15 Programs That Should be on Any New PC

[back_by_demand]

Why not XBMC, clearly the best media player in existance

 

[wavetrex]

No Winamp or Foobar for music? Instead you recommend the shitty iTunes? Really?
No IrfanView for viewing pictures? (And you didn't include ANY picture VIEWING program... instead you put two for editing... really, not that many people actually edit anything at all)
TweetDeck? Wtf? Not everyone is obsessed with shouting "hey, here's what I do!!!"... pfff
Open Office is a weird choice, that program is rotting...
I would choose Digsby instead of Pidgin (which has also e-mail client AND twitter/facebook/other unnecessary stuff ... which some people use)
No Total Commander for file management? ... well, it's not "free", but it works as shareware/try mode very well (doesn't expire)

How about a free dvd burning like InfraRecorder?
And also maybe WinRAR or 7zip in case you want to pack/unpack something.

Other than that, the list is decent, so 4 stars(out of 5) from me.

I suggest you check this website: http://www.filehippo.com/ - It has a couple of directly downloadable freeware programs, which they maintain always updated. Very good!

 

[RazorBurn]

Add Total Commander (First thing I ever did after installing Windows)
Add Daemon Tools Lire
Add Internet Download Manager or Free Download Manager
Replace VLC with PotPlayer or MPC-HC w/ LAV Filters
Replace OpenOffice with LibreOffice

 

[olaf]

Gom Player over VLC any time, Total Commander, Daemon Tools Lite,
iTunes

 

[godnodog]

IMO, i fail to see the relevance to Pidgin, iTunes, TweetDeck should be on any new PC.
Where´s a manager for compressed files like for example Winrar?
I love VLC but, again IMO, MPC is better.
You have CCleaner, but no Defraggler from the same guys.
How about a download manager?

 

[DSpider]

What an awful, awful list!

7-Zip
ClipX
VolumeTray
QuickSFV
AutoHotkey
Daemon Tools
Foobar2000
Media Player Classic - Home Cinema
uTorrent
VSFilter
GIMP
Inkscape
IrfanView
Foxit Reader / Adobe Reader
Kindle for PC

 

[DSpider]

Daemon Tools Lite, sorry about that.

 

[Guest]

CCleaner, Google Chrome, LibreOffice, Notepad++, VLC, CCCP (it has a very good set of codecs and Media Player Classic), Dropbox, 7-zip, Gimp, Adobe Reader, PDF Creator, and µTorrent are in my "must have" apps list for any Windows user.

 

[wild9]

I use ATF Cleaner (freeware with optional donate). It is similar to CCleaner and can wipe all the junk created by Windows, IE, Firefox, Opera and other apps.. all the click of a button. Often when you clean the system it feels snappy. This (stand-alone) program also has a very small memory foot-print.

 

[wild9]

Want a fast alternative to Windows Search, one that can also do all manner of text file batch processing? I recommend ‘Heatsoft Handy File Tool 1.04 (Freeware version).

This tool is incredibly fast for search and processing.. so much faster than Windows XP. It's user interface can seem a little daunting, and needs some work when it comes to updating options after you load different scripts. But it's free, and as fast as lightning. It also allows you the option to create backups of all the files in use.

Processing 1000’s of files is a breeze with this app. I consider it indispensable, and way better than anything Microsoft can come up with. Even huge text files, e.g. 200MB+ can be handled by this little gem. After chipping away at 650MB worth of log files I managed to get them down to 180MB in no time, so searching for text strings was faster even under the Windows Search tool.

 

[wild9]

If you want to load your DivX etc clips into Windows Movie Maker (XP), download the free Xvid codec 1.3.2 Update using the following page. Now, when you import your camcorder footage a small blue "X" appears in the corner of your screen. The codec is pretty fast but obviously with things like this the faster your CPU the better (mine was fine on an old Athlon 64 x2 at 2.2GHz and 2GB RAM).

There's also a bunch of other stuff on there for Windows 7 users.

http://www.digital-digest.com/search_action.php?keywords=Xvid+Codec&type=software

 

[wild9]

(Sorry if this seems like spam, I am reeling these ideas off the top of my head as I rummage through my software collection).

1) Ever bought or tried to fix an old lap-top, and discovered Nero etc won't work with it's OEM DVD burner? Try CD Burner XP (freeware).

http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home

I've used this three or four times on old Dell and HP machines.

2) Want to backup your original DVD's? Use DVD Shrink (freeware). This app is old, but boy is it gold in terms of speed and ease-of-use. You can delete junk or compress it to save space when backing up DVD9 films to DVD5 media, or just use DVD9 media. Note however, your drive will probably have a region lock that only allows you to set it's region code upto 5 times. There are ways around this but I could only find commercial programs like AnyDVD. Due to it's popularity you should only ever get AnyDVD from a reliable source..

Also, some these apps like iTunes are popular, but the thing I hate with them is the services and other background tasks they install. Google Chrome likes to install toolbar updaters. I know it's less of an issue these days with fast processors, big drives and cheap RAM, but I always like to run my system and the systems I fix with minimal overhead. Always check what services are being run in the background, and whether you actually need them. Some can create problems and some are nothing more than a waste of space.

 

[itpro]

Seriously? There are a few programs on this list I use, but install on every computer? No way! Many of the others are ones I remove on sight. Chrome is nothing but sypware, and breaks some of our internal apps to boot. iTunes has slowed millions of computers to a crawl, and installs garbage that loosens security and causes nothing but grief. I admit I used to use VLC, but get far better results with a codec pack and KMPlayer. FF is OK, but IE9 is actually pretty good in itself, and has far better security and privacy than either Chrome or FF. I'll still take MSE over the nagging one gets from the other free AV programs. The Freemake video converter is good, but how many people actually get into that? And Open Office? Really? I'll take LIbreOffice over it any day, but if one's budget supports it nothing compares to the real thing, Microsft Office. Buy the Home version and you can install it on 3 computers, and every once in a while Microsoft runs it on sale for a very reasonable price.

 

[Guest]

qualquer um faz uma lista melhor que esta, que coisa mais caseira meu Deus!

 

[Nexus52085]

Aren't registry cleaners sort of dangerous to use? Don't they sometimes delete important registry files? I suppose if you know how to use it correctly, Ccleaner wouldn't be a bad thing to have, but if you are an amateur, like most people, it wouldn't be wise to use.

 

[Branden]

chrome AND firefox? no need for both (besides, who wants to manage 2 sets of bookmarks?), any non-IE browser is fine.
then i found it hard to agree that any program mentioned after that being necessary at all. photofiltre? tweetdeck? notepad++? seriously?

and no mention of an archiving utility (ex. 7-zip)?
downloading files in a compressed format is a near daily occurance for near everyone, being able to extract them is an absolute necessity.

and what about some kind of s.m.a.r.t. utility to monitor HDD/SSD health? getting warned of an impending drive failure is infinitely more important than being able to tweet and FB at the same time (or at all).

here's my list of absolute necessary computer programs (installed on every machine i build and installed first thing): an office product, an antivirus, an archiving utility, a defrag utility (hdd only), a non-IE browser, a non-WMP media player, a SMART montior, an automated backup utility (to go with backup HDD which should also be considered necessary).

i'll agree with CCleaner though...

 

[Vorador2]

The only reason to use iTunes is because you have a iPod/iPhone.And if the iPod is older there's alternatives like Sharepod.

And why no JDownloader? Infrarecorder? IrfanView? PDFCreator?

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]Nexus52085[/nom]Aren't registry cleaners sort of dangerous to use? Don't they sometimes delete important registry files? I suppose if you know how to use it correctly, Ccleaner wouldn't be a bad thing to have, but if you are an amateur, like most people, it wouldn't be wise to use.[/citation]
Don't worry, the tick box marked "Delete something important" is bright red and has an arrow pointing at it saying "Do not use this feature"

 

[dimitris__]

+Acrobat Reader
+7Zip
+CDBurner XP (Best for burning)
+Media Player Classic HomeCinema (Best for Watching HD Movies)
+uTorrent
+Virtual Clone Drive (Mount CD Images)

-Chrome (who wants a spy on their PC)
-iTunes (Specialized software - not needed if you don't have Apple devices)

 

[Shin-san]

I would have put Chrome and Firefox on the same page. I would also recommend against iTunes on Windows unless you have an iOS device.

Other good ones include Audacity and Virtauldub