What programs do you install on a new computer?

[10-Ring]

So, you get a new computer, get it home and fire it up.  What programs do you put on it?  I'm talking about things performance related to make it run better.  For me it's AVG Free, and Firefox.  Am I missing anything here?  Are there other performance enhancing problems that I should be running?

[peejman]

Firefox.  I replaced AVG with MS Security Essentials.  CCleaner.   Run CCleaner after uninstalling all the useless crap that comes pre-installed.

[10-Ring]

AVG does not seem to be as good as it used to be.  They are always wanting you to download something else it seems.

[NextExit]

Depends on the computer. I have a Mac and the only thing I put on it was Firefox. (Don't really care for Safari)

[enfield]

System Mechanic on Windows computers.

[2.ooohhh]

On most of my macs, Chrome, SMC Fan Control, and a few scripts I've written to automate maintenance tasks. On windows installs I'm running 7 sp1 64bit (Enterprise) and then I install Chrome, SPSS, and R studio. I only run stats on windows boxes, but I've found more of the performance is based on my input rather than some software add on so I keep the OS as close to out of the box as possible.

[Metalhead]

If it's pre-built, uninstall all of the bloatware and mcafee or Norton. I usually add winamp, WinRAR, make sure flash player and java are up to date.. firefox... update all drivers if needed. Malwarebytes. Bout it function-wise.

[btq96r]

If it's pre-built, uninstall all of the bloatware and mcafee or Norton. I usually add winamp, WinRAR, make sure flash player and java are up to date.. firefox... update all drivers if needed. Malwarebytes. Bout it function-wise.

 

+1 to all this.  Winamp is awesome, I was sad to hear they shut down and won't be putting out any more updates.

 

To this list, I also add my VPN service, VLC Media Player, DisplayFusion so I can manage a dual screen setup easier, Google Earth and TrueCrypt.

[DaveTN]

First thing I install is Acronis. Then I do backups as I go before I do something like install a browser that hoses the whole system. Then I can go back to just before my last stupid act without having to reinstall the whole system.
Then I have it doing daily incremental backups.

[KaNaPaPi]

I install a free "Office" program.  Similar to Word, Excel and Powerpoint.  LibreOffice.  http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

[Sam1]

Office, chrome, vmware, crashplan agent.

That's it... But I think we'll be switching from crashplan to idrive when our subscription is up.

[Metalhead]

I install a free "Office" program.  Similar to Word, Excel and Powerpoint.  LibreOffice.  http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

 

Forgot about office programs. Libre I've heard is good. I usually use openoffice myself, just out of habit.

[KaNaPaPi]

Forgot about office programs. Libre I've heard is good. I usually use openoffice myself, just out of habit.

LibreOffice is a "split" from OpenOffice.  OpenOffice hasn't really progressed, whereas LibreOffice is actively developed.

[tnguy]

Firefox

sometimes cygwin

one of the office clones

smartmontools when I remember (flags up smart errors from your hard-drive)

VLC

TightVNC (Though I think it's time to switch to Tiger VNC)

Steam

 

Then I have a \bin directory I copy over which contains putty, pscp, 7zip, zip/unzip, unrar, process explorer, ffmpeg, gpu-z, wget, smartpar, robocopy,  and a couple of other things I've found useful over the years and which don't need to be "installed" to be used.

[Metalhead]

LibreOffice is a "split" from OpenOffice.  OpenOffice hasn't really progressed, whereas LibreOffice is actively developed.

 

Interesting!

[Fourtyfive]

As few as possible ..... Edited March 5, 2015 by Fourtyfive

[jgradyc]

I have Linux Mint 17 on one laptop and Windows 10 Technical Preview on the other.

 

The Windows Laptop has...

1. Windows 10
2. Chrome
3. Freeplane
4. LibreOffice
5. DropBox Pro
6. No virus software. If I get a virus, I'll just do a clean install of Windows 10. The install was pretty fast, as I recall.

Windows 10 is a big improvement over 8.1. You can completely ignore the Metro apps if you like. 

[Oh Shoot]

FireFox w/ Fire FTP

AVG Free (though I'm using Windows Essentials on a new desktop so far)

WordWeb

Yankee Clipper

NoteTabPro

IrfanView

PrimoPDF

 

- OS

Edited March 4, 2015 by Oh Shoot

[DWARREN123]

Nothing but I delete a lot of stuff.    :rofl:

[analog_kidd]

The first things I install are MS Security Essentials and Chrome.

 

I've also been using Keepass a lot lately. I've been making an effort this year to not use the same password for everything, and to use a really long and strong password for each site. The cool thing about Keepass is you can create an entry for each password, and include the URL. Then from Keepass you just open the entry, click the URL, which opens the site, and press Ctrl-V to have Keepass enter your username and password for you on the web page.

 

Other than that, I install VMware Player. I like to run VM's on my PC to try out different OS', or if I am "surfing" and may end up on an untrusted web page, I use the VM. That way if I get a virus, it craps up my VM, and not my whole PC. I even have one VM where the disk reverts back to a known state if I power the VM off. If I do get anything on this drive, just powering it off makes it like nothing ever happened.