large number of updates which can be done now.
Click the ‘start’ button, and type the word update. You should see ‘Windows Update’ on the list, so click it. The next step is ‘Check for updates’. It’s likely that this will take some time, so go make some coffee or something

Removing unwanted software

Very often, new computers will come with lots of software which you’ll probably never use. For example do you really need an eBay application, Acrobat.com , the Bing bar, trail versions of Office or Antivirus software?
If I’m not going to use it, what’s the problem with leaving it there?

• Security – If some software is on the computer, there’s a chance that it will at some point suffer from security holes, a ‘weak point’ if you like. Remove the software and this problem goes away
• Some software will be running ‘in the background’ whenever the computer is on, which means it will slow it down (it uses memory and processor time)
• Some software, referred to as ‘adware’ will be secretly tracking your every move, what websites you visit for example. Not only is this an infringement of your privacy, one piece of adware can easily lead to many more (it’s easy to click on ‘popups’ or adverts for example)

To un-install the unwanted stuff, either click the ‘start’ button and type uninstall, or you might be able to find the ‘remove programs’ section within the ‘Control Panel’

Anti-virus software

No matter how careful you are when browsing the internet, it’s easy to pick up a computer virus. There are several ways to protect yourself…

1. It maybe that the computer came with an anti-virus program pre-installed. This is OK, but be aware that it might only be a free trial, say for 60 days. If this is the case you might want to remove it and replace it with something else (see below)
2. A recent Which? report showed that free versions of antivirus software are just as good as the paid-for versions when it comes to protecting you (the paid-for ones have added extras such as parental controls and additional banking protection). I’ve had good experience with the free AVG and Avast
3. If you have other computers in the house already , you may already be paying for software which can be used on more than one device

Backing up your data

It’s very tempting to write a letter or copy some photos from your camera, and leave them on your computer (either the ‘C drive’, or ‘my documents’, etc). In a perfect world this would be fine, however in the real world computers do break and/or get corrupted. To safeguard against this, you need to either do backups, or store you information ‘in the cloud’ [where it will be backed up for you].

• The simplest way of backing up files is to use either a CD, DVD, or USB memory stick. It’s a simple task to copy your files (i.e. photos, letters, spreadsheets, music, etc) onto those devices. If you’re using CDs or DVDs consider keeping some of them at someone else’s house (a fire for example could wipe out your computer and all your precious backups). If you’re using a USB device it’s wise to have several of them (for the reason given above) as it’s sometimes usefult to have ‘old copies’ of data. You don’t want to only have 1 set of backups, only to find that the document you’re after was damaged when you made a copy of it.
• Some anti-virus programs have an option to back-up your files, which avoids the tediousness of manually copying files every week/month/etc. The files are uploaded using your internet connection onto the manufacturer’s computers.
• An increasingly popular way of working now is not to store files on your computer at all, but to use ‘the cloud’. Both Microsoft and Google (and many others) provide on-line space to store your files, photos, etc, and very often they offer free word-processing software and spreadsheets etc (so there’s often no need to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for your PC as people did in the past). I’ve had good results with Google Docs and Microsoft’s OneDrive

I hope that helps you to stay safe and productive with your computer. If you have any questions please do contact me