PC Users: Essential software?

#28
#28
I installed some various tools that came with my motherboard. When doing so I accidentally installed their version of Norton System Scan. Now, no matter how many times I remove it, it always seems to magically reinstall itself. Weird huh?
 
#29
#29
If you are into PC gaming, I would highly recommend Nvidia GeForce, if you have their video cards. It is free, btw.

It was mentioned earlier, but Chrome is a must for Windows imo.
 
#30
#30
Freak said:
I installed some various tools that came with my motherboard. When doing so I accidentally installed their version of Norton System Scan. Now, no matter how many times I remove it, it always seems to magically reinstall itself. Weird huh?
Click to expand...

Revo Uninstaller Pro

If it comes back after using that, throw it out the back door!
 
#32
#32
Circling back around to this thread.

Some of the suggested programs I've tried thus far are fantastic: Malwarebytes free version, Revo Uninstaller, Notepad++

Still need to try GIMP, bleachbit, aptana studio and a few others.

Is Foxit only a PDF reader? I need something that will allow me to add/delete pages to/from pdf files. The built in Preview software on Mac allowed this but I can't seem to come up with a good solution on Windows. Any suggestions?

Also, what's the verdict on Office these days (and Outlook). It looks as if they've gone to an annual subscription, which is fairly inexpensive and it comes with 1 TB of cloud storage. The pricing looks competitive with what other cloud services charge, such as Dropbox.

I've also yet to find a twitter client that comes close to Tweetbot on Mac. The thing I liked most about Tweetbot is it would sync my reading position on lists across devices. Handy for those of us who use a phone and our desktop. I'm currently using Tweetium, but it lacks the features I mentioned above.
 
#33
#33
zeppelin128 said:
If you are into PC gaming, I would highly recommend Nvidia GeForce, if you have their video cards. It is free, btw.

It was mentioned earlier, but Chrome is a must for Windows imo.
Click to expand...

The Nvidia GeForce tools are very nice. I do have them installed.

g8terh8ter_eric said:
Revo Uninstaller Pro

If it comes back after using that, throw it out the back door!
Click to expand...
This seems to have worked, by the way. Or something I tried did. Revo is a fantastic program which seems to do a nice job of getting rid of the leftovers from old programs... one of the things I always hated about Windows.
 
#34
#34
Freak said:
Circling back around to this thread.

Some of the suggested programs I've tried thus far are fantastic: Malwarebytes free version, Revo Uninstaller, Notepad++

Still need to try GIMP, bleachbit, aptana studio and a few others.

Is Foxit only a PDF reader? I need something that will allow me to add/delete pages to/from pdf files. The built in Preview software on Mac allowed this but I can't seem to come up with a good solution on Windows. Any suggestions?

Also, what's the verdict on Office these days (and Outlook). It looks as if they've gone to an annual subscription, which is fairly inexpensive and it comes with 1 TB of cloud storage. The pricing looks competitive with what other cloud services charge, such as Dropbox.

I've also yet to find a twitter client that comes close to Tweetbot on Mac. The thing I liked most about Tweetbot is it would sync my reading position on lists across devices. Handy for those of us who use a phone and our desktop. I'm currently using Tweetium, but it lacks the features I mentioned above.
Click to expand...

Foxit only a PEF reader, but they do offer a paid for version. LibreOffice offers the ability to open up PDFs in their Draw program and do some editing, and its entire office suite is free. I use Office now, but that's just because I get it for free through work.

I do love the new Office. Some people don't like it, but it's a much cleaner interface, and if you get Exchange with it, the email is best system out there. I still like Google better for the calendar, but that's it.

I can't really offer much in regards to Twitter, because I don't really use it.
 
#35
#35
Freak said:
Circling back around to this thread.

Some of the suggested programs I've tried thus far are fantastic: Malwarebytes free version, Revo Uninstaller, Notepad++

Still need to try GIMP, bleachbit, aptana studio and a few others.

Is Foxit only a PDF reader? I need something that will allow me to add/delete pages to/from pdf files. The built in Preview software on Mac allowed this but I can't seem to come up with a good solution on Windows. Any suggestions?

Also, what's the verdict on Office these days (and Outlook). It looks as if they've gone to an annual subscription, which is fairly inexpensive and it comes with 1 TB of cloud storage. The pricing looks competitive with what other cloud services charge, such as Dropbox.

I've also yet to find a twitter client that comes close to Tweetbot on Mac. The thing I liked most about Tweetbot is it would sync my reading position on lists across devices. Handy for those of us who use a phone and our desktop. I'm currently using Tweetium, but it lacks the features I mentioned above.
Click to expand...

In the current windows, I happened upon Xodo in the appstore for pdf editing. It's basic, but free and I think it'll do what you want.

I'd go opensource for the office software, either Libreoffice or OpenOffice. Free and probably does 99% of what MS does.
 
#36
#36
I highly recommend Searchbar for Chrome. It's fantastic. Any search bar on any site can be included in your own searchbar. Great timesaver. I've used it 3 times on this very thread. I didn't know what 3 of the apps were, so I highlighted them (I have Searchbar set to pop up when I highlight a word), then clicked the wiki icon.

I'll also suggest uBlock Origin instead of Adblock. It has more options and uses less system resources.

HTTPS Everywhere. Ensures you're always going to secure websites.

Dissconnect. Pretty much blocks any kind of tracking.
 
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#38
#38
Freak said:
Circling back around to this thread.

Some of the suggested programs I've tried thus far are fantastic: Malwarebytes free version, Revo Uninstaller, Notepad++

Still need to try GIMP, bleachbit, aptana studio and a few others.

Is Foxit only a PDF reader? I need something that will allow me to add/delete pages to/from pdf files. The built in Preview software on Mac allowed this but I can't seem to come up with a good solution on Windows. Any suggestions?

Also, what's the verdict on Office these days (and Outlook). It looks as if they've gone to an annual subscription, which is fairly inexpensive and it comes with 1 TB of cloud storage. The pricing looks competitive with what other cloud services charge, such as Dropbox.

I've also yet to find a twitter client that comes close to Tweetbot on Mac. The thing I liked most about Tweetbot is it would sync my reading position on lists across devices. Handy for those of us who use a phone and our desktop. I'm currently using Tweetium, but it lacks the features I mentioned above.
Click to expand...


I'm not a heavy user at home like some of you guys, but pretty adept at anything Office. Current MS Office stuff is very good. I'm an Excel guy. Outlook is my preferred email regardless. However, I have downloaded Open Office on my sons laptop, and was not disappointed. Same string usage as Excel. so far have found all Open Office programs to be 100% compatible and convertible back and forth with Office.

An alternative is to subscribe to Office 365. All the MS Office stuff, cloud based based and accessible from anywhere. MS is basically moving that direction all around. 365 is a good choice if you need that stuff. For occasional use I'd download Open Office.
 
#39
#39
Freak said:
I've been a long time Mac user who just added a Windows PC to my arsenal. It's been quite a few years since I've used Windows and I'm curious about must-have software, especially when it comes to security.

I've seen some on here recommend Malwarebytes. I assume it's worth the annual fee?

Other software suggestions are also welcome: photo/graphics editing, video editing, coding, etc.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Click to expand...


Web browser - chrome or fire fox ( I personally prefer chrome)



Security - mccafe. Have used Norton but has crashed two computers.

McAfee has an option known as safe search for any web browser. It filters any site known to contain malicious links that can harm your computer. It also alerts you when you click on the link letting you know you are about to enter a dangerous website.


Malware bytes- most security software does not defend or protect your pc from malware just trojan and common viruses (such as the more recent attack on pc's - ransom ware)

Bloat cleaner - glary utilities

Cleans hard drive
Ram
Rom
All cache
Has the capability to defragment hard drive.


Graphics editing

Adobe Photoshop

Ive heard dream weaver is good for web page design.

Adobe PDF. editor

Drafting and modeling -

If you plan on modeling in 3d or drafting, auto-cad is a good program. I use this pretty much every day in my line of work.

I have heard fast cam is another good drafting program.

Coding...

Not my playing field as of yet but.. I have heard visual basic is good.

Video editing..

Basic videos - windows movie maker

And according to pc magazine

Cyber link power director is supposed to be pretty good.

https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397215,00.asp



Microsoft office suit-professional

Contains the following -

Word-document editor

Excel - spreadsheet maker

Outlook-email

PowerPoint- presentation maker

Publisher- great for large project documents, such as a book

Access- database maker

Project- used for tracking assignments or projects for a group or individual.


My apologies for the grammatical errors.. Typing on the cell.
 
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#40
#40
TNJOKER said:
Web browser - chrome or fire fox ( I personally prefer chrome)



Security - mccafe. Have used Norton but has crashed two computers.

McAfee has an option known as safe search for any web browser. It filters any site known to contain malicious links that can harm your computer. It also alerts you when you click on the link letting you know you are about to enter a dangerous website.


Malware bytes- most security software does not defend or protect your pc from malware just trojan and common viruses (such as the more recent attack on pc's - ransom ware)

Bloat cleaner - glary utilities

Cleans hard drive
Ram
Rom
All cache
Has the capability to defragment hard drive.


Graphics editing

Adobe Photoshop

Ive heard dream weaver is good for web page design.

Adobe PDF. editor

Drafting and modeling -

If you plan on modeling in 3d or drafting, auto-cad is a good program. I use this pretty much every day in my line of work.

I have heard fast cam is another good drafting program.

Coding...

Not my playing field as of yet but.. I have heard visual basic is good.

Video editing..

Basic videos - windows movie maker

And according to pc magazine

Cyber link power director is supposed to be pretty good.

https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397215,00.asp



Microsoft office suit-professional

Contains the following -

Word-document editor

Excel - spreadsheet maker

Outlook-email

PowerPoint- presentation maker

Publisher- great for large project documents, such as a book

Access- database maker

Project- used for tracking assignments or projects for a group or individual.


My apologies for the grammatical errors.. Typing on the cell.
Click to expand...

McAfee AV is one of the worst AV's out there. I can't tell you how bad for system resources that thing is, plus it's been known for its BSOD capabilities too.

Glary Utilities is nothing more than a CCleaner repackage with a better GUI. Windows automatically optimizes your disks, you can run Disk Cleanup as administrator and cleanup space, and you are playing with fire if you ever use either to "clean" the registry. Most of the "free" utilities for Windows that people run are built-in to Windows, and outside of cleaning simply the leftover internet temporary files, there is no reason to ever download anything to do those jobs.
 
#41
#41
g8terh8ter_eric said:
McAfee AV is one of the worst AV's out there. I can't tell you how bad for system resources that thing is, plus it's been known for its BSOD capabilities too.

Glary Utilities is nothing more than a CCleaner repackage with a better GUI. Windows automatically optimizes your disks, you can run Disk Cleanup as administrator and cleanup space, and you are playing with fire if you ever use either to "clean" the registry. Most of the "free" utilities for Windows that people run are built-in to Windows, and outside of cleaning simply the leftover internet temporary files, there is no reason to ever download anything to do those jobs.
Click to expand...

I would beg to differ on McAfee. Avg & Norton both have killed several computers, straining the on board cpu and ram.. Not including all the extra resources required just to run a simple scan.

I can honestly say McAfee uses less resources, putting less strain on the computer overall. Jmo.

On the glary utility software- true a user should not have to have a program to clear or clean the registry. However, it easier to have a program than can do this than to have to go to this than that and then "clean" or defragment your pc. Its great for elderly people.. Because keep in mind.. A lot of them dont know what to do or just dont want to. Granted its a necessary evil to clean your pc inside and out.

My point is the software is basically any easy button for cleaning the guts of the computer without having all the techy mumbo jumbo skills and knowledge.
 
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#43
#43
TNJOKER said:
I would beg to differ on McAfee. Avg & Norton both have killed several computers, straining the on board cpu and ram.. Not including all the extra resources required just to run a simple scan.

I can honestly say McAfee uses less resources, putting less strain on the computer overall. Jmo.

On the glary utility software- true a user should not have to have a program to clear or clean the registry. However, it easier to have a program than can do this than to have to go to this than that and then "clean" or defragment your pc. Its great for elderly people.. Because keep in mind.. A lot of them dont know what to do or just dont want to. Granted its a necessary evil to clean your pc inside and out.

My point is the software is basically any easy button for cleaning the guts of the computer without having all the techy mumbo jumbo skills and knowledge.
Click to expand...

McAfee tested the worst out of many AV packages this year. Also, even its creator and previous owner called it the worst product out there. There is a reason Intel doesn't really push it much.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/mcafee-microsoft-selabs-tests,news-24253.html

As far as cleaning temporary files, you can create a task in task scheduler using disk cleanup to run automatically, if people want the "automatic" cleaning. This is part of what we do, if the customer says they don't want to mess with it. Set it to run once a week, and you're done.
 
#45
#45
g8terh8ter_eric said:
McAfee tested the worst out of many AV packages this year. Also, even its creator and previous owner called it the worst product out there. There is a reason Intel doesn't really push it much.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/mcafee-microsoft-selabs-tests,news-24253.html

As far as cleaning temporary files, you can create a task in task scheduler using disk cleanup to run automatically, if people want the "automatic" cleaning. This is part of what we do, if the customer says they don't want to mess with it. Set it to run once a week, and you're done.
Click to expand...


I respect your opinion. However, regardless Tom's guide states.. I still prefer McAfee. Its just my preference through first hand experience.. Freeware virus software is not all its cracked up to be. If anything it is just a gateway to problems later on down the line.


Pc magazine gives McAfee an excellent rating, in terms of actual virus protection.

https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2469309,00.asp


We could debate all day. But by no means am I a computer genius nor do I think I know it all. I was simply giving my opinion and what I personally use on a daily basis.


Thank you for your professionalism though 😊.
 
#46
#46
I appreciate the continued suggestions in this thread.

Anyone have suggestions for a good screen capture tool? I need to be able to take live video and make short clips from it in real time. Thoughts?

What are the best video editing suites for Windows? Adobe and Sony Vegas? I see those two mentioned frequently.
 
#47
#47
Freak said:
I appreciate the continued suggestions in this thread.

Anyone have suggestions for a good screen capture tool? I need to be able to take live video and make short clips from it in real time. Thoughts?

What are the best video editing suites for Windows? Adobe and Sony Vegas? I see those two mentioned frequently.
Click to expand...

Free
1. OBS Studio

2. Flashback Express
3. EZ Vid
4. Tiny Take
 
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