Essential Software, any suggestions?

[schitz011]

I'm about to reformat and upgrade my Dell Inspiron to Win XP Pro.

Given that in the year or so I've had it I've installed an awful lot of crap software and now I'm reformatting and starting 'clean' as it were, what software would be considered 'essential' to keep it running smoothly. (anti-spyware, anti virus, registery cleaners etc..)

I also don't have a copy of Office, is there an open source varient out there that could replace Office? Basically only need Word and Excel capabilities.

I used to use Eudora back in the day, but haven't seen/heard of them in a while. Are they still any good for email clients?

I realise a lot of info can be gathered off the net about this, but I wanted some first hand advice of ppl who've actually used the software etc..

[arf9999]

I use the following freeware or open source software.

1. Firefox for Web use
2. Thunderbird and Sunbird for mail & Calendar
3. Sygate Firewall
4. AVG antivirus
5. Microsoft Anti-spyware plus Spybot S&D
6. OpenOffice.org
7. The GIMP (Actually GIMPshop)
8. Picasa
9. leechget

[Toxin]

Also get yourself a good drive defragger. Something like O&O Defrag. Just to defrag once in a while.

[schitz011]

I already use Firefox, very impressed with it, though sometimes you get compatablitiy issues with some sites.
Will try out Thunderbird (been using Gmail, but since I moved back to SA have used the outlook (pah!) on my machine.. :P
Have used The GIMP, but I've got a real version of CS2 which I love using. (I'm a photographer by trade)


Whats Picasa?
Can guess what leechget is for

Thanks

[JStrike]

Firefox and FireBird are good.
OpenOffice.org is not good.
Picassa is really good.
GIMPShop is not too bad (Gimp is worse)
Not sure how good the Windows port of AbiWord is, but it was a hell of a lot better than OpenOffice.org Writer on linux (Back when I used linux)
Same goes for Gnumeric. If it has a Windows port, use it rather than OpenOffice.org Calc. It is almost better than Excel

Totally offtopic, but one of the best pieces of software I have ever used is Aquisition and the newest version has bittorrent support. bwana : Try it

[SteveV]

I couldn't do without Roxio's PerfectDisk (defragger) and TuneUpUtilities 2006.

[JStrike]

schitz011 : Picasa is like iPhoto for people who can't afford Macs
As for GMail. Good point. It is the only mail app I use anymore

[JET@WORK]

Winzip and winamp would be on my list together with
Internet download manager
Acrobat Reader

Lets give you a task.... After looking at all these softwares.... Compile a list of all essentials and post it at the end... I was also looking for something like this...

[schitz011]

This helps immensly.

When I decided to reformat I got to thinking that it would be a good idea to use freeware/opensource instead of micro$oft stuff that clogs up your HDD and tries to 'simplyfy' things for you..

I added and then removed Download Accelerator Plus last year and STILL it's trying to take over my downloads through FireFox even after updating it..

One of the things I do need is either Access or something compatable with it.

I just had a look at the Picasa and it looks just like Adobe Bridge, which is good, but suffers a lot when tackling 3 gigs worth of TIFF files! I'll give Picasa a try.

I'll post up here the software I end up using, but always open to ideas (it's a bit like buying a car, everyone has their own favourites.. )

[JET@WORK]

Have you tried open office 2.0... I Like their Translations... tried the Tswana Version and I laughed like crazy.....

Try these they have a whole list and more.... it has not been updated in some time but looks good.

[JStrike]

The last time I used OO.o was their betas for 2.0. It was 1.9.something. Still handled like a flying pig. Translations have always been good though, thanks to translate.org.za

[st3ve]

Whenever I format I always do the following, unfortunately you have to rely a bit on MS software, but it's a pretty effecive system:

Download latest version of:
Getright (you can split the file downloads from different servers and it really flies)

Then go on to download latest versions of:
WinXP Service Pack 2
Mcafee antivirus (I pay US$29/yr)
Adaware (Free)
Spybot S&D (Free)
MS Antispyware (Free)
Firefox (Free)
ccleaner (Free)

Save all to CD

Disconnect from internet.

Format HD
Reinstall all the above in that order.

Run all the antivirus/spyware programmes. (They shouldn't find anything)
Run ccleaner

Connect to internet:

Update Mcafee
Update Spybot S&D
Update Adaware
Update MS Antispyware

Run them all again followed by ccleaner

Using IE goto windows update and download all the updates. If you are asked to reboot then do so and go back to windows update, keep doing this until you've got all the essential updates.

Whilst you're using the horrible IE visit pcpitstop.com for a full evaluation of your sys (unfortunately it doesn't work with Firefox).

Download Firefox extensions Noscript and Fasterfox
Adobe Reader
Diskeeper (There's an evaluation version, but I think I paid US$29)

Then you can go on to identifying all your hardware and downloading the latest drivers for everything.

Office 2003 teacher and student edition is about R799 and worth it.

Run your spyware prgrammes at least once a week, making sure that you check for updates.

Hope this helps

[schitz011]

See, thats what I'm looking for when I try and find info on the net about reformatting HDD.

The actual reason I'm reformatting is that I need to run ISS and therefore need to upgrade to XP Pro from Home.. So I guess I 'll need to reinstall windows..

[st3ve]

See, thats what I'm looking for when I try and find info on the net about reformatting HDD...

I don't trust the reformat function on the XP install CD, if you look around you should find instructions to do a complete clean of your HD.

Maybe post it here?

[schitz011]

I've just done a quick search and come across these sites:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/ (all about reinstalling windows duh!)
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm (if one doesn't have a bootable XP disc)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban (for formatting HDD)
Found on this forum below:
http://www.techimo.com/forum/t155810.html