Computer Essential

[BreakABone]

I just had to reformat my laptop for some odd reason. Still not sure why.

And of course with a reformat comes getting back all your old software/program and drivers.

So curious what tops the list as far as programs go when getting a new comp or reformatting?

[KillerGremlin]

CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/
great registry cleaner, uninstaller, and windows cleaner-upper program.

AVG
http://free.avg.com/
AVG is one of the better and free virus scanners. Provided you don't spend your day surfing German Warez sites, it should be more than adequate.

uTorrent
http://www.utorrent.com/
cause...it's fun to steal shit. still one of the better BT clients, imo

Daemon Tools
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php
daemon tools is a great all-around program, it allows you to create virtual DVD/CD drives so you can mount image files. again, great if you pirate or rip games to your computer

EAC
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
THE BEST audio ripping program...if you rip CDs use EAC

Lame Codec
http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php
You'll need the lame codec to rock cocks with EAC

Trillian
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/
Trillian was, at one point, the best IM program...it continues to suck with each new release, but it's still superior to AIM

Filezip
http://www.filzip.com/en/index.html
Filezip is like Winrar...only free. Of course, you have uTorrent...soooo

As far as media goes....that's up to you. VLC, Media Player Classic, and Winamp are all viable options that surpass the competition.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

http://www.winamp.com/

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm


And, of course, for when your computer gets infected:

http://lavasoft.com/
(ad aware)


You may also want to check out Mozilla Thunderbird for email....the FLAC codec if you are into serious audio, Image Burn for burning and making images, and Audacity for all around audio goodness.

[manasecret]

I just reformatted my six-year-old desktop a few months ago, because it was getting lethargic with the clutter. And I decided that this time, I will keep track of all the crap that loads up at startup and all the processes running from the beginning.

I also did some slipstreaming and made back up images of my hard drive from several different points in the process, such as 1. Clean Windows Install, 2. Clean Install + all Windows updates, 3. Clean install + all Windows updates + all hardware drivers + anymore updates, 4. All that + vital software.

The slipstreaming disc let's me load up a version of Windows called BartPE solely into memory from a CD, so that if anything ever goes completely wrong with my Windows partition on my hard drive, I still have a version I can boot from any CD-ROM. From there I can connect to networks and mess with the hard drive contents either from the same PC or from a different (working) PC on the network, or if I can't do anything to fix it then I can use BartPE to revert back to one of the backup images.

Anyway, I made a whole list of folders for the software I knew I wanted/needed, with the install files in each respective folder. That made things much easier to cleanly install exactly what I knew I needed and wanted, without forgetting something after it was gone.

The few I can remember off the top of my head:

1. Mozilla Firefox - duh
2. BitTorrent - my favorite bittorrent client
3. Nero
4. AnyDVD - for nefarious purposes :p
5. MS Office - duh
6. Photoshop - es niiice
7. Steam
8. Adobe Reader - or Acrobat if you have it
9. Adobe Flash Player - I think Adobe actually combines most of their needed downloads into one install exe now
10. BitDefender - I'm done with crappy free virus protection, I bit the bullet and bought a license for 3 computers for three years, I think for a total of $80. BitDefender is highly rated.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

11. Delphi 7
12. PCB123

are two more for me, but that's really for work purposes.

[BlueFire]

Use Pidgin over Trillian.

www.pidgin.im

[BreakABone]

Use Pidgin over Trillian.

www.pidgin.im

I figured I would take your advice on this.

Trillain just got slower and slower as time went on.

So shall get Pidgin tonight ontop of my normal AIM because I am use to it. And want DeadAIM so can continue logging all those glorious conversations.

I am a huge dork these days so CDisplay is one of the first programs I get to make sure can read my comics. :p

Also figured new start... so trying the Google Chrome browser.

[thatmariolover]

I was going to suggest Pidgin as well. More than anything though, download the essentials (Antivirus, etc.) and download whatever else you need as you go. No sense in cluttering a computer if you find you don't really need an app.

[GameMaster]

7-Zip

Fox-It Reader (the free, superior alternative to the god-awful Adobe Acrobat Reader)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v449/synthoid/Picture1-10.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v449/synthoid/Picture2-10.png

[Bube]

Well, almost everything I use has already been said here.

Here are a few more I like:
GOM Player - Slower than VLC, but it has internal codecs so no need to install tons of them.
Digsby - Like Pidgin, but also has Facebook updates and Facebook chat integrated. I never thought I'd be using it as much as I do.
Frostwire - You know you want it. Free Limewire-like file-sharing.

[manasecret]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v449/synthoid/Picture1-10.png


Definitely agree on Revo Uninstaller. Light years better than the default Add/Remove program that comes with Windows XP.

[Professor S]

CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/
great registry cleaner, uninstaller, and windows cleaner-upper program.

AVG
http://free.avg.com/
AVG is one of the better and free virus scanners. Provided you don't spend your day surfing German Warez sites, it should be more than adequate.

uTorrent
http://www.utorrent.com/
cause...it's fun to steal shit. still one of the better BT clients, imo

Daemon Tools
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php
daemon tools is a great all-around program, it allows you to create virtual DVD/CD drives so you can mount image files. again, great if you pirate or rip games to your computer

EAC
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
THE BEST audio ripping program...if you rip CDs use EAC

Lame Codec
http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php
You'll need the lame codec to rock cocks with EAC

Trillian
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/
Trillian was, at one point, the best IM program...it continues to suck with each new release, but it's still superior to AIM

Filezip
http://www.filzip.com/en/index.html
Filezip is like Winrar...only free. Of course, you have uTorrent...soooo

As far as media goes....that's up to you. VLC, Media Player Classic, and Winamp are all viable options that surpass the competition.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

http://www.winamp.com/

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm


And, of course, for when your computer gets infected:

http://lavasoft.com/
(ad aware)


You may also want to check out Mozilla Thunderbird for email....the FLAC codec if you are into serious audio, Image Burn for burning and making images, and Audacity for all around audio goodness.


Friggin' brilliant! I'm downloading away! Thanks

[Dyne]

I love Google Chrome. I wish it was on Mac. SO many leagues better than Firefox.

[Professor S]

In CC Cleaner, it gives you options for deleting files, from simple overwrite to Gutmann. What is the difference?

[Bube]

In CC Cleaner, it gives you options for deleting files, from simple overwrite to Gutmann. What is the difference?
When you delete a file, it's almost always recoverable. When you use something other than simple, I'm guessing it deletes the file, overwrites the sector of the deleted file with a dummy, and deletes that again. So when tried to recover, you'll get the dummy file the program made, not the originally deleted file.

[manasecret]

In CC Cleaner, it gives you options for deleting files, from simple overwrite to Gutmann. What is the difference?

The difference is a non-secure deletion (the type that frees the space for future files, but doesn't actually remove any information of the file from your hard drive) and a secure method that makes sure to overwrite the contents of the data.

The Gutmann method, by Gutmann's own criticism of its usage now, is used "more as a kind of voodoo incantation to banish evil spirits" than it is to actually secure deleted files. My limited understanding of the method is that some types of storage media (mostly the old floppy types) can theoretically hold the data from past files even after you rewrite data over them. The Gutmann method is an algorithm that writes a series of 35 patterns that take into account the memory encoding methods to make sure that all traces of your data can not be recovered.

Nowadays, it's more voodoo than anything else. Simply making sure to rewrite over the actual data of your files is sufficient, which is probably one of the options below Gutmann.

[Professor S]

So i guess its only useful if you wanted to eliminate digital evidence then.

BTW, I downloaded cc cleaner, AVG anti-virus and ad-aware and my computer has never run better. My inernet connection used to crash constantly, and now its fine. Thanks so much!

[KillerGremlin]

Simply making sure to rewrite over the actual data of your files is sufficient, which is probably one of the options below Gutmann.

You'd be amazed at what you can recover from a "secure deletion." You can download government-level programs (like KillDisc) that will run a 'thorough' deletion process. But it takes a long time as the program literary writes and re-writes over every byte of space on the hard disk. The guys at MIT have recovered 'securely deleted data.' And, if optical scientists can recover data from charred hard drives in the 9/11 rubble.....

It's all kind of pointless for the casual user though.

[manasecret]

You'd be amazed at what you can recover from a "secure deletion." You can download government-level programs (like KillDisc) that will run a 'thorough' deletion process. But it takes a long time as the program literary writes and re-writes over every byte of space on the hard disk. The guys at MIT have recovered 'securely deleted data.' And, if optical scientists can recover data from charred hard drives in the 9/11 rubble.....

It's all kind of pointless for the casual user though.

Yes, but the Gutmann method is an overkill method that isn't meant for the hard disks of today. So one of the options below Gutmann will be just as sufficient, and probably faster. Assuming you want to be secure about your deletions, that is. If not, then just do a simple delete and that will be the quickest.