Ninite is good for provisioning new software to a new computer, has a decent amount of software available, and is a very hassle-free way to install a set of software on a new windows machine.
For a fresh install, I recommend the following software: Firefox, qBittorrent, 7-Zip, Zoom, Thunderbird, Discord, Steam, VLC, MusicBee, Silverlight, TeraCopy, IrfanView, Foxit Reader, LibreOffice, Dropbox, Spybot 2, Malwarebytes, Python 3, FileZilla, and Notepad++. I also provisionally recommend Everything, but would recommend you download and install it separately if you don’t want to be nagged on every startup for admin permission. For whatever reason Ninite doesn’t correctly install it as a service.
O&O ShutUp10 is important to keep toggling off First Party Spyware.
Open your start menu, right click on each metro tile, and click Unpin. Once there are no metro tiles left you’ll have a usable start menu, no Classic Start required.
(This is a dangerous instruction)
If you dual boot with linux, open the registry editor (regedit), navigate to the key `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation`
Right click, Add 32-bit DWORD Value, Name it “RealTimeIsUniversal”, click ok. Then edit the value to “1”.
This tweak allows windows time and unix time to co-exist.
Make sure you install both Spybot Search and Destroy AND Malwarebytes if you are using your windows partition to browse and download from questionable parts of the internet.
If you’re interested in why I recommended the progams I did, here is a short explanation for each.
Firefox I recommend for being the only remaining mainstream non-chromium browser.
qBittorrent I recommend for being the spiritual successor to uTorrent without the proprietary nonsense.
7-Zip I recommend for being completely superior to WinRar.
Zoom because that’s what everyone is using for remote meetings. I wouldn’t ordinarily recommend it.
Thunderbird I recommend because nobody should willingly use Metro Outlook.
Discord…is discord. It’s a mix of teamspeak 3 and mumble, but casualized for the lowest common denominator/end user.
Steam if you do much, or any, gaming. Obviously.
VLC is a good video player and plays most, if not all, formats.
MusicBee is one of the best music players available. It’s reminiscent of iTunes when it was best in class.
As far as I’m aware, it’s the music player most audiophiles prefer. Foobar2000 is a good alternative, too, but takes more setup.
Silverlight (and other runtimes) are better to have and not need, than need and not have.
TeraCopy supports resume infinitely better than native windows file transfer.
IrfanView is more intuitive to use than Windows Metro Pictures app, at least to me.
Foxit Reader is a free (but not open source) alternative to Adobe Reader.
LibreOffice: because subscribing to Microsoft Office 365 is nuts unless your organization pays for it for you.
Dropbox is my backup/sync solution of choice. Your mileage may vary.
Spybot 2 and Malwarebytes work well together with Windows Defender to cover most common angles of attack.
Python is one of the easier languages to write in and you can automate a lot of things with it. Everyone should learn a little.
FileZilla I provisionally recommend if you use FTP a lot. If not, I wouldn’t bother, as it’ll never be used.
Notepad++ is a decent, light-weight text editor that supports code highlighting, themeing, and plugins.
Everything is a very very good search utility. It outperforms windows search by a mile.