Best Freeware for New pc

[Swaye]

Greetings mates, i've just hooked up my new pc and would really appreciate some advice on what programs and codecs should i have for it?i'd just like to get some basic pointers on where to start out.

Secondly,which codec to download to play DVD's on WMP?


Cheers.
Swaye

 

[WildHorse]

Be sure to review this post here on AT: Freeware

Be sure to go down the list of things in your Device Manager to find & install any driver updates, so you have latest divers.

Here are some free things I find useful, your mileage may vary:

AOL Kaspersky antivirus
Firefox web browser and appropriate add-ons.
FireFTP for Firefox so you can ftp
Thunderbird e-mail client
7-zip file unzipper/zipper
uTorrent bit torrent client
Spybot Search & Destroy cleaner
Lavasoft Ad-Aware cleaner
The Runners Log by Wade Humeniuk
Rainlendar2 calendar, to-do list, task list & reminder
vidalia-tor-privoxy proxy bundle
Picasa2 photo utliity to post to web
Foxit PDF reader (don't install fat fat Adobe Acrobat reader!)
OpenOffice suite (like Word, Excel, Powerpoint)

Google Earth
Free Download Manager
VideoLAN VLC Media Player (don't remove WMP, just ignore WMP because VLC works better. It's unlikely you'll need any supplemental codecs for VLC. It pretty much comes native with everything you'll need in codecs)
DVD Flick, to convert video file formats into DVD format
CCleaner clean - up tool. Run it frequently
Arachnophilia HTML authoring app
Notepad2 HTML authoring app, not as good as Arachnophilia but simpler to use
Adobe Flash player
Adobe (Macromedia) Shockwave player
Sun JAVA
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Belarc Advisor
Contig defragmenter from Microsoft and Power Defragmenter gui (not from Microsoft) to run Contig
DupDetector tool to discover duplicate files on your computer
Depending on your hard drive brand, maybe Maxtor Maxblast or Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools, or whatever other free backup app your hard drive brand may offer
MozBackup to back up Thunderbird e-mail and settings, and Firefox settings
EasyCleaner registry cleaner
cpuz tool
Ritemark Memory Analyzer tool from CPU RightMark
OCCT! stress test
Prime95 stress test
SP2004, same as Prime95 but with helpful gui
TCPOptimizer
TweakUI from Microsoft
SIW (System Information for Windows), is same general idea as what used to be Everest Home Edition
nLite slipstream tool
Undelete Plus to recover deleted files
Cute partition manager, to adjust hdd partitions. (I use Partition Magic instead, not free)
Hosts file, update your system with the newest rev every 2 weeks, from here
Country Codes Lookup Tool by Saber Naeemi


Just for fun


edit: deleted "Mathematica for Students" from the list, which I had included by mistake, as pointed out by Narmer in his post below. Thank you Narmer.

 

[Narmer]

Originally posted by: scott
Be sure to review this post here on AT: Freeware

Be sure to go down the list of things in your Device Manager to find & install any driver updates, so you have latest divers.

Here are some free things I find useful, your mileage may vary:

Mathematica for Students

Just for fun

How is that free?

 

[KoolDrew]

Secondly,which codec to download to play DVD's on WMP?

I like Combined Community Codec Pack, or CCCP for short. Some other applications that are a must for me...

Firefox
uTorrent
Daemon Tools
NOD32
Trillian
SP2004
CPU-Z
Clockgen
OCCT
Windows Memtest
Foxit Reader
ATITool
Irfanview
musikCube
FileZilla
ImgBurn
HydraIRC
Notepad++

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Narmer

Originally posted by: scott
Mathematica for Students

How is that free?

Even if it was free, I would pay the extra cash for Maple. I suppose some universities might give it to the students for free.

 

[Fox5]

Check out the theopencd.org.

 

[gizbug]

Originally posted by: Swaye
Greetings mates, i've just hooked up my new pc and would really appreciate some advice on what programs and codecs should i have for it?i'd just like to get some basic pointers on where to start out.

Secondly,which codec to download to play DVD's on WMP?


Cheers.
Swaye

Why don't you try reading the very FIRST post in this forum??

 

[moulin1]

Mates, don't think he was asking for a list of what you use or like or happen to have. This list isn't just my setup (which would be about 200 lines) it's what everybody should have. And its all free.

Security: Zone Alarm, Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel, Ad Aware, Spamihilator, Resplendence Rootkit Hook Analyzer (you better have it or don't trust your AV)
Media: Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative with Media Player Classic
Applications: Open Office
Utilities: Sysinternals Process Explorer, Resplendence Registrar Light (if you're up to that level), and dont know your OS but check microsofts toolkits for some useful stuff.
Internet: Opera or Firefox

Notice no antivirus. Mine is paid and I haven't tested the free stuff. They all work sans the false positives.

As for WMP/DVD I just can't recommend it. I gave up with WMP7 when it ran like a broken record while windvd was smoother than my box and tv. It's issued with oem vidcards so if you didn't get a copy i'm sure you can borrow from a friend (then again if you don't have a vidcard good luck...).