software to put on a new computer

[Kaido]

Basic system stuff:
OpenOffice
EssentialPIM
Rainlender
Adobe Reader
Tranglos KeyNote

Picasa 2
Movie Maker 2 (usually include on XP)
Photo Story 3

Startup Control Panel
PathCopyEx
Java JRE
Google Earth
Google Desktop 2


Media stuff
iTunes/Quicktime
Windows Updates and latest Service pack, including Media Player
DivX
Real Alternative


Internet stuff:
AVG Anti-virus
Adaware
Spybot
ZoneAlarm
Firefox (plus extensions like ChatZilla, FireFTP, etc.)
Flash for Firefox
Google Toolbar for Firefox
Flash for Internet Explorer
Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
mIRC
AIM or favorite chat app
Thunderbird

Install XP, the software above, plus whatever other software you use, then use Norton Ghost to make recovery discs and make a file backup system using CDrs or an external hard drive or something and you have a pretty dang nice system I wrote a guide on Norton Ghost which can be found here.

Add to my list!

 

[Kaido]

Oh, and also:
ObjectDock (shortcut bar)
StrokeIt (mouse macro app)
TweakUI (having My Docs first drives me nuts!)

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I prefer Opera
I'd combine all the mIRC, AIM, ICQ, etc stuff into Trillian.

Other than that, not a bad list. :thumbsup:

 

[Evander]

This is fresh on my mind, as I recently restored a laptop:
Wallpaper Master (very easily and quickly change wallpaper manually or auto-random on bootup)
xplorer2 lite (for when you need a 2-pane file explorer)
wingrab (easy screenshot capture)
irfanview (everyone's favorite pic-viewer)
foxit pdf viewer (goodbye bloated adobe)
everest (detailed sys-info)
winamp 5.x lite +Enhancer dsp plugin +Transparent FX plugin
cdex (compress music to mp3 or whatnot)
audacity (wav editor/recorder)
fineprint (print multiple pages on 1 piece paper, front/back OK, visually delete unneeded pages)
adaptec ASPI (make your cd/dvd drives behave properly)
NVU (dreamweaver clone)
Shareaza (file sharing)
spywareblaster (prevent spyware from ever being installed)
SequoiaView (visual graph of how you hard disk space is being used)
FileZilla (FTP)
AutogordianKnot (easy DVD to AVI conversion)
DVD Shrink ('nuff said)