The first things to do with your new Windows computer.
Hi everyone.
Leo Notenboom
here for AskLeo.com. It's actually a common question.
You get a brand new computer and you kind
of want to make sure you're doing the right things to get started.
It's easy to overlook.
Look, it's very easy to succumb to the excitement or the importance
of getting your new machine up and running as quickly as possible.
But before you do that, what I want you to do is slow down
for just a minute and run through these steps that I'll outline here.
The reason is very simple.
By doing these things first, you'll be better protected and you'll be
better able to recover from any problems that you run into in the future.
Let's get started.
First, I want you to disconnect it from the Internet.
We may need to reconnect it to download a couple of things,
but I really want to focus on the machine and not necessarily getting
and downloading a bunch of stuff onto the machine right away.
By focusing on just what you have right
now, without any updates, without any anything, we've got a platform to start.
And what we're starting with is number two make a system image backup.
Now, you may need to download a backup
tool like Macrium Reflect or EaseUS Todo.
You could do that with a different machine.
In fact, I'd almost prefer to do so.
But if you have to connect to the Internet, download that tool,
disconnect from the Internet and install that tool.
In this case, the free version of either of those tools will do just fine.
All we're really trying to do is create a complete system image backup
of the entire machine, everything that's on this delivered hard
drive, before you make any changes to it, you'll be plugging in an external drive
and writing the backup image to that external drive and just saving it.
Heck, save it for the life
of that computer for as long as you have that machine.
The reason is very simple, especially these days,
we're not getting installation media with our machines anymore.
So by creating an image backup
of the machine the moment we turn it on as soon as we can,
what we're actually capturing is the moral equivalent of the installation the machine
in its factory reset condition, or as close to that as we can possibly get it.
So step number two after disconnecting
from the Internet, make that image backup while we're here.
Step number three make a recovery drive.
This is something you do in Windows,
and what it does is it creates a USB disk usually that you can later boot from.
That will include the ability to reinstall Windows, repair Windows,
run diagnostic tools, and potentially save your login information.
It's important because this is one
of those disks that can once again save you when you run into problems later on.
Number four, now that we've played with our backup tool.
It's time to set up regular backups.
Do it now while you're thinking about it.
This is one of those easily overlooked or
easily postponed so far as to overlook steps that is so incredibly important.
By backing up your machine regularly, daily is my preference.
That way you will make sure you will not lose more than, at best,
a day's worth of data, and potentially even less than that should
anything catastrophic ever happen to the machine.
I have several articles on that, but the one I would point you to is how
to back up in Windows Ten and Eleven, because it runs through using both Windows
own internal tools and the tools that I actually end up recommending,
since Windows itself is deprecating their internal backup tool.
Number five confirm your security software.
This used to be more convoluted than it is now.
My recommendation for security software
for Windows Ten and Eleven is simply Windows Ten and Eleven,
the security software that's built in Windows Defender, windows Security,
whatever they're calling it this week, is fine.
It's 99% of what most people need. It's great.
It's not intrusive.
It's one of those things where it's there, it's free.
You just don't have to do anything other
than make sure that it's turned on and running.
That is what this step is all about.
Now, if you insist, if you desire, if for whatever reason you want to use
a third party solution, something other than Windows security, that's fine.
This is the time to make sure that it's
installed, that it's running, and that it's configured properly.
Not just to scan whatever it is you want
scanned, but also keeping itself up to date.
Number six now is the time to truly connect to the Internet.
We may have had to connect to the Internet
prior to download your third party antivirus software,
or maybe to get a backup tool, but the bottom line is now we're ready.
Now is the time to connect to the Internet.
In past we've talked about firewalls.
At this stage, as it turns out, it's almost a nonissue.
It's almost become a nonissue, and that's because 99.
9% of the time you're probably going to be behind a router.
That router acts as a perfectly adequate firewall.
And even if you don't, even if you're connected directly
to the Internet, windows now has its own builtin firewall that is turned
on by default and is not nearly as problematic as it was in years past.
So you really don't have to do that much
other than connect to the Internet and know that your firewall be at your
router or Windows itself is already running.
Step seven update, update, update, update.
I really mean update repeatedly.
Keep going back to the settings app and Windows Update and check for updates.
Until there are no more updates available.
At the same time, if you're running third
party security software, make sure that those are getting updated as well.
Make sure that that is as up.
To date as possible.
The reason I do this now is because by doing this before you've started using
the machine, before you've installed any third party programs,
the chances of there being some kind of a conflict are almost minimal.
There's almost no chance that you're going to run into some kind of a problem.
This is the time to get Windows.
As up to date as possible.
Then step number eight, back it up again.
Take another system image backup.
The difference between this backup and the backup we started with is
that the one we started with is the true factory image.
It's like as close as you could get to the way the machine came.
This backup is that plus all of.
The updates is as up to date as possible.
In reality, when the time comes, it's this ladder backup that you'll
probably use because it saves you a bunch of steps.
You already have all of the preceding steps I've been talking about taken care
of, and it's as up to date as possible right now.
That means if you ever end up having to restore to this backup image,
it will be restored, and you'll then have fewer subsequent
updates to take to get your machine up to date at whatever time you're doing this.
The previous backup, the factory image backup, that's another safety net.
You may never need to use it, but it is an easy one to keep.
And if you ever do truly need to restore the machine to as close.
As factory as possible, that's the backup to use.
So do that.
Do those things as soon as you get your new machine.
By doing these things first, you'll be better protected,
and you'll also be in a better position should you ever have to recover
from something catastrophic or some kind of failure in the future.
I hope that's helpful.
For comments, for updates,
for links related to this article and more, visit askleo.com/4689.
I'm Leo Notenboom
this is askleo.com. Thanks for watching.