question regarding basic configuration advice for a new computer

I am buying a new computer today, and for once I'd like to start my first day of use crapware free and fully optimized. I'm an amateur with computers, so I'm looking for a few tips as to how to do this. I'm not looking to spend money on a registery cleaner / system optimizer, I just want to do it the good old fashioned way.

What I want to accomplish:

-Remove (fully) all of the preloaded crap that comes on my computer
-Optimize my system a bit so it is not running tons of programs every start up that bog everything down
-Select a good Anti Virus / Spy ware sweeper (For free... Is "Avira" the best choice?).

any tips that can help me accomplish these goals is very much appreciated.

 

Best way to get what you're going for is to look at the http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html thread, and do a clean install. Trying to uninstall the crapware depends on the crapware itself to properly tell Windows what to remove, which means you're still going to have remnants of that hanging around.

Make sure you create the recovery disks for your computer first, though, and download all of the current drivers (especially for network hardware) for your machine from your manufacturer to a USB drive in case Windows doesn't have drivers right offhand.

 

sorry for being a computer newb, but is this free?

 

After you finish with SO, take a look at booting device priority in bios. is first drive isn't your hdd, change it. You may gain few start up seconds.

 

Yes. As long as you have a valid license, you can download install media from Microsoft's distributor (links in that post). This still requires a valid product key.

I'd second the recommendation. Make your back-up discs as soon as you get the computer, and then wipe the drive and do a clean install. That will get you a clean copy of Windows without any bloat that comes on retail systems. If your hardware supports it, you can use the 64-bit install media even if your computer came loaded with 32-bit, as long as you use the same version (home Premium, Pro, etc) as your license is for.

I run Microsoft Security Essentials (free download for Microsoft) but I have run AVG in the past, and both have worked well for me.

 

I thought that OEM licenses, which computer manufacturers typically use, only support one or the other and won't let you install the alternate version.

 

You can use either 32 or 64-bit of the same version you own (ie. Home Premium is the version).

 

uhhh ohh... So I followed all of the instructions - thought everything was working great, except now windows doesn't recognize my wireless card? I go to device manager and there is no trace of a network card. what happened?

 

Checked under network adapters? Did you install all the network drivers from your manufacturer's site? It's possible it may be disabled in the BIOS or something. Try hitting the Fn+ shortcut to enable your adapter.

 

yea, I definitely did those things. Was I supposed to back up my drivers before I did that clean reset?

 

I'm a little confused as to what I'm supposed to do regarding the drivers.

I have the HP dm4-1065dx. Is there a simple website that just has all of the drivers in a single pack? (I checked HP, it didn't seem that easy). Should I have saved the drivers when I took the computer out of the box?

Also, my recovery disks aren't working (though I'm almost positive I did those right... Do I have any options to bring it back to factory settings not that it doesn't work?). Basically the only thing that I have that works is a Windows 7 Install Disk (that does actually work quite nicely!)

 

You usually download the drivers individually from the manufacturer's website. I always do that in case anything has been updated since they burned the driver CD.

 

my laptop didn't even come with a driver CD...