If you happen to buy a new PC, notebook, or netbook on Black Friday (or any time really), you might easily become frustrated with all the junk that comes already installed on your new, pristine computer. This always frustrates me to no end because it takes so much time to track down the little applications that the PC manufacturers get a kickback for installing. This has become so common that a program called The PC Decrapifier was created to serve just this need. After your computer is cleaned up, then you can quickly load it with your essential applications at once using Ninite.
The PC Decrapifier is a small download at less than 1.5 MB and is free for personal use. After downloading the portable executable, launching it will bring you into its step-by-step process. You can optionally create a Restore Point. You can select startup programs and installed applications to remove by just checking the boxes in front of the listed program. After selecting the items you wish to have removed PC Decrapifier will sequentially load the applications uninstallers so you can confirm the uninstall process and speed through them much faster than through Add/Remove Programs. The commercial also includes a command line interface and costs $20.
Ninite allows you to install many of the most popular applications very quickly and is also free for personal use. It handles downloading the installer and running through each installation. Starting with a new PC can be annoying as you slowly recall which applications you need and most likely when you realize that, you need it right then. Ninite starts off as a web app; you visit the website and check any applications you wish to have installed. Currently those applications include:
- Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Firefox
- Skype, MSN Messenger, Pidgin, Digsby, Google Talk, Thunderbird, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger
- iTunes, Songbird, Hulu, VLC, KMPlayer, AIMP, foobar2000, Winamp, Audacity, K-Lite Codecs, GOM, Spotify, and MediaMonkey
- Paint.NET, Picasa, GIMP, IrfanView, XnView, Inkscape, FastStone
- Office 2007 Trial, OpenOffice, Adobe Reader, SumatraPDF, Foxit Reader, CutePDF
- Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast, AVG, Malwarebytes, Ad-Aware, Spybot, SuperAnti-Spyware
- Flash, Flash IE, Java, .NET, Silverlight, Air
- uTorrent, eMule
- Dropbox, Evernote, Google Earth, Steam, KeePass, Everything local search engine, Mozy
- TeamViewer, ImgBurn, CCleaner, Auslogics, Defraggler, RealVNC, TeraCopy, CDBurnerXP, Recuva, TrueCrypt, Revo, Launchy
- 7-Zip, WinRAR
- Python, FileZilla, Notepad++, JDK, WinSCP, PuTTY, Eclipse
After you check all the applications you want, you click the Get Installer button to download your custom installer. This will weigh in at less than half a megabyte and takes care of downloading the installers you specified and running them sequentially with the default selections (though minus the toolbars, they claim).
Ninite is a fast and hassle free way to get your new computer loaded with popular applications so it becomes useful to you. Another nice feature is that you can create an installer and then share it with others so they can download it and get all the software you recommend. Here’s my installer for many of the software titles I’ve talked about on 404 Tech Support previously:
http://ninite.com/installer/4e0b4b6e1781f71d9325303e1da2ded48ea177d0
Visiting the link will take you to the Ninite site to download the installer and list what applications are contained within it.
Both PC Decrapifier and Ninite can work in conjunction to get your new PC cleaned and loaded with the apps you want quickly.