Last year, I published a list of my “Must Have Windows Applications” and I’ll admit, I hit it up when I got my new notebook this week to remind myself of what I needed to download and install. I’m taking a new philosophy with this Notebook: I’m only going to install what I know I need, and what I know I’ll use on a regular basis. If I find I need something I’ll install it then, and only then. I’m going to try to keep this machine as lean and clean as possible. My ultimate goal is to be able to an in-place upgrade to Windows 7 (final) later this year. This should go well from the reports I’ve seen of folks upgrading x64 Vista systems to the x64 Release Candidate of Windows 7, and I’m sure the leaner the machine, the better.

Some of my changes?

First off, I’ve opted not to install Office. I find I rarely use any of the MS Office applications at home, and I haven’t installed Open Office either – I’m actually going to try to stick with using Google Docs once the need arises.

Secondly, I’ve pretty much given up on learning a hard-core programming language (like C#) right now. I simply have to many other things on my plate, and I don’t have the time to devote too it. I did install Microsoft’s new Small Basic as I have had some great fun with it. Reminds me of being a kid hacking around in QBASIC in DOS

I’ve also changed some of my preferences in other tools as you will see below – so here is my current list of “what I install” first off when setting up a new machine:

7zip – Still my favorite archiving application

AVG Free – Still my favorite Anti-Virus solution. It has a small memory footprint and has proven effective and reliable for me.

Google Chrome – Chrome has quickly become my default browser of choice.

Mozilla Firefox – Although Chrome has become my favorite browser, I still (and probably always will) keep Firefox installed.

Filezilla – Great FTP client that has always served me well.

Dropbox – My friend and co-worker Chris Reeder turned me onto Dropbox and I can’t thank him enough! Be sure to check it out for a cheap/free online backup/sync tool!

Hulu Desktop – Who needs TV when you have Hulu? The web version was great, Hulu Desktop takes Hulu into an entirely different dimension – it’s awesome!

iTunes – I don’t have an iPod (yet), and I still manage/play my .mp3 files with WMP, but I use iTunes to listen to live on-line radio streams & podcasts.

Paint.NET – Has all the image editing tools I need.

RoyalTS – Favorite RDP manager (note, you need the older version to have more than 12 connections)

Pidgin – It’s an IM client…it works.

TweetDeck – My new favorite Twitter client, now that I can create groups and sync them across multiple PC’s.

VirtualBox – I think VirtualBox has passed VMware in speed, features, and functionality – best of all? It’s Free!

VLC – Handles all of those media files that won’t open in anything else!

Vista Codec Pack and x64 Additions – Just extra codecs for WMP.

Windows Live Writer – Best blogging editor ever created – hands down!

Notepad2 (or this improved version to be exact) – I use the improved version – it is available as a native x64 application and has an installer which “replaces” Windows Notepad with Notepad2.

Open Command Prompt Shell Extension – I found this on the same site as the improved Notepad2 – adds a useful contextual menu item to open a command prompt in whatever folder you are browsing in Windows Explorer. I’ve found this little utility to be endlessly useful.

So there you have it, my updated list of awesomely useful tools, utilities and applications. What are your favorites?

If you don’t have an optical drive, like a CD or DVD Drive, on your laptop and you want to install software that typically comes with a CD or DVD then you might be inclined to buy an external CD or DVD drive to get the job done.

Well, not really, if you already have an USB Flash Drive. These days flash drives are cheaper per gig and the prices keep going down. If you already have or if you can get a hold of an USB Flash drive then you can use that to install software on your computer. It might require an extra step to prepare the Flash Drive to be used as an installable media but once that’s done you can pretty much make use of it to install software.

Read from this detailed article at DemoGeek.com to learn how to prepare a USB Thumb Drive to install Windows 7 Beta from an USB Flash Drive. It’s a 10 step process but the steps are pretty simple and well explained.

If you think you are wasting quite a lot of paper printing the whole webpage along with all its advertisements and things that you really don’t need to print then you should read this article at DemoGeek.com to know about a fantastic tool that helps you save the environment by reducing the paper usage by printing only what you want on a webpage. HP Smart Web Printing tool is a simple tool that plugs into Internet Explorer or Firefox and helps you print what you want on a webpage rather than the whole web page itself.

If you run Windows Vista and quite often switch to battery power source then you might want to read this article to learn how to automatically turn off the power-consuming features of Windows Vista to extend your Windows Vista laptop’s battery power.