We give you a list of our must have pc applications and where to get them.

How does that old say going? “There’s no rest for the wicked.” That means that here at Kung Fu Drafter we are always working double time. It seems as if our to-do list is doubling by the hour. In fact we spend so much time crossing things off our list that we have to put “cross things off the list” on the list. Today o of those things was “set up new laptop”.

When you are a techy type of geek it seems as if everyone comes to you for pc help. “I can’t start my computer.” “My printer ate my canary.” The cries for help never seem to let up. The most common we get is “I just got this new laptop. Can you help me set it up?” ::Sigh:: A geek’s work is never done. So we got to thinking maybe we should post about our must have apps when setting up a new pc. So here we go:

Google's Chrome, it's just that awesome ...

• Antivirus: Every computer needs some kind of antivirus software. Rather than be one of those sheep at Best Buy who pays $40 for Norton Antivirus. Pft, suckers. Nope we like AVG Antivirus. It’s a solid antivirus that is widely used and frequently updated. For free, you can’t find a better deal!
• Firewall: Another must have is a good firewall. For our firewall needs we turn to ZoneAlarm. This is a great product that will give you great coverage and protection. We’ve used it for years and plan to keep on using it.
• Browser: Seriously, did you think we used that lame dog of a browser IE? As if. For us the only choice is Chrome. Between simple interface, speed and the fact that each tab is its own process we love this browser. Oh sure there are more plug-ins for Firefox, but we hated FF2 and never went back.
• Maintenance: If you are using the defragmentation and cleanup tools that shipped with Windows you are missing out. Take our word for it and download Defraggler and CCleaner. Both of these apps are produced by Piriform and are as easy to use as they are great. There is no doubt that these two apps leave their Microsoft counterparts in the dust.

If you set your new laptop or desktop up with this set of great applications there is little room for you to go wrong. There is just one more application that we have to have. If you are like us then you have about 2000 sets of account usernames and passwords. Some are uppercase, some are lower, some are alphanumeric, and some are some sick mixture of all the above with some wingdings in the mix. Whatever the case may be, Access Manager 2 can make your life easier. Once you enter your account usernames and passwords your logins will be just two drag and drops away! The best part is that since you never type your password again keyloggers can’t capture your account information!

We’re sure there are some other great applications that we are forgetting but this is a great start. Every PC we work on gets this basic bundle of free goodies! If you have some must have applications that you never neglect installing leave us a comment below. As for us, we are going to take the rest of the night off ...

- KFD -