Recommended Software for Windows Setups

[Chewy509]

Hi Guys,

As it were, my wife's laptop died 1 day after my Dad and I purchased one for him. (That's another thread).

So we ended up getting a HP laptop for my wife as a replacement for her 4/5yr old HP 4510s laptop, and am in the process of installing all the software on it. Just want to get some ideas on alternatives for her. So far we have:

OS: Windows 7 Pro (I was threatened with severe punishment after seeing Win8 my my Dad's laptop - Dad was happy with Win 8, my wife not so much).
Web Browser: Firefox + adblock + a few others.
AV: MS Security Essentials
Email: Thunderbird with GMail Calendar sync plugin.
PDF: Acrobat + Foxit. (She needs Acrobat for school PDFs that don't seem to work in Foxit).
Office: Office 2003 Pro (existing copy)
Images: Paint.net
DVDs: PowerDVD, DVD Shrink, et al.

And a few other tools...

But what are the current recommendations for:

1. DVD Burning: really simple stuff, mainly ISOs

2. RAW Photo Handling: must support Fuji RAF format. (We have the original Fuji software, but it's RAW->JPG conversion is very slow and image library handling is poor). Basically need image collection handling, and conversion duties only. Image editing is done in Paint.net or GIMP on my desktop. Not interested in $$$$ but something nice.

And are there any other recommendations for should have software in the Windows world? Her needs are really office, web, email...

Also as a side note. the AMD / Intel graphics hybrid setup is not as clean/neat as the nVidia Optimus setup - the AMD side seems to not switch when it should... Is there something to look at to get these setups more stable?

 

[sdbardwick]

For simple .iso image => DVD, the built-in Windows program works fine for me. Actually, I haven't used anything but the built-ins for simple DVD/CD manipulation with Win7.

 

[CougTek]

But what are the current recommendations for:

1. DVD Burning: really simple stuff, mainly ISOs

I've used CD Burner XP for years. It's the one that pissed me off the least.

 

[Chewy509]

@sd, I was thinking of just sticking the built-in stuff, but wanted something a bit more featured, namely verification support and being able to fine tune a few settings.

Thanks Coug, I'll give CD Burner XP a try.

 

[LunarMist]

Hi Guys,

As it were, my wife's laptop died 1 day after my Dad and I purchased one for him. (That's another thread).

So sorry for your loss.

2. RAW Photo Handling: must support Fuji RAF format. (We have the original Fuji software, but it's RAW->JPG conversion is very slow and image library handling is poor). Basically need image collection handling, and conversion duties only. Image editing is done in Paint.net or GIMP on my desktop. Not interested in $$$$ but something nice.

Do you have anything for or against LR? It's still on the perpetual license.

 

[Bozo]

You might want to try AShampo for your burning software. I have been using the free version for years.
I would also add COMODO anti virus. It does a good job of filling the gaps of MS Security Essentials.
CCleaner to keep things clean. Defraggler to keep things in order.
Classic Shell and Ultimate Windows Tweaker are good if you would like to customize the GUI.
Mydefrag is about the best defragger I've used, but it is slow. It's also free.

 

[Chewy509]

Do you have anything for or against LR? It's still on the perpetual license.

The dead laptop couldn't have come at a worse time...

Anyway, not a fan of Adobe software and willing to consider alternatives.. I like Darktable but doesn't run on Windows, and I've found digiKam and RawTherapee, so will give those a shot... (no pun intended).

 

[Mercutio]

MSE is worse than no security software at all, since it provides both the awesome false sense of security that comes with being a completely ineffectual product with slow response to new threats and a limited feature set. It's free and it's still not worth the money. I suggest Avast, though version 8 does not please me as much as version 6 did.

Spybot's removal routines aren't the best, but it does have very valuable immunizations that should go on every machine. You can use SpywareBlaster at least once as well. Malwarebytes is good to have around.

Adblock Plus for Firefox and Chrome. Google "IE TPL Gallery" to get Fanboy's Ad Blocking and EasyList Standard for IE9 or 10.

Windows has decent-ish ISO burning. I usually do CD Burner XP for burning, mostly because it's supported by ninite and therefore a quick install.

VLC plays pretty much anything you throw at it, but I actually like Media Player Classic better.

I usually put Picasa on computers for photo organization.

I have a little batch file that downloads a hosts file and installs Hijack This, Spacemonger 1.4, Xrecode 1.(whatever the last free version was), Crossloop and PC Decrapifier to a machine. Those programs are very seldom necessary for an end user but they can be incredibly helpful to a tech.