Setting up a new laptop?

Every now and then I find myself setting up a new laptop for colleagues, friends and students.

As there is limited information available as to how to go about this, I have decided to document the steps which I follow.

STEP 1: Deciding what to buy

The first step requires spending money. You need to buy the laptop. What you buy is highly dependent on your budget.

When purchasing a laptop, brand names are the way to go.

Sony

Sony make lovely laptops however they are over priced when compared to other laptops with similar specs. They also install a massive amount of bloat software which runs their DVD drives and so on, so you need to be careful before uninstalling. Another annoying Sony feature is that they like to keep things in house. I.e. they have a memory card reader that only reads Sony type memory cards. In South Africa their customer support is -2 on a 1 to 10 scale, which is also a big problem. I think with Sony though it is a bit of a customer loyalty thing so if you already have a Sony camcorder, Sony digital camera, Sony DVD recorder and so on, then buy a Sony laptop as everything will work nicely together.

Lenovo

Lenovo make good laptops for the business person although again a little over priced.

Toshiba

Toshiba have a variety of laptop ranges. The bottom of the range is really nasty so keep away from them. The top of the range laptops are highly over priced when compared to other laptops with similar specs. The mid price range are actually very good value for money. The hardware is good giving few problems (although their speakers are terrible). The laptops are robust and can handle lots of packing and carrying. They also have a good shelf life so you tend to have to replace because the software is outdated, not because the screen broke.

HP

HP make super laptops, offering average customer support. If something goes wrong, you are left without a PC for 4 to 6 weeks while they fix it. They are also slightly over priced but not enough to stop one buying! The hardware is not to bad, although I have had problems with their hard drives and cooling issues with the Pavilion Series. Compaq are owned by HP and while they used to make superb laptop 10 years ago, you are better off just getting an HP.

Fujitsu Siemens

Fujitsu Siemens probably offer the best value for money. Impressive specs at low prices. I personally have kept away from them as their cases look a little dodgy and I hate shiny silver plastic buttons that feel like they they are going to break any moment.

Acer

In South Africa, Acer win the prize for best customer support. They are excellent. They are happy to pick up your laptop, repair and replace broken bits. Technical support have people who know what's potting and can actually help you. Their prices are good. At work we have four of these laptops ranging from the cheap and nasty to the tablet series (very expensive). All of them work well and have stood the test of time. Only issue is that on all the laptops, over time the finishing of the cases wear badly. The gray mat look slowly becomes polished black.

Dell

I am currently using a Dell Latitude. Better casing than any of the above mentioned, except maybe the Lenovo. After many complaints, Dell seem to have heeded the call of the consumer and no longer load their laptops with all sorts of bloat software as found on the Sony, Acer and HP laptops. Price was a little higher than an Acer would have been, but less than a comparable HP. Only down side (this could be a South African thing) customer support is lacking. If you want anything done, you literally have to phone Ireland! Local support is manned by idiots who can't even tell you where to download the user manuals.

LG

LG also make a lovely looking laptop, but they are over priced and as yet I am not prepared to pay a small fortune to a company that was formally called Goldstar and made dodgy TV sets.

Above, you have a concise review of some of the better known brand names. At the end of the day it is all a matter of opinion so let us look at something that is less objective, hardware specifications.

The best hardware specification depends on two things:

1. Operating system - I shall assume you will be purchasing a laptop, pre-installed with Windows Vista
2. Intended use - general using including typing documents, editing photographs and watching the odd DVD

If you are purchasing a laptop with Vista, the following is a must:

• RAM - a minimum of 1 gig, 2 gigs are preferable
• HARDDRIVE - a minimum of 80 gigs, but 120 gigs is becoming the standard
• DVD DRIVE - DVD RW (you need to be able to burn DVD's these days)
• PROCESSOR - this is difficult as different brands use different measurements but I personally like INTEL, Centrino Duo processors
• USB - make sure you have at least 3 USB2 ports

Other things which you should make sure are installed, although the exact specifications are not to important for everyday use:

• Wireless
• Average graphics card (the better the graphics card, the better the laptop, but the worse the price!)

Other things (like camcorders, thumb print readers and card readers) are just cool extra's which will push up the price of the laptop.

STEP 2: Setup Vista

Once you get home with your new laptop, first step will be setting up Vista.

Laptops are easy to setup as the operating system is already pre-installed. All you have to do is turn on the machine (remember to attach the battery first) and follow the on screen prompts which will walk you through setting locations and creating users.

STEP 3: Disable User Account Control

If you are new to Vista, you will notice that every time you want do anything, from copying a file to installing a new application, Vista brings up an annoying windows asking you if you to give permission. This becomes very irritating, so it is a good idea to turn it off.

Click on start (round windows button on the taskbar).

Then open up the Control Panel and click on User Accounts.

Now click on Turn User Account Control on or off.

A new window will open where you can disable the option to use User Account Control. When you are done, click OK.

Vista will warn you that it is very dangerous to turn off UAC, but don't worry, your computer will only function better without it!

STEP 4: Getting rid of bloatware

The next step entails removing bloatware (pre-installed software bundles, mostly consisting of demos and trial ware).

Your laptop will have a variety of software bundles which have been pre-installed by the laptop manufacturer. This software will range from trail versions of anti-virus software to Microsoft works.

The easiest way to do this, is to open My Computer (Click on start, computer or press [windows] [e] on your computer).

Click on Uninstall or change a program.

To uninstall a program, click on the programs which you want to uninstall and then click on uninstall/change. Then follow the on screen instructions.

Make sure you do not uninstall drivers. If you are unsure, leave it, but a lot of software is unnecessary.

To make a comprehensive list of all the bloatware applications would take a life time, but here is a list of common applications which can be removed.

• Adobe acrobat reader
• Any HP software
• Microsoft works
• Any trial software
• QuickBooks Trial
• NetZero Installers
• Earthlink Setup Files
• Corel Photo Album 6
• Tiscali Internet
• Dell Search Assistant
• Norton Ghost 10.0
• Symantec Live Update
• MS Plus Digital Media Installer
• McAffee
• Norton Internet Security
• Google Desktop
• AOL US
• AOL UK
• Wild Tangent Games
• Norton AntiVirus 2005
• Norton Security Center
• Norton AntiSpam
• PC-cillin Internet Security 12
• Run Registry Entries
• Desktop Icons
• Corel WordPerfect
• Roxio RecordNow
• Sonic DLA
• Sonic Update Manager
• Sonic RecordNow Audio
• Sonic RecordNow Copy
• Roxio MyDVD LE

Once you are done. Turn off your PC, count to 10 and then restart the PC.

STEP 5: Defrag

Now that you have removed all this software, it is a good idea to do a defrag. The problem is, Vista's defrag application take hours.

An alternative is Auslogics Disk Defrag. You can download the program and install it. Then run the application.

STEP 6: Installing other software

Once the defrag is completed, you can start installing useful software.

Below is a list of some of the things I recommend. Most of them are free and you can download them by clicking on the links.

Anti-Virus

There are two free antivirus programs worth mentioning here. Which is the best? Well that is a matter of opinion.

• AVG
• Avast

Applications

• Compression: 7Zip
• CD/DVD burning: InfraRecorder

Graphic Manipulation

Faststone Image Viewer: Fastsone image viewer is one of the nicest graphic browsers I have used. It is light on resources while still offering a range of editing options which include resizing , cropping, batch scanning to name a few.

Internet Browsers

Mozilla Firefox: I have been using Mozilla for about 6 years. Initially I used it because it offered tabbed browsing and a Google search box and while these features are now available in IE 7 and above, Mozilla remains my first choice.

Office Suites

At some point every body needs to type a letter and a good word processor is what you want. It makes sense to have an office suite which includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.

Openoffice.org: Openoffice.org is a super open source alternative to MS Office.

PDF readers and writers

If you ever view documents on the net you will have noticed that they are often pdf documents. There are several pdf readers available for download, the best known being Adobe Reader. Over the years this has become an unnecessarily large programme. Here is an alternatives:

• Foxit PDF Reader

You can create your own pdf documents using cute PDF

STEP 7: Have fun

Now you are all set up and can enjoy your new laptop.