Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Paving my machine for a fresh 2009

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Paving my machine for a fresh 2009 - First-Pass Must-Haves

Posted 2009-03-30 04:30 PM in Tools.

Back in 2006 I paved (or "formatted", or "torched", or "gave "a technical enema") to my main machine and blogged about the what I call the first-pass software I installed on this new fresh machine.

It was time to torch my Atwood Quadpower machine and name it Quadpower7. Time for a clean install, and this time it includes Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

I know I have a Tools List (that I know needs to be updated, thank you) but what I needed on this new machine was to be as productive as possible as fast as possible. I needed the 80% stuff installed.

First-Pass Must-Have Apps for a Fresh Machine and a Happy Life

Here's what I installed. Total time from naked drive to productive was about 4 hours. Could have been faster had I downloaded things ahead of time or used CDs.

Windows Utils

7-Zip - Best Zip Tool with the best shell integration.
AutoHotkey and the AutoCorrect for English Script - This will change "teh" to "the" everywhere I type. Plus 4700 other common English misspellings.
SmartFTP - Love them and gave them money. Got the 64-bit version.
Paint.NET - The best free Image Editor in town. Thanks Rick Brewster!
Prish Image Resizer - If there's one secret super amazing gem in this list, it's Prish. After I pave my wife's machine this is the ONLY util she insists on. She refuses to even touch the machine - "Is Prish on? No? Don't talk to me." Go get it and bask in the wonder of this glorious little app that's hard to find on the web. Gotta get this man a domain name.
Notepad2 3.0 - It's like notepad, but 2. Er, 3.0.

Developer Stuff

Easiest and fastest way to get productive is to use the Web Platform Installer. It also configures IIS, installs VS and SQL, and can install Silverlight tools, etc. if you like. This tool alone saves me HOURS each time I pave a machine.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Web and C# Express and SQL Server 2008 Express
ASP.NET MVC 1.0 - Cuz it's the new hotness.
TortoiseSVN - So I can get Source Code from everywhere.
Firefox and Chrome - So I can test all three major renderers.

Organizational Stuff

Word, PowerPoint, Outlook (On my fifth 60 day trial! (kidding.))
Evernote - Keep your notes everywhere, any device, all sync'ed. Installed their Bookmarklet also.
RememberTheMilk - My Task List Manager. Installed with their Bookmarklet.
Delicious - How I manage my web-site bookmarks. Installed with their Bookmarklet.
Passpack Offline - Password Manager with many options and lots of security.

Blogging Stuff

Windows Live Writer - I love this team and I love their product. Also installed the Pre-Code Plugin for my code samples.
SnagIt and WindowClippings - SnagIt because their image editor is butter, and WindowClippings because it's amazing with transparency.
FeedDemon - I know you guys are all Google Reader and all, but I really prefer to read my blogs in a REAL client. FeedDemon's awesome, it's free, and it's written in Delphi. What's not to like?

Social Stuff

TweetDeck - My current Twitter power-client of choice.
Zune - Because the Zune Pass kicks ass, as does Jazmine Sullivan.
Messenger - Cuz you gotta chat.
Skype and ooVoo - The former so I can talk cheap around the world, and the latter so I can video chat with up to 6 other people in 640x480 high res.

Pretty Stuff

Mike Swanson's Windows 7 Theme Pack - Some of Mike's best images for my wallpaper, auto-updating every 30 minutes.
VLC Player - For playing any video that I don't feel like getting a Codec for. (Which is fewer and fewer as there's lots of codecs included in Win7.)

And there you go. That was it. There's other stuff, but it's part of the 20% and I'll install them as I need them.

Monday, March 30, 2009 4:42:27 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Two your're missing that I consider must haves (though I don't know if these work with Windows 7 at the moment):

WinSplit Revolution: an absolute must for anyone with a widescreen monitor bigger than 20 inches.
UltraMon: mandatory for a machine with multiple monitors.

Multiple monitors >20 inches? Get both!

Chris

Monday, March 30, 2009 4:50:21 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Neither of those utilities are really needed with the multimonitor hotkey and "aero snap" features of Windows 7.

Scott Hanselman

Monday, March 30, 2009 5:07:55 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

My list if very similar, but with the difference that I use Directory Opus (guide) as a windows explorer replacement. Took me a bit to get used to it & customise to my likings, but once you do, there's no going back. It has built in S/FTP client and great image-related features (including resizing, conventions and quality options) so I don't use SmartFTP or the Prish Image Resizer.

Apart from those, pretty much the same. Oh, I do use both One Note and Evernote, can't decide with which to stick yet.

- F

(apologies if I double-committed this post, OpenID is having a blast on my account)

Fernando

Monday, March 30, 2009 5:11:02 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

are you using an anti-virus?

yohan

Monday, March 30, 2009 5:42:41 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hi Scott - I have an almost identical machine:
Q6600 @ 3.0GHz (Only mine is a G0 stepping making the OC a little easier)
8GB DDR2-800
10k RPM VelociRaptor for my C:\
320GB + 1TB for Data
Nvidia 9600GT

I was wondering if you could share your WEI scores once you get Windows 7 loaded, as well as general opinions on performance compared to Vista.

jaysonrowe

Monday, March 30, 2009 5:45:24 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Yes, I use eTrust.

Scott Hanselman

Monday, March 30, 2009 6:18:31 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I had no idea about the multimonitor hotkey, THANKS!!!!

In XP I was using the nvidia utilities before and assigned CTRL-1,2, and 3 for my left, center, and right monitors. Is there anyway to assign specific key combo for each monitor so I can have CTRL-1 move the window to the left screen?

Brian Boatright

Monday, March 30, 2009 7:24:43 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Reflector. I use this thing every day.

http://www.red-gate.com/products/reflector/

Rick Brewster

Monday, March 30, 2009 8:02:18 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Nice list! Opera, Adobe Reader, Virtual PC, and Excel would be on my list, too.

Joe Chung

Monday, March 30, 2009 8:42:06 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I might add/suggest
- Reflector (also per @Rick Brewster)
- SlickRun

MotoWilliams

Monday, March 30, 2009 8:48:47 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I used SlickRun back on XP and it rocked, with Vista however I rarely use it anymore because of the built-in command prompt in the start menu.

Just hit Windows key and start typing.

But if you're using complex scripts that start multiple applications/browsers, then yeah, stick with SlickRun

DaveVB

Monday, March 30, 2009 10:57:48 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I could not download Prish Image Resizer

Cornel

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:38:41 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

erm...Coderush...RefactorPro?

Rory

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:57:08 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hi Scott,

Try Shuriken for launching your apps. It is hosted on codeplex :)

http://www.codeplex.com/shuriken

gyurisc

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:07:59 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

i personally prefer textpad just for the block select though i still get all kinds of upset at the abuse of the MS Ordained search key combo. i am also having issues getting mysql server to run but i am greatly enjoying norton 360 3.0 and i am almost tempted to trade my 300 days of norton internet security for 665 days of norton 360. any idea how much the final version of windows 7 will cost for an upgrade from windows xp pro?
i also install ultramon for the second taskbar then i also get the ubercool fliqlo screensaver.

jake

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:17:34 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Lately i added Enso app launcher (http://www.humanized.com/) to my personal list.

Van den Eede Wesley

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 2:53:48 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott, I'm very disappointed that you didn't include Microsoft Bob in your list.

Steven Nagy

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 3:51:33 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott,

Curious about the use of the Express SKUs for Visual Studio - why not the full versions ??

.. Ken

Ken Hughes

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 4:42:37 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Do you have tasks in Outlook? If so, how do you keep your Remember The Milk tasks in synch with Outlook, other than manually updating tasks in two places?

Frank

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:21:50 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I'm sure a lot of people are going to post their tools, but I figure I'll at least do the one I can't live without...

ClipX -- clipboard manager that is beyond awesome

someguy

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:31:12 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hi Scott,
Nice list!, check out this freeware list at Freeware Genius very handy.
Another outstanding list it's top 46 freeware at Gizmo tech support.

Giuliano Lemes

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:32:36 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I don't understand how people can use 7-zip, especially with great alternatives like jZip. It uses the 7zip engine, but has a user interface that doesn't make me want to stab myself in the face.

Adam

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 6:23:26 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Responding to Joe Chung:

Not a knock but how can anyone use Adobe Reader anymore??? Its slow and clunky and I'm tired of it trying to update it self every other day on my pc AND not terminating as a process when I close it out. I HATE opening taskmgr and seeing it sitting there all smug using up my resources!!! Foxit Reader seems much more efficient and granted I have to updated it on my own but still.... Just my $0.02.

Tim

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 6:43:59 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Where's the download link to Windows 7 x64 Ultimate?

;)

Aaron

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:11:42 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I hoped to use Prish to resize my recent photos to fit properly into our Photo Frame, unfortunately the 32 Bit version download is broken.

Arthur

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:43:42 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Another nice FTP program that is free is CORE FTP Lite.

Ted Kolovos

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:51:54 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Weird! Try this link for the Prish resizers, it's his direct SkyDrive account: http://cid-6a6a204abdf15411.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public/PrishImageResizer/1.0.2519

Scott Hanselman

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:56:07 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Why not use SQL Server 2008 developer edition instead of Express? You get more tools like reporting, analysis and notification services plus the Profiler and tuning advisor. Plus more.

Abdu

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:58:54 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I rarely need to do that much DB work, and when I do, I have a DB dude do it.

Scott Hanselman

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 8:40:32 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I see FileZilla as a superior FTP Client that is also free!

Arthur

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 8:45:51 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hello Scott,
Talking about tools, whats the name of the utility you used in MIX for presentation that has zooms and making boxes while presenting. (Awesome sessions btw)

Thanks

Amr Elsehemy

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 8:58:22 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott,

I'm curious about the included codecs with Windows 7. Do you know if the FLAC audio codec is supported (or a DirectShow filter included), and if Windows Media Player and/or Media Center will now be able to understand FLAC metadata and add those files to the media library?

Right now you have to use a WMP plugin like WMPTagSupportExtender to get media library support for other audio file types (other than wma/mp3). And this only partially works due to limitations with WMP (Year info is read-only and cannot be set by plugins, seeking doesn't work/track length is unknown).

Adam Toth

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:01:56 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

It's nice to see this. I have just yesterday blogged about the core components of my development environment at http://www.davidpokluda.com/Blog/post/Configuring-development-environment.aspx.

David Pokluda

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:15:10 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hi Scott! You use FeedDemon to read their blogs. And to read your emails you use Microsoft Outlook or read directly in Gmail (Google Apps)? You use the Windows client of Evernote? And Remember The Milk?

Silvano Schröder

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:15:47 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Great list, Scott. The only additional super-tiny but ever-useful tool I'd add is PureText. Windows+V pastes sanitized/unformatted text anywhere.

Mike Swanson

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:02:45 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Wow, nobody has mentioned an ISO mounter?

I am saddened to learn that Windows 7 doesn't have a basic ISO mounter included, but rather an ISO burn command in the shell menu.

I would suggest DaemonTools. It's a little spammy with its sneaky toolbar if you don't catch it during the install. Any others out there that are quality? Alcohol 120?

ImgBurn all the way for burning your ISOs. I'd love to scratch one program off my list if Windows 7's ISO burner is good enough. Yes, I know it's been there for a while.

I am looking forward to scratching Nero off my installation list.

Philoushka

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:12:57 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Adam - jZip installed plugins and toolsbars without asking, and it changed my browser home page. *EVIL.*

Scott Hanselman

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:37:46 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

+1 to update the Ultimate Tools List. Besides, it's good link bait, so you could actually buy a licensed copy of Office :)

Still using SharedView?

Dave Purrington

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:00:02 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

The stuff I mentioned is developer centric, not DBA centric. So you have a DB guy who creates reports, cubes, cache invalidation :) etc whenever you need one? Just wondering about the second part of your reply.

Abdu

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:28:32 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Where did you get the non-beta Windows 7?
or are you expecting to re-install the OS when it's released?

Adam Denton

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:58:50 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

For mounting ISOs, rather than using Daemon Tools with it's crufty install, Virtual CloneDrive is an excellent, free alternative.

Also, what build of Windows 7 are you using for this config? I'm considering moving off of my Vista machine to a Win7 Beta 1 box (or one of the newer Connect releases) but I'm wary of having to repave the machine in short order once the RC is available.

Ben Mounsey

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:21:37 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

A few questions: Why Notepad2 instead of Notepad++; why VLC instead of MPlayer; and why SmartFTP instead of Filezilla?

Sea Cat

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 2:19:07 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Sorry to ask this here. Where can i find asp.net mvc documentation.

Lookman

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:17:55 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

JZip was sneaky about the toolbar and homepage (and that "promotion" flag that probably embeds an advertisement in your compressed files!) BUT if you're paranoid like me and ALWAYS use the "expert" installation option (or whatever) you catch that stuff.

Turns out that if you managed to bypass the revenue generation it's a pretty cool pretification for 7zip, but I've only played with it for 10min :)

Greg

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 5:12:53 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Antivirus? Ew! Waste of cpu

`Josh

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 7:49:41 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

@Tim - also hate Adobe PDF Reader... will try Foxit Reader
@Mike Swanson +1 for PureText :-) That's right up there on any new box for me.

Anthony Bouch

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:43:19 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

No CodeRush? I'm a ReSharper guy myself, but I'm surprised you went with the Express SKUs.

technomalogical

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 5:24:16 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

You left out one of the greatest screensavers ever made...

( shameless plug... )

ZagNut

Thursday, April 02, 2009 12:22:08 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

@Fernando Thanks for the tip to Directory Opus - you've just made my computer a better world. Excellent product. Tried Total Commander a while back but just couldn't get into it. Opus is brilliant.

Anthony Bouch

Thursday, April 02, 2009 8:12:40 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I forgot to mention before my plug, if you're doing any sort of binary file work, HxD is awesome. I was writing a .NET translator for an application's data files at work and this program saved my life, especially with the comparison feature.

Also, Expresso is great for Regex testing.

ZagNut

Sunday, April 05, 2009 10:53:35 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

any particular reason why you went with Win7 vs Win2k8R2 ?

https://me.yahoo.com/a/ekxBFoZjksMe0zBr0DrEBEOwFz_u

Tuesday, April 07, 2009 9:42:41 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott, why the Express versions of VWD? Why not visual studio 2008?

https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawka9QS5V80Hrlqz0v9WZHPX5XuvhME8V5k

Wednesday, April 08, 2009 2:12:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Scott, I've installed jzip on lots of computers and never had it do any of those thing! Which version did you install?

Adam

Wednesday, April 08, 2009 3:43:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

http://www.jingproject.com/

Tom

Thursday, April 09, 2009 6:04:52 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

ok, one more thing.... I see Scott is loading Win7 as his dev environment. I am reluctant to do this because once retail comes out, it usually means a total rebuild. Will there be a way to convert a RC/beta to retail without losing everything?

https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawka9QS5V80Hrlqz0v9WZHPX5XuvhME8V5k

Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:25:29 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

google thank you

https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmFE_BmCrt6weI77J_9hF77H4g1elYAS3s

Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:26:32 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

http://www.ascambalkon.com

https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmFE_BmCrt6weI77J_9hF77H4g1elYAS3s

Monday, April 13, 2009 11:37:19 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Am I the only one using fast and freeware Irfanview to view, batch resize, batch rename, batch convert images?

No one has mentioned it yet!

Musa

Sunday, April 19, 2009 3:29:52 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hi,

I've been finding some of the Live services really usefull..eg Live Mesh, even in it's beta. My SVN folders, My Favorites,etc. are syncronized between my various machines by using it.

Would you consider it might worth hitting your list?

C. Marius

C. Marius

Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:20:12 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

You _must_ have Textpad and Cygwin.

David B. Bitton

Wednesday, May 06, 2009 11:58:33 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

very nices article.

burun estetiği

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 12:28:23 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Hi Scott, thanks for sharing your gadget list. Recently I created one, too, and was wondering what would be the best way of managing this data given the fact that I might change and update my list. Currently, I am quite happy with blist as it allows me to easily share multiple views of the very same data effortlessly at my blog's linklist. And btw, Prish really is nice :-)

Jonas

Comments are closed.