How To Better Setup a Computer

You just bought a brand new desktop or laptop computer and went through all the steps to complete the setup process for the very first time. Then you start using your brand new computer, which now, feels like a machine on steroids. One month later, that speedy computer turns into something slower than a snail and you ask yourself 'why" and start thinking that your computer might be infected with a virus or spyware.

One month is just enough time to bring changes to your brand new pc and turn it into a sluggish one. Programs are installed on a regular basis and every time you install a software, changes are being made to your computer windows registry - controlling the behavior and appearance of virtually everything on your brand new system.

The speed of your computer depends on your computer's processor, memory (RAM), Drivers, left over entries in the registry, hard drive - the type of hard drive installed will also make a big difference, etc... Frequently installing or un-installing programs might be handled incorrectly by the windows registry, leading to conflicts, which in turns, will lead to a slower PC.

At Computer Repair of Reading, when we are asked to recommend a desktop or laptop computer, we always ask the customer about how will the new pc be used? and once we have that information, we can then recommend a computer. The customer wants the best and powerfull computer at the lowest price possible with the best anti virus and anti-spyware software, and anything related to backing up their music, photos, documents, etc... Fortunately, good and high performance desktops and laptops have become very affordable, therefore, we recommend that the customer looks at the manufacturer "after sale customer" support and not at the computer brand.

and now... to the good stuff

This is what we recommend to every customer when they purchase a new computer (or have a custom one build).

RECOMMENDED HARDWARE

• A computer - of course
• An SSD Hard Drive - for OS install
• A secondary SATA Hard Drive -  for Storage
• An external hard drive -  for Backup

RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE

• Antivirus - MS Security Essentials, Avast, AVG, Threatfire Antivirus
• Antispyware - SuperAntispyare and Malwarebytes (they work great together)
• Commodo Firewall (works very well with most antivirus software)

COMPUTER SETUP

• Use an SSD Drive for your main drive - Pricey, smaller capacity, faster (reading and write speed)
• Use a SATA Hard Drive as your secondary drive - Cheaper, large capacity and faster than older EIDE drives
• Install Windows 7 - Any version and run the Windows Updates
• Install all your required software - MS Office, etc... and run the updates
• Install an antivirus software and update its database
• Install an antispyware software and update its database - We recommend SuperAntiSpyware
• Setup your Email Client such as Outlook, Firebird, etc...
• Install an Imaging software or use Windows Imaging feature (Windows 7)
• Install your External hard Drive
• Format your Secondary SATA hard drive using the NTFS file format
• Install and configure Synctoy
• Configure your Synctoy to sync automatically with your external drive using windows 'Scheduled Tasks'
• Optimize your pc using a tool like Glary Utilities 'Glarysoft'
• Create a system image, using either Window's 7 imaging feature or a stand alone imaging software like Acronis True Image and save that image onto your secondary hard drive
• Create a Recovery CD
• Run the backup manualy to test SyncToy and make sure that both drives (secondary drive and the external drive) have synced and make sure that you see your image on both drives

NOTES

• When you create an image, select full backup so that you will have more than one image created
• Only create an image when making major changes to the computer
• Do not diffragment your SSO hard drive
• You can diffrag your secondary SATA hard drive once in a while
• Store your Recovery CD in a secure place
• Put your Email Client pst file (depending on the Client itself) on the Secondary Hard Drive

Windows Registry - The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains settings for low-level operating system components as well as the applications running on the platform: the kernel, device drivers, services, SAM, user interface and third party applications all make use of the Registry. The registry also provides a means to access counters for profiling system performance. Again, Windows registry is a very complex database of entries, which stores information about everything on a computer – from the hardware configuration of the machine, to the version of the operating system, to application installed on the computer, to user settings.

SSD Hard Drive - The drives use non-volatile NAND flash memory, meaning there are no moving parts. Because there is no actuator arm and read/write head that must seek out data on a platter like on a hard disk drive (HDD), they are faster in reading and, in most cases, writing data.

Memory - The more RAM, the better - on a Windows 7, we recommend no less than 4GB of RAM

Hard Drive Defragmentation - Recommend only on non-SSD Hard Drives


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By: Amor A.
Computer Repair of Reading | Amorca Computer and Web Solutions