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So yous've got a new calculator. Awesome! That apprehensive metal box is the fundamental to a wide world of potential. Information technology can help yous with everything from juggling your finances to keeping in bear on with your family to blowing off some steam on, uh, Steam.

Merely a new PC isn't similar a new car; you can't just plow a key and put the pedal to the metallic. Okay, possibly you can—just you shouldn't. Performing simply a few simple activities when y'all outset fire information technology up can help it be safer, faster, and amend poised for the future. Here'south how to gear up up a new laptop or desktop computer the right way, step by stride.

Run Windows Update on your new PC

The starting time stride is by far the most tedious. You lot shouldn't muck around on the web unless your copy of Windows is fully patched and upward to date, period. Now for the bad news: Depending on how long your PC sat on the retail shelf, this could take minutes—or hours. Either fashion, information technology has to go done.

Microsoft releases new Windows patches at least once per month. The most recent "major" upgrade for the operating organisation came in the form of the wearisome Windows 10 November 2022 Update; those larger "milestone" releases occurred twice per yr in the past, but will dull to one per twelvemonth in the future. Windows 11, on the other hand, just launched in Oct, so laptops with that installed should be pretty electric current. If your estimator isn't fully patched, you could be missing key security fixes and notable new features.

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

Beginning, make sure your PC's connected to the internet. In Windows x, open up the Beginning bill of fare and head to Settings>Update and security >Check for Updates. Your system will search for updates, and find some. Download and install them, then reboot your computer and do it again… and again… and once again… until the update check fails to return new entries. Hopefully it won't take besides long, but in worst-case scenarios updating a new computer tin take an hour or more.

On the bright side, Windows volition download and install new updates as they curl out in the future. Yous just have to get over this initial hump!

If your new laptop came with Windows 10 installed, you may see the option to upgrade to Windows xi. We recommend skipping Windows xi for at present. At that place'due south non only 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 days. Feel gratis 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 yous're wearing someone else's shoes. It tin can be done, but information technology ain't pretty. Here are direct links for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera if Edge isn't your thing.

Chrome has been our go-to selection for years, but the Chromium-based version of Microsoft's Edge upset the long-fourth dimension champion in our nearly recent round of web browser testing. Edge is the best browser y'all tin can use right at present if you don't listen breaking abroad from Chrome, and better yet, it's Windows 10's default. If your tastes lean more exotic, you could always fiddle with 1 of these 10 obscure, highly specialized browsers, as well.

Ready up your new PC's security

Now that you've slipped into something more than comfortable, it's fourth dimension to get 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-uncomplicated to use, not bad at sniffing out malware, and probably adept enough for virtually people. Information technology isn't the most full-featured anti-malware solution out there, though. Yous tin't even schedule scans! PCWorld'southward guide to the all-time antivirus for Windows PCs tin help you find all the correct tools to go on your PC protected.

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

Clean your computer's bloatware

With your defenses upwardly, information technology's time to start shoveling the crap out of your PC.

Yous can skip this step if you built your ain Windows PC. Straight Windows installations don't come with excess junk cluttering upwards your hard drive. Only boxed PCs from big-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, so selecting the option that appears at the elevation of the results. Go through the listing and uninstall any unwanted programs. Don't delete apps from your hardware'south makers—exit software from the likes of Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, and HP or Lenovo alone, for example—but feel free to wipe out whatsoever bundleware yous see. Some of the nearly usually preinstalled apps are antivirus trials, Dropbox, Candy Vanquish, Netflix, Spotify, "App Collections," and others.

If y'all'd rather nuke everything from above, Microsoft as well offers a downloadable tool that installs a make clean copy of the most recent version of Windows 10 Dwelling or Windows 10 Pro but without any apps that aren't role of Microsoft'south default Windows 10 setup. It seriously doesn't mess around, as Microsoft drives home in the tool's description: "Using this tool volition remove all apps that don't come standard with Windows, including other Microsoft apps such as Function. Information technology will also remove most pre-installed apps, including manufacturer apps, back up apps, and drivers."

This tool will wipe out any product keys or digital licenses associated with that software too, then if you want to keep some of the software being blasted away (similar Office, say), be certain to jot downward the product fundamental before using Microsoft'southward fresh-start tool, using something similar Belarc Advisor to find it.

Fill up your new computer with software

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

Outfitting your rig is an intensely personal affair, just if y'all're looking for suggestions, PCWorld has a guide to the best gratis programs that are so helpful, so handy, so downrightuseful that they should exist welcome on pretty much any PC. These review roundups and software guides tin can as well straight you lot towards some of the best programs around:

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

Head towards Ninite when it comes time to actually install all that software. Ninite lets you install numerous free applications of your selection all at in one case, fifty-fifty going then far as to automatically disable the arranged crapware that many complimentary programs effort to sneak in equally part of the installation process. 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 menu and taskbar design. Consider checking out StartAllBack or Stardock's Start11 if so. Both of these $v programs help you reconfigure the expect and feel of Windows eleven in ways the operating system itself doesn't. You lot can have it dorsum to feeling normal in no time.

Back up your new reckoner

After all that, your PC is finally ready to rock: It'southward safe, up to date, scrubbed free of junk, and full of software fine-tuned to see your specific needs. The end is in sight! But we're not done juuuuuust notwithstanding.

Now that your PC's in fighting shape it'south an ideal fourth dimension to create a clone or image of your master hard drive—the i Windows boots from—and relieve information technology to another hard bulldoze. A clone or epitome creates a snapshot replica of your drive, which you tin can use to boot upward Windows if your principal bulldoze gives upwardly the ghost. Having an image of your system in its current updated, bloatware free, customized state prevents you from having to exercise all that legwork over once again if you lot ever have to reinstall Windows for whatever reason.

So what's the difference betwixt a clone and an paradigm? Essentially, a clone creates an exact re-create of your difficult drive on another drive—files, master boot record, and all. The clone consumes the entire hard drive, merely it'south plug-and-play if you ever need to employ 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 get an prototype fill-in set to ringlet after a disaster, but you take more than flexibility in how you store it, since it's substantially just a great big file. Lincoln Spector has a more than detailed comparison if y'all're interested.

In that location are fantabulous backup tools available that allow y'all create clones and images, which we cover in detail in PCWorld's roundups of the best Windows backup software and best online fill-in services. Don't want to pay for data protection? We've also rounded up the best gratis backup options, and if you don't heed performing more technical gruntwork to salvage some cash, we explain how to use Windows' native imaging tool pace-by-step in PCWorld's guide to creating a free, foolproof backup system. Apply something though. Regular backups are your data's only savior if disaster strikes.

Optional: Update your new PC's drivers

This pace isn't for everyone. Few things can introduce troublesome ghosts in your machine faster than a commuter that refuses to play nice for whatever reason. If your from-the-box desktop PC is working fine and you lot only ever plan to perform basic tasks like surfing the spider web, working with Office, 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 anyhow.

device manager update — You'll spend some time staring at the Device Managing director if you congenital your own PC and need to update your drivers manually.

But if you cobbled together a DIY rig or are rocking a gaming machine, it's a good idea to see if newer drivers are available for your hardware. Windows Update isn't ever on the bleeding border of driver updates, and new drivers for, say, your motherboard or network card tin can provide beneficial feature and performance updates. Gamers will need to update their graphics menu drivers fairly often to ensure optimal performance in the newest games. (Fortunately, you lot tin do that hands using Nvidia and AMD's must-take graphics suites, and they'll let you lot know when new ones are bachelor.)

PCWorld'due south guide to updating your Windows drivers has all the info yous need to proceed. It was written for Windows 8, but if you search for Device Managing director in Windows 10 or eleven, all of the same steps outlined in the article all the same employ. If a driverdoes somehow manage to bork your PC, fear not, every bit Windows automatically creates a System Restore Point when you lot install new device drivers.

And iftruthful disaster strikes in some bizarre, extreme instance, you've got the backup image you've created—right?

Optional: Learn about your new computer

Now that all the hard work is washed, accept fourth dimension to learn all the nooks and crannies of Windows—at that place's an awful lot of surprisingly powerful, downrighthelpful tools and tricks subconscious 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 up a lot of helpful knowledge. We've as well got a roundup of Windows eleven's all-time hidden features.

Wrap-upwards

At this point you're pretty much ready to roll. Sure, there 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 (again, Belarc Advisor rocks for that), only you tin can exercise all that at your leisure. For now, just savor in the glory of owning a new PC, secure in the knowledge that it's fully optimized, protected confronting attack, and recoverable if disaster strikes.

Enjoy!

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