What is some good things to do with a new pc/laptop/computer?

So im about to get a new laptop, its no the best but it will be diffrent, currently i have a desktop so a laptop i will be able to move around with.

Its a windows laptop with 12gb of ram, 250 storage, so im hoping its good becasue i got this laptop on the cheaper end becasue its refurbished acording to amazon.

anyways what are some of the first things to do with a laptop besides setting it up and what are some cool uses, i have some ideas on how i might use the laptop but i want to hear what yall have to say.

Gormadt,
@Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Install software relevant software to your hobbies

I’d recommend finding out what kind of video card it has though as that’s a big deciding factor in what you can use it for.

QuietStorm,
@QuietStorm@lemmy.fmhy.ml avatar

my only hobbys are watching youtube and playing games, im totaly struggling to find a new hobby becasue im hard on myself and depressed.

galaxi,

I’m sorry you’ve been feeling depressed. I know how that can make it difficult to start getting into other things. I have a couple suggestions. One is to just let yourself get bored enough to wander around the internet and find cool things. If you find something you want to try like an art tutorial, don’t pressure yourself or anything, just give it a go! I made a lot of art in high school using stuff like photoshop or free programs and it eventually got me into graphic design. I sometimes wish I still had the time to mess around with stuff like that! And another one, if you’re into tech and want to try new hobbies, you might be able to volunteer at the local makerspace which would give you a membership there. I used to not have a lot of hobbies, but I got into 3d printing. It’s so fun to make stuff without needing talent. If you can’t afford a hobby like that, a makerspace would let you try out stuff like that and meet other people with creative hobbies like coding, 3d printing, and making robots. :)

NightOwl,

I recommend the Blender donut tutorial video. It’s free on YouTube and Blender is free. Free is awesome and it’s educational and pretty fun.

nueonetwo,

Digital art is pretty fun if you’re at all artistic, even technical drawing using AutoCAD or a similar software can be fun to learn and will give you a new skill. Try to use something you already like as a jump off point (ie draw a scale model of a weapon from a game).

ryathal,

Get a bigger/better hard drive, 250gb isn’t going to be that useful unless you really only surf the web or work with basic office documents. The average game nowadays is going to take 15-20% of your drive, the worst offenders won’t even fit on it.

LostCause,

If it‘s Windows, I usually do something similar to this: https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-remove-bloatware-from-windows-10/

Also in addition to the good Firefox + uBlock already mentioned, first things I install would be Windows Power Toys, Greenshot for screenshots and Obsidian for writing and note taking that‘s most of what comes to mind.

GreenPlasticSushiGrass,
@GreenPlasticSushiGrass@kbin.social avatar

This might be more of a setup thing, but one of the first websites you visit should be ninite.com in order to download browsers, media players, cloud storage, .zip file decompressors, etc, all in one go.

Candelestine,

Nothing wrong with a cheap, refurbished laptop. Hopefully it has a warranty of some sort.

First thing is wipe all the crap off. The amount can vary dramatically depending on where you got it.

Then go through and configure your windows settings. This is pretty personal, you can just play around with most of them, but probably stay out of advanced menus if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Then start downloading free software you’re going to need. The very basics is an unzipping program and your web browser of choice. Beware windows defender, the default security software with windows, is intended to work specifically with their browser, not other people’s.

Then start downloading optional software you want. Steam, discord, crap like that. Start installing and configuring the settings of the programs one at a time.

Here’s some other people’s opinions. I haven’t watched these, but the sources appear reputable:

youtu.be/L14fTu6dsCoyoutu.be/XEEcxYzNOfIyoutu.be/MfwjISmkEJM

Poggervania,
@Poggervania@kbin.social avatar

Adding on to the Windows Defender bit: it’s also a very good antivirus, so you can pretty much just get away with that and an adblocker on your browser of choice. Been running Firefox with uBlock Origin and Windows Defender for years now at this point and have not had a single virus nor infection on my computer - and I used to use Norton and Avast before that.

That being said, if you’re the kind of person that goes onto hella sketchy sites a lot of the time, might be worth looking into a paid antivirus.

Rhabuko,
@Rhabuko@feddit.de avatar
  • Buying Dwarf Fortress on Steam and getting addicted? 😂
  • Download Blender and start learning 3D modeling. All Blender beginner’s usually start with a Donut tutorial on YouTube 😉
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