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Soon, I’m going to be computerless for a time (how I’ll deal with the withdrawal of being unplugged from the internet, even for a day an hour, I have no idea), but hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up a laptop within a shortish time.
Though that will mean starting from scratch (after decrapifying), installing all the applications I use on a daily basis and consider essential. While I’m leaving this list here for myself - to save time later - you may find some useful items too.
They are in no particular order of importance, except they are more or less listed in the order that I would download and install them, with the emphasis on security first, before going on to the rest of the more fun tools.
And, I’m a pauper, so most of these tools are free or very cheap.
- Avast Home Edition - FREE antivirus software. Not yet tried, but I plan to do so (after Lifehacker’s mention here) to replace the generally overpriced bloatware that’s been crippling my machines over the last few years.
- Win Patrol. Who doesn’t want a Scotty Dog looking after security?
- Firefox web browser. I really couldn’t live without this as default now and I’ll do a separate post listing the extensions I have installed too.
- CCleaner (formerly known as Crap Cleaner). Wonderful little utility. Pity you can’t use it externally to remove all the crap from the internet!
- CuteHTML. GlobalSCAPE discontinued sales and further development last year, so it was a wise move that kept a copy of my original download. I’ve always liked this because it’s dead simple; I write HTML from scratch and the fact that it color codes the different types of tags is just enough help for me to be able to read it quickly. With nearly nobody wanting to dig into raw HTML these days, I can understand that the market for it was limited. I don’t know what I could use - or suggest to you - instead of it though. Maybe you can tell me what’s out there - free or cheap - to edit HTML.
- w.bloggar blog posting interface. Again, I choose this one, because it’s the only one I can find that actually works with the platforms I use and, lets me tinker in raw HTML; does not force me to swear at WYSIWYG.
- WS FTP - the home version can be had free here. Apparently, I’ve been using the version I have (95) since 2000. Well, there’s longevity for you. An alternative I haven’t used, but might be worth looking at is Core FTP LE. I also use (and if you don’t fancy the terms of WS FTP’s offer), is Smart FTP, which is free for personal, educational or non-profit use.
- OpenOffice. No, sorry Microsoft, I will not stump up for your overpriced bloatware, when this does the job more than satisfactorily!
- TextPad. General purpose editor for plain text files.
- ShortKeys Lite free version of a utility to set up replacement text or paragraphs for any given number of user defined keystrokes.
- Paint Shop Pro. Not free, but very cheap, I’ve been using PSP since about version 3 when it really was free, until I won a copy of a later version from JASC. Before I buy this, I’m going to try GIMP. Download for Windows.
- Color Cop multi-purpose color picker for web designers and programmers.
- Rainlendar - desktop calendar. It’s simple and I like it.
- Bloglines Notifier. Actually, I’ll bet I could be more productive if I didn’t have this keep popping up to tell me how many messages I haven’t read yet, but it does make it easy just to double-click and go to my list of feeds, as well as making my computer connect to the internet in semi-automatic fashion. (In similar vein, I actually deleted Gmail Notifier, because I found it to be more of a distraction than a help (each to his own), so maybe I’ll be able to do without this too in future.)
- Flickr Uploadr and Picasa. Actually, I don’t like and want neither of them, but I do want to easily store / share photos on their respective sites.
All work and no play … Not bloody likely!
- 2004 Backgammon. OK, so I’m
fairlytotally useless and inept at most games, but I do like backgammon. Actually, I’m pretty damn good at it too. I’m sure there are better backgammon programs, but this is free and it does let you play the computer. A lot of others are for playing with other humans online, which never seems to work for me, ‘coz either I piss them off by being unbeatable, or they don’t challenge me. Trend Micro will tell you that the original Russian download is spyware (well, it’s been on my computer for years and they had never suggested it before), but the 2nd, alternate link, download here via Brothersoft(US) passes without problem. - Art Plus MemoGame. (Download.) This was called Concentration, when it was a board game. Good, I’m sure, for flexing the odd mental muscle.
- Google Earth. Maybe Google might not like that I put this in the purely frivolous section, but based on my own use of the utility …
- Last.fm. Actually, I treat music very seriously.
Even I was surprised that the list was so short, although I do make a point to try to keep my machine as crap free as I can and, so many things are no longer needed or can be done with online tools today. I’ve gone through programs in my taskbar, system tray, listed in menus and other shortcuts I’ve relegated elsewhere and that’s all I could come up with that wasn’t either standard issue or that came with some sort of peripheral, such as a printer or camera.
(And, I’ll bet half of those are unnecessary or can be bettered too.)
In addition, I also plan on trying some others of these …
Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software
There’s more freeware listed here …
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