So I've decided to reinstall Windows...advice?

Hey Guys

After a couple of years of adding and taking off just about every piece of software and hardware available for my PC I've decided to wipe the slate clean and go for a new install of XP. My system has slowed down quite a bit and needs a full 5-7 minutes to reboot fully.

I'm in the process of collecting software that I'll need to add back on. I'm open to checking out some new software so I wanted to see what you guys use.

Also, I'm curious if there's a good order to install everything in. After the install I'm going to add Norton 360 first, then probably the codec pack next and then start adding hardware and peripherals. I have 3 monitors and 2 video cards. One ATI video card has a single out and it has TV capabilities. It has to be my primary monitor and I was going to install that first. I have another video card with 2 outs and I use those for the other two monitors. I was going to add that second. Everything is run through the ATI control software.

I also have an external HDD (USB), PDA sync cradle (USB), Video Camera (USB), Printer (USB), Mouse (USB), Creative xtra MP3 Player (USB), Firewire (PCI).

Next I was wondering if there's a good way to add and build the software library so there is less of a chance of conflicts.

Here's what I use. What about you?

Watching Video: JetAudio Basic. Right now it's not playing DVDs. I'm not sure if it's because I have monitors turned 90 degrees of if there's just a codec conflict somewhere. I've used VLC but only as a last resort. I don't like the interface. I also have QuickTime 7 Pro.

I've recently downloaded the Essentials Codec Pack that has Media Player Classic. I've heard good things about that, but I like the Jet Audio interface.

Music: WMP11. I like the way it organizes everything. And I use Napster and it integrates it. Default is JetAudio but I since I browse before I listen I usually end up opening WMP11 and making a selection there.

Browser: Firefox. I have IE7 as a backup and for accessing Microsoft items.

Photo & Editing: Photoshop CS3, Fireworks 8, JAlbum, Adobe InDesign

FTP: FTP Voyager, but I'm not very happy with it. I often have to upload a folder several times to get everything to copy, and it will often tell me pictures are available for upload for whatever reason. Any recommendations here?

DVD Copying: AnyDVD, CloneDVD

Video Editing: Studio 8. I use this because I have a free install disc, but it's an older version. I've learned a bit more about editing and could probably use something better. Any recommendations? I'm also going to start using my camcorder more but I just have the regular Canon software.

Video Conversion: VCD Gear, ConvertX to DVD, QuickTime 7 Pro, Ashampoo Shrink & Burn 2. I'm still looking for a good .vob to .avi converter after the DVDx disaster.

DVD Burning: NERO, but I really don't like it. For whatever reason it's made the burning process confusing for me. It gives me too many options for different files and usually I'm unsure of the best match. I'm going to give Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 a shot becuase the interface looks good.

HTML Editing: FrontPage 2003, Macromedia Studio 8. I'm self-taught and sometimes I need the ease of FrontPage.

Download: BitComet, Limewire, Napster

Tune-Up/Spyware: Registry Mechanic, Norton 360, will probably add Ashampoo Windows tuner, NoAdware, Ad-Aware.

Chat: Trillian, Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger. I've heard there are some better options than Skype? Overall I'm pretty happy with it.

Office Suite: Office 2007 Enterprise

Email: Office Outlook 2007, Hotmail. I've found a program than can sync .pst files over several PCs and I'm sticking with it.

Security: Norton 360, Flex Wallet 2006

Back-Up: Norton 360, External 320 GB HDD

OS: I can choose XP or XP Pro. No Linux.

Other: PowerIso, WinRAR, WinZip, FileMaker Pro, Dragon Naturally Speaking, ActiveSync, Global IME (Japanese), Sopcast, TVU, FullTilt Poker.

Software I'll probably leave off: DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, DIXV Converter/Player, uTorrent, DVDx, NERO, DVD43, Google Earth, WinISO, ASIO4ALL, XVID pack, Virtual DJ, FL.

 

Your order of installing sounds good to me. I go around the same.. drivers and security programs first, multimedia stuff next, then graphic programs and games at last.

You shoud maybe checkout N-Lite, it lets you customize your Windows cd image and burn a new one. This way you can get windows to directly leave out all the crap you dont need.
There are also addon packs for N-Lite which will already have certain programs installed after you install Windows.

Since you asked for what other people use, here is my list:

Watching Video: GOM Player (http://www.gomplayer.com/main.html)
Music: Foobar (http://foobar2000.org/)
Browser: Firefox
Photo & Editing: Adobe Photoshop 7 (CS3 at work)
FTP: FlashFXP (the best, ever, period.) (www.flashfxp.com)
DVD Copying: I don't - If I do maybe once a year I use Alcohol 120% (www.alcohol-soft.com)
Video Editing: I don't
DVD Burning: I don't
HTML Editing: Topstyle Pro (www.newsgator.com/Individuals/TopStyle/Default.aspx)
Download: uTorrent, Utatane, RapGet (for Rapidshare)
Tune-Up: TuneUp Utilities 2007 (www.tune-up.com)
Anti-Spyware: Spybot Search & Destroy
Chat: Miranda, X-Chat for IRC
Office Suite: Open Office
Email: Gmail Webmail (Mozilla Thunderbird at work)
Security: NOD32
Back-Up: External HD
OS: Windows XP Pro
Other: Winrar, Global Ime too, Notepad++

 

What I use (mostly). I've left out categories I don't use

Watching Video: VLC. Freaking awesome program, I can see why you don't like the interface

Music: iTunes. Personal preference I find

Browser: I'm exactly the same

Photo & Editing: Don't really do much so Paint!

DVD Burning: I use Ashampoo, because I got it free from work. Its very good really

Download: Azureus

Spyware: Spybot, Windows Defender

Chat: MSN messenger, Skype. Only because its what my mates are on

Office Suite: Office 2007

Email: Thunderbird/Gmail

Security: NOD32. It's a brilliant AV

Back-Up: Acronis True Image - Daily backups of my user area, weekly of C and my music

OS: Vista Ultimate

Other: WinRAR, PowerIso, Daemon Tools, Picasa, Getmail for Hotmail (forwards old hotmail address's to my gmail)

Your ideas sound pretty good - may I also suggest backing up your documents and settings folder, I often find I need to pull things from it

 

I did the same thing a few weeks ago with my laptop and it made a huge difference. It also made me back up lots of valuabe data to DVDr and a spare HDD I have lying around just in case of accidents. Over the coming week I think the PC will also be cleaned out.

Interesting to see the range of apps people are using.

As my daughter broke her old laptop screen, I may be forced to go Vista with a renewal and I'm not so keen on it, especially as I am teaching mostly pre-2007 MS material which isn't compatible with the OS. Must start teaching '07, however fewer businesses have adopted it. Would be timely however as I think they'll eventually be forced to.

 

Thanks s1xty I'll definately give FlashXFP a try. I tried a program a while back that's supposed to remove Windows components...XP Lite maybe? I ended up removing Movie Maker, then later realized that I wanted it back. When I tried to add it back it didn't install properly and now it won't install period. Now if there's anything on Windows I don't like I try to minimize it by removing it from startup (like messenger) but that's about it.

You guys like Thunderbird? I like Outlook because I use a lot of the services like tasks, contacts, etc. But it feels bloated sometimes. Usually I like Microsoft interfaces but if it has a slowing effect on my PC I usually give it a pass so I might check out Thunderbird.

steadster...you use NOD32? I'm looking at the site now. Looks pretty good. I got Norton 360 because I could buy 5 licenses and finally get my 3 PCs on the same expiration date. I really don't care for it because it seems bloated and very slow to respond when you want to cancel an action or move around in the software. Also, when I reboot it turns auto-protect off as a fun glitch. I just added it on a few weeks ago and this is one of the many reasons why I'm going to start with a clean install.

The good thing about Norton is the back-up feature. I can save a copy of my important docs onto my external HDD in near real time. I also have 10 gigs of online space with them, so I can backup my HDD backup onto the Norton servers.

I thought about Vista. I don't have a legit copy otherwise I'd probably give it a test drive. In one of my cheesier moments I thought about getting a cracked copy and using it intil MS finally discovers it, then purchasing a licence at that time. Maybe by the time they catch it the price will have fallen...heh. It's like a price guarantee.

My laptop has Vista and apart from not being able to find things quickly it's been pretty good overall, especially with internet connection and shared files/folders. It also seems better able to pull a program out of a death spiral. It doesn't work all the time but it's an improvement over XP.

 

Norton still burns from when it was very, very resource-hoggy, and so I dumped it years ago - Sounds like nothings changed. NOD32 is a little ugly, and takes some getting used to, but it is very, very good. Check out some of the AV comparisions, it comes top in pretty much all of them.
If you use tasks, contacts etc. I think outlook is probably better. But for pure email, Thunderbird is very fast and probably the best

 

Norton is crap. AVG is the only Antivirus I can recommend right now.

Video: Use VLC. Download some skins if you dont like the interface, by default it starts in no-skin mode or something like that

Browser: Are you using Firefox for additional plugins? If not, consider Opera, or even Safari.

FTP: FlashFXP for sure

Video Conversion: MeGUI is great most of the time May be a bit too complicated for your uses though

Only comment on Download: Ditch limewire. More trouble then its worse

Messengers: If youre using Trillian (or GAIM), why have MSN and Yahoo as well?


Security: Ill admit to running a very minimal security setup on Windows, consisting almost always of just an Antivirus, plus my hardware firewall. Occasionally Ill set up the equivalent of TPF (Tiny Personal Firewall, may be a better, but similar solution), but honestly, if the hacker wants through, your screwed hah. Granted theres other uses to a firewall, but its still only going to do so much.



When all is installed and such, hit Run: msconfig. Set which items and processes you need to start when your computer starts. Is there really a reason to have your messengers, video converters, video apps, and everything else open when you start? I dont think so.

 

antivirus: NOD32 , even MS uses NOD32 so I think it is a good app.

music: there I use Winamp, with the classic skin, but when it comes to mod files, there I use modplug player.

Videos: well I have used quite a few different players ranging from VLC to MPC which comes in the klite mega codec. Quicktime, there I use Quicktime alternative . realmedia, there it is already installed with the klite mega codec pack.

Antispyware: Spysweeper have I used and long ago I used Add aware, before it got a bit bloated.

Now I am back to Spybot search and destroy.

Security: there I use Sygate . And it still works perfectly. Even after Norton fucked the Sygate users over.

And OS ? well I bought a legit XP Pro copy some months ago.

 

Here are my personal choices:

Music: Winamp 5.5 - it makes from putting my lots of music in order a really easy job, really recommended

Videos: Media Player Classic - I never liked WMP. The simpler, the better...

Antivirus: NOD32 - Since I lost everything in my HDD because of AVG's awful job I switched to NOD32, it's really powerful and not a resource eater.

Anti-Spyware: Spybot - The best free choice, it kept my PC clean for a long time.

Photo and Image Editing: Corel Graphics Suite 12 (for some reason I don't like Corel X3), Adobe Photoshop CS3 (I'm not a lot into Photoshop but it can be really useful in some moments), Adobe Fireworks CS3 (for image editing on my site)

HTML Editing: Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 - Really easy to use, great for people without huge web design knowledge like me

Video Conversion: Super© - works with almost every format, it's really fas and easy to use.

Video Editing: Sony Vegas 7.0 - if you're looking for top level video editing, this is what you want. In combination with Sony DVD Architect, you can make almost everything.

Browser: Firefox - Is any explanation necessary?

OS - I go for XP Professional. Vista still has some issues wih lots of devices, maybe I'll cange my opinion in a year...

 

I prefer foobar2000 over WinAmp

 

I have a friend who uses that too, and he makes music. His nickname is dubquq aka. dubdub to those who didn´t get it the first time.
I am just comfortable with winamp. And have been that way with winamp ever since 2.xx.

 

Video: Media Player Classic / GOM

Anti-Spyware: Spybot 1.5 + Spywareblaster + Ad-Aware 2007 + Windows Defender

Additional Security: HijackThis + Rootkitbuster

AV: Antivir or Avast

Firewall: Comodo

Tune-Up: TuneUp Utilities 2007

Browser: Firefox and it's plugins: Fasterfox + NoScript + Adblock Plus

Office Suite: OpenOffice

Music: Winamp 5.5

Photo Editing: Gimp + Gimpshop

Others: Winrar, FreeDownloadManager, CCleaner, ...

DevTools: Eclipse, Netbeans,

There are tons more but i can't remember right now. (i'm not at home)

PS: If you have interest, make a small partition and install Linux on it. It's a great way to learn more about it, and sometimes it can work as a "lifeboat".

 

NOD32 is quite good, too, but I've seen trojans cripple the program. Just don't go to porn sites or websites you don't know. you get popups that look legit but anything that is a popup that even looks like a Windows message is all fake and do a hard reset.

Anyway. The proper order of installing software after installing Windows OS is:

Drivers for all your internal components (Audio, chipset, graphics, NIC, etc.) Then your applications like your video player, codec pack, etc.
Install your external components last.
Then run Windows Updates until you don't have anymore.

 

Are you saying that I should hold off on Windows Update until last? I usually take care of all the updates right after installing the anti-virus.

 

I updated my PC last night with fresh everything and it is now running as smoothly as the day I bought it, despite it being stuffed with material.

 

Amazing.

 

If you go back a days worth of postings you'll notice OE that I stated I would indeed update the PC, and even I was surprised at how slow the PC had become since I last updated it, which I didn't realise until about 2am this morning when I finished a complete reinstallation of a pile of stuff. Hardly amazing, perhaps not the worlds most earth shattering post either, but none the less on-topic.

As I couldn't be arsed to list all the material I decided to plonk on it, I did actually take some of the advice provided by other users. So, thanks to them ;-)

Ergo, in reponse to your ''amazing'', were either of our posting entirely necessary? Doubtful! :lol:

 

I hate to be that guy, but why no Linux?

 

I'd hope others have said it by now, but Norton is garbage. It devours RAM and from what I can tell is pretty unstable (my brother uses it or some facsimile). I use all free tools for security on my computer, and I've had no problems whatsoever.

I'm using avast! as my antivirus and Zonealarm for my firewall. I have Windows Defender on my laptop, but I think I forgot to install it on my main desktop and so far I haven't noticed any problems.

edit: I saw some things about foobar2000. If you want something to play music and organize playlists (and basically nothing else without the help of plugins), go with foobar2000. I love it just because it's unobtrusive and has a light memory footprint.

 

True. In rare cases I've seen norton actually work well and catch things quicker than the free antiviruses out there. It's just that most people who install it have like 512mb RAM and low HDD space, which is also fragmented, which can cause it to run like shit.