Suggestions for basic freeware with new Win7 x64 install

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Cintirich

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 9, 2006
Messages
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As the title suggests, I'm looking for a list of helpful utilities that are compatible with Windows7 x64. I just installed it last week and so far have installed:

Picasa 3.5
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Firefox 3.5.3

Any suggestions on what else I should add to the list?

Thanks!
 
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Any suggestions on what else I should add to the list?
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The uninstaller to AVG.

Look at Avira or Microsoft Security Essentials. I've had HORRIBLE luck with AVG and removed it from all machines that I support (read: family members).
 
Demon10000 said:
The uninstaller to AVG.

Look at Avira or Microsoft Security Essentials. I've had HORRIBLE luck with AVG and removed it from all machines that I support (read: family members).
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+ 400,

I removed AVG from 400 computers nationwide. It sucks, its slow, its upgraded versions way to much
 
Thanks all. I'll switch over to MSE tonight. Should I have any additional protection? In XP for example, I used SB S&D, AVG and Malwarebytes. Does Win7 require that kind of layered protection?

Also, what about defragging? Optimally, I'd like one that will allow scheduled defrags.

Any other helpful program suggestions are welcomed as well. Thanks!
 
Million of these threads but here we go...

Firefox - Needs no introduction.

Revo Uninstaller - I won't uninstall an app without this.

CCleaner - Essential cleanup/maintenance app and easily the best way to manage startup apps. (screw msconfig)

7Zip - Compression/decompression. Usually the first thing I ever install on new machines as its needed to install some apps.

FileZilla - No other FTP client is even worth looking at.

Adobe Reader Lite - All of the good and none of the crap.

ImgBurn - For burning stuff... Simple, lightweight, period.

Microsoft Security Essentials - Best AV I have ever used, will never touch anything else ever again.

MediaInfo - I'm really curious about the specifics of media files so I LOVE having this with its shell integration.

Notepad++ - Jack of all trades text editor that is MUCH better than Notepad.

Nmap/Zenmap - Network probing GUI. Lots of fun on open WiFi connections. Works well bundled with the next app....

Softperfect Network Scanner - Scans your local subnet and gives you lots of nice info about the machines on it. Angry IP scanner blows.

TeraCopy - Essential if you do a lot of file copying especially across the network.

KeePass Password Safe - Self explanatory.

Windows Live Mesh - Seamlessly sync folders on different machines on the fly over the internet. MUCH better than Dropbox as it lets you assign any folder you want and as many as you want and you get 5GB of space instead of only 2GB.

PuTTY - Telnet/SSH/Serial client.

uTorrent - I'm sure you know what this is.

Steam - Essential if you game.

Media Player Classic Home Cinema - Get this and you can laugh at the VLC/WMP/Codec pack using weenies like the rest of us. The ONLY video player you will ever need with GPU decoding built in. Anything else is useless bloat.

Malwarebyte's Ant-Malware - Good to have around to scan every month/week or so.

Pidgin - Hands down the nicest IM app out there. Trillian is a dinosaur and the the official AIM app...well...

I'm sure there is more....
 
Cintirich said:
As the title suggests, I'm looking for a list of helpful utilities that are compatible with Windows7 x64. I just installed it last week and so far have installed:

Picasa 3.5
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Firefox 3.5.3

Any suggestions on what else I should add to the list?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Whoa.... put the brakes on. Uninstall AVG right now and move to MSE. Man, I just cleaned this nasty malware off a system this weekend that had a fully updated AVG on it. All the icons on the desktop would disappear and this malware was stopping all programs from launching and all websites. Had to install MSE in safe mode and scan it and cleaned that crap off. AVG was completely oblivious to the fact that the system was 100% compromised.

Also, Firefox is 3.5.5 now or even 3.6 beta 4 supports Windows 7 features.
Cintirich said:
Also, what about defragging? Optimally, I'd like one that will allow scheduled defrags.
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7 has built in scheduled defragging. Just go to the defragger and configure.

I also recommend Adobe PDF Lite. Has the best compatibility of all readers (obviously) with none of the bloat.
 
Firefox(latest beta) - web browser
MSE - antivir
SpeedFan - monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures
Pidgin - IM
Winamp - audio
MPCHC - video
7-zip - file extractor
That´s what I usually install on Windows.
 
Its amazing that people are still recommending AVG/Avast when there are options like MSE and Avira.
 
My list is as follows:

  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Digsby
  • Notepad++
  • CCleaner
  • Microsoft Security Essentials
  • FileZilla
  • Foxit PDF Viewer (or SumatraPDF)
  • WinRAR (but 7-zip can be had for free)
  • ImgBurn
 
I've been using SmartDefrag for defrag for a while now and it seems pretty nice. You can set it to automatically defrag every time your computer is idle. When you come back to work, it will pause that defrag and pick it back up later when you leave again.

I got it from download.com searching for defrag.
 
Avira keeps getting awesome reviews - I recommend it. MSE's good too.
 
entropism said:
I'd put Avast and Avira at the same level, easily. Avast 5 (beta right now) looks to be even better.
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Meh, highs and lows to both, but it really comes down to detection rates and AVAST has been sucking in that area lately.


OP...
Me, personally... I always put 7Zip on mine machines, and of course Anti-Virus (either Eset or MSE nowadays). After that, it really depends what you end up using it for.


No need for defragmenter, either, regardless of what some people would post. By default Windows 7 will defragment your disks once a week, right out of the box. Windows 7 is a truly self-maintaining OS.
 
http://ninite.com/

Mine (using Ninite as a guide):
Firefox
Pidgin, Thunderbird
VLC
GIMP, XnView, Inkscape
OpenOffice, Foxit Reader, CutePDF
MS Essentials
all the runtimes
uTorrent
Dropbox, Steam
ImgBurn, CCleaner, Revo Uninstaller, Defraggler, CDBurnerXP, Recuva
7zip

(why 2 burner apps you ask? I use CDBXP for audio since ImgBurn has to use bin/cue for audio)

On other sites I grab Logmein Free, F@h clients, Quicktime Alternative, and Media Monkey (for MP3 management)
QA and MM are on Filehippo, Logmein is on their site, and the F@h clients off Stanford (obviously). Filehippo has a lot of other apps to choose from too.
 
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^^^ Cool idea in general, but honestly... I'd rather stick with getting it from official servers, TY very much.
 
You can grab them from anywhere obviously.
Ninite is nice because it's a single installer that installs everything like a deployment within an IT branch and they keep the apps updated off their sites (short of using RC's and betas which I'd recommend using the Thunderbird 3 RC2 rather than the old 2.023 version).

It's a legit site; don't know if you're questioning that, but their site has been covered by a lot of tech sites over the last few months for being such a great alternative to downloading a bunch of individual installers and having to click "next, next, install, ok, next" etc. etc. a million times.
 
Single point of failure... All it takes is one corrupt individual to infect your computer a million times over. You're limiting that risk going directly to the sources.
 
TehJams said:
I've been using SmartDefrag for defrag for a while now and it seems pretty nice. You can set it to automatically defrag every time your computer is idle. When you come back to work, it will pause that defrag and pick it back up later when you leave again.

I got it from download.com searching for defrag.
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I have used IObit Smart Defrag, but I'm now avoiding them because of the recent scandal where they supposedly stole IP from Malwarebytes. Link 1 & Link 2

Doesn't mean it's not a good product, as if they really did this then they stole from one of the best. But it doesn't take away from the fact that their ethics blow.
 
TechieSooner said:
No need for defragmenter, either, regardless of what some people would post. By default Windows 7 will defragment your disks once a week, right out of the box. Windows 7 is a truly self-maintaining OS.
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I was always under the impression that the built-in Windows defragmenter wasn't very efficient, thus why programs such as JKDefrag and Defraggler were so popular. JKDefrag is now MyDefrag and it seems to have a huge following. Is there any evidence to support that Windows 7's defrag algorithm is as good as the better 3rd party solutions, or that you don't gain anything the 3rd party defragmenters?
 
imyourzero said:
I was always under the impression that the built-in Windows defragmenter wasn't very efficient, thus why programs such as JKDefrag and Defraggler were so popular. JKDefrag is now MyDefrag and it seems to have a huge following. Is there any evidence to support that Windows 7's defrag algorithm is as good as the better 3rd party solutions, or that you don't gain anything the 3rd party defragmenters?
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Yep... Senior member did some pretty good testing, I'll have to find it.

Meh I didnt find it with a quick search.

Here's the Win7 Engineering Blog on it though... http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/20...d-engineering-the-windows-7-improvements.aspx
 
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does rocketdock work with win 7 64bit??? it says on the site that it doesnt work with any 64bit operating system.
 
TechieSooner said:
Meh, highs and lows to both, but it really comes down to detection rates and AVAST has been sucking in that area lately.
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Ummm, says whom, exactly? I'll trust AV-comparatives, and a 98% on demand, 53% proactive isn't exactly sucking. Hell, they scored Adv+ both times.

Now, add in the Heuristics that v5 finally brings to the table, I'll stick with them.
 
I'm sure Avast and Avira are great products. I'm just also sure MSE is better. Plus since it's Microsoft, I trust them to better integrate the software to watch the kernel and other OS vitals, plus not interfere with system software. For example, the AV at work causes Outlook to crash if you try to edit your email signature, but you can through Word. (can't change AV products at this time).
 
entropism said:
Ummm, says whom, exactly? I'll trust AV-comparatives, and a 98% on demand, 53% proactive isn't exactly sucking. Hell, they scored Adv+ both times.

Now, add in the Heuristics that v5 finally brings to the table, I'll stick with them.
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53% proactive compared to 74% on Avira.
AVG is 49%... Avast sits closer to that than Avira.


And Eset is the only company scoring Advanced+ in all categories... I'll stick with Eset, TY very much.
 
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