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Must-have programs for Windows
The purpose of this list is to collect in one place the best (and mostly free) programs for Windows operation systems. In other words, this is what you may want to install just after you have a fresh computer with the out-of-the-box operation system.
System
- Microsoft .NET Frameworks
- DAEMON Tools Lite - DVD/CD emulation.
- K-Lite Codec Pack - codecs for most of the audio and video formats
- EditPlus - Text Editor, excellent notepad replacement.
Internet Browsers
- Safari
- FireFox + FireBug, Google Toolbar, Stop-or-Reload Button, Locationbar2, Fireshot, Scrapbook, Greasemonkey, Adobe flash
- Opera
- Google Chrome
Download and Share Files
- Free Download Manager - Good UI, scheduler, can download from YouTube and other video services, BitTorent.
- µTorrent - popular BitTorrent client
- Dropbox - backup, sync, and share files.
Security and protection
- KeePass - keeps all your passwords secured.
- Antiviruses: AVG, Avira, Symantec Client Security (antivirus+firewall).
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware
- TrueCrypt - for encrypting sensitive documents.
File and archive managers
Office
- OpenOffice.org
- PDF: Adobe Acrobat Reader, FoxIt Reader.
- MS Office: Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, PowerPoint Viewer 2007, Office File Converter Pack.
Images
- Paint .NET - editor.
- Google Picasa - albums.
Multimedia
- MPlayer - does not require external codecs, supports dozens of command line options.
- Apollo - high quality and compact music player.
- VirtualDub - for simple video editing and processing.
IM
- Windows Live Messenger
- Google Talk
- Skype
- Mutiprotocol clients: Trillian, QIP
Advanced
- unxutils - port of the most important GNU utilities
- PuTTY - a free Telnet/SSH client
- WGet - console download manager. Ideal for automatization.
- Console - cmd.exe replacement
- Sysinternals Suite - set of tools for Windows
- Virtualization: Virtual PC 2007 SP1 + KB969856 + KB958162
For Administrators and Software Developers
- TortoiseSVN - Subversion (SVN) client.
- Wireshark - Network Protocol Analyzer
For .NET Software Developers
- Visual Studio 2010 + Service Pack 1 (ISO image available)
- JetBrains ReSharper
- RedGate .NET Reflector (formely Lutz Roeder's Reflector)
- Microsoft FxCop (now part of the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4), how to install.
- Microsoft StyleCop
- CLRProfiler
- Debugging Tools for Windows
Recommendation from readers:
- akrabat: Trillian - IM, Skype - IM, 7-Zip - Archive manager, AVG - Anti-virus, Synctoy - Backup, CD Burner XP - CD burning, Tweak UI - Advanced Configuration, Launchy - Keyboard based program launcher, Acrobat Reader - PDF reader
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