(You have options in perusing this page: see my Power Browsing advice.)
Ideally, you will see this essay before you first turn on a new computer. But even if it is too late for your current computer, there are things here that I believe will give you a happier computing experience. And you'll know better for another time. There are also things, like the information on how I used to do a system image, (aka "disk image"), which may be useful in isolation.
The table of contents should give you a good idea of what is covered in this essay. You don't need to read every section to learn from selected sections.
Some of the specifics in this essay, especially in respect of Windows itself, are dated. But I think many of the suggestions, and the suggested sequence for bringing a new machine into use remain valuable.
We would all rather "play" with a new toy... but the steps below really are worth the time and trouble, and need to be taken before you reward yourself with some play!
Best wishes for a new machine which is faster, more reliable, less prone to crash, etc, etc than your old one was. All the "stuff" below is a pain. May you have lots of gain. And enjoy the "honeymoon".
In what follows, I will discuss some of the things I do with a new machine. You will have to adapt my procedures to suit your needs and inclinations. I hope the essay has some useful ideas for you.
Yes! Bits are dated. And in places my unhappiness with Microsoft is evident. But this was still my "go to" page when I started up a new PC in July 24. And I did tweak the text while doing that.
You may want to skip the next few sections...
But please give these sections a try at least...
In theory, before I even turn a new computer on, I record it in my inventory system.
Part of the joy of my inventory system is that it gives each piece of equipment a unique short identifier.
For PCs, I also assign a unique short "nick-name". I always start it with a letter, and only use lowercase letters and digits.
The nick-name will be something like "PCwin11aug25" (usually shorter!)... in which case, I try to make the main admin user (as know to Windows) win11aug25. And if I can, I set things up so that win11aug25's "Documents" is in C:\Users\win11aug25.
I don't often manage to satisfy that last want... but I DO fight hard to keep ONLY "Public" and my user's "Documents" folder (!) in C:\Users\. There's a good reason for C:\Users\Public\
On a simple, one user PC, I know of no (good) reason for another folder in C:\Users\... but don't go around deleting things just because you don't know what they are.
---
Probably a good idea in general but especially important if you will be using the eSet anti-malware package: Even before you install your anti-malware software, change your computer's "name". (I use my nickname for the computer, and include the inventory code in the description field of the computer's internal documentation.)
Other than that, I would do as little as possible before having your anti-malware in place!
When you do turn it on, you will find Microsoft waiting, and trying hard to get its claws into you.
As of August 25, Windows 11 Pro, you do NOT need to have a Microsoft account, do NOT need to use One Drive. It's a struggle, but you CAN get in. You can even set it up to let you in without using a password or "PIN" (Personal Identification Number) as Microsoft was calling it not long before July 24, even though you can include letters and symbols in your "PIN"... which is a very good idea.
Leaving it possible to start up your PC and go directly to accessing files without entering some creds is a bad idea.
Onward! Or "back to what I was saying"...
You want to do the rename before you install the software because if you do, the license you are using will be registered in your web account with them will be assigned to a name that means something to you.
You may or may not want to change your computer's workgroup name. Note: All of the PCs on the same LAN need to be in the same workgroup if you want them to play nicely together across the LAN.
The dialog for renaming your computer is getting hard to find.
In July 24, on a Windows 11 machine, I went into Settings, and tried two searches...
... and got two different results. The second got me into the more useful "old fashioned" Control Panel "System Properties" dialog.
In Sept 25, on a Windows 11 machine, I used the "change workgroup name" route.)
(Some time ago, and in Oct 20, Windows 10, I went into settings, searched. Knowing the right dialog used to share the "rename workgroup" task, I went into settings, used its search for "change workgroup name", and gave me a link to open the right dialog... which after the recent major update, 3 Feb 20, gave me the old "Systems Properties" dialog. By all means fill in "description", too, but that's not what we need for eSet. After you do "description", use the "To rename this computer or..." button. (Oct 20, Win 10, the "new" Settings app offered "Rename computer" on the "System- About" page, too.)
Going back to inventorying your equipment- Having these IDs is very useful. (If you are confident that there's nothing you want to know about why and how to keep track of your equipment inventory, you can skip to the next section.)
Every piece of equipment I have has a short, unique identifier. This greatly assists me in record keeping. (In practice, I am human too, and often fall to the temptation to play first, work later... but I always regret rushing ahead with other things, and doing the record keeping "later". While I might defer the record keeping, I always actually do most of other the things described below before other "play". If something goes wrong before your anti-malware software is in place, you may not be able to do the things you should have done. Your system may have incurred permanent impairment.)
Something like a mouse was supplied with the computer typically gets its own ID. My latest computer is ICH04a, the mouse that came with it is IMS035. Things like thumbdrives, printers, etc, also each get their own ID.
In my list of IDs assigned, I record things like "IMS035 came with ICH04a", and under ICH04a's entry, there is a cross reference. Also under ICH04a's entry is a list of the CDs (they are given ID numbers, too), manuals, etc. supplied with the computer. This may seem extreme, but trust me: The day will come when you are glad of a simple way to resolve "Which is the CD that goes with this piece of equipment?". And record the purchase price, date and serial number. If you have to make an insurance claim, having those details will impress the adjustor, and dampen his hopes of denying your claim.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Once the inventory records are made, I fire up the computer, but not connected to my LAN or the internet, at first.
You may be pestered to do Windows Activation or Windows Updates... for now, try to avail yourself of a "later" option, if one is presented.
Sigh. Remember "the good old days", when we could turn off automatic Windows Updates? At 10/21, Windows 10, at least we can still pause updates for 7 days. (And un-pause them sooner, if we wish.)
I write these things as much for myself as for you. At least someone uses them! Note to self, and others who use eSet's excellent anti-malware (or other software that also does the excellent thing I am about to come to): Be sure to rename the computer even before you install the security suite. (See above.) The name assigned to the computer will be picked up by eSet, and used in the records at their end, so they can be in step with the names you use for your machines. (eSet can cope, if you fail to do this... but the name they use may not be as useful as your name for the machine.)
Besides renaming the computer, I am often not happy with the user name that is on the default account.
In October 2021, I said "I don't think I am alone in resenting Microsoft's ever tighter choke hold." August 25? I now say it even more fervently. Tighter choke hold, and ever increasing abuse of that choke hold. And I am using Linux more and more.
(July 24, a professional did some very minimal set-up for me on a new Win11 Pro system. He took care of setting the user, and the a name on the users root folder as I wanted it. It can still be done!
At 10/21, with Windows 10, you could still change the name on a user account, but it wasn't easy....
Use Win Key+ R (and enter "control"), or the taskbar search box to get into the old Control Panel. Go to User Accounts. From there it is quite easy to rename the user.
But, say the original name was "Lenovo", and I've made it "XYZ". Now "XYZ" is presented in superficial contexts, but, internally, that user's folder in C:\Users is still "Lenovo"! (This is still the case 9/25 with Win11 Pro 24H2
There are pages on the web telling you ways to change that. But to me, they all carried risks I didn't wish to run. So I put text file in C:\Users called "UserXyzUsesFolderLenovo.txt".
Even that wasn't easy. Windows wouldn't let me create a file in that folder. So I created it elsewhere, and then used copy/paste to put it in C:\Users. Bah.
I think I am on the trail of a proper solution to this matter. Watch this space! (There are some "on your head be it" notes in the comments embedded here. Use View Source, if you are feeling reckless/ ambitious/ curious.)
If a new machine comes with a free trial of some internet security suite, before you accept the offer of the trial, ask yourself "Is this the product I want to use on this machine forever?" ("Security suite": Anti-virus, etc software.) I think it is a false economy to start off with one security suite if you intend to switch to another later.
Either by activating a trial, or, in the olden days, by installing from a CD or thumbdrive, getting the security suite up and running as soon as possible is a top priority. These days, the easy route is to go online "naked" briefly. You will have to go online eventually, but depending upon how hard you want to struggle, you can put that off for a bit. (In "the good old days", I preferred to install from a CD or thumbdrive because it was usually faster and easier. It also avoided having to go online before at least some protection is in place. 10/21: I've been doing online installs for some time. The alternative is just too much hassle.)
So you probably need to connect your new PC to the internet before you have your anti-malware in place. Sigh.
Anti-malware software management will never be "easy"... but I've found that eSet suits me really well... not least because it IS easy to "migrate" a license from an old machine to a new one.
When you connect the PC to your LAN, you will probably be asked "Do you want to allow your PC to be discoverable?" This is another place where I'd like to say "no", but that leads to a lot of hassles if you want to share things... e.g. files and printers... across you LAN. (Note to self: 5 Jan 21, pcW2021, I said "okay".(And Oct 20, pcMillie. 9/25, PCva25aug... didn't arise. Left sharing for later.)) (See "All is revealed", below, for more on the "discoverable" issue.)
When you have your anti-malware in place, check for updates... Of the anti-malware suite, and of Windows itself. Several times, if necessary, until you get "no updates available" when you check.
Then do a comprehensive scan of the whole computer. (eSet embarks on one for you, as soon as it can.) (Anti-malware software is best thought of as a "bouncer" on the door of a nightclub. He/she checks stuff as it arrives, but once it is inside, the anti-malware software has a slimmer chance of detecting bad behavior.
STOP PRESS... ALL IS REVEALED IN...
Basically- Microsoft screwed things up for us again a while ago. I've used sharing folders across the LAN for a multitude of things since at least the early 90s. "Thanks" Microsoft.
I had a lot of material here. It will need to be re-written. At least other parts of the page are still good... for now. Until the next (no choice) Windows update. Well, there is a choice: Linux. When I find a Linux Shortkeys and Textpad... I'M OUTTA HE'A! (I had to abandon Pegasus even on Windows. I now use Thunderbird... which is also available for Linux. For my wants it isn't as good as Pegasus was but it will do, not least because migration to Linux should be easy! (^_^)
Mirosoft thinks the data on your hard drive should be encrypted. There are good reasons for this. And it has a downside.
The solution Microsoft switches on by default is called "BitLocker". This is an issue that only a geek could love. Me? I don't want my hard drive encrypted. (If locked, you are locked out if you try to recover from a system crash by moving the hard drive to a different computer. If NOT locked, and you dispose of your computer, securely remove your data from the hard drive first. Just deleting it isn't enpough.)
Happily, (Win 11 Pro, 24H2, (va25aug), 30 Sep 25) You only need to search "Settings" for Bitlocker, and a Control dialog should open telling you if Bitlocker is on or off, and giving you the means to turn it off if it is on.
If you choose to do that, it would be as well to close other progams first. The process will probably take some time. All of the files on your disk, encrypted at the moment, will be resaved in a decrypted form. Choose carefully the time you start. Have the computer plugged in... don't rely on a laptop's battery to last long enough to finish the job. And it it dies mid-job, it might not be pretty.
Is Bitlocker active on your machine? Right-click the Windows icon. (Or two-finger-tap on a touchpad. Yes, I know "everyone" knows this. I figured it out... without using Leo!... 30 Sep 25) Start PowerShell (or Terminal) (Admin), run manage-bde -status
You should get a report for each attached storage device.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Before we start on the topic of Windows updates: a small matter. If you haven't done it already, it is safe to do the Windows Activation at the next chance you get. (If you get asked to do it. No longer involves a dialog at 1/21, as I recall. Didn't arise 9/25, Win 11... but a friend had done some preliminary work for me.)
At July 24, this section is quite dated in some ways. A computer's owner has less choice now about what he/ she will update, when. Bottom line: I think doing them is necessary, and try to fight it less than I once did.
===
Now would be a good time to see if your PC needs any Windows updates. (So far you may only have done the security suite updates.)
If you are really sure that you know all the essentials, and don't care about some random thoughts about Windows Update, you can skip this section.
Doing the Windows updates is quite like doing the updates for your security suite. As with that, in the past, anyway, when all seemed well, sometimes when you re-booted your "updated" PC and did one more Windows Update you might find more waiting.
Damned if you do (they sometimes mess the machine up), but probably more likely damned if you don't...
At this stage, I would certainly restrict myself to the critical updates. You can be selective if you use the "custom" option.
Don't be fooled, at least at this stage, into opting into Microsoft updates. That tries to update everything Microsoft on your computer, e.g. it extends the update process to Microsoft Office, if you happen to have that installed. For now, stick to Windows update, and update the other Microsoft applications when and as you begin to use them. Maybe someday Microsoft Update will be right for you, but it probably isn't, at this early stage.
Again, like the security suite updates, you may have to repeat the update process several times to get to the point when no new updates are recommended.
If you decide you don't want one of the updates in the list of proposed updates, you can "hide" it for future Windows Update sessions... there will even be a clear message to the effect that you have hidden some updates, and an easy "un-hide" (restore to suggestions list) option. To hide a proposed update, click on the "+" sign in front of it, That should give rise to details of the proposed update. At the bottom of that, there should be a grayed-out "Don't show this update again" box. Once you untick the update as one to be made, the "Don't show..." box becomes tick-able. I usually use "don't show" for offers to upgrade (not patch) my Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. I rarely use either, and if when I do I get problems (or if it has been a while) I "un-hide" the updates, do them.
There are "High priority" updates, which I generally do, apart from the things noted already. And there are "Software, optional" and "Hardware, optional" updates. I tend to be much more relaxed, conservative, (reactionary?!) about these. Especially before I've done my first full system/ disk image. Microsoft means well, but if your computer, unbeknownst to you or Microsoft has a bit of slightly eccentric hardware, and you've installed an "upgrade" which leaves your hardware not working, do you want to start into the "joys" of system restore? I don't take the chance of having to go there. Okay- traffic on my LAN may travel a little slower. But if it is WORKING....?
(Skip this paragraph if you like!) (It was written a while ago, but the points it make remain valid.) By the way- On the admittedly bought- a- while- ago, brought- into- use- today machine I was going through initial setup on as I created one edition of this for you, I had to do four Windows Updates to get to the point where there were no "new" updates for my system. In the first update, as I remember things, I installed (among other things) .NET 1.0. The next update applied a patch to that. The next time I think that I had .NET 1.1 (The updater hadn't proposed putting 1.1 on the first time because 1.0 wasn't present). And then the next time (as I remember and interpret things), the updater said "Oh! You have the basic .NET 1.1 framework (which you didn't have before). You need the security patch that came out a while after 1.1 first came out." All of this just to illustrate for you the fact that you have to do update again and again, as often as you can stand to take the time, to be sure you are fully updated. As I said in regard to security suite updating: Sometimes you are at "A", the world is at "C", and you have to go to "B" to get ready to go to "C". Sigh.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Are you starting fresh with the computer you are setting up? Or are you moving on from an old computer?
If you are moving on from an old computer, you are likely to have old files which you will need on the new computer.
This can be a problem.
I'm afraid I have no "one size fits all" answer. But do think carefully about how you want to manage your transition.
Some things will be easy. I have a folder called "Text Docs" in my "Documents" folder. I have many sub-folders. One for letters to an employer, one for drafts for web-pages like this one, one for notes taken in the course of my family history research, etc.
To a large extent, as far as my "Text docs" folder, starting up the new computer is just a case of copying the old computer's Text Docs folder to the new computer.
But you have to be careful to time it to the moment that you are moving to the new computer for those jobs. Copy the old folder to the new too soon, and then do some work on the old computer on something... and you can see the problem.
But in the early days on the new computer, you are bound to create some NEW text documents. On the new computer.
My answer to that is to temporarily have a "Text Docs-new" folder on the new computer. Once the old Text Docs have been moved to the new computer, I move the things in "Text Docs-new" to the newly- created- from- old- computer's- TextDocs folder, and delete the now empty "Text Docs-new".
This works well for some things.
(The "backups" can be used to move folders and files from your old computer to a new computer... besides anyway being a general vitue even better than eating all of your vegetables.)
Forgive a bit of going down a rabbit hole? If you are not at all interested in free software for doing backups, you can jump down past this. (It will take you into the "First Applications, First Settings" section.)
I like the the excellent, free Cobian Backup. ("Graphite" is the name of the version I know.) It has been my backup solution for years.
We'll come back to Backup in a moment, but I should mention that it is "the old one". If you are just starting with Cobian, you should probably go for Backup's successor, Cobian Reflector. The Cobian website (link above) tells all. Reflector is free, too. Just like Backup.
I've used Backup with the small selection of features that I want on a Windows 11 computer for a bit, for a few months, without surprises.
The Cobian website doesn't say you can't use Backup on Windows 11... but then again, it doesn't say that you can.
While I can, I'll stick with the devil I know. But it's possible I am being foolish. Reflector is said to have all of Backup's capabilities.
If you are interested in Reflector, you might want to visit PureInfoTech's careful discussion of setting up Cobian Reflector on Windows 11. Skimming it might even be useful if you are "only" installing Backup. (It may help you understand the choices you have with these very granular and flexible programs.)
Because there are many different ways to use them, you might not want to follow all of his settings advice in the page cited above.
The rest of this is all about Backup.
---
Backup works well to copy vast swathes of my hard drives to external drives for backup or storage. My copies are not encrypted or oddly formatted... they are JUST copies. (It is possible to "turn on" either, if you want them... but if you do, will using the backup copy be as easy?)
Copying vast swathes takes time. Backup automatically also makes more frequent backups of some folders where I'm making frequent changes to things that are important to me.
You can jump down past this. (It will take you into the "First Applications, First Settings" section.)
I have an external hard drive connected to my PC by USB. It is there most of the time, but I do take it off from time to time without any hassles.
I have Cobian running as a service.
I don't have to do anything other than having the hard drive attached to get backups of certain high value folders, and groups of folders, on a schedule. Several schedules, actually...
One schedule does a backup of the folders with my local copies of my webpages on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2am. Another backs up my work on my tax returns every night at 4am.
These are just two examples. I can turn each on or off as needed. (The one for the tax work isn't turned on outside of the tax season.)
I also have a "task" (Cobian term) for copying ALL of my "Documents" folder to the hard drive. This task isn't on a schedule... it happens when I invoke it. (Which is a simple process.)
Each of these can be a full backup every time, or incremental backups normally, but a full backup after every x incrementals... with "x" whatever value you want.
Where each backup goes is entirely up to the user. It is one of the parameters you set when designing the task.
I've never encrypted or compressed the backups... but Cobian offers to do either or both.
Overwhelmed? Don't be! Install it, start slowly, and build things up.
It may not be designed for idiots, but if you put in the work, it is a powerful tool.
One limitation: A few programs need to be shut down before you can create a good backup, if you are looking for something to help you rebuild your life if your hard disk dies.
Thunderbird is the only program I use that falls in that category, thankfully. I suspect I could add "shut down Thunderbird and wait 4 seconds before starting the backup" to my Cobian Backup task for backing up all of the files in my documents folder (invoked by hand, when I feel the need, remember), or my task that backs up just my Thunderbird profile. Backup is that powerful. Maybe when I finish this essay for you, I'll have a moment to look for that feature!
(Return to Table of Contents)
Cobian Backup or Reflector: See above- that is a "first application" you may want.
I next install Firefox. It has always (for me) been a quick and easy install. I think it is more secure than the Microsoft alternative, and it is the browser I like. (I also use the Brave browser, and I use search.brave.com as the default search engine on both browsers.) There's a lot of web work ahead; you might as well do it with the best browser... whichever one you deem that to be! (There's a way in the Firefox settings to add search engines, and make Brave the default engine.) Brave's AI summarizer gives me excellent results, but you get the traditional links to pages as well... if you need them after the summary. I rarely do.
===
So far so good. If you are unlucky, and the supplier of your PC has taken money from various people to push ads at you, you may have encountered any number of "try this!", "try that!" pop-ups already.
I use the "later" option as often as possible. I tend at this stage to avoid entirely deleting anything... that will come later, if my early inclinations seem sound after I have slept on them. I don't like the fact that extra things have been installed on my computer, but I want to get to know it a bit more before deleting anything. While I will often move things out from "in front of my face", I am generally reluctant to fully delete things. They may have been put on your machine for a good, or even critical, reason.
===
The machine will probably not be set up as you want it. For the moment, resist doing the little tweaks that we all know and love. I might for the moment pause the automatic Windows updates. (But I wouldn't leave them off for long.
Once upon a time, at this point, I advocated doing a full image of your disk(s) / system's software. If you have this, when your computer fails, you will be in a much better place than you will be without it. Note I said "when...", not "if your computer fails. But of course, today, that's not a trivial exercise, given the bloat we've seen in software. I confess I do it less and less. Not a good idea, but I want A LIFE! "Restore points" are worth considering, too. (The Brave AI gave me a very nice guide in response to a search on "restore point windows 11" 19 Sep 25.) See also this article from Microsoft discussing the System Restore facility.
My advice, "Do an image" has a history that amuses me: It was in the page long ago. Then it was downgraded, prefaced "Left in, to raise a chuckle from those who remember the days:". In 10/21, I reinstating the advice, because affordable hard disks with huge capacities, and high transfer speeds, have become available... and, as you just read, 7/24, I'm backing away again.
While it is tedious, it used not to be the end of the world if your hard disk failed, which is a relatively common cause of computers dying. If you've made the full disk image, you take that and your computer to your local computer shop, they copy your image to a new hard drive (not hard), fit that into your computer (not hard), and you're back to where ever you were when you did the full disk image. I would keep this "first disk image" someplace safe, to make it easier to get back to where you started. If you rebuild a machine from the first image, you will of course have to reload the documents and data that arose later.... you do keep backups, don't you?... but the process of getting back to a "new" machine is much, much harder if the image hasn't been done by the owner. (The process of a rebuild is explained more fully later.)
If you are a bit timid, or uncertain of your skills, now is not too soon to do this full image. I must admit, I used to do a few more basic "getting started" things before I did my first full disk image, so I will mention some of those early tidies here, and then go into the details of creating the full disk image.
(Return to Table of Contents)
In the "olden days" (at 10/21) Some machines allow you to burn a "Windows recovery disk". Maybe that's still possible? (Maybe consider looking for that option?) But I think "making an image" is better. (I will try to explain that in a moment.) Sometimes, you even got a recovery disk with a new machine! Whether you make your own, or have one supplied by the computer distributor, don't put too much faith in it... I've too often seen discrepancies between what was on the machine and the state the "recovery disk" created. There are good reasons for this. Even if the supplier is trying hard to give you a good recovery disk, the task is formidable. And don't imagine that any recovery disk is going to put things back the way you had them. A good one... if you haven't misplaced it before you need it... will only put the PC back to the state it was in when you took the PC out of the box.
If you are going to take my advice and make a disk image or two, then maybe the recovery disk isn't as critical as it was.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Some machines have a "recovery disk" on a hidden partition of the hard drive. Using this to "restore" a system may save the day for you after a serious virus infestation or similar, but in addition to the caveats above about recovery disks, be aware of the extra complications that a recovery partition entail. And be reluctant to hit the "recover my system" panic button for the same reasons that I hope will make you reluctant to use a recovery disk.
Note that the word "restore" has many uses in the world of computers. In this section I am not, for instance, talking about the system built into Windows for rolling your system back to a previous "restore point". (While we're briefly on that subject, though, if you've heard of it and wonder how to create "restore points", let me explain: Under XP (and others) if you click "Start"/"Help and Support", one of your choices will be "Undo changes... with System Restore". You can click on that without undoing changes or doing anything else! Once you have clicked on it, one of your choices is "Create a Restore Point". I guess if we are willing to click "Start" when we want to stop the computer, we should be able to manage the above. So... back to one of the OTHER "restore"s....
In either case, remember that the type of restore we were talking about before my one paragraph digression, if it works will wipe all of your data, and applications you installed. It will (try to) put your PC back to how it came from the store. And not every restore disk will do even that. You are depending on the manufacturer keeping the restore disks they send out up to date, keeping them consistent with what the manufacturer is sending out on the day your PC was shipped. This is an almost impossible task for the manufacturers, and I have seen customers of "big name" manufacturers badly disappointed when trying to use restore disks. In any case... the restore disk won't have some of the Windows updates which you will have on your disk image if you follow the advice above,
One last point regarding restore partitions: If your computer dies, it will probably be down to...
If it is a dead disk, how can you use the restore partition? The only thing that the restore partition may fix for you is a computer that has been hit by a nasty bit of malware, or hit by operator error. If you are ignorant enough to delete critical system files, are you knowledgeable enough to successfully execute a restore from the hidden part ion?
Having said all of those negative things, I should add that back in Windows 98 days, when CD copies of the OS were routinely supplied with new systems, the "repair install" option worked well for me a number of times. If you have the OS disk, and things have gone south, the "repair install" option (whatever it is called) may do Good Things without creating havoc along the way.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Sigh. Could Microsoft let us keep tried and tested tools we can rely on?
I'm happy to tell you that at least at 2 Nov 21 there is one such tool which they haven't replaced with an "improved" answer, at least in Windows 10, for as long as they allow us to use that.
Furthermore, should the native tools disappear, I'd look into what Paragon were currently offering. I used many of their backup/ restore/ etc tools over the years, and they were good. In March 2012 I installed their free (for personal use) Backup and Recovery, which was a splendid tool, offering the disk imaging I want, AND various backup tools, which can be used in simple modes, or more subtly.
I try to do my first drive image quite early on... before I mess anything up!... and while the machine still doesn't have "much" on it. (An XP machine I recently set up has "only" about 71,000 files. I have put a few applications on it, but most (probably at least 95%) of those are the "core", "essential" files of Windows... and we wonder why it is unstable. Bah.
--------
When I embarked on the following approach to backing up my system in October 21, it was the first time I'd used this precise approach.
Be advised: The excellent guide at www.windowscentral.com/how-make-full-backup-windows-10 said "The System Image Backup tool for Windows 10 is no longer a maintained feature, but you can still use it for the foreseeable future. The instructions outlined in this guide are meant to create a temporary full backup while the feature is still available."
This process will "capture" everything. That's both good and bad!
Do it on a very new system, and put this "early state" image someplace safe "forever". As you add apps, documents and data, the size of the image will grow. An image holds "everything" remember.
Now... I said this was my first time. I've certainly used system images before now! This is simply my first time of making one with the OS's native tool.
My thanks to the UK magazine "Computer Active for one of their small panels reminding me of this option, and encouraging me with the idea that, compared to the benefits and the job done, the chore really isn't so very onerous. It was that which prompted me to go looking and find the more detailed Windows Central guide.
You may want to do more full images later, with your accumulated documents, etc... but the day may come when you want to get back to your machine "as it started out". If you've kept the image, you'll be able to do that! (I'll talk about rebuilding a system from an image later.)
After spending about two hours on this, I've managed to create the system image. That went well. I think. Not "tested"... but I'm fairly confident that I have a good system image.
What I hadn't realized as soon as I would have wished is that I need not only the image, but also a "a bootable USB flash drive".
It's not a deal breaker. But it is extra work that I can't face just now.
As I understand things, the Bootable Flash Drive can be used to start a system with an empty hard disk. I suspect it would also work on a system with a corrupted hard disk.
You start the system from the Bootable Flash Drive, and THEN you can use your system image to fill your hard drive with what was on it when you made the image.
Fair enough, I guess. I apologize for not doing everything to explain how you get that Bootable Flash Drive at this time... but I CAN tell you that www.windowscentral.com/how-make-full-backup-windows-10 seems to give a very clear, very believable set of instructions for what is needed. Sorry.
You're going to need someplace to PUT the image. I would suggest a large external USB hard drive.
My "guide", here, is shamelessly lifted from the one at the site mentioned. You might want to use that alongside this.
Turn your PC on. Do a Windows Update... you might as well have an "up-to-date" system before you take the image!
Then...
Don't be freaked out! From the "Backup" page, you want "Looking for older backup?"... even though you are looking to make a backup, not find one!
And the next thing that might cause worry: Now...
Click on "Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7)".
Yes! We are going to use an OLD tool! "Old" because it has stood the test of time!
Connect the USB hard drive, if you haven't done so already. I used an empty one. I'll try to remember to talk about whether that was necessary in a moment. For a machine with an October 2021 Windows 10 on it, and just a few "main apps" (eSet Internet Security, Firefox and Libre Office), the backup tool said I might need 40 gig of space. A FAST disk, over a fast interface will be helpful, too. Go on... buy a new drive for this! On the one hand, it is a "waste", as you hope you never need the backup. But on the other hand, if you DO need it, you will really, really want the process to go without any hiccup.
Click on "Create a system image", and then elect "on a hard drive", and, if several are in the list that arises, choose the one you want to use.
I hope you are finding it all very sensible and intuitive? Seemed that way to me, but the guide was useful to "steer" my path. I might not, for instance, have gone down the "Looking for older backup?" without help.
After you click "Next", you may be surprised to find that the tool is proposing to back up more than just "Windows (C:) (System)" Some PCs are supplied with "Recovery" or "System" (or other) partitions. if in doubt, include each of the "drives" in the list. (A single hard disk can hold several "drives" in the sense the word is being used here.)
Click "Next", click "Start backup"... and then go away and mow the lawn. It WILL take time. Lots of time. Many tens of minutes, even for a system with "just the basics on it", one like the one I described as the one I was backing up.
"Do you want to create a System Repair disk?"... you should say No!!! This is because the "repair disk" would be a DVD... and, or course, (to quote the guide) "...most devices no longer include an optical drive, you can skip [creating the repair disk]."
??? So how then, will we restore the machine, if the need arises? We will use a USB installation media to access the recovery environment. (Details to come.)
After you say "No, don't create a repair disk", you should be looking at a message saying "The backup completed successfully".
Don't worry! You'll have what you need... on the hard drive you sent the image to.
You can click the "close" button, to get rid of the message. And you can close the various windows left open from getting to the Backup tool.
Have a look at what's on the hard drive.
If your experience goes as mine did, in the root of the hard drive, there will be a folder called "WindowsImageBackup". The name assigned (see above!) to the computer I was backing up was pcMsMoss, and that was used as the name for a folder inside "WindowsImageBackup".
Don't mess with stuff in "WindowsImageBackup". Leave it alone. It is for Windows to "play with", and it must not be disturbed. That's why, I suspect, that when we try even to look inside the folder, Windows says we have to say we really, really want to. It's okay to look. Just don't touch.
Do you have to use a separate hard drive for each system image? No! (Whew). And as long as you stay out of the WindowsImageBackup folder, you can put other things on the drive.
But I'd save it for important backups. I'd avoid using it very often.
And so, disconnect the hard drive, put it someplace safe. Perhaps at your neighbor's house? Let's hope you never have a fire... but...
As always, use "Safely remove" to remove the USB hard drive.
I'm sorry... I ran out of time, energy at this point. Remember at the top of this section, I spoke about the Bootable Flash Drive? And gave you a link to instructions for creating one?
I will try to get back to this one day, give you what is needed. Sorry. For now... onward!
(Return to Table of Contents)
Where do you save things on your hard disk? Intelligent use of folders is absolutely essential to a happy and productive relationship with your computer.
If you ask ten users how files should be organized, you will get ten answers. Fair enough.
But have a system, have a plan.
When it comes to installing big things, it doesn't pay to "fight" with Windows and with the creators of, say, Firefox. Or Libre Office. Etc, etc.
But try to keep your documents separate.
I try, as much as I can, when it comes to my documents. to keep them all "under" "Documents". It makes doing backups easier.
I use "0a", "aa", and "z" very sparingly to put a few folders at the top or bottom of alphabetical lists of the folders at any level. For example, my "Text" folder is one I go to often, so it is named "aaText". And I rarely visit "Static", so it is "zStatic". (zStatic is where I put things that rarely change, for instance the "install" files for things I have put on my machine. This lets me skip frequent backing ups of that folder... which is especially beneficial, as the files there tend to be large.)
It is also helpful to use... extensively... folders within folders.
Apart from the "Documents" folder, I tend to avoid the weird "system" folders, like "Downloads" and "Pictures" as far as I can.
In "the good old days", Windows didn't try to be "clever". It sorted things, for instance, the names of files, as displayed by the File Explorer, in a simple, logical, geek friendly manner. If you have noticed anything odd about how Windows sorts things, have a read of my page https://wywtk.com/hh/hh9sort-order.htm for more details... and a cure!
I must confess that by 7/24, I've mostly given up the battle on this front, and let Microsoft sort things how it likes, and when I can't find something in the "right" place alphabetically, I look where I suspect Microsoft put it.
The problem only arises when you have letters and digits in the part of the name that you are sorting on.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Zip archive management: A while before 9/25, 7-zip was recommended by a source I like. (I make do with the zipping build into the Windows File Explorer... but maybe you'd like...) The advantage of 7-Zip is that you can (when you wish) create .zip files with a password to lock them from unauthorized eyes. Use for sending sensitive things by email. But I had a little trouble with using it... it seemed to "manage" the zips created a bit too comprehensively for my liking. I didn't fight with it... I probably just made a mistake.)
Easy, free, OCR: Another little app I love, but which not everyone will feel a need for is Capture2Text from it's SourceForge page.
It doesn't "install" the way most programs do today. The download gives you a .zip file. Unzip it to a temporary folder. You should find a folder called "Capture2Text" is the product of the unzipping.
Put that where you wish. I put mine in my Documents folder, in a sub-folder called Prgms, in a sub-sub-folder called "3rd party freeware". (I write software, hence the "3rd party" part.)
Go into that. Create a shortcut to it. Move the shortcut to where you want... I've been a slob, and put that on my desktop. (Which I generally use more elegantly!) It's "installed"!
Now launch it by double-clicking the shortcut. It will seem that nothing has happened! But open up your system tray (aka "notification area"), and you should see a red icon with "CAP / 2 / TXT". Right-click. Settings.
On the "Hotkeys" tab change the first tick, "Start OCR Capture", putting it to the left of "Alt". And leave the key as "Q". Make all the other hotkey possibilities "unmapped" with the pull-downs... for now. (By all means play with them later, if you are so inclined, but I'll get you going. What I will explain is all I've ever needed.)
Make sure OCR-1 specifies "English". I left all the rest as I found them 9/25, when doing this AGAIN, while setting up a new machine.
Oh dear... you've led me astray. I haven't played with it yet, but apparently it can be used to say "Please translate this..."
Oh! Oh! AND it can do OCR to audio! The test phrase says there's no need to panic, but I do wonder sometimes. (I don't use these advanced features. Read on...)
Apart from the tweaks to the default Hotkeys and checking the OCR-1 language, I had nothing to do to my Cap2Text ver 4.6.3 installation 20 Sep 25 on a Win 11 Pro machine.)
Once you've done the "once and for all" (for each boot of the OS) double click on the shortcut, you should find that if you....
A small box should pop up with the results. They will already be in your clipboard. You can stop the box popping up with an entry in the settings, if you don't want that.
It works on almost any text on the screen, be it in an image, or on a webpage that doesn't "play nicely" with select/copy/paste, usually converted remarkably accurately.
Once you start using Cap2Text, I think you'll wonder how you managed without it!
I leave installing my email software (I don't use web-browser-based email) until later because it is not a small application.
I get rid of unwanted (most of them!) desktop shortcuts.
I set up my Quick Launch bar.
I used to configure my menus, back in the days when you could... and didn't have the discouraging knowledge that just about when you have things how you want them, Microsoft will force an "update" down your throat and blow things out of the water... again.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Despite being what some people call paranoid about "security", for many years, each of my computers have had a folder which the other computers on my LAN can read from... but not write to.
Here my security concern is in respect of restricting access to my computers, to the files on them. Never forget that protecting yourself from the loss of your documents and data due to equipment failure... or theft, or fire... is another important branch of "security".
Do I worry too much about security? Remember: Just because someone is paranoid doesn't mean they are wrong! (^_^)
The shared folder is tremendously useful for passing documents or data from machine to machine. (If you don't have shared folders, don't forget you can email yourself, and send them as attachments. Or just use a "good old" USB memory stick. Was there life before memory sticks?
Is setting it up a bit tedious? Only if you have an odd system (which happens). But it is very useful, once you have it. Do you really want to go on moving thumbdrive between your two PCs?
Once it has been set up, there will be a folder on your new machine which, on the new machine, you can use as you use other folders. You'll be able to save things, move things to or from the folder, rename things, etc!
But the folder's purpose will be to give you a place you can put copies of things you want also to have on another computer on your LAN. I'd suggest you use this folder ONLY for such things, and that you delete the copy-for-the-other-pc as soon as it has been copied onto a "home" on the other machine.
The folder will have been designated "a share". And the share will have a name. Let's say that the share name is "NetShareOnPcCristina".
If all goes well, setting up such a folder isn't very difficult. We'll call the machine it is on "The Sharer",. We'll call the machine on the LAN needing a copy of files via this means "The Seeker". You will sometimes need to enter a user name and password when you access the folder on The Sharer from The Seeker.
The folder, from The Seeker's point of view will be read-only.
More than one PC on the LAN can be a Seeker.
If The Sharer PC's name is "pcCristina", then the first step for someone using The Seeker is to open File Explorer.
Then they click somewhere at the right end of the address bar. This selects whatever is in it so far. And then they type "\\pccristina\NetShareOnPcCristina", and press enter. Note: At this juncture, I'm pretty sure that case is not important. The user could type "\\PCCRISTINA\NETshareonpccristina", or other variants.
Catch-22: If, on The Seeker, you try to go to just "\\pcCristina", you'd get access to the shared folder... but not it's contents! Very confusing! Sigh.
Happily, File Explorer remembers previous entries in the address bar, so when you've typed "\\pcC" the rest will become easily available.
A "Network Access" dialog may open. This needs the User Name and password for the user on the Sharer for the owner of the shared folder that the person on the Seeker wants to access. These will normally be the creds used to log onto The Seeker, but see "Major Weirdness" below.
The user name and passwords are both case sensitive I believe.
=========
That's what we're going to cover setting up. That it can be done is the good news. I have several machines set up with folders like that!
But, today, 28 Sep 25, as I try to do it on a new machine, and tidy up this essay, it is being remarkably recalcitrant. I will have to come back to this later for you.
Beware! It is quite easy to share a folder. But sometimes when you do, you in advertently put EVERYTHING up "shared". Not clever, probably!
Whether you want a shared folder or not, I would recommend at least changing your "workgroup name", if your machine will be on a LAN. This is not something to be done casually... all of the machines on a given LAN have to be using the same workgroup name, if they are to play together nicely.
Under Windows 10, the following worked. The process was not too different for Windows 11 Pro, 9/25.
To change the workgroup name...
The box for entering a new workgroup name is on the "Change computer name" dialog, which the above should have opened for you.
Things work best when all of the computers on a LAN are set to be members of the same workgroup. I do workgroup names all in upper case letters, as you can only enter upper case in some workgroup edit boxes.
Restart your computer after changing the workgroup name.
Any yes, I am probably trying to avoid the issues of setting up a shared folder.
Let's define two terms:
I will call the computer with files to be read by a different computer on the LAN "the Sharer".
I will call the computer wanting to read files on the Sharer "the Seeker".
First point: I think there may be good reasons the Windows makes it hard to do things with a folder in the root of your main hard drive.
Think about it: If there's a way to read things in, say, C:\MySharedFiles, aren't things awfully close to a situation where someone might get access to other files in the root of C:?
Whether there's a danger or not, I'm going to set up an unshared folder in the root of C on The Sharer, and the shared folder as a sub-folder of that. Shared as Read Only. (The folder will (of course?) be Read/Write for the user on The Sharer. Call the folders what you wish. On the computer I call "HarryPotter", I'm going to use...
Don't rush off to create those yet.
A trick: Create them in Documents. Then move the parent folder to the root of your C drive, and that will move the sub-folder as well. Create a small text file in SharedFromPcHarryPotter.
If you can do that, why can't you just create them in C:? I don't know. Maybe you can. But, 9/25, I have unhappy memories of trying to do that.
Hurrah! So far so good!
But we can't see SharedFromPcHarryPotter and it's contents (none yet) from other PCs on the LAN yet.
(This would be a good moment to pin that to your Quick access list. (Right-click on file name.))
Here's how I shared the folder, 9/25, between a Windows 11 Pro PC (The Sharer) and a Windows 10 Home PC.
Still on The Sharer, using File Explorer, right-click on SharedFromPcHarryPotter. Click on Properties. Sharing. Share.
That should open a "Network Access" dialog.
In "Choose people to share with, use the dropdown to make "Everyone" available, and select that.
Click the "Share" button, lower right.
You may be asked "Do you want to turn on network discovery for all public networks?" If you are, say "No, make the network I am connected to Private."
When you have, you should see "Your folder is shared."
Note down the text on the first line of the entry which should now be in the "Individual Items" box. Note the characters and the case. This will be your "share access", aka "share name". I.e. the name of this, as seen by PCs out on the LAN. (Seekers.) If you used the folder name I used above, the share access will be under "SharedFromPcHarryPotter". This is the name of the share.
Click "Done", but don't click back out of the sharing process any further than that for now.
Click on "Advanced Sharing". It would probably be as well to reduce the number of simultaneous users. I cut it down to 5, to leave some wiggle room. (I rar5ely connect more than one seeker at time... but who knows? What happens if several instances of File Explorer are looking at the shared folder?)
Still in the Advanced Sharing dialog, click on "Permissions".
Select the Everyone user, if it isn't already selected, and take away the Full Control and Change permissions.
ALSO take them away from any other users, including administrators. (Don't worry, you are only taking away the permissions on the share!)
Click OK, OK, OK... to back out of the dialogs.
Your share is in place! Now... how do you use it?...
(If it all goes horribly wrong, you can UNshare the folder if you go down the Properties/ Sharing/ Advanced Sharing path.)
Go to a different computer on the LAN. This will be The Seeker for now. (Other computers on the LAN will also be able to be Seekers in due course.)
Open an instance of File Explorer
Put "\\" and the name of the share into the File Explorer address bar. (You need to put the insertion point to the right of anything already in the address bar before you type the two \'s, which will select anything there which will therefore disappear as soon as you type the first \.) (You can check that you have the name right by searching settings to "View your PC name". You have to be fussy about the case you use.)
... and press "Enter". You may get a dialog inviting you enter your network credentials to log into The Sharer... It will ask for a user name and password. In the simple scenario being presented here, these are just your user name and log in password ("PIN") for the Seeker. (More complex arrangements are possible, if you set up secondary users, for cases where you don't want the people fetching things from the sharer to know the admin creds.)
If you simply get "Enter Network Credentials" again, try to get the password right a few times. No joy? It's a problem with the user you are asking to go in as. This time the case IS important. "BossUser" won't count for "Bossuser". Use "More choices" to try changing the user name for your account different. You need the name (and password) of a user on The Sharer.
I hope you won't suffer this blight. It's only the second time I've encountered it in over 20 years of doing this sort of thing. (I didn't solve it, last time)
What is your user name?
That shouldn't be hard! But sometimes it is. I have fought tooth and nail to set my Windows environments up with a local admin user.
Mistakes during that may explain the following...
For most purposes, my "user name" is as you would expect. The folder under C:/Users/ may not be the same as my "obvious" user name, but that doesn't seem to have consequences.
However, when it comes to signing in (from The Seeker) to a user on The Sharer, very infrequently my "user name" isn't what I'd expect.
I hasten to say that while this phenomenon arises infrequently, when it does, it is a consistent oddity.
If, when you try to connect to your Sharer from one of your Seekers, you repeatedly get the "Enter Network Credentials" dialog, do the following...
On The Sharer, with File Explorer, navigate to the folder that is supposedly shared.
Right click, and then click "Properties".
When that dialog opens, click on the Security tab.
If what I've suggested in the material before the "Major Weirdness" sub-heading has gone according to plan, there should be a box listing "Group or User names".
Ignore the following entries: Everyone, SYSTEM, Administrators.
That should leave one with starting with your user name, as familiar to you.
Following that, in parentheses, there should be two things separated by a backslash... e.g., if you think your user name is Alice25Aug, using a computer named "MyAug25Pc", the whole line you would normally see is...
Alice25Aug (MYAUG25PC\Alice25Aug)
(Don't ask me why the computer name is all in caps...especially as the name can be case sensitive in some cases. It just is. Always look hard for errors of capitalization when things aren't working.)
That's what I'd expect to see... normally!
If the last bit is NOT your equivalent of "Alice25Aug", try using THAT as your "user name" when, while trying to connect to The Sharer from The Seeker
My very best wishes to you. I've spent about four hours on this Weirdness.
(Return to Table of Contents)
While I moan about the changes the past 30 years have seen, I will admit that USB is a Good Thing, and that moving on from having to manually install drivers is probably a good thing too.
(I've also done some minor notes about setting up a printer in September 25. They came after these notes had been started.)
Getting a printer on your machine these days is, usually, easy. Believe it or not I can't feel the need to say a lot about that.Just now, 2 Nov 21, this is what "setting up my printer" took...
(My reward for the morning's dogged struggles?)
So! Basic printing in place.
My printer also has a scanner. No problem. It wasn't yet available. I'm not complaining- I am no fan of too many things happening "automatically", behind the scenes.
Went to the Brother website.
Of course, the machine you are setting up may not need its own printer. It may use one on some other machine on the LAN.
If you do put a printer on the machine you are setting you, once you have your printer connected and working, you might want to make it available to other computers on the LAN.
Even that... I hope you'll find... isn't terribly difficult.
(Return to Table of Contents)
Finally, I install any remaining large software packages I need... Libre Office, email client, etc. After this, doing disk images becomes a slower process, eating up much bigger chunks of storage. One of the joys of Libre Office is that you really don't need to back up that system software. I might keep a copy of the setup file, in case I don't like a future release of the suite, but it installs quickly and easily. If you are using Microsoft's "Office", and have to rebuild your system on a new drive after a disk crash, even if you have a Microsoft-supplied CD with the setup software on it, you may encounter difficulties.
In some cases you will also want to put old documents and other data (photos, databases, etc) on your machine, and this is the time to do it.
Indulge me? A few notes to myself here. (I actually use what is on this page when setting up my own systems: Delphi 4 on CD6057(UK), 6059(US). Kith&Kin on CD563... or online? (Note: ICS comes in versions for 1-6, and for 7 up.)
(Return to Table of Contents)
The question arises not only if you have created a drive image as per my suggestions, but in general with all forms of backup and restore options.
Backup? What backup? Oh yes! I remember! The one discussed a long time ago, at the start of this page.
I hope you won't be asking "Will it work?" any time soon. But the day may come. A discussion that may be useful to you follows...
As an illustration of the problems that I'm worrying about, let's say you've built a hotel. You've fitted it with sprinklers, in case there is a fire. How do you test them? Not easy!
And so it is with backups. It is a major pain to test some of the options you have available to you.... but better to have them, than to not have them. They might work!
(Probably dated... it may, October 2021, Windows 10, not be this simple... but there WILL BE a way... of you have the disk image!)
As I said before: If your system dies, if you made a disk (system) image, you will use your it as follows.
(I admit that this is sketchy. It is also untested, 10/21... several more pressing issues are taking DAYS in this "simple update" of this page. But I have a high degree of confidence that this is at least close, and do-able. And at the very worst, no harm will have been done by making the system image. Unless it made you over-confident. NEVER trust a computer, no matter how many learned tutorials you have worked hard to fully master.)
If, as I started to say, your system completely dies, you will need three things...
The third element is the one I can help you with least, here, now.
BTSTs are commonly a little (8k might do!) USB memory stick/ thumbdrive. You "do things" to the BIOS, if necessary, and then tell the system to reboot. If your BTST is what is needed, you then arrive at the Windows Setup dialog. The really, really low level Windows Setup dialog. You may never have seen it. This is a whole different thing than the Windows Settings page.
You connect the hard drive with the system image, say "go", and go away and mow the lawn or something. And when you come back, in theory, your computer is nearly ready to go!
----------------
What is the BTST and where did you get it?
If you funk making one, as I have, for now, I suspect that any competent computer repair shop will have one, can do the system restore for you. (This will include whatever was on the hard drive(s) when you made the image.. the system software, apps, your documents and data. See why the not inconsiderable work is worth the time and effort?!)
In a perfect world, in case there are small things to make a nuisance of themselves, you will, before your system dies, make your own BTST. The nice people who created the guide I created this from also created a guide to making your BTST. They use it's proper name: "Media Creation Tool". The Media Creation Tool is a USB flash drive/ memory stick/ thumbdrive with some data and programs on it. See www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-usb-bootable-media-uefi-support#create_windows10_uefi_mct for all the gory details. Or join me in just praying that someone will be able to help you when the day comes. (I AM trying to go off, study that page, but there are ten other things in line ahead of that.)
Wrapping this up...
It sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But it will often beat the alternative: Starting from scratch with a new computer. That's not to say that there is never a case for just starting from scratch... Sometimes it just isn't cost effective to try to rebuild a sick machine. It depends on your faith in the idea that the rest of the machine is okay, and on how heavily customized the system was for your wants and needs.
I hope you will never need your disk images! But if you want the option of considering doing a "restore from image", the above may have been enough to give you that option. Feedback always welcome (Contact details at end.)
(Return to Table of Contents)
Is making disk images the way forward for your backup needs once a machine is up and running?
What do you want from your backup routines? Full disk images will become more tedious as the material on your PC expands.
There is no one "right way". You will have to educate yourself as to the options, and set up your own "system", your own way of working. A way that gives you a good balance between protection and workload.
I think the best way to protect yourself from losing documents and data in the event of a crash... or loss to theft/ catastrophe... is to be very methodical about where you put things, and keep second copies either on thumbdrives or other hard drives. Those drives might be connected from time to time via USB, or they might be elsewhere on a LAN, or even out in cyberspace.
I like the free Cobian Backup (aka Cobian Gavity) or Cobian Reflector (newer product) for my backup needs. It isn't "simple", but it has great capabilities. See my recommendation of the Cobian backup solutions , above.
When you are thinking about a backup policy, consider the software for syncing as well as backup software. ("Syncing" is perhaps a simpler concept.) I haven't gone down that path myself for various reasons, but it is certainly better than nothing!
Besides backing up the obvious things... your documents, pictures, databases, etc., consider things like your email address book, browser bookmarks.
A decent essay on backup would be longer than all of what I have written here about good steps to take during the initial set up of a new machine. I'll try to write such an essay one day. In the meantime, be careful. Ask yourself what you would lose if a thief stole your PC today... and find a way to protect yourself from the consequence of such loses!
It is a tremendously important subject. I am sure there are many good essays about it on the internet. Do at least think about the subject. What you need will be subtly different from what another user needs. You will have to adapt any advice you find to your own use of the computer.
(Return to Table of Contents)
=== In conclusion
Once again, one of my essays ends rather abruptly. Sorry! I hope your time was rewarded by at least a few interesting, useful ideas. For a review of what is here, return to Table of Contents)?
Search across all my sites with the Google search button at the top of the page the link will take you to.
Or...
Use this to search THIS site.... (Go to my other sites, below, and use their search buttons if you want to search them.)
|
|||
| search engine by freefind |
The search engine merely looks for the words you type, so....
Please also note that I have other sites; this search will not include things from them. Each site has its own search button.
My SheepdogGuides site.There's also my oldest-still-running site: https://www.arunet.co.uk/tkboyd/ Have a laugh at some dated material! It may be dated in styling, but not all of the content is obsolete. Some of what was there is now at https://skywoof.com/aru/index2.htm
(My Compuserve site is, alas, history.)
To email this page's editor, Tom Boyd.... Editor's email address. Suggestions welcomed! Please cite "hh9bs.htm".
Page has been tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. It passes in some important ways, but still needs work to fully meet HTML 5 expectations. (Copy your page's URL to your clipboard before clicking on the icon, so you can easily paste it into the validator when it has loaded.)-->
AND it has been tested with...
Why is there a script or hidden graphic on this page? I have my web-traffic monitored for me by eXTReMe tracker. They offer a free tracker. If you want to try one, check out their site. Neither my webpages nor my programs incorporate spyware, but if the page has Google tools, they also involve scripts. Why do I mention the scripts? Be sure you know all you need to about spyware.
-- Page ends --