A New Windows 10 PC

 in Windows  tagged Windows / preferences / tweak / fix / adjust by

What are some of the things you should do with a new Windows 10 system? This is a good opportunity to apply some tweaks and adjustments to the operating system. Everyone works a little differently, but there are some things that you can do that will apply to most Windows 10 users. This post is about just a few of those common adjustments.

Connect

If you are like me you have Wi-Fi at home you will want to connect to the internet. You’ve probably already done that when you set up Windows for the first time when you turned on the computer for the first time.

Create a Backup

I will leave that up to you.

Activate Windows

Check that Windows has been activated and if not, activate it. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation to check if you’ve activated Windows yet. If you have, you’re good. If not, you’ll either need to sign into your Microsoft account, or enter a license key.

Windows Update

It’s good practice to always update Windows. To check for Windows updates, open the Settings app (using the Win + I shortcut or the icon on the Start menu) and go to Update & Security > Windows Update. On this page, click Check for updates

Update Hardware Drivers

You can use Device Manager for this task.

File Explorer

If you have been using Windows for a long time (ie when it was DOS) or you are a programmer, you will definitely want to show full file names and the hidden files. Open Explorer and select the View tab at the top. Check both checkboxes File name extensions and hidden items.

Clean Up

Clean up involves removing apps you don’t need or want, and doing a disk cleanup. How do you get rid of unwanted software that’s installed on your computer?

Software

There are lots of other programs you could install on your PC. Here are 9 of the more useful ones. I would say that Acrobat, Chrome and an antivirus software are the most useful ones in the list.

  1. LibreOffice
  2. Google Chrome
  3. Google Drive
  4. An antivirus software
  5. VLC
  6. 7-Zip
  7. ClipClip
  8. CCleaner
  9. Adobe Acrobat Reader

Performance vs. Looks

You can speed up Window 10 a bit by choosing faster performance over how it looks. Type adjust performance after clicking the start button. Go to Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.