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Weekend Open Forum: What are your software essentials?
Let's revisit an old topic for this installment of the Weekend Open Forum. Three years ago we asked about your software 'essentials', those that you rely on everyday and usually install on your machine first thing after a clean install.
For me things have changed quite drastically since then. For the last year or so I've been using Mac OS X as my primary operating system so I was forced to research and, for the most part, become accustomed to a new assortment of apps to get stuff done. I still rely on Microsoft Office for word processing and firing up a spreadsheet once in a while, but I've switched browsers from Firefox to Chrome, my password manager from RoboForm to LastPass, and I don't run an anti-virus 24/7 anymore.
Other essentials: Mail.app, Adium for instant messaging, Dropbox for cloud storage and synchronization, Reeder for RSS feeds, Pixelmator for image editing, MPlayer OSX for video playback, Droplr for quick image sharing, Evernote for notetaking and archiving, Air Video to stream videos from my computer, among others.
What about you: what are your software essentials and how have they changed over the past few years?
User Comments: 77
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Cubase, Kontakt, FM8, Korg ALC, and ASIO4ALL.
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After a clean install of windows the first things i install are Avast, FireFox, Steam.
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Staff
Nice one, Jose.
Today vs. three years ago (in parenthesis): Lastpass (Roboform), Firefox/Chrome (Firefox).
Same as before but newer versions: Office, Trillian, Fireworks, WinSCP, Ultraedit, VLC.
New: Droplr, Filezilla (mac), Textwrangler (mac)
Don't use anymore: SecureCRT, Popfile
Web-based: Gmail, Google Calendar + Chartbeat, Backpack
Other apps for specific uses: uTorrent/Transmission, Notepad, Frontpage, IE, OpenVPN, WinMerge.
All in all, the apps I use daily have changed very little.
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Free Download manager, uTorrent, Ccleaner, Defraggler, VLC media player, Shark007 codecs, Firefox, Chrome, Google talk, MS office, Openoffice, Avast, Teamviewer, Teracopy, 7-zip, Adobe reader, Audacity, X-lite, LastPass.
Yes, I have a long list.
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After I install windows 7 or XP I usually download and install avast, firefox, ccleaner, itunes, and flash player. All my computers have to have these. Plus a few addons for firefox.
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Thats just the main ones i download first but i get alot more! Including photoshop and filezilla.
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Basic essentials:
Art: Illuststudio + Faststone Maxview
Media: Foobar 2000 + Audacity + Media player classic HC + AviSynth
Internet: Opera + Palmoon + Aurora + Iron + Privoxy + Windows firewall control + Miranda + PuTTY + FileZilla
Office: Libra office + *Palmoon (Custom portable CMS) + Evince + WordWeb
Tools: X-Mouse + Auto Hot Key + Unlocker + Hash Tabs + 7-zip + CDisplayEx + virtual Box
Games: Dolphin + PCSX2 + Minesweeper Pro
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All OS X:
Sparrow, Quicksilver, Coda, Textmate, Transmission, TV Shows.
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Opera
Firefox
Comodo AV
Sandboxie
Virtualbox
Copernic Dektop Search
Picasa
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack with Media Player Classic
Daemon tools
Utorrent
Shareaza
notepad++
audacity
avidemux
C(rap)Cleaner
PDFCreator
Foxit reader
7zip
Unlocker
... and that's all
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Firefox
VMware Workstation
iTunes
Spotify
The entire MS Office 2010 suite
Utorrent
VLC Media Player
Photoshop CS5
Avast Internet Security
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I like to keep my programs to a minimum, although I am not sure if this benefits or hiders me more.
*Firefox Beta
*Java (32 and 64 bit and 64 bit JDK)
*eclipse (for Java programming)
*PDF X-Change (fast, has a firefox plugin)
*open office (saved me 100 bucks)
*PSPad Editor (got it a while ago for hexadecimal editing and have never switched over to something more feature rich like notepad++)
*gimp (so many features once you figure out how to use them)
*VLC media player (when windows media player can't open a file, I like how it does not have to install, you just unzip the download folder and place it where ever you want)
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After a clean install of windows.
Office Suite
Daemon Tools
winrar
XBMC
Adobe X Suite
DVDFab
Misc DVD/Bluray Software (BDInfo,eac3to,EAC3toGUI,Ripbot,tsMuxer,VDubMod)
Nero
Android SDK Tools
WBFS Manager
Calibre
That covers just about everything that I would use on a semi regular basis. Although I should add Ghost to that as well since I use that to create/restore an image with the (core) software.
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opps, forgot vlc player on that list.
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Ccleaner, Perfect Disk 12, Avast! 6.0, Catalyst,
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uTorrent, CCleaner, Chrome, Media Player Classic, Skype, Steam, and Photoshop.
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Media:
VLC
DivX
PowerDVD9 (for Blu-Ray playback)
Social:
Windows Live Messenger
Skype
Other stuff:
Ccleaner
WinRAR
CPUID's CPU-Z
CPUID's HWMonitor
Adobe Flash
Adobe Acrobat Reader
I like to keep it light.
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firefox & lots of addons
utorrent
kaspersky anti-virus
comodo firewall
malware bytes
ccleaner
rainmeter
codex pack for windows media player
deamon tools
word / excel / pp
paint.net
autocad
sketchup
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Opera of course
Ccleaner
Steam
AIMP Player
K-Lite Codec Pack
MatLab
Microsoft Office
Rdesc
Trillian
Avira
CD Burner XP
Fraps
Core Temp
PDF-Viewer
7-Zip
MP3 Tag
Catalyst
And many more actually
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Windows:
Auslogics Disk Defrag
CC Cleaner
Flash
Browsers (Depends on type of computer and user but Firefox for me)
If XP then Taskbar Shuffle is a must
Microsoft Security Essentials
VLC Player or K-Lite Codecs For WinMPlayer
Paint.net
Java
Foxit or Sumatra PDF Reader
OSX:
Transmission
Handbrake
Just Looking
Sophos Anti Virus
The UnArchiver
Flip4Mac
Perian
iZip or Keka
Burn Or SimplyBurns
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windows 7 home premium x64:
vlc mediaplayer
k-lite megacodec pack
paint.net
microsoft security essentials
libreoffice
mozilla firefox 7.0.1
ie9
ccleaner
7zip
cyberlink photodirector 2011 (beta tester, given with retail key by cyberlink
)dap free
orbit (secondary download manager)
imageburn
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-chrome
-ccleaner
-malwarebytes antimalware
-comodo (firewall only)
-cdburnerxp
-daemon tools lite
-imgburn
-notepad++
-utorrent
-sabnzbd
-nitro pdf reader (or foxit)
-7zip
-everything
-cccp
-sharepod
-winamp
-checksums
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-Firefox
-CCleaner
-AutoRuns
-Process Explorer
-Notepad++
-7zip
-foobar2000
-CPUID Hardware Monitor
-Internet Download Manager
-Paint.NET
-uTorrent
-K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
-Dataram RAMDisk
-Daemon Tools Lite
-Yahoo! Messenger
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spydercanopus said:
Alcohol 120, AnyDVDHD, Bullzip, CCleaner, ClownBD, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Handbrake, Karen's Directory Printer, Media Player Classic, Nero suite, Notepad ++, RAMDisk, Skype, Steam, TeamViewer, WinRAR
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Windows Update for 1 hour =P
First security: MSE, Spybot S&D, Adaware
Internet: Chrome and Firefox
Then stuff to install other stuff: 7-zip, Quickpar, Daemon Tools
Media: VLC, Media Player Classic
The rest: Newsbin Pro, Skype, Adobe Reader, CC Cleaner, CPUID, CoreTemp, LibreOffice, MixMeister, Steam, CD Burner XP
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Chrome
AVG
Flash Player
Porn
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