I love my computer. I spend most of the time with my laptop. I’m a blogger, maintain two websites, write article, tutorials, make videos and much more. I need so many tools, utilities and softwares so that I can do my work effectively and easily. We all have different work to do with our computer and may need different applications to work. But here I’ll be sharing general installations for a personal computer, for everyone, to enhance user experience. The article is based on my experience, which applications I use and find them useful for all.
Operating system – Windows 8 : Latest release from Microsoft Corporation –Beta version, Windows 8 Consumer Preview is available for download with free of cost. This new version of Microsoft Windows came with so many new and INTERESTING features which has a Start Screen in the replacement of the start button. Metro UI is enough to impress users which shows applications in Tiles. More features of Windows 8 – Boots in very less time, works with less than 300 MB of RAM, got the latest -Internet Explorer 10, supports USB 3.0 . You can download it from Microsoft for free.
Isn’t that awesome? It may have some bugs. Of course, Microsoft would be working on it but this version is really good to enhance user experience. Users who don’t like this one can go with Windows 7 Ultimate.
Antivirus – Avast 7 Beta version: A well known established brand which gives one of the best antivirus softwares to us. The company has got more than 190 million registered users. And Avast has released Avast antivirus 7 beta version which is available for download for FREE. It comes with one year of use (expire after one year). Gives complete security from viruses, trojons and other malwares. The new version includes lots of new features like new installer, new graphical interface and more. You can get your free copy of Avast 7 Beta Version: Download Avast 7 Beta from Softpedia . You can also check other free Antiviruses for Windows 7 .
Internet Browser: Google Chrome/Mozilla Firefox : Both are the best of the rest. Enables users to browse the Internet very fast. Both got so many plugins and extensions to enhance user experiences. I’m a Chrome users so sharing some of Chrome extensions which helps me to enhance my browsing.
- Google Mail Checker: No need to goto your Gmail inbox to check your new email. This extension adds a button in your browser which automatically checks your inbox. And if there is any new email, the buttons shows the number of unread emails. Clicking on that button takes you to your unread emails in your Gmail inbox.
- Ad Block: Do you love surfing over the Internet? Are you annoyed with lots of advertisements on webpages you love to go on? Then Ad Block can help you to get rid of those advertisements. Just add the plugin, activate it and you’ll notice all the advertisements have disappeared from all the webpages. You can Pause Ad Block if you wish and set the option if you don’t want to run Ad Block on a specific page or domain.
- Turn Off Lights: Another interesting Chrome extension. It allows you to turn your screen portion other than the YouTube player, into dark. So that you can watch your video, movie as like in a cinema with all the focus on the video. A small bulb button is placed in the bar of browser. Clicking on it On or Off this function.
- Wise Stamp: WiseStamp is an extension to give your email a new look with a stylish signature at the end of your email. It includes many options like, show your latest tweet, recent blog post and social links.
- FB Photo Zoom: If you love to spend time with Facebook then you will definitely love this plugin. It allows you to see the all the pictures by just hovering the mouse over any thumbnail. It gives a button just beside the chat box where you can On or Off this extension.
- Download YouTube Videos: Another great extension to download YouTube videos with different formats and different quality. Shows a download button beside the like button. You can also check top sites to download Youtube videos .
Graphics Creation and Photo Management – Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta: Photoshop is the best digital image editing and management software ever, for me at least. Adobe’s latest version of Photoshop, that is; CS6 has got it’s BETA version out over the web for users without any cost. It got so many new and interesting features like unbelievable fast performance, modern user interface and new and re-engineered design tools. You can get a free copy of Photoshop CS6 Beta from official site.
Note: You may have to sign up with adobe to install CS6.
Documents Management- Microsoft Office: No introduction needed. Best application package to manage, edit and create documents, presentations and much more. The software is worth the money. One add-on I always install with this software is “Save as PDF”. If you can’t afford Microsoft Office then you can use these free microsoft office alternatives .
Download accelerator and manager - Orbit Downloader: One of the very simple but very good and effective download manager. Download Games, Videos, Music and much more. It shows a “Get it” button on video players to download video. Works very well with Chrome and Firefox.
Codec for Windows Media Player- K-Lite Codec Pack : Windows default media player lacks with some of the codec. This codec pack allows Windows Media Player to run almost all media file types. For the rest 1%, we can go for VLC media Player or other free media players for Windows 7. You can download this codec pack for free from here.
Moreover, one should must install WinRAR, IncredMail, BitTorrent, Adobe Flash Player and Notepad++. The list of software never ends. But we got these basic installations to get most of our work easily done.
Do you install some more software every time in your PC or Laptop? I’d be glad to know.
Hi Abhi, thanks for sharing your computer tools list with us. I have some of the same tools, but I use Norton 360 for antivirus and for YouTube downloading I have RealPlayer plus. Chrome is my favorite extension and I have about 20 extensions to go along with. Wise Stamp is a great one (I did a video tutorial for it). Do you have the Alexa toolbar extension and also SEO Site tools? Those are my must haves!
Thanks for sharing your guest post on Comptalks!
Hello Ileane,
I’m glad you stopped by my post here. I love Chrome, too. I also have so many extensions and I came to know about some extensions by your posts only. :) Let me have a look to SEO Site Tools.
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts here. I hope you shared it, too. :D
Abhi, did you get a chance to install SEO Site Tools extension yet? Let me know if you need help with it because I did a video tutorial for that one too :)
I will surely install it right now, Ileane. Thanks for the suggestion.
Ileane, we share the same likes! But I would love to see the tutorial on the Wise Stamp; that is one thing I haven’t used. Do send me the link or I will get in touch with you soon about this!
Chrome does remain my absolute favorite of all time. No matter how many browsers people come up with; I am remaining loyal to Chrome!
Hi there,
Aren’t you using Wise Stamp? Did you see the blue customized signature box in each of my email which also includes my last tweet and my latest blog post?
That’s by Wise Stamp! I hope I can write on that soon.
Hi Abhi .. good info. correct the Orbit Downolader link .
Thanks for informing Krishna!
Welcome!! Abhi
One thing we all should need to do after installing any window is Antivirus. I always install Antivirus first. Avast is best for me but the problem is it expire after a month so I need to buy its full version.
Hey Ammar,
The avast version I shared is for one year subscription. :D
That’s really excellent advice! I think a good antivirus (and a good firewall) is a must, these days. It’s just not worth the time and headaches to deal with a virus or malware after the fact.
But of course we’ve known for the past 30+ years the necessity of taking good backups. And do we? :)
Yup! Backups – life saving always.
And Holly, would you like to suggest any other Antivirus? I am using Avast from year. It is really good for me. Now, the one I have shared above, is FREE and with so many good options.
It is for 30 days when you install but you can register with avast they will send you a licence key and you can get one year subscription from that. :D
Buying the longer versions always seems like a more sensible idea to me. I mean, after about a month of free usage, you keep getting notifications about updating it. But the longer versions always make you worry free for a year and plus when you subscribe for a longer paid version you get advanced features and that makes it so much more better! Wouldn’t you agree?
Yup! you are right! But the one I share, Avast Beta! You can install it. It will be for two months. But you can register with Avast (through your antivirus) and they will send you a home edition licence key which will make your antivirus valid for one year. Isn’t that good? And with my personal experience of 3-4 year with avast, I can say it’s great. Maybe, better than some paid out there. I have tried paid antivirus as well but couldn’t work.
I use most of these, too! I agree, they’re very useful. I use WiseStamp, and I love the Speed Dial 2 extension for Chrome – have you tried it?
If you’re on a tight budget, OpenOffice.org is a great, frugal alternative to Microsoft Office. I use both, actually – and like both.
Glad to see you using Openoffice. You can also try some open source operating systems like Ubuntu on ur desktop and you ll love it.
Hey Bishwajeet,
I have tried Ubuntu but it couldn’t work for me. I use so many applications and tools but with Ubuntu I can’t use all, or I was getting some problems. :(
My brother uses Ubuntu and he quite recommends it. He says multitasking is easier with Ubuntu and somehow he found it faster. Though he is a new user, he has liked it a lot.
He does have it; will try it and will share my experience on how I found it.
Currently, I have Windows 7 and Windows 8 installed on my laptop. But before Windows 8, I had Ubuntu. To be honest, it couldn’t work good for me. Maybe, because I was interacting with it the very first time. I couldn’t use all the software I use usually in my PC.
But it was really good in one way, and that was, I didn’t have to install any drivers with Ubuntu. Not for Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Graphics. But I will again try Ubuntu, or any Linux soon.
Nice suggestion, Bishwajeet, but I had a bad experience with Unix and vi many years ago, and it scarred me for life. ;)
I’m only half kidding. But I’m pretty firmly entrenched in Windows – no complaints there, really. Even my phone is Windows, now (SOOOO much more stable than Android. I do wish there were as many creative app developers for it, but I think there will be, once people catch on to how well it works on a mobile phone!
Hey Holly,
Good to see you here. Yeah, I’m using Speed Dial 2 and it’s really good.
Thank you for letting us know about OpenOffice. :D I will surely recommend this to my readers. :D
Greate article. Keep writing such kind of info on your site. Im really impressed by it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on softwares. Regards
Thank you for comments
nice collection of softwares and i think now i want to use window 8 in my lappy for better experience.
Hey Gautam,
Yes, you should. I’m also using Windows 8 in my laptop. It’s multi-touch pad works great with windows 8. You should give it a try. Which OS you are using right now?
Gautam, I haven’t read your Pinterest post, yet, but have you had issues, too, with the Pin it! button? (I’ve described a “fix” for it, in the post linked to this comment – but I’m wondering if you know the cause of the problem?)
I’m still messing with pin it buttons. I have one button on my bookmarks bar. I’m using that one for pins.
What’s the comment notifier you keep recommending to me, Abhi? I think I used to have it installed, but lost it!
oh yes! You are still now having one. I have suggested it to all my favorite blogs. It’s a plugin which automatically sends a message to the commenter when he or she gets a reply from the admin or anyone else.
I have to check all your posts again and again to see if you have replied. (I don’t prefer to get an email when anyone leaves a comment, you get lots of comments and I get lots of emails) LOL! :D
Let’s see if the one I just installed works, first – it’s supposed to import and use existing subscription data (which is the part that seems to be partially broken – but exists – on my blog).
Yeah, I did see and commented after that. :D
But never got notification. Why you are not good with the one I suggested?
It isn’t that I’m not good with it – well, I didn’t realize that you could configure it as “opt-in” and “opt-out” – but nothing seems to be working QUITE right on my blog, as far as comment notifications go.
It’s alright if that plugin didn’t work for you. I know, you’ll find one which can meet your requirements. And I really appreciate your thought about not disturbing our commentors un-necessarily. If they want, they can subscribe themselves. No need to send an email.
Yeah….!!
Some of these tools are common with yours!! And I personally dislike Avast. I had worst experience while using this one. Corrupted my windows many a time. Now a days m using microsoft essential.
Thanks for sharing your tools with us :)
It maybe because your windows files got infected from virus. And you installed Avast after that. The very first software we are supposed to install in our computer after installing OS is Antivirus and then update it virus definition database and make a full scan of our computer.
Then we should go for other application installations.
The only problem I’ve EVER had with Avast! is annoying false-positives that mark blogs as being infected with something when I know, for a fact, that they’re not. That said, I suppose it’s better to be safe than sorry. But when your own publisher tells you she cannot visit your blog because Avast! says it’s unsafe, seedy, and likely to infect her PC… *sigh*
Well, I still run it on a couple of PCs, but it can be a little touchy.
LOL! Yeah, I can understand how irritating it would be, when our antivirus blogs our site from us. LOL!
But I meet that thing a very few times. And I have experience with it, it just cleans all the USB drives as I connect it to my computer or laptop. If it cannot delete then it blocks it.
It is perfect time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy. I’ve read this post and if I could I desire to suggest you few interesting things or suggestions. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article. I want to read even more things about it!
Thank you for adding your comments,
Abhi, I am interested in Windows 8, but I am a big chicken when it comes to changing OS because of bad experiences in past years. I use a desk top that I got last fall. It’s a little old fashioned–no touch screen or webcam, but it was less expensive. Do you really suggest this? I could use shorter load times. Please email me your reply. Thanks.
If you are interested in Windows 8 then I think you should go for it.
What exactly you need? A computer with minimum system requirements.
I’d suggest you to make a separate partition for Windows 8. I have installed Windows 7 and 8 both in my laptop. Both in different partitions. Changing OS is not a big deal. You just need to keep a separate partition for your Operating System.
Webcam and Touch input isn’t necessary to use windows 8.
You need few GBs of space in your drive and I think 2 GB RAM should be enough to work with Windows 8. And a good (not very good) graphics controller.
Let me know if I can help you with anything.
Thanks for the info on the new Windows 8.
Your welcome Mattias. Good to see you here.
Hey Abhi
Nice to see your pc installed tools no doubt I am big addict of facebook but I didn’t try it so it include in my installation queue
Thank you for commenting Rizwan.
Which softwares you have in your computer?
Abhi Now my full PC filled with Software development tools even I didn’t have space too store a single good quality movie.
Haha…. I can believe you. Same is happening with me. I had to transfer all my movies to my portable hard disk and my computer hard drive to keep all the software in my laptop. :D Get a Terabyte hard disk. :D
nice article ,i am using chrome as a browser which is really fast
turn lights off is really interesting
thanks for sharing
Hey Arun,
Are you using any other plugins…. for chrome? I would love to hear about them..
Thanks for commenting.
Great compilation of the useful software, I like it a lot. Thanks Abhi.
Glad you liked it Bharat. Thank you for adding your comments.
The turn off lights is so interesting! I never knew that existed! I tried it and yes, it does give a cinematic experience! I am so in awe of it! :)
I am yet debating on the anti-virus which is optimal. I am planning to get a new laptop which the windows 8 operatin; but the anti-virus still remains an issue. Will have to look into some thing nice. Anything you recommend as of lately? Not necessarily the free versions. I am ready to pay a little price for being more secure. Just that bad virus experience tells me to be more careful!
Hello Hajra,
Thank you for stopping by.
About antivirus – I have tried paid antivirus once and had a little bad experience with that. I am using avast home edition, free antivirus from years. And really it is great for me.
Actually, the point is we have to keep our Antivirus software’s virus definitions up to date. If you keep your antivirus updated then you don’t have to worry about viruses and trojans etc. I am using the version I mentioned above. We can get a licence key after registering our antivirus and then our antivirus gets life for one year.
It just pops up as I connect any infected pen drive or if I go to any malicious website.
I did use the paid version; but then I got it free when I bought my laptop and I got a five year subscription with it and it made things so much more easier.
But then the five years are up and though I have Avast, I don’t find it all that reliable. I have Nortons paid anti virus on my other system and it works beautifully.
Nortan! Oh… I have had a very bad experience with that. McAfee was much better than that. AVG also. Actually, I never had VERY IMPORTANT data. So, never bothered to PAY for an Antivirus. There are lots of good FREE antivirus for regular user. So, I can pick up any. But if you have IMPORTANT DATA then you might consider getting a paid one.
nice article.. and interesting softwares…. keep it up..
Thank you for your kind words, Shreejeet!
Do you use any other software that the few I mentioned above?
When some one searches for his necessary thing, therefore he/she needs to be
available that in detail, therefore that
thing is maintained over here.
Exactly, this is what I was trying to say in my article. You did it in easy words. Thank you for that,
Abhi, you’ve missed your calling. Ever consider adding “translator” to your resume? I wasn’t following that, until you made it clear – could be the dearth of caffeine. It’s early, yet…
Uhh, I guess you know, how much I hate those type of comments.
“I’m a blogger, maintain two websites, write article, tutorials, make videos and much more.’
It exhausts me just to think about it – if you could bottle and sell some of that boundless energy, you’d make a fortune!! But you KNOW what I’m thinking – I’m wondering if you wrote this, right up front, just to see if I was awake. ;) Now guess the word I’m thinking.
There’s one thing I’m surprised you didn’t mention – maybe you haven’t tried it, yourself, yet? Windows Live Writer. Much as I love Word (and I do, again – I go back and forth every few years) – it’s not what I use to write and post to my blog. It sort of has the capability, but Live Writer is SO much better!
Hello Holly,
I don’t do all that stuff altogether. LOL! You know that very well. But I didn’t get the word you are thinking.. :(
And I have heard about Windows Live Writer and maybe, I have used it, too. But I made this post for all readers, general audience. Maybe, that’s why I didn’t mention here.
Well, everyone is not a WRITER, Holly. :D
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Outstanding work!
Thank you for your comments.
Nice article Abhi…..i found many of the info. useful for me …..:)
Hey Gaurav,
Nice to see you here buddy. Glad you enjoyed my article.
May I just say what a comfort to find someone that genuinely knows what they’re talking about on the net. You certainly know how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More and more people really need to read this and understand this side of your story. I was surprised you’re not more popular because you most certainly have the gift.
Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after reading through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Nonetheless, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!