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What do you install after a Windows re-format?

blog.thembid.com — I have become a minimalist in many ways, so this was a good chance to do some housekeeping and only install the minimums (which ended up being pretty significant). I detailed this process and I am sharing it with you here. It would be interesting to find out what applications you consider essential when doing a complete re-format.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 28, 2007

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  • baalzebub, on 10/10/2007, -65/+416RE:["What do you install after a Windows re-format?"]

    Linux...
  • BuryIt, on 10/10/2007, -8/+155I install Kazaa Lite the K++ Edition, and Bonzai Buddy... just like Ramzi taught me.
  • wassim2k, on 10/10/2007, -11/+134Gee, I never saw that comment coming.
  • t3soro, on 10/10/2007, -5/+119MS Office 2007 AND OpenOffice.org? And he calls himself a minimalist...
  • roastedbagel, on 10/10/2007, -5/+102Bonzi Buddy, dial-up modem drivers, and Morpheus are the only 3 things I need for my fresh install of winME
  • DAaaMan64, on 10/10/2007, -1/+74install vlc, reconnect external hard drive, continue to --> porn
  • j0kerz, on 10/10/2007, -16/+80Recently, its Ubuntu. And no, I am not another commercial for switching to Ubunutu but I have had nothing but rock solid stability with this. I Havent regretted the decision one bit...
  • Sp4nk, on 10/10/2007, -3/+515000 *****' updates.
  • dukeochutney, on 10/10/2007, -4/+50the real issue here is why do we care what some random guy installs on his pc.
  • foobarf00, on 10/10/2007, -3/+45FireFox, Eclipse, Cygwin, Office, XAMPP, and PhotoShop.
  • latova, on 10/10/2007, -1/+41A series of tubes.
  • AnarkeIncarnate, on 10/10/2007, -2/+42no, on Digg it is Ubuntu. Also, you can put up tutorials on how to "Do X in Ubuntu" that apparently cannot be done in any other OS
  • janeuner, on 10/10/2007, -5/+44When I format my Windows hard drive, I put Windows back on it. Fortunately, I never have to format the {Debian,Ubuntu} boxes.
  • Loonacy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+38The first thing I do after I install Windows is restore GRUB.
  • TennisElbow, on 10/10/2007, -2/+35This guy actually INSTALLS the "Alexa Toolbar"? You've got to be ***** me. Does he also make it a point to load CoolWebSearch and HotBar too?
  • turrican, on 10/10/2007, -5/+35What the ***** is the internet?
  • alexforcefive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+30The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another.
  • deviouskoopa, on 10/10/2007, -2/+28You just censored the word crap. You fail at life.
  • hartley, on 10/10/2007, -1/+24Seriously, I can't believe how many people use virus ridden p2p clients like kazaa, morpheus, and limewire.
    This is why you had to reformat your Windows partition in the first place.
  • evi1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+24I am really surprised AOL is not on that list.
  • shredswithpiks, on 10/10/2007, -0/+22let me re-word Anark's joke.... "no. Here on digg Linux is Ubuntu."
  • roastedbagel, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22Yahoo Antispy? n00b! (sorry, had to)
  • awhiteflame, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21Well, it's not a dump truck.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18WTF is a Ubundu
  • Remmiz, on 10/10/2007, -1/+18Foobar2000. All I need in my simple, meager life.
  • allyant, on 10/10/2007, -2/+18"bit comet", Windows Live Mesenger... n00b!!
  • idc5, on 10/10/2007, -3/+19Wow that's a huge list, wasn't there a program that lets your burn all the programs onto a cd, so you don't have to go through each of installation rather it installs all of them at once into your registry?
  • Vektuz, on 10/10/2007, -3/+19He totaly forgot adblock plus
    how can someone browse the web without a good advert blocker? Jeez, crawl out of stone age already and get with the program. Not only will it make your browsing faster and cleaner, but I remember last year it saved my ass from those nasty wmf exploits being spread by banners. If you ONLY have one add-on installed in firefox it should be some form of advert/popup blocker.
  • DarkMeld, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16I still cant get the freaking widescreen to work. You'd think that since theres only two major companies (AMD and NVidia) theyd put in a package that automatically installs and sets the resolutions for you
  • latova, on 10/10/2007, -18/+33What's this "windows" people are talking about?
  • marm0lade, on 10/10/2007, -3/+18The user who posted this article would save himself A LOT of time if he just made an image of his HD after he got everything setup the way he wants it. Norton ghost FTW.
  • zackkitzmiller, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Is installing pr0n something like copying it from your backup, or do you actually run an installer? cause i think then it's a virus.
  • DocHoliday22, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13To be honest I am so sick of formating that when my PC is full of crap I usually let it go and keep running it until it is unbearable...
  • jason469, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13FireFox
    Firewall
    Photoshop
    uTorrent
    Peer Guardian
    Dreamweaver
    MS Office
    FF Codec
    Spybot Search & Destory
    Tversity
    Nero
    iTunes
    and some DVD programs.
  • thinkingserious, on 10/10/2007, -5/+16Just Outlook 2007, used for exchange. Then OpenOffice for everything else.
  • Macuyiko, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11and Notepad++, VLC, Daemon Tools, mIRC, Pidgin, TightVNC viewer too here.
  • venom8599, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11Windows only handles .zip files. There are many other and better types of compression in use that 7zip can handle. Plus, to me anyway, the Zip functionality in Windows seems kind of clunky.
  • mossblaser, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11Mine: Putty - then I can ssh into my proper pc :D
  • LoudNoise, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12Yes. That tiny amount of time spent is worth the money you forked out.
  • RonDutt, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12I have a small group of programs I can't live without: Firefox, uTorrent, 7zip, XP Codec Pack + MPC, AVG, Winamp, LogMeIn, PuTTy
    Anyone have others they can't live without?
  • manitoba98xp, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13When omitted, assume Microsoft.
  • Ramble, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11yes, nlite for XP systems and vlite for Vista systems should let you do that.
  • pault107, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12Revert to my Ghost image, Windows update, update virus profiles, append new data to Ghost image and get to work.
  • gcnaddict, on 10/10/2007, -2/+12I'm using Vista and I haven't had to reinstall it (or even clean viruses and spyware) ever since I got the RTM release November 8th. Just keep UAC (Sudo with an added annoyance of not remembering your settings) on and it stays *clean*. You guys might not realize it, but on a platform like Vista, UAC is a Godsend. It forces developers to use user level resources as opposed to always going admin level. Thus, if you ever do see a UAC prompt (Once a month for me), you actually have a reason to inspect it.
  • inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10We are diggers.. we live vicariously through others. Viva la Geek!
  • jsully, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Do this:
    sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.confworking
    (This will make a working backup of your X configuration file in case we screw it up)
    sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
    (This launches the X configurator)
    It should be pretty straightforward - we want to get to the part where you select the available resolutions, and make sure to select your widescreen one. Then restart X by doing a Control-Alt-Backspace. It should kick into the high resolution mode, if it doesn't automatically it will now at least list your widescreen mode in the Screen Resolution panel.

    If something goes wrong and you can't get back into X do this to restore:
    sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.confworking /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  • wassim2k, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10Does AVG have to be installed twice?
  • Godlike, on 10/10/2007, -7/+16You know, all that I ever hear about with linux is 'uptime' but my XP box is VERY POORLY maintained (because I hate fixing my own computers now that I do it 8 hours a day) and has month-long uptimes. Maybe in server technology you want that, but what the hell does it matter rebooting your home computer even once a week? or even three times a week?

    The largest problem with windows: USER ERROR. Windows is just as complex as linux but the UI is obfuscated as to make the user believe that it is not.

    The biggest crime of windows: being more user friendly and popular than linux
  • asspants, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering why in the hell more people don't use ghost images.
  • themastersb, on 10/10/2007, -3/+11AVG? After a windows reformat I put on Avast!
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