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Fresh reformat win 7 - What do I need?

B

Blacryan

n00b
Joined
Jul 17, 2006
Messages
41
I just did a fresh install of windows 7 on my new pc. What are the *essentials* as far as software that I need to get!?
 
How can someone answer this question without knowing what you use your PC for? Other than the obvious answers:
*Latest drivers for all hardware
*Microsoft updates
*Antivirus
*Web viewers and programs (Java, flash, shockwave, Acrobloat, etc)

The rest is...based on what you do with your PC.
 
Video driver
DirectX 9
Opera / Firefox
Avast / AVG
OpenOffice.org (includes java)
7zip
Notepad++
Foxit Reader
Digsby / MSN Messenger
Combined Community Codec Pack (Media player classic HC w/all codecs)

uTorrent?
Ventrilo?
Skype?
 
I gotta wonder what purpose these types of threads serve as they basically turn into "Ok, let's say you do a clean install, what do you do in terms of software/drivers after the OS is installed?" type of discussion.

I mean, I understand people making suggestions but aside from "install the OS and update the drivers" the rest of it is going to be personal opinions on stuff that don't really help the OP much at all.

The post above recommends that garbage CCCP codec package crap... Windows 7 does all that stuff natively except Real Media support - don't fuck up a system (ok, potentially fuck it up) by installing shit that is simply not necessary and has been proven to cause problems in some situations. Windows 7 can handle that stuff itself; only MPC-HC and maybe Haali's Media Splitter can improve things, anything else is going to (potentially) cause problems.

See what I'm saying? :D
 
Bahamut said:
I gotta wonder what purpose these types of threads serve as they basically turn into "Ok, let's say you do a clean install, what do you do in terms of software/drivers after the OS is installed?" type of discussion.

I mean, I understand people making suggestions but aside from "install the OS and update the drivers" the rest of it is going to be personal opinions on stuff that don't really help the OP much at all.

The post above recommends that garbage CCCP codec package crap... Windows 7 does all that stuff natively except Real Media support - don't fuck up a system (ok, potentially fuck it up) by installing shit that is simply not necessary and has been proven to cause problems in some situations. Windows 7 can handle that stuff itself; only MPC-HC and maybe Haali's Media Splitter can improve things, anything else is going to (potentially) cause problems.

See what I'm saying? :D
Click to expand...

Of course it's what you personally install. He's asking for suggestions and I gave him some. Maybe he'll see a few things he realizes he wants installed, maybe he'll see your post and realize he doesn't want CCCP too. Discussion success?
 
Bahamut said:
I gotta wonder what purpose these types of threads serve as they basically turn into "Ok, let's say you do a clean install, what do you do in terms of software/drivers after the OS is installed?" type of discussion.

I mean, I understand people making suggestions but aside from "install the OS and update the drivers" the rest of it is going to be personal opinions on stuff that don't really help the OP much at all.

The post above recommends that garbage CCCP codec package crap... Windows 7 does all that stuff natively except Real Media support - don't fuck up a system (ok, potentially fuck it up) by installing shit that is simply not necessary and has been proven to cause problems in some situations. Windows 7 can handle that stuff itself; only MPC-HC and maybe Haali's Media Splitter can improve things, anything else is going to (potentially) cause problems.

See what I'm saying? :D
Click to expand...

Mainly for suggestions. Everybody is going to have some form of a zip/rar program generally... people are usually always going to get a media player such as VLC (which I forgot till just now). I just need peoples list of these so I can remember my own :)
 
Ok, now that's a decent reason, but, might I suggest writing shit down in the future? :D

For the record, here's my process:

- clean install the OS, do basic tweaks, set up the desktop the way I like (Taskbar on the left, etc, but nothing really serious anymore - Windows 7 works great out of the box)
- update NIC drivers (wired and wireless) to make sure I can get all the rest of the updates and then install Microsoft Security Essentials so online activity is "safe" from that point on
- update chipset drivers second
- video drivers third
- sound, peripherals next
- Hit Windows Update, grab everything necessary, reboot, hit it again, repeat till there's nothing left to grab
- WinRAR, first and foremost for software
- Firefox Portable moved from USB stick to the hard drive, been using the same installation for a long time now, updated as required (3.6.6 currently)
- foobar2000, also portable, moved from USB stick to the hard drive
- Paint Shop Pro 7.04, still my fave, does all I require, loads lickety split super megahella fast
- Update Flashplayer for IE and Firefox
- CCleaner
- Yahoo Instant Messenger
- Prio Priority Saver, highly recommended, allows you to save app priority and processor affinity, also adds things to Task Manager that make it more useful
- Newsbin Pro, for my Usenet fix, and QuickPAR for manual PAR checking if necessary
- CutePDF for being able to "print" anything directly to a PDF file
- Acrobat Reader Lite 9.3 and the 9.3.2 and 9.3.3 updates (I officially despise Adobe, there I said it, but this Lite version is fast as hell and the real thing)
- HashTab (adds checksum calculation to file properties page, and it's the coolest thing ever!!!)
- HandBrake (latest nightly build)
- DVDDecrypter (still the best)
- DVDShrink (still the best)
- ImgBurn (still the best)
- Sound Forge (still the best)
- VirtualBox
- uTorrent

Various little apps as required when I realize I need them (HJSplit, MP3Gain, EncSpot, AudioChecker, RightMark RMClock (for laptop undervolting/throttling purposes), RAMDisk Plus (for obvious reasons, I run a lot of portable apps directly from RAM for sheer speed). More and more so on and so on as things progress...

And when it's all set up just the way I like - and even at random points in all that process - I make images using True Image so things are safely backed up 100% and can be restored in minutes.

Does that help? :D
 
My "pretty much install for anyone I do a reformat/flush for" -
-7zip
-av of choice (ATM that is Panda Cloud Antivirus, used to be MSE)
-Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
-SUPERAntispyware
-Auslogics Disk Defrag
-CCleaner
-Firefox w/ABP, WOT and Chromifox
-Foxit Reader
-OpenOffice.org
-PrimoPDF creator
-Paint.net
-XnView
-CDBurnerXP
-VLC
-Quicktime Alternative
-RevoUninstaller
 
limitedaccess said:
Drivers

Windows update

DirectX Web installer http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

Microsft Security Essentials :p http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

I have a larger list of open source/free ware that programs that are useful which I use, but those are really more preference oriented depending on what you need.
Click to expand...

+1 for this list.

I too have a list of programs I install that I prefer having, but these listed above I would consider the standards for every fresh install.
 
Blacryan said:
I just need peoples list of these so I can remember my own :)
Click to expand...
That's why you keep a flash drive labeled as INSTALL, and put your drivers and apps on there. That way, anything important to you is readily available.
 
The next time I install Win7, I'll be making a separate system partition as described in this thread. I wish I'd known about that before I installed.
 
evilsofa said:
The next time I install Win7, I'll be making a separate system partition as described in this thread. I wish I'd known about that before I installed.
Click to expand...
Make sure you read the last two posts. You don't need to worry about redirection anymore, nor does it really make sense, unless you reformat often...which isn't the case with Windows 7. Libraries work quite well, and if you put in place a good backup process, you don't need to worry about losing any data.
 
Dion said:
They dont let you pick any settings during install.. id avoid these.
Click to expand...
Ninite does a poor job of correctly installing applications as well, in my experience. I can't recommend it.

By the way, the first thing you do when you install Windows 7 is raise UAC to its highest level. You then create a limited user account, log off the administrator account and log in to the user account. Then you proceed with whatever it is you need to do.
 
phide said:
Ninite does a poor job of correctly installing applications as well, in my experience. I can't recommend it.
Click to expand...
Good to know because I was considering using it. I install quite a few of their supported apps anyway, but if I can't pick any options (hello unwanted toolbars), then forget it.
 
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