New
#61
Yup, since I tend to keep my laptops a long time I tried to get a good one
(The one I'm migrating from is a Dell D630 that I got in 2008, and then upgraded the HDD and operating system in 2011 - can't upgrade the memory, so I figured time to get a new one - at least that's my excuse
Now, if I can just keep from messing it up ...
Don`t download anything, keep all your data on the hard drive, do your windows updates, and windows should remain perfect for a long time to come.
Did you make a new image yet ?
Yes, image, image, image
And when you download something, save it first and check it with Virus Total
https://www.virustotal.com/
Made 2 of them yesterday evening - first one on an external drive, set it aside for safekeeping, then immediately made a second one and saved it to my "Archive" partition - that way it's handy if I need it, but if the drive fails I'm protected
I'll figure out my backup strategy and schedule shortly - I got some great ideas from the tutorials and threads
I would not run Norton on any PC as it is overweening bloatware that causes regular issues we see here. You'll get much better performance using a free lightweight AV like MSE with on-demand scanning by Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware.
If you're prone to infection, then buy the MBAM Real Time protection.
What works best for Win7 is compiled in Clean Reinstall Windows 7 which has been used by over 1.3 million consumers without a single complaint or return here with problems.
Get rid of Norton, all you need is MSE and MBAM.
I`m sure I gave you the links but...
Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Windows
https://www.malwarebytes.org/
Also, whenever, whenever you go to install something, don`t just click next next next. Today`s downloads have so much garbage in them, you have to go slow and uncheck the free giveaway crap, they add toolbars, change your home page, search etc. and that`s how people ruin windows.
Go slow, take your time :)