A lot of the time, when people buy a new PC/laptop, they just don’t know what software to install on it. There are a few key bits of software that everyone should have, that tend to make life a lot easier – in fact, many seasoned PC users won’t have even come across these, but I’m going to share some of the best bits and pieces with you today. I’d say that a decent amount of the best desktop applications available today are ‘open source’, meaning that instead of being developed entirely by one self-contained company, the software is open and available for anyone to work on and contribute to. It’s both a cool philosophy, and conducive to the production of very user-friendly and user-orientated software. So here are a few of my favourites:

1. Better Internet Browser

Now, unless you are a Mac or Linux user, you need a better browser than the built-in one. Internet Explorer just doesn’t, as my Co-Editor Ben puts it, do much mustard-cutting. It’s sluggish, bloated, and shamelessly self-propagating on the advertising front. But enough of my diatribe, what should you go with instead? OK, ignore for a second the fact that I titled this article “5 Desktop Applications You Didn’t Know About…” as you’ll probably have heard of other browsers at some stage. But if you are looking to switch yours (and I obviously recommend that you do), then there are a few options, most notable of which are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and the predominantly Mac-based offering Safari. My personal choice is Google Chrome; I used to use Firefox but in my opinion it has also become a bit sluggish of late, and moved away from it’s once-pure roots. Not that I’d in any way infer that Google are ‘pure’. But I digress. I like Chrome because it is very, very fast – it boots faster than any other browser I’ve seen. I like the minimalism of the layout – the tabs are integrated into the title-bar to save room, and there is no status bar at the bottom of the screen taking up space. The URL bar is in fact what the folks over at Google are calling the ‘OmniBox’ – it also acts as a search bar and more. On a geekier note, each tab runs as a separate process, so if something crashes on a certain web-page, it doesn’t mean that your entire browser will come down with it. Nice touch. I Shan’t ramble on too long – go check out each browser and see which one is right for you. Next:

2. Office Suite – ‘Open Office Suite‘

Most people, if not everyone, needs to get down to some work every now and then (no sarcastic comments, please!), namely work of the word-processing/spreadsheet/presentation varieties. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to fork out the required 300 beans for a copy of Microsoft Office Proffesional (or 80-ish said beans for the Student Edition). So what are the alternatives? Are there any? Why yes, I’m glad you asked! This is one of the lesser known bits of software out there, and by far, one of the most useful. It’s called Open Office Suite – and it includes a Word Processor, Spreadsheet Application, Presentation Application, Formula Editor, and Database Application. All in one neat suite (no rhyme intended, just a ‘happy accident’…). It has about 95% of the functionality of Microsoft Office Suite, in a very familiar layout – plus it can handle all of the proprietary Microsoft Office document formats (e.g ‘.doc’). All in all it’s a very handy suite of applications every desktop not-running Microsoft Office deserves to have. Check it out.

3. Media Player – ‘VLC Media Player‘

Every desktop needs a good media player. 99% of the world (not a real statistic!) is currently using iTunes as their main music library app – and that’s fine, it’s well developed and has a great eco-system on the music-purchasing front. But many people still have issues getting videos from various sources to play (“Euan, I can’t get this damned video to play, I can hear sound but there’s no picture…” *facepalm*) and there is one simple solution to your problem, people: VLC Media Player. It’ll literally play anything. It comes bundled with a pack of most every CoDec on the face of the earth (a CoDec is what you need installed to play files in different formats, if a format is a person speaking a different language you can think of a CoDec as a phrasebook/dictionary). So you should really never have trouble opening a video in any format, or with any extension, if you’re using this program. It’s the most simple solution, Again, go check it out.

4. Keeping Your PC Clean & Tidy – ‘CCleaner‘

As you can imagine, I’m very frequently asked by people to ‘fix their computer’ as it’s ‘broken’. Now, as you can also imagine, a lot of the time it’s not, but their understanding of the situation is sub-par – but all resentful comments aside (forgive me, I’ve not had my cup of tea yet today!), one of the most common problems with PCs is that they slow down over time. They begin to get bloated and sluggish (see a trend here? ), and need to go through a bit of maintenance. A big tool in this department, and a great start on the road to recovery is a wonderful little program called ‘CCleaner’ (originally named ‘Crap Cleaner’). It basically allows you to run a ‘cleanup’, which involves going through your old temporary files, old internet cookies, recycle bin content, etc. and cleans it all out. This can save literally gigabytes of storage space on your machine depending on how long it’s been since you last cleaned up, if at all – and can aid in getting your programs to boot faster. It also includes a great tool to go through your registry and delete old, obsolete values – I won’t go into too much detail here as it’s a pretty esoteric subject, but trust me when I tell you that it’s beneficial to the efficiency of your system.

5. – Zip Archive Management – ‘IZArc‘

So this is one of the less exciting bits of software, but certainly a useful (and possibly even essential) bits of kit every PC owner needs. I’m sure at some time or another, you’ve downloaded a file/whatever, and it’s been ‘zipped’. Possibly even in the dreaded RAR format. This usually means a habitual visit to the WinRAR website where you have to go download their bit of crap-infested ad-ware (can you tell I’m biased?) which will only tend to allow you to even run it as a ‘Trial Version’ for 30 days or so. Let’s forgo the tedium; enter IZArc. Another bit of open-source software, this time aimed at efficiently achieving the wondrously exciting task of zipping/unzipping files. OK, sarcasm aside, it might not be the most exciting thing you’ve ever come across, but zipping/unzipping is an inevitability, unfortunately, and so you’ll need a bit of software to do it for you – while being reliable. This software is reliable, lightweight, and free of ads – it’s all good, so go check it out!

There you have it folks, 5 bits of software to make your desktop experience a happier one – I hope you enjoyed my take on them! Do you have any suggestions for any additions to the list? Is there a program you feel you just have to share with the world? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading.