Essential programs for your PC - My take

BosseBe

BosseBe

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Stockholm, Sweden
Every PC I use get these programs installed for my ease of usage:

Notepad++ Universal editor, handles all file formats and gives you file format formatting. (XML files get their format, Python files get their format...)
(One thing I really like is that I can create a new file and write stuff in it and don't have to save it before I turn off the PC, it will be there when I start up the PC again!)

7-Zip Handles all compressed formats, including TAR.

Path Copy Copy This might be not an obvious tool, but if you ever want to share the path to a file, this tool has a way to do it that will work! (Well at home it is not essential but at work it is!)

If you have any other tools that are essential to you, please share them!
 
Dittos on Notepad++ been using it for years and years. I like Powertoys as well, but not sure if I would call them essential, just useful to have for some of the things I need.

My browser of choice is Firefox, and it is one of the first downloads I do. It has its faults and they've been annoying with some of the changes in recent years, but I've been using it since v0.x and still prefer it. Runs on all my devices. And my blocker of choice is uBlock Origin. One of the first things I add to all installed browsers.
 
Classic Menu for Windows.

Simple and works, no bugs. Gets rid of all the resource hogging Microsoft 'pretty' stuff.

Set virtual memory file to xxxx to xxxx (identical values) after doing a boot time defrag with VM file set to zero.

Set settings to 'speed' 'Performance'.

Set hibernation mode ON, and default START button shutdown to HIBERNATE. Again, after a boot time defrag.

Agree with most other suggestions here.
 
Last edited:
BosseBe said:
Every PC I use get these programs installed for my ease of usage:

Notepad++ Universal editor, handles all file formats and gives you file format formatting. (XML files get their format, Python files get their format...)
(One thing I really like is that I can create a new file and write stuff in it and don't have to save it before I turn off the PC, it will be there when I start up the PC again!)

7-Zip Handles all compressed formats, including TAR.

Path Copy Copy This might be not an obvious tool, but if you ever want to share the path to a file, this tool has a way to do it that will work! (Well at home it is not essential but at work it is!)

If you have any other tools that are essential to you, please share them!
Click to expand...
Ha, I've been using that Path Copy for years and years - such a handy little tool for those few times you need it
 
Grinsaround said:
Ccleaner by Piriform (The “C” stands for crap…). Quickly gets rid of all your temp files and lint QUICKLY while allowing you to manage cookies. Also scans your registry for bloat along wit other tools.
Click to expand...
That sounds like a good program to run once in a while, do you use the free version or a paid version?
What do you recommend?
This is what I found doing a quick search: Download CCleaner | Clean, optimize & tune up your PC, free!
 
You know, I've used many of the programs mentioned so far, but I'm having trouble thinking of anything I consider essential nowadays. I rebuilt my desktop a little while back and I don't know that I've installed much of anything beyond image editing programs since. I find Windows 10 natively offers many of the things that serve my needs fairly well: Edge is clean and fast, Windows Photo Viewer is simple (and I use image editing programs to get more in-depth with my images), Windows security tools are usually enough to keep a computer clean and running well... I don't want to sound like a Windows fanboy, but I will say I think things are in a much more user-friendly place than they have been in a long time. Maybe Firefox and FastStone will get installed sometime, maybe not.
 
Libre Office as good as MS Office and free.

Scribus Free desktop publishing

Visual Studio Code An exquisite code editor that is weaning me off of decades of using EMACS. Free for Windows, MacOS, .deb & .rpm. Now if only they'd build it for FreeBSD...

Which is my preference if I didn't have a couple of things that require windows. So I have 10 on my desktop & 11 on my laptop but run WSL2 on both and have VirtualBox handy to run various Unixen.
 
mike3996 said:
Emacs.
Click to expand...
Aah, Emacs, I have never managed to get the hang of that, the learning curve is too steep!
Maybe if there was a Meta button on my keyboard I could get the hang of it.
Even when I was using Solaris Emacs was too much for me.
When in WSL (Windows Subsystem Linux) I tend to use Nano as the inline editor, I have tried to use VI and VIM but can't get my head around them. (It is so bad that I can't even get out of those editors! I have to kill it!)
 
Came over from Waterfox to Brave when I last bought a new machine, other than that, plain jane Windows install. Last time I coded anything was some sort of Western game on a VIC-20, so its been a while.
 
BosseBe said:
That sounds like a good program to run once in a while, do you use the free version or a paid version?
What do you recommend?
This is what I found doing a quick search: Download CCleaner | Clean, optimize & tune up your PC, free!
Click to expand...
I just use the free version and turn off all the nags in settings. I don’t really need or want to run it automatically which is all the paid version really offers. They also have another program called “Defraggler” and I do the same thing with it.
 
WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics
Imageglass - Windows Photo replacement
Agent Ransack - Free File Searching Utility
Foxit PDF viewer

Snagit - not free but worth it

Settings? I turn all these animation setting off

1653963577992.png
 

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