A - Z With A Brand New Desktop ?

[PS3]

When get a brand new desktop in the house, what's the do and don't from day 1 to keep it in healthy condition?

Partition before install OS - what the advantage of this? What size of a 1Tb HD (both C and D)?

If using 64-bit OS, what's the maks ram the system recognize?

What programs do you download (clean/tweak etc)?

What programs dont you download?

Realy need more than antivirus ?

System I have in mind is Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 - 2,66, 4GB ram DDR3 1066Mhz.

With your help, I hope to take better care of new desktop than my old laptop.

Only headache is choose between 32 or 64 bit OS.

All shops I asked said : dont buy 64bit, many customer complain and come back with them. While here in this sub forum majority seem to recommend 64 bit.

Edited August 14, 2009 by PS3

[bangla]

1. 30 GB for the OS on C:

the rest for data D:

move the HOME folder to D:

install programs on D:

2. you should buy ram that is supported by your motherboard.

windows (? i'm guessing here ) will recognize it automatically.

3. free antivirus (AVG, Avira or whatever)

4. viruses, spy/ad ware.

check before you install free stuff (google is your friend)

5. depends on what kind of stuff you install.

if you download a lot of torrent stuff, then yeah. you'll need antvirus

6. if you have a lot of very old hardware that you want to use, if you're a musician or play a lot of games then install 32bit (x86).

otherwise go for 64it (x64).

[filingaccount]

When get a brand new desktop in the house, what's the do and don't from day 1 to keep it in healthy condition?

Keep it away from water, dust and children. Buy a UPS. Ample airflow is critical. Make sure there are fans pointing over the HDD's from inside the case.

Ensure HDD temperatures do not exceed 55C, CPU temp not over 70C. Lower temps are better.

Partition before install OS - what the advantage of this? What size of a 1Tb HD (both C and D)?

The advantage is minimal when you are using it. However, after install make a backup image of the C drive. Makes recovery much easier and quicker. Install drivers and core programs to C: before making the backup. I'd suggest 20-40 GB on C:.

If using 64-bit OS, what's the maks ram the system recognize?

As much as you'd like to install and as much as the mainboard supports.

What programs do you download (clean/tweak etc)?

Spybot S&D, Spywareblaster, ccleaner, pctools firewall, tweakui, DU meter, teracopy2.4beta

What programs dont you download?

Whatever I do not need/want....

Realy need more than antivirus ?

Antivirus is only needed by those who do not know what they are doing with the PC. The above suggested programs is enough if you are semi-cautious.

In the event you suspect a virus have found its way into your system, an online scan is enough at trendmicro or panda security.

If you are unsure about a downloaded file use http://virusscan.jotti.org/ to scan the file.

System I have in mind is Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 - 2,66, 4GB ram DDR3 1066Mhz.

With your help, I hope to take better care of new desktop than my old laptop.

Only headache is choose between 32 or 64 bit OS.

All shops I asked said : dont buy 64bit, many customer complain and come back with them. While here in this sub forum majority seem to recommend 64 bit.

If you are unsure go with the tried Windows XP 32-bit.

These suggestiuons are very basic, but should get you started in the right direction.

[cdnvic]

3. free antivirus (AVG, Avira or whatever)

4. viruses, spy/ad ware.

check before you install free stuff (google is your friend)

Forget AVG, I just cleaned yet another badly infected machine yesterday that was using AVG. If you are really serious about protecting your investment you need to pay for one of the better antiviruses. Using a machine in Asia without an antivirus is reckless, especially if it will have more than one user. There's so much questionable software, and infected thumb drives out there, you need to take sensible precautions. (Turn off autorun and scan anything you attach, including thumb drives and mp3 players)

Eset NOD32

http://www.eset.com/

Avira Premium

http://www.avira.com/

Kaspersky

http://www.kaspersky.com/

Those three will keep you covered for both viruses and spyware with Windows Defender working in the background.

Don't be seduced by the word "Free". Get one nasty rootkit on your machine that a freebie has let through and the small price you pay for a good AV will seem very cheap. Also, do research before buying. There's plenty of garbage AVs out there for sale too. The three above consistently finish at the top of the ranks when tested by independent labs such as Virusbulletin, and AV-Comparatives. All three have 99%+ detection rates. NOD32 and Kaspersky scored the highest in the May 2009 tests, with Avira detecting well but being penalized due to false positives.

As for tweaking tools, Advanced system care (use the free version) will cover most of your needs.

http://www.iobit.com/

Firefox is always recommended over Internet Explorer, and you should be using the 32bit version of Windows as the home user has no advantage, and many compatibility disadvantages from 64bit.

[thaimite]

1. 30 GB for the OS on C:

the rest for data D:

move the HOME folder to D:

install programs on D:

2. you should buy ram that is supported by your motherboard.

windows (? i'm guessing here ) will recognize it automatically.

3. free antivirus (AVG, Avira or whatever)

4. viruses, spy/ad ware.

check before you install free stuff (google is your friend)

5. depends on what kind of stuff you install.

if you download a lot of torrent stuff, then yeah. you'll need antvirus

6. if you have a lot of very old hardware that you want to use, if you're a musician or play a lot of games then install 32bit (x86).

otherwise go for 64it (x64).

Most of the above is good advice, For Antivirus I have machines using AVG (paid) and Avast (free) and have never had any problems.

I would only disagree with part of item 1. I install all my programs on drive C (also 30G) and only user data on drive D. The reason for this is two-fold.

1. Many programs do not seem to like installng any where other than the system drive (C:), I found this out the hard way!

2. I do an image of Drive C with all of my system files every month so it is easy to recover in the event of major failure and I do a daily backup of my data which is on Drive D and changes much more frequently.

As well as moving the "my documents" folder to Drive D, I also recommend moving the hidden folder ""Application Data" to Drive D as many programs keep user data there which also changes on a daily basis. To do this you need to Google the task as it involves a registry change The free Tweak UI or Win XP manager are great tools).

Ideally all ofthe 'user folder' should be on Drive D but again many programs ignore the Drive D and end up creating duplicate settigs thus I have found that a 'My Documents' and an 'Application Data; folder on Drive D for each user is a good compromise

Edited August 14, 2009 by thaimite

[PS3]

My recent laptop had many crashes and problem with recognice drivers, almost from day 1.

Used paid antivirus program and did not download any programs the first months - still these problems.

With your advice I hope to avoid this with new desktop.

What program to clean up HD/traces on the old laptop, before sale?

[cdnvic]

What program to clean up HD/traces on the old laptop, before sale?

Eraser will do fine for that.

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

[JSixpack]

Here's a standard list to get you started. Think most of these links are up-to-date:

Don't bother partitioning (for various reasons, but don't wanna get into a debate w/ the Believers); rather, just get a 2nd backup drive and regularly backup: you need it anyway.

Go into Control Panel | Users, make yourself a user login with Administrator privileges; logoff and log back in as you. Technically for much better security you should give yourself mere user privileges, but that means inconvenience.

First download all Windows XP Updates from the get-updates icon in your system tray (bottom right of screen); then reboot

Update hardware drivers too from the vendor sites and reboot

Software in no particular order:

Get Firefox if you don’t have it and the most popular addons, like Tab Mix Plus and Easy DragToGo

KMPlayer, light & does music and vids:

http://kmplayer.en.softonic.com/

If you're a bit of a geek, get foobar as your music player:

http://www.foobar2000.org/

Autoruns

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Autoruns.zip

Process Explorer

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip

Spybot S&D

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Spybo...oy/1043809773/1

Ad-Aware

http://www.download.com/3001-8022_4-100459...art=dl-ad-aware

WordWeb Free

http://wordweb.info

XnView shell extension

http://87.230.13.154/XnShellEx.exe

Thunderbird; get some addons too (like Lightning for calendar) :

http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

(for payware, the best email client is The Bat! http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/ )

Flashget

http://down6.flashget.com/fgf173.exe

Zipgenius

http://download.cnet.com/ZipGenius-Standar...4-10179818.html

or IZArc

http://www.izarc.org/

PDFXviewer

http://www.docu-track.com/download/PDFXVwer.zip

Synchback for backups

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

erunt (beats the pants off system restore, automatic backups of registry)

http://www.derfisch.de/lars/erunt-setup.exe

fs viewer

www.faststone.org/FSViewerDownload.htm

filebox extender

http://www.hyperionics.com

Treesize

http://www.jam-software.com

MyDefrag

http://www.mydefrag.com/

Klite Codec pack (includes mplayer, great vid player but weak for libraries)

http://www.free-codecs.com

ccleaner (get the slim version)

http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds/downloading-slim

SelectAll

http://www.crashcoursesoftware.com/Files/selall.zip

PathToClipboard

http://download.softpedia.com/dl/dfafe87f9...toclipboard.msi

Picture Tray (drag pics in and out for quick resizing)

http://www.picturetray.com/picturetray12.zip

Vista Inspirat Bricopack (updates the look of WinXP)

http://www.crystalxp.net/dl/en.gal.130.html

Iconoid (hides icons until mouseover on desktop, keeps icon positions)

http://www.sillysot.com/iconoid.zip

Avira (google for tweak to stop the nag)

www.free-av.com/

youtube downloader

http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/

Truecrypt (make encrypted virtual drives or encrypt your whole drive)

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Evernote (fantastic notes clipper)

http://evernote.com/

Windows PowerPro (control windows, keys, make context-sensitive toolbars, and much, much more; geeks only)

http://powerpro.webeddie.com/

Drive Imaging:

Acronis, ShadowProtect, or Paragon, all payware, but you can do incremental images & more)

Finally, make yourself a boot CD to help in crash recovery:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Enjoy!

Edited August 15, 2009 by JSixpack

[siamshot]

Ok, maybe sometimes I'm a geek, but I know why I changed to Linux some years ago

http://blogs.computerworld.com/14515/how_t...et_from_windows

Enjoy!

[JSixpack]

Ok, maybe sometimes I'm a geek, but I know why I changed to Linux some years ago

http://blogs.computerworld.com/14515/how_t...et_from_windows

Enjoy!

To save the internet! YAY!

Very, very noble of you to make such a sacrifice; it will make such a tremendous difference, too.

So we can all breathe easier now. Long live the internet!

Edited August 15, 2009 by JSixpack

[PS3]

I am speachless - thank you all for your time and effort.

Please keep em coming if you remember any more.