Windows7 Applications I Need
Date: March 17, 2015
I believe the applications/software I have installed in my Windows 7 ‘work’ laptop increases my productivity. I have just captured the same here for both cataloging for future purpose as well as sharing to the extended communities. There is no particular order to this. I prefer a certain style to my desktop and would strive to achieve that in all my windows powered machines. Also there are a certain tools/apps I would like to have always in my system:
Productivity Applications
- Evernote: Notes on the cloud is something I use extensively. All my personal notes & sometimes blog articles are scripted in this first.
- Other options. One Note – Yet to evaluate this option thoroughly but have been reading a lot of good reviews. I am planning to move my work related notes/articles into this. [Update: OneNote is awesome for work related notes because of the MS Office like formatting capability. Additionally it links awesome with the MS Outlook esp the Meeting details.]
- Jing: Required for quickly taking snapshot of the desktop. The left ‘Ctrl + J’ key works magic. It is quite quick & very useful esp to add markers to the snapshots.
- ScreenRecorder: Required for making a video recording of the actions on desktop. Useful when I have to create video demos.
- Windows Live Writer: I am an avid blogger! (Duh!!) So need a desktop WYSIWYG tool & so far WLW seems awesome.
- [Update] Browser Chooser 2: I prefer to use different browsers for work (off late, FF) and personal (Chrome). This becomes the default browser and every time you click a link you get an option to choose between the browsers, which has saved me so much time.
Cloud Applications
- Dropbox by Dropbox
- Google Drive by Google
- Box by Box
- One Drive by Microsoft
- Copy by Barracuda
- iCloud by Apple
Development
- Oracle Virtual Box: Free! Easy & at least as good as VMWare Workstation. And, I can get my share folder working “easily” compared to VMWare Workstation.
- Other options. VMWare Workstation – I prefer the “free” Virtual box version. Perhaps later I shall write my experiences with VB compared to VMWorkstation.
- vim: My favorite go-to editor for code. I am more comfortable with vim than GUI editors. Personal preference!
- Other options. Emacs – If you are an Emacs guy. I used to be.
- PuTTY: Nothing beats this low-footprint SSH client. I love it from bottom of my heart.
- WinSCP: I would prefer if this is a tad fast but works perfectly for me. Another of the development tool I can’t be without.
- DiffMerge: A beauty when comes to code comparison. Addicted to this over all the other options.
- Other options. WinMerge – Yet to evaluate this.
- TortoiseSVN: Was skeptical of using a SVN client on Windows for a long time until I tried this. TortoiseSVN is a master piece.
- GitHub: For no computer geek is satisfied without an account of their pet projects in GitHub!
- WireShark: Off late I am cross verifying my network a tad too much. Of course, my work area is on the same line adds to my woes.
Alternates
- Alternate for IE: Google Chrome – Need I say more. (Added a few extensions I use regularly)
- Other options. Firefox – I played a bit with Firefox but FF has lost its mojo! It seem super bloated on the memory department!
- Alternate for Adobe PDF Reader: Foxit Reader – Better PDF reader or so I have heard. Just started using & already feels good!
- Alternate for Notepad: Notepad++ – Man! This app has improved so much over the years, I stopped using Notepad even for quick notes. Also now they have a nice feature of auto-save without saving into an actual file!! (Added a few plugins I use regularly)
- Alternate for DiskCleanup: CCleaner
- Alternate for Windows Media Player: VLC
- Alternate for Zip: 7-Zip
- Other options. WinRAR
Photography
- PIXResizer: Required to quickly resize pictures to a specific size; also multiple batch resizes
- Alternate for Windows Photo Viewer: IrfanView – A much better Photo viewer
- Alternate for Photo Gallery: Adobe Bridge
Security
- LastPass: Password manager
Miscellaneous
Launchy: For lack of better desktop search. I definitely miss google desktop.[Update: Boy! oh Boy! This is so bloated! Takes all my CPU! This is off my list.]- Free Download Manager: The speed this app brings to my downloads is tremendous.
- Skype: Kinda mandatory these days!
Desktop Customization
- Rainmeter: Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I have the following skins & layouts to handle most of my scenarios
- Avengers Skin
- Laptop Only layout
- 2 screen layout
- Taskbar Customization (http://www.howtogeek.com/172466/10-ways-you-can-customize-your-windows-taskbar/)
- Use small icons
- Hide all icons except ‘volume & network’ in the ‘notification area’
- Enable Autohide (because of Rainmeter desktop)
- How to change the windows explorer startup folder
Thus ends my current requirements on tools/apps to make my Windows PC ready for work!
Appendix A1: Google Chrome Extensions
- FoxTab: For quick tabs on frequently browsed sites.
- LastPass
- OneTab: For storing all the tabs just before saving.
- Adblock Plus
- Klout: For social media ratings.
- VNC Viewer for Google Chrome: Found this better & sufficient than desktop versions.
Appendix A2: Notepad++ Plugins
Generic
- DSpellCheck
- Explorer
- Python Script
- TextFX Characters
Development
- CCompletion
- Code alignment
- Compare
- Task List
- Tortoise SVN
Web Development
- HTML Tag
- JSLint
- JSON Viewer
- JSTool
- NppExport
- NppFTP
- Tidy2
Hope somebody out there benefits from a quick look into this post!
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