John

It’s been a REALLY long time since I posted so I thought I’d just share what I’ve done with my computer.

A few weeks ago I decided that I’d had enough of various system errors and trying to piece meal my computer back together again. I decided to simply wipe the whole darn thing and start over.

A little preparation if you are planning on doing this goes a long way. First thing to do is backup all of your important files (word documents, pdf’s, saved games, etc.). My personal choice of backup software is Cobian . Currently in version 9, it supports multiple backup jobs on various computers. Built in FTP support ensures that you can upload your differential backups to you server and still keep the weekly full backups close to home. Since my laptop originally came with Vista and I spent two weeks hunting down drivers for XP, I didn’t want to have to repeat that. I got DriverMax and made a backup of my drivers. When you’ve got your new system installed, you can simply run the program again to load all of your drivers in one nice easy step. For your Firefox and Thunderbird accounts (along with any mail files – though you should be using IMAP) use MozBackup. DO NOT BACKUP YOUR FIREFOX EXTENSIONS! Automatically restoring them with MozBackup can have really odd and unpleasant side effects.

Firefox with Vimperator AddOn

There is a hitch to this, my ATI Mobility m200 drivers wouldn’t install until I downloaded .Net2.5. That wouldn’t install until I downloaded SP1. yeah, still took a while, but not nearly as long as it could have

The desktop shell I’m using is LiteStep with a couple RainMeter skins and the Rainlender Calendar. I’ve got my notes file permanently attached to the desktop with a one-click vim trigger to jot down thing that won’t fit in my to-do list.

along with the rest of my keyboard goodies, I’ve got Launchy and went ahead and included Vimperator for firefox. cleans it up and leaves me more room.

CCleaner makes a nice complete list of your software that you have installed, here’s some of my currents:

(I’ve deleted from this list some of the more common and less informative utilities)

• µTorrent – torrents
• 7-Zip 4.57 – pkzip sucks
• Adobe Acrobat – pdfs are universal
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 – so is photoshop
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.2 – but not for every picture
• Audacity 1.2.6 – free audio
• AutoHotkey 1.0.48.00 – windows scripting
• calibre – beats the crap out of Sony’s software
• CamStudio – screen capture
• CCleaner – get rid of junk files
• CDBurnerXP – Nero replacement
• Cobian Backup 9 – obvious
• COMODO Internet Security – firewall, antivirus, and so much more
• DVD Shrink 3.2 – backup the DVDs
• Dynamic-Photo HDR 2.3 – HDR software
• FastStone Image Viewer 3.7 – Quick image viewer for browsing
• FileZilla Client 3.2.3.1 – FTP Client
• foobar2000 v0.9.6.3 – MP3 player
• GnuPT Version 3.6.2 – Open PGP
• GnuWin- GNU stuff for windows
• HydraIRC -
• Launchy 2.1.2
• LOSI 0.3
• LyX 1.6.1-1 – document processing
• Maxima 5.16.3 – like Maple
• MOGware FileHamster – revisioning for one
• MozBackup 1.4.9
• Mozilla Firefox (3.0.7)
• Mozilla Thunderbird (2.0.0.21)
• Neat Image v5.9 Pro+ – noise removing
• Notepad++
• Pidgin – IM for everything
• Python 2.6.1 – I’m trying to learn
• Revo Uninstaller 1.80
• Sandboxie 3.34 – keep the internet from touching my baby
• System Explorer 1.6 Beta 1
• Torrent Episode Downloader – download the latest episode of Heroes
• TrueCrypt
• Vim 7.2 (self-installing)
• VLC media player 0.9.9
• WinDirStat 1.1.2
• Windows Grep 2.3 – find any text anywhere
• WinWget version 0.20 – saying it’s a download manager is like saying a Porshe can get you to work
• Wireshark 1.0.7 – Ethereal evolution
• Zoundry Raven – awesome blogging software