Best Software?

[bellullabob]

My system has finally gotten to the point where it is a mess and a slow one at that. I am trying to play Myst: Revelation and it is stuttering like mad I am about to reformat my hardrive and do a clean installation of XP home edition. As it is a slow motherboard, I want to rebuild with software that won't bog the system down and that will keep it "clean".

What I have is: Biostar 7MVIG mother board with a sempron chip & 512 mg ram; Ati 9600 vid card; 40 gig hard drive, cd burner, dvd player, DSL Modem; optical mouse; digital camera

Software I need: Firewall; antivirus; web brouser; music player/burner; dvd playing software; picture editor; word editor (I do have a copy of ms office 2000); registry cleaner; my Dsl provider software (verizon).

Some other questions: Will reformating my hard drive and do a clean instalation help? Should I update my bios (?) after reformating? should I install the latest catalyst from ATI -do I need to instal the multimedia and hydravision software? Is there a whay to not completely instal all of Verizon and Yahoo's software?

Thanks for any insights or thoughts!

 

[Brazen]

Should I update my bios

yes. I suggest doing it before you reinstall.

Firewall

Windows built-in firewall. You could also use the free version of ZoneAlarm or Kerio, if you are anti-MS for the sake of being anti-MS.

antivirus

AOL Active Virus shield is free and based on Kapersky, and quickly became considered "better" than the other free alternatives. It's AOL though, so you're taking your chances that they've somehow screwed it up and people just don't know yet. Other than that, I like TrenMicro PC-Cillin.

web brouser

Firefox, hands down.

music player/burner

Personally, I still like Windows Media player. I prefered ReakJukebox back in the day, before it turned into the bloated, ugly, buggy, abomination that is RealOne, but the days of RealJukebox are long-gone... 🙁 if only i could get an "Anabelle" visual for WMP...

dvd playing software

I use VLC Media Player. It's free, and it's awesome.

picture editor

Not sure. Google's Picasa is highly touted.

word editor (I do have a copy of ms office 2000)

OpenOffice.

registry cleaner

Last I've heard, these are becoming non-existant since people have realized they are largely counter-productive and generally just bork your system.

my Dsl provider software (verizon)

Not a clue, there is probably someway of getting around Verizon's bloatware though.

Will reformating my hard drive and do a clean instalation help?

yes

should I install the latest catalyst from ATI -do I need to instal the multimedia and hydravision software?

Yes. There should be a "driver only" download link. They may not do this any more, but even if you get the full package (and with the "driver only" package) you can extract the files with 7-zip (you should install 7-zip anyway, it will un-pack anything, and is very pleasant to use). Just right click on the downloaded file and choose to extract with 7-zip. Open Device Manager, right-click on and choose to update the driver of your video card, install driver manually and browse to the extracted files.

 

[Smilin]

To keep things light you can rely heavily on built in software. The xp2 firewall is a solid one although lacks some bells and whistles as far as configuration (doesn't do port ranges easily). WMP 10+ does music, now rips mp3s & plays dvd if you add any decoder. Picture editor: paint.net is nice but a bit heavy on resources. Checkout gimp for windows maybe. I would recommend against ANY regcleaner.

drivers and bios: Always use the latest. Bios wise, it's best to get it on ahead of time. Keep this stuff up to date always. It is typically not necessary to install any ISP software at all. Just get the proper server names from their website for you email. Built in DHCP handles everythign else. AOL is the only exception...and lord help you if you have that.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Smilin
WMP 10+ does music, now rips mp3s & plays dvd if you add any decoder.

BTW, just installing VLC Media Player will add the necessary decoder to play DVDs in WMP 🙂

Picture editor: paint.net is nice but a bit heavy on resources. Checkout gimp for windows maybe.

Gimp and Paint.net are both geared more towards the heavy "graphic design" type photo editing people. Picasa would really be better if he wants an easy-to-use, no-learning-curve program to do quick photo touch ups (such as resizes, red-eye removal, or color enhancement).

I used Picasa a while back (like at least a year ago, whenever Google first acquired it) and liked everything about it except there was this one little, but hugely nagging to me, thing about it. I don't remember exactly but I think it had something to do with it automatically organizing your pictures, which I wanted to do manually myself. I have not messed with photo touchups since then, but I would probably just use F-Spot on my Ubuntu laptop, OR retry Picasa since I know it has gone through a lot of changes since then.

I would recommend against ANY regcleaner.

Amen, Brother.

It is typically not necessary to install any ISP software at all. Just get the proper server names from their website for you email. Built in DHCP handles everythign else. AOL is the only exception...and lord help you if you have that.

Now, my Cox cable wanted me to install a bunch of unnecessary bloatware, which their instructions said was "required" but yeah, I didn't have to install ANYTHING, just plug it in and go nuts.

However, I seem to have heard that DSL is a bit different. You have to have some special software to "log in" to their system, but I am HUGELY unsure about this. Also, if you have a linksys router, I believe the router has this "log in" software built-in.

 

[Doh!]

Originally posted by: Brazen
However, I seem to have heard that DSL is a bit different. You have to have some special software to "log in" to their system, but I am HUGELY unsure about this. Also, if you have a linksys router, I believe the router has this "log in" software built-in.

Both Windows and routers have this functionality. No 3rd party software required.

 

[Nothinman]

BTW, just installing VLC Media Player will add the necessary decoder to play DVDs in WMP

Although possibly illegally, you still have to own a MPEG2 license to be able to legally play DVDs. It's even mentioned in the VLC FAQ.

However, I seem to have heard that DSL is a bit different. You have to have some special software to "log in" to their system, but I am HUGELY unsure about this. Also, if you have a linksys router, I believe the router has this "log in" software built-in.

That's PPPoE and as Doh! said most routers and OSes support this without any ISP software just fine.

 

[Schadenfroh]

For the security software, see my sig.

 

[Seekermeister]

Browsers are a matter of taste, and that comes largely from what a person becomes accustomed to. Despite any Firefox fans here, there is only one browser as far as I'm concerned, and that is Opera. Anything that any other browser can do, Opera can do better. But, like with any program, it depends alot on how accustomed that you are to a program and know how to set it up the way that you like.