Filed under: Windows, Microsoft
Fresh install of XP, now what?
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Jan 27th 2009 at 2:00PM
I had the mothership send me a Dell Latitude so I can finally quit angering Parallels on my Mac (which is down to about 2GB of HD space anyway), and it's about as clean an install as any "corporate" computer will get. For example, since our parent company is publicly traded, the rules insist AV software be included. I'm running GuardianEdge for disk encryption (so those Yahoos don't steal my sekrits), McAfee for AV, PowerDVD and Office 2003. The machine came pre-installed with the latest AOL client (naturally -- and it's really quite useful if you work here) but also with Firefox, which is nice. I had to manually install Flash, which shows how stripped-down the machine is.So now I'm staring at a pretty clean machine, all things considered. What are the top 3 things you readers would suggest I install next?
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
This_Time said 2:08PM on 1-27-2009
#1: GIMP 2.6
#2: The XP Embedded theme because it looks nice
#3: Windows 7
#3 for real: iTunes
With that, you pretty much have your multimedia bases covered, as iTunes comes with quicktime.
Reply
Adam Small said 2:21PM on 1-27-2009
1. Foxmarks
2. Dropbox
3. 7-zip
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shaden79 said 2:23PM on 1-27-2009
yeah i second the move to windows 7.(it really is amazing and surprisingly stable)
cccp codec pack covers multimedia much better then itunes with quicktime though if you don't want to install codecs vlc player can also play almost anything you through at it.
grab some good fire fox add-ons (you can search this site if you dont know any)
skypes good.
and if you want chat software dump the aol and get something like digsby, pidgin, or trillan.
grab some sort of pdf reader (once again you can search this site) and you should be good for everyday things.
shaden79
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Marek Hryc said 3:25PM on 1-27-2009
I thought you could only upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista, not XP
Paul said 2:53PM on 1-27-2009
CCleaner
jZip
Notebpad++
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Brent said 2:35PM on 1-27-2009
1. Dropbox
2. Carbonite
3. Chrome
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Fred said 3:25PM on 1-27-2009
Thanks for dropbox. I had never heard of it. AWESOME
Troy Bowman said 2:28PM on 1-27-2009
1. 7-zip
2. CCleaner
3. Foxit Reader
These all tied for a close fourth...
ImgBurn ~ CDBurnerXP ~ JkDefragGUI
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Punchy said 4:13PM on 1-27-2009
Bingo...first three things I install as well. Must haves.
I also recommend CutePDF Writer and Revo Uninstaller.
sean said 10:52PM on 1-27-2009
Totally agree with your three, Troy. I usually have CCleaner installed before Windows is even activated. :-)
One other under-the-hood utility I always install is PageDefrag.
Marcus said 2:29PM on 1-27-2009
Just off the top of my head...
1. Google Chrome
2. iTunes
3. Picasa
Many others, but that takes care of browsing, music, and photos.
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EGOvoruhk said 2:29PM on 1-27-2009
1.) Combined Community Codec Pack - To watch... anything. Perhaps a little QT Lite too
2.) Daemon Tools Lite - Because lugging around discs with a notebook blows
3.) ImgBurn - To make some ISOs for Daemon Tools
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Rocketboy said 2:32PM on 1-27-2009
iTunes?
Geesh, you might as well just install quicktime and then throw the thing down the stairs.
1. Opera
2. Thunderbird
3. Winamp
Everything else is buttah
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Rocketboy said 2:33PM on 1-27-2009
3.5. Media Player Classic.
TheAngryGamer said 3:33PM on 1-27-2009
"iTunes?
Geesh, you might as well just install quicktime and then throw the thing down the stairs."
Outstanding.
Congrats, you are my internet hero of the day.
Farseer (GDI) said 5:15PM on 1-27-2009
I agree with angry gamer. +1 to you Rocketboy.
Steve said 7:03PM on 1-29-2009
Yep, Winamp rocks.
1. Winamp
2. Digsby
3. 7zip
Could've put Ccleaner, Live Writer, Chrome, uTorrent...
Kismet said 2:33PM on 1-27-2009
VLC
IrfanView
WinRAR
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Stefan said 4:13AM on 2-06-2009
1) ccc Pack
2) µTorrent
3) PeerGuardian 2
4+) Anything you want!
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Timmy P. said 4:14PM on 1-27-2009
God I thought no one was ever going to throw uTorrent out there.
1) Ubuntu!
A)VLC
B)Amarok
C)Compiz-Fusion Extras
2)Windows 7
A) uTorrent
B)VLC
C)Puzzle Pirates