As I’m probably going to be building a computer in the near future as a gift, I figured I would go ahead and share what I consider to be the essential free software to add to a fresh windows installation. You may disagree but here it is :
Documents :
FoxIt Reader – Faster than Acrobat, and feels more lightweight
PDF Creator – create a virtual printer to print PDFs from any app that prints
OpenOffice – Office suite compatible with that other guy’s
Yahoo! Desktop Search – fast, and easy search for your files
Picture Organizer/Touchup :
Picassa – From Google, easy and ituitive
Browser :
Firefox – fast, and just as bloated as you make it
Firefox Extensions :
Sage – RSS Feed Reader, integrates with live bookmarks, and feeds are customisable with style sheets.
Google Browser Sync – Just use the bookmarks (don’t use the cookies, history, or password synchonization as it make me a little quesy)
Google Notebook – Notebook meet bookmarks
BugMeNot – Never register for a one use password again
Media Players :
Itunes – maybe a little bloated but works really well
Media Player Classic – nice video player, plays several formats, harkens back to the days before MS went overboard with Windows Media Player
Virus/Spyware :
Avast! – antivirus suite, frequently updated, easy to use
Windows Defender – Spyware removal for dummies
Spybot S&D and Ad-aware – Backup Spyware detectors
Paranoia :
Eraser – really get rid of files, or whole drives
Extra Geeky :
Sun Java – java runtime/compiler
Cygwin – posix layer for windows, give you access to *nix tools
PuTTY – Windows Telnet/SSH client
TightVNC – Remote Control Software for you computer