NEW LAPTOP

[hibeeslass]

Hi

Getting the unenviable task of setting up my Friends new Laptop...it's sitting there waiting for me. so i dont look silly is it straightforward to set up. It is is Dell running on Windows 7 Home Premium and there is 15 months of Mcafee installed. Any do's and don't I should know about before I start. My friend thinks I am a wizz at IT i am not bad but I am a bit nervous about setting it up, she has a dongle to connect to the internet.
any tips most welcome.
TIA x

[ummmm]

Set up what?

[EvianBaby]

From my Experience the set up for most personal laptops is turn on, click yes a few times, sit and wait.

[hibeeslass]

Set up Laptop straight out the box.....is it that simple turn on and click next, that's all i am asking?

[ummmm]

Basically,yeah.

[sunny-dave]

Then have a look at the startup menu & remove a load of things that she doesn't actually use/need - will speed up the time from 'pushing the on button' to 'actually useful' quite a bit.

[ummmm]

And don't forget to put a password on it. And you might want to download a different browser to IE. Like Chrome or Firefox.

[ChuckFickens]

So my version of "setting up a laptop for a friend" would probably scare you!

[hibeeslass]

Ok guys many thanks

[hibeeslass]

What i am nervous about is the that its windows 7 i have been a XP girl all my computing days I know where everything is lol

[hibeeslass]

ps Why would you install another Browser? what is wrong with i presume it's IE9 now...

[hibeeslass]

Chuckfickens give me 'your version'.....

[sunny-dave]

IE9 is OK - they ripped off plenty of good ideas from elsewhere and it is actually not too bad.

But Firefox and Chrome are both a bit faster to load & more customisable too.

[sunny-dave]

The real problem with most new laptops is all the bloatware that the manufacturers have been paid to include - took me the best part of a day to get my recent Toshiba 'clean'.

[hibeeslass]

Yeah I use Firefox too but will download Mozilla for her....

[hibeeslass]

Yeah know what you mean like ebay and the likes is the control panel/add remove progs easy to find on windows 7?

[galeck1947]

The first thing you should do is download and run PC Decrapifier which will help you remove all of the unwanted programs and trial software which comes with a new computer. After doing this you can then install the programs you wish to use.

[hibeeslass]

Can you recommend a good decrapidier or shall I do it macmanually? Thank you

[galeck1947]

PC Decrapifier is the name of the program thats what it is called.Another newer one that has been released is called Slim Computer but I have not used it only PC Decrapifier which I use on all of the new computers which I setup for people.