Essential First Steps and Programs?

Hey!

Yesterday I finished building my first computer and now I was wondering what are the essential first things I should do and programs I should get.

What I mean by this are for example Updating Drivers (Essential thing) and Temperature Monitoring (Essential programs;))

Lol thanks for any help :)

-Argonaeut

1. Install Motherboard Chipset drivers from the CD. EDIT: As theragu40 suggested go to the Intel Site for the latests chipset drivers.

2. Graphics Card Drivers, and Sound Drivers, Keyboard and Mouse drivers. Ati -http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx, nvidia -http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

3. Anti-Virus Software, Personally I like Avast 4.8 Free Edition it's very good, you just gotta download it, Register for a free home license key, updates automatically everyday.http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.htmlregistration -http://www.avast.com/eng/home-registration.phpit gets sent to your email and ya copy n paste the serial into your avast program, when you click registration upon opening the avast program.

4. Spyware Scanner such as Ad-aware personal Edition, or Super antispyware.http://www.superantispyware.com/

5. PC Health Software - CCleaner -http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/, Jkdefrag - Very good defragger it moves files to the center of your disc, makes them contiguous and also optimizes your system wellhttp://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/.

6. Temperature Monitor - Core Temp -http://www.softpedia.com/get/Windows-Widgets/Widget-Miscellaneous/Core-Temp.shtml, System stats CPUz -http://www.filehippo.com/download_cpuz/.

I might add that ccleaner is a very small program 3.08mb's, and something I would recommend running once a month to help clear clutter so it's better to have it installed and available when you need it. Jkdefrag is executable no more than a 10mb download, doesn't need to install to run it just sits in your folder until you run it also recommend defragging once a month using jkdefrag. Both ccleaner and jkdefrag I would say are essential for on-going use of your pc and keeping it running smooth n fast. I agree with the motherboard drivers comment, I also went to the intel site and downloaded the latest but thought just to get him going he could use the CD software. I mentioned the keyboard and mouse driver software because he may want to adjust the sensitivity of his mouse for his personal preference and yes game use.

Great additions mate, hope this helps him out :)

Would like to add try Firefox 3 has lots of great add-ons here:http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/or Google Chrome is much more simple if you prefer that and is the fastest browser in most cases, I use Chrome -http://www.google.co.uk/chrome, download it from google, then search Google chrome 2.0.177.1 (latest version) download the installer then just double click the installer it auto-updates to this version that way. link to benchmarkhttp://kourge.net/node/122for browsers.

Yeah i knew what ya meant :) just thought I'd get him to install it right off because then he's got it and doesn't have to worry.

Wow thanks for all the help guys! :P

Just a question though...I ran an ethernet cable to my router and the internet would not work...Is this because I haven't updated my MoBo ethernet drivers from CD?

Also if anyone has anymore advice about first steps and programs then just click the message button;)

Thanks so much!

-Argonaeut

So you connected your ethernet cable from the pc to the router, but also have the thin internet cable its called RJ11 running from your router to your phoneline main socket with a filter attached?

Also as an addition to first things to do is Windows update, download all the ones you need, and I just thought once you get the internet running on it, you can normally download an ethernet update from windows update after you've installed the basic one from the mobo CD.

So you connected your ethernet cable from the pc to the router, but also have the thin internet cable its called RJ11 running to your phoneline main socket with a filter?

jamesfffan

hmm how many ethernet ports are on your mobo? if theres 2 try the other one. But yeah install the ethernet drivers from the cd if ya havent already.

Which router is it?

hmm how many ethernet ports are on your mobo? if theres 2 try the other one. But yeah install the ethernet drivers from the cd if ya havent already.

Which router is it?

jamesfffan

Yeah I tried both the ethernet ports as I have two so I'm guessing I just need to install the drivers...hopefully:P

The router is a D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router...I would link it but for some reason my copy and paste isn't working at the moment.

You can search it up on Amazon.com

Thanks for your help!

-Argonaeut

tried it in all 4 ports ? on the router?, have you been into the router settings page? type this into a web browser http://www.192.168.0.1, it usually asks for your username n pass, default is admin and the password is password. See if theres anything stopping you from connecting.

Yeah install the drivers and reboot the pc.