De-sucking Windows

[vakkotaur]

Since I'm asking about Windows software, I might as well ask a bit more. I know there are some programs that can vastly improve the experience of using Windows, such as using Foxit in place of Acrobat, and Opera (or FireFox, or.. pretty much anything) in place of IE. What others are there? Any programs that are on the "The Windows install isn't done until I download *this* to make it tolerable" list? Free preferred. Cross-platform is a bonus.

I hope to download these at home (where there is DSL) and burn a CD for my next visit to sistaur. Even with drive time, it'll likely be faster than downloading on the dialup connection.

Comments

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

VLC Player, I use it in My Mac, My Linux AND My Windows

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Also the KLite Mega codec Pack, play anything including Quicktime Real Media, divx, xvid and damn near anything else.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Codec-Packs-Video-Codecs/KLite-Mega-Codec-Pack.shtml


And of course Trillian Instead of adware happy stock message clients,

http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

[rbradakis.livejournal.com]

Other than Pidgin instead of Trillian, I'm agreeing with that.

Also truecrypt, because unencrypted data is someone else's now.

I use Process Explorer instead of the task manager most times, too (http://www.sysinternals.com), though it's now owned by Microsoft.

For registry edits: Registrar Registry Manager (lite, free version: http://www.resplendence.com/registrar).

For automatic or manual cleanup of temp folders: Empty Temp Folders (http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp/index.html)

And, of course, 7zip (more compressed file formats), OpenOffice (uh, yes), Pwsafe (because I have to trust SOME piece of software to store my passwords).

I'd have suggested it, but.......

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

I went Mac about 14 months ago, I wasn't aware Pidgin was Windows, I thought it was just Linux. : /

Re: I'd have suggested it, but.......

[yakko.livejournal.com]

You're probably using Adium for the Mac, which has gaim/pidgin at its core. :o)

Re: I'd have suggested it, but.......

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

yes. I rather like Adium, running it with the Portal sound set, its unnerving at first. :)

[yakko.livejournal.com]

7zip does RAR (at least unrar)? I've been using WinRAR cause I paid for it way back when and it also supports the usual Unix formats and ZIP.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I don't use many add-ons. I will say that WinXP > Vista, classic mode > Fisher Price mode, and turning off the flashy effects like fade-out on close makes the OS run much more smoothly.

[hakeber.livejournal.com]

I will second Videolan. And it comes in many, many flavors, and can be used on machines that don't or can't have the right codecs for playing video files.

Also, I swear by CCleaner.