XP software suggestions?

October 20, 2007 3:22 PM

Last week with the help of AskMetaFilter I installed a new hard drive and a fresh install of Windows XP. Thanks! Now I would like opinions on software and utilities. Hopefully free.

Before I reinstall I would love to know if there are alternative programs I should consider that are hopefully freeware. I love freeware. Here is what I have been using:

1. Security. Ad-Aware Free, Spybot, and AVG Free – Is this enough security? My firewall is excellent. I think it is cable company and also in a router.
2. Quicken – I suppose this is a non-issue since I kinda gotta stick with this.
3. Google Desktop – Not sure if I want this again
4. Music stuff – Amazing Slowdowner and Weird Metronome (freeware)
5. Firefox – Before if I clicked on a mp3 link it would open in another window and it was available to play. Now it opens Windows media player which doesn’t make me happy. Why?
6. Quicktime player – I like
7. Microsoft Office 2000. I own this and don’t want to buy another newer version. Should I consider something else? I am not a power user.
8. E-mail – I have Outlook – This is bundled with MS Office I think. I don’t use it much anymore but I would want to preserve my contacts somehow.
9. Chat – I have been using Aim 6 – I hate opening this program. What else can I use?
10. Photos – I have been using Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album. I don’t like it though.
11. Adobe Reader 7.0
12. iTunes
13. PDF Redirect for printing to PDF
14. Roxio Easy CD Creator 5
15. Real Player – Yikes
16. I also had Google Earth, Picassa, and Skype.
17. I used Easy Photo Print from Canon for printing photos.
18. Photoshop used rarely.
19. What am I not thinking of?

Yikes. That’s a lot of stuff?

posted by snowjoe to computers & internet (24 comments total)

I got tired of Google Desktop. It was a nuisance for me.
OpenOffice may be a good replacment for MSOffice and it is free.
Your Roxio is pretty old but if it does all you want then don't change from it.
Adobe Reader has a newer version.
MakeUP Pilot is a good small program to work with pictures if you only use basic stuff.
posted by JayRwv at 3:38 PM on October 20, 2007

For "8" I was using Thunderbird for Windows and now I use Thunderbird for Mac. It has an "import from outlook" option, but YMMV on how well it works (it worked for me, but I was far from being any kind of Outlook power user). Thunderbird is part of the whole Mozilla package, and so works well with Firefox. The point for me was to reduce my dependency on MS specific stuff to make a move to Linux or Mac easier.

I also own Office 2000. I installed OpenOffice just in case the Office 2000 stops working or something. OpenOffice is free and under active development. It's compatibility is reasonable, but not perfect.

Finally, your mp3 problem is that Firefox thinks you want to use the Windows program instead of iTunes. Go to Firefox preferences -> content -> manage (or whatever, on Mac it's manage). That gives a complete breakdown on what FF does with different files and lets you change things to be the way you want.
posted by TeatimeGrommit at 3:49 PM on October 20, 2007

Batchname. It's small but astoundingly useful. (I didn't write it, but I've put a copy on my server here.)

You set up the changes you want made, and then drag-and-drop files onto it and it will bulk-change all of them. I often use it to change hundreds of files at once.

By far the most common use I have for it is search and replace "[1]" with "". Gets rid of those damned strings IE sticks on any file you drag-and-drop out of it. But it's also good for getting rid of "-1" that Firefox adds to file names. (Or [2] or -2 or [3] or -3...)

That, plus "RTVReco", are the two utilities I cannot live without. (RTVReco can be programmed to push "Yes, I'm sure" buttons on obnoxious "Are you sure?" popups. I can't give that one to you, however, because it's not freeware.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:52 PM on October 20, 2007

Irfanview.
posted by sharkfu at 3:56 PM on October 20, 2007

5. Related AskMefi question.
6. Ouch. Media Player Classic would be my choice along with Quicktime Alternative if I needed to open QT files.
7. If you already own it, go ahead. There are alternatives, like OpenOffice but it's a matter of choice.
8. You could try using Thunderbird, it imports contacts automatically from Outlook.
9. Pidgin.
10. Picasa is IMHO the best freeware photo management tool available. There's also Photo Gallery (Beta) by Microsoft (included in Vista, offered as a download for Windows XP users) but I've never used it and can't comment on its quality.
11. Foxit Reader. There's a Pro version but the free one is all you'll ever need for reading PDFs. A lot faster than Adobe Reader.
15. Real Alternative for opening Real Player files in any player.

Extras:
The Image Resizer powertoy for fast rightclick-resizing awesomeness.
posted by Memo at 3:59 PM on October 20, 2007

Ouch. Corrected links:
Media Player Classic
Quicktime Alternative
Picasa
Foxit Reader
Real Alternative
posted by Memo at 4:02 PM on October 20, 2007

for 9 check out Pidgin, it's free, lets you connect to just about all your chat friends, and has lots of community developed plug-ins that can be handy.

Also, check out something like the K-lite Mega Codec Pack, that should let you play most media types (and avoid Real, for the most part).
posted by pupdog at 4:06 PM on October 20, 2007

Gah, Memo and I covered some of the same stuff. Media Player Classic and Real Alternative are included in the K-Lite mega pack
posted by pupdog at 4:08 PM on October 20, 2007

seconding pidgin instead of aim
personally i prefer opera over firefox... mostly because i got fed up with firefox using 800+ MB of ram
i have yet to run into a medi file that vlc could not open. some folks don't like the ui but it is at least worth checking out
i have found launchy to be one of the most useful applications i have installed recently
posted by phil at 4:47 PM on October 20, 2007

19. Anti-virus/anti-spyware: AVG, Avast, Spybot, Ad-Aware.
posted by ceri richard at 5:01 PM on October 20, 2007

Oh and Ditto, a clipboard extension that "saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time". Great little tool.
posted by ceri richard at 5:03 PM on October 20, 2007

If you need to zip/unzip files, ZipGenius is good along with ExtractNow for .rar and other formats.
posted by ceri richard at 5:07 PM on October 20, 2007

(Sorry, I missed your #1.)
posted by ceri richard at 5:12 PM on October 20, 2007

1. Security. Ad-Aware Free, Spybot, and AVG Free – Is this enough security? My firewall is excellent. I think it is cable company and also in a router.

That's fine, there's also usually free downloads of antivirus from your broadband provider.

2. Quicken – I suppose this is a non-issue since I kinda gotta stick with this.

Or you're not printing checks you could ditch it and go online. Mint, Yodlee Moneycenter, billmonk, pearbudget, and other have been mentioned.

3. Google Desktop – Not sure if I want this again
I've never used it.

4. Music stuff – Amazing Slowdowner and Weird Metronome (freeware)
I have no idea what those are, but for media playback, I use Winamp version 5.2, with media library, without the emusic spyware addon. You kinda have to dig around on the site to find it.

5. Firefox – Before if I clicked on a mp3 link it would open in another window and it was available to play. Now it opens Windows media player which doesn’t make me happy. Why?

Check your file associations, or install one of these Firefox add-ons.
6. Quicktime player – I like

OK, but you should be aware it has security holes and doesn't really add any functionality as long as you have a good codec pack like mentioned above.

7. Microsoft Office 2000. I own this and don’t want to buy another newer version. Should I consider something else? I am not a power user.

Nah. You'll not be able to open files from people using 2007, but they'll be able to open yours.

8. E-mail – I have Outlook – This is bundled with MS Office I think. I don’t use it much anymore but I would want to preserve my contacts somehow.

You can export your contacts, or any folder, using Code Two outlook export.
9. Chat – I have been using Aim 6 – I hate opening this program. What else can I use?

Pandion. It's a jabber client, and works with AIM, ICQ, Gtalk, etc.

10. Photos – I have been using Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album. I don’t like it though.

Picasa from google is nice.

11. Adobe Reader 7.0

Foxit reader is freeware and faster, but the select text tool doesn't work as well.

12. iTunes

Bleah. On a PC, itunes is an abomination. Get the non-bloated version of Winamp and rock out.

13. PDF Redirect for printing to PDF
Abode has a PDF output add-in for MS Office.

14. Roxio Easy CD Creator 5
Exact Audio Copy.

15. Real Player – Yikes

Stay away. Stay far away. Total Video Player has a real audio codec.

16. I also had Google Earth, Picassa, and Skype.
Good stuff
17. I used Easy Photo Print from Canon for printing photos.
Not necessary. Powerpoint and photoshop do the same.

18. Photoshop used rarely.
ok, but there's also IrfanView, mentioned earlier.

19. What am I not thinking of?
Backup software - Syncback.
RSS feed reader - feedreader for standalone, Newsfox for embedded.
SSH, PuTTY for connecting to servers - WinSCP
Text Editor - Crimson Edit or Active State's text editor

Firefox deserves it's own category. Here's the plug-ins I find essential:
Adblock
Adblock filterset.g updater
bugmenot
Download statusbar
FEBE
FlashBlock
GreaseMonkey
- unembed
- linkify
- MefiQuote
- Metafilter Mark Contact Contributions
- Amazon Super Saver Snooper - shows you which have free shipping
Stylish
- Flickr: Remove Text ads/footer and unprotect images


Nuke Anything Enhanced
Tiny Menu
VideoDownloader/Unplug
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:17 PM on October 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

I find 7-zip useful for opening .zip's and other compressed files (.7z, .rar, .tar.gz). It's small, free and open source:
http://www.7-zip.org/
posted by molrak at 5:49 PM on October 20, 2007

If you play a lot of different kinds of videos, you might check out the CCCP pack

I'd also suggest The Gimp for a free image manipulation program (don't forget to install GTK runtime first).

For my multi-IM program, I like Trillian.
I'm running their version 4 alpha, which is much faster than the current one - which is no slouch either.

Oh, also, if you want some free DVD burning software, DeepBurner is really good.
posted by Sugar Induced Coma at 6:37 PM on October 20, 2007

Yeah, seconding 7-zip. Definitely my favorite Windows unzip utility. For playing music, you may want to check out Foobar2000. It's incredibly lightweight. The only player I could use in the background while playing Counterstrike Source on my old Windows machine.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 6:40 PM on October 20, 2007

1. Download and install Windows Defender. Its like an always-on virus scanner for spyware, as opposed to just doing scans. AVG + Windows Defender and youre golden.

6. VLC or Media Player Classic will pretty much play anything. Worth checking out.

7. Still with office 2000. Make sure you get the latest service pack from microsoft. I consider Open Office a downgrade, but YMMV.

8. THunderbird has less features, but you might like it. Nothing wrong with OUtlook. If you use the calendar then stick with Outlook.

9. Try Pidgin or Trillian.

10. The solution to this is question 18.

11. Acrobat is up to version 8 nowadays.

12. itunes drives me crazy. I still use winamp.

15. Theres no need for realplayer nowadays. VLC will take care of this.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:51 PM on October 20, 2007

Almost forgot: Enable cleartype.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:55 PM on October 20, 2007

damn dirty ape: Almost forgot: Enable cleartype.
Or don't, if you're using CRT.
posted by Memo at 7:32 PM on October 20, 2007

Not exactly an application, but Black Viper (don't let the name throw you off) has very good guides to tweaking XP, especially the services guide. Highly highly recommended.

Cleartype but no mention of TweakUI?!

Quicktime Alternative

Real Alternative

You don't like Paint Shop Pro?! I'm using version 7.

I actually quite like Acrobat 8 over 6 - there are a bunch of annoying interface changes, but it's a definite improvement over 6.

I have no problems with Winamp.

DVD Decrypter. It's a marvelous program.

Spybot, AdAware (they've gone pay-only now?!), and AVG is a great standard set. If you set them to auto-det4ect and auto-update, you're golden.

Office 2007 is pretty but it takes way more mouse clicks to do the same thing. I haven't tried to learn the keyboard shortcuts, so I can't really tell if it's familiarity or that 2007 actually sucks. I'm not a big fan, so far. I've run into a lot of backwars compatibility with 3rd party plug-ins.
posted by porpoise at 9:41 PM on October 20, 2007

Or don't, if you're using CRT.

Looks great on my CRT. Its not just for LCDs. At least let the guy try it to see how it works on his display.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:57 PM on October 20, 2007

I have started using sites such as PortableFreeware.com and PortableApps.com to find software to use on my desktop. Although the software is designed or modified to work from a usb drive, I find they work just as well for my normal desktop usage. And now, if I need to start over with a new install of Windows, I can just backup the one folder I have all of these apps installed to and I'm pretty much done. I haven't found replacements for ALL of the software I use but I've come close.

Finally, doing a Google search for "usb software list" will return some people's lists of software replacements that they use and usually the sites from which they get them.
posted by CuJoe at 12:28 AM on October 21, 2007

Dave's Quick Search Deskbar is absolutely the greatest thing ever. Ditto on Ditto, it is very, very good.

Eventually, you'll want AutoIt.
posted by Chuckles at 2:55 PM on October 21, 2007