Everyday Programs and Plugins

[Sinewav]

Well, my computer was so messed up, that I decided to back up my music files, format my hard drive and re-install Windows XP. I'm starting from scratch, and this time, I don't want to download ever spyware-ridden file on the internet in order to find the programs I need to get back in business.

So I'm looking for the best IRC clients, instant messangers, browsers (I've already downloaded Firefox), BitTorrent clients, emulators, media players, plugins... and just about anything else that might be useful for everyday computer use. There's plenty of stuff out there, but frankly, most of it is crap, and I don't feel like cluttering up my computer again, just to try them all out.

So what do the people of OverClocked recommend?

[Bleck]

BonziBuddy

[Chaser-1]

BonziBuddy

Now that's just mean-spirited.

EDIT: I use Trillian for my instant messaging needs.

[Sinewav]

Now that's just mean-spirited.

EDIT: I use Trillian for my instant messaging needs.

Don't worry. I know better than to trust anyone with the Croaker avatar.

[OverCoat]

Well, my computer was so messed up, that I decided to back up my music files, format my hard drive and re-install Windows XP. I'm starting from scratch, and this time, I don't want to download ever spyware-ridden file on the internet in order to find the programs I need to get back in business.

So I'm looking for the best IRC clients, instant messangers, browsers (I've already downloaded Firefox), BitTorrent clients, emulators, media players, plugins... and just about anything else that might be useful for everyday computer use. There's plenty of stuff out there, but frankly, most of it is crap, and I don't feel like cluttering up my computer again, just to try them all out.

So what do the people of OverClocked recommend?

-IRC Clients: mIRC, xChat
-Instant Messenger: Pidgin
-BitTorrent: uTorrent
-Emulators: ...there's a lot of them :P just get DOSBox and all the other ones you can remember
-Media Players: XMPlay or Winamp for audio, Media Player Classic or VLC Media Player for video
-Plugins: CCCP for all the video codecs, Chipamp for chiptunes if you're getting winamp

there now you just need to go down a list :3

[Majin GeoDooD]

IRC clients

mIRC, duh :)

instant messangers

I've always used DeadAIM, you need to use an outdated version of AIM for it to work right, but I hate the new AIM anyway :)

browsers (I've already downloaded Firefox)

It never hurts to have a few installed.. I have IE7, Opera (main browser), Firefox, and Safari.

BitTorrent clients

Personally I use BitTornado.

emulators

FCEUltra, ZSNES, Gens, VisualBoyAdvance, No$GBA, Project 64, etc.

media players

For music.. Winamp, unless you have an iPod, for which you'll probably want iTunes.
For video.. Media Player Classic w/ QT and Real Alternative (if needed). Always get the latest ffdshow for your codec needs.

[Schwaltzvald]

I used to be a prominent user of BitTornado but utorrent made things a whole lot more easier to manage my torrents.

I use pidgen for basic AOL/MSN contacting.

I use a combination of both mIRC and Mozilla's IRC plugin depending where I go.

here are some programs no one mentioned...

iZ-ARC - practically the ultimate compressing/decompressing proggy
http://www.izarc.org/index.html

Openoffice.org - in the case you don't have M$ Office (in particularly enterprise) it's an office suite that has compatability to a majority of M$ documents file types.

Spyware Blaster - actually pretty good in blacklisting sites that are harmful such as those with keyloggers/spam etcetera....

AVG antivirus & spyware protection - does the job fine for me.

Instead of windows XP's defragmenting program I use another defragging program that gives a much more detailed view on how fragmented my hard drives are.

[1337 1]

Instead of windows XP's defragmenting program I use another defragging program that gives a much more detailed view on how fragmented my hard drives are.

You say that as though anyone actually uses it. As with most of their stuff, it sucks :P

Unless you only use an msn/hotmail address (its more common than you think), Pidgin, for all I hate it, is a good bet. Although my preference leads me towards a aMSN/Skype combo. I don't need AIM or the like, and between the two, its plenty enough.

[Didaji]

Well, my computer was so messed up, that I decided to back up my music files, format my hard drive and re-install Windows XP. I'm starting from scratch, and this time, I don't want to download ever spyware-ridden file on the internet in order to find the programs I need to get back in business.

So I'm looking for the best IRC clients, instant messangers, browsers (I've already downloaded Firefox), BitTorrent clients, emulators, media players, plugins... and just about anything else that might be useful for everyday computer use. There's plenty of stuff out there, but frankly, most of it is crap, and I don't feel like cluttering up my computer again, just to try them all out.

So what do the people of OverClocked recommend?

Browser: Firefox

IRC: ChatZilla extension for Firefox

Messanger: I still like MSN :D

Mediaplayer: I use Foobar2000 for the music and VLC for videos.

[BlueMage]

I'm going to go against the grain, assume you have a legit copy of windows, and recommend Windows Media Player 11, because it has pretty eye candy.

[FiremanJoe]

Can someone please recommend a good free anti-virus/spyware program?
I'm going to reformat shortly, and I'm not sure if I want to go back to any of the ones I've previously used (Norton, AntiVir, some other crap one I forget).

[jmr]

Can someone please recommend a good free anti-virus/spyware program?
I'm going to reformat shortly, and I'm not sure if I want to go back to any of the ones I've previously used (Norton, AntiVir, some other crap one I forget).
I've been using AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/) for antivirus, and Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html) for spyware.

As for everything else:
browser: Firefox, with IE tab plugin for the scattered page that requires Internet Explorer
media: Winamp for most audio and video, and Real Alternative / Quicktime Alternative for everything else.
emulators: ZSNES, Kega Fusion, Project64, Nestopia, Visual Boy Advance for GBA/GB, and No$GBA for DS
instant messaging: I've been using Windows Live Messenger as my main client, and I use trillian for AIM and IRC.
torrents: uTorrent.

[Majin GeoDooD]

I second AVG for anti-virus. I've just been using Windows Defender for spyware.

[Sinewav]

Any recommendations for good PDF viewer/editors?

Handwritten character sheets make me crazy.