Sunday, May 29, 2011

What to Install on a new Windows PC

I just got a new laptop, and figured I should collate some useful links while my memory is still fresh. Feel free to add your own suggestions...

Security

* Dropbox to sync and backup important files / documents. (Sign up with this referral link to get bonus space for you and me both.)

* MS Security Essentials - best free and lightweight antivirus / anti-malware protection.

* Secunia PSI - automatically keeps track of when your software needs updating.

Internet

* Chrome browser will sync in all your old bookmarks and extensions.
-- Make sure you have LastPass, Adblock Plus, and Mail Checker Plus for Gmail. I like the google calendar button too.
-- Cloudmagic (for faster gmail searching) may need to be installed separately
-- as does Google video chat

* Skype

Office & Productivity

* LibreOffice (the successor of OpenOffice)

* For LaTeX users: MikTeX base, TeXnicCenter editor, and JabRef reference manager.

* PhraseExpress text expansion (based on Lifehacker's recommendation - I haven't yet used it myself)

Other

* F.lux - reddens screen at night to avoid eyestrain & insomnia

* Dungeon Crawl (the greatest game ever)

* Ubuntu (with further recommendations here)

What would you add to this list?

5 comments:

  1. Coretemp - Monitor system temperature from the systray. http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
    VLC Media Player - Play anything. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
    Paint.net - Free and open source image editing. http://www.getpaint.net/
    Winrar - Powerful archive extractor. http://www.rarlab.com/
    Audacity - Simple, free, and open source audio editing. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
    Joukuu - Simple Dropbox/Google Docs/Box.net client.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd recommend TeXlive over MikTeX because then you can have the same TeX distribution on Ubuntu which is nice. It's also a more comprehensive distribution since it's maintained by TUG...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Firefox instead of chrome for all the mindwarping add-ons it offers (think about 1 u'll find it.)

    Kmplayer is better than vlc also (many more builtin codecs & can play x264 hd 720p releases on mi old atix200 laptop)

    utorrent !

    LcdOff : can turn off ur laptop screen (y most still dont hav this option somehow, hey engineers let's waste batteries & sell them the price of a new netbook am i right?)

    Gamebooster : not just for gaming, it turns off many processes & useless services, saving u Ram & makin' evtg a lil bit faster.

    Dota (wc3) & worms (wxw) , best games ever.

    Google desktop : press ctrl twice & it googles ur computer for any file ...totally private/secure & faster than classic winsearch. in fact i dont use it to search but to open programs

    Foobar : best music player i'v found besides winamp(far less cpu usage & ram.size)

    Ontop : allows u to keep any window on top of any other.

    Shutdownmanager : program whatever u want ur comp to do at anytime(or under a certain amount of cpu usage, or when battery is low (hibernate/sleep/reboot/disconnect internet)

    Unlocker assistant : tells u what process blocks the deletion of almost any file u fail 2 erase & allows u to move/rename... it.

    etc...



    Hey, better sharing this than the specs of each 1 config, n topic ty :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. * Anki: spaced repetition app
    * Audacity: audio editor and recorder (also recommended by Matt Harris)
    * Exact Audio Copy: accurate CD rips
    * Foobar2000: audio player (also recommended by H. E.)
    * Focus booster: "Pomodoro technique" implementation
    * JDownloader: download accelerator & manager
    * µTorrent: fast, light torrent client (also recommended by H. E.)
    * TeraCopy: file copier
    * VLC: video player (also recommended by Matt Harris; H. E. recommends KMPlayer instead, which I haven't tried)
    * WikidPad: note-taking app

    Chrome extensions
    * Adblock plus (also recommended by Richard)
    * Google Web Hishtory Updater
    * LastPass (also recommended by Richard)
    * RSS Subscription Extension
    * Session Manager
    * Shareaholic

    ReplyDelete
  5. TeamViewer - This is the best remote desktop client. Install it on your computer and access your computer from your phone. It comes in very handy for me when I run simulations on my laptop that is usually in my lab and I access it on my iPhone.

    ReplyDelete

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