Recommend some essential software/porgrams for a work computer

Uppa839

Uppa839

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Hey guys,

So after many months working online I finally scrounged enough money to buy a new N series Asus Notebook. I am keeping my old laptop (mostly because it is wasteful to throw away one that is working but also so I can go into the "dark side" of the internet while keeping my essential work clean.....and a bit of gaming :D )

So what software or programs are essential for a work laptop? (preferably free software)

So far I have installed firefox and adblock plus. I will be downloading VLC and transferring Ultimate demon over to my new latop (not sure how to do that but the support for UD is usually top notch).

So what else am I missing?
 
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Superconservativenes said:
Anti-Virus!

That's the first thing I install whenever I have a new computer!
Click to expand...

Hahaha point taken. Though to be fair adblock plus and a bit of common sense stops most viruses.

That being said I tried running AVG on my old laptop and it worked well for nearly 2 years so I'll give that another go.
 
Kaspersky (AV+Firewall)
Notepad++ (text editor)
Firefox, Chrome, Safari (browsers)
VM with IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9, IE10, IE11 and every other shitty version.
Filezilla (FTP)
Putty (SSH)
Thunderbird (Email)
Trillian and Skype (messenger)
7zip (compressing/extracting)
Combined Community Codec (codecs)
Password Safe (password generation + storage)
Truecrypt (encrypting / to store the password safe files)
Foxit (PDF reader/maker. Much faster than Adobe PDF)
Steam and Minecraft to increase work efficiency.

Some awesome stuff but not free (unless of course you get it other ways):
Photoshop
Illustrator
Stardock Fences (massive help for desktop clutter)
Extensis Suitcase Fusion (manages font collections)
 
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Firefox, Chrome, WSFTP LE, Putty, Skype, Teamviewer, CCCP Beta (because of the new vsfilter update) with MPC, Winrar, Camtasia, Office or Open Office, Torrent, google talk, VS2012, wireshark, MS Project, RealTemp, NOD32, can't remember the rest but I guess the essential is here.

Plugins for browser adblock plus and flashblock on both browsers are the main but additionally I add TemperData and Firebug.

EDIT: Don't dirty your hands with VLC, go for MPC and CCCP its all you will ever need
 
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Zapdos said:
Kaspersky (AV+Firewall) Notepad++ (text editor) Firefox, Chrome, Safari (browsers) VM with IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9, IE10, IE11 and every other shitty version. Filezilla (FTP) Putty (SSH) Thunderbird (Email) Trillian and Skype (messenger) 7zip (compressing/extracting) Combined Community Codec (codecs) Password Safe (password generation + storage) Truecrypt (encrypting / to store the password safe files) Steam and Minecraft to increase work efficiency.
Click to expand...

Zapdos you magificant bastard, I would give you more rep but apparently I have given you too much and not enough to anyone else :D

Well except for those last two :P
 
I see all this stuff people are recommending and this trips a light bulb above my head.

My recommendation is not to bog your computer down with so much software. Only install the ESSENTIALS (Example: Browsers, Anti-Virus, etc). Then, in the future, if any more software is needed install it on the spot.

If you end up hating my tip and install a bunch of software here is what you can do in the future. One or two months into the use of your computer take note of the most used apps and the most unused apps, then uninstall any unused apps.
 
cgimaster said:
Firefox, Chrome, WSFTP LE, Putty, Skype, Teamviewer, CCCP Beta (because of the new vsfilter update) with MPC, Winrar, Camtasia, Office or Open Office, Torrent, google talk, VS2012, wireshark, MS Project, RealTemp, NOD32, can't remember the rest but I guess the essential is here.

Plugins for browser adblock plus and flashblock on both browsers are the main but additionally I add TemperData and Firebug.

EDIT: Don't dirty your hands with VLC, go for MPC and CCCP its all you will ever need
Click to expand...

Huh it's weird that I don't recognise half of those. Oh well time to research what those are and how to use them :D cheers for this mate
 
You can never go wrong with VLC player, it will handle any video type I throw at it.

Also f.lux is free, it's great on the eyes when working long nights and coffee.
 
Superconservativenes said:
I see all this stuff people are recommending and this trips a light bulb above my head.

My recommendation is not to bog your computer down with so much software. Only install the ESSENTIALS (Example: Browsers, Anti-Virus, etc). Then, in the future, if any more software is needed install it on the spot.

If you end up hating my tip and install a bunch of software here is what you can do in the future. One or two months into the use of your computer take note of the most used apps and the most unused apps, then uninstall any unused apps.
Click to expand...

I get what you are saying but having the bare essentials can more often than not create more work...plus it is a little boring after a while. It goes without saying you shouldn't bog down your computer with unnecessary but some softwares take up a lot of RAM but that small dip is worth it in terms of productivity.
 
Updated my post, easier to read. BHW decided to crap-out and nuke the JS being served and thus no line breaks. Also more software.

As for cgimasters:
WSFTP is an FTP client. I prefer filezilla.
Putty is for SSH.
Teamviewer is for remote desktop
CCCP is combined community codec [pack] which I also recommended
MPC = media player classic
Winrar is bad, go with 7zip.
Camtasia to record your desktop (if you're making tutorials)
Microsoft office or its free alternative Open Office
For torrents I would go with uTorrent
VS2012 = Visual studio for programming
Wireshark = Network packet sniffing/injection
MS project = no idea
Realtemp = Monitors computer temperatures
Nod32 = antivirus
 
MakinBig said:
You can never go wrong with VLC player, it will handle any video type I throw at it.

Also f.lux is free, it's great on the eyes when working long nights and coffee.
Click to expand...

I have used VLC for years, no regrets using it, but I am open to finding something else. I had no idea about f.lux though I have read some different discussions on here about the computer light and its effect on the eyes.
 
i think you must have got most of the things listed above
and now some porn to entertain you...
 
DanTe_0101 said:
i think you must have got most of the things listed above
and now some porn to entertain you...
Click to expand...

Ask reddit and you shall receive

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/12lw8c/redditwhat_is_your_favourite_porn_video/

Edit:

actually searched reddit for free software as well. Found a pretty solid list. Not great from a working/productivity aspect but still pretty cool.

http://r2.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/127t51/reddit_whats_your_favourite_free_gamesoftware/

first and second comment
 
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Dont forget Java SDK its free to download
WAMP if you are a wordpress freak
and if you love colorful coding i recommend Sublime Text Editor.
Stickies will be useful as well :)
 
Great collection! Here some additional of my personal favorites:

Firefox addons
- Colorzilla : grab colors of the screen like PS
- Fireshot : for fullscreen website screen captures
- NoScript : blocks all scripts on default
- DownloadHelper : download all videos/media
- DownThemAll : fast and mass download

Orzeszek Timer : Tiny timing tool for workout, disciplined working, ...
Stickies : 10 times better than the default Sticky Notes from Wind@ws
Mindjet Mindmanager : Organization of everything - not free but worth it
Calibre Ebook Management : excellent free ebook tool
 
Zapdos said:
Updated my post, easier to read. BHW decided to crap-out and nuke the JS being served and thus no line breaks. Also more software.

As for cgimasters:
WSFTP is an FTP client. I prefer filezilla.
Putty is for SSH.
Teamviewer is for remote desktop
CCCP is combined community codec [pack] which I also recommended
MPC = media player classic
Winrar is bad, go with 7zip.
Camtasia to record your desktop (if you're making tutorials)
Microsoft office or its free alternative Open Office
For torrents I would go with uTorrent
VS2012 = Visual studio for programming
Wireshark = Network packet sniffing/injection
MS project = no idea
Realtemp = Monitors computer temperatures
Nod32 = antivirus
Click to expand...

Everyone is entitle to their own opinion, Winrar will be better then 7zip is 80% of cases or at least it is for me, however it may not for you.

MPC over VLC, VLC is ok but MPC is currently developed along side with CCCP and will in most cases give you better performance and quality on videos, also MPC allows you to use your full CPU capacity if 64b and also views 10bit videos without any apparent issues.

Camtasia allows you to not only record but edit videos, make transitions, captions and a lot other things, its very useful to make youtube videos and it also have a easy upload to youtube feature pretty handy.

MS Office or Open Office (oracle) they are essentially the same the main difference one is free other is not, I prefer MS Office when possible WORD, EXCEL and Project have become essential tools to me for different things.

Email I don't think you need a client if you use GMAIL and GMAIL offline option.

For torrent uTorrent, I forgot to mention the torrent application I use on the previous.

Microsoft Project is for project management and is a very nice tool to design and organize your projects, you can read more at http://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/project-management.aspx

Real Temp is for GPU(VGA) and CPU, it will monitor the temperatures and can also sound an alert if they go above a certain threshold its simple and I like it simple and yet powerful so I Like it.

Wireshark as mentioned can be used to sniff and monitor packets as well as other things, very useful for development in some cases

VS2012 is Visual Studio from Microsoft used to program C#, C++, etc...

NOD32 is a light weight yet very powerful antivirus I rarely use firewall besides the windows firewall as I barely need it.

EDIT: Good things about NOD32 antivirus only, is that while the antivirus only version is not a firewall it also monitors traffic and other things to prevent you from viewing a bad website or downloading bad files or receiving a bad file on skype.

Also don't forget to download and update adobe flash player, shockwave and reader to the latest version as well as Java JDK SE
 
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f.lux

It's a bit strange to use at first, but it's really helped me with sleeping problems and eye strain. A must have for any black hatter who has to spend many hours staring at the screen!

Code: 
http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Blue Light Affects Sleep (and here's why)

We know that night-time exposure to blue light keeps people up late. We believe that f.lux adjusts colors in a way that greatly reduces the stimulating effects of blue light at night.
To understand the effects of f.lux on sleep, we've spoken with some researchers, and we've read a whole lot of papers.
The science that explains why blue light keeps you up was begun many years ago in the study of bird migration, and it continued in humans with the discovery of a new photoreceptor in the eye, called Melanopsin. Many are familiar with the "rods and cones" that provide our visual capabilities, but it was only about 15 years ago that retinal ganglion cells containing melanopsin, which are sensitive to a narrow band of blue light in the 460-480nm range, were discovered, and their unique effect on sleep was investigated.
The experimental research suggests that an average person reading on a tablet for a couple hours before bed may find that their sleep is delayed by about an hour. Clearly, the details are complicated, but that's why we get to cite so many very interesting papers.
Click to expand...
 
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