Category: 
Didnt take me too long to make this post..
Having done a reinstall of my OS just this weekend (which is a habit everyone should get used to every 2 or 3 months), here is a bunch of windows software that i think you should have
*7-zip for all ur zipping and unzipping needs (no pun intended)
It can handle all kinds of formats: rar, zip, tar etc.. (not .ace extensions though)
*Maxthon (formerly MyIE2) – this is the greatest browser.. Update (12/29/2004): Mozilla FireFox is betterits IE the way I have dreamt it to be, but a reality. Allows drag and drop (the only negative point about this is that it is a feature you get so used to, you will be handicapped without it on other computers). It blocks pop ups and even if it runs on IE, it prevents a lot of the IE exploiting bugs and spam bots from making itself a part of the browser every now and then. Has some great plugins and tonnes of other features. You have to use it to believe it.
*Firefox (formerly Firebird / Phoenix) or Mozilla- Its always good to have another browser
*VLC Media Player – A great media player which handles all kinds of formats and plays several files that you cannot play in other players.
*WMP 9 – Windows Media Player 9 is much better than the previous versions of the same.
*FileZilla – If you ever FTP.
*Update (12/29/2004): Dead or close to useless Kazaa Lyte – a little hard to find but google always comes to the rescue. or if not look at what they are not supposed to display here
*FlashGet – Download manager. Has ads, but still a great product.
*iTunes – Plays music and categorizes it really well and also allows you to back up and rip your audio CDs and also burn them onto CDs. What more can you ask for? Winamp 5 requires you to buy the Pro version for encoding and burning.
*LanSpeed2 – Not necessary but helpful to monitor any traffic that is using a LAN adapter. (logs how much data you transfer etc.. almost as good as DUmeter which you have to pay for)
Ok thats what I recommend.. now in the more expensive section, or stuff that you have to pay for, here is a bunch of really useful software..
Outlook 2003, its really great. I disliked the previous versions of outlook and preferred mozilla to it, but this version is really cool and not just for the GUI but for the spam filters and the preview pane and how it does what it is supposed to do and doesnt give all those nasty errors about how it failed to connect to the server even when you ask it not to be displayed.
The only flaw is that they only have F9 as the Send/Receive shortcut which causes many to stretch out their hand and hit the F9 key and not just use the left hand. If you would like to use your left hand follow the following instructions to set Alt-R as the Send/Receive shortcut:
Go to Tools> Customize > Rearrange commands
Select the “Toolbar” radiobutton
Hit “Add” and in the categories choose “Tools” and in the commands “Send/Receive All”.
Now you may want to move it down to wherever you want it to appear on the toolbar.
With the “Send/Receive All” still highlighted, select Modify Selection
and where it says
Name: Send/Receive &All
Change it to
Send/&Receive All
Now scroll up to the “Reply” toolbar button and click “Modify Selection”
and in its name change it from
&Reply
to
Reply
Thats it!
Note: The & -> is used for deciding the Alt + letter combination, so you can change it around to whatever other letter you want, but watch out for collisions….
You can also change the “Send/Receive &All” to “&Refresh”
If you prefer not to pay for it, just use Mozilla Mail or ThunderBird, which is good too.
For CD burning use Nero.
If you want to create images of your installation to make restoring easier at a later time, just use Acronis True Image. Its really great. I have had some hard times with power quest’s imaging software but Acronis is really great and it has a GUI which detects the mouse and touch pad mouse of a laptop when it boots up with that to reinstall an image.
I just recently discovered the benefits of news readers from a co-worker and its great. He recommeded XNews and QuickPar and gave me a quick lesson on how to use it and I really like it. You dont get fake files with newsgroups. If anyone ever does read this and wants a short how-to guide email and let me know.
I also got the XBOX and have been really busy with it. It is serving more purposes than just playing DVD and games. To see the real power of an xbox go to www.xbox-scene.com .
Coming soon…”How to fix MBR” after it gets messed up with the installation of linux and an unclean uninstall or if you format your linux drive from windows and still have the linux boot up with invalid entries.
Popularity: 28% [?]
