Useful Apps for First-Time Windows Users?

pauljoyce asks: "I'm a Mac fan who is intrigued by the possibilities of Apple's Boot Camp software. Now that I have a chance to painlessly dip into the Windows world, what I'd like to ask you is, what Windows software amazes you? I want to build a list of unique, elegant, can't-do-without apps, so all us new Boot-Camp babies can finally experience some of the great innovation happening over on the Windows platform. I roughed in a quick blogpage to collect the info, and to house any useful discussions. It'll probably deteriorate into a flame war at some point, but hopefully I can get a few contributions to each category before then. Would those interested please chime in with their list of favorites?"

Comments

Re:Not needed

[jcr]

I don't think for one minute a regular Mac user is going to even take advantage of the Boot Camp software.

Guess again.

A whole lot of Mac users have one or two apps that they have to use for work, that aren't available for the Mac. Also, anyone designing a web site pretty much has to test it with Internet Exploder. Boot Camp is the alternative to wasting desk space for a Dell.

-jcr

first thing I'd get

[yagu]

First app I'd buy is vmware (hey, it might be free now!) so you can run OS X on it.

No, really, all seriousness aside, I am a big user and fan in XP of:

• Photoshop Elements. Make sure you're looking at version 4 at least. I'm quite sure this is also a Mac product, so if you're already playing with that in OS X, never mind. PSE is a light version of Photoshop for about 1/4 the price depending on where you purchase. It has most of the digital manipulation functionality I need, and interestingly has some features VERY useful not found in Photoshop.
• AVG Anti virus for antivirus. I'm using the free version -- so far I've found it excellent, and haven't had any problems with the machine at all (note: it's a good idea to ensure you have de-installed all of the commercial products in the meantime -- aside from not working very well, they can step on other running anti-virus programs).
• the Ubiquitous OpenOffice, and it's free. It can be a resource hog, but I've not had any Office product installed on my XP boxes for years now and never had a need, and OO just keeps getting better.
• The OpenCD which includes browsers, all kinds of cool and fun free software. Pick and choose, these'll take you a long way.
• Picasa for organizing and sharing and printing (and minor editing) pictures. I wasn't much of a believer in this one, but because of its simplicity I recommended and installed and consulted this for friends and family. And finally was hooked -- it really does a great job for all of the organizing I need. (I believe it's probably on the OpenCD). It may not rival the iPhoto (or whatever OS X has), but it's a sweet product.
• MoodySoft Screen capture software. I do a lot of work requiring quick and easy screen captures. This one's not free, but it's not expensive either, and I've tried about a gazillion different products, so far this has been the best for me.
• Any combination, or even full suite of cygwin software. If you have ANY scripting needs, to get real work done and already know shell and unix utils, this is ESSENTIAL (and, it has an excellent X Server).

This is really a tiny partial list. It's a shame I have so many programs I like to run in XP, cuz I always prefer the linux or some variant of unix environment. But, this is a small sample of what gets me through an XP kind of day.

Most important (mini)app for you Mac users

[QuantumG]

If you have a single button mouse, like most Mac users, you'll need to:

1. Press Start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select Accessibility Options
4. Select the Mouse tab
5. Select the check box Use MouseKeys
6. Press ok.
7. You can now close Control Panel.
8. Press the - key on your numeric keypad.
9. Point your mouse cursor at the window or icon where you want to right click.
10. Press the 5 key on your numeric keypad.

At present I'm not aware of any apps that you can get that will convert Apple+click to a right click. But I'm sure there'll be one available from the Apple web site soon, they seem to be doing everything in their power to make running windows on a Mac as painful^H^H^Hless as running it on any other x86 hardware.

Re:Most important (mini)app for you Mac users

[MustardMan]

Uh... this is only relevant on the MacBook. The iMacs all ship with the two-button mighty mouse, and the mac mini is BYOKDM. And, as another poster pointed out, there are workarounds available. The software is BETA.

Must-have software?

[crossmr]

AVG:
http://free.grisoft.com/
Ad-aware:
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Editi on/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=lst-0-1
Spybot Search and Destroy:
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000 -8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-2
Hijack This!:
http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-8022_4-103 79544.html?tag=lst-0-1
Firefox:
http://www.firefox.com/
Trillian:
http://www.trillian.cc/
Spywareblaster:
http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3000-8022_4 -10486084.html?tag=lst-0-1
And just about anything from:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/index.html

Off the top of my head:

[Russ Steffen]

AVG Anti-Virus
Hijack This
Spybot Search and Destroy
Adaware
Microsoft Anti-Spyware (aka Windows Defender)
SpywareBlaster
KeyloggerHunter
ClamAV
avast!

That should get ya started.

Re:Games.

[Tyler Eaves]

Until you get into any sort of industrial work...

AutoCAD? Nope...
Solidworks? Yea right...
Pro/E? Didn't think so...
Electronics Workbench? Nope...

and the list goes on and on...

I have used a PC for 2 weeks

[mogabog]

I don't know how to use a PC. Give me OSX or a CLI and I'm fine. But I only used a PC for the only two weeks I worked in a cube.

I worked in a mac-based office (not a design firm, a real office) and have done years of development exclusively on macs. My servers are OS X servers.

I do not know how to use a PC more than basic point and click. I have no idea what a DLL is. I don't know what it means to flash BIOS. Why? Because I have never needed to know, nor have I wanted to know.

As for the atom feed and stuff, that stuff is basic when you setup a blog. Come on.

Maybe this is astroturf, but I am a very tech savvy individual and have hardly any knowledge of Windows or experience using it. And I love it.

-A

Re:I have used a PC for 2 weeks

[Sycraft-fu]

Well since you mentioned it on Slashdot, you are going to get told anyhow:

A DLL is a Dynamic Link Library. Basically it's a collection of executable code that's not meant to be executed directly, but rather to be called by programs. Orignally the idea was to cut down on resorce usage as you only needed one copy of the code on disk or in memory. These days all programs get their own compy in memory (for stability reasons) and programs often include their own copies on disk to ensure they get the version they want. Their primary uses today are:

1) To allow the easy use of 3rd party code. Say I want to encode MP3s or something, but don't want to write it all myself. Instead, I can just get LAME complied as a DLL, and put calls to that with my software. That also allows for the MP3 encoding section to be upgraded without messing with the main executable.

2) To reconsile incompatible licenses. In my previous example, you could use a LGPL program (LAME) that requires source release without releasing your entire source wince it's called as a library. To link it in your own code would require opening up that code. Conversely, an OSS program can make calls to non-OSS software, with no problems. It never needs access to the code, just calls the library.

Flashing BIOS is much simpler, it simply means to update the system BIOS. The BIOS is what loads when you first turn your system on. Some comptuers call this boot ROM, firmware, or a host of other names. Regardless, on the PC it's what loads when you turn the power on. Sometimes, computer makers with to put out fixes or improvements for that. To flash your BIOS is to apply the new update. Generally these days you just download and run a Windows program and it takes care of it.

my list

[timothv]

File management/explorer replacement: Directory Opus
Music: Foobar2000 0.8.3 (iTunes and dumbed down fb2k annoy me)
Video: Media Player Classic with ffdshow
Browser: Firefox 1.5 with ~20 extensions
CD Ripping: Exact Audio Copy (only Windows can rip CDs properly)
Anti-virus: Avast
Shell: Cygwin with puttycyg or a local ssh server
IM: Trillian (needs to be replaced with a Jabber client + aim/yahoo transport)
Python development: Eclipse with the pydev extension
IRC: Chatzilla
BitTorrent: uTorrent
Webserver: Apache 2
Archive unpacker: IZArc
Mail: Thunderbird
Encryption: Truecrypt
JPEG manager: iView MediaPro3
CD/DVD burning: Nero
Hex editor: XVI32
SSH,SCP: PuTTY, WinSCP
Office suite: Office 2003
Calendar: Outlook 2003
Virtual drives: Daemon Tools
Notetaking: Onenote 2003
Batch image editing: Photoshop CS2
Spoken dictionary: Encarta 2006 Dictionary Tools
Audio quality checking: Nero WaveEdit, EncSpot, Audiochecker
Time syncing: NetTime
Firewall: Sygate (needs to be replaced)
Various system tools: Startup, Tweak UI, Filemon, Peerguardian 2, Diskeeper, EVEREST
Symbolic integration: Mathematica
Packet sniffing: Ethereal
This fun game: Typing of the Dead

And I probably missed a few. Foobar2000, Directory Opus, and Firefox are by far the most amazing.

Re:Not needed

[prell]

Also, anyone designing a web site pretty much has to test it with Internet Exploder. Boot Camp is the alternative to wasting desk space for a Dell.

Or you could use BrowserCam :-)

Picasa

[alphakappa]

Actually, as a longtime user of Picasa on Windows and iPhoto on the mac, I can say that not only does Picasa match iPhoto, it is far superior in usability. The mac is my primary computer and I am an avid photographer and it is only the lack of Picasa on the mac that really drives me nuts about OSX. If you are a mac fan, don't flame me unless you have really used Picasa for some length of time. Here are my reasons:

1. Picasa lets me 'monitor folders', something iPhoto will not let me do. I hate having to 'import' pictures into iPhoto everytime I want to see my new pictures there.

2. Picasa will let me put my photo album anywhere I want, including external drives. There is no straightforward way to change your album location in iPhoto (Yes it can be done, but it's a hack)

3. Picasa will let me add photos to the library without actually copying them to the Picasa storage folder. iPhoto insists on copying all photos to the iPhoto folder everytime you add pictures to it. Why is this important? As a photographer I have tens of gigabytes of pictures that I do not wish to store on the mac hard drive because the storage I have on external drives far outstrips my hard drive size . Also they are organized the way I want them with proper folder names and heirarchies. If I 'import' them to iPhoto, it creates one big lump of a library which I have to organize painfully by hand if I wish to see my original configuration. Also, the folder organization in the iPhoto folder has no connection to the original organization I had.

4. Non-destructive edits. I can touch, crop and do anything I wish to my pictures in Picasa and it doesn't hurt the original picture at all. I can come back later and undo everything I did. If I wish to retain my changes, I can simply export the current state of the picture. On iPhoto, the edits you do are non-undoable once you are done with the edits. Very painful for a photographer who wants to quickly try out some edits before opening up the full-fledged Photoshop.

There are many more, but these are the important ones. As for features Picasa gives almost all the features I expect from a photo organizer (which, to be fair are also available in iPhoto)

Re:Games.

[R3d M3rcury]

Well, I was going to start off this post the various other products that you could use instead of those product names. But I realized that I don't know enough about any of those products.

What might have been more Informative (moderators, note) is to do a little research and see what Macintosh products might replace these. As a person who, I assume, does industrial work, this might have been quite valuable.

You see, it's easy to throw out application titles and say, "See? You can't CAD on a Mac because there's no AutoCAD!" But what about VectorWorks, VersaCAD, or the products from Ashlar-Vellum? A trip to Apple's database gives me those three.

Of course, you have to look for them. I remember being told that Macs couldn't do accounting because there was no QuickBooks. There was plenty of other accounting software available for the Mac. But the only accounting software that this person knew was QuickBooks and if that didn't run a Mac, well, you couldn't do accounting.

Check out some of the Mac solutions. You might be surprised.