Bought a new PC, oh how I forgot thine pleasures my dear....

[sgreger1]

So I bought a new PC today. I am usually a Mac user but I have been getting into using Adobe After Effects CS5 amongst other things lately since I have taken up photography etc as a hobby, and frankly the mac wasn't cutting it.

It feels great, but everything is different. I have Windows 7 now and the last thing I used was maybe XP. What to do? What Firefox addons do you use? What things should I know about Windows 7? What non-mac shit should I do with my new freedom?

PC's got the following specs:

Intel Core i7-2600 processor - 3.40GHz, 8MB Cache
10GB DDR3 SDRAM
1.5TB SATA hard drive
Radeon HD 6850 graphics card
Blue ray blayer etc etc etc



Man I gotta say, having 10bg of ram is ****ing amazing when editing videos. I had forgotten my lost love of the PC. Initiate me again my brethren, tell me what I should do with my windows 7 machine now that I have it, I don't know what any of this new shit is!

[lxskllr]

Congrats on the new PC. I dunno about what to add. I'll give you my essentials, and you can pick/choose...

Foobar2000 - music
VLC - video
LibreOffice - office
7Zip - compression
Notepad+ - advanced notepad
imgburn, and infrarecorder - disc burning
VirtualBox - virtual machine
Thunderbird - email
Sysinternals Suite - system tools
Avira - A/V

There's probably more I'm forgetting. I haven't been on Windows for over a year. Here's my Firefox extensions. I'm a little ambivalent about NoScript. It makes the web much safer, but it's kind of a PITA to use. Try it, and see what you think...

Adblock Plus 1.3.10
Add-on Compatibility Reporter 1.0
Anandtech VB - Dark Theme
Change logo
Dark Grey (GLOBAL) by Klaudios [DISABLED]
DARK Reddit Web 2.0 BEMP (auto width)
Dark Style: Used on Selected Sites [DISABLED]
Default 11.0a1
DivX Browser Plug-In
DivX® Web Player
DownloadHelper 4.9.5
DownThemAll! 2.0.2
fah [DISABLED]
fah2
Firebug 1.8.2 [DISABLED]
FireICE 1.0 [DISABLED]
Flagfox 4.1.8
Flashblock 1.5.15.1
FlashVideoReplacer 2.1.11 [DISABLED]
Forecastfox 2.0.19
Greasemonkey 0.9.2
MAFIAAFire Redirector 0.9c [DISABLED]
Midnight Surfing - Global Dark Style [DISABLED]
mplayerplug-in is now gecko-mediaplayer 0.9.9.2 [DISABLED]
Nightly Tester Tools 3.2
NoScript 2.2.2rc4
OMG! Ubuntu KISS
Perfect Dark Google (complete rework) [DISABLED]
Personas 1.6.2
QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.4
QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.6
RealPlayer 9
ReloadEvery 7.0.0
Roomy Bookmarks Toolbarv 1.3.0
Shockwave Flash
SKYY's Dark New AnandTech [DISABLED]
snuson-dark [DISABLED]
SnusOn-LightDark
snuson2
SnusOn_LightDark
sold [DISABLED]
Status-4-Evar 2011.11.13.22
Stylish 1.2.4
TinEye Reverse Image Search 1.1 [DISABLED]
TuxMachines - Minimal, Dark / Black Theme
Ubuntu by Pauland [DISABLED]
Ubuntu Human Theme 1260925626 [DISABLED]
United States English Spellchecker 5.0.1
VLC Multimedia Plugin (compatible Totem 2.30.2)
Windows Media Player Plug-in
Windows Media Player Plug-in 10 (compatible; Totem)
Woot Gray/Black Theme with Sanitizer - v0.5 [DISABLED]

[kevs]

I'd recommend DVDVideoSoft Freestudio, it has tons of stuff, if you want to rip a song from youtube, burn cd/dvd, screen recorder, different converting tools for android, iphone and so on. And as Lx said VLC is must get too.

[lxskllr]

Pidgin - chat client
WinSCP - ftp client
Foxit Reader - pdf reader
Bioshock :^P

[sgreger1]

Congrats on the new PC. I dunno about what to add. I'll give you my essentials, and you can pick/choose...

Foobar2000 - music
VLC - video
LibreOffice - office
7Zip - compression
Notepad+ - advanced notepad
imgburn, and infrarecorder - disc burning
VirtualBox - virtual machine
Thunderbird - email
Sysinternals Suite - system tools
Avira - A/V

There's probably more I'm forgetting. I haven't been on Windows for over a year. Here's my Firefox extensions. I'm a little ambivalent about NoScript. It makes the web much safer, but it's kind of a PITA to use. Try it, and see what you think...

Adblock Plus 1.3.10
Add-on Compatibility Reporter 1.0
Anandtech VB - Dark Theme
Change logo
Dark Grey (GLOBAL) by Klaudios [DISABLED]
DARK Reddit Web 2.0 BEMP (auto width)
Dark Style: Used on Selected Sites [DISABLED]
Default 11.0a1
DivX Browser Plug-In
DivX® Web Player
DownloadHelper 4.9.5
DownThemAll! 2.0.2
fah [DISABLED]
fah2
Firebug 1.8.2 [DISABLED]
FireICE 1.0 [DISABLED]
Flagfox 4.1.8
Flashblock 1.5.15.1
FlashVideoReplacer 2.1.11 [DISABLED]
Forecastfox 2.0.19
Greasemonkey 0.9.2
MAFIAAFire Redirector 0.9c [DISABLED]
Midnight Surfing - Global Dark Style [DISABLED]
mplayerplug-in is now gecko-mediaplayer 0.9.9.2 [DISABLED]
Nightly Tester Tools 3.2
NoScript 2.2.2rc4
OMG! Ubuntu KISS
Perfect Dark Google (complete rework) [DISABLED]
Personas 1.6.2
QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.4
QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.6
RealPlayer 9
ReloadEvery 7.0.0
Roomy Bookmarks Toolbarv 1.3.0
Shockwave Flash
SKYY's Dark New AnandTech [DISABLED]
snuson-dark [DISABLED]
SnusOn-LightDark
snuson2
SnusOn_LightDark
sold [DISABLED]
Status-4-Evar 2011.11.13.22
Stylish 1.2.4
TinEye Reverse Image Search 1.1 [DISABLED]
TuxMachines - Minimal, Dark / Black Theme
Ubuntu by Pauland [DISABLED]
Ubuntu Human Theme 1260925626 [DISABLED]
United States English Spellchecker 5.0.1
VLC Multimedia Plugin (compatible Totem 2.30.2)
Windows Media Player Plug-in
Windows Media Player Plug-in 10 (compatible; Totem)
Woot Gray/Black Theme with Sanitizer - v0.5 [DISABLED]

Thanks LX!

I am currently using NoScript. When using Windows I am a control freak so I don't mind it popping up on EVERY ****ING WEBPAGE telling me a script is running (surprise, it's the internet!).


My question is, what is the best anti-virus? Is it still AVG? I ain't paying Norton or Mcafee for their shit service, was wondering what better anti-virus services to use. I can see that since I last used a PC the whole security environment has majorly upgraded. It has a firewall and asks me to allow/not allow etc and I am very impressed. I am glad I switched back to PC, I love my Mac but I just spent like a decade learning PC shit and so it feels like home to me.

Also, I want to try this virtual box/partition thing everyone is doing to try and run Linux. Do you have any links that could point me in the direction of how to do that?

Also, why is VLC better than WMP? I used VLC when I used to have a PC but am still unsure of the the difference.



Edit; Also, what is the best torrent program nowadays?

[lxskllr]

My question is, what is the best anti-virus? Is it still AVG? I ain't paying Norton or Mcafee for their shit service, was wondering what better anti-virus services to use. I can see that since I last used a PC the whole security environment has majorly upgraded. It has a firewall and asks me to allow/not allow etc and I am very impressed. I am glad I switched back to PC, I love my Mac but I just spent like a decade learning PC shit and so it feels like home to me.

Also, I want to try this virtual box/partition thing everyone is doing to try and run Linux. Do you have any links that could point me in the direction of how to do that?

Also, why is VLC better than WMP? I used VLC when I used to have a PC but am still unsure of the the difference.



Edit; Also, what is the best torrent program nowadays?

AVG has sucked for awhile. I don't know about the very latest edition, but I haven't heard anything good. My order of preference is Avira, MSE, and Avast. I wouldn't consider anything else at this point.

VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org/
You should be able to figure it out just by playing around. If not, we can help you here. I think there's a few of us that use it.

VLC vs WMP? I find it less annoying. It's just a simpler program. You can try it, and decide for yourself. WMP is a lot more capable now than it used to be.

In the past, I always used uTorrent, but I've gotten away from them. I use qBittorrent on Linux, and if I go back to Windows, I'll use it there also. You'd also probably want PeerBlock http://www.peerblock.com/

[sgreger1]

AVG has sucked for awhile. I don't know about the very latest edition, but I haven't heard anything good. My order of preference is Avira, MSE, and Avast. I wouldn't consider anything else at this point.

VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org/
You should be able to figure it out just by playing around. If not, we can help you here. I think there's a few of us that use it.

VLC vs WMP? I find it less annoying. It's just a simpler program. You can try it, and decide for yourself. WMP is a lot more capable now than it used to be.

In the past, I always used uTorrent, but I've gotten away from them. I use qBittorrent on Linux, and if I go back to Windows, I'll use it there also. You'd also probably want PeerBlock http://www.peerblock.com/

Yah, using uTotternt now (not that i'm stealing shit or anything :/ ) and can't seem to get the PeerBlock thing to work, likely because of no-script lol.


I'm wondering if anyone else here is into After Effects or any other video editing software. Adobe's "activation" system is notoriously easy to crack, I am pretty sure it is just part of their business model that they make their shit easy to pirate at this point. Sucks too because I support them and I would pay them maybe $300-$400 for a "****ing around" non-commercial license but they want the whole $1,000 which they won't get.


I gotta say, PC takes more "effort", so wouldn't recommend for old ladies or anything, but really enjoying my experience in the PC world again. It does have more "hassle", but I personally don't mind it and really enjoy feeling the openness again.

[lxskllr]

I don't use anything Adobe(well, except for their crappy Flash plugin :^/ ), but I think it's commonly accepted that most people who do use it non-professionally are using a cracked copy.

I'd encourage you to use free software as much as possible. I don't have strong feelings one way or the other regarding copyright infringement, but these companies like to give you shackles that you install yourself. You get used to using their stuff, and when you do go professional, you're tied to them for life. Cinelerra looks like good video software, but it's for Linux. I've never used it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinelerra

There's Gimp for image editing. Most people that say it isn't as good as PS for them are full of shit. Gimp does just about everything an amateur user would want, and is good enough for many professional users.

I also forgot about Paint.NET. Great image software for Windows. It does a lot of small common things you'd like to do with pictures, but without the weight. It's good for quick edits, and manipulations.

[sgreger1]

AVG has sucked for awhile. I don't know about the very latest edition, but I haven't heard anything good. My order of preference is Avira, MSE, and Avast. I wouldn't consider anything else at this point.

VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org/
You should be able to figure it out just by playing around. If not, we can help you here. I think there's a few of us that use it.

VLC vs WMP? I find it less annoying. It's just a simpler program. You can try it, and decide for yourself. WMP is a lot more capable now than it used to be.

In the past, I always used uTorrent, but I've gotten away from them. I use qBittorrent on Linux, and if I go back to Windows, I'll use it there also. You'd also probably want PeerBlock http://www.peerblock.com/

Yah, using uTotternt now (not that i'm stealing shit or anything :/ ) and can't seem to get the PeerBlock thing to work, likely because of no-script lol.


I'm wondering if anyone else here is into After Effects or any other video editing software. Adobe's "activation" system is notoriously easy to crack, I am pretty sure it is just part of their business model that they make their shit easy to pirate at this point. Sucks too because I support them and I would pay them maybe $300-$400 for a "****ing around" non-commercial license but they want the whole $1,000 which they won't get.


I gotta say, PC takes more "effort", so wouldn't recommend for old ladies or anything, but really enjoying my experience in the PC world again. It does have more "hassle", but I personally don't mind it and really enjoy feeling the openness again.

[sgreger1]

I don't use anything Adobe(well, except for their crappy Flash plugin :^/ ), but I think it's commonly accepted that most people who do use it non-professionally are using a cracked copy.

I'd encourage you to use free software as much as possible. I don't have strong feelings one way or the other regarding copyright infringement, but these companies like to give you shackles that you install yourself. You get used to using their stuff, and when you do go professional, you're tied to them for life. Cinelerra looks like good video software, but it's for Linux. I've never used it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinelerra

There's Gimp for image editing. Most people that say it isn't as good as PS for them are full of shit. Gimp does just about everything an amateur user would want, and is good enough for many professional users.

I also forgot about Paint.NET. Great image software for Windows. It does a lot of small common things you'd like to do with pictures, but without the weight. It's good for quick edits, and manipulations.

Yah GIMP is okay but I mean next to photoshop it is still child's play. Like it or not, Adobe simply makes the best software on that market today. I bought a Cannon T3i camera recently and have been getting really into DSLR photography and photoshop/after effects just can't be beat frankly. All i'm saying is that I have money, I am willing to pay them like $300 for their shit, but if they are going to price it at 20 million ****ing dollars than obviously I will just get it for free you know? I would like to support them, but their shit is waaaaaay overpriced. I am not doing anything commercial, I am touching up pics/videos of my ****ing 2 year old. Where's the license for people like that? Don't need no commercial shit or scaled back student copy, adobe needs to realize people like me would pay $$$, just not the ****ing ridiculous price of $1000+, that's ****ing stupid. I WILL steal your shit if you're going to price your software like a dick. I would honestly rather pay and have a legit copy, but oh well...

[lxskllr]

What do you do with PS that you can't do with Gimp?

Edit:
Gimp art...
http://code.google.com/p/gps-gimp-pa...o/wiki/Gallery


Edit2:
Here's a nifty art program. It's still young, but has a lot of good features. It's primarily for creating art, rather than manipulating images, and it's primarily for Linux, but they have a Windows client. MyPaint http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

[Nuusku]

Play Skyrim with ultra settings

[sirloot]

Play Skyrim with ultra settings

lol yes this !!

oh and if you built it yoself did you ditch that stock cooler and go with an aftermarket Zalman,Thermaltake etc ?

[Crow]

It feels great, but everything is different. I have Windows 7 now and the last thing I used was maybe XP. What to do? What Firefox addons do you use? What things should I know about Windows 7? What non-mac shit should I do with my new freedom?

You may find these links to be helpful:

Get to know Windows
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...re/get-to-know

Getting started with Windows 7
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...etting-started

Windows 7 How-to Videos
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/videos

Microsoft Answers
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-US/

Microsoft Support
http://support.microsoft.com

[shikitohno]

I'd encourage you to use free software as much as possible. I don't have strong feelings one way or the other regarding copyright infringement, but these companies like to give you shackles that you install yourself. You get used to using their stuff, and when you do go professional, you're tied to them for life.

Is that you Richard? Nah, can't be, that's a bit too soft of a stance.

For antivirus, Panda's Cloud Anti-Virus was a decent package for me when I was using it a few years ago. You might not really benefit from the low system load because of the cloud computing side of things, but it's free for home use and Panda's caught stuff for me that Avast missed.