Ellen Million (ellenmillion) wrote,
Ellen Million
ellenmillion

Question for the tech geeks in the audience...

So, you're trapped on a desert island you've just installed a nice, shiny, clean installation of Windows XP (Tablet Edition). You've deleted all the bloatware and convinced AOL that you REALLY don't need them. What programs would you not want to live without?

I have installed:

  • Google Chrome (so far, I'm liking it!)
  • Avast Anti-virus
  • Malwarebytes

    I still need to install:

  • Windows Service Packs/10 million updates
  • Adobe CS3
  • AutoCAD LT
  • Open Office
  • Crimson Editor

    I need recommendations for:

  • A decent IM program. A program that managed to combine Facebook, Twitter, IRC, AIM and Google would be simply lovely. Have they done that, yet? Is Trillian Astra the malware disaster the user reviews at CNet's Download.com make it out to be, or are those just complaints of people who weren't smart enough to un-check boxes?
  • An FTP program. I was using SmartFTP, and was pretty happy with it. I'm tempted to use it again, but if you've got better suggestions, I'm all ears.
  • A free or cheap mahjong program.
  • A free or cheap sudoku program.
  • (Or other free, fun, challenging puzzle/mind games that do not install blinking ads, bloatware, etc.)


    ***

    The scrubbed computer is working splendidly, and no files were lost. I've been debating a reformat for a while now - though it's painful to have to reinstall programs and reconfigure everything, I had a lot of junk on this computer, and it's really, super nice to have a clean slate to work with. I had a laundry list of things I wanted to do (try Chrome, switch from AVG to Avast, clean off a whole lotta programs I never used and in some cases shouldn't still have...) and it's getting done, even if it's on a rather more rigorous and stressful timeline than I would have picked.

    I owe many people many things, I'll apologize in advance for further delays - I've got a full day tomorrow and a pressing client project to work on Monday, plus 10 million windows updates to do...
    • Tags: computers
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    • 11 comments

    • February in Review

      February in review: February pretends to be a month, even though it’s short, and I did pretty well, considering. I wrote about 19k on The Dragon…

    • January Wrap-up, February Goals

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