Thread: Bought my Laptop-Whats Next?

Picked up a DV6 at office depot....with rebates and coupon came to about $650 at the end of the day.

Next question is-It came with Norton for 90 days. Is there another anti-virus program I should get or simply order Norton? Any other firewall or other security program I should install?

Next, should I roll with Google Chrome or Firefox for my browser?

Any other helpful tips?

Uninstall Norton. Piece of Crap resource hog that you shouldn't have to pay for. Download AVG Free. Then you're set. Everything else is fine. You might want to be pro-active and download a couple of utilities programs like ccleaner and Malware Bytes just to have them handy in case some kind of virus sneaks in. Some of these new viruses are very smart and prevent certain websites (or even browsers completely) from being loaded that could eradicate them. I always have a utilities folder on my desktop that I stick these in.

At some point, HP will ask you to create back-up discs. My dv7 requested it on day one, but for some reason my dv6 waited like 3 months. Have some blank DVDs handy - 3 I think will do.

The HP Advisor will keep you pretty up-to-date on your HP programs. If there's one negative I have about HP is they update some of their software (and larger programs) VERY often. The automatic install program does the trick, but it's not very good in communication what it's doing sometimes, so you may think "oh crap, it froze", when in fact it's still working in the background and will eventually finish everything you asked it to do.

The Tune-Up feature I don't use, because I'm pretty good and keeping that up myself. Scandisk and Defrag every once and a while. I did download a third party de-frag program called defraggler that I like a lot.

LOL....it asked me to back up immediately. I actually backed up to my external hd. Thanks for the info on norton....I will be sure to uninstall that and upload those other programs within the week.

Many of the HP software thats loaded on there can be removed. HP Advisor is helpful, but how many of those little HP apps do you use? Whenever I get one of these new HP laptops, I strip off most of the software and load these basic tools...

AVG Free
Superantispyware
Malwavebytes
ccleaner
Firefox + Ad Block Plus + IE Tab
Combined Community Codec Pack (google CCCP) - Video player
Winrar
Adobe Flash
Adobe Shockwave
Adobe Acrobat Reader

Agreed on Norton. It is junk and definitely a hog.

I like Kaspersky personally.

I'm loving Chrome, and still use my Firefox. It's nice to have two in case one isn't responding.

I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials, it's free and has been doing a great job of virus and malware protection.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

look at lots and LOTS of pron on it. especially on the subway.

The advice the prior guys gave you is spot on.

*Wonders where the Mac and Linux trolls are*

Return it and get an Apple.

Happy Calo?