1,052,211
Irfanview.
Adobe DC / Creative Cloud.
Malwarebytes.
Office 365.
Chrome.
Carbonite.
Protonmail and I still use also Windows Live Essentials.
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Jan Green - Scottsdale...
Scottsdale, AZ
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
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Carol Williams
Wenatchee, WA
-
Dario Ferreira
Attleboro, MA
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Anna "Banana" Kruchten
Phoenix, AZ
-
Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
-
Doug Dawes
Topsfield, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
289,719
I highly recommend MalwareBytes Premium.
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Jan Green - Scottsdale...
Scottsdale, AZ
-
Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Carol Williams
Wenatchee, WA
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Anna "Banana" Kruchten
Phoenix, AZ
-
Doug Dawes
Topsfield, MA
-
Jeff Dowler, CRS
Carlsbad, CA
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Candice A. Donofrio
Fort Mohave, AZ
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
97,120
Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate If you don't mind me asking what brand/ size did you get? I can't help you with the programs you need to install but I'm gonna learn on what others recommend. Good luck with your new laptop.
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Kris Collis, Associate...
East Stroudsburg, PA
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
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Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Anna "Banana" Kruchten
Phoenix, AZ
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Doug Dawes
Topsfield, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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John Juarez
Fremont, CA
-
Shayne Stone
Fulshear, TX
1,502,998
Most importantly: OOSU10 (O&O Shut Up 10) and OOAB (O&O App Buster) for disabling the more annoying privacy stealing aspects of Win10. Needs to be rerun after each windows update as sometimes setting get put back to the default by Microsoft.
SnagIt
Foxit PDF Reader/writer
BleachBit
Gimp
Infranview
Firefox, Brave and Chrome... because some sites just don't work in Brave or Firefox.
Notepad++
VPN software
Anti-Virus, might be able to get away w/Windows Defender depending on what your use of the system is. I don't use that for my main but on the Windows 7 laptop that I use to program radios and run INPA to diagnose my BMW, defender is fine.
Password manager
Putty for telnet... just in case.
IF you're doing audio editing, Audacity
IF you're doing video editing Open Shot. Blender for 3D animation/titles
IF you're doing serious photo editing, Dark Table to compliment GIMP and Inkscape for SVG graphics
F.Lux to dim the screen at night and remove the "blue light" (special).
FileZilla for FTP... just in case
Open Office
Beyond that, I'd install the GoG.com client to get old school video games running. Nothing says fun like running Commander Keen on Windows 10 or 11! Discord if you need it. An email client.
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Jan Green - Scottsdale...
Scottsdale, AZ
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
-
Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
-
Carol Williams
Wenatchee, WA
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
-
Richie Alan Naggar
Riverside, CA
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Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
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Ryan Huggins - Thousan...
Thousand Oaks, CA
195,422
I would install whatever programs you need. There is no reason to install a bunch of random programs unless you were looking for a slow PC.
Just install whatever programs you have been using.
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Carol Williams
Wenatchee, WA
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Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
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Anna "Banana" Kruchten
Phoenix, AZ
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Doug Dawes
Topsfield, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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John Juarez
Fremont, CA
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Shayne Stone
Fulshear, TX
5,829,143
Hi Fred- I use Google Chrome and gmail. I use Google Docs. I use Ribbet for photo editing. I also use Carbonite which backs up my documents and photos to the cloud.
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
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Carol Williams
Wenatchee, WA
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Anna "Banana" Kruchten
Phoenix, AZ
-
Doug Dawes
Topsfield, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
2,781,173
Kaspersky anti-virus is on the ball. Google chrome for browser. Leawo on Blu-ray. Windows office has it all. Windows accessories too. Internet explorer works as my email or windows email. That's all I know or care to know Fred
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Kris Collis, Associate...
East Stroudsburg, PA
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Richie Alan Naggar
Riverside, CA
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Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Doug Dawes
Topsfield, MA
-
Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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John Juarez
Fremont, CA
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Shayne Stone
Fulshear, TX
901,535
You have some great suggestions here. I've not heard of many of them. I use Mac. My husband is tech so he also helps setting up my new laptops. All the best!
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Kris Collis, Associate...
East Stroudsburg, PA
-
Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
-
Carol Williams
Wenatchee, WA
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
-
Joan Cox
Denver, CO
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
679,404
Looks like you got some great advice from the AR Family! Wishing you the best in your new purchase!
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Kris Collis, Associate...
East Stroudsburg, PA
-
Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
-
Joan Cox
Denver, CO
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Anna "Banana" Kruchten
Phoenix, AZ
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
3,587,960
I need to buy a new computer but I'm not the techie guru in the family. Gary takes care of all this for me. I'll have to ask him what he recommends.
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
-
Carol Williams
Wenatchee, WA
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Doug Dawes
Topsfield, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
1,196,798
I'm not the guy to answer that. When I bought my new laptop I had Windows 11 Professional installed which covered much of what you asked. I use Chrome for a browser and also use a VPN
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
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Joan Cox
Denver, CO
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
-
Anna "Banana" Kruchten
Phoenix, AZ
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
921,504
Subscribe to Office 356.
Setup the VPN.
Install a mass storage device on local network. You do not need Google or OneDrive scanning your data.
Enable ALL windows security programs such as Windows Defender.
DO NOT INSTALL in any situation MacAffee.
Do not allow Yahoo to become default browser.
Install corkboard or chalkboard to record the 18 passwords you need to change every month.
DONE.
Install no other program that does not have a purpose regarding a task that needs to be completed.
Nearly all tools are cloud based such and CANVA or Filmora and requires no download.
My personal preference is to purchase the lowest cost gaming computer available. These typically have super fast processor and cores, 16 GB Ram and superior graphics.
However, one additional criteria is 'MORE PORTS' Adding passive USB hubs to expand on the 2 usb ports on a laptop is asking for troubles. I have a laptop (Surface) for portability and an 'all-in-one' to get work done.
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Bob Crane
Stevens Point, WI
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
-
Norbert Fabre, MRSA
Fort Lauderdale, FL
4,693,341
I am not much of a techie so I probably can't help. I stick with the basics and use the google suite of products for the most part these days.
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Joan Cox
Denver, CO
5,216,409
Most, if not all, will have better advice than me!
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
-
Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
6,393,494
ms office, firefox, foxit reader, mindjet mindmanager, topofusion, several gis programs, several malware, spyware, and antivirus programs, paragon, skyslope, zipforms,
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Bob Crane
Stevens Point, WI
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
-
Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
693,775
There is a lot of great advice on this thread. I am sitting here listening to Pandora. I love it and use it all the time.
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
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Joan Cox
Denver, CO
3,345,091
My tech people set up my computers. Doubtful I have many, if any, free programs.
I use MS office professional which is also paid for annually.
All of my backups are set up to run automatically.
I do use many free WordPress plugins.
I pay a premium (over $500/yr) for VPN hosting which provides all kinds of security. Well worth it to keep hackers out and my sites up and running.
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Kathleen Daniels, Prob...
San Jose, CA
378,517
smart pdf pro is a paid item that I use a lot and the microsoft office suite for a lot including outlook for email and chrome is my browser of choice, but it doesn't work for everything.
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Brian England
Gilbert, AZ
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
1,844,301
I'd go with what Ryan suggested.
Canva I didn't see. Ribbit & IPiccy.
Infranview IMHO is garbage. I actually am still using Picasa & it's working.
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
5,868,554
You have lots of information, not sure I can add anything more. I used to have Kaspersky, but Geek Squad stopped selling it, due to being Russian, and were rumors they were stealing information. I now use Web Root.
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Ray Henson
Elk Grove, CA
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Fred Griffin Florida R...
Tallahassee, FL
5,005,659
Hi Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate ,
Good questions and answers/suggestions! I'm glad Kathy Streib featured your post in her "Ah-ha" moments for the week. Thank you for sharing.
1,257,045
Wow! Do we have some pros here or what?! LOVE carbonite for back-up. Recently had to wipe my laptop so may have to buy a new one as it's still slow and it was $$$ Dell touch screen PC. Ouch! Lots of great advice here.
763,883
2,928,473
Fred - first of all I would go with Microsoft 365 Suite and Adobe is my choice for PDF and Photo Editing, I don't like Microsoft's browser. I would go with Firefox and or Google Chrome. Those are my biggies.