--- title: "Essential Software to Install on a new computer" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2007/7/27/essential-software-to-install-on-a-new-computer.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2007/7/27/essential-software-to-install-on-a-new-computer.html" published: "2007-07-27T17:01:32" updated: "2007-07-27T17:01:32" tags: ["Cool Tools"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "Update : Be sure to check out the comments on this post as well. Some good recommendations there (aside from the regular \"just use linux\" trolls) I recently got a new laptop. here's what I installed in the first couple…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # Essential Software to Install on a new computer By Roy Osherove July 27, 2007 In [Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) **Historical article** · Originally published July 27, 2007; technical details may be outdated. **Update**: Be sure to check out the **comments** on this post as well. Some good recommendations there (aside from the regular "just use linux" trolls) I recently got a new laptop. here's what I installed in the first couple of days: Installed: \- Office 2007 \- [FireFox](http://getfirefox.com/) (with addons below) > o [TabMix Plus](http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/1122) (Control tabs in firefox better) > o [AdBlock](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/10) (Block any annoying ad forever from showing on your browser) > o [IE Tab](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/1419) (Allows using IE inside firefox for those "special" sites out there \- [MemInfo tray](http://www.carthagosoft.net/meminfo.htm) (Shows memory usage in tray icon) \- [Free Download Manager](http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/) (As the name says) \- [BsPlayer](http://www.bsplayer.org/) (Great player, I have the pro version. Beats VLC and Media Player Classic for my taste). **Note**: the free version contains ads! \- [KLite codec pack](http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm) (Codecs to watch every type of movie format out there) \- [Total Commander](http://www.ghisler.com/) (The best file manager out there for my taste, though [there are others people like](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2006/12/21/total-commander-the-ultimate-file-manager.aspx)) \- [Notepad2](http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) (Fast, free notepad replacement with syntax highlighting and not much else) \- [IrfanView](http://www.irfanview.com/) (Blazing Fast, free picture viewing program) \- [DirectFolders](http://www.directfolders.com/) (not free, but awesome extension for explorer which makes file and folder dialogs in windows **actually usable**) \- QuickTime (And remove all the crap that it installs using Autoruns from sysinternals) \- [SysInternals Suite](http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/sysinternalssuite.mspx) (best free set of tools for admins and developers to find out system info and do system things you never thought possible) > o Use autoruns to remove all the crap \- [Camtasia](http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp) (Great software for recording screen movies. You might also want to see if [windows media encoder](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx) would work for you, as it's free) \- [SnagIt](http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp) (Quickly and easily take snapshots of the screen, from the same company who brought you Camtasia. lots of [free alternatives](http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2006UltimateDeveloperAndPowerUsersToolListForWindows.aspx) for this out there) \- [CoolEdit pro](http://www.syntrillium.com/) (old version of now Adobe's audio editing tool) \- [WinRar](http://win-rar.com/) \- [TortoiseSVN](http://tortoisesvn.net/) ( Free and open source source control client for subversion) \- [AnyDVD](http://www.slysoft.com/anydvd.html) (So I can see DVDs from ANY region on my DVD drive. I can't believe I need such software at all, but reality sucks) \- [Keepass](http://keepass.info/) (For keeping my passwords safe) \- [LiveWriter](http://writer.live.com/) (blog posting client from microsoft) \- Live Messenger (with addons below) > o [Insert code from visual studio](http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=1f57bd9b-a692-4593-9e9e-e2962d9c0eee&bt=9&pl=8) > o [Enable Spelling](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2007/06/03/utility-launch-windows-live-writer-with-spelling-enabled.aspx) (this seems to be no longer needed on my latest install of live writer. cool!) \- [Google Desktop Search](http://desktop.google.com/) (I can't live without my Ctrl-Ctrl shortcut anymore. This also replaces any start-run replacements out there) \- VS 2005 > o [Resharper](http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper) (Best VS 2005 addin since [CodeSmart for VB6](http://axtools.com/)) \- [FolderShare](https://www.foldershare.com/) (Sync files and folders automatically on multiple machines) [\- MS Virtual PC](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx) \- [VMWare](http://www.vmware.com/) (what MS Virtual PC wants to be when it grows up) [\- Omea reader](http://www.jetbrains.com/omea/reader/)(Great rss and news reader from the people who brought you resharper) Am I missing something? ## More in Cool Tools [All posts in Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) - Nov 29, 2007 ### [IL Debug Visualizer for Compiled Lambda Expressions, MethodBase and DynamicMethod](https://osherove.com/blog/2007/11/29/il-debug-visualizer-for-compiled-lambda-expressions-methodba.html) - Sep 27, 2007 ### [Pimp My Visual Studio](https://osherove.com/blog/2007/9/27/pimp-my-visual-studio.html) - Jun 24, 2007 ### [Regionerate - Free Code Layout Addin for VS.NET](https://osherove.com/blog/2007/6/24/regionerate-free-code-layout-addin-for-vsnet.html) - Jun 19, 2007 ### [Get latest version on checkout with team system source control](https://osherove.com/blog/2007/6/19/get-latest-version-on-checkout-with-team-system-source-contr.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/