My main PC, which was running Windows 8, failed.  Rather than repair the Windows 8 OS, I reverted back to Windows 7—and the desktop experience is much better.

Just in case another fresh install is ever needed, below are the free software applications I install and recommend:

• VLC media player – VideoLAN is the best freeware video player I’ve ever used.
• Handbrake – A great open source video transcoder.
• 7-Zip – An open source Zip/7z/Tar/GZip/LZH/more manager.
• Virtual Clone Drive – Best way to mount ISO images as a drive letter.
• Cure PDF Writer – A printer driver allow anything to “print” to a .pdf file
• Adobe Acrobat Reader – The original (yet now bloated) tool to view .pdf files
• Defraggler – An improved way to defragment your hard drive.
• Kindle for PC – Read Amazon books on the computer.
• KeePass – Store the .kdb file in dropbox and have an awesome secure password manager.
• Dropbox – Well known, simple, file sharing software for all devices.
• CamStudio – Open source desktop screen recording software ala Camtasia.
• Skype – Originally in Delphi, the leader in peer-to-peer voice calling.
• FileZilla – An FTP Client and Server released under GNU General Public License.
• iTunes – Clumsy Windows application with the largest selection of music and podcasts.
• Zune – A better player than iTunes, but music selection is limited.
• Chrome – Google built a better browser using KISS.
• Firefox – A good backup browser for web debugging but lacks duplicate tab (as of v21.0).
• Firebug – Excellent plug-in for debugging and profiling HTML/JavaScript.
• Opera – The alternative web browser that Presto-chango is moving to WebKit.
• Fiddler – A must have web http debugging proxy—it’s essential for AJAX development.
• WireShark – When needing to go deeper into the bits on the network below HTTP, WireShark is THE answer.
• XAMPP for Windows – A Windows-friendly way to install an open source web development stack (include Apache, MySQL, PHP, and more).
• FireBird SQL Server – A stable robust full-featured SQL Server that’s always been superior to MySQL.
• MySQL – The world’s most populate open source database (while not the best open source database).
• MongoDB – A C++ open-source document database that’s a breeze to use.  My favorite “NoSQL” option.
• HeidiSQL – A Delphi open-source application to work with MySQL and MSSQL databases quickly and easily.
• Notepad++ – An excellent notepad replacement with multiple programming languages keyword highlighting.
• Paint.Net – Proof that a good .Net program can be written, an outstanding image editing application.
• Pencil – Amazing open source wireframe/storyboarding tool.
• Tortoise SVN – The best way to work with Subversion on Windows.
• Tortoise GIT – Almost makes GIT friendly.
• Tortoise HG – Makes Mercurial friendly.
• Free Pascal – The cross platform open source complier alternative to C/C++.
• Lazarus – An amazing Delphi-like IDE for OSX/Windows/Linux.
• Swiff Player – A stand-alone Flash (SWF) moving player.
• WinDowse – An advance windows window analyzer.
• Windows Live Essentials – Solely for Live Writer–which I’m using right now for this post.
• Flash Player – How the web does video (and plays games).
• Silverlight – How Netflix does/did video—a deprecated technology abandoned by Microsoft in favor of HTML5 and JavaScript for Windows 8 (an OS which I just abandoned).