So you just bought a new computer huh? Nice. You are probably eager to fire it up and marvel at its speed, new features, and sexy good looks right? How about we get it ready for a night on the town first, ok?
Its a sad reality, but almost any computer you purchase nowadays is going to be loaded with a bunch of software that you don't want, don't need, and that will slow down your new machine. Its the price that we have to pay for getting a computer for so cheap. Companies like Symantec, Google, Wild Tangent, etc. pay alot of money to Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony, etc. to install their software. So what can we do to fix this? Luckily, there are a few easy steps that we can take to make sure that your new computer is yours! Let's get our Geek on!

The first thing that we want to do is download a free program called PC Decrapifier. It was written for this purpose, and is a MUST for any new computer purchase. Once you download it, go ahead and run it and it should clean up virtually all of the extra junk on your machine. Check out the list to see what it removes. Great! We now have a crap free machine! But guess what? We now just lost our antivirus, and maybe our antispyware too.
No worries! Check out my page on software to prevent problems for some FREE software that is at least as good as the stuff that was on your machine, and in most cases is better!

Now that we have our software taken care of, what else is there? Well, I would highly recommend that you make a backup of your computer in its fresh state. It won't take long for you to fill it with stuff, so it is a good idea to have a backup disk of your computer when it is fresh and clean. Check out my tutorial on how to make a recovery disc. It sucks, but companies now rarely give you a recovery disc with your machine. In an effort to save themselves a few cents, they simply partition your hard drive with the recovery information. Sounds good in theory right? Not so much. What happens if your hard drive goes bad? You are now borked. Make your backup discs, and save yourself the money to buy them from the manufacturer.

The last thing that I would recommend is to check out my secure computing habits page. If you exercise a little forethought in your computing behaviors, you will find it extremely difficult to get a virus on your machine.
That's it! You have your computer how you want it, you have your backup copies, and you know some safe computing procedures! Enjoy your computer! It really does enable you to accomplish almost anything! Have a great Geek week!