Friday, February 10, 2012

New Computer Set-up

It's been ages since I've done one of these because it's been ages since I got a new computer. I haven't needed one. The macbook did everything I needed it to do for years, and will continue to once I get the soup out of it. But, I couldn't do without a computer and Apple's decisions regarding entry level computers made them not an option so I went with a Sony Vaio.

  • First thing out of the box? Remove Norton and Adobe Reader. First thing. The software those company makes shouldn't be on any computer you care about. There are better alternatives out there
  • While those uninstalled I installed Google Chrome and removed all references to Internet Explorer from start menu and task bar. 
  • Second thing was to install Dropbox to sync up all my work and personal files so I don't have to worry about moving those. I store them in the cloud and let dropbox sync the files across all my computers for me so I always have them regardless of which computer I am using.
  • Next came OpenOffice.org (I uninstalled the trialware Microsoft Office while downloading OO.o)
  • And then iTunes so I can get the iPod going again.
  • While iTunes was downloading I installed Microsoft Security Essentials as my firewall and anti-virus. It's free and rates right up there with anti-virus software.
  • As I write this the (literally) 48 Microsoft Updates are downloading and installing. It won't be fast, not as fast as customizing the computer the way I wanted it was, but it's essential.
So, I'm back in the PC world and I'm going to give it a go. The one thing I know I'm going to miss is the finder thing from the Mac. I really liked being able to hit APPLE-Space and then type part of a file name or word within a document and having that file open for me. I need to find an alternative for the PC.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I don't know if this will help, but there's a windows icon at the bottom left of my screen that when I click on it, it shows a search box. I guess it isn't quite as quick as what you had, but it's quick.