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• Windows Starter Kit: Must-have PC apps

Windows Starter Kit: Must-have PC apps

By Seth Rosenblatt on 09 February 2009

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  Wally commented on 18/11/2009 21:45 Report abuse

  Couple more that I just can't do without,.. SharePod which replaces itunes and Foxit Reader which of course replaces the master of "bloat", Adobe Reader.

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  BooBoo commented on 03/07/2009 10:41 Report abuse

  I reckon, anyone could have typed this up. Even a Newbie. Do some research !

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  Early_Grayce commented on 30/04/2009 16:02 Report abuse

  I have found that over the last decade of PC use I have been able to find enough high quality free software to make paying for software unnecessary.
  No mattter what you are looking for there is a program to fit your needs and if there is a feature from some overpriced software missing from the freeware equivalent it is often worth leaving a feature request on the developers discussion board.
  All discussion leads to better programs in the land of freeware unlike commercial software which is often looking for the next dinky thing to catch your eye and make you spend $s.

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  cwoodsp commented on 27/03/2009 13:47 Report abuse

  Oooops! That last sentence should have read: "sometimes you get what you pay for, but there are some excellent freeware products out there!"

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  cwoodsp commented on 27/03/2009 13:43 Report abuse

  Although I have Vista on my PC and had been running IE (seemingly forever), the laptop I inherited from my ex runs XP and came complete with a heavily-customised Firefox installed (leaning mainly to all things Francophile). During the course of 'de-Frenching' the Firefox I realised just what a great program it is - and immediately dumped IE from my PC and am now happy as a pig in sh*t... As a 'techless' user, finding the wider software world (through CNet and others) has been a revelation and has made me a lot more knowledgable and choosy about my software. Totally agree with arcturus that you get what you pay for!

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  arcturus commented on 12/02/2009 00:16 Report abuse

  This is my must-have list of Windows apps. Not all are freeware; sometimes you get what you pay for.
  
  Media player: VLC (free)
  
  Browser: Opera (free)
  
  Anti-virus: Avast or Kaspersky (not free)
  
  Image editor/organizer: Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Bridge. Nothing comes close (not free).
  
  Disk defragmenter: Diskeeper 2009 pro. The best defragmenter out there, and better than all the freeware defraggers (not free).
  
  Office: MS office 2007 (not free).
  
  Quick image viewer: Irfanview (free).
  
  These programs always go on any system I put together for my use.

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  Dumbo commented on 10/02/2009 12:12 Report abuse

  No Dumbo, try the links on top of the page

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  SkyPioneer commented on 09/02/2009 22:51 Report abuse

  What? Is that it? I was expecting something decent, not just the three premier browsers available for download.