I have had many questions and times when I had to set up a new computer that someone had just bought either from a store or a website and it arrived on their doorstep. The following is the procedure that I use to make sure that the system is ready to put online and available for the internet to start trying to be used in a botnet or hit with all the virus’s that are out there looking for new systems that someone has not set up to stop them. I am not by anyway the expert as this is just the way I do it and there are probably other ways and systems to do it also but I don’t have access to them.
The first thing that you need to do is get some programs handy and ready to be used and installed when we finally get the computer started and running, and don’t hook it up to the internet right away as there is some things that need to be done before we hook the computer up to the internet and they really really need to be done first so that hopefully you don’t get your computer hooked into a botnet system that lets someone else do whatever they want to with your system and steal all your financial info and personal info. What we are going to do is no guarantee that you will not get hooked into one of these schemes but it sure will help stop you from getting into them. The following is a list of software that you need to get available, if you have a usb device it would make things a lot easier using one of them but it is not required, a cd with the software on it will work also but it is a little slower than a usb.
You will also need or at least I suggest having an external hard drive that is at least 4 times bigger than the hard drive installed on your computer handy to make image backups on and later you can use it also to hold backups of all your personnel files and settings if you like. They are fairly cheap and handy at most electronics stores or you can find them on the internet and have one or more shipped to your house.
a. Pcdecrapifier or Revo Uninstaller, I recommend installing this and using it vice the control panel as it removes extra left over things in registry and hard drive. You can download it from this page http://allkeywordanalysis.blogspot.com/
b. Virus protection software like Avast or whatever one you want to use(it is a very good recommendation that you only install one virus program as two will get in the way of each other and could possibly lock your computer up when you are trying to get something done).
c. Antimalware program like SuperAntiSpyware, Advanced System Care, WinPatrol(which I really recommend you install, the free version is good enough for all these programs.).
d. Image creation software like Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect, or Paragon Backup & Recovery Free(I recommend using the free version at least until you find out if you want to buy the programs, most programs that you pay for give you some time to try before you buy and I really recommend you try before buying any).
e. Software Firewall program like PC Tools, ZoneAlarm or whatever one you want to use, and I and a lot of other people recommend only installing one firewall also so you don’t end up with conflicts and lock ups due to firewalls competing with each other and stopping everything. I recommend a different one than the one that came with windows as it lets to much go through and most of the time does not check anything going out of your computer to the internet.
If you don’t know where to get this software from there are two things you can do, one is go to internet and do a search for them or second go to http://allkeywordanalysis.blogspot.com/ and get links to all the software there and then download it from the manufacture’s site so you are sure that you get the version for your computer. Be sure to look and make sure that you get the 64bit software for 64bit computers as it will not work on 32bit computers at all, check your version of windows also as some computer manufacture’s put 32bit OS software on a 64bit computer so you have to have the 32bit version to work. To use this website you do not have to register for anything at all, all the reviews and lists are there for everyone freely.
I hope you find this useful and by no means do I mean this is the only way to do it.
1. When opening your box make sure to go through the packing list and see that everything that is listed is actually there. Most of the time it is but there have been some times when it was missing something. Not putting a recovery cd/dvd in for the system is the way some manufactures do normal business.
2. Take the big picture page and hook the computer up according to it, most systems have color coded connections now so it is not as hard as it used to be to hook the system up right the first time. If you are color blind and don’t have any idea of how it is to hooked up please do yourself a real big favor and get a kid or someone that is not color blind to help, on some system if you hook it up wrong you might have the possibility of hooking power into an output jack and that could depending on what it is burn out the whole computer and make it useless, be very careful. Laptop are easier to hook up as there are a lot fewer connections to make but they also are most likely not to be color coded either.
3. When you have everything hooked up properly and set up to where it is going to go and it is comfortable to you then turn the power on(you do have it plugged into a power strip right?) by turning the power strip on first and you could see some lights flicker on the system but most of the time that is normal and nothing to worry about. When you have the power strip turned on then turn on the monitor, then the tower or main computer and watch all the lights flash and then go out, some might come back on and stay depending on your computer but there should be a power and a hard drive light that comes on and stays on all the time there is power to the system.
4. When it comes up it will start by asking some questions and having you fill out some info, try and take your time doing this and when it asks you to create your user name and password for the system be sure and pick one that you are going to be able to remember as if you forget it and never made a backup disk you will not be able to get
into the system using that account info anymore and if you encrypted anything it will be lost unless you want to pay someone some big money to try and get it back and then there is no guarantee that it will work. When creating a password try and take a phrase that you can remember easily and take parts of it to make the password so it is more complex and harder to break, do not use your address, SSN, family member names or anything that just about anybody can find about you in a real quick search or asking a neighbor.
5. The first thing to do is to make the recovery cd’s so that if something goes wrong and your system gets totally messed up you can reset it to the way the factory sent it out, make sure you have at least 3 DVD’s available as that is probably how many you will need to make the recovery system disk’s. In your manual it will tell you how many most of the time, or at least it will when you start the program and start the process. In the manual it should tell you exactly how to do this and I would do it first before you do anything else. Likely there will be an icon on the desktop to click on and start the program or you will have to go into the programs listing and find it there, listed under the computer manufactures name most likely, sometimes they might call it something else also. Also make a password reset disk so that if you do by chance forget the password you can reset it and still get back into the computer and get all the info that you have there like encrypted files.
6. After you have made the restore DVD’s make sure they work by booting up the computer from them, they will do you no good if they cannot bootup the computer. They should though, as most of the time they manufacture has made it so you can only make one set of recovery disk’s no matter what and if they don’t boot up you cannot make anymore, if they don’t work call the computer manufacture’s toll free number and talk to them now as the longer you wait the less likely they will or can help you out with it.
7. Now is the time to get the usb drive or cd that you made before with all the software on it that I had you make before you started the process and put it into the slot and wait for it to come up, it will install the driver first and then it will tell you that it is installed and a window will open (similar to the first picture below) asking you what you want to do with it now. Towards the bottom of the window there should be open folder to view files, click on this option and you should get a window like the second picture following but your screen while show what you have on the drive(the picture list what is on mine).
The first thing that you need to do is get some programs handy and ready to be used and installed when we finally get the computer started and running, and don’t hook it up to the internet right away as there is some things that need to be done before we hook the computer up to the internet and they really really need to be done first so that hopefully you don’t get your computer hooked into a botnet system that lets someone else do whatever they want to with your system and steal all your financial info and personal info. What we are going to do is no guarantee that you will not get hooked into one of these schemes but it sure will help stop you from getting into them. The following is a list of software that you need to get available, if you have a usb device it would make things a lot easier using one of them but it is not required, a cd with the software on it will work also but it is a little slower than a usb.
You will also need or at least I suggest having an external hard drive that is at least 4 times bigger than the hard drive installed on your computer handy to make image backups on and later you can use it also to hold backups of all your personnel files and settings if you like. They are fairly cheap and handy at most electronics stores or you can find them on the internet and have one or more shipped to your house.
a. Pcdecrapifier or Revo Uninstaller, I recommend installing this and using it vice the control panel as it removes extra left over things in registry and hard drive. You can download it from this page http://allkeywordanalysis.blogspot.com/
b. Virus protection software like Avast or whatever one you want to use(it is a very good recommendation that you only install one virus program as two will get in the way of each other and could possibly lock your computer up when you are trying to get something done).
c. Antimalware program like SuperAntiSpyware, Advanced System Care, WinPatrol(which I really recommend you install, the free version is good enough for all these programs.).
d. Image creation software like Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect, or Paragon Backup & Recovery Free(I recommend using the free version at least until you find out if you want to buy the programs, most programs that you pay for give you some time to try before you buy and I really recommend you try before buying any).
e. Software Firewall program like PC Tools, ZoneAlarm or whatever one you want to use, and I and a lot of other people recommend only installing one firewall also so you don’t end up with conflicts and lock ups due to firewalls competing with each other and stopping everything. I recommend a different one than the one that came with windows as it lets to much go through and most of the time does not check anything going out of your computer to the internet.
If you don’t know where to get this software from there are two things you can do, one is go to internet and do a search for them or second go to http://allkeywordanalysis.blogspot.com/ and get links to all the software there and then download it from the manufacture’s site so you are sure that you get the version for your computer. Be sure to look and make sure that you get the 64bit software for 64bit computers as it will not work on 32bit computers at all, check your version of windows also as some computer manufacture’s put 32bit OS software on a 64bit computer so you have to have the 32bit version to work. To use this website you do not have to register for anything at all, all the reviews and lists are there for everyone freely.
I hope you find this useful and by no means do I mean this is the only way to do it.
1. When opening your box make sure to go through the packing list and see that everything that is listed is actually there. Most of the time it is but there have been some times when it was missing something. Not putting a recovery cd/dvd in for the system is the way some manufactures do normal business.
2. Take the big picture page and hook the computer up according to it, most systems have color coded connections now so it is not as hard as it used to be to hook the system up right the first time. If you are color blind and don’t have any idea of how it is to hooked up please do yourself a real big favor and get a kid or someone that is not color blind to help, on some system if you hook it up wrong you might have the possibility of hooking power into an output jack and that could depending on what it is burn out the whole computer and make it useless, be very careful. Laptop are easier to hook up as there are a lot fewer connections to make but they also are most likely not to be color coded either.
3. When you have everything hooked up properly and set up to where it is going to go and it is comfortable to you then turn the power on(you do have it plugged into a power strip right?) by turning the power strip on first and you could see some lights flicker on the system but most of the time that is normal and nothing to worry about. When you have the power strip turned on then turn on the monitor, then the tower or main computer and watch all the lights flash and then go out, some might come back on and stay depending on your computer but there should be a power and a hard drive light that comes on and stays on all the time there is power to the system.
4. When it comes up it will start by asking some questions and having you fill out some info, try and take your time doing this and when it asks you to create your user name and password for the system be sure and pick one that you are going to be able to remember as if you forget it and never made a backup disk you will not be able to get
into the system using that account info anymore and if you encrypted anything it will be lost unless you want to pay someone some big money to try and get it back and then there is no guarantee that it will work. When creating a password try and take a phrase that you can remember easily and take parts of it to make the password so it is more complex and harder to break, do not use your address, SSN, family member names or anything that just about anybody can find about you in a real quick search or asking a neighbor.
5. The first thing to do is to make the recovery cd’s so that if something goes wrong and your system gets totally messed up you can reset it to the way the factory sent it out, make sure you have at least 3 DVD’s available as that is probably how many you will need to make the recovery system disk’s. In your manual it will tell you how many most of the time, or at least it will when you start the program and start the process. In the manual it should tell you exactly how to do this and I would do it first before you do anything else. Likely there will be an icon on the desktop to click on and start the program or you will have to go into the programs listing and find it there, listed under the computer manufactures name most likely, sometimes they might call it something else also. Also make a password reset disk so that if you do by chance forget the password you can reset it and still get back into the computer and get all the info that you have there like encrypted files.
6. After you have made the restore DVD’s make sure they work by booting up the computer from them, they will do you no good if they cannot bootup the computer. They should though, as most of the time they manufacture has made it so you can only make one set of recovery disk’s no matter what and if they don’t boot up you cannot make anymore, if they don’t work call the computer manufacture’s toll free number and talk to them now as the longer you wait the less likely they will or can help you out with it.
7. Now is the time to get the usb drive or cd that you made before with all the software on it that I had you make before you started the process and put it into the slot and wait for it to come up, it will install the driver first and then it will tell you that it is installed and a window will open (similar to the first picture below) asking you what you want to do with it now. Towards the bottom of the window there should be open folder to view files, click on this option and you should get a window like the second picture following but your screen while show what you have on the drive(the picture list what is on mine).
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