Best downloads?

[Galant]

Okay, so last weekend I put my new PC together (first build) and tonight I'll be installing the newly arrived Windows XP etc.

My question is, once my rig is up and running, what utilities and other downloads do you guys recommend? What's the most useful and which are just cool to have?

Much appreciated!

G.

[gamezfreak]

Benchmarking apps like: -

3Dmark2001SE
3Dmark2003
Aquamark3
Sisoft Sandra
Realstorm
PCmark04

These show what performance your PC has.

Also, And obviously, Run windows update. Install everything, Then update all of your drivers.

I also heartily reccomend downloading....

Speedfan - Simple "motherboard monitor" type program
The GIMP - Better then photoshop, And it's free!
ZoneAlarm - Excellent free firewall
AVG Antivirus, Free edition - Best.Virus.Protection.Ever!
Picozip - Opens up ALL types of zip files, including .tar and .gz
Ad Aware 6 - Awesome protection from spyware
DivX Codec

[unrealrocks]

I find WinAmp great (get 5 as its just gone final - been following it through since PreAlpha and its just been getting better and better), make sure you got the latest drivers!

As long as you don't have an ASUS board, get MBPROBE - its a brill temp program which takes close to no rescorces up, unlike MMonitor!

If your using multipul monitors get UltraMON - descovered it the other day and its allowed me to customise my multimonitor system so much better!

[0iD]

I'll second all of that, but I use Spybot S&D instead of Adaware, personal pref. Also Rage 3D Tweak, NV hardpage, X-Setup & Mozilla Firebird browser.

[floppybootstomp]

I use both Spybot & AdAware, both will pick up what the other missed, but I think they're both good.

All of the above mentioned, imo, is good. I use Motherboard Monitor myself, like it a lot.

And I like dbPowerAmp a lot, great free programme for conversion of audio files. Covers most formats, WAV to MP3 & vice versa, cda files to mp3 or WAV and more.

Also has an add on aux module for recording from vinyl or cass. deck.

Anything specific you're after, Galant?

[Galant]

Not really, I've just been out of this game for a while and could use a hand getting back into it.

I picked up Norton System Works with anti-spam and firewall for free.

A monitoring system was in mind, zipping had slipped my attention, as had an audio player!

That GIMP thing sounds interesting. I enjoy a little image altering from time to time.

What about theme/paper sites?

And I'd rather not have too many thing taking up my system resources, bit of a minimalist in that regard.

And how is Win XP Home compared to 98?

Finally, and off subject a bit, I've never installed Windows, or installed a new HDD. Any advice, tips, or things to look for?

[iMc]

spybot S&D is a really good lil prog. ive been using iTunes for my music lately, good if ur on a network as u can stream from others comps. aint got Mozilla but my m8 highly recommends it. my mobo came with easytune4 for mobo monitoring so i stick with that. use Kazaa Lite K++ for downloads. wud like to find sum better p2p apps. any suggestions...

[Agent]

p2p = Shareaza.com
Havnt needed another P2P client since

[Skeps]

For your themes try Themedoctor.com, loadsa goodens on there

[floppybootstomp]

How is Win98 compared to XP Home?

Blimey, that's a big 'un, I expect you could start a whole new thread on that one.

My (brief) view: XP more stable and a helluva lot easier to setup but a lot harder to reinstate if it crashes.

Win 98 plays older games and has true DOS capability.

No official support for Win 98 from MS soon though

Told ya it was brief

dbPowerAmp has a media player, as does Winamp and Nero V6.0, but Nero's not free.

I use Winamp for audio playback, mostly, still using V2.81, I prefer it.

[iMc]

Shareaza.com any idea if that works over port 80. damn uni firewall. i cant use edonkey etc cus of it.

[ERU]

Bit torrent should work over port 80 >> at least in theory

[unrealrocks]

Originally posted by eru
Bit torrent should work over port 80 >> at least in theory

I think it'd only work if the tracker server is on port 80 ... which very few are, most are on 6686 AFAIK!

BTW if you want to use BT then Shadows Client is the best out there!

[serlex]

hi

you guys forgot GAMES

counter strike
unreal
Call Of duty
NFS underground

if i was you, i would firts run 3dmark 2001, before installing anything.

[Enverex]

You can set the port e-mule uses so that should work.

I bascially put together a page of everything I have installed (or had installed at some point) that seemed useful, plus the links to download them here.

[gamezfreak]

you guys forgot GAMES

counter strike
unreal
Call Of duty
NFS underground

You have to pay for them though

I think the author was looking for free programs.

Anyway, The GIMP is the best thing that happened to computing since MSPaint. Thats how good it is, I use it all the time.

You'll need the GTK first though, Its actually meant to be for Linux, but there's a windows version aswell.

Hmmm, I'm starting to like this thread, Being given some handy programs to use