Fresh Install, What Do You Install & Remove?

In the last few days I have been doing fresh installs on various pcs. And I noticed there were a few non work related apps I always install and things I always disable. So I was wondering what do you install & disable As soon as you get a fresh system? (That's not work related / games)

Here's my list:

Install:
Microsoft Office
Foxit PDF - PDF viewer much faster than Acrobat
Launchy - Keystroke launcher very fast
Chrome + Adblock + LastPass
Firefox + Noscript + Adblock + LastPass
Thunderbird
Skype
Fan Control CPU Temp Software
uTorrent
SABNZBD
7-Zip
Notepad++
VLC Media Player
K Lite Mega Codecs

Disable:
Windows Search Indexing
Windows Defender
Windows Action Centre
Desktop Icons (I prefer a empty desktop)
Desktop Gadgets
Windows Restore
UAC

I've linked to the ones people might not know what they are. Oh and I don't use a anti virus.

Anyway let me know what you do!

 

Install:
Samsung SSD Magician
AS SSD benchmark
CPU-Z
GPU-Z
HWMonitor
Chrome
Macrium Reflect
And a few others that I can't think of.

Disable:
System Restore
UAC
Indexing
Print Spooler
Secondary Account
Windows Defender
Parental Controls
Action Center
And a few others I can't think of.

 

You run uTorrent but disable Windows Defender, UAC and don't use an anti virus? This is equivalent to keeping a sign out in your front yard too reading: "HACKERS Welcome!" Oh and no windows restore, too, it is rather useful should you need a backup if something messes up your system?

Gary

 

I do not think that is good idea playing with uTorrent without any protection.
And I do not understand why a lot of people disabled windows restore ?

 

Different backup solutions. I use Macrium Reflect to an external HD.

 

What I install:
Flash
Silverlight
MSE
MBAM
SAS
Google TPL
EasyPrivacy TPL
Zune
Live Essentials (Photo Gallery/Movie Maker/Messenger)
Intel SSD Toolbox
VMWare Workstation
Dexpot

What I disable/remove:
Tablet Services
Games
Gadget
Remote Differential

I also happen to keep UAC on maximum and I only log in with a standard user account. I've spent way too much time in Unix/Linux to be comfortable any other way.

 

What i install:

Latest drivers for everything first and foremost.
MSE & MBAM
Opera
Zune
Live Essentials
MS Office
CCleaner
Skype
CPU-Z
GPU-Z
Throttlestop
7-Zip
Adobe Reader

What i disable:

Startup entries i don't want.
I might shrink the page file and disable hibernation if on a small SSD.

That is all, there is absolutely no point in disabling windows services that are perfectly working and have no impact on the system what so ever if you are using a SSD and that should be left on if on a HDD (aka superfetch and indexing).

 

Install
Chrome
Firefox
Teamviewer (no I am not a stalker!)
Windows 7 Manager (for all the quick UI tweak)
inssider
winrar
thorttlestop for any intel
Maybe MSE

Own system(on top of above):
Hwinfo64
open hardware monitor
xunlei
flashget
jdownloader
Udown
foobar
MPC+lav+madvr+ffdshow+reclock
ramdisk
7-zip
openoffice
sumatra pdf(ultra light)
acrobat(ultra heavy)

 

Well since I never get any spyware/adware/malware or virus' I wouldn't say it's that stupid. I have installed software in the past but since it never finds anything I don't see the point.

Either way it's my computer no need to get so vocal about it

 

Good thread idea.

Install
Firefox + AdBlockPlus
Chrome + AdBlockPlus
CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack)
AVG Free
LibreOffice
CPU-Z
GPU-Z
HWMonitor/SpeedFan
uTorrent
Flash Player
Acrobat Reader
GIMP
7-Zip/WinRAR
Macrium Reflect
HandBrake + AnyVideoConverter

Most if not all of this is free stuff, and very useful.

 

I haven't used AV since 1996.
I don't use Windows firewall
I dont use UAC
I dont use windows defender.

Haven't done never do.

Because you do I should? The chances of being hacked are pretty similar to anyone who uses all of these items. If they wanted they could get in.

ISP connections are shocking in some countries at the best of times. Lets run layers and layers of bottlenecks and software to interfere with the speed of the connections as it is.

Most Router/Modem setups will provide relevant and secure enough connections but to add them to your machine as well. Not for me thanks.

Yeah so what if I am more likely to have data stolen, info stolen. No different than if I use cash machines on the street, No different to being mugged.

 

Guys if you can't express your opinion in a civil manner, i'll have to lock this thread.

 

Yes, there IS a need to get vocal about it. If you have no malware protection how do you KNOW you have no malware? The reason to get vocal about it is that this cavalier attitude about security is the very reason there are literally hundreds of thousands of "bot" computers out there under the control of some very nefarious characters. These "bots" are responsible for most of the spam emails that clog up your and my email mailbox every day (or forces our ISP's to go to the extra expense, that you and I pay for, to de-spam the incoming email to their servers). They are also responsible for the co-ordinated denial of service attacks on sites on the internet. They are responsible for the cracking attempts that launch dictionary attacks against my servers every single day. They are responsible for the break-ins to steal credit card numbers. (Do you HONESTLY think that the folks doing this use their own computers to do the break-in?)

So you see it's not just YOUR computer you are putting at risk. It is everyone else that you are also putting at risk.

Sorry, but I will never sit idly by when this sort of attitude is espoused here, with the suggestion that it is harmless and the implied message that it is ok for others to do to. It's not harmless, and it's not ok to act like it is. Would you walk into a room full of people, knowing you had tuberculosis, and sneeze and cough on everyone in the room. Well that IS the equivalent of what you are suggesting is ok, because "it is just your machine".

Show some responsibility to yourself and those around you. Stop thinking that YOU know more about the proper workings of an operating system and what components should or should not be running on them. Windows Defender and UAC are extremely important parts of the OS. If you don't understand that, learn why, or unplug your computer from the internet because YOU are putting the rest of us in jeopardy because of this.

Gary

 

Im afraid I wont have it.

I am putting no one at risk with the use of my computer. I only frequent here and a lot of other un-savoury websites that are well established and I know from the people that frequent the un-savoury websites that my computer is not a target by hackers. I have no value to them.

its this typical scare mongering that makes people buy software like norton and Mcafee from the shops. I do not believe that my computer is any worse off than the machines and people that use that software. I use a lot of computers. I also repair a lot of computers, all software related and nearly all of these are running all the items you are telling me to use.

So if these software and security systems are relevant why do their machines need constantly repairing and mine runs trouble free for over 2 or so years, this has always been the case since the day I realised that there is a right and wrong way to use a machine.

 

No one is suggeting the need to buy any software. What is suggested is to leave in place the protections designed into the operating system. I ask the same question of you that I asked the original poster of this thread. If you have no malware protection, how do you KNOW there is no malware or root kit installed on your machine? And since you don't know, you also don't know if you are putting others at risk as well.

I have made my living writing software for and repairing microcomputers snce 1976. I maintain systems for corprate clients. So your playing the "experience card" is of little use in this discussion.

If you think the only way to get malware is to visit "un-savoury websites", you are VERY wrong. Ever see a drive by infection, i.e. a google search that lands you on a page where a "security alert" jumps up informing you that your system is infected and offers to remove that infection? These are all too common and just one type of vector that doesn't require visiting "un-savoury websites". Without any sort of protection your system can be instantly compromised by these "security alerts", installing a small proxy server and redirecting your network traffic thru that proxy. The proxy will then redirect all of your internet searches to the "security vendor" and offer to sell you extortion ware to remove the infection. Right now YOU are susceptible to that very sort of attack and you have no way to prevent it, oh unless of course you never do another search on Google or Bing or any other search engine. And that sort of infection is just the type that has a visible part to it. Too many others give no visible indication of anything nefarious going on while they install a root kit, and turn the machine into a "bot".

Yes there is a right way and a wrong way to use a computer. The right way is to at the very least leave the existing protections in place. Not to muck about because you think you know better and deny the very existence of any sort of threats.

Gary

 

It's not about the 1% of exploits designed to work around everything. Those "if they want to get in they will" attacks are rare, brutally rare.

Windows Defender, AV, UAC, etc., are designed around the 99%. They are designed around the idea that the vast majority of exploit writers are lazy and not particularly good at their trade. Every time UAC throws up a mysterious permission box that is declined, that's someone who coded their exploit after being paid up front.

The 99% are hoping that people will disable stuff because "LOL MS."

All the built-in/free addon security is helpful. The resource usage is low, the OS expects a lot of it to be there anyway, and it doesn't generally impede the user. Is Defender really taking massive system resources and throwing up useless dialogue boxes? No. Is UAC legitimately stopping people from doing work? Is it throwing up 100 popups a day? No.

A friend of mine once wrote on his Facebook that "Once you realize you can't get all the groceries into the house in one trip, life becomes much easier." To put that in computer terms, "Once you realize that you don't need to stress out over every byte of RAM being used, computing becomes much easier."

It's true.

 

Hey by know means am I saying that I know more than you. Your signature, your post count and rep qround this very forum tells me you have forgotten far more than I know. What I am saying is, I don't have to put it on because I am causing the whole worlds problems without it.

I don't believe it and even if it was. My internet connection is smooth as whilst I am online so I will continue to use MS as I do. How did we ever survive without UAC, Windows defender in previous versions of windows.

 

UAC is a PITA for me. I had try different AV but now I just use MSE and that it.

I think it is more about awareness then using all the protection. Yes, awareness + full protection is better, but I much prefer awareness over relying on sole protection.

 

Do whatever you like, but know that you could very well be running a "bot" machine because of your very refusal to accept the facts that these threats do exist and your failure to allow the very measures incorporated into the operating system to do their best to prevent them. This denial does indeed mean you could be contributing to a very big problem on the internet, whether you want to believe it or not.

Your last question is spot on, how did we ever get along without them? For years all versions of Windows were shipped with the default rights of all users being set at the administrator level. Anyone who understood the security model of the OS or ever ran a unix machine knew that this was a REALLY bad idea. A really STUPID idea. And Microsoft gotten beaten up over it and rightly so. So they finally did the right thing and insituted UAC, something that has existed in Unix and all its variants forever. And then some folks who think that they know better just turn it off and deny that there is any problem in doing so.

Also know that I and others will continue to point out the fallacy that one can safely run without UAC, Defender and any sort of malware protection every time we see someone suggest otherwise. Why? Because we don't want to see some novice take such wrong advice and fall victim to the threats that DO exist. And also because I am sick and tired of having bots doing dictionary attacks on my servers every damn night. And these bots only exist because of people like you who deny that they just might be part of that problem, because they think they know better than the folks who do actually understand the issues at hand.

Gary

 

I think that we could argue about this for a long time and I still won't have it.

Its a pain in the , you have to do something that is related to your job, Hey I have things that irritate me about my job. I don't start blaming everyone for these problems.

 

You are right, "everyone" is not to blame for the bots that are the conduit for much of the spam clogging the internet, for the denial of service attacks and for the dictionary attacks on servers around the world. Who is to blame? People like you who think they know better than the folks trying to put an end to these problem. People like you who not only refuse to do their part in the war on these issues, they actually go out of their way to circumvent the very tools installed into the operating system that are designed to do so. Tools that have no REAL effect on the day to day use of the machines on which they are installed. And spare me the "its a pain in the..." garbage. I have hundreds of clients who have these things running and not a single one has ever complained of it being a "pain in the...".

Gary

 

I was saying it was a pain in the... for you. That was I got from your comment

 

Amen! I 100% agree with this. I won't let my daughter into our "home" network because she's too lazy, or stupid, to use even the simplest tools to protect her laptop. I had to set her up on a secondary router, that's not connected to my primary, to get her into the internet. When she turned 21, I told her "You're on your own to provide adequate system protection. Learn or burn".

I'm actually ashamed, that I didn't teach her the harm she could be doing to others, with her cavalier attitude toward internet security. I guess it's just an X, Y, or Z'er thing. I'm a 50's boomer. I dread the AO (Always On) generation. This has been described as "Gen AO will exhibit a thirst for instant gratification and quick fixes, a loss of patience and a lack of deep-thinking ability" Enough said.


>>>Begin Rant<<<
This discussion made me so p.o.'ed, I decided to change my signature. I was in the USASA Signal Intelligence branch. If we hadn't maintained secure systems, East and West Germany would never have gotten back together, and the spirit of democracy wouldn't have swept through Eastern Europe. Security is Everyone's Responsibility!
>>>End Rant<<<

The Eagle talon, gripping the lightning bolts, are referred to as the "lightning fast chicken plucker" only we used another word for plucker. :wink:

DragonRider

 

Dragnoak- hehe maybe you should take a cue from that one dad on youtube who shot up his daughters laptop after she ran her mouth on fb

I gotta go with Gary on the AV discussion. If you are running an unprotected and potentially infected machine and connecting to free public, school, coffee shop, work, home or wherever else networks and still believe that you're completely safe and posing no danger to anyone... then I don't even know what to say. That's not even mentioning the risks to people who are simply on your contact list.

Back on topic though:

Installs - MSE, assorted drivers, Office, Firefox, CCCP codecs, paint.net, acrobat pro, steam, 7 zip, itunes

Disables - nothing on machines with separate windows discs, a boatload of bloatware if it's the hp that only restores from the partition -.-