Syntactic Whitespace

The First Ten Applications On My Windows Install

Posted in Windows, apps by Mike on the August 22nd, 2009

I just recently got an HP Mini Netbook for my birthday. It is a really solid machine, with an awesome keyboard and sleek design. Plus, the price is right at $350. One annoying thing about it is the fact that it comes with Windows XP Home Edition. This in and of itself wouldn’t have been bad. However, as with many (if not all) modern PC manufacturers, the HP Mini came with tons of Crapware. No I would not like a trial of Microsoft Office, no I would not like a trial of Norton Internet Security, thank you very much. All of this crap is (nearly) impossible to get off without reinstalling the operating system. So I hooked up an IDE CD drive to my conveniently placed IDE->USB hard drive enclosure. It didn’t fit perfectly, but it worked. with this I installed a fresh copy of Windows XP Pro. I then install the First Ten Applications on every windows install I do. Here They Are:

  1. UXTheme.dll Multi-Patcher
    Allows the installation of custom Visual Styles on windows XP
  2. gVim for windows
    An Awesome Text Editor (disclaimer: Opinion)
  3. VirtuaWin Virtual Desktop manager
    Allows up to nine virtual desktops, this computer dual-boots Ubuntu Netbook Remix
    I like to have the virtual-desktop experience to be consistent throughout windows too.
  4. Microsoft Office 2007
    Yeah…I know, What about Openoffice ? Well I happen to have a copy of Microsoft Office 2007.
    In my opinion, it runs better on windows than Openoffice, plus, I already have it…so there.
  5. iTunes
    I really don’t like it that much, but I have an awesome iPod Touch…so I have to use it.
  6. VLC
    It plays Everything
  7. Ext2FS Driver
    Since I dual-boot linux on this system, most of my files are in the linux partition,
    this driver lets windows access it
  8. 7-zip
    Extracts any archive format, for free
  9. Launchy
    Access all of your files, folders, and programs with an easy key press
  10. Firefox
    I saved the best for last, the best browser ever, hands-down
  11. And that’s 10!
    if you’d like to add any to the list, just add a comment below

Songbird 0.2.5 is released

Posted in Downloads, apps, links, media, web by Mike on the March 25th, 2007

Songbird is a media player that is built on the same platform that firefox is and focuses on web media .. check it out at songbirdnest.com

Very cool … check it out

A screenshot of songbird” t
also … sorry for the infrequent postings … expect them to come more frequently … also make sure to check out my linkblog at links.mikedonaghy.org