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I make it a habit to "rebuild" my personal computers at least once a year, in order to "clear out the clutter." You see, in my business, I try a lot of different software and hardware, and repeated installations and uninstallations can really muck up your PC internals (mainly, leaving stray files and folders and registry entries).



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But these tips also apply to a freshly-built PC, one with brand spankin' new parts. Once you've installed the Operating System (OS) and downloaded and installed all of the Windows patches, updates, and security fixes, these are the



Top Ten Things To Do After You Have Built Your PC





  1. Install a firewall application like the free ZoneAlarm or Panda Internet Security Suite.

  2. Install an Anti-virus application like the free AVG or the aforementioned Panda

  3. Install Firefox with Google Toolbar. Better yet,   




    It comes with a slew of really cool applications, including Picasa (a photo editor and catalog), Google Earth, and Spyware Doctor (among many other applications).

  4. Install your favorite Firefox extensions, like CoLT, Greasemonkey, Blocksite, AI Roboform Toolbar, Google BrowserSync, and Tab Mix Plus.

  5. Set up automatic backups.

  6. Set up automatic virus and spyware scans.

  7. Set up automatic defragging.

  8. Install your favorite media player like VLC, Media Monkey, or iTunes.

  9. Download and install Microsoft's Power Toys like SyncToy, Tweak UI, and ClearType.

  10. Make an image of your set up right now, in its pristine, perfect form, using a disk imaging application like DriveImage XML or Acronis TrueImage.


Now you've set yourself up for optimal performance, using the applications you want. You've set up automatic backups, virus scans, and defragging. You've made an image of your finished drive, so that if, in two weeks, your system goes haywire, you can simply reboot with the disk image on DVD and refresh your system in about 20 minutes.

2 comments

  1. Anonymous // 3:43 AM  

    Thank you for the great link to DriveImage XML. For a free disk imaging tool i was using drivesnapshot but this tools seems to be easier to use

  2. billspaced // 7:50 PM  

    Yeah, I've read great reviews on the latest version. It's free, comes highly recommended, and is easy to use.

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