There are programs on the hard drive you should get rid of, and other things you should add immediately. If you haven’t yet been introduced to Windows 7, or it’s been a while since you’ve set up a new machine, we’ll walk you through it all in these 12 simple steps. If your new baby is a Mac, you’ve got a much shorter to-do list.

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What Everybody Ought to Know About
New PCs (II)
What Everybody Ought to Know using an online word processor like Google Docs so
About New PCs (II) you can access the list from any computer. Keep in
mind that you’ll also want to carry over the settings
CloudTags: New , PC , computer , technology , lap- and log-in info for e-mail and IM clients. Gather
top battery , Dell latitude d630 battery life , Hp 510 those monstrosities known as registration codes for
batteries , Hp pavilion dv4 your software. Record them somewhere permanent
and accessible.
What Everybody Ought to Know About
New PCs (I) Write them on the discs themselves with a thin-tip-
ped marker, keep them in a notebook, get a tattoo;
9. Place Your Programs use whatever method you have for preserving data
you know you will need again. Some software is li-
mited to a certain number of machines.For example,
iTunes 10.5 (also an Editors’ Choice) will only play
songs you’ve bought online on up to five PCs. So
check that the software is de-authorized on the old
PC if you won’t be using it there ever again.
10. Tune-Up Time
On the right hardware, Windows 7 is impressively
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fast, but tweaks always helpperformance. You have
to decide: do you want a system that works great
or is good looking? Here are a few steps to tweak
your new PC’s performance in favor of speed, not
appearance:
We can’t decide for you what software is most ne- • Set the desktop to a plain, one-color background.
cessary for your needs. We can say generically that Big photographic wallpaper can slow load time.
no PC is complete without at least an office suite, a
photo-editing tool, a media manager, Web browser • If you’re not into desktop widgets along the screen’s
(see above) and e-mail. And there are free alterna- edge, or maybe prefer those from another source
tives for almost any program you might need; see our (like Google), turn off Windows Sidebar. It takes up
no-cost favorites in The Best Free Software of 2011. space on your desktop. In Vista, go to the Windows
Sidebar Properties control panel and deselect Start
If you want the same setup as your previous ma- Sidebar when Windows starts. In Windows 7, the
chine, check the Program Files folder on the C: drive control panel is renamed Windows Gadgets. But
of your old PC. Make a list of the programs there
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you can just right click a gadget to remove it, and it cient XP machine into that snazzy Windows 7 sys-
won’t come back unless asked. tem, consider carefully how much you need them.
Do you really need that ancient flatbed scanner now
• Aero is the name for the fancy graphics interface that the pictures you take are digital? For some, the
that delivers things like transparency in windows. answer will be no.
Cool as it looks, Aero can slow down your system.
In Vista’s Personalization control panel, select Win- Ancient USB hubs (you probably have more ports
dows Color and Appearance. In the next window, on your new box, and you don’t want a hub that
click Open classic appearance properties. doesn’t support USB 3.0), old-school ink-jet printers,
and low-capacity portable hard drives could pro-
Change the color scheme to something else, such bably all stand a refresh if not outright dumping.
as Windows Standard, and click Effects to turn off Old hardware moved to a new PC means you need
menu shadows and the ability to see windows as the latest drivers. DriverMax can back up drivers
you drag them. In Windows 7, you can deactivate for when you need them later. However, it doesn’t
features like transparency individually. upgrade your old XP drivers to new Windows 7
drivers, so you still need to do the legwork. Hit the
• Go to the System control panel, click System Pro- manufacturer’s Web site for your scanner, printer,
tection, and on the Advanced tab, click the button camera, media player, and so on to download what
in the Performance box. If you turn off every option you need.
under Visual Effects (like animated controls, fading
menus, and shadows under your mouse cursor) by That mouse and keyboard that came with your new
selecting “Adjust for best performance,” it should system should be considered suspect. PC vendors
speed things up. aren’t known for including highly ergonomic input
devices. Consider instead the Microsoft Natural
• If you’ve got a very fast USB thumb drive, insert Ergonomic Desktop 7000 set, which comes with a
it and activate Windows ReadyBoost. This cache wireless ergonomic keyboard and mouse. In fact,
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can help a bit with performance while the drive is consider an ergonomic keyboard and mouse even
inserted. if your new PC is a laptop, especially one you don’t
move around much. Your wrists will thank you later.
• Adjust the power settings, especially if you’ve got
a laptop that is unplugged while in use. The “high 12. Register Everything
performance” pre-sets will drain juice faster.
It’s no guarantee of great technical support, but if
• Download and install Soluto, a free tool that mea- you register your PC with the manufacturer, as well
sures your boot time and helps you either remove as the software and peripherals with their respective
or delay applications that might be slowing your creators, you stand a better chance of being recogni-
start time. zed when the time does come to call for help—and
you know that time will come. Getting a vendor to
11. Review Hardware honor a warranty might depend on knowing when
you bought or received the product. Registering on-
Getting a new PC is the perfect opportunity to reas- line is relatively painless.
sess the hardware peripherals attached to your old
PC. Before you start plugging things from that an-
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One downside is that registration can also put your can buy it— Symantec makes some—but Apple’s
name on endless mailing lists, so if that bothers market share is still small enough that the Mac is
you, deselect that option when signing up or create seldom a target of malware. After your initial setup,
a special email address that you can use to filter the first thing you should do is setup Time Machine.
them. For example, Gmail users can stick a random Simply connect a USB or FireWire hard drive that’s
period in the first part of their address (such as larger than your internal hard drive, and Lion will
your.name@gmail.com) and it will still come to the ask you if you want to set it up as a Time Machine
account, but you can filter messages sent to it into backup drive. Say yes, and the drive will be erased
special folders. Keep in mind that it’s smart to be (make sure it’s a drive you can spare). Then Lion
registered in case there’s a recall—you don’t want will periodically backup your changed files to the
to be the only person walking around with a laptop Time Machine backup. Time Machine backs up your
battery that might catch on fire, do you? entire computer, including the OS and applications.
Easy, Mac That way you if your internal drive ever falls apart,
you can simply put in a new drive and restore from
the Time Machine backup. Time Machine will also
help you migrate to a new Mac once your current
Mac becomes too slow three to six years from now.
Migrating files from an old Mac to a new is a breeze.
In the Applications/Utilities folder, find the Migra-
tion Assistant. Hook the two Macs together with a
Firewire cable and run the Assistant. The settings
from the older Mac (with Mac OS 10.4.10 or later)
will transfer to the new system with Lion. That in-
cludes data like browser bookmarks and user pro-
files. It doesn’t include apps that come with the Mac
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OS; Apple assumes the new Mac will have the latest
One thing you don’t have to worry about with a Safari, for example. If you’ve got a modern MacBook,
Macintosh computer is crapware. Companies like including the Firewire-free MacBook Air, you can
Dell or HP can justify lame extras by claiming they migrate files over your wireless network.
provide functions that are unavailable (or insuffi-
cient) in Windows. The MacOS andhardware is a If you use Apple’s iCloud service, it will do you one
closed system controlled by Apple, a company that better: your Safari bookmarks, contacts in the ad-
prides itself on user experience. It’s not about to sully dress book, iCal calendars, and even your documents
that rep with a bunch of third-party junk; it would folder can be synced over the Internet. Just sign
have no one to blame but itself. Of course, Apple into and check the checkboxes for each function in
will gladly sell you some extras, like the iWork and the iCloud control panel. Most of that info can be
iLife suites. Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) comes with synced to your iOS devices (iPhone, iPod, iPad) as
an application firewall to control any connections well. If you’re going from Mac to Windows, or vice
made by your software to the Internet. versa, you can always fall back on a USB drive to
move files, but you’re on your own finding the data
You can find it in the System Preferences folder to you want to transfer. And it’s slow. A faster method
make adjustments. As for antivirus software, you might be the Media Sharing Cable for PC and Mac
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What Everybody Ought to Know About New PCs (II)
from Kensington. This $60 cable allows you to drag in a landfill. Search Earth 911.com or MyGreenElec-
and drop files between systems—very handy for tronics.org for places that will dispose of electronics
really big media. responsibly. No matter what, sanitize that hard drive
before you pass it on. At the very least, format the
That’s a lot to pay, however. You might prefer drive and reinstall the operating system before re-
to network the Mac and Windows, even if it is a cycling the old PC.
struggle. Of course, if you plan to use both the Mac
and Windows PCs regularly, real-time synchroni- If you’re extra paranoid, keep in mind that format-
zation is definitely the way to go, and as stated, our ting isn’t enough to be 100 percent certain data is
favorite, DropBox, will do that between folders on completely unrecoverable. Specialty softwareDa-
multiple Windows and Mac OS systems. rik’s Boot and Nuke or Active@ KillDisk – Hard Drive
Eraser will do the job for free, but the job can take
What to Do with Your Old PC hours and hours. There’s always the Swiss cheese
option: Take the drive out to the workshop and drill
holes through it. Bullet holes will accomplish the
same thing, but that’s overkill, even for your data.
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You can probably put your old PC to some kind of
good use. But sometimes, you want that old dinosaur
out of your sight. Here are some options to consider:
1. Revitalize it. You may think that ancient laptop is
too slow for use, but try installing a Linux-based
operating system like Ubuntu 10.10 (“Maverick Mee-
rkat”) Netbook Edition. It may turn that geezer into
the perfect Web-surfing speed demon.
2. Give it away. Whether you hand it down to family
or to a local charity, there’s got to be someone cla-
moring for your old, working PC. If you can’t find
anyone, check www.freecycle.org for a mailing list
of people in a city near you who love free stuff. Your
junk is their gold.
3. Pick a dump spot. Find a PC Donation center in
your area that will make sure PC toxins don’t end up
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