Do you have recently bought a laptop or you are thinking of buying a new one? Then there are a few things which you must do before you really start using it.
In this post, you will find out about few things that you should do after buying a new laptop.
#1. Make a list of installed software on your old laptop
If you already have an old laptop then you must look for currently installed software in it.
You should make a list that contains the names of the software that you use. So later you can use this list to install all the necessary software on your new laptop in one go.
#2. Copy Data from the Old Laptop to New Laptop
If you have an old laptop and you were using it for a very long then you will definitely be going to have important data on that laptop.
You must copy important files like documents, images, and config files to your new laptop.
In case you have massive games on your laptop like GTA-V or RDR2 then you must back them up. Doing this thing can save you a lot of time and internet costs.
#3. Update Laptop’s Operating System
It is very important to update the laptop’s operating system with a newer version because the laptop you are buying could be made one or two years ago. In that case, the pre-installed operating system is not going to be up to date which can be risky from the perspective of security.
To get the latest features and security patches, you must update your new laptop as soon as possible.
I recommend updating the laptop’s operating system even before you install the software in it.
#4. Remove Bloatware
Every laptop comes with some kind of bloatware installed. Bloatware is software that comes preinstalled on a laptop and doesn’t serve any purpose.
In a new laptop, you should look for software like that and remove them. Bloatware is very easy to identify like low-quality games, cleaners, social media apps and news apps.
If you don’t know whether the software is bloatware or not then you should not remove them.
#5. Install Essential Software
After updating the operating system, you can start to install the essential software that you use.
If you are a new laptop user and don’t know what software a laptop should have then I recommend installing a web browser, a password manager like KeePassXC, a notetaking app like Obsidian, a game store like Steam and an app for listening to music like Spotify.
Some software is provided by hardware manufacturers to manage hardware like a keyboard, mouse, and webcam that you must install.
#6. Setup Backups
Having backups is very useful in case your laptop goes broke or its data gets corrupted.
You can take manual backups of data to an external storage device on a weekly or monthly basis or you can set up a program to do that for you.
You can also set up services like OneDrive, Google Drive or iCloud to sync certain files & folders to the cloud.
That way you will never lose your data.
