Hey all,

I've been out and bought myself a new hard-disk (80Gb for £30 - bargain!). The reason behind this is my old hard disk was pretty much full with loads of stuff on it. Didn't want to just wipe it, or start removing things willy-nilly, so a new start, and a background job will be to clean-up the old hard disk once I know I can survive with all required software on the new hard disk.

Looking for suggestions for what software to go for - what stuff do you use? Stuff thats free if obviously far more appealing!

Media Player - RealPlayer vs WinAmp vs Windows Media Player

Browser - Mozilla vs IE (although probably stick with Mozilla regardless of suggestions :) ).

Office Suite - OpenOffice (already downloaded) vs MS Office (2000 lying around at home I think).

I'm also a massive user of MS Money but couldn't find the disk last night (just as well I didn't wipe that other hard disk!), and have found a freeware thing that looks like it might do the job. Anybody else a user of something similar?

Any other recommendations gladly taken on board!

Cheers

Jock

It all depends on what u use your PC for. The gaming magazines have lots of free applications that will suit u.

I'lll have a scout around and get back to u.

Hi Jock, In my humble opinion, the first thing to put on your machine must be a good security program such as Norton, containing antivirus software and firewall.
Remember 'free' software often comes at a hidden cost, containing may be spyware or other nasties.:shock: For just over £20 you can go someway to protecting your data.— Incidentally, don't forget to to defrag your hard drive regularly, this can speed up your machine tremendously.

More (http://www.softwarecellar.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/1462)

Wise words, wise words :unibrow:

Apologises - perhaps I should of have introduced myself a bit better. I'm a computer programmer, so fully aware of Virus Checker, Firewall, et all. Also general maintanance routines are ad-hered to (from time to time!). :)

The reason the other hard disk is in such a state is due to the sheer amount of source code I've got stored, and installations to handle latest technologies - slowed it right down. Hoping to be more careful with what I install from now on, hence the new hard disk! :ninja: :cool:

Just wanting to play around a little and not install up-teen things that do the same thing. As in got copies of Windows Media Player, WinAmp, RealPlayer, DVD Something or other, etc... ;)