Essential software for new computers

[Guest]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

 

I would argue installing madVR is essential, which K-Lite (and maybe CCCP) does not include. At the very least, it renders HDR videos "correctly" on SDR displays.

Thats great I can use it for all the HDR work I use on a day to day basis

[Mira Yurizaki]

4 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Thats great I can use it for all the HDR work I use on a day to day basis

I mean, I wouldn't use it for production purposes, but at least it doesn't look like there's a perpetual gray filter over the scene or looks extremely blown out.

[Bhav]

On the virus scanner side, I have loads of free trial versions collected for the paid scanners, but I won't ever touch any scanner other than Avast again thanks to its glorious silent mode and auto detection of my games onto its safe list.

[rwantare]

Wipe drive and install Linux Mint.

[TetraSky]

Essential? After Windows 10 itself:
-Browser of choice (Vivaldi in my case)

-Security Suite. (Anti virus/firewall/ransomware protection, etc...)

-K-lite Codec Pack (to have the codecs required to play video and audio files of all kind in every applications)

-7zip (to open archives)

 

Aaaand that's it. These 4 things are what I consider "essential".
Anything else is based on your personal needs.

Someone who doesn't game has no need for Steam after all and you don't need a dedicated word/excel software on your PC anymore, those can be done on the web.

You don't absolutely need a dedicated PDF reader anymore either, Edge "does the job", even if it's shit and lacking nearly every features a proper PDF reader has, but those features aren't truly required to be able to read and enjoy most PDFs out there.

 

Personally, I'd get a few more things, like

-SunsetScreen (Like F.lux, except better, since F.lux never changed since its first release, this can control the brightness and go much lower in temperature)

-Thunderbird (Emails~)

-Trillian (IM client)

-Tixati (Torrent client)

-Steam (you know what it is)

-Acronis (Backup and restore software)

-Nox App Player (Best Android Emulator on PC, since Fate/Grand Order actually work on it, unlike the others)

-Logitech Gaming Software (Keyboard and mouse, macro and shits)

-AntiMicro (bind keyboard/mouse keys to gamepad buttons, can create macros, turbo mode, etc...)

[Zodiark1593]

Blegh, trying to use hardware decode (DXVA 2.0) in VLC Still causes me instant crashing in the latest version. Does the Video LAN team just really not like gpu acceleration? Can't get it working properly on any of my systems ever since the damned Weatherwax versions hit, hence why I haven't used it in such a long time. At this point, I'd pretty much given up on it even though it's UI is my favorite.

 

Neither KODI nor MPC give me grief when I select DXVA for hardware decode, so I'm fairly certain drivers are not at fault. 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

On my Win7 machine :

- drivers
- Microsoft Security Essentials

- CCleaner

- libreoffice

- Firefox

- 7zip

- Deluge (torrent client)

- FileZilla (FTP application)

- Sumatra PDF (document viewer)

- VLC

- Xion Audio Player

- Steam

 

On my Linux machine :

- Steam

it either has the rest by default or doesn't need it.

[Dat Guy]

On 15.1.2018 at 9:47 PM, boorjiusss said:

I created this post beacuse I'm sure that lots of people doesn't know what software is essential to install when buying a new computer. (...) So please let's try all of us to create a list o essential software that need to be installed on a computer out of the box.

If it has to be installed, it does not come out of the box.

 

Here's what I usually install on new Windows machines for anyone who asks me to:

• WordPerfect Office (or, if you're short on money, SoftMaker Office) for most of your "office" needs. I only need spreadsheets, your use case may be different.
• WinRAR.
• MPC-BE. I haven't found a better video player just yet.
• A decent text editor of your choice (I use Emacs, you probably don't).
• A decent web browser of your choice (I recommend Vivaldi as of 2018).
• A decent file manager of your choice (I use xplorer² and SpeedCommander, you might want to try the free alternatives first).
• Sumatra PDF.
• Paint.NET.
• Chocolatey for software/package management.
• ConEmu if you want to use cmd/PowerShell - the default windows are impractical.
• FastStone Image Viewer or nomacs (depends on your taste and needs).
• Classic Shell. The default start menu makes me sick.
• Dropbox and OneNote.

Everything else depends on the machine's particular purpose.

 

Addendum:

 

On 15.1.2018 at 9:47 PM, boorjiusss said:

List:

• Antivirus

 

List:

• Antivirus

 

Please don't do that. Antivirus software makes your computer an unnecessarily easy target.

[HunterAP]

Late to the party, but here's my list of things:

Quote

• 7zip
• AdobeAIR
• Adwcleaner
• Audacity
• Audacity-lame plugin
• Autohotkey
• CCEnhancer (thing that adds many programs to CCleaner's lists)
• CCleaner
• Chocolatey (app manager that you can use to install/uninstall, search for, and update apps)
• CrystalDiskInfo
• CrystalDiskMark
• Display Driver Uninstaller
• DotNet4.5.2
• everything (replacement for Windows Search and indexing, it's a lot less resource heavy and has some nice features)
• Flash player plugin
• google-backup-and-sync
• hwinfo (provides usage and temperature stats on all your hardware)
• jdk8
• jre8
• k-lite codec pack
• Malwarebytes
• MSI AfterBurner (OC your GPU, works on most GPU's compared to other programs)
• NotePad++ (infinitely better than regular NotePad)
• Nvidia Profile Inspector (don't need if you use AMD GPU's)
• OBS Studio
• OpenVPN
• Process Lasso (acts like Task Manager, but automatically throttles programs that are causing your computer to slow down/freeze up, very configurable)
• qbittorrent
• Silverlight
• Skype (TBH I use discord more at this point)
• Spybot (a nice AV with lots of immunization-related features)
• Spybot anti-beacon (stops Windows spying without breaking any important functionality)
• Unchecky (automatically unchecks the "do you want to install X" bundle crap when you install some programs)
• VCRedist140
• VCRedist2005
• VCRedist2008
• VCRedist2010
• VCRedist2015
• Virtualbox
• Vivaldi
• VLC
• WinDirStat (provides stats on what is taking up space on your drives)
• Youtube-dl (downloads youtube videos or entire playlists through a URL, very configurable)

I actually use chocolatey (one of the apps mentioned above) to install all of these programs and more, it makes installing and updating super easy (especially if you use Task Scheduler to automatically update everything for you). When I get a new PC, I make it a point to print out a list of all my installed apps from another computer, then use that to install those same apps on my new computers.

[NinJake]

For work PCs that I build I just use ninite to give the user most of what they need. Otherwise any other software is usually specific per department.