15 Programs That Should be on Any New PC

[srap]

File recovery tool, guys, one of the most important things to have! Piriform Recuva or something like that.

Also:
iTunes -> Foobar2000
OpenOffice - LibreOffice (true, AOO 3.4 came out not so long ago, but they are far behind)
VLC -> MPC-HC in a codec-pack, or something based on mplayer
Pidgin -> Trillian
+ 7-zip

 

[andrew1421lee]

I would chose MSE over avast just because MSE doesn't bother me.

 

[Sunius]

Come on.. they cannot be serious.

CCleaner - why would you want that on a new install? The windows are clean already, it's just going to take space!

2 browsers - I don't get why'd you need two.

Office - I don't think it's essential software. Office files aren't that common.

Pidgin - Never heard of it.

iTunes - People still use that?

free video converter - Very situational, only few people will find its use

tweetDeck - never heard of it.

DropBox - It's only needed if you're doing group projects or something.. I can't imagine the need to constantly upload files somewhere using a program that runs in background all the time.

Paint.Net - Almost nobody will find use for it.

PhotoFiltre - Why recommend more than one painting program?

Notepad++ - most people don't use notepad. Only coders.

Programs that are missing:

First and foremost - graphics card control center (like nvidia control panel and catalyst control center). It's needed on any PC, be it for work or gaming.

uTorrent - that's pretty much important program for anyone to have, probably the easiest way to send files to other people without uploading them to a (probably not free or slow) web server.

Daemon Tools - It's needed. You should be able to use .iso files on any PC.

7-zip/winrar - Extracting is essential and is used very often.

PDF reader - they suggest office, however, PDF files are way more common than office files.

HWMonitor - you might want to monitor your computer temperatures once in a while, it's healthy for your hardware.

 

[Guest]

best comedy ... for software writers there is a better program than notepad. really!? omgawsh! I am still laughing!!

 

[Guest]

Seriously? Who wrote this? iTunes and messaging software? It's like a tutorial for my grandma or my little sister. I was under the impression this site catered to folk who knew a-whut we're doin' with a computer.

 

[Guest]

iTunes, really, iTunes WTF, what about the millions of ppl who font have an iproduct, and your recommending iTunes like apple is the only the only thing ppl can buy fro a mobile device. Is apple paying you?? and you chose avast, not a chance, that is just stupid, eset for a paid antivirus, or Microsoft security essentials for free. but really iTunes. What about adobe flash, java, .net framwork,windows updates, shockwave, making sure video drivers are up to date. the never are on a new computer. and really iTunes, you are a retard. I noticed the itunes pic came from an apple computer, and yet this is about software for a windows pc. WTF

 

[Guest]

I don't believe this! Notepad++? This article says "15 Programs That Should be on any PC" and so many people don't do coding so why install Notepad++?
The other thing is Pidgin. So many people use Facebook and Twitter these days as a means to communicate I don't even think it's necessary.
Yeah, and the failure to recognise the change of name of OpenOffice to LibreOffice.
And why would install both Chrome and Firefox? Are you telling me that EVERY computer NEEDS two web browsers in addition to IE?

 

[Gigahertz20]

No backup software? How about Macrium reflect free edition or that easeus backup software

 

[bryonhowley]

I stop at iTunes there was no point in reading any further. Having tried Avast on my PC I would never put it on any other PC ever. I use MSE and it works well.
MSE
Daemon Tools Lite
MPC-HC
PS3 Media Server with XBMC plugin
XBMC
Firefox
Speed Fan
Winrar
uTorrent

 

[DiNet]

Not sure if trolling or just stupid.

 

[Guest]

So install a flawed media player (VLC) that simply won't play many, many files instead of properly setting up your directshow?

Itunes? (enough said)

And just to be clear, we are supposed to install both chrome AND firefox? Just wanted to make sure.

 

[damianrobertjones]

iTunes.... Never, ever, EVER install that bloated pile of rubbish (If you can help it)

Bonjour, MobileMe, startup additions, services and then it tries to force Safari onto the computer. It also REPLACES the removed startup additions after you disable them via updates. No.

 

[techy74]

Great list, but lost me at Itunes. The itunes inclusion looked like a paid Ad. Not everyone uses or wants to use Apple products.

 

[nosacredcow]

iHell?!?!? Seriously??? Worst crap I've ever installed. First off they use the coment tag in MP3 to store their track leveling info and it screws your tags up. You want something thjat can handle vast amounts of files go for MediaMonkey. Best program I've found over the years. The free version offers a ton of features and has an online community for support, scripts, skins etc. You don't get that with apple's closed door policy. The gold version is cheap and includes nifty stuff like a sleep timer so you can snooze ff to your favorite sleepytime tracks.

Pidgin? Ever hear of Trillian? And you can incorporate your Skype with it.

Sometimes I think these "must have" lists just use a virtual dartboard to make their picks.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Whenever I set up a system, I always install SpyBot Search and Destroy. That program is fantastic. I've had some bad experiences with VLC not wanting to let me uninstall it (thank god I had Spybot S&D's shredder at the time). As for iTunes, I couldn't get it out of my system fast enough. Like everything that Apple makes, it tries to take over your computer. iTunes can stay on Macs whose users want their computers to push them around.

 

[beetlejuicegr]

You forgot
a compression utility
java & flash install
adobe reader
utorrent
codec pack if you don't like vlc, like cccp
and ofc not cc cleaner, for an avg user i recommend spybot s&d
definitely a cpu temperature utility, perhaps realtemp and coretemp

 

[Guest]

the real answer to the topic of this review resides in the comments. what REALLY to install. haha

 

[alcalde]

Out of the box my OpenSUSE install gives me Sweeper (like CCleaner), Firefox, LibreOffice, LinPhone (VoIP, works with any provider using open standards like SIP or XMPP), Kopete (multi-IM program like Pidgin but integrated with the KDE desktop and other KDE programs, although Pidgin is available), Amarok (music/podcast manager, streaming music tool and device syncer, although Banshee is my favorite for this), Kaffeine media player, Choqok microblogging client, the GIMP, digikam for digital photo editing/lightbox/geotagging, KWrite editor - essentially everything listed above - along with a PDF viewer, Flash, java, archiver, bittorrent client, IRC client, image management program, an OpenStreetMaps-powered globe (like Google Earth, which is also available), downloading of all codecs on first use of the media player, a download manager, a scanning tool, a clipboard manager, a screenshot program, a CD/DVD/Bluray ripper/burner program, a PIM suite (e-mail, calendar, to-do, notes, diary, RSS aggregator, contacts), VNC server & RDP client/server, and a multi-pane & multi-tab file manager. The icing on the cake is that the whole thing (OS and software) takes up about 3.6GB install space, vs. Win7 alone using 10.5GB (both figures without including swap space/page files).

 

[jacobdrj]

Where is Audacity? And Itunes should NOT be installed on a new PC if one does not have an iPod, a pre-existing iTunes collection, an iPad or an iPhone... iTunes is notoriously resource intensive, and can bring even fairly powerful systems to a crawl...

 

[thecolorblue]

[citation][nom]Bloob[/nom]"So no matter how many online pseudonyms you maintain, this Adobe Air-bas"... next!And yeah, iTunes but no 7-zip, GIMP, pdf-reader, (uTorrent,) LibreOffice? And why no love for Opera?[/citation]
Opera is pretty terrible