What to do with fresh machine from Dell? Anyone have a list?

I plan to wipe everything
Partition into two drives (c for win, d for data) - any other advice?
Reinstall win 7 from the recovery disk
Enable bit locker and both primary and secondary

Looking for any other thoughts of things I should do to get everything nice and good before I "move in". I don't like doing big things after I get going.

 

Give a read through the Dell forum. You'll find a lot of advice from fellow owners. The stickies will be helpful. Lots of assistance about what bloatware you may/may not want. ( 1 , 2)

After you get the system setup the way you like, be sure to create a system image and setup a backup schedule appropriate for your needs.

Get off to a good start by using an antivirus program and setting up Windows Update.

If this is your first time using Windows 7, be sure to click the question mark (in a blue circle) that appears in the upper-right hand corner of many menus. In Windows 7, "Windows Help and Support" is the best I've seen from Microsoft. It's finally helpful and supportive.

A word of advice about Bitlocker: I personally wouldn't enable Bitlocker across the board. If ever you lose access to the Bitlocker key, you'll lose everything. Only enable it across the whole drive if you have an unencrypted external for backup. Either way, be sure to backup your Bitlocker key. (It will prompt you to do so when enabling it.)

 

Thanks for your help Greg. I had some concerns about bit locker but I will alleviate my concerns just the way you say my used backups that are unencrypted AND are not mobile. I think that's the best combo.

I did have one question about it. I plan to use TPM + pin. Is the pin different from a bios password?