Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters)
Erica Eshoo, 11/4/2007,4:38:12 PM, wrote:
> Unfortunately, my kid lost his boot disk recently and I had to reimage
> WinXP and now it's time to add all the freeware back.
>
> Silly me - in addition to no backups, we don't have a well defined
> list of freeware that was installed - so, we're starting from
> scratch, again.
>
> I wish I had kept a list. I'm trying to remember from memory what
> needs to be installed on a laptop to make it useful.
>
> I think these are the required software additions for my NEW running
> list of freeware aps that must be on a typical windows XP pc.
>
> Mandatory Operating System Patches (for laptops):
> - Windows XP SP2
> - Wireless encryption http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021
> - Any others?
>
> Required freeware capabilities (from memory):
> - Browse the web with Firefox to replace IE
> - Email with Thunderbird to replace OE
> - Create PDFs with CutePDF to replace Acrobat
> - View photos with Irfanview & edit with Paint.NET
> - Firewall with ZoneAlarm to replace Windows Firewall
> - AntiVirus with Avast to replace McAfee
> - Archive with IZArc to replace WinZip
> - Office documents with Sun OpenOffice to replace MS Office
> - Security with TrueCrypt to replace PGP
> - Usenet with XNews to replace google groups
> - Torrent with Bittorrent to replace ftp
> - Ipod with SharePod to replace ITunes song transfer
> - Audacity & MultiID3 tag editor to replace iTunes editing
> - Backup dvds with DVDFabDecrypter
> - Convert avi to DVD with DVDFlick
> - Burn DVDs with ImgBurn
> - Maps with GoogleEarth
> - RealAlternative to replace RealPlayer
> - QuicktimeAlternative to replace QuickTime
> - Media Player Classic to replace Windows Media Player
> - GNU Flash Alternative to replace Macromedia Flash Player
> - Skype to replace land lines
> - AdAware, SpywareBlaster, & Spybot Search & Destroy for privacy
> - Ccleaner to maintain a clean PC & registry
> - Any others?
>
> I'm sure I missed a half-dozen or more critical freeware necessities
> for a typical laptop. Can you help me refresh my memory.
>
> What other freeware do most people need to set up a decent Windows XP
> PC?
ERUNT for emergency registry restores.
DVDShrink for DVD backups.
Karen's Replicator for backups.
WordWeb for looking up definitions.
e-Sword for learning more about the Bible.
Editpad Lite for working with text files.
Shareaza or uTorrent for downloading torrents.
Xananews for newsgroup reading.
Media Player Classic and codecs for videos.
Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters)
On Nov 4, 5:38 pm, Erica Eshoo <evesunf...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Unfortunately, my kid lost his boot disk recently and I had to reimage
> WinXP and now it's time to add all the freeware back.
>
> Silly me - in addition to no backups, we don't have a well defined list of
> freeware that was installed - so, we're starting from scratch, again.
>
> I wish I had kept a list. I'm trying to remember from memory what needs to
> be installed on a laptop to make it useful.
I not only keep a list, but all the installers, since frequently good
programs become hard to find in the future.
> I think these are the required software additions for my NEW running list
> of freeware aps that must be on a typical windows XP pc.
>
> Mandatory Operating System Patches (for laptops):
> - Windows XP SP2
> - Wireless encryptionhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021
> - Any others?
nlite to slipstream in SP2 and create a disk for unattended
installation. Afterwards although "payware" Acronis true image is
great for imaging for a fast restore. Better than the latest version
of Ghost. Also after installing and updating I remove unnecessary
patch uninstall files (c:\windows\$NTuninstallxxxxxxx) http://www.nliteos.com/ http://www.acronis.com/
> Required freeware capabilities (from memory):
> - Browse the web with Firefox to replace IE
Adblock plus for Firefox to, well, block ads.
I also use mouse gestures plug in.
> - Email with Thunderbird to replace OE
> - Create PDFs with CutePDF to replace Acrobat
Foxit to replace Acrobat reader.
> - View photos with Irfanview & edit with Paint.NET
> - Firewall with ZoneAlarm to replace Windows Firewall
I don't really see the need. Plus I also have a router. Other freeware
firewalls allow for more control than Zonealarm.
> - AntiVirus with Avast to replace McAfee
Or AVG
> - Archive with IZArc to replace WinZip
Tug-zip. Put in rar.exe and it can not only read, but create rar
files. Natively handles zip, 7-zip and millions of others
> - Office documents with Sun OpenOffice to replace MS Office
As much as I'd like to like Openoffice, I find it still can't beat MS
Office 2003. Though with any Office 2000-2003 installation I put on
the converters for office 2007 files, putting off the need of an
upgrade just to support this terrible format.
> - Ipod with SharePod to replace ITunes song transfer
> - Audacity & MultiID3 tag editor to replace iTunes editing
iTunes is such a piece of garbage.
> - Backup dvds with DVDFabDecrypter
Fab Decrypter for breaking the latest protection schemes, DVD-Shrink
for re-compression.
> - Convert avi to DVD with DVDFlick
> - Burn DVDs with ImgBurn
ImgBurn is good for burning images, InfraRecorder is really good for
giving an environment similar to Nero or Easy CD creator. http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
> - RealAlternative to replace RealPlayer
> - QuicktimeAlternative to replace QuickTime
Real player and Quicktime are such garbage. Especially Quicktime,
since most software that comes from Apple is pure crap, and they
really like trying to force iTunes on users.
K-lite is good for filling in other required codecs
> - Media Player Classic to replace Windows Media Player
VLC is good too. If I have a file that k-lite+quicktime alternative
+real alternative can't open, VLC usually can.
> - GNU Flash Alternative to replace Macromedia Flash Player
> - Skype to replace land lines
> - AdAware, SpywareBlaster, & Spybot Search & Destroy for privacy
If you don't download random untrusted programs, and run plugins from
sketchy sites, using anti-adware / spyware programs starts becoming a
waste of time, especially 3. The only things I have ever had them
return are browser cookies, which aren't real spyware as such, and you
can set firefox to delete cookies / history / cache on close. I find
resident anti virus is also a waste of time. Only need to scan
downloaded files, and maybe the odd hard drive scan.
> - Ccleaner to maintain a clean PC & registry
> - Any others?
Windirstat to figure out why your 250GB hard drive only has 2GB free http://windirstat.info/
I use speedfan to monitor my system temperatures and alarm in
overtemperatures/ also monitor hard drive SMART status. In one of my
machines I use it to control the CPU fan speed. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
and FreeSSHd or COPSSH to act as an ssh server so you can get secure
access to your network. FreeSSHd works great for tunneling VNC and
other services, but can not properly handle Remote desktop if you have
XP Pro. COPSSH isn't as compact or user friendly, but works good with
remote desktop: http://www.freesshd.com/ http://www.itefix.no/phpws/index.php...age&PAGE_id=12
>
> I'm sure I missed a half-dozen or more critical freeware necessities for a
> typical laptop. Can you help me refresh my memory.
>
> What other freeware do most people need to set up a decent Windows XP PC?
Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters)
On Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:11:20 -0600, Frank McCoy wrote:
>>- Archive with IZArc to replace WinZip
> I use WinRar instead of WinZip
I thought WinRar wasn't freeware? IZArc is freeware and is almost as good
as WinRar in my humble opinion.
>>- Security with TrueCrypt to replace PGP
> What's wrong with PGP?
IMHO, in the olden days, PGP was fine; but nowadays - PGP tries to make you
buy it so most of the stuff doesn't even work except the critical stuff.
I'm tired of having an entire PGP Desktop program that has most of the
buttons shut off. TrueCrypt has none of that and is truly freeware.
>>- Usenet with XNews to replace google groups
> Agent or FreeAgent. MUCH better.
Agent is a classic - but I thought it wasn't free any more. Is Agent free?
And FreeAgent, I thought was advertiseware; so that's why I didn't install
it myself. I must admit this list was from memory as I haven't tested the
best freeware in a long time.
>>- Convert avi to DVD with DVDFlick
> Except for the price, AVS really covers that better than anybody else
> I've found ... and believe me I *looked* really hard!
I love DVDFlick. And, it's freeware. I do not know about AVS but all I do
is slide an AVI file onto DVDFlick and it converts that AVI file to a
properly sized DVD image and then burns that image to a DVD single-layer
disk. IMHO, DVDFlick is a great piece of freeware!
>>- AdAware, SpywareBlaster, & Spybot Search & Destroy for privacy
> Get Bazooka Adware scanner to add to those.
I never heard of Bazooka. I'll check it out. I use TrendMicro HouseCall
most of the time as it catches at least one or two infections a week that
the other guys don't.
> DivX and XVID, Aptiva Toolbox, BCwipe, CPU-Z, Memtest86+,
> fonts, Xcalc or Xcalibur-32-bit, Rgh Extensions to Windows
> Synctoy, TweakUI, Nistime-32bit, V (or V8) file-viewer
> VIA 4-in-1 installer, Realtek AC-97 sound driver, DirectX installer
> Having them ALL on a CD-ROM, and not having to spend *hours* downloading
> them from the net, saves *so much* time!
I love the idea of a separate install directory with a CDROM
backup every once in a while. That would have saved LOTS of time
for me.
I'm not sure what some of your suggested programs are, so I'm going to
have to study them ... especially "rgh", "synctoy", "realtek", "VIA",
and "Aptiva".
Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters)
On Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:01:10 -0800, bluerhinoceros wrote:
> You may have taken it for granted and not mentioned it, but either
> Automatic Updates, or regular visits to Windows Update...
Good point! Yes, I did take autoupdate for granted, assuming most people
opt for that.
Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters)
On 04 Nov 2007 23:17:51 GMT, jameshanley39@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> I prefer Xananews as a news client. I prefer it to Forte for example,
> which somebody mentioned.
I appreciate the Xanews suggestion as I'm not as happy with my freeware
nntp newsreader as I am with other programs such as IrfanView, DVDFlick,
Firefox, etc.
Based on this thread, I created a new directory:
c:\My Installers\My NNTP Clients\
and downloaded Xananews into it along with a copy of the HTML page (for
reference) where I obtained it (I used wget freeware to archive the web
page along with the executable).
Wow. It apparently plays everything but the flute!
It's going to go into my new directory:
C:\My Installers\My Video Players
If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play
any Multimedia file, without reading manuals or spending long hours
training, then SUPER is all you need. It is a Multimedia Encoder and a
Multimedia Player, easy-to-use with 1 simple click.
SUPER supports a wide variety of input/source file format to play or encode
(to & from) without any additional third party software:
Video format: 3gp/3g2(Nokia,Siemens,Sony,Ericsson) asf, avi
(DivX,H263,H263+,H264,Xvid,MPEG4,MSmpeg4 etc..), fli, flc, flv (used in
Flash), mpg (Mpeg I,Mpeg II), mov(H263,H263+,H264,MPEG4 etc..),
mp4(H263,H263+,H264,MPEG4), ogg, qt, rm, str (Play Station), swf (Flash),
viv, vob, wmv
Audio format: ac3, amr, mp2, mp3, mp4, ogg, ra, wma
AviSynth Script Files: avs. ALL Input/source files that fail to encode,
will be encoded without error when using AviSynth scripts.
Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters)
On Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:50:11 -0800, throwitout wrote:
> I not only keep a list, but all the installers, since frequently good
> programs become hard to find in the future.
I now have C:\My Installers\My <type of program>\
And I'll keep the installer and a copy of the web pages with wget in each
directory so I know what it was that I downloaded and from whence.
>> - Create PDFs with CutePDF to replace Acrobat
> Foxit to replace Acrobat reader.
GREAT CATCH! I was wondering what to use to read the PDFs I created.
>> - AntiVirus with Avast to replace McAfee
> Or AVG
Yes.
>> - Torrent with Bittorrent to replace ftp
> Microtorrent: http://www.utorrent.com/
> is the best Bit Torrent client.
I'm gonna switch to uTorrent afer reading up on it. Thanks!
>> - Ipod with SharePod to replace ITunes song transfer
>> - Audacity & MultiID3 tag editor to replace iTunes editing
> iTunes is such a piece of garbage.
I agree. I like SharePod cuz I can move any song from anwhere and I don't
have to maintain a virgin disk hierarchy which rules the world.
>> - Backup dvds with DVDFabDecrypter
> Fab Decrypter for breaking the latest protection schemes, DVD-Shrink
> for re-compression.
I thought DVDFab Decrypter shrank things to the right size. I guess I'll
add DVDShrink to keep it on a single-layer dvd disc.
>> - Burn DVDs with ImgBurn
> InfraRecorder is really good for
> giving an environment similar to Nero or Easy CD creator.
> http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net
Another one for the C:\My Installers\My Hardware\My DVD directory!
I see InfraRecorder even saves the sound track to a MPEG file. That could
come in handy for the iPod!
> Sandboxie:
> http://sandboxie.com/
> although no iron wall protection, is useful for testing programs
> without committing changes to the system.
I like it. I'll try it.
C:\My Installers\My Protection
Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters)
On Nov 5, 6:10 am, Erica Eshoo <evesunf...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> I thought DVDFab Decrypter shrank things to the right size. I guess I'll
> add DVDShrink to keep it on a single-layer dvd disc.
The Free version of Fab Decrypter only does 1:1 backups, most of the
advanced features are disabled.
Re: New boot disk - What freeware to reinstall (here is my list, for starters) 
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