I’ve been reinstalling a lot of Windows machines lately (cleaning house and such), and just wanted to jot down a list of apps I’ll install before doing anything else. To get the base system running, so to speak, mostly as a reminder to my future self.

Web

Chrome

• What: awesome browser from Google.
• Where: http://www.google.com/chrome/
• Don’t forget the Chrome Remote Desktop extension.

Dropbox

• What: easy file sync and sharing.
• Where: http://www.dropbox.com/

Google Drive

• What: easy file sync and sharing.
• Where: http://www.google.com/drive

Putty

• What: SSH client.
• Where: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

FileZilla

• What: FTP client.
• Where: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client

Skype

• What: instant messenger and voice caller.
• Where: http://www.skype.com/en/

QQ

• What: instant messenger.
• Where: http://www.imqq.com/

Miniget

• What: lightweight downloader.
• Where: http://www.miniget001.com/

General

Microsoft Office

• What: general purpose office suite.

Source Code Pro

• What: great fonts for programming.
• Where: https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-code-pro

7-Zip

• What: extract everything.
• Where: http://www.7-zip.org/

Clink

• What: makes the Windows command line ten times better.
• Where: http://mridgers.github.io/clink/

CamStudio

• What: easy free screen recording.
• Where: http://camstudio.org/

Everything

• What: locate files and folders by name instantly.
• Where: http://www.voidtools.com/

Evince

• What: lightweight PDF reader.
• Where: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince

f.lux

• What: screen dimmer based on time of day to save your eyes.
• Where: https://justgetflux.com/

Paint.NET

• What: easy to use image editing.
• Where: http://www.getpaint.net/

Start8

• What: bring back the start menu in Windows 8.
• Where: http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

VirtualBox

• What: virtualization tool.
• Where: https://www.virtualbox.org/

Spotify

• What: listen to music.
• Where: https://www.spotify.com

VLC

• What: watch all movie formats.
• Where: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

Steam

• What: play games.
• Where: http://store.steampowered.com/

Data Science

Anaconda Python Distribution

• What: ready to use Python for data science.
• Where: https://store.continuum.io/cshop/anaconda/

Disco

• What: process mining toolkit.
• Where: http://fluxicon.com/disco/

GraphViz

• What: graph drawing toolkit.
• Where: http://www.graphviz.org/

R

• What: programming language for statistics and data mining.
• Where: http://cran.r-project.org/

RStudio

• What: great IDE for R.
• Where: http://www.rstudio.com/

Coding

IntelliJ IDEA

• What: Java IDE, replacing Eclipse rapidly for me recently…
• Where: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/

JetBrains PyCharm

• What: Python IDE
• Where: https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/

Editing

LyX

• What: LaTeX based document processor.
• Where: http://www.lyx.org/
• Includes MikTeX distro.

MarkdownPad 2

• What: Markdown editor for Windows.
• Where: http://markdownpad.com/

Sublime Text

• What: beautiful text editor great for general coding.
• Where to find: http://www.sublimetext.com/3
• Get a color theme from here: https://github.com/chriskempson/base16

WinEdt

• What: fast LaTeX editor.
• Where: http://www.winedt.com/