A fresh install is a half-finished job. The system runs, but it is unpatched, possibly missing one key driver, and has no undo button. Four short jobs in the first hour finish it properly.
Technicians do the same four things on every fresh Mint, in the same order: update, drivers, snapshot, firewall. None takes long, each prevents a different future headache, and together they turn a new install into a system you can trust with real work.
The ISO was frozen the day it was published; your installed system is already behind. Open the Update Manager (the shield icon near the clock), refresh, and apply everything it offers - then reboot if it asks, and check once more. Two rounds is normal on a fresh install.
Prefer the terminal? The same job in two commands:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Type your login password when asked - the screen shows nothing as you type, which is normal Linux behaviour, not a fault.
Open the Driver Manager from the menu. On most machines it will say no additional drivers are needed, and you are done - Linux carries the drivers in the kernel. It earns its keep on two common cases:
Apply, reboot, and confirm the device now works. Do not install drivers from random websites - if Driver Manager does not offer it, your hardware almost certainly does not need it.
Timeshift ships with Mint and snapshots your system files, so a bad update or a broken experiment can be rolled back to a known-good day. Set it up now, while the system is clean:
Note what Timeshift is not: it excludes your personal files by default, so it is a system undo, not a file backup. Your documents still need their own backup habit.
Mint includes a firewall that simply needs switching on. Open Firewall Configuration from the menu and turn it on with the default profile - or from the terminal:
sudo ufw enable
Defaults are correct for home use: outgoing allowed, unsolicited incoming blocked. After these four jobs - updates, drivers, snapshot, firewall - the system is properly yours. Install your browser of choice, your office tools and media players, and use the Welcome Screen's checklist as a final tour.
The video ends at the first boot - this guide is the hour after it. Watch both and your first day on Mint is fully covered.
▶️ Watch Full VideoCompletely. The first update round often includes a new kernel or system base that unlocks a second round. Update, restart, check again - when Update Manager reports the system is up to date with nothing left, you are actually finished. Two or three rounds on day one is typical.
Yes, because they protect different things. Timeshift rolls the system back when an update or setting breaks it, but by default it does not cover your documents and photos. A file backup covers your data against disk failure and accidents. Together they are a complete safety net; either alone has a hole in it.
For a normal home Mint PC, the honest answer is that the built-in protections, a switched-on firewall and installing software only from the Software Manager and official sites cover realistic risk. Antivirus on desktop Linux is mainly useful if you regularly forward files to Windows users and want to avoid passing anything along.