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What programs do you load after a clean Windows install? - Ask DLS
When I brought home my shiny new laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium earlier this year, I didn't know how lucky I was. My new PC shut down when I asked it to, slept when I closed the lid, and didn't cause glitches every time I started playing audio.
After spending some time pulling my hair out trying to get to the bottom of things, I figured the easiest way to solve some of my problems would be just to do a clean install of Windows. While programs like CCleaner are great for dusting the cobwebs of your windows registry, nothing works as well as reformatting the hard drive.
Of course, this was also an excellent opportunity to make sure I have a good backup of all my important data files, and to download and install just the applications that are most important to me in daily life. So after the jump is a list of the applications I started loading on my PC after restoring Windows. We'd love to know what programs you can't live without and what are the first things you load on a new PC?
Security applications
- AVG Free (anti-virus)
- Windows Defender (anti-spyware)
Graphics and video applications
- Irfanview (image viewer/editor)
- Media Player Classic (movie player)
- Quicktime Alternative
- RealAlternative
- AllCapture (screencasting application)
Office applications
- OpenOffice.org (office suite)
- AbiWord (A great light-weight word processor for when you don't need all of OpenOffice.org's features)
- Microsoft Outlook (mostly for synchronizing data with my Windows Mobile PDA)
- Windows Mobile Device Center (for syncing with my PDA)
Audio applications
- Audacity (audio editor)
- Cool Edit 2000 (yeah, I know, old school, but I've had a licensed copy lying around for years)
- Reaper (audio editor)
- Winamp (no, really)
- Juice (podcast aggregator)
- WinLAME (audio compression utility)
- Levelator (excellent tool for making your audio recordings sound good)
- Sandboxie (lets you install applications in an isolated environment)
- 7-Zip (compression utility)
- Absolute Uninstaller (alternative to Windows uninstaller
- doPDF (install a virtual printer that lets you print any document as a PDF)
Comments
75
Subscribe to commentsEbbe KristensenNov 19th 2007 8:27AM
- Visual Slickedit - I never got my brains around Emacs
- Subversion & TortoiseSVN
- Whichever compilers and/or IDE's needed to work
- ev41 - HP-41 emulator
- Superflexiblefilesynchronizer - cheesy name but it gets the job done. Couldn't live without it.
- Firefox + ViewMyCurrency, IETab, Addblock+, Calling ID, External Application Buttons, Image Zoom and PDF Download
- LinkStash to have portable links without relying on a web service.
- 4NT from JPSoft. Does everthing cmd.exe does plus most of everything you wished cmd.exe could do.
Stuart HallidayNov 19th 2007 8:33AM
Interesting.
Hardly anyone here installed basic utilities to help keep their PCs stable and working!
You need to install these freebies :
Pagedefrag - Keeps the registry defraged.
Defrag_XP - defrags your harddrive in the background.
Procexp.exe - Process Explorer - quick kill and monitor.
Autorun - tells you what's running at startup.
Spywareblaster - best anti-malware stopper in the world.
Dict.exe - a cmd line dictionary tool.
UPHCLEAN - Microsoft's profile cleaner.
Autohotkey - because life's too short.
ImgBurn - because who needs Nero?
MPC - of course.
Smartmontools - because I know the drive will fail someday.
IrfanView - because I like fast viewers.
Folderexpress - because why spend time trying to find things?
I set the following environmental variable:
DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
SO that famous bug in the Device Manager which stops it displaying hidden devices doesn't raise its head.
I set the page file to a fixed 3X RAM.
I use Hibernation whenever possible - because life is too short waiting for reboots.
etc, etc.
Then I'll think about some applications.
meshiNov 19th 2007 10:59AM
most important for me :
Spy Emergency http://www.spy-emergency.com Spyware Removal
FortKnox Firewall http://www.fortknox-firewall.com personal firewall
Mozilla Firefox http://www.mozilla.com internet browser
JamesNov 19th 2007 12:04PM
Two questiosns (DLS, if you notice this, maybe you can run a reader poll):
1.) Is AVC the free AV "of choice" for nerds like us right now? I would love something that does RT scanning on downloads, etc. automagically, without noticeable performance hit. I use AVC on one PC, Norton 8 (from back in my college days -- they still keep the engine/defs up to date) on another, and Prevx2 on a third. I don't have a reliable way of benchmarking them. Some say it's not really worth running any AV at all unless you visit "shady" sites (in which case do a manual scan of anything you download)... not sure my comfort zone has grown that much yet.
2.) Likewise, if you're behind a NAT router that has no open ports on the outside, is it still necessary/desirable to use a software firewall? I don't, because all the ones I've used tend to break shit until you've tweaked them for a couple weeks, and I'm not aware of any threat vector that concerns me. I use WPA2 and MAC control on my wireless network, so I'm not especially concerned about anybody getting LAN access to my network, if that's an issue.
Richard WillisNov 22nd 2007 9:04PM
If you have a usb mp3 player other than an iPod, I like Juice and 'synctoy' from MS power tools a lot. It allows me to download my podcast feeds to my pc automatically and then setup synctoy to send them over to my mp3 player when I conenct it and/or schedule it to run.
bobNov 21st 2007 8:56AM
firefox
winrar
daemon toolz
bitlord
newzbin
ati tools
winamp
limewire
VLC
tor
zonealarm
s2fNov 22nd 2007 2:49PM
VLC Media Player is the only other essential.
michelleNov 22nd 2007 3:17PM
I like to have a fresh clean computer after i do a fresh install. i believe in minimal programs being used on a computer for smooth running. After a fresh install in install the following-
Symantec Corprate Anti-Virus
Webroot Spyweeper if i have it- if not SpyBot
Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Office
yahoo messenger
thats it!
PeterNov 24th 2007 5:05PM
I was just thinking about the same thing. My computer is getting ready for a reinstall, which sucks since I just finished customizing my Ubuntu install, oh well, practice makes perfect right?
Well the first thing I usually install is Firefox, then goes Pidgin and then it is usually followed by AVG, but since my school network is so restrictive, it is Symantec, but that is after I get this thing called Cisco Clean Access and every single Windows Update known to man.
After that it goes Media Player Classic, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Joost, putty, Miro, GameTap client, Visual Studio Express 2005 and then Mozy to get all my files back.
Jon PapeNov 25th 2007 1:30PM
IZArc, Daimion Tools, CDisplay
xela730Nov 25th 2007 5:49PM
I reformat every six months and install my apps in this specific order:
1. CCleaner
2. PerfectDisk
3. Kaspersky Internet Security
4. Firefox
5. Thunderbird
6. iTunes
7. Adobe Applications: Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Elements
8. MS Office 07: Word, Excel
9. Extensis Font Manager
10. Nero
11. VLC player
12. 7zip
13. Snagit
With these apps, I can handle just about any curve the digital world throws at me. I would like to migrate to Open Office, but it just does not work as well as MS Office.
Smart GuyNov 25th 2007 5:52PM
COMODO free fire wall the best and it's free.
I disable my NAV 2008 firewall and replace it with COMODO. Lock down that Internet connection.
XP SP2 is lame and not safe. ZoneAlarm is not very safe and a hasbeen.
(get all your XP updates)
Don't get all your XP updates on line if your new recovery installation leaves you back to XP SP1.
You will get infected online before you have a chance to update to SP2 level and beyond.
Don't enter the Internet for updates with a computer with only XP SP1. You can bittorent XP update software or get free Microsoft SP2 update on CD.
This is where most older machine re-installs fail if they brave on-line with a pre XP SP2 installation.
free Virus protection is worth what it costs
chances are your local ISP provider will let you download a decent security suite free
CCleaner free download to clean temps set to auto
Opera the fastest safest browser on the planet.
FireFox is not bad but has almost as many security holes monthly as IE7. (why) It's not that safe because it is trying too hard to become the IE7 replacement with all the plugins.
Use Opera and a good temp file cleaner (ccleaner) and you don't need antispyware control application.
Download install free Microsoft PowerPoint viewer.
Even if you install an Office suite most people will want the fast viewer for email attachments and never create or use the full PowerPoint program.
Get latest Adobe reader.
Erunt ....... a free survival program that is free.
Find it and install it. Turn off XP restore points it is a resource hog and almost useless.
Erunt will save registry and the current state of new installation and 'save ur ass' when things go south.
Use G mail and stop using your 10Mb crappy ISP email account. It will filter most SPAM, viruses and trojans.
If you use any IM programs .....
You need one of the top 2 AntiVirus programs
This year that would be: NOD32 and Norton 2008.
IM is the weak link along with IE7 browser and temp files that don't get cleaned.
Nick MarquesNov 25th 2007 7:39PM
In no particular order:
Trillian Astra Alpha
VLC Media Player
Winamp
Synergy
AnyDVD
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3
Adobe Audition 3
SnagIt
Daemon Tools Pro
Easy CD-DA Extractor
Nero 8 Ultra Edition
Helium Music Manager 2007
uTorrent
SmartFTP
WinRAR
R-Studio (Just In Case!)
True Launch Bar
And for those skeptical, all software listed above that isn't open source is paid for in full.
NDNov 26th 2007 6:29PM
itunes, obviously
best mp3 player, organiser and tagger for windows by miles, although i hate to say it
DarkGhost1Nov 28th 2007 9:02AM
Pretty much network magic, winrar, sound driver, bluetooth driver, quicktime, divx, nero, aim, xfire, bunch a games, paint.net, and direct x. i go online ad download flash, java, shockwave, and all of that jazz.