So I finally decided to get my slow copy of Vista off my laptop and replace it with a clean install of XP. Now it’s time to put some applications back on my computer. Read on to find out what apps I can’t live without.

Multimedia

• Winamp – This low system usage audio player is highly customizable, usually I just leave it docked at the top of my screen, put on a playlist and forget its there.
• iTunes – It’s kind of a memory hog, but syncing with an iPod touch, especially installing apps requires it.
• VLC Player – It’s really nice just installing one program and forgetting about codecs, VLC player will play almost any media file right out of the box.
• CD Art Display – I love having the album art of whatever I’m listening to displayed on my desktop, plus you can link it to iTunes, Winamp or many more.
• Audacity – Great free program for editing any kind of audio file.

Internet

• Dropbox – This syncing program made it much easier to perform the clean install on my pc. Thanks to Dropbox I didn’t have to back up any of my work documents, I just installed this program and all my files were downloaded off the internet and placed in the same folders they used to be in.
• Firefox – I cannot stand Microsoft Internet Explorer, this was actually the first program I installed as soon as my XP install had internet access.
• Adblock Plus (Firefox addon) – This extension gets rid of most ads on web pages, it makes the internet a much less distracting place.
• Foxmarks (Firefox addon) – this bookmark syncing service allowed me to easily keep all of my bookmarks from my vista install and move them to my XP install.
• Gmail Notifier – Being that I use Gmail all the time, this tiny app is a must so I don’t have to constantly check my Gmail, it does the grunt work for me.
• Pidgin – My favorite chat program, easily gets on AIM and tons more and it’s open source so you have to love it.
• Google Chrome – It’s more lightweight than Firefox, i really only use it for Google apps.

System Utilities

• Windirstat – great for finding out what programs are taking up the most space on your pc.
• UltimateDefrag – Imagine the default Windows defragmenting program but with tons more options.
• AVG – Free antivirus program, you can’t leave your computer unprotected.
• Find and Run Robot – Good keyboard based launcher, better than using windows’ slow start menu.
• 7-Zip – Great little program for pretty much any kind of file archive format.

Work-Related

• Microsoft Office – Doesn’t really need an explanation. If you’re low on cash you can use OpenOffice as a free alternative.
• Notepad++ – This awesome program can edit pretty much any file you come across
• Windows Live Writer – Great for blogging, in fact it’s what I’m writing this on right now.
• Foxit PDF Reader – I would never go back to using the Adobe PDF reader after trying this app, it’s much smaller, much faster and much better.

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