Ask HN: What are the first things you do on a new Windows 10 PC? Any checklists?

The first thing I do is update the BIOS, download the newest drivers and a copy of Firefox, and create install media. I would then perform a clean install. I liked doing this to make sure I was clear of any junkware (as a don't trust uninstallers) and to make sure my installation media worked.

After reinstalling I would create a new, regular, user account for normal use.

Stare at it and wonder how this spying device became okay. If it's my system, find a new hard drive and instructions on how to install linux for this hardware. remove hard drive.

If it's someone else's system, explain to them that perhaps every single keystroke is saved and sent to microsoft, along with other data. Explain that data could be used by advertisers to influence your decisions, but also by attorneys, gov agencies and more. Suggest they try linux. Walk them through the setup process and point out so many default settings that are privacy averse. Again suggest linux. Research how to make the hardware dual-boot. Explain that others windows systems may have already been setup to include these privacy stealing defaults and other data stealing parts of the Microsoft ecosystem could also be hoovering up data. Suggest putting a sticker on the keyboard and screen and box warning other people who may use it, that all information sent or received from said device is being recorded and shared by multiple different groups of people and can later be used against you by any number of various agencies.

Show them linux running, demand that they use it unless they need the windows partition for gaming. If laptop, find schematic to cut the microphone hardware.

ive noticed my checklist has been slowly shrinking as microsoft sees fit to takeover alot of the typical first-run duties from the user

some months ago i realized i no longer have to go grab my gpu drivers from a website or 'fresh install essentials' backup usb

my current windows box is about a week old, and it occurred to me the other day that i didn't even have to go in and do little things like enabling the viewing of hidden files, or displaying file extensions 100% of the time etc - alot of these settings are attached to your microsoft account, if you choose to use one.

haven't tried to debloat it yet, as someone else mentioned the script you used last time might not work this time, but a decent way to make it somewhat tolerable is using classic shell to make the start menu far, far more appealing

i recently fully switched over from using ninite to using chocolatey. so far i have yet to find an application i need or want that choco doesn't have

also - and i really must beg forgiveness here - that new windows terminal... it ain't half bad... but mintty/wsltty are still the goto's for interacting with WSL

my choco install -g essentials:

firefox

speedfan

steam

vscodium / atom

ffmpeg / vlc

autohotkey

etcher

simplenote

irfanview

winamp / foobar / picard