My new work laptop arrived at work today, so now I’m in the midst of getting everything set up and running. I’ve posted in the past about the applications I install by default. But I wanted to offer an updated listed, as things are always changing.
Personal Productivity Apps (covered by work)
- Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise (Students can get Ultimate for Cheap at MS’s TheUltimateSteal.com)
- Microsoft Visio 2007
- Microsoft Project 2007
- Microsoft Expression 2 Suite
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Students can get both Expression and VS from MS DreamSpark)
I’ve included the list from last time, and updated what I’ve stopped/started using:
Internet:
- Mozilla FireFox and the following extensions:
- Del.icio.us Bookmarks
- AdBlock Plus
- ForecastFox
- Web Developer
- FasterFox
- Mozilla Thunderbird (for personal email)
Pidgin(for IM)- Digsby – Awesome client, new test version uses 1/2 the memory Filezilla FTP client
- Office Communicator
- 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- UltraVNC – The viewer on my work desktop, VNC installed on my home desktop
Burnaware- 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
- MS LiveMesh
- Evernote
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)
- TagScanner – For updating ID3 Tags
- SharePod – Managing my iPod without iTunes
- 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)