In a week or so I will receive a Dell Inspiron 1501 ($499.00). What should I do first? What should I do second? What should I avoid at all cost? What else will scare me? Let's get it right.

is it preloaded with an opearting system. If not thats a pretty good place to start.

You might want a dual boot so you can have two o/s installed like vista and xp or vista and ubuntu.

Once your os is installed get on the internet make sure it is patched and up to date then download your software you want and your good to go!

I assume (I know) that Dell would load Vista for a "valued customer" every time. If not, I can certainly load it but there was a restriction on the total times one could load from the CD. I did not know that Vista had any "patches" yet, thanks. I will put anti malware, anti virus, and a system cleaner on prior to web exposure.

>is it preloaded with an opearting system. If not thats a pretty good place to start.

if he's buying it new, then of course it'll come with an os. unless you need to, don't dual boot. most users don't need linux, and dual booting with xp is a little tricky. leave it like it is.
>I did not know that Vista had any "patches" yet,

patches are updates, and they've had them ever since it came out. You want to install an antivirus first, get all the updates from Windows Update, then install all the software you're going to use.

dual booting isnt complicated if your going to do vista and xp it does it automatically! and no windows doesnt do patches just upgrades linux/unix do patch upgrades i used patch as a general term. And to be honest you dont really need an anti virus its recommened but can really slow your system down i have been online with vista for six months virus free and without protection!

> dual booting isnt complicated if your going to do vista and xp it does it automatically!

uh, no it doesn't.
and yes windows does have updates and patches.

and yes an antivirus is what you need. avg is free and doesn't slow down your system.

Thanks for the input. So far I am putting "stuff" onto a CD in preparation. The Vista Updates "Essential" KB933729, KB937143, KB938127, KB936782, KB938123, KB938979, KB938194, KB935807, KB931213, KB925902, and KB930178 are ready. A second operating system may be installed at any time, it appears. So, I will deal with that later. I plan to put the IE plug-in for Firefox on there as well as anti-malware, anti-virus, and a system/register cleaner. How does it look so far? Thanks again, you guys saved me a week of web-fight at least.

yow dude what are u trying to acheive, pc overkill. read very carefully, the spec that any windows pc comes with is telling you that with windows install barebone this is what is needed or recommended. non take a look at the spec that a software require say adobe reader V8 (the free one) that more resourses the software will nedd plus what windows will hog. so my advice, the less u put in the better windows with run..

here is a test, when you get your brand new pc and surf the net, open program see how fast that sucker work, 3 month down the life u wonder if molasses was thrown in your pc. and the only time u can get back that speed is with a clean install.

sounds like a plan loyd what bobbyraw is saying is kinda true that your system will slow over time and it is best to keep only what you will need and use on there but everything you put seems kinda essential.

To be honest it should be fine you can always buy some more memory down the line. If you do decide to dual boot at a later date and do encounter problems which you prob wont then check out some of the other threads on here or pm me and i can help you its not hard you just need to add one line to your bootloader/manager.

It sounds like your pretty sorted may i suggest vlc media player is one of the best and most powerful around and can play nearly every format of media, in my opinion and will save you downloading large and sometimes unecessary codec packs.

Again this is only a sugestion you sound like your pretty sorted.

Take a look at this page, especially the "Top 10 Vista Hacks":
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...icleId=9004871
They aren't really hacks, just ways to tweak the system so it's more responsive. There's a lot of other Vista info here as well.
Mostly, though, spend some time learning the differences between Vista and XP. Vista's gotten a lot of bad press, some deserved, but a pre-installed system should be just fine.