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Ankur

perfect and good step by step guide.

for me , most frustrating was to get rid of so many app in my laptop which came by HP

sefcug

Just got a new HP laptop this weekend.

Still working on getting all the apps I need loaded up, but followed the above almost as written, except I used PC Decrapifier http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ to get rid of the bloatware.

Also, I used Ninite http://ninite.com/ to install a lot of apps I need all at one time.

Have subscribed to the RSS for a while now, and enjoy getting great information here.

Keep it up!

Anonymous

Thanks for the tip about http://www.ninite.com. What an execellent little site.
Used it to update previous app installs.
Joe

jasray

Fine, but for older versions of Windows, Step 4 would have to come before any others Steps. How will the individual connect to the Internet without the NIC driver?

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

That’s why we made a note at step 3 recommending people to install the NIC driver if Windows has not been able to detect and install the card correctly.

KWE

I would make crapware removal step #4 and definitely recommend pcdecrapifier. I would also recommend Ninite as a near-to-last step to install utilities and other apps.

Also note that if you use a browser that syncs to the cloud, you will get all your extensions and bookmarks back magically when you enable sync on your new setup. Firefox and Chrome support this.

kid sphinx

After all that work, I would suggest that you make an image of your drive on an external HD. When (not if) your system becomes unstable or completely un-bootable. You can revert the image rather than waste precious hours getting your system back to the way you want it.

It-guy

This is a great article and should be very helpful for anyone trying to get a decent system build. However, I have a slightly different order of the steps with a few twists. These have worked for me – and I’ve built about 100 systems for friends, family and a few business.

1) install the OS – ya can’t get around this one 🙂 I usually install my OS “offline” – no internet connection. My logic is that sometimes a Microsoft update can foul things up, especially with hardware drivers.

2) Next, I install all the supplied hardware drivers. These are typically on the CDs that come with the motherboards and other pieces of hardware. I then check the Device Manager and make sure all devices are listed as functioning.

3) Next, I connect to the internet for OS registration and updates. These can take a very long time and require a number of reboots. I keep checking for more updates. When I finally think I have all the OS updates I reboot the system and check again – as often as not, there are more updates required.

4) Once I’m satisfied that the OS is current and all the relevant patches are applied. I go looking for any 3rd party hardware updates – bios updates, etc. There’s usually a video card update and possibly an update from the motherboard manufacturer. I have been bit by network card updates of late – make sure you check the vendor supplied readme file. Don’t apply an update just because it’s listed. Ask yourself – does this make sense for my configuration..

5) After all of these updates are applied, I reboot and run the Microsoft update again. It is possible that a hardware update has triggered a required update from Microsoft -doesn’t happen as much as it used to – but it’s possible.

6) When the OS and hardware as up to date and stable as I can make them, I now use a disk imaging program (there are several decent free ones) and make an image of the system build. I label this image OS.Date.Level-0. Later, I will burn it to CDs. My reasoning is that if some piece of software fouls things up later in the build – I can get back to this point fairy quickly.

7) Next, I download a good registry cleanup program. I like the Glary Utilities or the Eusing Free Registry Cleaner. The Glary utilities also has a Startup Manager feature which allows you to review and cleanup any obnoxious startup programs that the hardware vendor has slipped in with their installation. I run the registry cleanup – now my registry should be tidy!

8) Next, I reboot the box and again check for Microsoft updates, because sometimes..
I then install all of my core programs and utilities. I should mention – that I have a strong aversion to loading programs into the default windows directories, like Program Files.. I believe that the more applications you load into these directories the slower the
system will run and quite possibly, be more unstable. I think it’s better to setup your own directories. I create an Applications directory, a Tools directory and a Utilities directory. But these are just my choices.. The important point is to not mix Microsoft software with the third party software.

9) Once I have installed all my core programs and utilities – including a good security system (antivirus, firewall, antispyware) package. I run the registry cleanup program again and I take a second image of the system. I label this image OS.Date.Level-1 – This image is a convenient fallback if a third party application really goofs up something. For example, when a relative of mine, while attending college, needed a student version of a CAD software program – this said software decided that it was most efficient to install its own version of the video driver – which conflicted with other software and drivers – and caused great instability. Having the OS.Date.Level-1 image saved me a good deal of time and headache.

10) At this point I can create user accounts, customize the OS and install any 3rd party software. Once I’m “finished” I typically make a final image of the system before I hand it over to the user. I then write up details instructions on how to restore the system to this image point which I label OS.Date.Level-1.

11) An important point to consider is the importance of your data and how you would recover in case of an accident. Hardware problems, software glitches, human error – doesn’t much matter if you can’t get your important information back..

So I ask – do you know where your data is? Yes, there is a documents directory and that’s usually a good place to start but programs are not consistent about using it and unless you understand where an application places your precious information on the disk you could be in for a rude surprise.. So my last thought is – it’s your data! Do not take default file and directory locations for granted.

Cheers!

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

Thanks a lot for sharing your way of doing things. It will be very useful to many reading it, myself included. 🙂

Mike Leith

I’ve just done it! Worked perfectly ‘out of the box’! I always do periodic total clone backups of my main desktop system onto a USB external hard drive, using Acronis. Recently purchased a brand-new ‘bare=bones’ laptop.. I simply plugged the backup hard drive into a laptop USB port, booted with the Acronis rescue CD and used Acronis to restore the clone to the laptop. Bingo worked perfectly. Of course I got a lots of ‘found new hardware’ messages, but the supplied laptop drivers CD had all the right stuff, and the laptop is now a working clone of my desktop. Perfect, and took about 30 minutes!

Mike.

Granny Geek

I am in the process of configuring a new and cutting-edge computer at this time, so I’ve given this sequencing a lot of thought. A couple of things that I do differently are:

1. DISK IMAGES – I’m more comfortable with creating images than with Restore Points, though Restore Points do have their place in the newer OS’s for quick fixes of minor problems. I install Acronis True Image Home as my first piece of software and make images as I complete each step. Creating an image of my new SSD to a SATA3 takes less than two minutes. After I have it all together, I’ll delete some of the intermediate images, but keep one at each step.

2. PROTECTION – Virus and other protective software is next, BEFORE installing plug-ins, players, upgrades, etc. I don’t like to roam around the internet without it, even to trusted sites. Also, some programs work better if you adjust virus and firewall settings on installation.

3. PROBLEM-SOLVING – A third program I install quickly is the free image software IrfanView. This is a wonderful little graphics program with a lot of uses. Here, I use the Capture/Custom rectangle to save those annoying error messages as I go along. Most issues resolve easily, but for the more challenging issues, it is sometimes helpful to have the specific error codes at hand.

4. MY DATA – It-guy (above) makes a lot of great points, but I differ with him on changing the default directories for program installation. I let programs put their parts anywhere they want, but I agree that we need to control where they put OUR data. As SSD’s are rather expensive, AND their write speed is not as good as their read speed, it makes sense to put MY data on a separate drive. Globally, I change my default Save Folder to the root of my data drive. Individually, I instruct my most-used programs to save to their portion of that data drive. Separating data is also helpful when designing your backup system. Once the OS and programs are installed, backups of the system drive need not be so frequent, but you will want to continuously backup your data.

5. CRAP – I’m sure most of you know this, but DO NOT click on the button that automatically lets the program disk load whatever it wants onto your computer. While I am OK with letting the software I’m installing decide where it puts it’s folders, I am NOT OK with some of the stuff it wants to install. Click instead on the “advanced” button that lets you look at what and where it plans to install. If you do not plan to learn Chinese, there is no reason to have Chinese utilities on your HDD. And if you already have Adobe Reader X installed, there is no reason it should try to install a lesser version.

6. MORE CRAP – I have three scanners or scanner combos in my office. Third-party programs utilize these devices. I download and install only the drivers for this hardware (specific to my OS). These devices ship with TONS of software that wants to hold your hand from the time you take a photo to the time you print it. Most of it just takes up space on the HDD and computer resources as it automatically loads when you boot. Nobody who would read this needs that software. Maybe I’m being a little harsh here, but if you have a camera you probably received software with it that is much better than what ships with the printer. For a few dollars more, Corel, Adobe, and others have “consumer” versions of their software that are easy to use and very effective. Cloud-based photo storage sites are increasingly offering photo editing online.

7. PAGING FILE – Opinions differ regarding how important this is and on how large it should be. I just don’t want it thrashing my system drive. In that I handle large graphics files, I do think a large swap file probably is a good idea, though my 24GB of RAM probably handles most of the load. Right click on Computer, select Properties, Advanced, Performance Options, then Virtual Memory. I put it on a scratch drive that I use for project manipulation.

Thanks for reading my rant.

Bill

Right or wrong, this has worked for me.

I especially think that checking that AHCI mode is set for your SATA hard drive in the bios for new hard drives and that you install the chipset update and Intel Rapid storage manager is important.

I also burn all the needed files onto a CD before the build so I don’t have to find and download things on the fly. Don’t even need your browser this way. And I use folder names starting with the installation order number so when you are dead tired installing things you don’t have to think too much! 🙂

• Update Bios.
• Update all bios settings, make sure Hard Drive on AHCI
• INSTALL WIN 7
• Install Antivirus
• Chipset – Intel .INF chipset update utility
• Intel Rapid storage driver
• Ethernet driver
• Video Driver
• Audio Driver and apps
• Windows update – Critical only
• Microsoft office
• Printer Drivers
• Intellipoint and Intellitype if applicable
• Other applications
• Image with Ghost

Bethrezan

Good article…..just adding my own bit here….

Over time I have come up with a list of few software that I always end up installing. So for these select few software, I ended up creating a seperate directory with their setups that I keep with me.

Then instead of manually loading them one by one, I now use a script to auto-install the said software.

Saves me a lot of time looking at the PC doing nothing 😛

I initially started this method after being inspired by scripts that merged SP packs with Main Windows Images directly to produce SP.x Images.

vgamesx1

well for step one I would have recommended backing up anything you want to keep, and double checking almost everything, even triple checking of need be.
I do usally perform a clean install of windows at least once a year, so I have anything I want to keep already on another HDD for safe keeping.

but other than that everything seems good.

niurando

after installing OS and before ever putting the system on the internet, I install my antivirus etc. software

Wong

I would recommend to make a full system image after everything setup. So for the next time you want to format the same PC, it is just a restore full system image time…

Ron

Excellent process.

I would bookend it with 2 additional steps and one in the middle.

Step 0: Partition the HD. Even budget computers come with 200-320GB HDs. Windows (Vista thru Win8 plus some basic apps like Office will take 20-30 GB. Double that to allow for expansion and you could allocate 60-70GB for a combined APPS & OS partition. That still leaves you lots of room for data in a separate partition. That way you can make separate backups of your OS and personal data. If you are particularly cautious, say a monthly schedule for the OS partition and Weekly for the Data partition.

Step 9a: cleanup temp files. Installation creates a lot of temp files like logs. Installing Windows updates and service packs creates backout files. You already know you won’t be backing out any of these updates, so you might as well clean them up. You can the built in ‘cleanup’ tool and 3rd party tools like CCleaner.

Step 12: Do a Final Full Image Copy. You’ve invested a day or two (at least) doing all of this setup so protect your investment with a backup. That way when you have to re-install windows, for any reason, you don’t have to go through all of the same setup again.

During the whole process, at the very least immediately before step, 12 defragment the HD. The installation process uses a lot of temporary files that are created and deleted. I have found it amazing how fragmented the drive is immediately after the original OS installation. Doing a defrag immediately before backup step will (slightly) help speed up the backup process. As well, the defrag will help with day to day operations.

Joe

Thanks for this list as I didn’t know to load Windows first before the motherboard etc programs.

RogerC

I just wanted to say thanks for this article. It was not only very useful for me (an old bloke with a little knowledge, which is always dangerous) in setting up a new PC, but it’s also written in very clear and unambiguous language, and the links within it take you to further concise but thorough explanations. Just excellent. Very much appreciated. If only all guides were this good.

Ciprian Adrian Rusen

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