Out of the Left Field, a friend gave me a new computer!!!
This is it:
We boosted the ram to 8gbs.
I can’t wait to play Cookie Clicker, with 8gbs!
Now the questions;
[ol]
[li]Going from XP to Win 10, what do I need to know? [/li][li]Best site for info on Windows 10 for idiots? [/li][li]Any tips/tricks?[/li][li]What useless Windows service & processes can be turned off?[/li][li]Any free programs I should download? (anti-virus, anti-malware, defrag, …)[/li][/ol]
I’ll have more I’m sure.
Thanks
That its a total fresh install, no upgrade free or otherwise
This PC should not have XP though?
Google i suppose.
Windows 10 isnt much more difficult than windows 7.
GUI is different but the root concepts are the same
Anything specific in mind?
You could consult google, be sure its nothing you use before turning it off.
I dont burn many DVD’s i dont mind the service being shut off, other people, not so much.
Windows 10 has its own antivirus, guess you could use Avast instead?
malware? MBAM (Malware Bytes)
Windows 10 defrags itself on the fly, other than that you can manually defrag just with windows.
My 14 yo Gateway computer has XP.
The new HP computer comes with Windows 10 Home.
I’m the only one using this computer.
There is no printer.
Keyboard, mouse, & speakers are the only thing connected to the computer.
The computer will be connect to a router.
There is a built in webcam, I want to disable.
Put a piece of opaque tape (like black electrical tape) over the lens.
This is the only way to be 100% certain it is disabled and requires very little technical skill to do.
Some tips off the top of my head:
Right click on the start menu button for quick access to stuff that used to be on the right side of the Start Menu, like Control Panel and stuff.
The taskbar has been updated in Win7+
[ul]
[li]Click on the area to the right of the clock to instantly jump back to the desktop.[/li][li]You can right click and pin any icon to the taskbar, so it will be there even when no program is running. [/li][li]Multiple windows for the same program will all be under the same button, with a submenu.[/li][li]Right click and you can close all windows of a program. [/li][li]Middle click (or shift-click) to open a new window for a program that is already running. [/li][li]Shift right click to get a more advanced menu for each icon. [/li][li]Right click and then shift-click on the name of the program to get the menu you’d get in Explorer.[/li][/ul]
Play around with moving windows, to see how they snap to the screen.
**Go through all the Control Panel/Settings options and turn off any stuff that bothers you about privacy. Also disable any ads. Here’s a list for privacy, and here’s a list for ads. **
Programs you might want:
Windows Defender is built in to Windows 10, which is a decent antivirus, if you augment it with a few extra tools. I recommend MalwareBytes Anti-Exploit (get the free beta) and MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware.
Avoid the McAfee crap. Just uninstall it. If you want a more advanced antivirus than Windows Defender, you can also try the free version of BitDefender. Though it wouldn’t hurt to use those MalwareBytes programs on top of that, too. Especially Anti-Ransomware.
Edge is something to try out, but the latest version of Chrome or Firefox are still good. And, if you’ve signed into Chrome or use Firefox Sync on your old computer, you can get all your old settings back pretty quickly.
If you want the old Windows games back, you’d be better off reinstalling the Windows 7 games with this than using the Windows Store. (Those WildTangent games are also generally not worth it, either. Mostly free trials.)
If you don’t like the included Cyberlink Media Player for your DVDs, you can also try installing something like VLC.
If you run into any problems with your graphics driver, or plan to play any games (beyond basics like cookie clicker), you may want to go to the AMD website to see if there are any better graphics drivers. If not, don’t worry about it.
Install Backblaze for $5 a month to keep an offsite backup. It’s cheap insurance for if anything happens to your files. I still can’t get past how cheap it is.
Upgrade recommendation:
If you do ever get the money to do so, replace (or augment) that hard drive with an SSD. That’s the most noticeable change for a normal user.
That’s all that comes to mind right now. Once you do that privacy/ads thing, Windows 10 is a pretty good OS. And while the computer is no powerhouse by any means, it does seem like it would be enough for your use case, in a nice form factor. And with an LED screen, which is nice.
True, but also turning it off in Hardware Manager isn’t a bad idea, either, so that software doesn’t think it can use it. Hardware Manager is available on that right click Start menu, I believe.
Also, one more thing: I love the idea of using svchost (and Microsoft Bob?) as swear words.
Another good program to have isCCleaner (formerly called Crap Cleaner). Because it goes through your machine and cleans out all the ‘crap’ (unneeded programs, trial versions of software, etc.) that make a new machine so bloated. You have controls to tell it what things to delete (but the defaults are pretty good). Also does a pretty good job of cleaning out all the temp files & caches that programs leave behind. I run it once a week or so, and am often astonished of the megabytes of wasted disk space it recovers.
Go to www.ninite.com for an easy way of installing all those little utilities.
IMHO just use it for a while and keep a running tab of stuff you really want to change or you really miss.
After a couple of weeks you might be able to cross some stuff off - turns out you can live with it. You will still have stuff on the list that you need to do, and you can come back here and ask how to change/fix/find it.
[QUOTE=Weisshund]
Google i suppose. Windows 10 isnt much more difficult than windows 7.
[/QUOTE]
It’s just that many sites contradict one another. I’ve never really used Win7.
[QUOTE=Weisshund]
Anything specific in mind?
[/QUOTE]
Anything that will make things, easier, smoother, and that wouldn’t be obvious to a Win10 newbie.
Bob from REBOOT, a 90’s cgi cartoon, that takes place inside a computer.
I have been using VLC & CCleaner for years.
What about a uninstaller? I have Revo on my old computer. Claims to remove leftovers that Windows Uninstaller leaves behind.
I’m seeing a lot of mentions of Syncing across all/multiple devices. I don’t have any devices, just a basic cellphone (so called “Obama phones”).
I’ll be booting up the new computer later today.
Thanks for the help & yes, I’ll be back with more questions soon.
not to get too byzantine here but, is the holy svchost one and indivisible with the kernel and the UI?
Try not to take a baseball bat to the machine when Windows 10 does its automatic updates and fucks all your shit up.
If you don’t already have it get BonziBuddy.
Don’t do that. I’m totally kidding. Don’t even search for it.
Revo will still be fine for what it does. It generally shouldn’t be necessary, but it doesn’t hurt.
I’m not talking about syncing across devices. I just thought that, if you use Firefox or Chrome on your old computer, you can sign into either of them, and then sign in on your new computer, and then it will copy all your browser settings from your old computer automatically.
Backblaze is just an automatic backup solution, to make sure that, if something happens to your computer, you don’t lose your files. I just recommend it for everyone. Same with Malwarebytes Anti-Ransomware. Just to make sure that you don’t lose access to your files.
Plus, if a hard drive is going to fail, it will usually fail withing the first few months (or not until at least 10 years later), so that’s the most important time to be careful.
I agree wholeheartedly with ZipperJJ about only installing programs that you had on your old computer as you need them. You’d be surprised at how much you find out you can do without.
When you start the machine up for the first time, you’ll have to establish an account on the machine. Even if you’re the only one using it. (Although this isn’t meaningfully different from Windows XP.)
Windows 10 will ask you to use a “Microsoft.com” account; in other words, an internet-wide world account you would use at any online Microsoft presence, like whatever Hotmail became. And, more specifically importantly for Windows 10, in the Windows App Store and for OneDrive cloud storage.
In this respect, they’re like Google on Android phones: they make it easy to use a single identity for all Google services, local (on the device) and online. I’m not sure if it’s possible to use a normal Android phone otherwise.
If this doesn’t bother you, go ahead. The prompts make it easy – almost unavoidable.
However, if you just want a local-only computer-specific login account (not tied into your online identity), you can search around for a deceptively-labeled link on the Windows 10 “create an account” page that will allow you to create just that: a local computer-only account that has nothing to do with your online presence.
Here’s a web article about how this works.
Goodamn! There is a lot of crap on this machine, and I may have screwed up already. Confused by Apps & Programs.
However, it turns out that Win10 comes with a tool to wipe everything* & and then reinstall a Clean Win10. I plan to use this feature, so is there anything I should do before I start?
Do you know if it will erase the recovery partition?
Thaanks
Probably not. I suspect that’s where it’s re-installing from, and will always have available to re-install from again if it comes to that.
Before you get hasty, what exactly did you do that makes you think you need to start over from scratch? That’s a rather drastic step to have to perform.
It will not overwrite your recovery partition. In fact, you will just be recovering your PC. The result will be a factory reset. It will not remove anything that actually came with the computer.
God, I’m tired. I don’t know why I thought this was going to be easy.
I was with XP for 14 years (among one of my longest relationships), I knew how it worked & how to make it do what I wanted. Going from XP to Win10 has been baffling to say the least. This isn’t a “Get off my lawn!” moment, I know change is inevitable, but so much of the changes seem pointless & baffling. I need someone to hold my hand and walk me though this, yes I’m that weak of a person. I’m not a “special snowflake”, if I was I would have melted & dried up decades ago. What would be the opposite of a snowflake?
God, I’m tired.