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What's the first thing you do when you get a new computer?
Just got a new laptop. Downloaded firefox plus a few extensions, found a thing that fixes Windows 11's weird task bar, deleted the bundled McAfee, installed steam, GOG, and Epic and switched everything to dark mode. I feel like I'm forgetting a ton of things, but I'm not sure what.
What do you include as part of the standard setup anyone should do with a new computer?
Prebuilt, windows PC? I usually reformat it and reinstall the OS to get rid of the bloatware. After that, Ninite is a godsend since it allows you to batch install a bunch of "essential" software.
Same, but I don't use Ninite anymore, I use either Chocolately or Winget, Chocolatey is easier to install (don't have to use those weird ass package names) but winget just comes with windows now.
Just a shout out to Winget's upgrade functionality - works on anything installed, not just Chocolatey packages, and actually figures out the version installed on the system, rather than relying on remembering the version you installed (i.e. auto-updaters).
Do you know of a good way to find a list of modifiable installer properties that can be set via winget? For example, I usually don't want to add things to the context menu.
I'd honestly rather have an option for a full Gui install using a package downloaded with winget sometimes
The Windows ecosystem is the wild west of installer and software packaging formats, so unless it's an MSI it's dependent on what the developer and what the installer tool exposes through the command line. If it's an MSI (which is most enterprise software and essentially the de-facto official format), you can just run
msiexec /?or open it up with Orca (which is included in the Windows SDK)For any other arbitrary installer you'll have to go through their documentation or try various forms of
-h|--help|/?if it even exposes flags to work with.For winget you can manually step through the install process with the interactive (
-i) flag whenever you run awinget installor upgrade.Can't second this enough. If it's a prebuilt, 100% first step is get rid of the bloatware.
OP already listed a handful of the apps I would normally download, I would also add VLC Player to that list.
Wish I had thought of that earlier. There's a bunch of bundled stuff I still need to take off, but I want to sit down and actually find out what half it does before I go nuts uninstalling things.
When it comes to laptops in particular, I usually still reformat them regardless, since they often have far more bloatware than desktops, and uninstalling doesn't always totally get rid of it all. Then I use Ninite to get the basics, then I go to the manufacturer's website for that particular model. Once there I typically read through all their recommended drivers to figure out which ones I actually need, and then the extra software section too. A lot of the drivers and software there is usually still bloat and not strictly necessary, but some might still be handy to have in a pinch. E.g. Proprietary backup/restore software (esp if your laptop has a hidden restore partition), or manufacturer specific remote assistance software (in case you ever need it).
Alternatively, if you're incredibly lazy and forgetful like me, keep the installer and tell your computer to do the work for you.
SCHTASKS /CREATE /SC WEEKLY /D SAT /TN "PersonalTasks\Ninite Updater" /TR "C:\Stuff\Ninite Installer.exe" /ST 02:00Automatically runs the file C:\Stuff\Ninite Installer.exe every Saturday at 2AM
Personally, first thing I do is install whatever Linux distro I am interested in at the time, probably not helpful to you.
What might be helpful though, is the other thing I do, which is use some kind of online note space or task tracker or whatever, to keep track of any system changes and app installs that I do, at the start and later.
Trello is where I put things like this lately, but there are tons of choices.
In the future, I know I will eventually get a new system at some time. It has been so helpful to have these lists to remember what I was using on the previous ones and decide if I want to continue with the same applications or tweaks.
And once you have the notes, you can then encode it in an Ansible playbook to fully automate the provisioning steps.
A community collection contains modules for
gconf/kdeconfig/xfconfto do those one-off tweaks and settings changes you normally do to a new install to get it just right.It basically feels like magic everytime I start using a new Linux machine, clone my dotfiles, and my shell is configured exactly how I like it.
I've been interested in including a bootstrapping step to also install software I want to use, but haven't found a solution I'm comfortable with yet.
Check out chezmoi, a lot of people use it for both keeping/syncing dotfiles but also install steps.
My chezmoi setup bootstraps a age encryption key, installs all my packages, and syncs my dotfiles, with thinks like keys/secrets being encrypted
Out of curiosity, how did you go about setting chezmoi up to auto-install packages?
I'm trying to make a full setup for both windows and Linux - it's been a struggle making lists of what is worth reinstalling / what package manager hosts it, however. I definitely want to automate everything I can in the future!
Simply put it has a scripts feature where it will run scripts pre or post install. It checksums the scripts so it only runs them on change - and for example you can also include other files in the checksum (so for my installs, I chose to pop a text file with packages to install for fedora/termux/fedora-gui and included them in the installation script, so it only runs when the script or the package list update)
I'm also trying to do a full setup for win/Linux. Currently, I've done fedora & termux (and I'm using fedora in WSL) but im about to reinstall/upgrade gaming PC so I want to do windows as well (using chocolatey/winget). Still not sure if ill roll win in the same repo yet or if windows is better separated.
My repo isn't fully featured but its here - the chezmoi scripts are in the .chezmoiscript folder.
If you're looking for about as simple as you can get, it's hard to beat xargs with a text file of package names.
If you're using a Debian-alike, consider using
equivsto build a metapackage that pulls in everything you want installed. You can give it maintainerscripts to do other setup tasks, as well. This was what I did, and I love it; I can take a computer from zero to fully-configured and ready to use in under half an hour.I don't exclusively used Debian based systems, so I've been looking for solutions that are Distro-agnostic (and potentially support macOS too).
I've tried Nix (the package manager), but honestly haven't been able to grok the documentation enough to figure out the recommended way to give it a list of packages and have that install in my profile.
It really does feel great! I wrote a little script that pulls down my repo of dotfiles and makes symlinks to them in the expected places on a new box.
So far as the actual applications, I'm OK with dealing with them individually. I like to be able to make decisions about versions and whatever sometimes, and the particulars will be different anyway depending on if I am using Mint or Manjaro or something else.
If you’re willing to self-host (or use a VPS or something), I highly recommend Silverbullet, an open source note taking platform that’s basically markdown meets wiki. The recent revamp into a PWA is pretty sweet too. I’m finding myself using it for all of my notes and a lot of my tasks now.
I've got a checklist in which there are three groups
Apps that are just superior to the default apps:
Useful apps that aren't necessarily replacements for the defaults:
Apps that I personally like:
Can I recommend WizTree instead of WinDirStat? It looks through the NTFS MFT which makes it exponentially faster (like very very very fast, see the link for detail).
Why doesn't WinDirStat do that? Is there some difference in accuracy or ability to easily access the files or something?
Not sure if it's the only reason, but it makes windirstat work on network shares as well. Also it's likely related to windirstat not getting an update in ages.
Yeah, it makes me cringe every time I see Windirstat being touted in these kind of threads, it is so archaic.
Consider trying out MPV, or one of the more user-friendly frontends
I've had tons of issues with VLC over the years, like when playing video at different speeds. MPV has been rock-solid and handles everything I throw at it.
I forget why exactly, but I ended up having to switch from WinDirStat to WizTree.
edit: spelling
MPV handles more formats and works better on mac (IINA) ime.
This is my pretty much my list as well (switch WinDirStat for Wiztree as the other commenter said, and PowerToys is new to me, so I'll have a look at that).
Past that I also grab 7zip, f.lux and Python SDK (for any of my own automation scripts - I should probably move to powershell but at this point re-writing them all is daunting)
Nice list. I'd also suggest:
KeePass Password Safe - An excellent secure, free, open source password vault. I've used it for years - I couldn't function without it. I sync my KeePass password database from my Google Drive to three different PCs (2 Windows, 1 Linux), my tablet and my phone.
7-Zip File Archiver - Much better than handling .zip/.rar archives via Windows Explorer.
IrfanView - Extremely full-featured image file viewer/converter/manager with image editing capabilites as well.
Foobar2000 - Simple but powerful audio/mp3 file player and manager.
MPC-HC - Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (clsid2 fork) - VLC is an excellent video player, but I still prefer MPC-HC's simpler interface. Happily, after years of the project sitting idle, MPC-HC is now being updated again.
Ifranview and 7Zip are on my list I just forgot to include them hah.
i'd reccomend KeePassXC vs vanilla Keepass, it's had some security issues, even recently: https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/keepass-exploit-allows-attackers-to.html
For Windows, I like to use scoop as my package manager (better than Ninite or Winget imo). I like how it installs all my programs in one folder. Without scoop I tend to forget where things are installed and then my computer feels more and more disorganized. Scoop also has nice packages for things that don't come with installers, or are irritating to set up, like Cuda, MinGW, certain fonts, latex, etc.
Scoop also redirects all program data to a centralized directory which makes it way easier to locate and copy config across computers.
Oh, cool. I'd heard of winget and chocolatey, and they seemed interesting but also kind of confusing/annoying to use. I've never heard of scoop before though, and it looks slick, so I'm gonna have to try it out next time I reformat. Thanks for making me aware of it.
It's honestly been so long that I have basically forgot.
I used to have to switch computers all the time because I was buying cheap stuff, but I haven't bought a new computer since my M1 Macbook Air, which aside from some gunk that needs to be cleaned off is still like-new in spite of how much I've been using it.
I've promised myself to buy a Framework laptop for my next computer, but I don't forsee my Macbook needing to be replaced anytime soon. And honestly, it's going to be hard to resist buying another Macbook. If I do, then all I need to do is run Migration Assistant and it will transfer all of my programs and files across without needing any intervention except the simple setup process.
I love my windows desktop, but I much prefer MacBooks over windows laptops. It's just a much better experience for me.
I honestly think that macOS is the greatest portable OS, but the second you hook it up to a monitor and keyboard it almost instantly becomes terrible.
I'm not even sure why, but doing laptop stuff on a Mac is so nice.
It depends on what you're used to I think.
In my experience Windows and Linux are only marginally less annoying for desktop usage (with the latter varying depending on desktop environment) than they are for laptop usage. I grew up on Macs though and practically all of my productive work has been done on them, so macOS is more familiar for me even if I've also been regularly using the other two platforms for upwards of a decade. Sitting down and trying to get "real work" done on Windows and to a lesser extent Linux can be an exercise in frustration depending on the task.
Have you tried Rectangle and rCmd? Rectangle is a window snapping manager- works really well with keyboard shortcuts. rCmd allows you to bring an app to the front by pressing [right command] + [the first letter of the app’s name].
I personally love the mac trackpad as well, I use a custom keyboard with the external magic trackpad.
Yup. I ran a Thinkpad t420 for about 7-8 years with Debian. It's a nice distro but the whole experience didn't hold a candle to my M2 air. However, the air was also 20x more expensive.
At some point I just got really tired of fixing my computer
I wish my parents had me a couple years later, so I'd be entering university as Framework came to market. I don't forsee myself ever really using a laptop regularly again (especially not a Dell Laptop), and if I did it'd be issued by my work.
But if Framework came out with a phone with a headphone jack, oh boy I'd be listening.
The Dell consumer laptops (Inspiron, etc) are terrible, but the enterprise lines (Latitude, Precision) aren't too bad.
My previous laptop was a Dell, and it was what made me never want to do business with them again. It was incredibly bulky (which I told myself wasn't going to be a big deal but it was a big deal), and really heavy on top of that. It was supposed to be chargable with USB-C but the charger it came with was a barrel jack and attempting to use that USB-C charging made me wonder if they were joking because it was slow and unreliable.
When I got tired of Windows' BS I tried to install Linux but even though Dell is known for being one of the few big OEMs to ship hardware with Linux, this laptop shipped with broken firmware that they appear to have fixed by telling Windows how to work around it instead of actually fixing the firmware problem, and I can tell you it was quite a project to figure out how to implement those workarounds myself. Though actually it was actually a fairly easy fix; you just had to pass some extra arguments to the Linux kernel on boot time. The problem turned out to be that an address required for the virtualization extensions was just wrong, which, unless I'm missing out on something, is an extremely easy thing to fix. But I guess not, because even though they did release a firmware update, it didn't fix that problem. Oh, and even if they produced any new firmware updates after that I wouldn't be able to install them without taking some circuitous workarounds again because their firmware updater requires you to run it on Windows.
So yes, I'm not buying another Dell anytime soon.
Honestly, my entire experience doing business with Dell sucked. I wish I could go back in time and buy literally anything else.
To set the stage, I was about to enter my sophomore year in college. Spent the summer working to afford a laptop on my own. Did a ton of research, and ended up settling on the Dell XPS 15.
Pre-purchase
Dell offered a price match against comparable systems, so I tried to leverage that to save some money. Ultimately this never ended up panning out. I would've been fine if they had told been honest and told me "We do not offer price matching for this device". But instead, over a cumulative 24 total hours across multiple support agents, I'd get the most assinine responses for why they wouldn't do it:
Finally, I ended up finding out you can email a Dell sales rep and negotiate directly with them. Got a discount that I was happy with at the time, but in retrospect paid an embarassing amount of money on that god forsaken laptop.
Post-purchase
I was happy with it for a couple of months. But it eventually became a constant source of problems (which would've been way worse if the sales rep didn't talk me into getting a warranty):
That one machine caused me more headache than every desktop I've ever owned, combined.
A plan for backup is boring but essential.
Setting Windows to display file extentions is a good move, too.
I personally install Agent Ransack because the Windows file search is such garbage.
Ninite with all the software I need
Before I found ninite, my first go-to was always Google chrome (this is what IE was meant for), then steam, then OBS, etc.
Mac:
Turn on auto-hide dock, auto dark mode,
Scrollreverser (makes my mouse use a normal scroll direction while keeping natural-scroll on the trackpad)
Sensible Side Buttons (app to fix mouse side buttons)
VSCode
VPN
Stremio (torrent streaming)
1Blocker (ad blocker)
Noir (Dark mode safari, paid app)
Turn on developer updates
Linux:
Setup SSH keys so I can log into the computer from my laptop
Docker
VSCode
Various programs for my work (Modelsim, Vivado)
Used to have a list of other programs to install on *nix but these days I just install a program as I need it
LinearMouse is also a good tool for this. It also allows you to toggle pointer acceleration per-device.
One tool that I'd add to that is Clipy, an open-source, lightweight clipboard manager. Being able to copy multiple text items in one go and paste them as needed is crucial for some of my writing.
Wipe the drive, install GNU/Linux. rsync off my external HDD.
Wipe the disk and install Debian GNU/Linux.
I've a set of standard first-installed packages from there, though in truth, the great thing about Debian's packaging system, APT ("a packaging tool") is that it's typically trivial to install what you want, along with any dependencies, with
apt install <packagename>.I'll generally start with a minimal base install, and add specific packages as I come to need them.
First-installed packages are typicall vim, mutt, w3m (a terminal-mode browser), screen (a terminal multiplexer, you might want to swap in tmux, its modern successor), and a handful of other tools. Even with a windowing environment installed, those are handy, and they're surprisingly effective without.
Anki or Mnemosyne (Spaced-repetition software), Keepass (password manager) and Process Explorer (Task Manager equivalent).
While it is more often than not non-required anymore, do check whether you need any third-party drivers for some hardware.
While not strictly needed, people often forget to make use of automatic backups, but that should be the default.
What takes long after a fresh install is installing Office, maybe that’s also part of the reason you feel it was too short. Some people use also a desktop e-mail client. But the first item (windows’ improvement in this area) is mostly why you might get a feeling that something is still needed.
As for me, I am using NixOS (with home-manager) for quite some time now where you literally just point to your config file (shared as a private git repo) and a single command will bring up the new machine in the same way as all your other ones, down to the last theme/font. It really is magical, but does need a bit of time investment. For me ZFS with encryption, zram (in-memory RAM compression) on laptop, wayland, pipewire, gnome, firefox (with tab stash and of course ublock origin) are the essentials from the top of my head. Also, started using some “new-wave” CLI apps, so now I can no longer use the old ones, but can’t yet use the new ones without -h :D
I do the same thing after every major electronics purchase: doublecheck the reviews and realize that I had glossed over several major known issues with the software and hardware which are 1) not likely to be patched and 2) going to set the tone for the rest of my interactions with the device. As I type this, I am staring daggers at the Asus laptop I bought mid 2020 for my WFH wife, which has I believe 3 out of 4 USB ports failing, an intermittent (and infuriating) connection stability issue with its INTERNAL (!) webcam and a critical error that causes it to never wake up from the default hibernation mode triggered by the power button.
This happens with everything I buy, with little regard for how much time and effort I spent researching beforehand.
For my personal computers, I tend to install stuff only as needed.
The things I immediately use get installed first:
If I'm doing software development, I'm probably on a Mac so then it's
I do fiddle with other settings. I like to auto-hide the taskbar/dock, adjust mouse sensitivity, configure certain keyboard shortcuts, etc.
I’m a Mac guy and I’ll second a lot of what’s been said here already. IINV is the definitive media player and I say that as a longtime VLC user. iTerm 2 is also essential, as is Homebrew. I like to set up my terminal font, theme, and powerline-shell. And others have mentioned Firefox, that’s my go-to browser along with a suite of my favorite add-ons that includes uBlock Origin, 1Password, CanvasBlocker, Decentraleyes, Bypass Paywalls Clean, and of course Tildes ReExtended. I also take some time to get my SSH keys, git config, custom DNS, and VSCodium all set up, and I install my VPN client (Mullvad).
Here are my other essentials:
Similar to you, I transfer my installers over and get some of my favorite programs back. Stuff acquired via, less than standard means.
Immediately:
Then when I need to:
When I recently got my new Macbook Air M2, I did the following:
that's about it, everything else I downloaded as I needed it.
On Windows, ninite.com is a time saver and the first thing I do.
Choco is the tool for the mass install job.
I never used it for that but it is definitely a great option also :)
I literally just reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch, so I can tell you exactly what I just did:
I then followed up by setting a side load of Ubuntu on a separate drive. On there, I:
I don't know if these work for Win11. I make Win10 look like Win7 by modifying the registry to show the old Alt-Tab style icons, and make the time delay of the mouseover in the toolbar much longer. I also install Classic Shell from ninite to get the old Start menu UI. There are other changes I am sure, but I keep the details in a text doc on my work laptop since we get new laptops every 3 years
Are you happy so far with Windows 11? And what did you get to fix the taskbar? I'm upgrading my system soon and will need to reinstall Windows, and I figure I might as well take this chance to "upgrade" to Windows 11--if it is indeed an upgrade. Thanks for reminding me of all the configuring and installing I'll have to do after upgrading. I'd forgotten how much work I'll have. Hopefully I can share my notes when I get to that.
I used a thing called Windhawk. So far Win11 seems pretty good. I'm just annoyed by a bunch of small things with how it looks.
Thanks--it looks like there are lots of useful mods over there. Looking through those, I think I'll also be annoyed with how Windows 11 looks, but hopefully I can customize it close enough to my liking. I just assume I'll be forced to upgrade eventually, so might as well get it over with when it's convenient for me.
So many great suggestions here so far, the only thing I would add is PowerShell. (Not the older and no longer updated “Windows PowerShell” but just “PowerShell”) You can install it through winget or find it on the Microsoft Store.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell?view=powershell-7.3
ublock origin, bitwarden, firefox, signal, some kind of rss reader. If it's a mac, scroll reverser.
laptop?
Install linux mint with auto-cpufreq to fix the battery life. Then install the windows xp theme for it lol.
Seriously, I would dread having to use a windows laptop ever again. Unresponsive OS on top of unresponsive hardware gives me pain.
Desktop?
dual boot windows and linux.
I would still be using windows7 as my dual boot if it still supported the software I need (it also played nicer with grub than windows 10). Windows 7 was the last good windows os.
Besides that, it's mainly there so that I can troubleshoot drivers (ironic how you need internet to install wifi drivers) or for when I obliterate my linux install like a moron, I can reinstall from the windows side.
Oh, that's a long time since I got a new computer. But we are talking like OS and programs and I do reinstall from time to time, so I ca probably elaborate.
I use Gentoo linux where you haveto do almost everything by yourself.
I run lspci command to list devices like GPU, sound, ethernet etc. I write them down and then I have to make kernel for upcoming OS where I have to include those devices otherwise they won't work (system won't be able to know them). Then I install and set up base packages, I won't go through that much detail, but I hae to setup networking, time-keeping, users including home folders and passwords, setup network filesystem (as I have users' home folder on a NAS).
Then I have to install graphical user interface of my choice (MATE), Firefox (main browser), Chrome (to be able to use USB token for some stuff), Libreoffice, GIMP, VLC, Steam, Solaar (for Logitech Unifying receiver), Element (Matrix client), OpenMW (Morrowind engine), OpenTTD and probably some more programs that I don't use that much.
Somewhere along the way I ultimately screw something up and have to debug for half a day only to find that I actually haven't saved some edit to some config file or something similar... :-)
I always just start off with Firefox and then download things as I encounter a need for them. Never been a fan of downloading a whole bunch of software before even needing to use it.
Hackintosh, debloat, install Firefox with max privacy settings/extentions, install Logic X.
I used to install a ton of things but over time I've pared the list down and generally live with close-to-defaults.
All platforms
macOS
Windows
Linux
Windows > Ninite.
Eliminate bloatware
enable access to home wifi with strong passphrase
install uninstaller, anti-keystroke tracker, file eraser, anti-malware program, VPN, password manager
install privacy-friendly browser and extensions
I look for everything I don't want and start removing it. Sometimes that goes well, sometimes not. With cheaper things you get more individual pieces of weird software. With more expensive things it's like, one or two highly specialized apps that don't really do a lot, or they do useful things but have shitty UI for it (lookin at you, armory crate).
Install firefox > get ublock origin > install multi-account container plugin to organize school/personal stuff
If there are no sneaky antivirus programs to delete, I think that's pretty much it for me