Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
matthewquerzoli.com
Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#2Like many IT-inclined folk, I was recently tasked with setting up two new laptops for my father and brother, who run a mortgage broking business. Bog-standard Office 365 apps, OneDrive, Chrome over Edge, Outlook set up and all that. Given all the commentary I've read about the decline in quality of Windows, I was interested to see how frustrating the set up would be and how much bloatware and unasked-for installs were weighing it down.
Bit of fun too because it coincided with Australia's first World Cup game!
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#3> 24. Download and install Google Chrome. (Yeah, nah, ~6 minutes)
> 1. Make default browser
Install Chrome sure, but also install Firefox with the uBlock Origin addon and make Firefox the default browser.
Seriously, having an adblocker will help older people avoid scams and such. Even the U.S.'s FBI recommends it.
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#4Like many IT-inclined folk, I was recently tasked with setting up two new laptops for my father and brother, who run a mortgage broking business. Bog-standard Office 365 apps, OneDrive, Chrome over Edge, Outlook set up and all that. Given all the commentary I've read about the decline in quality of Windows, I was interested to see how frustrating the set up would be and how much bloatware and unasked-for installs wer…
If they run a mortgage broking business, they should have a very different experience to what's described in this post about setting up like a personal machine. They presumably have business managed Microsoft accounts, none of that setup happens, and most of setup prompts are totally automated away from you after logging into such an account.
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#5That's at least 24 hours faster than it took me to set up my Ubuntu Linux Thinkpad new from Lenovo. I have a document of some 70+ steps in case I ever need to format and set it up again. (My fault for expecting Ubuntu to operate like a normal desktop out of the box) Turns out there are also multiple bugs in the AMD drivers (it was an AMD version of the Thinkpad) that have been known issues for years, and the fix is basically to turn off power saving. Windows version doesn't have those bugs of course.
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#6Step 1: download windows media tool
Step 2: create iso with said tool
Step 3: use rufus to make iso into bootable usb with the installation options you want
Step 4: reformat & install
Step 5: Drivers
Step 6: chrome and/or firefox
Step 7: o365
???
Profit
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#7Despite lots of controversy I still either buy Chromebook or install chromeosFlex (without playstore) for some of my relatives. Just works.
ublock origin lite is OK for these folks that need laptop only for the rare situation to fillup some PDF, airline tickets or printout.
For love or hate, people already have Google account. One password to remember. And google syncs everything incl. password, even payments. So no more brain fatigue.
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#8That's at least 24 hours faster than it took me to set up my Ubuntu Linux Thinkpad new from Lenovo. I have a document of some 70+ steps in case I ever need to format and set it up again. (My fault for expecting Ubuntu to operate like a normal desktop out of the box) Turns out there are also multiple bugs in the AMD drivers (it was an AMD version of the Thinkpad) that have been known issues for years, and the fix is b…
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Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#9I still don't know what "get fucked" means, are these the steps that pissed him off the most?
Re: Setting Up a New Windows Laptop in 2026
#10That's at least 24 hours faster than it took me to set up my Ubuntu Linux Thinkpad new from Lenovo. I have a document of some 70+ steps in case I ever need to format and set it up again. (My fault for expecting Ubuntu to operate like a normal desktop out of the box) Turns out there are also multiple bugs in the AMD drivers (it was an AMD version of the Thinkpad) that have been known issues for years, and the fix is b…
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Ah I see where you're going with this...... I should use FreeBSD on a SPARC64