Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...Now What?
 

So this baby just arrived in the mail.

SYSTEM COLOR Jet Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition edit
DISPLAY High Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1920 x 1200) edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8600M GT edit
MEMORY FREE! 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz edit
HARD DRIVE FREE! 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
OPTICAL DRIVE CD writer / DVD player (Combo Drive) edit
WIRELESS NETWORKING Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-Card edit
BLUETOOTH OPTIONS Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR) edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM No Webcam Option edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell) edit
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition edit
My Software & Accessories
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE No Security Subscription (30-day trial)
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Free 3 GB Online Backup for 1
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS No ISP requested

My question is now what to do in terms of
A:) I always hear stuff like run in administaor...turn off this, turn off that etc

B:) What antispyware,adware,virus protection should I add to it

C:) Anything else I should do/know

D:) How do I transfer my 1000+ songs on my mac Itunes to this dell laptop.

Once I start using it...this thread will be used for all my future Vista/Windows/Dell questions

Tnxs
CDS

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

I bought essentially the same computer except I got the 2.2ghz processor and it also arrived today.. I'm looking forward to getting home to use it.

I don't know a ton about recommended security so I went with McAfee since that is what they seem to push. As for music that is my biggest question also and I know it has been discussed a hundred times here but I don't remember all the details on taking itunes songs from one computer to the other, especially mac>pc.

Get spybot here
Get ad-aware here

Those are two free programs I will also run besides the McAfee

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

Mine didn't come with free antivirus...think thats only with the 2.2 or higher

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

[ QUOTE ]
Mine didn't come with free antivirus...think thats only with the 2.2 or higher

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I had to pay a little for it(maybe not).. I knew I was going to have to get something for it so I figured I'd buy through them since it is preinstalled

You can also try avast for a free anti-virus(I think it is still free)

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

[ QUOTE ]
So this baby just arrived in the mail.

SYSTEM COLOR Jet Black edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition edit
DISPLAY High Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1920 x 1200) edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8600M GT edit
MEMORY FREE! 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz edit
HARD DRIVE FREE! 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
OPTICAL DRIVE CD writer / DVD player (Combo Drive) edit
WIRELESS NETWORKING Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-Card edit
BLUETOOTH OPTIONS Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR) edit
INTEGRATED WEBCAM No Webcam Option edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell) edit
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition edit
My Software & Accessories
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE No Security Subscription (30-day trial)
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Free 3 GB Online Backup for 1
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS No ISP requested

My question is now what to do in terms of
A:) I always hear stuff like run in administaor...turn off this, turn off that etc

B:) What antispyware,adware,virus protection should I add to it

C:) Anything else I should do/know

D:) How do I transfer my 1000+ songs on my mac Itunes to this dell laptop.

Once I start using it...this thread will be used for all my future Vista/Windows/Dell questions

Tnxs
CDS

[/ QUOTE ]

1. uninstall vista
2. install porn
3. ???
4. profit

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

Down load iTunes and you can get all the songs off your iPod. Othewise network them together? I think that will work, or a thumbdrive.

Check with your ISP and see if they have any free virus stuff. Cox has a nice suite, most providers do.

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

[ QUOTE ]
Down load iTunes and you can get all the songs off your iPod. Othewise network them together? I think that will work, or a thumbdrive.

Check with your ISP and see if they have any free virus stuff. Cox has a nice suite, most providers do.

[/ QUOTE ]

ahh yes..network them..brilliant!

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

Is networking them the easiest way?

If so can someone explain how to do it or point me in the direction of detailed instructions..

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

B:)

avg anti spyware

NOD32

spybot

zone alarm free

Re: Received My First Dell Laptop (1st Windows laptop in 5 years)...No
 

A> Go to control panel and click on user accounts and then click on turn off User Account Control...that way you do not get all of those warnings

B> I use Norton Internet Security 2007...it is not free but it has spyware/virus/firewall and it works good for me (some people hate Norton but I researched it and it does work good)...but there are free options out there if you want them

Things I did when I got my Vista laptop:
-Downloaded all of the drivers and necessary apps from the Dell Driver download section and put them on a usb drive
-Wiped my hard-drive with a wiping tool (note this gets rid of the Dell restore section and the mediadirect section)...I did not want to keep the Dell Restore section because I image my drive
-Installed the MediaDirect partition (if you have mediadirect and want to keep it you have to do this first)
-Reinstalled Vista
-Installed updated drivers
-Installed MediaDirect program
-Installed all other needed programs
-Went into Msconfig and unclicked all of the startup items that I do not need (I only have three items set for startup)...research items that you are not sure...some services can also be disabled but I have not gone that far yet
-Defrag'd hard drive (if you use the Vista defrag it will be slowwwwwwww....so get a 3rd party unless you do not mind the wait or unless you do not want to buy one)
-Installed an imaging program (I use Norton Ghost)
-Connected an external hard rive (they are cheap) and imaged my drive to the external drive (and keep image up to date when I add things)

Obviously you do not have to do all of this...I like clean installs because it gets rid of all the bloat-ware - but you can just delete the stuff you do not need. You may want to keep the Dell restore partition, I did not want it since I image my drive.

Vista takes a little getting used to but I love it!