Essential Windows Programs

[asstastic]

To start things off Windows is Ugly these programs will help fix that:

Flyakite OSX- osx lookalike bricopack, also installs a msstyles theme patcher which brings us to...

agroove.msstyles- cool windows skin, i made my own color edits with TGsoft's StyleBuilder

IconTweaker- for changing setting up custom icons

icon sushi- small freeware program for converting to .ico

Photoshop CS- need i say more

multiplugin for iTunes- allows iTunes skinning and more

RK Launcher- lightweight dock program, looks great though it's a bit buggy

 

Media:

Nero- easiest to use burning program on the market

DVD Shrink- simple to use and lots of options, great interface

iTunes- great interface with easy to use search and playlists, wish the equalizer was easier to get to in v7 though. hacking in support for winamp visualizations would also kick ass

Combined Comminity Codec Pack w/Media Player Classic- Forget kaazaa lite, forget WinDVD, froget BSplayer, forget Windows Media Player, forget Quicktime. no other codec pack even comes close to the functionality of CCCP. reduced to the bare minimum of codecs to reduce software conflict and bloat, it still plays every video on the planet(ogm, mkv, mov, avi, mpeg, wmv, DVDs). it just works. install the 2 codecs below and never worry about video playback issues ever again.

Real Alternative- real media codec pack, alows you to play realplayer files without installing realplayer. brilliant

CoreAVC- the best software h264 codec available. play HD content without choppy video. works better than most hardware HD decoders, save youself the trouble of buying a new video card for HD content and install this codec instead

Soulseek- a great global userbase makes this music sharing program the best. you can find just about every song ever recorded on here

Azureus- i know there are smaller, better programed torrent clients out there but i happen to like all the flashy stuff that comes with Azureus, lots of options as well

CDisplay- indispensable comic book reader for the comic/manga junkie in me. lightweight. also great for sharing photos, just drag and drop them in and hit 'w' to go into windowless mode. fills letterboxed areas with color averaged from the picture, making reading easier on the eyes (sort of like the ambilight on Philips TVs)

Alcohol 120%- usefull image mointing progam, decent compatability with disk image files.

 

Misc:

Firefox- easiest program switch i ever made was from IE to Firefox, i never went back. also check out these extensions

Adblock- surfing without it makes me feel uneasy. absolutely mandatory

Adblock filterset.G updater- does the work of blocking ads for you

BugMeNot- logs in to sites like imdb.com without the need to register

DownThemAll!- integrated downoad utility. pause, resume, queue DL's. good for swiping porn off sites

Tab Mix Plus- all sorts of cool tabbed browsing edits

UnPlug- download embeded videos/flash from sites

Trillian- all-in-one chat program. works great. has neat extensions.

NOD32- my favorite antivirus yet. small footprint, unobtrusive, automagicaly updates several times a day. what isn't there to like.

WinRAR- now supports .7z so it handles almost every archive file on the net. install it and you probably won't need another zip program ever.

Oscar's Renamer- edit file names in a directory like they were a text file. great to have if you want a meticulously sorted music collection

 

I haven't had a single spyware app on my laptop since i bought it a year ago but if you run into those sorts of problems Ad-Aware SE isn't a bad program to have on hand.

[R2k.]

orion platinum 7 - production suite

[pr0phet]

F= free

$= quite cheap

$$=expensive, without alternative

 

F- Sysinternals Tools for advanced diagnostics (check sysinternals.com)

F- Winrar archiver

$- NOD32 antivirus (4th year now, without any virus)

F- Media Player Classic - simply the best (and lightweight) player available

F- QuickTime and Real alternatives (codecs for QT and Real media)

F- FFDShow codec - all you need for divx, xvid, etc

F- Firefox with session saver

F- Internet Explorer 7 (because its faster than Firefox)

$- The Bat Voyager - portable e-mail client, VERY capable

F/$- EditPad Lite/Pro - text editor, IMO better than Ultraedit

F$- Foobar 2000 + Winamp DSP Bridge + Izotope Ozone PLugin - Best music player and best dsp plugin

F- RK Launcher - OSX dock alternative, very handy

F- Miranda IM + OTR encryption plugin for messenging (Y!, Jabber, ICQ, etc)

F- Total Commander - alternative to windows explorer and good FTP client

F- Daemon Tools

$- Nero 7 Micro pack (only the CD/DVD burner) - free if you buy a plextor burner

F- PuTTY SSH/Telnet terminal

F- XN Resource Editor for moding exes and dlls

$- ACDSee 8 pro pictures manager/viewer (i also have XNView on my USB stick)

F- TrueCrypt - the best solution for encrypted drives

F- uTorrent

F- ApexDC++

F- GetRight (because it's better than flashget or any other D/L manager)

$$- Photoshop and Dreamweaver

$$- Corel Draw X3

[asstastic]

F= free

$= quite cheap

$=expensive, without alternative

 

F- Sysinternals Tools for advanced diagnostics (check sysinternals.com)

F- Winrar archiver

$- NOD32 antivirus (4th year now, without any virus)

F- Media Player Classic - simply the best (and lightweight) player available

F- QuickTime and Real alternatives (codecs for QT and Real media)

F- FFDShow codec - all you need for divx, xvid, etc

F- Firefox with session saver

F- Internet Explorer 7 (because its faster than Firefox)

$- The Bat Voyager - portable e-mail client, VERY capable

F/$- EditPad Lite/Pro - text editor, IMO better than Ultraedit

F$- Foobar 2000 + Winamp DSP Bridge + Izotope Ozone PLugin - Best music player and best dsp plugin

F- RK Launcher - OSX dock alternative, very handy

F- Miranda IM + OTR encryption plugin for messenging (Y!, Jabber, ICQ, etc)

F- Total Commander - alternative to windows explorer and good FTP client

F- Daemon Tools

$- Nero 7 Micro pack (only the CD/DVD burner) - free if you buy a plextor burner

F- PuTTY SSH/Telnet terminal

F- XN Resource Editor for moding exes and dlls

$- ACDSee 8 pro pictures manager/viewer (i also have XNView on my USB stick)

F- TrueCrypt - the best solution for encrypted drives

F- uTorrent

F- ApexDC++

F- GetRight (because it's better than flashget or any other D/L manager)

$- Photoshop and Dreamweaver

$- Corel Draw X3

i just checked out a screenshot from total commander and all the buttons and gizmos made my head spin. it could seriously use an interface tuneup. i can't see how anything that complicated would ever supplant explorer.

[questionmrjohnny]

1 Firefox - popular web browser

2 Antivir - favorite antivirus

3 VlC - videos

4 WMP10 - music, 11 is too big

5 rip4me - best dvd backup

 

just the essentials

[The Thoughtful Muse]

Ares, gotta have my music and videos.

Kapsersky Anti-Virus 6.0, obvious reasons.

Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware 2006 are a must-have (I think 2007 is pretty much the same save for a few new features and more memory being eaten up).

Windows Defender, buggy as it sometimes is rumored to be.

Jasc Paint Shop Pro X. It can do whatever Photoshop can, but it's cheaper. ^.~

CCleaner. Love that program. Cleans up registry problems and get rids of annoyances like temporary files and things. Also enables you to uninstall programs and configure startup. Must-have for me.

Quicktime and Winamp.

And last but not least, Winzip.

[empreality]

Firefox - Self Explanatory

AVG - Good Anti-Virus, with tiny resource usage(Now shows as 246k for me)

SpyBot S&D - Self Explanatory

CCleaner - Easy way clean up after a few hours of porn, and keeps the computer nice and tidy.

iTunes - Works with iPod seamlessly and updates all my podcasts easily.

Photoshop CS3 - Self Explanatory

uTorrent - Gets "the job" done.

pidgin(GAIM) - Good multi-client instant message client, and unlike Trillian which forces me to pirate a new copy of Trillian Astra all the time, this one is free from the start.

Your Uninstaller! 2006 - Basically works like a normal uninstaller, but also deletes the left over files like folders and registry keys.

 

Alcohol 52% - Allows me to mount CD/DVD images on a virtual drive so I don't have to waste CD/DVD that I end up putting back into my computer anyways.

VLC media player - I use this mainly for .mkv files which are usually HD-DVD/Blu-Ray rips and VLC does a nice job running such quality videos, especially since my hardware is not really HD-friendly.

nero - Burns movies/music when I want to watch them on a bigger screen, or listen to in the car which doesn't have a way to plug in mp3 players.

 

Spyware Blaster - Keeps Internet browsing a lot more secure.

Google Earth - Makes you realize that the Earth is really really really big, and gives you photographic proof. Makes you go "OMG I can see my house from space!!!" and lastly, COME ON! It's freakin Google!

[Wizi]

I ran a quick topic search and didn't found that one.

 

 

jv16 Power Tools

 

a really powerful program which I personally use for performing a deep scan in my registry and cleaning all the garbage. The other useful option is the startup manager to see exactly what's being loaded every time.

[Qubeat]

for sure "Killcopy" a russian program that helps copying Files without loosing data.

[vbetts]

Windows Vista programs

 

Both of these are vista optimization programs, and work really well.

1.Vlite

2.Vispa

[boinkytwo]

1. Deep Freeze - My best defense against virus, malware/adware, scripts, anything that alters any part and function of my system.

 

2. Kaspersky - Backup defense against virus, etc.

 

3. Advance System Optimizer - Aids me to do system tweaks with ease, It can do some system maintenance too like registry defrag, junk file deletion and a lot more.

4. Any Disk Imaging Software - For disk backup, of course.

 

5. Firefox - My standard/default web browser.

 

6. Thunderbird - My standard/default e-mail client.

[whytsyed]

Nod32 - Best antivirus protection I've seen with the lowest performance impact.

 

Daemon Tools - .Iso mounting program.

 

Diskeeper Professional - Defragging and beyond.

 

Shareaza - P2P client that connects to Edonkey, Gnutella1, Gnutella2, and has bittorrent functionality.

 

Office 2007 - M$ Office.

 

Photoshop - Helps me pay the bills.

 

Azureus - Torrent App.

 

IEPro7 - If you actually use Internet Explorer, it's a must. Ad and flash blocking, user scripts, plugins, among other things.

 

Free Window Registry Repair - Free and keeps Vista running smoothly.

 

WinRAR Crystal - For all my unpacking needs.

 

Acronis Disk Director - Suite of disk tools including boot manager, which helps me dual boot OSx86.

[-Mac +Windows]

Here is My List:

 

OS: Windows XP/Vista (torrent sites)

Browser: IE7 (what else?)

PC Optimization: Uniblue Speed up my pc

OS EMulator:VMware

Download Manager: FreeDownLoad Manager

Audio Recording Mixing: Mixcraft

Media Player: Windows Media Player

Image Burning: ImgBurn

File Extraction: ExtractNow

Antivirus: Paretologic Anti Spyware

Registry Cleaner: Paretologic Regcure

 

Partioning Software: Partiton Magic 8 Pro

 

Torrent Downloader: Azureus

 

Unlocking Software: Unlocker

 

Chat: Google Chat

 

Desktop Search: Windows Desktop Search

 

Coding Software: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

 

CD Mounting: Daemon Tools

 

Document Editing: Microsoft Office 2007

 

Data Recovery: Active Undelete

 

Web Design/FTP: Microsoft Expression

 

Drive Imaging/Writing: SelfImage

 

Multimedia Editing: Ulead DVD Movie Factory

 

Vista 3D Window Toggle for XP: Topdesk

 

Just want to say this list has been in compilation for over 5 years. I have tested thousands of products and these have always come out on top so here it is. Some of these are not free but every one of them has been cracked so just search and you will find cracks. teamicu.com has them all

[mac-mini]

a disk formatting tool xD

[Numberzz]

A Windows without a CD Mounting app is no Windows at all.

[Colonel]

A Windows without a CD Mounting app is no Windows at all.

Daemon Tools....?

[microsoft whiz]

AIM- Chat Program

 

WinRAR- UnRAR Pro

 

DAEMON TOOLS- ISO And Other Image File Virtual Mounting

[FreakyMac]

Heres my list

 

OS: Windows Media Center 2005 SP2

Music: iTunes (For my iPod)

Video/DVD: VLC Media Player

File Extraction: 7zip (Small and Fast)

Torrent Downloading: uTorrent

Office: OpenOffice.org

Browser: Firefox

Email Client: Thunderbird.

[apowerr]

Firefox- Internet

Trend Micro PC Cillin- AV

uTorrent- Torrents

Photoshops CS3- It's better than GIMP

AIM, MSN, Xfire, Skype- Sorry but no all-in-one client covers all of these

Fraps- So I can know my FPS

Office 07- Better than OpenOffice and iWork (in my opinion of course_

And all of my games

 

I try to avoid iTunes for Windows as much as possible. I despise it, it's a performance hog and just looks out of place in the Windows environment. Plus the only BSODs I get are when I'm using iTunes. In fact just yesterday my friends PC BSOD'd because of iTunes.

[Colonel]

I try to avoid iTunes for Windows as much as possible. I despise it, it's a performance hog and just looks out of place in the Windows environment. Plus the only BSODs I get are when I'm using iTunes. In fact just yesterday my friends PC BSOD'd because of iTunes.

I've been using iTunes since it first came out for the PC and I have never once experienced a BSOD because of it...

[shanike]

office 2007 - work. no, openoffice won't meet specs.

QiP - icq client software, free.

MS virtual PC 2007 - essential virtualization tool

remote desktop, remote assistance

ultraVNC - remote control

paint.NET - freeware imitation of photoshop, i'm not a pro and this suits me more that the real thing.

vdownloader - download videos from youtube etc.; does not require installation

utorrent - torrent client

irfanview - the ultimate picture viewer

infrarecorder - cd burning tool, opensource, but works only on some burners.. i'm lucky, though..

itunes - ipod, music.. and yes, it's a good app, if you know how to use it.

itunes art importer - cool and simple app.

zune desktop theme - because that default blue theme got ugly as the time passed on.

powerarchiver - best archiving tool. ever.

object dock - dock for win

media player classic + k-lite codec pack - all you need to watch video

total commander - the ultimate file manager + freecommander 2007 at work.

bonkenc - opensource audio encoder, can manage almost all formats + cdripping + cddb

daemon tools - who needs cd's anyway?

+ dozens i've forgot...

[mtotho]

Operating System : Windows XP Pro SP2 (soon to be SP3) if you want media center for its skin, just Download it (google Royale Theme)

 

Anti Virus/System Tools

Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition -Extremely small footprint, as good as norton antivirus(symantec liturally owns Norton.. as in they have purchased the company) w/o annoyances.

Spybot S&D

HitMan Pro - does everything, its free.

Perfect Disk - Disk Defragmenter/ faster and more options than default windows defrag

 

Common/Needed:

Adobe Reader

EasyBCD - Edit Vista Bootloader

SpeedFan - Accurately monitor system load and temperatures

Winrar - Best archiving program

MS Office 2003 (way better than 2007, 2007 is too complicated and definately bigger footprint)

Vmware Workstation- Emulate Operating Systems.

 

Benchmarking:

Prime95- Very good stress tester

Cpu-z- See processor info

Sandra - Simple benchmarking program where you can benchmark everything

3D Mark -Best video benchmarker

 

 

Media:

Daemons tool- Best mounting Tool/Small Footprint/Free

DivX Codecs - Best Media codecs for video playing.

WinAMP- Unless your an apple fanboy or need itunes for your iPod, use this. Much smaller footprint, better for listening to music on your computer

uTorrent- small footprint, not flashy, efficient Torrent App.

Nero-To make disks of any type

PowerISO/MagicISO- For those nasty file formats such as apples .DMG and the stupid .Daa format

 

Other:

Acronis Disk Director Suite- Partitoner, i think its better than Norton, and personally i dont like Norton (other than Symantec) also Partition magic doesnt work on my comp.

 

If possible, avoid Installing iTunes/Quicktime, they are possibly the worst 2 programs you can put on windows (it is fine for mac).

Use Winamp and WMP+DivX Codec instead or just Winamp

 

I build and rebuild atleast 3 computers a week (be it my own or for someone else) and i fix about 20 computers a week (hardware, viruses, etc.) These are the programs i use, i have good experience and these are simple programs that work. For Antivirus Symantec corporate is all you need. And run Hitman pro once a week.

[Wayfarer247]

Internet - Firefox

Antivirus - Avast! Home Edition

iTunes - Music

Rainlendar2 - The best Desktop Calendar out there. Small, cute, effective, and extremely useful. Check it out!

Start Menu - Vista Start Menu: Because really, the start menu you find in Vista and Xp just don't cut it. This has been the best small application I have found.

Unzipping - 7-Zip.

Video - VLC

[Hartner X]

A must have program for Windows users are AVG Free, its one of the absolute best antivirus programs. It uses very little CPU power, is fast and the best, its FREE!

 

AVG Free

[semi-fly]

Adobe Acrobat

CCCP

Firefox + ADBlock

Microsoft Office 2007 or Open Office

Nero

Newsleecher

Norton Anti-virus

PowerPost

QuickPar

uTorrent

WinRAR