Mathew Browne

With my PC grinding to almost a halt under the weight of junk that has accumulated over the years, I’m spending this week sorting my old files then preparing my laptop for a fresh install. To do this I need to take inventory of all the useful programs I have installed, so I can find and download them all again. I figured publishing this list here would serve two purposes – it would be a useful checklist for me, and for you it may prove an insight into the working routine of a web developer.

General Web Development

WAMP – PHP, Apache & MySQL all in one simple package.

FTP Surfer – Basic, buggy, but lovable old software. I first started using this back in 1999. I feel old.

Adobe Creative Suite – The most important website development tool (Dreamweaver) and image editing (Fireworks, Photoshop). My world would collapse without these.

Web Browsing

Firefox – The BEST browser out there

Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome – Other web browsers required for testing

Multiple IEs – Absolutely ESSENTIAL for testing website quirks in legacy editions of Internet Explorer

Adobe Flash Player – Awful, slow, proprietary software. Utterly necessary though.

Roboform – Easy password and form filling plugin for web browsers. Brilliant and useful.

Office Utilities

Open Office – Open source, free alternative to Microsoft Office

Microsoft Word/Excel Viewer – For when the above doesn’t work.

Image Editing Software

Startrails – Freeware star trail maker from multiple exposures. Nothing to do with work, I just dig it.

Shrink-o-matic – Batch image resizer

Flickr Uploadr

Topaz Photoshop Plugins

Photomatix Pro

Imagenomic Noiseware

onOne Perfect Photo Suite

Canon Image Tools

Audio / Music

iTunes – A frustrating experience, but necessary

Winamp – The best audio player

Video

VLC – The best video player

DVDShrink

RipIt4Me

Security

MalwareBytes

Spyware Doctor

Other

uTorrent – A tremendous, lightweight client for BitTorrent

Auto Hot Key – A basic freeware program for keyboard and mouse macros

Stellarium – Freeware planetarium

Nero – The best disc burning software

Winrar

InfoRapid Search & Replace – Another ancient bit of software I periodically use. I believe it came out in 2000.

Google Earth

Thunderbird

Dell Inspiron Heat Management – because my ancient laptop is hotter than the sun.