{"id":18,"date":"2014-08-16T17:36:41","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T17:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dougla.so\/?p=18"},"modified":"2014-08-21T14:55:01","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T14:55:01","slug":"setting-up-a-new-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.carrison.net\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"Setting Up a New PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

It sounds like a rather mundane topic, now, doesn\u2019t it? We\u2019ve all done it before, but we all do it differently, I\u2019ve found. Some people like to do the Windows setup and dive straight in and use the new toy, while others spend time tweaking the setup, getting it just so before settling in to do work. Others still ditch whatever the system came with and start fresh, with a clean install of Windows or Linux, depending on which they prefer.<\/p>\n

Recently, Lenovo sent me an IdeaPad U310 Touch Ultrabook<\/a> as part of their Lenovo Insiders program, so I thought I\u2019d go into detail about how I typically set up my computers by using it as an example.<\/p>\n

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If you haven\u2019t seen it, you can see me unbox it and talk about it in brief here on YouTube<\/a> and I\u2019ll be doing up a review and posting it here in the next couple of weeks once I\u2019ve spent some more time with it.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Unboxing<\/h1>\n

This task is always fun, and naturally has to be done before you can do anything with the computer. I like to make sure that it does have everything, check the documentation just in case there\u2019s any weird oddities in setup (e.g. with the Toshiba notebooks from about last year and earlier that I set up at work, you definitely had to have them plugged in because they proceeded to image themselves with a basic install of Windows and then install each driver and application for you in Sysprep mode before sealing itself ready for your use) and keep anything relevant and\\or useful. Chuck in the battery, plug it into the mains, and fire it up.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Basic Setup<\/h1>\n

Nothing too special here, Windows asks where you are, what language you speak, what keyboard layout you have, what your name is, what its name is, and then various settings relating to updates, what information is shared with Microsoft and so on. I usually go through the manual steps and keep everything but the Windows Update options the same, because I like my updates to be set to notify, don\u2019t download.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Extra Windows 8 Step<\/h2>\n

One thing to note \u2013 unlike Windows 7, Windows 8 doesn\u2019t prompt you to choose a time zone during this stage. So once the basic setup is finished, you\u2019ll need to go to the Desktop, right click the clock, click Adjust Date\/Time<\/strong>, and in the window that comes up click Change Time Zone<\/strong> then select your time zone from the list on the screen. Click OK<\/strong> and make sure that the time and date in the main Date and Time window matches the actual date and time. If it doesn\u2019t, you have two choices: you can either click Change date and time\u2026<\/strong> and set it manually, or go to the Internet Time<\/strong> tab, click Change Settings\u2026<\/strong> and then click Update now <\/strong>twice \u2013 the first time will error out, but the second time will work fine.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in Australia, especially if you\u2019re on an Internode ADSL connection, change the time server to ntp.internode.on.net<\/strong> \u2013 this way the time will be a touch more accurate as the default Windows time servers tend to be overseas.<\/p>\n

This was something I didn\u2019t notice up until I went to open Outlook to check my emails and wondered why emails I had just received had a timestamp of 1am.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Install the 8.1 Update<\/h1>\n

If you\u2019ve gotten a computer that has Windows 8.1, you obviously don\u2019t need to do this step. In this case, this IdeaPad only had Windows 8, so naturally the update was required.<\/p>\n

One good thing about the 8.1 update is that once installed, you generally won\u2019t need to touch Windows Update until the next Patch Tuesday. Unfortunately for me, I received and set up the IdeaPad the day before August\u2019s Patch Tuesday, so I didn\u2019t have to wait very long before more updates were available.<\/p>\n

Installing the 8.1 update is easy – first you need to have two updates from Microsoft installed, specifically updates KB2871389<\/a> and KB2917499<\/a> which you can download by clicking on those links. Once you have installed them and restarted, open the Windows Store from the Start Screen, and there\u2019ll be a big blue prompt to install the update. Click it and away you go!<\/p>\n

Make sure that your device is plugged into the mains if it\u2019s a laptop, tablet or other battery powered device, as this update can take a couple of hours or more – the IdeaPad I have is the i7 model and it took almost three hours to download and install the update and restarted several times. This is definitely something you can set the computer up to do while you go and do something else.<\/p>\n

Once it\u2019s done, you\u2019ll have to briefly reintroduce yourself to Windows. If you don\u2019t want to use a Microsoft account, make sure that you\u2019re not connected to the internet during this part or else the reintroduction process will force it on you. Easiest way to do this: if you\u2019ve connected by wifi, turn it off until you\u2019re at the Start Screen; if you\u2019re connected via Ethernet, unplug the cable from the computer.<\/p>\n

Step 4: Uninstall Useless Preinstalled Software<\/h1>\n

It\u2019s a fact of life that, unless you are lucky enough to be able to get your hands on a Microsoft Signature computer, your computer will have bloatware on it of some kind. Most of it is useless junk that you\u2019ll never use, trials for software that you don\u2019t need or already have and so on. So ideally, you want to get rid of it.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, this Lenovo didn\u2019t come with much bloatware that I considered useless. The Desktop apps that it came with that weren\u2019t drivers were:<\/p>\n