Weekend Open Forum: What are your software essentials?

Mozilla Firefox
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Flash
Notepad ++
Context
VLC (To play things windows can't)
Convert X to DVD
XAMPP
Windows Live Messanger
Skype
Trillian
Steam
Wireshark
Microsoft Office 2010
Kaspersky Internet Security
CCleaner
Daemon Tools lite
Adobe Reader
Flux (Great little tool if you don't really like bright screens)
Fraps
Google Chrome
HD Tune
IMG Burn
iTunes
Malwarebytes
Nero
Spybot S&D (Only use this and Malwarebytes as additional scanners)
Ventrillo
Winrar
X-Fire
Dropbox
Defraggler
Virtual Box
Peerblock (One of the coolest programs ever can't believe no ones mentioned it :[ )
Utorrent

Xubuntu Restricted Extras.

You can shorten your list by 25% since Flash Player is integrated into all Chrome releases.. That leaves more room for porn (ie. the essentials)

I forgot to list folding@home.

Great question! My choices are:

Avast antivirus
CCleaner
Maxthon Web Browser
Malwarebytes
Utorrent
Open Office Suite
Nero Home Essentials
Winamp

Of course that's just after a clean install. Shortly after I'll also install Adobe Reader, Photoshop, and a good quality DVD burner like 1 click DVD Copy Pro, with the DVD43 decrypter plug in, only for backing up purposes.

Of course, we knew that. :rolleyes:

I'm constantly reviewing and updating applications so my list is in flux. With that said after a clean install of Windows, I install Microsoft Security Essentials, Firefox, Thunderbird, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader. I have many small .exe utilities that don't require installation but I have them on the system, after that I again I review and update applications on a regular basis.

Alrighty

Driver Genius
7-zip
Teracopy
Notepad2
Imgburn
VLC
K-lite
MS Office
Opera Web Browser
Open Freely

Other numerous applications.

Biggest change for me is ditching Firefox for Chrome.

firefox 3.6
winrar
open office
utorrent
vlc
daemontool
notepadplus
trillian
mirc
divx
ventrilo
networx
inputdirector
mouse w/o borders
virtualbox
malwarebytes
magiciso

Windows
AVG, Office, Visual Studio, MS Sql, Windows SPs & updates, WinRar, iTunes, Trillian, Firefox, Power2Go, Shisen-Sho, VNC, Flash, JRE, Acrobat Reader, VLC, DiskImage, PefectDisk, dbPoweramp, Thumbsplus, EditPad Pro, SpybotSD, VmWare, Family Tree.

Kubuntu
Updates to OS and KDE, avogadro, clamav, clamav-daemon, clamtk, empathy, evolution, firefox, freshclam, kalzium, krename, kphotoalbum, kshisen, playonlinux, synaptic, thunderbird, vlc, x264, mysql-server, php5-mysql, flashplugin- nonfree, ubuntu-restricted-extras, workbench, VmWare

Mine are:
Internet Explorer IE8
Microsoft Security Essentials
Malwarebytes
Tcpview
Autoruns
Process Explorer
CCleaner
Word
Abi Word
Adobe Reader
SIW
VLC Media Player
Windows Media Player
I also have the following availabe on my desktop
Notepad
Services.msc
Dfrg.msc
Event Viewer
Devmgmt.msc

- Hardware Drivers (Xtreme-G NVIDIA Drivers, Uni-Xonar ASUS Xonar Essence STX Drivers, Razer Mamba + BlackWidow Ultimate Drivers, Mobo drivers)
- SRWare Iron + Synced to Google with AdBlock, AdSweep, SpeedDial, FastestChrome and Scroll-to-top Button Extensions
- HostsMan
- PeerBlock
- Avast!
- 7Zip
- Adobe Flash
- Daemon Tools Lite
- Foxit Reader
- Java
- K-Lite Mega Codec Pack + 64-bit version
- LibreOffice
- LockHunter
- Windows Updates and MS Essentials (eg VB Runtime Files, .NET, Silverlight and associated updates etc)
- PerfectDisk
- KMPlayer
- WinPatrol
- WinRAR
- VLC
- XMPlay

Opera
Firefox
Chrome - may decide to drop it next time, as it updates without permission)
Alcohol 120%
PDF readers (I use several)
Photoshop
7-zip
Avast
Malwarebytes
Bandwidth monitor
ClocX
Dropbox
Easeus data recovery wizard professional
Microsoft reader
MS Office
Open Office (if I need it; plan on testing LibreOffice sometime)
NetLimiter
RMVB player
Skype
VideoGet
VLC (yes I'm aware it sucks, but I use it regardless)
Winamp

New in testing:
Defraggler (used Auslogics before but defraggler should be better)

A note too all the other commenters on this site about CCleaner:
-Registry cleaners don't do anything, except break something.
-Old unused info in the registry is just that; unused.
-No memory loss, no speed loss.

Do yourselves a favor and uninstall CCleaner and never use it again, if you value the usability of your computers.

A note to all those who use AVG:
-AVG was good in 2008, it's not longer good. Get a better antivirus. Recommendations: Avast, Avira, MSE, or if you're paying: Nod32

A note to all those who use WinRAR: 7-zip has been superior for a long time. WinRAR is old, time to switch over.

Windows 7, Notepad++ has been an awesome notepad replacement as I program and it will treat .C, .H files appropriately and highlight, colorize the code, it remembers documents you had open when you run it and opens them again automatically, love that feature more than I realized I would. Firefox (tried Chrome, hated it) and Thunderbird for email. Codeblocks for my programming, Agent and I still use an OLD version of FTP95 (for Windows 95) that still runs beautifully on all versions of windows.

I don't run any anti-virus on my PC, never get a virus. I will run one once a year or so and never find anything, I'm very careful, haven't had anything I don't think since my windows 95 days, even then... I find the virus checkers a bigger pain.

7-Zip
avast! Antivirus
Avro Keyboard
CCleaner
Defraggler
Dropbox
Freemake Video/Audio Converter+Video Downloader
Google Chrome
JDownloader
Notepad++
OpenOffice
Palringo
pdfsam
SPlayer
SumatraPDF
uTorrent
WinWGet

Ccleaner, VLC media player, Photoshop CS5, Firefox, Chrome, Google talk, MS office 2007 suite, Corel Draw x3, Avast, AVG 2011, Teracopy, 7-zip, Adobe reader, Nero 9, Object Dock, Winamp and of course Need For Speed.