Introduction When you first boot up a new computer and login you will probably find that it is rather lacking in software, usually you will have no antivirus, no antispyware, no antimalware and generally no utility application such as an image manipulation program or professional text editor of some kind.
To combat this problem of installing some of these said programs above I have compiled a list of the top five that I feel are necessary on any new PC or OS install.
Number 1 The application at the top of my priority list is an AntiVirus program, I like free programs and I am sure that you do to.
So my recommendation is avast! a free antivirus program that offers excellent protection against all sorts of web threats and computer viruses.
With updates everyday to a complete set of virus definitions, avast! is a hard antivirus to beat in terms of productivity.
Number 2 The second application at the top of my list is CCleaner, this is a disk cleaning and PC optimising utility.
Again like avast! it is free with paid options available if you so desire.
CCleaner can clean out your registry, plucking out any errors in your system.
Of course with a new computer this is not expected at first, but it is a very useful program to have installed for the future when things start to get a little bogged down.
CCleaner also has a disk cleaning utility that can clean out any temporary/unwanted files on your system.
It is quite surprising at the moment of rubbish this program can cleanout.
Number 3 Microsoft Paint doesn't quite cut it for me in terms of an image manipulation program, so again like the other programs I have afore mentioned I recommend a free one.
In this case I recommend Paint.
NET, it is a very lightweight image editing program that can be used with just about every file format.
It also has the ability to perform hundreds of functions on an image unlike that of the default paint program provided by Microsoft.
Number 4 I wouldn't necessarily say that Windows Media Player is a bad piece of software, but it is some what lacking in the file formats that it can play.
So I recommend VLC Media Player, it is a cross platform audio and video player that isn't just available for Windows but available for Linux and Mac OSX to.
It is a relatively light weight program and arguably looks rather basic to some but it is incredibly powerful in the performance it deliver.
Number 5 My last program that I will recommend in my top five is Malwarebytes, this is a bit like avast! where there is a free option available and a paid option in which the free option has a few features disabled.
Some people may mix up the idea of an Anti Virus and an Anti Malware being the same thing but they're not.
Anti Viruses deal with malicious code such as trojans and worms whereas an antimalware program deals with a wider scope of more specialised infections such as spyware and adware.
Conclusion To sum this up I feel that these five programs mentioned above are critical to have an unhampered experience on your computer.
The Microsoft included software just doesn't cut it in this day and age in terms of functionality and the built in Windows Defender is no where near powerful enough to stop even the simplest threats out there on the web today.
To combat this problem of installing some of these said programs above I have compiled a list of the top five that I feel are necessary on any new PC or OS install.
Number 1 The application at the top of my priority list is an AntiVirus program, I like free programs and I am sure that you do to.
So my recommendation is avast! a free antivirus program that offers excellent protection against all sorts of web threats and computer viruses.
With updates everyday to a complete set of virus definitions, avast! is a hard antivirus to beat in terms of productivity.
Number 2 The second application at the top of my list is CCleaner, this is a disk cleaning and PC optimising utility.
Again like avast! it is free with paid options available if you so desire.
CCleaner can clean out your registry, plucking out any errors in your system.
Of course with a new computer this is not expected at first, but it is a very useful program to have installed for the future when things start to get a little bogged down.
CCleaner also has a disk cleaning utility that can clean out any temporary/unwanted files on your system.
It is quite surprising at the moment of rubbish this program can cleanout.
Number 3 Microsoft Paint doesn't quite cut it for me in terms of an image manipulation program, so again like the other programs I have afore mentioned I recommend a free one.
In this case I recommend Paint.
NET, it is a very lightweight image editing program that can be used with just about every file format.
It also has the ability to perform hundreds of functions on an image unlike that of the default paint program provided by Microsoft.
Number 4 I wouldn't necessarily say that Windows Media Player is a bad piece of software, but it is some what lacking in the file formats that it can play.
So I recommend VLC Media Player, it is a cross platform audio and video player that isn't just available for Windows but available for Linux and Mac OSX to.
It is a relatively light weight program and arguably looks rather basic to some but it is incredibly powerful in the performance it deliver.
Number 5 My last program that I will recommend in my top five is Malwarebytes, this is a bit like avast! where there is a free option available and a paid option in which the free option has a few features disabled.
Some people may mix up the idea of an Anti Virus and an Anti Malware being the same thing but they're not.
Anti Viruses deal with malicious code such as trojans and worms whereas an antimalware program deals with a wider scope of more specialised infections such as spyware and adware.
Conclusion To sum this up I feel that these five programs mentioned above are critical to have an unhampered experience on your computer.
The Microsoft included software just doesn't cut it in this day and age in terms of functionality and the built in Windows Defender is no where near powerful enough to stop even the simplest threats out there on the web today.
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