A clean install of Windows 7 (or any other) is often the best way to install your Operating System. However, clean install means losing all your apps but hey, that’s not necessarily a problem because a few days ago, when I finally decided to make a clean install of my OS, I made a list of the essential free apps you may get in case you’re not sure what you should actually install after a clean OS installation or when you get a new PC. Each app has a download link so you won’t have to search for every single app. So, what did I install over my clean new Windows? Check this list…
avast! Free Antivirus is my top pick for the best free security option around and just a matter of fact, it has the same antivirus and anti-spyware scanning engine used in the paid products and it will definitely reduce the risk of your computer being attacked or infected by a virus – Download Avast! Free Antivirus
Mozilla Firefox is what I used exclusively for a long time, but I am beginning to grow into Google Chrome, as Firefox seems to be quite slower. However, Firefox remains my primary browser but you can consider getting Google Chrome as well, for speed and simplicity – Download Firefox | Download Chrome
Open Office is a free office-productivity suite that includes applications such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to Microsoft Office. Compatibility? No worries, Open Office can open and save MS Office documents with a high degree of fidelity – Download Open Office
Notepad++ is a great source code editor, but it also performs great as a Windows Notepad replacement. The application supports several programming languages and its features make it my favorite editor – Download Notepad++
Mozilla Thunderbird is a fully-featured, free and secure mail client, which can also act as a RSS reader. It’s easy to set up (no need to know your IMAP, SMTP, and SSL/TLS settings, just your your name, email address, and password) and customize – and it’s loaded with great features – Download Mozilla Thunderbird
Gom Player is a a clean looking video player that I’m using and recommend to everyone. It’s lightweight and I love fact that it has embedded codec system so you won’t have to search for codecs every time you cannot play a video format. However, if it happens that you need an extra codec to play a multimedia file that the player didn’t come with, the software will automatically identify what you need and it will lead you to the download page – Download Gom Player
WinAmp is my true favorite for playing music files and I believe that almost everybody using a PC knows anything about Winamp so I guess it doesn’t need introduction. Well, just for the record, Winamp has a lot of cool features which make it an extremely valuable and versatile media. You can synchronize your Media Library with your portable media player and much more – Download WinAmp
PicPick is one of the best screen capturing software that is simple enough to be used by everyone. You can capture multiple sources such as: active windows, selected areas or window, entire desktop, irregular screen regions or any other on-screen activities with just a click of a button or keyboard shortcut. Moreover, the software includes a simple image editor – Download PicPick
CCleaner is a system excellent system cleaning utility designed to help you get rid of all unwanted, residual files and registry entries such as Internet Explorer’s temporary files, cookies, history and so much more – Download CCleaner
IZArc is a great freeware archive utility that support a huge list of archive formats, as well as access to many powerful features and tools. Moreover, it allows you to drag and drop files from and to Windows Explorer, create and extract archives directly in Windows Explorer – Download IZArc
I still have quite a few more in the pipeline but I’ll include those in a future article so check back later please.
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Starting back in 2006, AIMP became the Russian response to Winamp. Since then the player suffered three major changes, that brought the player to its actual stable state: a comprehensive music player that is 100% free and features a plethora of audio formats: CDA, .AAC, .AC3, .APE, .DTS, .FLAC, .IT, .MIDI, .MO3, .MOD, .M4A, .M4B, .MP1, .MP2, .MP3, .MPC, .MTM, .OFR, .OGG, .RMI, .S3M, .SPX, .TAK, .TTA, .UMX, .WAV, .WMA, .WV, .XM.
