Death & Rebirth: New Computer Needs Wisdom From Old Computer

May 3, 2006 12:39 PM

I have a new PC (huzzah!). Thanks, Pop. Now what?

Is there a savvy online guide for getting what I need from here to there avoiding as many pitfalls as possible?

This topic has been covered before, but at a level over my head. Y'all Mefites are a techy bunch, and it's part of your charm, but I'm smart about other things. Can you help?

I'd like to know what I'm getting into before getting started. My entire business is on my now-old PC (an emachines T1096 that's four years old now), so if I'm a bit widgy about the whole thing, please be gentle with me.

Extra Credit: I recently added more memory to my old PC. Can I swap that to the new one without hurting anything? I plan on keeping the old one for the kiddos.

posted by wordswinker to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Well, I'm a bit of a packrat. When I switch machines, I connect my old hard drive to my new system, and literally dump everything into a folder called 'old drive'. Since hard drive sizes are always increasing, I normally don't even notice how much space this takes on the new machine.

That way, any time I need something from the old machine, I just dig it out of the old drive folder.

Of course, if you are talking about reinstalling software and moving data files, then each package will be different.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:49 PM on May 3, 2006

Oh, as far as the memory question, don't do it. Even if they new machine and old one take the same form-factor of memory, the new stuff is likely dual-channel and faster.

If you move the old RAM over, you force the new stuff to run at the same speed as the old stuff. Not a good idea.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:49 PM on May 3, 2006

Not directly related to your question, but: I assume this is a Windows XP machine? Make sure you don't put it online unless it's behind a router/firewall of some sort. Then, put it online, and make sure it's got all of the windows updates.
posted by inigo2 at 12:54 PM on May 3, 2006

Personally, after installing, (assuming you're running XP) I'd go to Windows Update and grab all the latest updates. Ditto with Office, if you're running that.

I'd forget about running Norton Antivirus and instead go grab AVG Antivirus' Free Edition. It always seems to provide the best protection. I'd also get Ad-Aware SE Personal and run it every once in a while.

It's possible and easy to swap your memory to the new machine, yes. I'd think about this, though, if the memory is old. It'll slow you down. If you don't really need it, don't do it.

As for the business swapping, what do you need to swap? If they're just folders of files, perhaps this is a good time to do a backup burn onto CD (if you have that capability) and transfer the files onto the new machine that way. If not, or you don't need to back up, you can network the two PCs simply enough and transfer files that way. That's what I did with my desktop > laptop transfer. Or, swap the hard drive to the new machine and transfer that way. I'd imagine you want it for the kids, though, so you'd have to move it back.

For things like favourites and user profiles, most programs have the option to save profiles and configurations so you don't have to set up everything all over again. Exporting favourites from IE, for instance, is quick and simple. File > Import and Export... > Next > Export Favourites.
posted by jimmythefish at 1:01 PM on May 3, 2006

the memory itself isn't dual channel, the motherboard is. the only advantage to "dual channel" marketed memory is that the modules are from the same production run and may have been tested together.
posted by kcm at 1:03 PM on May 3, 2006

I second the use of AVG Antivirus Free Edition. I was about to recommend Sygate Personal Firewall too but I just discoverd it's no longer available while trying to find the URL.

I got my laptop last year and I've tried where possible to avoid installing crap on it. And it seems to have worked OK so far. By crap I mean pervasive software like Real Player, MS Media Player, iTunes. (I have probably way too many hefty proper programs: MS Office, Visual Studio 6, VS.NET, Delphi, Oracle, SQL Server, SQL Express, GIMP but it's still whizzing away happily - 1.5GB RAM though.) So keep it clean if you can!

I would heartily endorse Real Alternative and Media Player Classic as alternatives to MS Media Player and Real. And WinAmp as an MP3 player.

Re. memory - it's insufficient to ask whether old memory will work on a new machine. You need to stipulate (a) what the old memory is (DIMM, SODIMM etc. and speed, whether DDR etc.) and how much would be useful; (b) what your new machine is capable of running, what it is currently has and how many slots you're using (see motherboard manual). If your machine is more than 2 years old (and you say it's 4) I would say it's unlikely to be worth it. The old hard drive on the otherhand is easily added to your new machine.
posted by NailsTheCat at 1:23 PM on May 3, 2006

the memory itself isn't dual channel, the motherboard is. the only advantage to "dual channel" marketed memory is that the modules are from the same production run and may have been tested together.

Right, so mixing older RAM into a newer, likely dual channel, machine would defeat the purpose of having a dual channel machine.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 1:47 PM on May 3, 2006

One thing I like to do when getting a new PC/laptop, is to format the drive right away. Typically the drive comes pre-installed with all kinds of crap, free software, possibly even spyware, that you don't need and will never use. The only way to be sure you can be rid of all of it is to wipe the drive clean, then re-install the OS from scratch, plus whatever included apps you want.

Just make sure you have the restore CDs before you do this, however.

Then, as others have mentioned the first thing to do is to get all the latest Windows updates, and go from there.
posted by Brian James at 1:53 PM on May 3, 2006

something I wrote for my dad recently:

VITAL:

A firewall. Windows XP Service Pack 2 features one, but my understanding is that it is not very good. I recommend turning it off (via Control Panel -> Windows Firewall) and getting another. I use ZoneAlarm (http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10039884.html).

Anti-virus software. Ihere's a free anti-virus service from AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5).

NECESSARY:

Adobe Acrobat (http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/7x/7.0.5/enu/AdbeRdr705_enu_full.exe)

Adobe Acrobat actually kind of sucks; it's far too cumbersome and quite a resource hog. For actually opening .pdf files (rather than looking at them in your browser) I use the Foxit Reader (http://www.download.com/Foxit-PDF-Reader/3000-2079_4-10365812.html)

Flash for Firefox (http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash)

Shockwave (http://sdc.shockwave.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=Shockwave&P2_Platform=Win32&P3_Browser_Version=Netscape6)

Java Runtime Environment (http://javashoplm.sun.com/ECom/docs/Welcome.jsp?StoreId=22&PartDetailId=jre-1.5.0_06-oth-JPR&SiteId=JSC&TransactionId=noreg)

Open Office: I'm guessing that you'll have already acquired the basic MS Office package, but in case not, the free open-source Open Office can accomplish pretty much all the things MS Office does (http://download.openoffice.org/2.0.1/index.html)

IZarc zipper: does all the stuff WinZip does and free (http://www.izarc.org/download.html)


RECOMMENDED:

Firefox Browser (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/). Better, safer, more customizable than MS Internet Explorer. You can customize it with "extensions" like ad-blocking, tabbed browsing, and toolbars (https://addons.mozilla.org/?application=firefox) to make it even better. I can send you a list of the extensions I find useful. You'll still need Internet Explorer for Windows updates, so don't uninstall it--but I do recommend setting its security settings fairly high.

Thunderbird e-mail client (http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/). Better, safer, more customizable than Outlook/Outlook Express.

Mozilla backup utility (http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/download.html). Backs up your Firefox and Thunderbird stuff just in case something goes wrong.

Irfanview (http://www.download.com/IrfanView/3000-2192_4-10387524.html?tag=lst-0-1). Free basic graphic viewer/manipulator.

CrapCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp). Cleans your excess shit up, cleans up your registry issues.

Spyware Blaster (http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022-10196637.html?part=dl-SpywareBl&subj=dl&tag=button). Prevents spyware and shit from installing itself. Will not update itself automatically, but you can update it yourself periodically.

Various Anti-Spyware Programs
I use Adaware (http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5), SpyBot (http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022-10122137.html?part=dl-spybot&subj=dl&) and Ewido (http://www.ewido.net/en/download/) to remove bad things. Update and run them periodically.

Procexp (http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html) is a handy program that shows you all the processes that are currently running.

Weather Watcher (http://www.singerscreations.com/AboutWeatherWatcher.asp) sits in your taskbar, tells you the temperature and more.


TO CONSIDER:

Opera (http://www.opera.com/) is a free browser that is super fast. I don't know too much about it and it doesn't seem as customizable as Firefox, but I'd recommend it over IE any day.


More freeware suggestions at:

http://www.foreword.com/inventory.php?software.inc
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm
http://pricelessware.org/thelist/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_software_packages
http://seetips.blogspot.com/2006/04/best-freeware-guide.html
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,124883,tk,pcw_pr,findid,52632,00.asp
http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/index.html
posted by mookieproof at 2:23 PM on May 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

Helpful
posted by apple scruff at 3:16 PM on May 3, 2006

First, assuming this is a Windows machine, create a new user account for yourself, with a minimal set of rights - membership in the "Users" group, and if you're running Windows XP, membership in the Network Configuration Operators group if you need to change network options frequently.

Then, login with that user account instead of the one you're using now, which is almost certainly in the Administrators group.

This will avoid the vast majority of security problems that people encounter with Windows - spyware, etc. Unfortunately, you may need to learn a bit more about how Windows permissions work as a result, but this stuff is pretty simple. Check out the nonadmin site for more info.
posted by me & my monkey at 4:28 PM on May 3, 2006

Awesome Awesome Awesome! This is Exactly the kind of advice I needed. You guys rock.
posted by wordswinker at 5:34 PM on May 3, 2006

If you're gonna install Firefox, make sure to get all the good extensions: adblock, bugmenot, weatherfox, ietab. Don't uninstall IE - it sucks but you'll need it once in a while.
posted by radioamy at 6:17 PM on May 3, 2006