If you made a "basic softwares" cd. What would you put on it?

dieselstation

Golden Member
Feb 20, 2001
1,388
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i'm trying to make a cd of all the basic software i might need if i were to reinstall an operating system on a computer. what would you put on your list?

1. winamp
2. winrar/winzip/winace
3. irfanview
4. audiograbber w/LAME
5. ???
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
the problem with that is that software gets outdated rather quickly.

Blackice, if you own it.
IE 5.5, saves the download time
adobe acrobat
virus scanner
 

twong82

Banned
Nov 5, 2000
694
0
0
motherboard drivers, video card drivers, sound card drivers, benchmarking softwares, cd burning software, 3dmark2001
 

Pastore

Diamond Member
Feb 9, 2000
9,728
0
76
Aim
WinAmp/WinAmp skins/A bunch of MP3's for the hell of it
ICQ/.txt file with all of my buddies contact numbers
MediaPlayer (Latest Version)/pr0n mpg's ;)
IE (Latest Version)
d.net Client :)
WinZip

Thats about it... I have a CD burned that is very similar to my list, I call it my "Essentials"


 

Electric Amish

Elite Member
Oct 11, 1999
23,578
1
0
Yes it gets outdated, but it's nice to have in one place, if you don't have it on your HD.

Mine has drivers for my components, benchmarks, Winzip, Directx, Patches for the games I play.

amish
 

Namuna

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2000
2,435
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0
- Internet Explorer
- Acrobat Reader
- DirectX 8
- Drivers (Sound, Video...so on)
- DivX Codec
- Windows Media Player
- Real (yeah nobody likes em, but there's A LOT of Real content out there)
- Fonts
- Quicktime Player
- Registry tweaks
- Messengers (ICQ, AOHell, Yahoo, whatever)

There's more, but those are what came to mind.
 

PG

Diamond Member
Oct 25, 1999
3,426
44
91
Make a folder called Drivers. In this folder have individual folders for Video, Sound, Modem, Printer, etc. It's very important to have all your drivers on a CD. Maybe even have subfolders under each one so you can have drivers for each operating system. For example, under Video have Win98, WinME, and Win2k folders with appropriate drivers under each one. And make sure you unzip these before you burn!! You need to have these all ready so you can just point Windows to the appropriate .inf file.

Don't forget DX8, and you also might want to set up a Netzero account and have the Netzero software on CD. Then you have some easy way of getting to the internet after you format. Also get Adobe Acrobat Reader, and there might be a ton of other things you want. Just get what you use and will need.
 

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
Drivers for everything
Patches for everything
IE
Winzip
3DMark2000 & 2001
Virus .DAT's if you use a virus scanner
Nero
DirectX
Motherboard Monitor
WCPUID
TweakUI
A text file with all my ISP info (dial up numbers, DNS, POP & SMTP)
Desktop wallpaper

That's just off the top of my head...

Viper GTS
 

stndn

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2001
1,886
0
0
beast1284: in icq directory, there's a 2000a directory (or whatever your icq version is) with your icq number. you can copy that directory to your new icq installation dir so you don't need to add the icq# of your friends (or ask for another authorization)

as for my "basic software", i'd have:
+ drivers and patches for stuffs
+ netscape (plus my bookmarks and mails)
+ winzip, free dialup setup (netzero - in case of emergency)
+ winamp, winMP, real (i can't seem to get quicktime's installer :( )
+ icq, visual irc
+ adobe, ghostview
+ cdrw software
+ savefile for some games
+ some other junks i can fit in my cd (prons ;), mp3s, wallpaper, images
+ hmm... am i missing something? :confused:

i was thinking of directX, but they come with most game cds anyways....
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,066
883
126
All stuff like that I keep in a "drivers" HD. Thats right, I have a HD just for drivers and standard SF for all my systems at home. This all gets backed up to DLT once a week. The REALLY important stuff that I burn to cd and put away is the 10,000+ pictures I have of my wife and son. That cannot be replaced. Not even from cnet! :)
 

sharkeeper

Lifer
Jan 13, 2001
10,886
2
0
I keep everything on our main fileserver. It runs on a VPN and I keep my laptop synchronised with it. The laptop runs IIS 5 on Windows 2000 Server. This makes it nice if I'm at a client and connect it to their network. Certainly beats updating everything when they have a 56k frame relay connection! :)

Cheers!