So I just did a fresh install...

[Trevor Hines]

What do you guys think are some of the most important applications I should download. I'm running windows 8.1 64-bit, play lots of games, and surf the web a lot. I like convenience applications a lot as well. Any suggestions are welcome, thanks!

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Well right off I normally recommend

Download and run SPECCY, easy way to get the 'specs' of your system as well as show your idle temps
Download and run MSI Afterburner, keep an eye when in game of your hardware, how hot the GPU is, how much RAM you use, your FPS in game, etc.

Did you install all Windows Updates? Including options except BING? Check them and repeat till ALL are installed.
Download and run Slim Drivers, install all the latest updates for alot of the other things 'under the hood' the video card interfaces with, but you don't need to reboot until you do the last update

Remove whatever AV your using and get AVIRA http://www.avira.com/en/download/product/avira-free-ant... (or go to www.filehippo.com and download Comodo/Panda or AVG (AVAST! was hacked so I don't recommend them anymore)) and do a full system scan - this repeatedly has resolved alot of people issue relying on MS Essentials.
Download Malwarebytes do a full system scan (AV doesn't pick up alot of malware) - once a week as you surf the web alot. Malware isn't detected by AV, so it can sneak in easily.

Install of course the other basics; All Adobe (reader, Flash, etc.), Chrome as your web browser, JAVA, VLC to watch videos, Irfanview to view any image file, WPS Office http://www.wps.com/ for your free Office Suite and so on. There is multiple choices and I always get the latest version from www.filehippo.com for them, and use the Update Checker from filehippo to keep them up to date.

 

[Trevor Hines]

Thanks Tom, your suggestions got me off to a good start.

 

[Stephanie De Leon]

Ty also