So you bought a new computer now what?

By: Jeremy Blevins

When you buy a new computer there are some things that you should do first. Some companies like iMobileGeeks charge a fee to do this for you.
You should file your receipt away in a place that you will remember. Most manufactures have warranties on their brand of computers. Manufactures usually have support web pages that allow you to check out the warranty by typing in the serial number and model number.
Once you have your new computer turned on, make sure that you create recovery discs. Some manufactures include these with the computer or there might be a program on the computer to create these discs. If you can’t find either of these, you can contact support with the manufacture of the computer.
The computer might come with extra software that you don’t need. It is best to remove these programs because they might cause problems with new programs that install. You can use Add or remove programs which is in Control Panel or Programs and Features in Vista. It is best to remove all demo programs and online services that you are not going to use or subscribe to. If you are not sure which programs to remove you can check with your manufacture?
If you don’t subscribe to the Antivirus program that is already installed make sure that you completely uninstall including any Security Center option such as Firewall, Content Filters and Spam/Spyware filters. Once uninstalled, you will want to install an Antivirus program/Security center. Some Internet Service Providers give you a free version. ISP, Insight Communications offers Computer Associates Internet Security Suite. It gives you Antivirus protection, Web filtering for kids, Spyware protection, Spam filtering and firewall. You will want to make sure that it updates regularly. If your ISP doesn’t offer a product there are some free programs that also work well. A search on Google can help.
You should also use Windows Update when you first start the computer to get all of the new updates for Microsoft Windows. You may have to do this a couple of times and set it to schedule to download new updates on a regular basis.
Since you might have removed some applications that you won’t use, you will probably want to do a Disk Defrag, which is in Accessories, System Tools. After this is finished you probably want to restart your computer.
If you want to optimize the computer you can check out an article called “Top 10 free programs or services that I use on my computers”. This has a list of really good items to add to your computer to get you started.