What to install on a new laptop. How to set up a new laptop

It is believed that after purchase new laptop or the computer is ready for use. In practice, this is not true, and before you start using your new laptop, you need to perform a number of steps.

Setting up your laptop

Our readers often send us questions: I bought a new laptop and what to do next, where to start, how to set up a new one laptop asus how to set up a new laptop lenovo how to set up a new laptop acer how to set up your new hp laptop. The procedure for setting up a new laptop is the same and does not depend on the manufacturer. It is worth noting that it is more profitable to purchase a new laptop with a pre-installed operating system, rather than separately a laptop and a Windows operating system. In addition to the fact that buying a laptop without an operating system and Windows separately will cost more, you may have to use the services of a specialist in installing the operating system on your laptop.

Create account

When you turn on the laptop for the first time on the Windows operating system, when entering the settings, the system will ask for a username and password. You do not need to create a password, if you do not create one, you can log into the computer without a password. If a password was not created on first launch, you can create one if needed in the User Accounts section. Do not rely on the password to reliably protect against unauthorized access to the laptop; it will not be difficult for a specialist to quickly reset the Windows password and gain access to the system. We wrote about this on our website in the article How to reset your password on Windows. Password to account will help restrict access to the laptop for children and not very advanced computer users. To reliably restrict access to the laptop, you need to use more complex settings and special tools.

Partitioning a hard drive

If your new laptop has only one partition that contains both the operating system and data, you need to split it into two partitions. This can be useful later if you need to reinstall the operating system. When reinstalling the operating system, all user data on the disk on which the operating system is installed will be destroyed. If the data will be placed on another disk (after HDD broken), they will persist after reinstalling the operating system. In Windos 8 and Windows 10, there are several ways to partition your hard drive.

Established Windows tools ... To open the disk management tool, press Win + X, from the menu that appears, select Disk Management. Compress your volume (with right button mouse, click shrink volume) and create on free space disk new section... We recommend leaving the system partition at least 100 GB.

With help third-party programs ... To breakdown hard disk, as well as other actions for managing the hard disk, there are many programs, both free and paid. We recommend the EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition. The program is free for home use, no russification, the program is on English language... Be very careful and careful when partitioning a hard drive. Manufacturers often create hidden partitions on the hard drive where they place a backup of the operating system. You can accidentally delete hidden partitions and be left without backup systems. Also when not correct work system areas may be deleted from the hard disk and Windows may not boot.

Removing trial versions (trial) and unnecessary programs on a laptop

Laptop manufacturers earn extra money by installing trial versions of various programs. This is often how antivirus software is installed and office suite Microsoft. After a while, the program stops working and starts "asking for money", offering to purchase full version... If you do not plan to purchase these programs, it is better to uninstall them right away. Each user has programs that he is used to using and which he trusts. It is better to immediately purchase and install the paid and free required software.

We often receive a question: what programs need to be removed from a new laptop or computer. Typically, laptop manufacturers install a trial version antivirus software, which stops updating, and sometimes even working, 30-45 days after the launch of the antivirus program. Many users do not know anything about this and after a while are left without anti-virus protection. If you do not plan to purchase the installed antivirus, it is better to uninstall it immediately and install one of the free antivirus which provides basic virus protection. We have an overview of free antiviruses on our website.

Many programs can be installed on a laptop, the purpose of which is not known to the user. As a rule, most of them are trial versions and programs with limited functionality. To get information about the program, you can type its name in any search engine... After receiving information about the program, you can decide whether you need it on your laptop. As a rule, the less programs are installed on the computer, the more stable it works. It is better to immediately remove everything you do not need and install the necessary. There is a danger of overdoing it, you should not delete programs from the laptop manufacturer, with which you can update the drivers on the laptop. There is an opinion that it is better to immediately reinstall the operating system, and install on a clean system required drivers and programs from the website of the laptop manufacturer.

Installing drivers, operating system updates

On a new laptop, you need to install everything available updates operating system. Updates must be installed as they fix found security problems, eliminate operational problems, and increase the stability and performance of the operating system. On the laptop manufacturer's website in the support section of this model, you can download and install all latest drivers and latest version bios. Some laptop manufacturers install special programs with which you can download and install new device drivers.

Installing codecs and flash player to play all video and audio formats

On a new laptop, some video and audio formats are often not played by default, video and audio recordings on various sites, such as Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, may not play. The solution for playing video and music on sites will be to update the version of the Internet browser to the latest and install Adobe flash Player and setting it up automatic update... To play various video and audio formats on your computer, you need to install the K-Lite Codec Pack. Flash player and codecs can be downloaded from their

Check with your retailer if your laptop comes with a preinstalled operating system or not. This will help determine how you should start your new laptop. The general rule for starting a new laptop(regardless of whether the operating system is installed or not) is that a battery must be inserted into the laptop, and the laptop itself must be connected to the mains. The connection to the electrical network is carried out so that the laptop does not turn off during the installation of the operating system.

If the laptop comes with a preinstalled operating system, plug it in and press the power button. After turning on the power on a laptop that has not yet been turned on, the installation of the operating system should start, the distribution of which is located on a special hidden section hard disk. Carefully follow all stages of OS installation. If you need an activation key during installation, you can read it on the bottom cover laptop... Do not turn off the power laptop until the operating system is finally installed.

If the laptop was sold without an operating system (or with a DOS or Linux operating system), the first time you turn it on, you will need to install the desired operating system. Purchase a distribution kit of the required operating system on an optical disk, connect the laptop to the electrical network, turn it on, wait for DOS or Linux to load, and then insert the Windows disk (instead of the disk, you can use a flash card if laptop no optical drive). Reboot the computer and enter the BIOS, setting the OS boot priority from an optical drive (or from a flash card), save the changes. Then install Windows, unplug your laptop and use it however you like.

Some people choose to purchase a landline a computer without preinstalled operating system. This method allows you to save a couple of thousand rubles when buying.

You will need

Disk WIndows 7.

Instructions

V this example we will consider the situation when you purchased a computer without a preinstalled operating system. Naturally, you need to install the operating system itself and a number of programs to optimize and secure your computer.

Let's start by installing the operating system. Let's take Windows 7 OS as an example. Insert the disc into the drive and press the Del button at the start of the computer boot. Find the Boot Options menu and open it. Go to item Boot Device Priority and set your drive as the primary device at boot time. Reboot your PC.

Select the installation language, specify the OS version you plan to install. The display shows a list hard drives... Most likely, it will be one whole disk. Click the Disk Setup and Delete buttons. Now click the "Create" button. Specify the size of the local disk (at least 50 GB for Windows installations 7). Repeat this operation to create a second partition. Its size can take up all the remaining space.

Proceed with the installation of the operating system. The first program installed on a new OS must be antivirus. It is very important to do this before connecting to local network or the internet. Choosing an antivirus software rests entirely on your shoulders.

Hello dear readers of the blog site. Today I propose to analyze such an interesting question, what programs each PC user needs to have on a computer.

Of course, you can just install all the programs that we only find on the Internet and say that these programs will be enough. With a high degree of probability, this will be true, but I will present my minimum necessary list, the programs of which will be useful to any PC user.

Of course, there are specific programs for webmasters, for programmers, for system administrators, builders, lawyers, etc., we will leave them alone. Those who use them know themselves that they need these programs.

I confess that I am doing this article as a cheat sheet for myself, since I often have to reinstall the operating system on different computers and, accordingly, install the minimum set of programs. Each time I ask myself: "Have I forgotten to install something else?"

Here is the list I suggest:

Archiver

V operating systems windows already has a built-in archiver capable of extracting zip-archives, but this is where its meager functionality ends. Obviously, even for an inexperienced user, these possibilities are not enough. Therefore, I make sure to install a third-party archiver 7-zip.

7-zip is free, can handle many formats, and has many essential features.

Office suite

If you have a license Microsoft Office then, of course, install it. If there is no license (and this is 90% of cases) then install OpenOffice- kit office programs similar to Microsoft Office.

Includes:

text editor - Writer;
spreadsheet editor - Calc;
presentation preparation program - Impress;
vector graphic illustrator - Draw;
DBMS connection mechanism - Base;
formula editor - Math.

This software package is absolutely free, which is its undeniable advantage. OpenOffice has a wide functionality, which is enough to perform 99% of all tasks, has a simple interface similar to that of Microsoft Office 2003, so even those who are used to working in a paid package from Microsoft will not find it difficult to deal with OpenOffice.

I usually install a browser from Google. As I already wrote an article - so I will not repeat myself. You can install any other alternative browser that the end user will like. My choice is up to Chrome.

By the way, if you haven't missed, recently there was news on the Internet that the browser Opera also migrates to the WebKit engine that Chrome is built on. =)

Document Readers

First of all, we are talking about Adobe reader — free program for reading documents in. An alternative to this program is Foxit Reader.

There is still a fairly popular format e-books — djvu... Accordingly, we must install a program to support this format - djvu viewer.

Music

For listening to music, I recommend Aimp. In my opinion, this is one of better solutions for today. Free music player its interface is very similar to the popular WinAmp. Supports a huge number of formats, has ample opportunities for working with playlists, supports " Hotkeys“, Has its own audio converter and much more.

Video

- a player that allows you to view many video formats (including DVD), without installing additional codecs. This avoids the problem.

Despite the fact that I install KMPlayer on almost all computers, I also do not forget to install K-lite Сodec Pack- a set of codecs for video and sound processing, as many users are accustomed to using the built-in Windows player Media Player... By installing a set of codecs, you will avoid claims from the user that they do not play video or no sound.

Burn discs and images

There are a lot of programs for working with disks. I recommend using InfraRecorder... Despite its small size, it allows you to perform all the necessary operations.

The program is also very easy to use. ImgBurn... I wrote how to write a disk image using ImgBurn.

Remote access

Of course the program TeamViewer out of competition. I already wrote an article on how to work with this program, you can familiarize yourself with it.

Someone may ask a question, why install a remote access program, because you can come, fix or set up a computer and take money for it. Quite right, but sometimes users call on completely trivial questions, because of which not only to go, but also to get up from the chair, they do not want to. This is where TeamViewer comes in. You can connect, configure everything, explain, show in 5 minutes. We feel good and the client is happy that the problem was solved in a matter of minutes.

Plus, most of them still want to thank them for their help. Usually everything is solved in the amount of 50-100 rubles to the phone bill. 🙂 Not bad, considering that you did not get up from your seat.

There are a huge number of sites on the Internet that spread a variety of viruses. It can be various Trojans, banners extorting money for "unlocking" the computer, viruses redirecting to other pages, keyloggers, sniffers. In general, what kind of infection did not come up with. It's just nowhere without an antivirus.

On the Internet, you can find a lot of information about both paid and free antiviruses. Among the paid ones, there are 2 flagships: Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Dr.Web. Of the free ones, I would single out: Avira and Avast.

I will not be concerned with identifying the best of them, since this is a topic for a separate article and a topic for endless controversy. I will just say that I have been familiar with computers and viruses for several days, and I still prefer to use paid products. I am buying a license for Kaspersky Anti-Virus for one year. It turns out about 1000 rubles for two computers, which, in my opinion, is acceptable money for the saved time and nerves.

I think this is where I can end my list. If anyone has any suggestions to change it, I would be happy to consider the suggested option.