I had meant to post this sooner, but I recently got a new desktop machine at work. I didn’t have the login for the new machine, so I took it as an opportunity to wipe the hard drive and start off fresh. I wanted to talk a bit about my setup experience and about the software I put on the new machine.
First off I put Windows Vista Business on the machine. I was lucky enough to get 3GB of RAM and since I’ve had a decent experience with my home desktop, I’ve decided to stick with Vista for now.
It should be noted that I am a MSDN member, which enables to me to install the Microsoft Suite of Applications & Developer tools:
- Office 2007 (including OneNote, Project &Visio)
- Expression Web (for Web Design & Dev)
- Visual Studio 2008
These tools are wonderful, but I realize they may not be available to everyone. If you’re a college student (or have a college email address) you can get office for really cheap at TheUltimateSteal.com – a Microsoft purchase program for students. Also student developers can qualify to get Expression & Visual Studio for free at Microsoft DreamSpark. This is a great strategy to get students acclimated to the MS applications, which means that it’ll transfer to employees demanding the tools when they enter the workplace.
The next thing I did was go to my favorite software site – FileHippo. FileHippo is a repository for freeware – a one-stop-shop for downloads. From here I grab the following (in no particular order):
Internet:
- Mozilla FireFox (bye bye IE) and I set up the following extensions:
- Del.icio.us Bookmarks
- AdBlock Plus
- ForecastFox
- Web Developer
- FasterFox
- Mozilla Thunderbird (for personal email)
- Pidgin (for IM)
- However, I’m starting to use Digsby (in private beta)
- Filezilla FTP client
- Feed Demon an outstanding desktop RSS reader which recently became free (I was paying for it prior)
Apps & Utilities:
- MS Office 2007
- FoxIt Reader a PDF alternative to the bloated Adobe Reader
- PDF Creator – Free PDF creating, although I am starting to try out Primo PDF
- UltraVNC – The viewer on my work desktop, VNC installed on my home desktop
- Burnaware – CD/DVD Burning
- Launchy – Perfect application launcher for keyboard junkies
- ObjectDock – “Sidebar” application launching
- Windows Live Writer – What I use for blogging
- MRemote – To manage multiple MS Remote Desktops/Terminal Servies, I haven’t had great results with VNC though
Scripting:
- NotePad++ – Best general purpose editor hands-down
Photos & Multimedia:
- MediaMonkey – Incredible media manager, especially if you have a large library (I paid for this one, but there is a free version).
- Last.fm – Scrobble and track what I listen to (my profile)
- VLC Media Player – For videos, DVD’s and single-file playing
- Windows Live Photo Gallery – Easy way to manage, edit, tag and share photos (there is Flickr integration as well)
- FastStone Image Viewer – On-the-fly image preview & browsing
- Paint.NET – More in-depth photo editing
System Utilities:
- Defraggler – Disk Defragmenting
- AutoRuns – eliminate annoying startup programs
- CCleaner – Get rid of crap, cookies and temp files
- Unlocker – Gets you out of those “access denied” binds during deletions
- Process Explorer – Task manager on steroids
- Java Runtime Environment
- Tugzip – Great alternative to Winzip, not quite WinRar, but free and open-source
- Synctoy – to synchronize files between my work desktop and laptop, works great if you’re on the same network
Security:
- Windows Vista Firewall works pretty well, but at home I use Comodo
- AVG Anti-Virus (for the home computer, we use a separate solution at work)
Are there any essential tools that I’m missing?