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I've purchased a new computer: now what?

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Congratulations on your new purchase. Now let's make sure you get your money's worth for many years to come. This page is dedicated to users that have just purchased a new computer, as the title suggests, and want to do the right things from the start. In fact this will end up being more than just a page but a guide that links to a handful of other pages on this website. Let's start at the beginning:

A power-surge bar with expiry date: Look closely at your power bar. If it doesn't have the word "surge" in it anywhere, than what you have is a power bar not a power-surge bar. The electricity that we receive on a daily basis is not consistently at the same voltage. There are spikes throughout the day, everyday. If you do not have protection against this, then the days of your computer's data is numbered and so is your computer's. A 900 joules power-surge bar costs around $20 so it's ridiculous not to have one. If you do have one, cut a small piece of masking tape and write down a date two years from today, or from the date that you started using the power-surge bar and stick it on the side of the bar. That will be the expiry date at which time you should replace the power-surge bar with a fresh one. There is no need to throw out the old in the trash, you can still use it elsewhere in the house or office, just not on the computer. Why the expiry date? The bar has a mechanism that stops power surges. Two years is the average amount of time after which they will lose their effectiveness. Of course you will not find this information anywhere on the bar's parckaging. However you can do your own research to confirm this: when should I replace my power surge bar

An external hard drive or large capacity USB thumb drive: Backups are the Golden Rule when it comes to computers. The computer itself has a certain worth, but usually our photographs and documents are the really precious items that we do not want to lose. If you want to do the right thing and have worry-free computing, backups are a must. Both external hard drives and USB thumb drives are very reasonable priced nowadays, get one and install it ASAP. The size of the external hard drive depends on what is available, today the average is 500GB to 1TB. This is great and should last you a long, long time, unless you are a video maniac, then you should buy several of these or as needed. If you just want a USB thumbdrive, get at least 1GB. Don't cheap out, otherwise you may end up buying a larger one six months down the road. Remember that digital camera picture sizes are increasing all the time with the amount of mega pixels of the lens. This means greater picture quality but each picture will take up 500k at least, more likely 5MB. If your just a document kind of person, then a tiny usb drive will be fine. Then download and install an excellent free backup and synchronization program called Synch Back. There is a free and paid version of this program. In my opinion, the free version will be sufficient. You can always come back and purchase the more option-filled version later if you need it.

Free*, multi-layered protection against viruses and spyware: Before touching on what layered protection means, let's touch upon briefly its opposite: all-in-one protection. Most paid versions of antivirus software employ the all-in-one method. This typically means one program for protection against viruses, spyware, pop-ups, spam and phishing, as well as including a firewall. In theory, this seems very practical, just like one-stop shopping. However in reality: these programs are large in size and slow down your PC considerably. They also bombard you with useless protection notices and, in the worst cases, request authorisations from you in an incomprehensible language. This is why all-in-ones are to be avoided. Even large corporations recognize this and install special slimed down versions of what the average consumer will have access to at the neighbourhood electronics store. After all, slow computers translate to less productivity. Need we say more? *For home users only. Commercial licenses are required by law for companies of any size.

You've probably guessed it by now: layered protection means that your computer uses several small protection programs instead of one large program. In general, this means: that your protection programs consume less computer resources; activate themselves one at a time; do their thing, and shut down, freeing up the memory they were using. In this fashion, the use of your precious RAM memory is minimized, leaving more computer speed for whatever You want to do.

Antivirus: there are less and less free antivirus programs out there as time goes by. Once a company has accumulated enough free users, it seems, they want to monetize them, which is normal. Recently (June 2008), I started recommending the use of Antivir by Avira instead of AVG Free. For many years AVG offered an excellent free product, but they've shifted their focus. Antivir will give you complete antivirus protection, including against rootkits, will update and scan automatically. If you are using a brand-new computer, read the section entitled "Removing unnecessary, temporary programs" of this guide before installing Antivir. A trial antivirus program is likely already installed. If so, you need to un-install the trial program before installing a new antivirus programs will cause havoc, like having two roosters in the hen house.

Antispyware: Spyware, it seems, is becoming more prevalent today than viruses, but in the end, their objective is the same: make your computer unusable and rip you off if possible. More and more, users are getting trapped by ads proclaiming that their computer is infected and provide a solution for $49.95. After buying the product you find out that not only have you been ripped off, but your computer is worse off now than before. A popular program that uses this tactic is called Antivirus 2008. They use the same fonts and colouring as Microsoft programs to fools unsuspecting users. It's amazing this company continues to be able to charge users credits cards after all the complaints they must receive. To help avoid this type of situation, you need good protection but also you need a minimum of easily accessible information: know the brand-names and colors of your protection programs in order to be able to tell the fakes from the real notices. I recommend the following two antispyware programs, both free:

1) Windows Defender 2) Spybot Search and Destroy

You can schedule Spybot to run automatically daily or weekly. After that it will come on, update itself and scan your computer, cleaning out anything that it has targeted. Oh and don't worry about tracking cookies, they're harmless. Also, when installing, opt out of using the Tea Timer. Otherwise you will be bombarded with useless notices that will quickly get on your nerves.

Windows Defender, designed by Microsoft, will always run in the background completely automatically. If you try to install a program that appears on its un-desirable list, you will get a notice on the bottom-right of your screen just above your System Tray. If you're using the Windows Vista operating system, you already have Windows Defender.

Firewall - software and router: New computers with Vista, or even ones with Windows xp and Service Pack 2, come with a built in software firewall. Some say the Windows firewall is not sufficient, but for regular users, not high risk-illegal-file-sharing-porn-watching users, it is very sufficient. More and more families today have more than one computer in their household and are sharing an internet connection between them. To make this possible, a router is inserted to the modem to essentially split the connection. With the increasing popularity of routers, many Internet Service Providers are now renting or selling combination boxes, that is a modem and router combined, to their customers. Aside from sharing the internet connection, the router also acts as a hardware firewall. Therefore if you have the Windows or other software firewall activated, with a router, you now have two firewalls, with is a bit of overkill. Is this case, I would recommend only using the Windows firewall with the router, not an additional software firewall such as Zone Alarm which adds a layer of fat on your already resourced-taxed computer.

Windows security updates: Are they necessary? Yes! Don't ignore the yellow yield! As imperfect as some claim them to be, it is an integral part of your security package, just as much as an antivirus or antispyware. By default, your settings are configured to receive Windows updates automatically. However, it is a good idea to verify this. For Windows xp users, right-click on your My Computer icon, then left click on Properties and Automatic Updates. Now depending on your connection, this is what I recommend. For wired ethernet connections, use 'Download Updates for me, but let me choose when to install them'. With this setting, you won't find your PC suddenly rebooting after an update has been installed. Nothing is more frustrating after starting an operation that takes hours to do, such as video editing, to find a little note in the bottom right saying 'Your computer has been rebooted following an update'. What they omit are the words 'without your permission'. With this setting however, keep an eye on your System Tray, the bottom right area with your small icons for a yellow shield. When you place your mouse on it, it may say 'Updates are ready to be installed. Again here, when I launch the updates, I always choose custom and not automatic to filter any unwanted updates. For example, sometimes you may temporarily install programs that will patches, but since you are not planning to keep this programs running, why bother clogging up your PC with extra data. If you are using a wireless connection, I recommend the setting 'Notify me but don't automatically download or install them' so you can control when your Internet bandwith will be monopolized by the windows download. In this case, keep an eye for the yellow shield saying 'Updates are ready to be downloaded'. Don't ignore the yellow yield!

Removing unnecessary, temporary programs: Using the blanket approach of marketing means new computers come with a barrel full of programs that you will likely never use. Companies pay PC makers to get their foot in the door, so to speak, for a chance to grab your attention and possibly turn you into a paying customer. Large antivirus companies do this all the time by providing new computer owners with a 30-day or 90-day version of their program in the hopes of impressing you enough or making it easy for you to buy their product. In the end, it makes the purchase price of your PC decrease as commissions are paid to your computer manufacturer. Since we are a proponent of mostly free software, especially for protection on the net, we recommend that you un-install these programs, along with the temporary games and word processors. Simply click on Start, Control Panel, Add and Remove Programs, select the program and click Remove.

Getting older 'incompatible' hardware and programs to work in Vista: This is a simple and useful technique. Once the software or hardware is installed, there's always a related program. Place your mouse on the program's shortcut icon, right-click and click on Properties, Compatiblity tab, place a checkmark next to Run this program in compatibility mode, select a known compatible operating system and click on Apply. If you can't get it to work that way, place a checkmark next to Run this program as an Administrator, then click on Ok. There you have it.

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