Things I Do After I Install Windows

1. Connect to a (trusted) network

After the Windows installation completes successfully, I'd connect it to the Internet. This is so that I can update Windows with the latest security patches, and download the necessary applications.

2. Windows Update

It is always important to always keep your Windows (or any other OS you use) up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates.

3. Check Windows Settings

For Windows prior to Windows 10, I would configure Windows Update to notify only and not download. But in Windows 10, this setting is no longer there. Windows 10 will automatically download and install latest updates. The options you can configure for Windows 10 Windows Update are

• Automatically restart Windows after updates are installed or delay it.
• Update other Microsoft products i.e. Microsoft Office.
• Peer-to-peer downloads for updates. Specifically for Windows 10, check the "Privacy" settings. Go through all the items and turn them off, or just allow access for certain apps.

4. Turn-on Windows Defender

For me Windows Defender is suffice. To turn it on, launch Windows Defender and click on the big red "Turn On" button.

5. Install Chocolatey

This is a must have in all my Windows machine. It is a package management for Windows similar to apt-get install [package_name] for Debian-based distros or yum install [package_name].

I use Chocolatey because

1. It saves me time installing softwares on a fresh Windows.
2. It automatically resolves package dependencies i.e. Chocolatey will automatically install any of the package's pre-requisite packages before continuing.
3. The packages are safe because each package's version are approved by moderators.

The only downside I experienced is sometimes latest version of packages might take awhile to be approved. But, you can still install them by appending the --version flag in the command e.g. choco install skype --version=7.18.0.111.

To install Chocolatey, open an administrative command prompt and paste the following command:

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin

Now you can start to install packages. To install a package, open an administrative command prompt and type choco install [package_name] e.g. choco install skype.

Chocolatey allows you to install more than one package in a single command e.g. choco install skype opera conemu.

If you do not know the name of the package, you can use the command choco list [package_name] and it will output packages related to the one you entered. Or you can also search for the package at the Chocolatey website.

With Chocolatey, you can keep packages updated with the latest (approved) version (only if they were installed using the choco install command) by using the command choco upgrade all. Or you can specify certain packages to update choco upgrade skype.

6. Install must-have applications (via Chocolatey)

After installing Chocolatey, I'll open an administrative command prompt and use the following command.

choco install ccleaner 7zip adobereader libreoffice vim teracopy winscp wget putty emacs opera curl skype pidgin evernote git hg calibre f.lux imgburn onedrive paint.net spotify keepass pushbullet conemu sublimetext3 sublimetext3.packagecontrol youtube-dl ffmpeg vim -y

7. Checkout my dotfiles from my Bitbucket Repo

I will then proceed to checkout my dotfiles repo from my Bitbucket repo.

It mainly contains my emacs and vim configuration.

8. Configure Web Browsers

I use Opera as my default browser, but this applies to all other browsers as well.

Below are the settings I would change.

• Set DuckDuckGo as the default home page - [https://duckduckgo.com].

• Set DuckDuckGo as the browser's default search engine (Install the DuckDuckGo extension or plug-in if available).

• Clear cookies when I close the browser.

• Set browser plug-ins to only enable when they are clicked, such as flash.

• Do not allow the browser to track my physical location.

• Set the browser to ask for permission when sites want to use the microphone and camera.

• Set the browser to send a do-not-track request in the browsing traffic.

• Do not save passwords.

--

[UPDATE - 7 Oct, 2016] Removed image because of its Creative Commons License.

Hey there!

I'd really appreciate it if you would leave a comment, share, or supporting me with a coffee or two. Your kindness goes a long way in motivating me to keep creating quality content. Thanks again!