The must have softwares for my PC

Due to the event where I have to reinstall my PC, as in my previous entry, I kinda going through the same process of reinstalling all the softwares back to my PC.

I’m kinda being called to write this entry about the software that my PC must have in order for me to function properly in front of computer 😉

Being using computer for years, I kinda have my own way already (and I bet everybody does) of what software that we like to use most, and how the environment should be set up, wallpaper to use, how we organize files in hard disk etc etc

Usually, I fail to achive 100% productivity when switching PC to do work, and I just don’t feel right. For that reason, usually when I loan notebook from office for business trip for example, I ghost the harddisk image of the current OS on that PC, and reinstall the PC with the way that I’m comfortable with.

So here are the list of must have softwares on my PC:

Antivirus & Antispyware

Antivirus and antispyware softwares as a matter of facts are the very first softwares that I will install, right after my clean windows reinstallation. You wouldn’t know when the virus and spyware will strike again.

Microsoft AntiSpyware – Learning from the previous mistake of not installing this earlier, this is a must running software on your PC. It will watch every single activity on your computer and will stop the execution of any code that is suspected will do harm to your PC.

Norton AntiVirus 2005 – This is a must for your computer. Not installing one is just like your are commiting your computer to suicide. Hehehe. The 2006 version just out. Will definately will get this one in the nearest possible time.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office 2003 – If you are Windows user, Microsoft Office suite is just another a must have software for you. Need not me to elaborate more of what this does.

Instant Messaging

Sending mail by post is so yesterday. With these softwares, you can talk to your friend, virtually any where in the world in real time.

Google Talk – Google’s very own IM software. Good for doing voice chat. I haven’t got much friend list on this one yet, but I just install it on my PC mainly to use it as Gmail notifier.

mIRC – IRC is perhaps the very first booming communication protocol every created for real time chatting. And this is the very first communication tools that I use. Internet era booming during my university days, and I can’t deny that mIRC has played a very big part in my love life that time. LOL. Teenager….

MSN Messenger – I just don’t know how all of my contact list in MSN Messenger are office colleagues from Malaysia and other countries. I got a few casual friends as buddy list also, but they also seldom online here. So I seldom online MSN Messenger.

Yahoo Messenger – This is my main IM that I use to communicate with my friends. Hhhmm. I’m kinda curious how many contact do I have in my Yahoo Messenger. I counted it just now and I have 104 contacts. Hehehe. Some of them haven’t been online for so long already, mostly my overseas contact when I’m into trading gamez and warez when I was in university before. Just imagine you have computer connected to T1 line with public IP address. I was in heaven back then. I should have done a little bit of cleaning up of the contacts in my Yahoo Messenger.

Compression Utility

WinRAR – In those early days, if you were into gamez and warez, you will need WinRAR as this is used to compress the ripped gamez & warez. And until now, the warez world shows that RAR compression is still widely use. This is just another must installed software on my PC.

WinZip – I’ve been using zip compression, way long – long time ago, during the time when DOS 6.22 is still the only operating system for personal computer with softwares like Wordstar, Print Master, Profesionnal Write, Banner, Fontasy, dBase and Lotus 123. And you can’t survive this modern computer era without having WinZip installed – since most of downloaded softwares from internet are in ZIP format. Even though Windows XP has zip file support, but I like to use WinZip as the main zip file extractor.

Blogging Needs

Macromedia Dreamweaver – I use Dreamweaver heavily in work, but hey… This is my home PC. I don’t intend to do much office work from home. So at home, I use Dreamweaver mostly for doing complex layout for my blog template and my blog entry.

Hello – This is a must for photo uploading to blogger. Why not just use the built in image uploading option that blogger have?

You see, the blog entry part of my template is 450 pixels in width.

So far, Hello BloggetBot is the only software where I can specify the width of the image to be uploaded. By making the uploaded image to be 450px width, the image will be displayed neatly in my postings.

Corel Paint Shop Pro – Another my old timer favourite software for image editing purposes. Been using it since the very first version of it. I like this software, simple but powerful enough.

Media Players

Windows Media Player – Come preinstalled with every Windows installation, but I always like to install the latest version. It is the first choice for viewing MPG & AVI files, and watching VCD on PC

Apple QuickTime – Good to view quicktime MOV file, which some website, mainly movie trailers are using this format for the video streaming. Comes bundled with iTunes now, so if you install iTunes, you will have this installed by default.

Real Player – Another famous format for video streaming, where it is used quite widely.

MP3 Players

iTunes – If you have iPod, then you got to have iTunes. I guess this indirectly makes iTunes to be my preferred MP3 player. I really like the search features very much. And they way MP3 is organized, I kinda like it.

Winamp – I’m quite lucky I guess to see how MP3 evolves right in front of my eyes. My computer era really began when I was in university, the time when internet starts to become a way of living. I’ve been reading everywhere about this MP3 thing. At first, I thought it is just another MOD type of music that is created with tracker software.

It’s the end of my first year in university where I downloaded several MP3s and the very early version of Winamp software, put that in my Zip 100MB Parallel Port External Drive, and brought those home (since my department computer lab is using Sun Sparc machine, and common computer lab having computer with no sound card). Heh! Those days. No usb drive yet, external hard disk and CD burner is ridiculously pricey.

I can’t imagine how shocked I was at that time, the very first MP3 that I played – The Verve – Drugs Don’t Work song, and how my heart filled with joy to find out it is actually a full song, at the size of only 4MB. This is my very first encounter with technology, and believe me, I was the one to introduce MP3 to all of my other friends, where after that, it seems that everybody is downloading MP3.

Even though iTunes is my main MP3 player now, Winamp will remain in my heart forever for the memories that it gives me with my first encounter of MP3. From that point on, I keep building up my MP3 list, and have 2274 favourite MP3 songs in my iPod now, and that are 7 years collection since the first time I encounter MP3 (2274?? So little!!! Well, I only keep songs that I really – really like).

Others

Adobe Acrobat – My PDF file reading needs. One may ask I can just get Adobe Acrobar Reader. More lightweight. But there are times I need to create PDF file too. It just handy to have this software.

Globalscape CuteFTP – I believe that everybody that owns website / develop website will be needing to transfer files using FTP from time to time. This is my old time FTP client favourite. I’ve been using it since the very first version of it long long time ago during my university day. Hey. You can’t trade gamez and warez if you don’t have FTP client.

Mozilla Firefox – My main internet browser that I use. I like Firefox more and more. Do you know that my blog is more Firefox friendly than Internet Explorer friendly? Just compare the time taken to open my blog using Firefox and Internet Explorer. You’ll see a very big difference. Sometimes, it feels good to be rebellious. Boohooo!!! Screw IE!!!!!

Nero Burning ROM – There are so many cd burning softwares outhere, but my personal favourite is this one. Superb support for CD and DVD burning, DVD authoring, DVD player and has virtual CDROM/DVDROM.

Picasa – Last but not least, Picasa. Being a digital camera user, I have loads and loads of digital photos. And this is my favourite digital photo organizer. Lightweight, fast and full of features.

Ever wonder how much it costs if I were to buy the non freeware softwares that I need to use above. Here it is:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional	$299.00
Symantec Antivirus 2006	$39.99
Microsoft Office 2003	$499.00
Winzip 10.0 Pro	$49.95
WinRAR	$29.00
Macromedia Dreamweaver	$399.00
Corel Paint Sho Pro X	$99.00
Globalscape CuteFTP Pro	$89.99
Adobe Acrobat	$449.00
Nero Burning ROM	$59.99
	$2,013.92

And that’s having a total cost of $2,013.92, equivalent to RM7,577.44. See. How can you live in IT era without piracy (oppss..)

*P/S: The link to the software’s website featured here is correct at the time that I make this entry. The link of the website might change as the time goes. Appreciate much if you can report any broken link to me.