Setting Up a New Computer: The First Hour

A new machine arrives configured for the manufacturer's convenience rather than yours. An hour spent properly at the start saves a great deal later, and several of these decisions are awkward to change once you have been using it.

Before you switch it on

Check what arrived. Model, specification, and that everything in the box is present.

Register it if that affects the warranty, and note the serial number somewhere that is not the machine.

Initial setup

Connect to a network you control, not a public one.

Sign in with the account you intend to keep. Changing the primary account later is possible and irritating.

Decline the optional data collection where offered, unless you have reason not to. It is easier to say no now than to find the settings later.

Set the time zone and region correctly. A wrong clock breaks secure connections in ways that are hard to diagnose.

Update everything, first

Before installing anything or moving files.

The operating system, which may need several rounds — updates install, the machine restarts, more appear. Let it finish.

Firmware, which some manufacturers deliver through their own utility.

Drivers, from the manufacturer's support page for your exact model rather than from a generic source.

A new machine is frequently months out of date by the time it reaches you, and everything below works better once this is done.

Remove what you do not want

Manufacturer software is largely unnecessary. Remove the trials, the toolbars, the "optimisers" and the duplicate utilities for things the system already does.

Keep the driver and firmware update utility, and anything that controls hardware specific to the machine — fan profiles, keyboard backlighting, a stylus.

Trial security software that came preinstalled. Remove it and use the built-in protection unless you have decided otherwise. See security software.

Uninstall properly through the system's application list, rather than deleting folders.

Enable the protection

Built-in antivirus and firewall, which are on by default and worth confirming.

Drive encryption. On by default on many machines and not all. Save the recovery key somewhere that is not the machine — without it, the drive is unreadable if anything goes wrong. This is the step people skip and regret. See when a device stops receiving updates.

Automatic updates, confirmed on.

A screen lock with a sensible timeout.

Device finding, on a portable machine. Enable it before you need it. See securing your device from theft.

Set up backups now

Before you have anything worth losing, because it will never feel urgent later.

An external drive with automated backup, plus a cloud service if you use one.

Then test it — restore a file and confirm it opens. A backup that has never been restored is a hypothesis. See cloud storage and backup.

The settings worth changing now

Display scaling and resolution, so text is comfortable.

Which folders sync, and whether files are kept locally or on demand. This decision determines what your backup captures. See where your files really are.

Startup applications — check what has already added itself.

Power settings, particularly on a laptop where the defaults are conservative or aggressive depending on the manufacturer.

Notifications, before they become a habit you tolerate.

Default browser and applications.

File extensions visible, on Windows. Hidden extensions make it harder to spot a file pretending to be something else.

Install what you actually use

Only what you use. A migration or a new machine is the moment to leave behind everything you installed once.

From official sources — the manufacturer, the developer, or the platform store. Not from a search result offering a download. See installing software safely.

A password manager first, which makes signing into everything else straightforward. See passwords: what changed.

A content blocker in the browser.

Then the rest, as you need them rather than in one session.

Move your files

See moving to a new computer for the complete list, including the things that are not in folders.

Keep the old machine intact for a fortnight.

Take a note of the baseline

Worth five minutes and rarely done.

Record the startup time, and how the machine feels.

Note the idle temperatures with monitoring software.

Note the battery health figure at zero cycles.

In two years, this tells you whether something changed or whether your expectations did. See why computers get slower.

A checklist

• [ ] Registered, serial number recorded elsewhere
• [ ] All updates applied, including firmware and drivers
• [ ] Manufacturer trial software removed
• [ ] Built-in protection confirmed on
• [ ] Drive encryption on, recovery key saved off the machine
• [ ] Screen lock and device finding enabled
• [ ] Backups configured and a restore tested
• [ ] Sync settings decided — local or on demand
• [ ] Startup applications reviewed
• [ ] Password manager installed
• [ ] Content blocker installed
• [ ] Baseline noted

The short version

Update everything before doing anything else — a new machine is frequently months out of date.

Remove the manufacturer trials, keep the driver utility and the hardware-specific tools.

Save the drive encryption recovery key somewhere that is not the machine. This is the step people skip and it is the one that makes files unrecoverable.

Set up backups before you have anything worth losing, and test a restore.

And note the baseline — startup time, temperatures, battery health — so that in two years you can tell what actually changed.

For broader technical standards and computing references, see NIST Information Technology Laboratory.