Tom's Two Cents

I just set up a newly purchased Windows PC, and I decided to keep track of the programs I consider important to getting up an running. Here is what I have so far, and I am open to suggestions:

1. Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html
2. VLC Video Player (this baby will play anything) http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
3. Uninstall Norton Antivirus – even if it’s free. Same with McAffee Antivirus. Stay away from these bloated apps! If you want virus protection, I suggest AVG Anti-virus Free Edition: http://free.avg.com/us-en/download
4. Flash Player: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player.exe
5. Open Office: http://download.openoffice.org/ (you’ll need this unless you have MS Office)
6. iTunes (includes Quicktime): http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
7. Primo PDF lets you print/save to a PDF: http://www.primopdf.com
8. Skype: http://download.skype.com/SkypeSetup.exe)
9. Pidgin multiple IM client: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin/
10. I usually install the following 10 Firefox add-ons. Not all will be useful to you, but the first 5-6 might be:

1. Ad Block Plus (ABP) – a must for blocking ads while browsing
2. Google Toolbar for Firefox
3. Shareaholic – delicious and other social bookmarks and sharing
4. Tab Mix Plus
5. Extended Copy Menu – lets you copy as plain text without all the formatting
6. Personas – lets you put skins on Firefox (I like the carbon fiber designs)
7. Echofon (formerly TwitterFox)
8. TinyURL Generator – I use this to shorten links for Twitter
9. Web Developer
10. Firebug

Optional:

1. HFS explorer – Reads mac file systems from a PC, if you need that sort of thing. Great for those who run Bootcamp or are switching between mac and PC: http://sourceforge.net/projects/catacombae/
2. Silverlight – This might come preinstalled on some PCs, but just in case: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/
3. Adobe Reader http://get.adobe.com/reader/- Preinstalled on most PCs (PrimoPDF can also view PDFs and takes up much less space)

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