# Essential programs for a new computer **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-programs-for-a-new-computer/456799 "2008-07-17T04:37:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-programs-for-a-new-computer/456799/1 "2008-07-17T04:37:37Z")
My new laptop will be arriving from Dell any day now, and I’d like to put a CD together of all the software I’ll want to install right away. What would you put on such a CD? I’ll be using Vista. Off the top of my head: Firefox AVG CDBurner XP Pro ITunes Open Office Mininova (BitTorrent client) Semagic (LiveJournal client) ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-programs-for-a-new-computer/456799/2 "2008-07-17T05:35:39Z")
[QUOTE=DoctorJ] My new laptop will be arriving from Dell any day now, and I’d like to put a CD together of all the software I’ll want to install right away. What would you put on such a CD? I’ll be using Vista. Off the top of my head: Firefox AVG CDBurner XP Pro ITunes Open Office Mininova (BitTorrent client) Semagic (LiveJournal client) [/QUOTE] Google Earth Acrobat Reader Vuze for torrents (Mininova is a torrent search engine, I think) DivX VLC Media Player is great Might as well throw RealPlayer on there too ID3-TagIt 3 is great for labelling and organizing mp3s ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-programs-for-a-new-computer/456799/3 "2008-07-17T06:42:03Z")
Treesize Pro Ad Aware WinRAR SmartFTP ISO Recorder Isobuster ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-programs-for-a-new-computer/456799/4 "2008-07-17T10:36:07Z")
Unless you are going to wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS from fresh, you will need [PC Decrapifier](http://pcdecrapifier.com/) to remove all the trialware. The cheapie HP I bought a while ago came with over 30Gb eaten just by the OS and assorted time-limited junk. A trial version of SQL Server 2005 on a Celeron laptop? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-programs-for-a-new-computer/456799/5 "2008-07-17T10:55:11Z")
What sort of stuff do you use the computer for? Graphics? Video? Audio? Entertainment? Gaming? High up on my personal list would be: Audacity (brilliant free open source audio editor/mixer) Inkscape (vector graphics editor) ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-programs-for-a-new-computer/456799/6 "2008-07-17T12:36:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Vuze for torrents (Mininova is a torrent search engine, I think) Crap, you’re right! (Not my week for OPs.) I meant uTorrent. > [@](#): > > Unless you are going to wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS from fresh, you will need PC Decrapifier to remove all the trialware. The cheapie HP I bought a while ago came with over 30Gb eaten just by the OS and assorted time-limited junk. Good plan. I think Dell has gotten better about this, as they gave me a lot of options regarding pre-installed software when I ordered (all of which I declined), but I’m sure it will still need to be decrapified. > [@](#): > > What sort of stuff do you use the computer for? Graphics? Video? Audio? Entertainment? Gaming? General all-purpose laptop, with quite a bit of photo and audio editing (I use Audacity) and not much gaming.