Ron Schenone

What Is The Fastest Way To Get A New Personal Computer Up And Running?

Posted by on Jan 10, 2010 | 16 Comments

[I am posting this so that I can refer people to this article when they ask how to set up a new personal computer system. I also hope that it helps others who read it as well. Please add your comments and contribute to this piece. TIA, Ron]

You have just brought home that brand new personal computer system and you want to get your new system up and running as fast as possible. This is actually a lot faster than it was several years ago. There are a bunch of free programs that anyone can use to not only clean the gunk off of a new system, put to also install software and quickly with little user intervention.

First you need to get rid of the ‘crapware’ that comes installed on your new personal computer. This includes all of the trial ware programs that you may not wish to use. The first thing you need to download is a program called PC Decrapifier linked below. This free software program will remove most of the junk and gunk for a user automatically. Here is how it works.

Running the Program

After you run the EXE you will be guided through the process with a “wizard” style series of questions. You will have the choice to pick and choose what you want to remove. It will not begin removing anything without prompting you first!

Next follow the onscreen instructions from the images below:

Next, create a Restore Point by clicking on the Create Restore Point button.

Next select the programs that you wish to uninstall:

If you are not sure which programs should be uninstalled ask someone before you leap into the uninstall process. May I suggest you ask your question[s] over at the Help forum for Lockergnome located here.

You will now want to update your system with some of the best free software you can get to protect your personal computer and to enhance your overall computer experience. Over at Ninite Easy PC Setup you can select programs that you wish to install on your new system. Just check the programs you want to use and let Ninite do the rest for you. If you are not sure which programs to use, ask over at the Help forum for Lockergnome.

Here are some of the programs I recommend you try:

Web Browser: Firefox

Messaging: Thunderbird, Google Talk

Media: iTunes, Hulu

Imaging: Gimp, Picasa

Documents: Open Office, Foxit Reader

Security:  Avast, AVG, Malwarebytes, Spybot [caution - use only ONE anti-virus program]

Runtimes: Flash, Java

Other: Google Earth

Utilties: ImgBurn, CCleaner, Defraggler, Tera Copy,

Comments welcome.

Download PC Decrapifier from here.

Download Ninite Easy PC Setup from here.

  • Howard Blair

    The problem with Ninite is that it installs its apps with the default settings (as if you had just clicked Next, Next, Next…Finish)…which means a lot of programs will just put more crap (toolbars, AVG LinkScanner, etc.) back into your computer. Not good.

  • Ryan

    Windows:

    Turn PC on, spend 3 minutes waiting for Windows to boot, spend 20 minutes answering a stupid survey your OEM requires before you may proceed, arrive at Windows desktop, face assault from a barrage of crapware, run out of RAM, ride the swap file long enough to terminate all the crapware, proceed to uninstall the 500 CrapWare programs that paid the OEM to include them. (Should only take 45 minutes.)

    Watch “Norton/McAfee/etc” antivirus crapware fail to uninstall and leave bits and pieces numbering just enough to kind of continue to load until you manually route them out with the delete key and immediately have to use a registry cleaner to flush all the orphaned crap they left there.

    Note: If you have carpal tunnel by this point, seek medical attention immediately! Otherwise, continue.

    Open Internet Explorer, proceed to download the mandatory antivirus software, install antivirus software, say no when it asks to reboot, find a real web browser, set up ad blocking add-ons to the new browser, close Internet Explorer, turn Internet Explorer off so it won’t bug you anymore, open new browser, find real media player software to compensate for Media Player’s inability to play most media software, find CD burning software like ImgBurn and install K-Lite codec pack to it can make audio discs out of all the formats that Windows can’t play natively.

    Activate Windows if not done already; if this fails, call Microsoft and read them 64 digits in 8 groups, and type in the 64 digits in 8 groups it gives you, remembering that changing more than 3 pieces of hardware can trigger this step again.

    Go find an Office suite, either by paying Microsoft $200 and ending up with more Product Activation Nazi-ism or download the 150 MB OpenOffice.org.

    Go find IRC software, Windows Live Messenger (careful to not install the other crap like Silver Blight), go find Yahoo Messenger, go find Skype.

    Download 7zip if you want to open anything more than zip files without paying $40. Note: Windows will normally otherwise recommend the $40 crap, even when you open a 7z file.

    Download Gimp or fork over $70-$700 for PhotoShop (Most people find this on their favorite file sharing site, I don’t judge.).

    If you want wifi, you might now plug in your USB stick and watch Windows blue screen of death with a “IRQ_LESS_THAN-OR_EQUAL” error. Reboot.

    Grab all the updates Windows offers, then reboot, then have it offer you more updates that need a reboot.

    Welcome to Windows 7.

    —
    Alternative:

    Place Ubuntu disc in drive, tell the installer to take over the whole drive, install your drivers and the restricted/patented crap metapackage, the adblock plus package for Firefox, and the 7zip package. Done.

    —
    Alternative:

    Power on your Mac. (Maybe something I missed)

    Hope this guide helps!

  • Ryan

    Or if you want to know the “Fatest” way to get your Windows computer up and running, eat Ben & Jerry’s from start to finish and then go on Maury via satellite 9 months later when you can’t leave your bedroom.

    Alternatively, install Windows Me and get the FATest 32-bit file system ever. Guaranteed to only waste most of your hard drive space.

  • Buffet

    The BEST way is to have one custom built by your local, independent, reliable mom and pop computer store. This way you have a machine tailored to your exact specifications, with precisely what you do – and don’t want, and no crappola! Best of all, you’e almost sure to get a better deal AND service after the sale as well. As an example, my last computer, a SONY, was purchased at Best Buy, where a very naive Buffet told them he wanted “the best machine available” and “price was no object”. They sold me one with a Pentium 4 processor and 512 ram for – get this – $3600!!! My current machine was custom built, to my specs, with an i7 and 4G of ram – for < $1100? With NO bloatware! I rest my case.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Thanks Buffet for sharing your experience with us. OUCH! $3600. I had a Mom and Pop computer shop for almost 20 years and built a ton of systems. Not only did the people get a better machine at a reasonable price, but they also got one on one technical support with someone who spoke English. LOL

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Ryan,
    Interesting.

    Hi Howard,
    That is one of the downsides. :-(

  • Ryan

    I managed to squeeze a Windows Server 2008 R2 license out of Microsoft (don’t ask).

    It’s a lot of work to set it up to be a desktop, but it removes a lot of the artificial limitations that Microsoft built into Windows 7 Home. (No RAM above 16 GB, only one physical processor, crippled so that it’s useless as a web server, etc.)

    It’s a lot harder to get it set up than the worst OEM copy of consumer Windows I’ve ever seen. Most stuff is there just turned off, including your audio service, then once you flip that back on your audio will glitch until you tweak a registry key to give sound more priority.

    Oddly enough, Microsoft doesn’t artificially prevent things like Windows Live Essentials from installing (they do on Server 2003 and XP x64). Antivirus might be a problem as most of the freebies have been rigged so as to refuse to install, so I had to do some jury rigging to trick one of them. *grin*

    Where there’s a will (or an anti-feature), there’s a way around it.

  • Buffet
  • http://frugalcoder.us/ Michael J. Ryan

    would suggest against AVG, since recent versions are very bloated. The MS Security Essentials is currently the best Free AV util. Would do malware bytes too. I’d also remove the iso util, since Win7 includes that functionality now. I would suggest infraRecorder. I would also sugest adding Silverlight to the plugins list, and a decent codec pack.

  • http://twitter.com/mshaddix Matt Shaddix

    After using windows based computers for over 10 years, I finally splurged in 2008 and bought an iMac. I literally plugged the machine in, and after filling in my basic registration info, I was online. It’s that simple.

  • Ryan

    @Michael:

    The ISO burner is way too limited. You still can’t use Windows to make an ISO image, and you can only use Windows Media Player to burn the few formats it actually natively understands.

    ImgBurn can rip a a disc to ISO and it can burn from any media format you have a DShow codec for. (Which can be installed through the K-Lite codec pack)

    Meaning I can burn my FLAC or Vorbis files without having to convert them to some stupid thing like WMA Lossless (which average about 10-20% larger than FLAC and only work with Windows Media Player.)

    There’s a very limited walled garden that the included (f)utilities bundled with Windows keep you in. The only thing you can really do is bury them and use something else.

    As for MSE, you’re really asking the fox to guard your hen house, in that the same company that leaves critical vulnerabilities open for 10 years spanning 4 Windows versions is now providing your antivirus.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Matt – what fun is that? LOL
    PC users love to be tortured!

  • Ryan

    Ron: Steve Ballmer, the Product Activation whip, and the user that bought more Microsoft crap handcuffed to the wall begging for more.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Heh Ryan,
    You got it. LOL

  • Gary Bing

    Tell whoever it maybe be , be it brick and mortar, online, or customized–that you want the operating system and nothing else, or no deal. Doesn’t get any faster than that. Trust me.

  • Appmen

    You may use PickMeApp. It is also free and can remove your preinstalled applications. Additionally you may use PicmMeApp to migrate from one windows PC to another