Essential Software

My laptop is approaching a level of instability that only a truly borked Windows installation can match, so I think it’s time to make a list of my essential software so when I format and start over I don’t forget anything important and have to install it in a pinch later. So here is software I use on a daily basis and find important enough to reinstall:

Fin! Now if I can just find the restore CDs for my laptop, I’m good to go. Wish me luck.

27 thoughts on “Essential Software

  1. My big use list:
    -Firefox 0.8
    -MSN Messenger
    -IE6 (Not quite managed to cleanse it yet)
    -Windows Media Player
    -Dreamweaver MX (creation of files, majority of programming)
    -SCiTE (quick file edits)

    You should really add <ul> to your list of allowed HTML tags. I just had to be horribly unsemantic.

  2. Hmmmm … I’d have to take stock on my laptop.

    I’m also wishing that I’d archived downloaded executables to CD. I will be doing that in the future. I had to do a reinstall back in January, and when I get another computer running happily at home, I’m going to dump all the data to it and do a complete wipe and reinstall on the laptop.

  3. wow! that’s a lot of aps!!! i bet it takes forever to put them all back on and customize your pc the way you like it again.

  4. Adobe Acrobat 6
    Adobe Photoshop CS
    AIM 5.2
    AIMutation
    Aqua Dock
    Code-Genie
    Cygwin
    eMule
    Finale 2004
    FlashFXP
    Isobuster
    iTunes
    Kazaa Lite K++ Edition
    Microsoft Office 2003
    Mozilla Firefox
    mIRC
    Nero Burning ROM
    Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition
    Tag&Rename
    TweakUI
    Spybot Search & Destroy
    WinRAR

  5. I updated the list to be links in case you’re interested in any of the programs. I might add descriptions later, but then I’d really have to change it to a <dl> and I don’t have time for that at the moment. Thanks everyone for posting your lists, I’m always looking for great software.

  6. My can’t live without:
    – Trillian
    – NewzCrawler
    – PowerMarks
    – myIE2
    – Roboform
    – Lookout
    – ActiveWords
    – Paintshop Pro
    – POPfile and Outclass
    – J River Media Center
    – MileTracker
    – Napster
    – ActiveTracker

  7. Dang, if there’s one thing I hope for in blog software for the future, it’s a comment-edit button ;). It should be able to throw a cookie my way that says, yes, that was you who posted that, now you can edit it. Blah.

  8. Well, you don’t really need StyleXP to apply custom themes or visual styles – do a search for “UXTHEME.DLL patch”. Applying that patch allows you to use custom themes/visual styles using Windows’ basic Display Properties applet.

    Anyway, heh it’s a good idea you know, to keep a list of essential software that is – I have a list of that myself which is very useful for the (too-frequent) times when I reformat my harddisk, usually because things start to get unstable or just too plain slow.

  9. Well, I use these pieces of software everyday (yes, they’re Linux based):
    – Gedit
    – Bluefish
    – ncftp
    – Rhythmbox
    – Firefox
    – Gaim
    – irssi
    – Abiword
    – Thunderbird
    – Photoshop

    the rest of that list gets waaay too long to post here 🙂

  10. Substitutions on your list:

    1. AIM -> Trillian: there are no popups and you can use multiple services, not to mention all those silly AIM viruses have no effect on it.
    2. Norton Anti-Virus -> AntiVir: Doesn’t come with all the b.s. norton throws on top of you, and updates more often. I’m virus free for the past year, it hasn’t missed a thing.
    3. StyleXP -> format.exe: at least format.exe doesn’t use up memory like it’s a second career. Hah 🙂

    “No Opera! Now I know why I suffer the wrath of the merciless dictator.” – Sushu said it best, but I won’t stop there. Every try browsing a page that had more than say, 4 or more animated gif’s running at once? Firebird will slam down your system resources, chugging everything. Better yet, even with the window minimized, it’ll continue to render the images. Opera handles gif’s much better, and the coolest part is that it doesn’t render ANYTHING while it’s not active … including tabbed windows. There’s a ton of other nifty features, but that’s just one example.

    Oh yea and make the comment box bigger so I can rant longer! =D
    Nice site, I’ll be back.

  11. Chuckg, I found an alternate for StyleXP that looks pretty good. I can’t stand Trillian, never known why. The antivirus program you suggested, though butt-ugly, seems to work pretty well so I’m going to use that instead.

  12. “though butt-ugly”

    It has that “cute fat baby” appeal, doesn’t it? Trillian takes some getting used to, but I must admit, unless you break down and purchase the $20 pro version of Trillian, you really can’t tell what the application is capable of. What alternative are you using for StyleXP now? How’s the hit to CPU cycles/memory?

  13. I have to say thank a million for the reference to MM-Exporter. I’ve been wanting something like that for a long time!! I have a feeling that the Time Tracker app is going to be perfect too.

  14. Have you ever tried TortoiseSVN instead of TortoiseCVS. Seem great interface and features built on top of the Subversion system. I find it is many, many times easier than CVS.

  15. Essential Software:

    Konsole: Tabbed, versatile terminal.
    Quanta Plus: General purpose Web development environment. Strengths: PHP
    Kontact: PIM. Mail, address book, etc.
    akregator: RSS and Atom feed parser.
    KWord: Word Processor. Save as PDF is the bomb.
    K3b: burn CD’s baby, burn!
    KSig: Signature manager.
    Konqueror: Browser. Tabbing, fast, and comes with developer tools.
    Umbrello: UML modeler
    KDevelop: IDE
    irssi: IRC client
    bitlbee: IM (AIM, yahoo, MSN) to IRC gateway.
    elinks: console browser

  16. Take a look below… this would also be useful.

    Acrobat Reader 5
    ACDSee 4.0
    DAP
    F Prot
    Neuro
    PDF writer
    Real Player
    Splitter
    VCD Cutter
    Winamp 5
    Winrar
    Wordweb

  17. Josef Ratzsch Essential Software List (WinXP):

    Windows XP SP2
    Office 2003 + FrontPage + Visio
    Nero 6.6 Ultra
    WinRAR
    K++ 2.4.7
    eMule
    Azureus
    Agent Newsreader
    K-Lite Codec Pack Full
    NetStumbler
    Ethereal
    WinArp Spoofer
    Trillian v3
    mIRC
    Real Alternative
    Quicktime Alternative
    CloneDVD2 + AnyDVD
    PhotoShop + Illustrator
    QuarkXpress
    DreamWeaver + Flash
    EditPlus v2
    Microsoft Anti-Spyware beta1
    AVG v7
    WinISO
    Vegas Video
    Sound Forge
    Fruity Loops
    Adobe Reader v7
    Media Player 10
    ObjectDock Plus v1.15
    Hoyle Casino 2004

    yup, thats the killer setup!

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