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Setting up a new Windows 11 PC — or resetting a gently used Windows 11 PC, so it’s as good as new — is pretty easy. Deceptively easy, in fact. After you click through the dialog boxes and adjust the few available settings as part of the out-of-the-box experience, you end up at the Windows 11 desktop.
But your work is not complete. Microsoft’s default settings aren’t necessarily tuned for you, and a default setup comes with a handful of annoyances that you can quickly fix.
Also: New laptop? How to wipe your old Windows PC clean before getting rid of it
When I set up a new PC for my personal use, I have a checklist of things I do, starting well before I get to the Windows desktop. I recommend taking a few minutes to do these 9 things before you go any further. I assume that you’re the owner and administrator of the PC and that you’re responsible for managing it.
On a system you own and manage personally, you have two choices for setting up your primary user account: a Microsoft account, or a local account. (If your PC is in a managed corporate environment, you’ll have either a domain account or you’ll sign in with Entra ID, formerly known as Azure Active Directory. Either way, your administrator is the boss, not you, and this article doesn’t apply to you.)
Old-timers will probably prefer a local account because it’s what they’ve used for decades. But it’s the wrong choice these days, at least if you care about security.
Also: How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 in 2025
Using a Microsoft account gives you three advantages you can’t get with a plain-vanilla local account:
- You can turn on two-factor authentication and Windows Hello, which allows you to sign in using fingerprint or face-recognition hardware.
- You can protect the contents of your system drive with strong encryption, even if you’re using Windows 11 Home edition (to make sure encryption is turned on, go to Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption).
- You can use Microsoft’s account recovery tools to recover your encrypted data if you forget your password.
And, of course, if you have a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription that uses your Microsoft account, you get immediate access to Office apps and a terabyte of cloud storage.
You’re not required to use the Microsoft-supplied email address for anything but this single purpose. And if you create a new Microsoft account as part of the Windows 11 setup, it’s not linked to any existing phone number or email address, which means the address can’t be used to track your online activity.
You can create a new Microsoft account during Windows 11 setup.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
(For more details on the differences between each account type, see For Windows 11 setup, which user account type should you choose? How to decide. For step-by-step instructions on securing your Microsoft account, see How to lock down your Microsoft account and keep it safe from outside attackers.)
Also: Windows 11 FAQ: ZDNET’s upgrade guide and everything else you need to know
Oh, and one more thing to look out for if you sign in with a Microsoft account. You may discover that your personal folders — Desktop, Documents, and Pictures — have been moved into the cloud as part of the OneDrive Backup feature.
That might be a good thing, or it might be an annoyance that you need to turn off. For details on exactly what’s happening and how to change things back, see “Is OneDrive moving all your files? How to take back control of your Windows storage.”
The last thing you want to do is make a bunch of customizations, only to discover that something went wrong with the initial setup and you have to start over. So, before moving on, go through this checklist:
- Check that the correct Windows edition is installed and that it’s properly activated. You’ll find these details in System > Activation.
- Right-click Start (or press Windows key + X) and then click Device Manager on the Quick Link menu. If you see any entries with a red X or a yellow exclamation point, you need to find and install the correct driver.
- Open Settings > Windows Update and get the latest updates. You might need to restart at least once to finish installing all available updates.
- Check with the PC manufacturer’s support site for any updated drivers that might be available for system components. Pay special attention to BIOS updates and chipset drivers.
Your Start menu is probably cluttered with shortcuts to apps you don’t need and will never use. PC makers, for example, love to install trial versions of antivirus programs, in the hopes that you’ll buy a full subscription and they’ll get a commission.
In the Windows 10 era, Microsoft cut deals with third-party app developers to sprinkle shortcuts across the Start menu on every new install. Some of those shortcuts represented third-party apps and games, which were presumably placed on this high-value real estate in exchange for bounties paid by the owners of those third-party apps and services. Typically, they included apps for streaming-media services (Spotify, Disney+, Prime Video) and social media (TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook).
Also: The 11 Microsoft apps I ditch on every new Windows install – and the 11 I keep
Microsoft appears to have ended those deals, based on my recent experience installing Windows 11. But they could come back anytime, and they might still be hanging around on PCs that are a few years old.
The good news is that these shortcuts are not installed by default. They take up minuscule amounts of disk space, and each one can be removed quickly.
It takes two clicks to uninstall an unwanted app directly from Start.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
For apps in the Recommended section, right-click the shortcut and then click “Remove from list.” For apps in the Pinned section, right-click on the unwanted icon, click Uninstall, confirm your choice in a dialog box, and repeat as needed. (And yes, I realize that it’s very weird to offer the Uninstall option for an app that is not actually installed, and does not appear in the Installed Apps list in Settings, but here we are.)
Also: 7 quick ways to make Windows 11 less annoying right now
For third-party apps that an OEM installed, you can go to Settings > Apps and uninstall any that you don’t need or want. You’ll also find an assortment of apps from Microsoft itself on that list; many, but not all, can be uninstalled in the same way. For more advice on what to do with these apps, see The 11 Microsoft apps I ditch on every new Windows install – and the 11 I keep.
Compared to its predecessors, the Windows 11 Start menu is severely simplified. It has a section for pinned icons at the top, and below that is a Recommended section, which shows shortcuts to apps and documents you’ve used recently. At the bottom of the menu are your profile picture and a power button — and that’s it. A new Start menu is in the works, but it’s rolling out very slowly.
To make the Start menu a bit more useful, go to Settings > Personalization > Start > and make a few customizations. Use the options at the top to change the allotment of space between the Pinned and Recommended sections. You can’t hide the Recommended section, but you can use the switches on that page to hide shortcuts that would otherwise appear.
At the bottom of the page, click Folders, and you’ll find a menu that lets you add shortcuts to the bottom of the Start menu, in the space to the left of the Power button. This option gives you easy access to some common locations in the file system without the need to open File Explorer first. These locations are the equivalent of the shortcuts that sit in a column to the left of the Start menu in Windows 10.
Add any of these shortcuts to a row along the bottom of the Windows 11 Start menu.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
As for the taskbar, well … Microsoft finds a fresh way to clutter it up with every new release. Fortunately, they also include the tools you need to declutter things. In Windows 11, the default taskbar setup includes these extraneous additions:
- A search button — You don’t need a search box. Just tap the Windows key and start typing to search.
- The Task View button — You don’t need this, either. Use Windows key + Tab to get to the same place.
- Widgets — Ugh.
Also: New laptop? How to wipe your old Windows PC clean before getting rid of it
If you want any of those items, then more power to you. But you can make any or all of those shortcuts disappear with a quick trip to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. Slide all three of these switches to the left to streamline the taskbar, so you can concentrate on the program shortcuts instead.
You can also remove apps that are pinned to the taskbar by default. Right-click any shortcut and choose “Unpin from taskbar.” If you use Chrome or another third-party browser, unpin the Edge icon. You can also unpin the Copilot app icon if you’d rather not use Microsoft’s AI chatbot.
In the previous screenshot, you’ll also notice I turned on dark mode for the system. It’s much easier on the eyes, especially if you’re working in a dark or dimly lit room. You’ll find that option in Settings > Personalization > Colors > Choose Your Mode.
Get rid of taskbar clutter by sliding those top three switches to the Off position.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
There’s some good stuff at the bottom of that Settings page, too. Expand the “Other system tray icons” section to control which icons appear on the right side of the taskbar by default. And if you have multiple displays, be sure to click “Taskbar behaviors” to go through the options for how the taskbar works on a second monitor.
When you move to a new PC, the most painful part of the process is reinstalling all of your apps and their settings. That used to involve a tedious process of searching for the installer files, downloading them from the developer’s site, and hoping that you weren’t tricked into installing a malware-laden fake app instead.
If you dread that prospect, I have good news. Most of the apps you use regularly are now available in trusted repositories that are managed and vetted by Microsoft. Before you install a new app, check to see whether it’s in the Microsoft Store, which now includes traditional Windows desktop apps. If it’s not there, try using the Winget command-line tool.
For those who cringe at the thought of using a command prompt, install the UniGetUI tool, which wraps an easy-to-use shell around the Winget repository.
On a fresh install of Windows 11, Microsoft assumes you want to use its Edge browser. Your other files are going to open in Microsoft apps as well. PDF files will open in Edge, audio and video files in the Media Player app, and so on.
After you install your preferred apps, make sure they’re set as the default. Go to Settings > Default Apps, click the menu listing for those third-party apps, and change whatever needs to be changed.
One particularly pesky setting is the mailto: association, which I’ve found always wants to open in the Outlook (new) app instead of Outlook (classic).
Sure, Windows is working great right now. But you know the day will come when something goes sideways and you need to make a few small repairs.
When that day comes, you will be very happy that you had the foresight to create a bootable USB recovery drive. And if you add the Windows installation files to that drive, you can easily reinstall Windows and get back to work.
I have full instructions here: How to create a Windows recovery drive in 4 easy steps – before it’s too late.
If you signed in with a Microsoft account, then your system drive is encrypted by default. if you’re running Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, you can encrypt any drive and you don’t need a Microsoft account. (But it’s still a good idea — see Item 1 in this list!)
That encryption is strong and, for all practical purposes, unbreakable. If something happens to your PC, you might find yourself unable to read those files without supplying a 48-digit recovery key.
The complete instructions are here: “How to find your BitLocker recovery key – and save a secure backup copy before it’s too late.”
If you signed in to Windows with a Microsoft account when you set up your PC, go to https://microsoft.com/recoverykey and sign in with the same account (personal or business). That opens a list showing the recovery keys for all devices where you’ve used that account.
This is a killer feature if you have Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. It allows you to instantly spin up a secure virtual machine (VM) without any complex setup. The VM is completely isolated from your main system, so you can visit a suspicious website or test an unknown app without risk. When you’re done, close the sandbox, and it vanishes completely, removing all traces of your experiment.
Also: How to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Pro – without overpaying
Although it uses the same virtualization features as Hyper-V, you don’t need to turn on Hyper-V, and it uses only a tiny amount of system resources.
To get started, click Search and type Windows Features, then click the shortcut to open the “Turn Windows features on or off” dialog box. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click the box to the left of the Windows Sandbox feature. After you restart, you’ll find a Windows Sandbox shortcut on the Start menu.
The Windows Sandbox includes almost no apps, only the Edge web browser and File Explorer.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
Note that a Windows Sandbox session is totally stripped down. It includes no third-party apps and almost no Microsoft apps, except the Microsoft Edge browser and File Explorer. You can use the Windows Clipboard to paste a URL into Microsoft Edge or to copy a program file to the sandbox for further exploration.
