Windows Registration Pre-Flight (3 steps)

You're going to have to all this stuff anyway, so you might as well get it out of the way in one go.

Warning: many "You must restart your computer for these changes to take effect" ahead.

Important: Make sure that you're plugged into the residential network - a random wireless network won't work!

1. Install all Windows updates.

Open up Internet Explorer and head to update.microsoft.com.

• You may need to install multiple rounds of updates. Keep checking in with the website until it has nothing further for you.

2. Install an anti-spyware program

You must have at least one of the following programs installed and updated:

• Windows Defender
• Spybot: Search and Destroy
• AdAware

3. Install a supported anti-virus program.

We will supply you with anti-virus software (for free) if you don't currently have a supported program installed

Supported AV software:

• McAfee AntiVirus
• AVG Anti-Virus
• Norton AntiVirus (if you have the trial version of this, you can upgrade, but that costs money, unlike the preceding options).

Important: A lot of new laptops come with "30 day trial" anti-virus software. Please uninstall the trial software and install one of the three complete options (installation instructions below).

For those of you who have already purchased incompatible software, we're sorry. All we can say is that at least we give you one of them for free.

Uninstalling existing anti-virus software

A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

Go to Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs

• If you don't see Add/Remove programs, click the Classic View link on the left

Uninstall all parts of your pre-existing AV software (there will probably be multiple entries).

Getting/installing an anti-virus program

• McAfee - download the (free) Pomona version from antivirus.pomona.edu
• AVG - download the free version from free.grisoft.com
• Norton - Drive over to Best Buy and purchase a copy. Alternately, if you have a trial version of Norton already installed, you can just upgrade it to the full version.

Once you install the software, make sure you update the virus definitions.