The first thing to do after you have unpacked and setup your computer is to go through it and uninstall the crapware that the PC vendor installed. So the first stop after the system boots is to visit the device manager and go through the list and uninstall all of the bloatware that you will never use and will ultimately slow your PC down and even make it inoperable.

Next is to locate and install Anti Virus and Anti Mal ware software. The two programs I recommend for any PC is ESETNOD3 and Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes is free for the version that you manually run but usually when you decide to run it it is probably too late to do any real good. My recommendation is to purchase the full version so its running and protecting that expensive PC you just purchased. One mistake many inexperienced PC users do is to try and install more than one Anti Virus application. This is a big no no and can cause problems that will render your PC DOA and a complete rebuild is your only solution to fix it.

Viruses and Mal ware gets smarter and more infectious every year and an improperly setup computer is the general target for these punks software. So after you have setup your Anti Virus software its a good idea to go and configure it to run a scan and update the virus definitions on a regular basis. One final note on this is to not become complacent that just because you have these programs running on your system you are safe because you are never 100% protected. One in every five computers that have the latest and greatest Anti Virus software installed will still get infected. How this happens is most every time due to the user clicking a button accepting the action that the warning message is prompting you before you click yes or OK. So when your computer asks "Are You Sure You Want To Do This?", think twice before clicking yes. There is always and underlying reason it is asking you this question!

If your computer seems sluggish or unresponsive right out of the gate it probably means that the system is underpowered to handle some of the WizBang features in Windows. If you are experiencing this behavior the first thing to try is to disable the Windows 7 Areo feature. You will lose all the gooey cool stuff it offers but could just do the trick to speed up your system and make it work.

To disable Areo in Windows 7 right click on the desktop and at the bottom of the menu click Personalize. NOTE: Thes steps also work in Windows Vista. Then click Windows appearance in Vista click Windows color and appearance. Then click the next at the bottom click "Open classic appearance properties for more color options" and then from the Color Scheme window select Windows Vista Basic.

In Windows 7 right click the desktop and again Personalize. From there scroll to the bottom of the theme selector and find Basic Themes any of them will disable the Areo features in Windows 7.