The best Windows software by my accounting. If this you are starting with a blank Windows computer, this list should get you the basic kit for almost anything you need to do on it.
The Best:
PuTTY
Mozilla Firefox (Best browser right now.)
Eudora (I've been using this since 1994. I'd like to try Thunderbird, but it doesn't seem ready for prime-time the last time I tried it.)
WinAmp (Classic Skin!)
Ad-aware Personal
WinRAR
AntiVir PE Classic
IrfanView (The best image-viewing software.)
VLC (The best video/media viewing/listening software.)
Cygwin (X on Windows)
BartPE (Windows SAs, check this out.)
The Rest (in no particular order):
Opera Browser 8.01 (second-best browser, they fiddled a bit too much with version 8.)
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Quicktime
Spybot Search & Destroy
CDex
CCleaner (Crap Cleaner, appropriately named, clean your caches, temp files, etc.)
Real
Shockwave/Flash
WinZip (Classic Mode!)
Tectia SSH (Free for Personal/Non-Commercial Use)
H&R Block TaxCut
Microsoft Money (anyone compared this to GnuCash?)
OpenOffice
WinSCP
Optional (not required on most PCs):
Palm Desktop
Blender
CDex
Brother's Keeper
The Gimp
TightVNC
Finally:
Internet Explorer (and only because I have to use it to access my company's intranet.)
Most of the software is freeware, shareware, or pay-or-get-advertising-ware. I do go out and buy Microsoft Money (as much as it hurts to write that) and H&R Block Taxcut. If I could e-file from my Linux box, Microsoft OS and software would be off all hardware in my home. I'm still holding out some hope this might happen soon. Need to go see what is happening in the e-file/Linux world recently.
So share your thoughts, suggestions, criticisms. Did I miss anything? This isn't a popularity contest, I'm looking for the best-of-breed software, the best tool to do the tasks at hand.
Tags: software - windows - best - freeware - shareware - commercial - tools - utilities - bestofbreed - essential
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