Essential PC programs?

[Jiggah]

We'll assuming the OP is not a pirate. He already has Open Office and the suggested Paint.NET are two compatible exchanges. I'd use Pidgin over AIM/MSN, it's only lacking in the Video/Audio chat, but doesn't have the extremely annoy popups or ads. uTorrent over Azureus, they've commercialize Azureus (a.k.a. Vuze) and it seems to be extremely bulky now as a program. In terms of video codecs, I'd go ffdshow over anything else and Media Player Classic or VLC as media players. Also, gparted for a linux-based partitioner, I can't think of any good free Windows version.

You could also put some easy links to driver pages in the pen drive so you get easy access.

 

[Renegade_R]

FireFox
OpenOffice
Media Player Classic
Azureus
AVG Free
Bonzi Buddy
Winamp

 

[754boy]

FireFox
OpenOffice
Media Player Classic
Azureus
AVG Free
Bonzi Buddy
Winamp

I have all those installed except BONZI BUDDY. That shit is spyware in the form of a cute purple ape! BEWARE!

 

[mcp2]

WMP 11

L-LIte Codec Pack

PowerISO

WinRAR

DEAMON Tools

Eset NOD32

MS Office 2003

Internet Download Manager

uTorrent

Adobe Photoshop

 

[funwithplaydough]

I would add RealVNC so you can fix most problems from your home if the both of you have a high speed internet connection.

Also, not really an application list but useful.

I always carry around this when fixing peoples PCs - Super WinPE 2007, well sorta....I don't have this newest version yet, I still use 2005 edition.

 

[TLSpartan]

Ubuntu

.

Back when I had Windows I used to have AVG,DVD Decrpyter,DVD Shrink,Openoffice,CCleaner,Firefox. For Firefox have the weather(forgot the addon name),Downthemall,flashgot,download toolbar,dictionary for whatever language you need and there are some others I have but cant find them since on my dads computer(IE

). Hope this helps you

EDIT- forgot uTorrent

 

[slayerspud]

Azureus
Daemon tools
imgburn
spacemonger
NOD32
MS Office
WinRAR
K-Lite codec pack
VLC Media player