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Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs
Submitted by Samer on October 29, 2007 – 6:48 am249 Comments
Gparted screenshotI recently clean installed Windows XP on my laptop,
and this meant that I had to re-install all the essential software that
I use. It also presented an opportunity to write a posting about how you
can outfit your computer with all the essential (and non-essential)
software you need using strictly 100% freeware and/or open source
titles.This posting could have been titled any of the following:
* How to never use a paid program again (aside from Windows).
* 53 essential freeware programs that can take care of the majority
of your computing needs.
I am writing this from the perspective of myself clean-installing
Windows and re-installing all the software I find to be essential
afterwards. This post took a long time to write, please Digg and/or
Stumble it ;) .
Pre-installation: before reformatting my hard drive, I used the
following programs:
Gparted screenshot1. Gparted Live CD: one of the easiest ways to
preserve your data when you want to wipe your system clean is to create
a secondary partition and move all of your data into it. Gparted Live CD
is a fantastic program that can create and manage partitions and hold
its own alongside any program of its kind, paid or otherwise.
Unstoppable Copier Screenshot2. Unstoppable Copier: I used this
program to copy any of the data and files on the primary partition (C:)
to the secondary partition. Unstoppable copier makes the process of
moving large numbers of files easy because you can set it up and leave
and be certain that the copying process will not be interrupted by
pointless Windows dialogs such as "are you sure you want to move the
read only file xxx" or any other possible prompts of this sort.
Amic Email Backup Screenshot3. Amic Email Backup: can backup all of
my Outlook email to the secondary partition ahead of the drive
formatting (it can backup email from numerous programs except
Thunderbird; if you use Thunderbird use Mozbackup). For another freeware
alternative try EZ Email Backup.
drivermax4. DriverMax: I used this one to back up all my current
drivers. DriverMax will backup all of your drivers locally and can
optionally restore them for you. Although I have my manufacturer's CD
with all of the original drivers (and anyway they are all on the
internet), I used DriveMax just in case; if it were the case that I am
unable to locate a driver for any device after re-installing XP, I
figure I could always go back to the drivers backup that I made with
DriverMax and find it.
Produkey Screenshot5. Produkey: used this program to keep a record
of all the product keys for the Microsoft products that are on my
system, including Windows XP and Office. Made a printout of this info
and saved it on the secondary partition for later use. I found that
unlike some other similar programs, this one doesn't make
antivirus/antispyware programs act up and react adversely to it.
Installation: re-installed Windows XP on the re-formatted primary
partition. Used the CD that came with my laptop to install all the
proper drivers without hitch. If you have drivers issues try to find the
drivers you need on the internet and, if not 100% successful, use the
ones from the DriverMax backup (#4 above). Once Windows was installed I
did a Windows update (actually several, since it kept doing partial
updates and restarting), then installed the Microsoft .NET framework and
the latest Java RTE).
Post installation: now the fun begins.
PC Decrapifier Screenshot6. PC Decrapifier: if you install Windows
from a CD image disk provided with your computer then it is highly
likely that it comes pre-loaded with all manner of junk software that
the computer maker wants to foist on you. PC Decrapifier will
batch-uninstall many of these for you; be careful, however, to check the
list so as not to uninstall something you might want something you
actually want.
Driveimage XML Screenshot7. DriveImage XML: used this program to
create an image of my freshly clean installed hard drive. (A hard drive
image is a backup of the drive as-is with everything in it; performing
such a backup means that I can quickly revert to my clean install of
Windows in the future simply by restoring the image). There's a number
of reasons why I like this program (a) it can split the image file into
several files, allowing you to save an image that is larger than 4 gigs
onto a hard drive that uses the FAT filesystem rather than NTFS; it
features 'Volume Locking' which contributes towards ensuring that your
created images are error free, and it is featured on boot CDs such as
BartCD, which means I can boot into it and restore the primary partition.
Launchy Screenshot8. Launchy: everybody needs a good launcher, and
Launchy is my favorite. Pressing a hotkey will prompt a dialog to appear
whereby you can type in the first few letters of the name of the program
that you want in order to launch it. Launchy will index your start menu
and program files folders by default so that it will know all the
programs available on your computer (you can define other folders for it
to index as well). If you would like alternatives to this one checkout
Key Launch and the very powerful Keybreeze.
AVG Screenshot9. AVG Antivirus: the reason this is the my free
antivirus of choice is (a) it is very light on the system's resources,
(b) it does a simply excellent job,and (c) it supports email scan, which
is something that I need (and which is why I use AVG rather than the
excellent AntiVir). Secondary choice: Antivir. Third choice: Avast.
SpywareTerminator Screenshot10. Spyware Terminator: provides very
good real-time protection against spyware/malware. For system scans it
also integrates the open source ClamAV virus killer, which it also auto
updates. Overall this program provides a very good free antispyware
solution. Note that it will attempt to install a "Web Security Guard"
toolbar in the setup which I typically disable (I do not like toolbars
installed in my browser thank you very much).
Comodo Firewall Screenshot11. Comodo Firewall: this is not only an
excellent free firewall, this program is a PC Magazine Editor's choice
and is possibly the best personal firewall out there, free or paid.
According to Matousec.com's latest firewall ratings, Comodo gets the
highest overall firewall score as well as the highest anti-leak
protection (these results as of the date of this writing Oct 20, 2007).
(Thanks go to reader DevZero for mentioning this in the comments section
of my Comodo Firewall review).
Tweakui Screenshot12. TweakUI: this powerful Windows tweaking tool
from Microsoft is one of the best out there, IMHO. In general I do not
like to have any of my data stored in the primary (C:) partition, and I
use this program to switch many of Windows' special folders (i.e. My
Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Favorites, and the Desktop itself)
from their default locations to a new location on the secondary
partition. Having no data on the primary partition means that I can
create images of my hard drive with DriveImage XML (#7 above) and
restore them at will at any point without having to worry about lost
data. Later I will also change the default data storage locations for
all programs that I use so that they are on the secondary partition as
well. More interesting tweaks that TweakUI does that I should mention:
customizing the placesbar in the windows open/save dialog and increasing
the number of folder customizations that Windows would remember.
OpenOffice Writer Screenshot13. OpenOffice: a world class office
productivity suite and Microsoft Office replacement. OpenOffice can read
and write MS Office 2003 documents in DOC (Word 2003) ,PPT (Powerpoint
2003) and XLS (Excel 2003) formats, and can also output documents in PDF
format. Note that some MS Office documents that employ VBA Macro scripts
may not be fully compatible with OpenOffice. (Ok, I have a confession to
make: I actually install MS Office 2003 and 2007 both on my machine
rather than OpenOffice, because (a) I need to use Outlook for work, (b)
because most of my Excel work is done with VBA script, and (c) the
licenses are paid for by my work). For the average user and for the
purposes of this article, however, OpenOffice would be my free
productivity suite of choice.
Forcevision Screenshot14. Forcevision Image Viewer: this is a very
competent and straightforward free image viewer. Image viewing programs
tend to be either (a) simple lightweight programs with few features but
get the basic job done, (b) mid-level image viewers that have a good
range of image editing options and features, some of which can do image
format conversions (c) larger programs that have a comprehensive set of
features and are typically extendible by plugins, and typically include
the ability to read/write all manner of image formats including obscure
ones. And although I know many people swear by Irfranview and Xnview,
which would belong to category (c) in this case, for myself I prefer a
mid-level program that I find can handle 99% of my image viewing needs,
and Forcevision is the one I use. (Another good alternative: Faststone
Image Viewer).
Jzip Screenshot15. JZip: my current compression/zip utility of
choice. Based on the 7 Zip open source archiver, JZip Can handle a good
number of formats, has excellent compression ratio and speed as well as
context menu integration. Other options that are good in this category
are TugZip, IZArc, and ALzip (this last one might come as a surprise to
some readers, but I actually used the new beta version for a few months
and liked it).
CDBurnerXP Screenshot16. CDBurnerXP 4: is the free program I use to
burn CDs and DVDs; it is a full featured CD/DVD burning program that can
burn audio CDs, copy CDs/DVDs, burn/convert ISOs images, and handle a
large variety of formats (including Double layer DVDs, Blu-Ray and
HD-DVDs). My second program of choice would be InfraRecorder, which
provides most of these functions as well.
JkDefragGUI Screenshot17. JKDefrag GUI: this is the graphical user
interface for JKDefrag a hard disk defragmentation program. There are 3
reasons why you should use this program (a) JKDefrag has recently been
tested and found to be the best amongst x different defragmentation
programs, free and paid, (b) it provides the option to install itself as
a screen saver, which will kick-off the defragmentation process whenever
your computer is idle and goes into screensaver mode, and (c) it is fast
and delivers excellent performance (see this blog for an interesting
comparison of free and commercial defraggers, where JKDefrag was deemed
the best freeware defrag program)..
FolderSize Screenshot18. Folder Size: this free Windows Explorer
extension provides a "Folder Size" column in Windows explorer's 'Detail'
view that shows the size of both files and folders (Windows shows the
size of files but not that of folders). My second choice for a for a
free program that does this would be "Aurionix FileUsage"; the latter
offers more columns but requires .NET and therefore much more resources
than Folder Size does.
Pidgin Screenshot19. Pidgin: a fantastic IM client that supports
multiple messaging protocols including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC,
SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr,
MySpaceIM, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ. It enables you to access all of your
instant messaging accounts for the above networks simultaneously in the
same client. You can use it to communicate individually with other
people or to create chat rooms where multiple people interact
simultaneously. Pidgin has been improved continuously and it is my
favorite IM client (they finally implemented minimizing to tray which
was inexplicably lacking forever). My second choice in this category:
Miranda IM, which also has matured greatly, or try Meebo, which performs
this function but is a web service that you can use from anywhere rather
than a program that you install locally.
Google Toolbar Screenshot20. Google Toolbar: this is the only
toolbar that I install. Google Toolbar provides a quick searchbox your
browser's toolbar, but it also provides the ability to fill simple
forms, quickly translate pages, and spell check your text that you enter
in internet forms. See this posting for a description of how to do that.
CCleaner Screenshot21. CCleaner: a fantastic hard drive cleaner
that can rid your system of temp files, internet traces such as your
surfing history, cookies, logfiles, cached files and other unused files
from your computer. Installer comes with Yahoo toolbar included, so be
careful to uncheck that during the installation process so it doesn't
install on your computer. Also includes a registry cleaner.
Shock Sticker Screenshot22. Shock Sticker: a really nice desktop
'sticky notes' program that provides rich text editing and minimizing
notes to floating icon (which is why I like it). This is my favortie
desktop notes program, although Stickies, another similar program, is
also extremely good and has more features.
Folderico Screenshot23. FolderICO: I really like to differentiate
my folders with different colors and/or icons. FolderICO installs an
entry into the Windows context menu that does this, but it also saves
the changed icons within the folders such that the changed icon is
preserved if, say, the folder is accessed on a network from another
computer from a different operating system (or after a Windows re-install).
BeCyIconGrabber Screenshot24. BeCyIconGrabber: if you work with
icons you will love this one. It enables you not just to extract icon
resources from files, but to do the opposite (save individual icons into
libraries) which most like-programs do not. Very cool.
ALPass Screenshot25. Alpass: an excellent password manager (for
Internet Explorer only) that can store, encrypt, and fill in passwords
and logins into forms for you. For another excellent program that
performs a similar function check out Keepass.
Picasa Screenshot26. Picasa: an excellent program from Google that
can help manage your picture libraries as well as share/upload them
online. Provides many picture enhancement functions, and is also a very
nice viewer to boot.
Faststone Image Capture Screenshot27. Faststone Capture: a really
powerful image capture program that is extremely easy to use and has a
built in editor for adding annotations and image manipulations.
Unfortunately this program has recently become shareware but you can
still download and use the last freeware version (5.3). Check out
Screenshot Captor for another excellent screenshot capture program. If
you know another excellent screenshot capture program please mention it
in the comments (I'd like to try something new).
GOM Player Screenshot28. GOM Media Player: a fantastic player that
plays DVDs as well as video formats, including Real Media, Quicktime,
DivX, Xvid and FLV. Whats is really nice about this program is that it
is self-contained and uses all internal codecs (meaning that in most
cases it will not install codecs on your system). If, however, it
encounters a video file that it cannot play it will automatically
download it for you.
I chose this one over my other favorite, VLC media player, because
it handles FLV videos better (allows you to jump to the middle of an FLV
video, which the current version of VLC does not). It also has a nicer
look and feel, IMHO, esp. when playing DVDs.
Also check out CodecInstaller, an excellent program that can
identify, download, and install the codecs needed to play any media file
(regardless of the player you are using)
QMP Screenshot29. Quintessential Media Player: supports most audio
formats. It is simultaneously (a) a very nice player, (b) a competent
tag editor, (c) a CD ripper with CDDB database support, and (d) and
audio formats converter. Also features an equalizer, visualizations, and
skins and is extendable through plugins. One of the nicer abilities is
autotagging, which it does through digital thumbprinting and CDDB.
(Note: album art is supported through a plugin, or use the cool CD Art
Display).
Mediamonkey is another excellent program that also provides CD
ripping, mp3 tag management, downloading of album art, audio format
conversion, visualizations, skins, and equalizer, etc. Mediamonkey is
vastly extendible though plugins and has a large community following.
MP3tag Screenshot30. MP3Tag: a fantastic MP3 tag/metadata manager
that can download album art from Amazon and save it into the audio file
itself. I've used a number of similar programs but like this one most
because of it's straightforward interface and user experience. Try The
Godfather for another free alternative (note that the audio players
mentioned in #29 above also provide MP3 tag management, which might be
sufficient for most people's needs).
Musicbrainz Picard Screenshot31. MusicBrainz Picard: use this
program if your audio files have incomplete and or missing tags. Picard
uses sophisticated digital fingerprinting to compare audio files to the
community-created MusicBrainz database. It employs a different
technology than Quintessential Media Player (#29 above) and can in the
most cases auto-tag audio files that have no tags whatever.
Exact Audio Copy Screenshot32. Exact Audio Copy: an audio CD ripper
that reads audio CDs "almost perfectly" (i.e. produces very high quality
MP3s), connects to CDDB/Freedb to get track information, and supports a
handful of audio file formats. Another favorite of mine that does the
same thing is BonkEnc. (Note that the audio players mentioned in #29
above also provide competent audio CD ripping). If you are looking for
an excellent audio file converter try Any Audio Converter which supports
most audio formats as well as FLV and can demux audio from video files.
MP3gain Screenshot33. MP3gain: this program can analyze a group of
MP3s and determine the average volume for each, and then raise and/or
lower the volume of the files in order to "normalize" them (such that
volume differences that might occur when one song transitions to another
largely disappear). The cool thing is that it does this without
re-encoding the files and its intervention is reversible. Another
program that has this same function: MP3Trim.
Unlocker Screenshot34. Unlocker: this small memory resident program
will pop-up whenever you encounter a file that is locked by a process or
another program which prevents you from deleting or moving it. Once you
install and use this you will start to consider it a must have program.
(Also see this related post).
Orbit Downloader Screenshot35. Orbit Downloader: is an excellent
download manager that has the unique ability to download streaming media
(audio and video, as well as flash SWF) from video sharing and other
sites. Another excellent download manager: FlashGet.
Winscp Screenshot36. WinSCP: if you need an FTP client WinSCP is an
excellent program that supports FTP and SFTP (as well as the legacy
SCP), allows for secure transfers, and features dual pane file-manager
like functionalities (such as sorting and comparing directories). It
also allows for session saving (i.e. a bookmarking functionality), with
the option to create entries in the Windows' send-to menu for uploading
files straight from Windows.
FileZilla is another competent, free program that is constantly
improving and supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS. If you want a very nice
program that integrates FTP support into explorer through the Windows'
right-click context menu check out RightLoad.
Local Website Archive Screenshot37. Local Website Archive: is a
program that saves individual webpages locally on your hard drive,
including pictures and formatting, and allows for later viewing even if
offline. What's cool about this one is that it saves websites in the
original HTML format and therefore allows you to reference the local URL
of the saved webpage in your notes program or other applications.
Another alternative that I used for a long time until I found Local
Website Archive: Evernote.
Flashnote Screenshot38. Flashnote: a quick and handy scratch-pad
that pops-up when you press a hotkey and disappears back into the
background again when you minimize it (or press the hotkey again). You
can store multiple notes in it and quickly retrieve them when needed
(its not a full-fledged notes program, but nonetheless has become a must
install on my machine).
Revo Uninstaller Screenshot39. Revo Uninstaller: my uninstaller of
choice, Revo Uninstaller will uninstall a program and then look for any
files and/or registry entries that were left behind by the program's
uninstaller (and does a beautiful job at that). Be carful to look at the
entries that it identifies for deletion post-uninstall, as it will
sometimes list registry entries and/or files that should not be removed.
Revo also provides a slew of other tools such as a startup manager and
hard drive cleaner.
Another nice uninstaller which I used previously is ZSoft
Uninstaller; this one will not uninstall programs as thoroughly as Revo
does, but on the other hand will not erroneously remove registry entries
or files that should be left alone.
BitTyrant Screenshot40. BitTyrant: this is the free torrent client
that I've been using for some time. What it is is a modified version of
Azureus that, controversially, picks and chooses peers to allocate
bandwidth to such that those who are providing more bandwidth for
downloaded files receive more of your own bandwidth (which is why it is
sometimes called the 'selfish' bittorent client). It is claimed that
this can result in up to 70% faster downloads, but the reason this is
controversial is that peers with lower connection speeds or are not
sharing files may be overlooked by this program (read more about it
here). Other excellent free torrent clients: uTorrent, Azureus.
Starter Screenshot41. Starter: a small, no-install program which
does a fantastic job managing the programs that start with Windows.
(I've tried many, and this is the one I like the most). Note that Revo
Uninstaller (#39 above) provides a built in startup programs manager as
well.
Send to Toys Screenshot42. Send To Toys: use this program to add
any folder to the explorer "send to" menu, which allows you to quickly
copy or move any file to your favorite or most used folders.
Returnil Screenshot43. Returnil: a system virtualization program
that allows you to surf dangerous sites and/or install and test software
or implement any desired changes then restart your system to get it back
to the state it was before said changes.
SysTrayMeter Screenshot44. SysTrayMeter: a small program that shows
your processor usage and free memory in the system tray. Invaluable if
you like to keep an eye on your available resources, and very useful in
troubleshooting a problematic or slow system.
Sweepram Screenshot45. SweepRAM: a tiny, no-install RAM optimizer
that frees system RAM by allowing applications all the RAM that they
need, but no more (i.e. does not deprive programs from RAM). Use it to
free RAM whenever your available memory plummets and/or your system
becomes sluggish.
VSO Image Resizer Screenshot46. VSO Image Resizer: installs an
entry in the Windows right-click context menu that enables image
resizing and format conversions on-the-fly. One of the nicer things
about this software is the ability to create custom image profiles that
you can save in order to access them quickly at any later point. Another
program which I also used for a long time: Easy Thumbnails.
Photoscape Screenshot47. Photoscape: is an all-in-one image
management and manipulation suite that includes an image editor, a
screen capture program, image formats conversions, an image viewer, GIF
animation editor, mass image renamer, page creator, as well as a handful
of other functions. While it does most of these functions competently,
what I like about this program is its ability to combine and/or overlay
images and easily add annotations. If you have to use a lot of images in
presentations (as I do for work) you will find this program a great help.
PDF-XChange Viewer Screenshot48. PDF-XChange Viewer: a very nice
PDF reader that allows for form filling as well as annotation and adding
notes. The only thing I would change about this program is the icon it
displays for PDF files (but that can be done with a program like Icon
Phile).
PrimoPDF Screenshot49. Primo PDF: a virtual printer that can create
PDF files out of any printable document. If you're interested in
printing to image formats as well try PDFCreator. Another alternative:
DoPDF.
HOBComment Screenshot50. HobComment: this will add a "file/folder
comments" in Windows details view, and a right-click "add comment"
extension in Windows explorer (the latter only for NTFS partitions). The
end result is a very easy way to add comments to files and folders that
can be displayed in the Windows details view.
I.Mage Acreenshot51. I.Mage: I use this image editing program as a
replacement to Windows' "Paint" program; it's simple and straightforward
and sufficient for my occasional image manipulation needs. If you need a
more powerful Photoshop-replacement freeware bitmap editor try Gimpshop
or Paint.net (both excellent programs).
Flashfolder Screenshot52. Flashfolder: an explorer extension that
adds user-defined favorites folders (and recent folders) to Windows'
open/save dialogs. A favorite of mine that I always have on my machine.
JOCR Screenshot53. JOCR: can snap any area of the screen (or simply
load an image) and provide instant (and excellent) optical character
recognition. This one might be a little out of place for an article that
advocates using only free software because it needs a library installed
with MS Office, whereas I list OpenOffice (#13 above) as the MS Office
alternative. Still, I use this program a lot and find it to be a
must-install, which is why I decided to list it.
Create Disk Image: now that I have my system decked out with all the
software that I use, I create another image with DriveImage XML so that
I have 2 images; one that contains Windows XP clean installed with
drivers, and one with all the software that I use. Should I need to for
any reason I can quickly and easily revet back to any one of these setups.
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