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Weekend open forum: What are your software 'essentials' or the first things you install after a clean format?
in-house feature
The operating system debate is too big and heated to diminish its value, but then again, the OS is meant to sit there and serve as the platform where your work is actually done, not in the OS, but in the applications you use.
You may call them your software essentials because you rely on them on a daily basis for work or for pleasure. Another way of going about it is that after a clean format you simply cannot move forward without first installing those applications you use.
Tell us about those software gems you love, share them with the rest of the community, so we can all learn about new apps. As the discussion moves forward, me and other members of the staff will share our favorite applications as well.
Discuss.
You may call them your software essentials because you rely on them on a daily basis for work or for pleasure. Another way of going about it is that after a clean format you simply cannot move forward without first installing those applications you use.
Tell us about those software gems you love, share them with the rest of the community, so we can all learn about new apps. As the discussion moves forward, me and other members of the staff will share our favorite applications as well.
Discuss.
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User Comments (44)
Post a comment| KingDingDong on September 26, 2008 1:38 PM | AVG-soon to be EST or Bitdefender Trillian instant messenger Dvd Decrypter to load dvds Office 03-and 07 Wake on LAN program Amd Orb - to access anything I need at anytime, anywhere. (check it out its awsome-can stream live tv if you have a tuner, real time video if you have a camera,access files, etc....) To be honest thats about it right away, the rest do as i need.
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| glitch32 on September 26, 2008 1:45 PM | All these programs I install whenever I re-image my system, they're all free and work really well with vista and xp. So, here's my list of programs I can't move forward without: Winpatrol, http://www.winpatrol.com Keypass, http://keepass.info/ Revo Uninstaller, http://www.revouninstaller.com/ Cybershredder, http://www.cylog.org/utils_9.asp Imgburn, http://www.imgburn.com/ CDburnerXP, http://cdburnerxp.se/ Comodo Firewall, http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ Paint.net, http://www.getpaint.net/ McAfee site advisor, http://www.siteadvisor.com/ and the usual like Firefox, MS Office, a virus scanner etc...
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| fullmetalvegan on September 26, 2008 2:10 PM | You install a lotta crap glitch. =P As in, a lotta stuff that could probably be handled by one program. i.e. BitDefender has a lot of tools. Firefox, Thunderbird, WLM, BitDefender, CCCP + VLC, WoW (=P) are my core programs. Secondary would be daemon tools, convertxtodvd, getright, office, etc.
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| Kastan on September 26, 2008 2:25 PM | First all drivers Firefox + useful plugins Eset Nod Winamp Windows live messenger Xfire Bsplayer & (FFDshow codec)
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| Cueto_99 on September 26, 2008 2:50 PM | After formatting and reinstalling an OS (usually XP) it's vital for me to install... AVG Free Antivirus: http://free.avg.com/ww.download?prd=afe K-lite Codec Pack: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_lite_codec_pack.htm DFX audio enhancer (not free, but I use the shareware limited version, it still rocks, literally) iTunes (Just to sincronize ipod music) Mozilla Firefox 3 Office XP McAfee site advisor PowerISO WinRar CPU-Z / GPU-Z / ATi Tray Tools That's basically it... maybe some games and Eclipse, but I can't live without the ones mentioned above.
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| Soul Harvester on September 26, 2008 2:53 PM | Firefox 3 + plugins Thunderbird K3B - an amazing burning/mastering suite tsclient - best remote desktop/vnc/all around terminal client around x11vnc - for remote control Pidgin - all messengers in one Amsn - MSN messenger clone Google Earth - so awesome OpenOffice - of course screen - awesome app for remote management of consoles Audacious and Amarok - of course Wine - mostly for ancient windows games i can't get rid of Dosbox -ditto Ktorrent - of course VirtualBox xine Everything I need for a complete desktop !
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| jhill3d on September 26, 2008 3:42 PM | MS Office 2007 Norton 360 Adobe CS3 Master Collection (everything) Autodesk 3DSMAX 2009 Vray and Shader Libraries FileZilla ImgBurn RD Tabs (to control my render farm) Vegas Pro Mdm Zinc Sidebar Gadgets (Monitors, color selector, weather, etc..) Windows Media Encoder x64 MyLib (DVD backup database) trying out Camel Disc now WinRAR DIVX Suite Magic ISO Notepad++ TweakVI Perfect Disk 2008 LogMeIn Applian FLV player
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| GangGreen on September 26, 2008 4:22 PM | 1- Sygate Firewall 2- WinPatrol 3- Unlocker 4- CCleaner 5- RegScrub 6- Hijack This 7- WinToolsNet Now it's safe(r) to proceed.....
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| raul_bejarano on September 26, 2008 5:05 PM | First all the drivers and available updates from Microsoft. Then: MS Office 2007 Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Malware Bytes CCleaner Spybot Windows Live Messenger Avast! Antivirus
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| old101 on September 26, 2008 5:45 PM | After MS updates: Eset Smart Security Threatfire Firefox 3 + addons + RoboForm Toolbar Thunderbird Revo Uninstaller CCleaner Open Office EverNote In about that order. My data files and backup password manager are not on drive C.
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| Julio on September 26, 2008 5:50 PM | My work/personal essentials go like this: Roboform - Awesome password manager, I barely remember some of my passwords so this comes as a real essential Firefox 3 - my preferred browser although work demands me to also install and test using all other browsers out there MS Office Suite - Word and Excel are the basics but I also rely more heavily on Outlook and OneNote Popfile – Bayes-based spam filtering Trillian 3.1 - Same IM client for the past 3+ years, not even the latest version can touch it Adobe Fireworks - Vector-based image editing WinSCP – Better than vanilla FTP, more secure UltraEdit – Notepad on steroids SecureCRT – Even more secure environment (ssh) for checking on the TS server Also Web-based: Gmail, Google Calendar.
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| captain828 on September 26, 2008 6:45 PM | 1. MS updates 2. Display Driver (read: latest GeForce) 3. Mouse Driver (read: latest Setpoint) 4. NOD32 3.0 (currently still using 2.70) 5. Latest WinRAR 6. Latest DirectX re-dist 7. Firefox 3.0 + FEBE so i can restore my previous backup 8. Office 2007 9. Usual HD-ready codecs: Latest CCCP + FFDShow 1980 + various Core codecs (FLAC, Vorbis) + AC3 Filter + Matroska Splitter + QT Lite (used to be called QT Alternative) 10. PowerDVD 8.0 11. Diskeeper 2008 12. Latest Rivatuner 13. Latest Hamachi 14. Latest Ventrilo + srv 15. Latest FRAPS 16. Encoding software: VirtualDub + DivX 6.6 Pro + AC3 ACM Codec + latest mkvMerge 17. Adope Premiere Pro CS3 + After Effects CS3 + Photoshop CS3 18. Yahoo! Messenger 19. Picture Motion Browser ...and I think that covers most of the stuff
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| ElShotte on September 26, 2008 7:10 PM | After Format, Personal Workstation: All Newest Drivers Windows Update LiveMessenger (Plus Addon) Skype WinRAR Maya 2008 Photoshop CS2 GoLive CS2 FlashFXP TortoiseSVN Notepad++ Daemon Tools VLC Player Games...... When reinstalling OS on someone's PC: Latest Drivers Windows Update SpyBot S&D Symantec AV VLC Player (Other per-user apps)
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| JosVilches on September 26, 2008 7:41 PM | My essentials list goes something like this: Firefox 3 + Plug-ins RoboForm - Great password manager, works seamlessly with Firefox Launchy - I like to keep my desktop clean and this awesome tool lets me launch any application (or folder, document, and much more) with just a few keystrokes. Try it! MS Office - Basically Word, Excel and Outlook Adobe Fireworks - For some basic image editing Pidgin - though sometimes go back to Windows Live Messenger or Trillian Filezilla - A free FTP client. Notepad++ - Basically notepad with a tabbed UI, code highlighting and a bunch of other features. FeedReader - A powerful yet simple RSS reader. Avira AntiVir Personal - relatively lightweight anti-virus protection Rainlendar - Works with Google Calendar (paid version) uTorrent - Hands down the best torrent client out there VLC Media Player - Plays just about anything you throw at it And perhaps not 'essential' per se but still useful to have around: CCleaner AutoHotKey Process Explorer MyUninstaller FastStone Capture
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| mGuy on September 26, 2008 8:16 PM | drivers, Windows update CA AntiVirus (free from RR) or AV dujour Firefox, 7zip, gVim, putty cpu-z and HWMonitor (CPUID) remove compress disk from disk cleanup and Windows XP Hacks #54 Speed up network browsing XP PowerToys: open command window here, Power calculator, Image resizer DiskPie2 (old PCmag utility)
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| Julio on September 26, 2008 8:25 PM | Hmmm, forgot to mention VLC media player as one of my essentials. Highly recommended if you don't mind a super compatible, zero bloat media player.
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| deepmartin on September 26, 2008 8:48 PM | Firefox 3 plus plugins Trillian spybot with teatimer Reg scrub XP Ultimate defrag and then i worry about Itunes VLC player cFosSpeed Traffic Shaping winrar
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| The Muffin Man on September 26, 2008 9:04 PM | -VirtualGirlHD
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| The Muffin Man on September 26, 2008 9:06 PM | Originally posted by The Muffin Man: -VirtualGirlHD Last time I let my friends near my PC -Open with Notepad vista regedit -xfire -Windows Live messenger -CoD 4 -Kaspersky AV The rest gets added when I need it
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| whiffen on September 26, 2008 9:17 PM | Newest drivers then, Eset Smart Security Diskeeper CCleaner VLC iTunes Firefox Windows live messenger Steam Then whatever games I want to play.
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| skitzo_zac on September 26, 2008 9:22 PM | Drivers and updates Comodo Firewall AVG Anti Virus Opera K-lite codecs Live Messenger Zune Theme Folding@Home (for CPU & GPU) Last FM Xfire Thats pretty much it I think, apart from whatever game(s) I'm into at the time.
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| 9Nails on September 26, 2008 10:04 PM | 1. Firefox (Essentials: AdBlock, Flash, FireGestures, Quicktime) 2. UltraEdit 3. MS Office 2003 4. Internet Explorer Pro 5. WinAmp 6. Foxit PDF Reader 7. Cyberlink Power DVD / HD Suite 8. Avast Free 9. Steam 10. Nero
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| Poertner_1274 on September 26, 2008 10:09 PM | In no particular order: AVG Irfanview mIRC Opera VLC MS Office [Edited by Poertner_1274 on 2008-09-26 22:14:21]
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| redk on September 26, 2008 10:15 PM | Wow, there's a lot. RegSupreme Sybot S&D Firefox 3.0 VSO ConvertXtoDVD Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Blue Edition Windows Live (Wave 3 Beta) VLC Player iTunes Quicktime Limewire Pro uTorrent Audacity Adobe CS2 Magic ISO
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| ElShotte on September 26, 2008 10:34 PM | Ahh yeah, I forgot FireFox 3 in my comment, I have a question, why does everyone install password managers when FireFox remembers them for you...?
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