Need some advice for my New Computer

I’m not a privacy expert at all but I want to make sure I have the right things in place and get into the habit of using safer programs/browsers early on. I have a new laptop, it’s completely blank and stuff, so any advice on where to begin with security or precautions to take is much appreciated

Edit: The OS is currently Windows. I wasn’t given a choice on which one to use on startup (it was already set to …

advice computer privacy