Show me your favourite programs/extensions for Windows 7

"G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3" (gbodyman)
07/23/2015 at 12:35 • Filed to: None

A friend of mine has recently acquired a Lenovo Thinkcentre, with a dual core processor and Windows 7. I already have installed Chrome, with Ghostery, Adblock, and Hola. It already has Office 2010, and the person’s requirements are basically to browse the web and access media. Does Oppo know of any good programs to enhance the user experience on Windows 7?

DISCUSSION (36)

Rico > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:37

Malwarebytes to keep the gremlins away. Set chrome to have to click to run Flash.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:37

Windows 7 is pretty damn good on its own. The less you mess with it the better.

Patrick Nichols > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:38

Shared to Hackerspace to make up for my ineptitude

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Rico
07/23/2015 at 12:38

I've already installed malwarebytes. I'll try playing with the settings on Chrome.

Mattbob > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:38

add VLC to play any media actually on the thing, and I think you are done. As long as you have some kind of virus/malware protection.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Patrick Nichols
07/23/2015 at 12:38

Thanks, man!

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Mattbob
07/23/2015 at 12:39

I've got malwarebytes and AVG on there. I will install VLC later today.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:40

I always thought Rocketdock was fun - it’s not updated anymore, but it’s a nice way to clean up your desktop! :)

spanfucker retire bitch > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:40

Install EMET 5.2 if you give a damn about security.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Rico
07/23/2015 at 12:40

Isn’t flash blocked by default on Chrome now?

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
07/23/2015 at 12:41

What does it do?

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > spanfucker retire bitch
07/23/2015 at 12:41

What advantages does it have over Malwarebytes?

Patrick Nichols > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
07/23/2015 at 12:42

I believe that was Firefox

Mattbob > spanfucker retire bitch
07/23/2015 at 12:44

spanfucker retire bitch > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:45

It’s not an AV program. It’s a program to make it exponentially harder to utilize 0-day exploits.

http://www.howtogeek.com/190590/quickly…

That article doesn’t cover the absolute latest, the absolute latest is EMET 5.2, but the UI is going to look the same. You can manually add .exe files to enhance their mitigation techniques (hence the name EMET; Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit).

AV programs like Malwarebytes, MSE, Avira, Avast, etc are only good at trying to clean your system after it’s already infected. They rely on incredibly intrusitve heuristics to try and detect infections before they actually happen and the vast majority of the time they simply fail. That’s not because it’s a sucky AV, that’s just not how AVs are designed to work. They’re a last line of defense.

EMET adds to that line of defense and makes it much, much harder for an exploit to even be utilized in the first place. Basically it can prevent an infection from ever happening, while an AV just tries to clean up the infection after it occurs. The difference between vaccinations and penicilin.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Patrick Nichols
07/23/2015 at 12:46

They both do. Apparently it just changed a few days ago so the new version he has should be blocking it by default.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > spanfucker retire bitch
07/23/2015 at 12:47

Thanks!

Patrick Nichols > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
07/23/2015 at 12:49

Oh I didn’t hear about Chrome but I knew that Firefox was making it really difficult to run any flash at all.

Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 12:51

I recommend MediaMonkey for managing a music library.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
07/23/2015 at 12:55

Thanks!

Rico > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
07/23/2015 at 13:01

Is it? I’m not even sure. If it is, good!

scoob > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 13:01

f.lux for night-time viewing that won’t obliterate your eyeballs.

Logon Screen if you want to change the logon screen’s background.

Rainmeter if you really want to spruce up your desktop, but there is a bit of a learning curve to it. There’s a bunch of widgets (or skins, as they’re called) on DeviantArt . ( Self-plug )

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > scoob
07/23/2015 at 13:09

I'll keep those in mind.

Jcarr > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 13:12

Lastpass for password managment.

Pushbullet is nice for easily sharing pics/links from phone to computer and back.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Jcarr
07/23/2015 at 13:15

I will keep those in mind. Thanks!

TheRealBicycleBuck > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 13:15

Fences is a desktop add-on that allows you to group shortcuts and double-click to hide everything for the clean desktop look.

SyncToy synchronizes folders and/or drives. It’s a great way to archive folders.

7-Zip for all your file compression needs.

Filezilla for your FTP needs.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > TheRealBicycleBuck
07/23/2015 at 13:21

Thanks!

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Rico
07/23/2015 at 13:34

Yep, it is now.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 14:45

I like KeePass for password management. I’ve got the portable version installed on a USB. Maybe I’m paranoid, but I like being able to physically remove my passwords from the computer. There are interfaces available to allow you to use it on iOS and probably Android too.

Moon > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 15:20

You might think of it as a hell of a flashy start menu. You point your mouse at it, and things bubble up. You move the mouse away, they bubble down. While you’re there, you can click on various icons to launch various apps/docs etc. You can add your own programs and your own PNGs to represent them. You can remove all the defaults if you want.

Moon > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 15:28

Autohotkey .

It does everything, plus some other things.

1by1

A simple music player. It just plays the tunes, shuts up otherwise.

FileBox eXtender

It’s one of the easier ways to navigate around your folders.

MP3Gain

One thing that’s almost as bad as poorly encoded MP3s, is the varied levels of audio between songs. Fix that **it with this.

robg > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 15:47

It’s like an alternative taskbar launcher, styled similar to the Mac OSX taskbar, but it can be themed.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Moon
07/23/2015 at 16:23

Yup...it’s pretty lite on resources and very customizable. There are plugins for it as well. I have one that is a My Computer link, but it shows my hard drive free space right on the icon. It’s unnecessary, but it’s a nice little tweak to personalize your machine and makes your desktop clean and precise looking...I have no icons on mine.

boxrocket > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
07/23/2015 at 16:29

Best way to enhance Windows 7? Windows 10. And Edge.

Friends don’t install chrome.

Moon > Officer Jim Lahey is not a real cop
07/24/2015 at 00:16

One feature I like in MM, which I don’t think ever gets mentioned, is its crossfading abilities. Very few tune players have a smooth transition between tracks (that is, if you need such a thing, I do). Winamp (with a certain plugin) can do it. “1by1” can do it, on its own. Media Player can’t do it w/o getting *something* wrong (choppy transitions). Anyway, MM is one of the few programs I respect, for this feature *alone*, it gets good marks.

William Rand > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
08/03/2015 at 04:06

For media conversion and compression, my basic four for Win XP and 7 are:

Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate

Advanced Video Compressor

Advanced Audio Compressor

Image Resizer