New install, stuff to install with windows

[Wordan]

Is quicktime and realplayer necessary? I have someones new computer here which they asked me to 'turn on' and see everyhting is alright for christmas.

I hate having to install quicktime and realplayer. They are both intrusive and hit startup performance I think.

Are they really necessary? I can't think of any site that requires realplayer at the moment, could I get away with not installing it?

Should I remove their 3 month trial period of Norton and install AVG?

OpenOffce.org was already installed on it I was glad to see.

What do you put on a new PC for those who know nothing about PCs?

[Bob]

I agree with you when it comes to not wanting to install Quicktime and Realplayer.  Instead you could give Quicktime Alternative a try - it's a small and easy application that allows you to play everything that QT/Realplayer does, and it should also work for content embedded in webpages.

Norton I would get rid of ASAP.  AVG I don't really know much about (haven't heard anything bad about it though), but I like to reccomend Avast and ZoneAlarm.

AV and a firewall is pretty much the basic need-to-have, and when you in addition also have OpenOffice in place, you should be good to go for the most basic kind of stuff.
Of course I'd also get Firefox of Opera installed - and remove all shortcuts to IE, so he doesn't start using that by accident

[Carr0t]

I'd go for Sygate Personal Firewall over Zonealarm. We have *no end* of problems when people install ZA on their PCs here at the uni.

[Bob]

We have *no end* of problems when people install ZA on their PCs here at the uni.

Just out of curiousity: what kind of problems might that be?
I've been using ZA for at least 3-4 years now, and I have never really had any negative experiences with it :g:

[Carr0t]

Possibly it's due to the people on the end of the PC being dumber than you with tech, Bob, but we seem to get loads of people complaining the network ain't working, and it's cos they've managed to permanently firewall themselves off from *everything* in ZA. They never seem to have any issues using other firewalls.

[suicidal_monkey]

I also found ZA to be a pita compared to other firewalls I tried. It constantly throws warnings at you and keeps popping up telling you this thing is happening which is probably not bad but it thought you might like to know etc etc. It seemed to require more setting up than other similar products. In the end I decided it was more hassle than it was worth and my current coupling of the routers simple firewall protocols and windows XP firewall is doing well

[Neff]

For media stuff, use VLC. And use AVG for antivirus / Firewall.

OR be pro and install Vista, and only VLC. The windows security stuff is kickass. And Vista(Ultimate) is so damn pretty to look at

[Bob]

loads of people complaining the network ain't working, and it's cos they've managed to permanently firewall themselves off from *everything*

Hahaha, that's just brilliant :roflmao:

It seemed to require more setting up than other similar products. In the end I decided it was more hassle than it was worth

Hmmm :g:
Whenever I'm doing a clean format of my computer and installing everything fresh new, I never spend more than max five minutes getting ZA up and running.  And than it's just to do the first-time approval/denial every time I start a new program that requests network access.
Sounds like I need to give you a quick crash course in setting up ZA - if we're both at the next lan, I'll see if I can share some of my brilliant knowledge :norty:

[BigFatCat]

Perhaps a copy of Spybot Seek and Destroy, plus working flash and shockwave players and plug ins?

[suicidal_monkey]

I always get a half decent photo-viewer/editor as well

Irfanview for viewer http://www.irfanview.com/
GIMP for editing (opensource photoshop-like program) http://www.gimp.org/windows/
Something for ripping CDs and playing mp3s? CDex, iTunes, etc?

[BigFatCat]

CDBurnerXP Pro, 'tis free after all, rips and burns. Or at least it sounds expensive.

[sheepy]

definatly get rid of norton AVG free FTW

[Gorion]

anyone tried Kapersky? gamers over here swear by it

[Wordan]

Thanks for all the input

[smilodon]

Kaspersky is a fine AV but due to the good folk at Eset being extra nice to me when I lost my activation key I am a loyal NOD32 user.

When I rebuild peoples PC's I always add

Spybot S&D,
Avast AV
Erazer (freeware file shredder)
ZipGenius or Enzip (freeware zip utilities)
Ace DivX player
Real Alternative
Quicktime Alternative
Firefox
Thunderbird
CC Cleaner (removes porn browsing tracks for men with murderous wives who know how  to check a PC for smut traces  :norty: )
Foxit Reader (Acrobat Reader without the bloat)
Open Office 2

Personally I still use Kerio Personal Firewall 2.15. It's a rules based Firewall that gives total control over every firewall rule. That is also the reason why it requires a PhD in Geekness to make it work :blink: