12 Essential Apps to Install on a New PC

The 12 most essential application for a newly purchased/formatted system

1. VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is a lightweight multimedia player that plays most video and audio formats out there, including CDs and DVDs, without the need for codecs. It’s a thousand times better than the default Windows Media Player. I use VLC as my default video player.

2. iTunes

Apple’s iTunes is the best music player I’ve found. I recommend you use it as your default audio player. And you have to install it anyway if you own an iPod or an iPhone.

3. PeaZip

PeaZip can manage most of the compression protocols out there like zip, rar, gzip, 7zip etc. I’m yet to come across another compression utility that can handle so many compression formats and still look very neat. Alternatives are WinRAR and 7zip.

4. Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox – the best browser ever made. Its unlimited extensibility is what’s great about it. You can download hundreds of plugins to match your tastes.

5. Picasa

Picasa is the program for managing and organizing photos. It lets you find, edit, and share all your photos with ease. Picasa makes editing your photos a piece of cake by putting one-click effects at your fingertips. You can share your pics using Picasa by email, print, CDs, or by posting on your blog. This is a must-have, if you ask me.

6. RadarSync

Keep your apps and drivers up-to-date for free with RadarSync. Keeping your software and hardware drivers up-to-date can be a nerve-wracking task but it doesn’t have to be. All you have to do is just run RadarSync occasionally. Stop wasting time looking for updates, instead get RadarSync.

A nice alternative is FileHippo Update Checker, although it only checks for apps (mostly freeware) on its database.

7. SUPER

SUPER is a great app for those who want to convert videos from one format to another. The great thing about SUPER is that it allows you to customize the output of your audio/video file, and it supports just about any format. The only problem is that SUPER can be a bit confusing for new users.

If you’re not a geek, then my guess is that FormatFactory will be better for you.

8. Roboform

RoboForm cuts out the time you spend filling various forms online, it remembers all your passwords, and even features a random password generator for the security freaks among us. What more could you possibly ask for?

9. Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2008 Free

Ad-Aware is an excellent anti-spyware app that provides protection from select trojans, malware, dialers, and browser hijackers.

10. Infrarecorder

If you have a DVD/CD writer then Infrarecorder is for you. The in-built windows disk writing utility is just too clunky, and well, broken. Infrarecorder allows you to do a lot of things, such as making your own video disks, music CDs, backup your data etc.

11. AVG / Avast

Make sure to install a firewall and anti-virus app on that new PC of yours. As you know, the built in Windows Firewall is just not enough. I recommend you get either AVG or Avast. They offer the best protection in the industry, and more importantly, they are freeware.

12. OpenOffice

For those who don’t want to pony-up for Microsoft Office, the open-source OpenOffice.org is a good alternative. It’s got the apps that you’ll want, but it’s only a bit slow.

these applicationare not mandatory but all these will be really needed. Then what are you waiting for? If you dont have then download them now :) You will love them.