It happened. There was nothing you could do.
It was on there when you bought it.
There are no drivers for some of your hardware for XP.
Ditto Linux.
Hell, you even tried OSX86...
You've been Fista'd
BALLMER ATTACK!
As it comes preinstalled on your computer, you will have a big pigfucking mess to clean up. Fista's well documented atrocities fall into several categories: UI stupidity, OEM Garbageware Pre-installed (a long standing windows problem), and Illusions of security.
You don't have Fista? You're "lucky" enough to be still using XP? Read on, my friends, as much of this information will also be helpful to you as you battle that slightly less hideous monstrosity.
So, you're feeling it now The fist. Just about the first thing you wanna do is strip that fucker down to everything but the drivers. Depending on your vendor this may take a while. Don't worry about anything but the drivers. Everything that came with your computer is shit. So, fire up your control panel and go to Add or Remove Programs...
FUCK!
THEY FUCKING MOVED IT!
For no goddamned reason, in Windoze Fista, Microsoft saw fit to move all the control panels in classic mode around and rename some. "Add or Remove Programs" has become "Programs and Features." "Display Properties" has become "Personalization." Since they are sorted alphabetically, their location has moved, and their names are less descriptive as to what they actually do. This was done specifically to fuck with you. Microsoft isn't just in the business of selling shitty software, they also sell incompetent support and meaningless certifications.
So go into "Programs and Features" and get rid of everything but the drivers.
But you're thinking, "But I need Nero to burn cd's and stuff" or whatever. Just shut the fuck up and get rid of it. All of it. If you don't know what it is, you should probably get rid of it. If it's a driver it will have the name of the manufacturer on it, like ATI or NVIDIA or Realtek or Intel or that kind of shit. Keep your drivers.
So, Now that you've got all that cleaned up, it's time to install software that you actually want and will use. All of the following is available for free. Most of it is open source. Usually, in my experience the free programs are the best ones. Proprietary software is designed to make money first, and be useful second. Free software only needs to be useful, so it tends to have fewer impediments.
I recommend the following (I'm too lazy to provide links. Just Google 'em):
Mozilla Firefox - Don't use Internet Explorer. Ever. The only website you should ever visit with explorer is www.getfirefox.com.
VLC - Video player
Foobar 2000- Music Player
Avast - Antivirus
The GIMP - Image editor (Photoshop type stuff. A truly wondeful program)
Launchy - Application Launcher. Vista's start menu is a clusterfuck. Classic Mode blows as well. You know what you wanna' do. Go straight to it with launchy. I find this program indespensible and use it hundreds of times a day.
OpenOffice.Org - Free replacement for MS Office. About 99% compatable with MS office bullshit proprietary formats. (Unfortunately, 99% often isn't good enough)
Abiword - Lightweight fast word processor
InfraRecorder - CD/DVD burning
Virtual CloneDrive - Disk Image mounter.
Foxit PDF Viewer - Infinitely faster than Adobe Acrobat and without constant annoying updates that only degrade performance.
Pidgin - Multi-Protocol Instant Messenger. Supports AIM MSN Yahoo GoogleTalk and more. OTR plugin is available for encrypted IM. USE IT!
Free Download Manager - Another great program for windows. Adds resume support to Firefox or IE so that when your internet connection craps out during a download you don't have to start it all over.
This is not a comprehensive list. I've found that the best way to find quality free software for windows is to simply google "spen source [program type] windows." For example, if I was looking for some sort of accounting software for windows, I would google "open source accounting windows" and then i would find GNUCash, which is a halfway decent program for doing that sort of thing and it's free.
The next thing you're gonna' want to do is disable User Account Controls. UAC is a fucking joke. It is merely the illusion of security. All it really does is annoy the user. That's what it was intended to do. MS has admitted it.
The easiest way to do this is with MSCONFIG.
Hit WindowsKey-R to bring up the Run dialog. Type "msconfig" (without the quotes), then click ok. Click on the "Tools" tab, then scroll down to "Disable UAC." Click to select that line, then click on launch. A command prompt window will open up and then when it's done, click ok in msconfig. Reboot your computer and you're done.
To enable log in as administrator: (Not recommended, but some older programs that you may need may require this in order to install and run properly) Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories then right-click on Command Prompt and select "run as Administrator"
enter the following line:
net user administrator /active:yes
Hit enter. Reboot. Done.
The next thing you're gonna' want to do is disable User Account Controls. UAC is a fucking joke. It is merely the illusion of security. All it really does is annoy the user. That's what it was intended to do. MS has admitted it.
The easiest way to do this is with MSCONFIG.
Hit WindowsKey-R to bring up the Run dialog. Type "msconfig" (without the quotes), then click ok. Click on the "Tools" tab, then scroll down to "Disable UAC." Click to select that line, then click on launch. A command prompt window will open up and then when it's done, click ok in msconfig. Reboot your computer and you're done.
To enable log in as administrator: (Not recommended, but some older programs that you may need may require this in order to install and run properly) Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories then right-click on Command Prompt and select "run as Administrator"
enter the following line:
net user administrator /active:yes
Hit enter. Reboot. Done.
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