The programs must be on the PC. What programs are needed for a computer. Required utilities

Required programs for windows 10 - 7

Hello Readers of my blog! In this article I will tell you about the most necessary programs for Windows 10 - 7. As you probably remember, Windows is not yet ready for use after installation. In principle, not only Windows 7, but also any 8 8.1 xp is not yet ready for work immediately after installation. Even after installing drivers and security settings, there are practically no useful and necessary programs on board your computer. Windows comes with only a few programs that are useful to the user.

These are several toys, the simplest text editor “Notepad”, an advanced text editor “WordPad”, a calculator, an Internet browser (IE-Internet Explorer), a media player, “Paint” - a program for processing simple graphics, programs for PC and OS maintenance. That’s actually all that our favorite OS is rich in. With Windows 10 things are a little better. Microsoft has moved much further. And it included Skype and a student office kit. By the way, the installed IE and media player are also not ready to work. IE is partially unprepared because it can only view text pages and pictures. But the media player is not ready at all, since it needs codecs to play music and videos. Therefore, it is time to install the necessary programs for Windows. The programs that we will consider in this article, I believe, should be installed on almost every computer running Windows 7 - 10. So let's begin.

The most necessary programs for windows 10 - 7

Archivers

1. The very first thing we must install is ARCHIVERS. On the Internet, all programs are compressed or packaged with some kind of archiver. This allows you to waste less disk space for storing information on servers and transmit packets faster over the Internet. Each PC must have at least one archiver, and preferably two. First WinRar- it works very quickly and supports the ability to unzip a large number of different popular archives. And the most important thing is its own, very specific, highly protected Rar format. No one has yet been able to decrypt the passwords set by this archiver.

Second archiver 7-zip. Perhaps this archiver is even more necessary than the first one. You will need it to unpack archives of the new, rapidly gaining popularity, 7z format. The archiver is very fast and provides a high compression ratio. Most of the archives on the Internet that you will have to download are in zip, rar and 7z format.

If you are working with a website and need to create archives in GZIP format, then the 7-zip archiver will provide compression 2-10% better than any other archiver.

These two archivers will help you solve almost any problem of archiving/unarchiving software packages received from the Internet.

Codecs

2. The second most important thing would probably be the installation of codecs for playing audio and video files of a variety of formats, without which not a single audio/video player will work. Of all the great variety of different collections, perhaps the best, most stable and generally recognized is K-Lite Codec Pack. According to the developers, their brainchild supports about 400 audio/video formats. In addition, this package is absolutely free and contains a small but very high-quality player. Therefore, it would be a sin not to use it. Highly recommend. After installing this codec pack, all your audio/video players will play almost all media file formats.

Adobe Flash Player

3. The next important step is installation Adobe Flash Player. This program is necessary for playing media files in browsers (Internet explorers) such as IE, Mozilla Firefox, Opera. It is already built-in in Google Chrome and Yandex browser.

Browsers

4. It will be important to install a whole set of browsers. I recommend installing all the popular ones, these are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Yandex. Why so many? Can I get by with IE (Internet Explorer from Microsoft)? No, you can't do it! Any of the suggested browsers are much better than IE. Firstly, they are increasingly faster, more stable, and make it easy to manage add-ons. Why is it necessary to install everything? The point is that they are all different and have different useful features that IE does not have. Secondly, in the event of an unexpected failure of one browser, you always have another at hand.

Google Chrome integrated with Google translator. When loading foreign pages, it can automatically translate them into Russian. Translation is often sufficient to understand the content of the pages. Google Chrome can download many files at the same time.

Mozilla Firefox It’s simply not replaceable for those who create and debug websites. It has a huge number of different useful add-ons that other browsers do not have.

Opera one of the fastest browsers in the world. This is especially noticeable on slow Internet channels, when it uses multi-threaded downloading of pages and files, and additional compression of information on its server using special algorithms.

Yandex browser development from Yandex. Very similar to Google Chrome and compatible with its add-ons. Has some limitations. The latest versions of this browser are very fast. Overall a good browser.

There is a great add-on for all these browsers Neuron Search Tools- this extension provides the ability to simultaneously search for information on the Internet via Google and Yandex, and jointly conveniently display search results. Searching with this application becomes much more efficient. I highly recommend it for use.

File download managers

5. Fast, convenient and reliable downloading of files of any size from the Internet will be provided by the download manager Download Master. The program is free, Russian, and practically in no way inferior to paid foreign analogues. Provides multi-channel, fast downloading, and can resume downloading files after a disconnection or power outage.

SaveFrom.net application for all popular browsers. Allows you to download videos from more than 20 Internet resources. Very useful application.

Google Chrome has created many obstacles for this application to work. Now SaveFrom.net installs poorly on Google Chrome, but works great from the Internet. Enjoy it for your health. No problems were found on other browsers.

If you only need YouTube to upload videos, then there is a program for this UmmyVideoDownloader. UmmyVideoDownloader is specially designed for downloading videos from YouTube. Very comfortable and high quality item.

Programs for audio/video communication

6. To communicate on the Internet you need at least Skype. There are a lot of programs for text, audio, video communication, but most people use Skype and it has features that other programs do not have. So we definitely need to install Skype. Surely you will need it.

Text editors and processors

7. Replace the poorly functional text editor from the Windows package with a more functional one AkelPad or even more advanced Notepad++(HIGHLY RECOMMEND). Notepad++ allows you to work with a large number of documents at the same time. It remembers the situation when you turn it off and restores it automatically the next time you turn it on. Allows you to follow links directly from the edited text. It is simply irreplaceable for programmers, as it recognizes code from more than 20 programming languages ​​and helps check it for errors. Detects errors in words and highlights them. Having such an editor on every PC is simply necessary.

8. To create documents of different formats and automated tables, you will need an advanced text and spreadsheet processor like Win Word And Win Excel from the Microsoft Office package. MS OFFICE contains many more useful programs. For example, an email client, a presentation manager, a slide show... On the Internet you can find advanced packages with many additions.

File managers

9. A file manager will provide you with convenience in working with files Total Commander. It has great functionality. The menu of the vehicle itself, the menu of necessary or frequently used programs, two independent windows. Each window can open an unlimited number of tabs, has its own FTP manager, archiver, file viewer, media player.... In general, EVERYTHING is at your fingertips! An extremely convenient and useful program. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Programs for viewing PDF files

10. Foxit Phantom required for reading documents in PDF format. The program is 10 times smaller than its Adobe Acrobat counterpart, much faster and, in addition, allows you to edit PDF documents. I recommend. The program itself is paid, but it can be found for free on the Zver-DVD disk image. If you don’t need editing functions and don’t want to upload a huge image, then you can use the free analogue Foxit Reader or PDF Reader. There are a lot of programs in this class, but I think this will be enough.

Programs for removing locked files

11. Unlocker will help you unlock and delete locked files and folders that cannot be deleted in other ways. A couple more programs in this class that support the Russian language: LockHunter, IObit Unlocker. If, when trying to uninstall, you often encounter messages like “Uninstallation is impossible”, “Access denied”, “Used by another application”, “You do not have enough rights” and the like, then these programs will definitely help you.

Programs for downloading files from torrent servers

12. UTorrent- a reliable, fast manager for downloading files from torrent servers. A very convenient and reliable program for downloading music, movies, disk images.... Second program MediaGet Quite new, but has approximately the same functionality. Both programs are free.

Image Viewers

13. FastStone Image Viewer- an excellent, free, small, fast, lightweight program for viewing images, has the ability to edit the image file, add labels to the picture, optimizes the image code... Highly recommend!

Quickly search files on your computer

14. Everything is designed to search for files on your computer. Incredibly fast. Displays search results when you press each letter, like hints when searching on the Internet. Highlights the found combination of letters in the names of files and folders. Displays file paths. Very fast and convenient program. Free.

The necessary programs for Windows described above, in my opinion, are the most important and necessary, and are capable of meeting the needs of a wide variety of users. I believe that these programs, or at least similar ones, should be present on every computer.

Less important programs

Programs for capturing images and videos from the screen

15. FastStone Capture- takes screenshots from the monitor screen and captures video. Can record system sound or from a microphone. The program is very small and fast. Has a lot of useful little things. There are quite a lot of programs capable of efficiently performing the operation of capturing video from a monitor screen: Bandicam, HyperCam, ScreenCamera, Techsmith Snagit, UVScreen Camera, VirtualDub. They all have fairly similar functionality.

Programs in this class are all paid. Some of them have demo versions - shareware, severely stripped down with poor functionality, sometimes with inscriptions on the screen that make it difficult to watch the video.

The most important leader in this field is considered to be a highly professional Camtasia Studio. It allows you not only to capture images from the screen, but also to edit the captured videos using various effects.

Text recognition programs

16. If you have a scanner or already scanned documents or images with text, then to convert them into text format you will need a text recognition program. The best of its kind ABBYY FineReader.

Automatic Keyboard Switches

17. For those who write a lot of texts using the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet, this will be an excellent assistant Punto Switcher, which automatically switches the keyboard layout based on the words you type and corrects persistent errors. The program is absolutely free, developed by programmers from the Yandex laboratory.

Audio and video players

18. Music and video lovers will need a player Winamp, which has quite rare codecs in its package and is capable of playing recordings from video recorders and surveillance cameras, and also allows you to turn on several copies of the program at the same time, create playlists, adjust the sound timbre and much more.... Free.

There are a great variety of players: Daum PotPlayer, AIMP, BSPlayer, GOM Media Player, KMPlayer, iTunes, ComboPlayer, Ace Stream Media, VLC Media Player, 1by1, Media Player Classic Home Cinema, Light Alloy, TV Player Classic, QuickTime Alternative. They have a wide variety of functionality. Any user will be able to satisfy all their needs.

Windows Cleaners/Accelerators/Optimizers

19. CCleaner useful for quickly and easily cleaning the system from temporary files, unnecessary registry entries, etc... The program does not have the greatest functionality, but it does the minimum required perfectly. Free. There are a great many similar and more powerful programs: Carambis Cleaner, AVG TuneUp, Wise Care 365, Advanced SystemCare, Glary Utilities, Auslogics BoostSpeed, Kerish Doctor, Advanced System Optimizer, System Mechanic, MAGIX PC Check & Tuning. They all have similar, but still different functionality.

If you are very concerned about the cleanliness and reliability of your Windows, then of course any one package will not be enough for you. So, as always, there are functions in other packages that you don’t have. Even just registry cleaners, everyone checks different parts of the registry and sometimes they find something like this... In general, there is a lot to choose from.

To clean the registry, along with other programs, I recommend using trashreg. This is a very small and specific program. Clears the registry of abandoned keys that many demo programs leave on the system. After such cleaning, you can install demo versions again and use their capabilities.

Recovering deleted files

Required programs for windows 10 - 7 - Power Data Recovery

20. Power Data Recovery- a simple but powerful tool to recover deleted data. Allows you to restore:

1. deleted files and folders;
2. files from lost/deleted/damaged partition;
3. data from a hard to read CD/DVD;
4. digital media data.

I would say the program is very important, but since not everyone needs it, that’s why it’s in the second section. Here are a couple more high-quality, free representatives of similar programs: Recuva, Pandora Recovery. It must be said that there are products with higher functionality, but they are paid: Hetman Partition Recovery, R-Studio, Wondershare Data Recovery.

Graphic editor

21. Adobe PhotoShop- an unsurpassed raster graphics editor. Simply a necessary tool for creating, changing pictures and adjusting photos. Required programs for windows 10 - 7 - CorelDraw

22. CorelDraw- the best vector graphics processor. Almost irreplaceable in this area. The program is not super necessary, but is necessary for creating scalable vector images.

Programs for creating animation

23. Easi Gif Animator will be needed when creating animated pictures or videos. It has the entire arsenal of functions necessary for this. Free.

Programs for working with disk images

24. Ultra ISO will be needed by those who create images of CD/DVD discs. Works with standard ISO disk image format. Allows you to create and edit simple and bootable disk images. Uses third-party programs to burn discs, such as Burning Rum.

Programs for mounting disk images on a virtual drive

Required programs for windows 10 - 7 - Daemon Tools

25. Daemon Tools Lite allows you to mount a CD/DVD disk image onto a virtual drive, which makes it possible to see how the image will work on a real drive. The program has a fairly wide functionality: Emulation of IDE drives, Emulation of DT and SCSI drives, Mounting disk images, Creating images of physical disks, Converting and editing images, Burning disks with images, data and music. Allows you to simulate a large number of different disk copy protections. Allows you to run disc games not from a DVD, but from a hard drive, which makes them work much faster. A very useful utility for gamers and those who do not write images to disks, but keep them on the computer. Free.

Postal managers or clients

Required programs for windows 10 - 7 - The Bet

26. Email clients are perhaps the most important applications in modern human computer life. Most users have several accounts in different email services. To ensure convenient management of all mail flows, mail clients have been created. I will list a dozen well-known, and perhaps the best, of the mass of email clients that are available:

The Bet- a great assistant for those who conduct active Emai correspondence. Allows you to download mail from a huge number of mailboxes and organize it into folders. Has a filter designer and much more.

Ms Outlook included in the Microsoft Office software package. The program is very sophisticated. I would say even too much. But maybe this will all be useful to someone.

Mailbird The program is lightweight, undemanding of resources, easy to use and visually attractive.

eM Client- this email client has all the necessary basic functions.

Inky has a trial version that works for free for 14 days. It has quite extensive capabilities.

Claws Mail A rather complex application is intended for experienced users who are not afraid to configure everything manually.

Zimbra Desktop- free open source email client. Zimbra is a cross-platform solution for Windows, Linux and Mac OS.

TouchMail- a convenient email client for owners of tablets or convertible laptops.

Thunderbird from Mozilla is a unique application. The built-in extension system allows you to increase the functionality of the client using numerous tools created by the Thunderbird community.

Programs for reading DjVu files

Required programs for windows 10 - 7 - DjVu

27. DjVu- This is one of the formats of scanned documents. It is usually used for storing and distributing books, manuscripts, and magazines in which there are many images, diagrams, drawings, and formulas. And also for storing scans of historical documents, when an accurate representation of the shade and texture of the paper is required, the most reliable display of all defects, page folds, manual marks and corrections, fingerprints, ink blots, etc.

You can view such files using the following programs: WinDjView, ICE Book Reader Professional, Evince Document Viewer, DjvuReader.

Programs for recording and processing sound

Required programs for windows 10 -7 - Audacity

28. There are also quite a lot of such programs, but perhaps the best one would be small but powerful Audacity. The program works with a mixer built into a personal computer system, as well as external sound sources. It is designed to record audio files of unlimited size.

Allows already recorded files:

1. clean from interference: hissing, static noise, hum;
2. change volume;
3. cut into pieces and assemble as you please;
4. and also compress.

The program is used to record and process digital files. As well as digitization of obsolete sound media: records and cassettes. In addition to its own AUP format, it supports a number of popular extensions. In addition to professional functionality, it is also free.

All the necessary programs for Windows 7 - 10 that we reviewed in this article are mentioned in the article "". There is one note, however. Programs present on the ZverDVD disk - earlier versions can be installed on an OS of any bit depth. Many programs located on the "Zver 2016.3 Windows 8.1 Pro x64" disk have only a 64-bit version. And accordingly, they will not work on 32-bit operating systems.

In today's material we will introduce you to programs that should always be installed on your computer, in our humble opinion. While working on a computer, you often need to install a new version of the browser, or download some kind of utility. But there is a certain minimum required set of software that will create you not only comfort, but also security.

Here is a list of programs that absolutely must be installed on any computer as a matter of priority:

• browser;
• antivirus;
• player;
• archiver;
• recording;
• torrent;
• converter;
• codecs

Let's take a closer look at the most popular representatives of this software.

Browser

Most often, a computer is purchased to be able to find the necessary information on the Internet, download movies and music. For all this you need a web page viewer, or, more simply, a browser. Standard Internet Explorer is probably only for the laziest. Well, the pages open very, very slowly. More advanced users choose modern Google Chrome or Mazila, or, out of old habit, Opera. It already depends on personal preferences. Install a few, take a closer look, experiment.

You will use the browser every day.

Antivirus

To protect your computer from Internet virus attacks, prudent people first install a reputable antivirus program. The choice of such programs is quite wide. Among the free ones, the most popular are Avira, Avast and AVG. Usually one of these programs is installed by all beginners. Sometimes they are limited to them. Paid antiviruses provide more serious protection for your computer. The leading positions in this industry belong to the programs Dr.Web, NOD32, Kaspersky, as well as the paid version of Avast. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some are difficult to set up, others take too long to scan, others noticeably slow down, and others are prohibitively expensive. Today you may be completely satisfied with one version, but it is possible that tomorrow, having installed, for example, Kaspersky for testing, which will find a current virus threat on your computer, your preferences will change dramatically. All antiviruses have a free trial period for testing. Read, compare, choose at your own discretion.

Player

You can listen to music and watch videos only in a special player program. The standard Windows Media Player often freezes, the playback quality is poor, and the player interface is not the most user-friendly. Sophisticated connoisseurs prefer the functionality of KMPlayer. It perfectly supports the most popular formats, does not require additional downloading of codecs, is very easy to install, and is not very demanding on system resources. To play audio, install Aimp or Winamp. Alternatively, you can install the powerful media player JetAudio. It can play both video and music, but it is paid.

Archiver

Usually the files we use take up a lot of space. In order to forward them to someone or send them for long-term storage, the files have to be converted into a more compact format. Similar actions for packing and unpacking files are carried out by special archiver programs. The most common archivers have long been WinRAR, as well as 7-zip. These programs allow you to easily retrieve stored data from archives, as well as reverse packaging operations.

Burning to disc

Quite often we need to save information to an external storage device. The Nero Burning ROM program provides excellent opportunities for this. Clear interface, high recording quality, wide range of settings. Having installed this program for test use and assessed all the advantages, it is possible that its cost will not seem too high. Although many are quite satisfied with the recording result provided by the free program DeepBurner Free. The choice is yours.

Torrent

In order to download large volumes from the network, you will need to install some kind of torrent client. The most commonly chosen program is uTorrent. You can get it on our website. You can also recommend the programs MediaGet, Zona. Having installed one of these programs on our computer, in the future we will download the most fashionable new products from torrent trackers at high speed.

Converter

The fact is that on some devices you can view video files recorded in one format, while some others do not support this particular format. For example, Samsung tablets by default can only play video in MP4 format, many phones recognize only 3GP.

To watch a movie on your phone or TV, you need to be able to convert the video file to the desired format. There are special converter programs for this.

The most famous are Movavi, AVS Video Converter, Any DVD Converter Free and many others.

Quite powerful and feature-rich is the free multimedia file converter Format Factory. This program will allow you to get audio, video, and image files that can be played on iPhone, iPad, Android, iPod and other devices. Among the additional interesting functions, this program can restore damaged files, split and glue, extract audio to disk, etc.

Codecs

There are cases when the sound is played but the video is missing, or vice versa. A common cause is the lack or too old version of codecs - small programs that help recognize the formats of various audio and video files.

The best and most complete packages are provided by K-Lite Codec Pack.

Here, all components are selected so as to avoid any conflicts and are easy to install and replace.

I hope that now you won’t have a question: what programs should you install on your computer?

The variety of computer programs is so great that sometimes the user, without thinking, clogs his system with unnecessary software, then complaining about the low performance of the hardware. Therefore, we will determine the most necessary programs, dividing them into several groups.

The first category is safety

This includes antiviruses. The most popular is Nod32, the full version of which is paid. However, even with a minimal set of tools, the computer is guaranteed a high level of protection and performance.

The second, no less popular, is Avast Antivirus. Ease of use and free updates are the advantages of the antivirus.

The third most popular is Kaspersky. A lengthy search for keys, licenses and only paid versions do not prevent users from protecting their device using this software.

The fourth position was taken by the Microsoft antivirus product Security Essentials - free, simple, and consumes a minimum of system resources.

The top five is closed by AVG AntiVirus Free, which provides reliable PC protection and has a number of additional functions.

The second group is office suites

Not a single client can do without software for working with documents. Therefore, Microsoft Office is a popular software package for viewing and editing images, text files and tables. OpenOffice is similar, which is popular among government employees because it is absolutely free.

The third category of programs is disc recording

Let's highlight the top three.

1. Nero is the most complete and feature-rich package for processing and recording multimedia files. It takes up a lot of hard drive space, but records discs with high quality.
2. Burn Aware Free – software for quick burning. Consumes a minimum of resources, has downtime and a clear interface.
3. Infra Recorder is a popular program with a huge range of tools. Clear and convenient. Does not write to some types of discs.

Fourth group – PC diagnostics and cleaning

1. CCleaner – cleans your computer of unnecessary junk and corrects errors in the registry.
2. Auslogics Disk Defrag is a powerful tool for improving system performance.

Fifth category – Flash Player

Monopoly leadership belongs to Adobe Flash Player - an integral element of high-quality display of Internet pages. Videos, pictures, graphics - everything works thanks to this program.

Sixth group – reading PDF files

To read books, tables, magazines, you need to have high-quality software. The most famous in this category are Adobe Reader, Foxit Reader, Adobe Acrobat. The first two are free, only the last program requires a paid product registration.

Seventh category - codecs

Without K-Lite Codec Pack it is impossible to listen to music or watch videos. The developers have included the most complete set of tools in this package. Therefore, its installation is mandatory.

Well, what about archivers, which make up the seventh group of necessary programs.

Let's highlight two of the most popular:

1. WinRar – works with all existing types of archives.
2. 7-Zip is an archiver that is in no way inferior to its predecessor, and what’s more, it’s free.

Summing up, we can conclude that the above programs constitute the required minimum for working with a PC and do not load the processor. All other software is designed to entertain the user and work in certain areas.

In the professional skills or additional information section, many indicate computer knowledge. But not everyone can make a list of computer programs for a resume. Of course, it’s best to only indicate software that you really know how to work with. After all, the recruiter may ask you to show your skills right at the interview.

Writing rules

HR officers advise writing about computer skills even to those people who are applying for a position not related to working on a PC. When describing your level of proficiency in this technique, you can indicate a list of programs that you know how to use. You also need to write down at what level you know the computer. You can indicate this as follows:

• confident PC user;
• average level;
• entry level computer skills.

But it’s not worth describing in detail about your knowledge of certain programs. Each applicant can use this example of writing this column:

Advanced user. Ability to work with basic MS Office programs (Access, Excel, Power Point, Word, WordPad), graphic editors (Picture Manager, CorelDRAW), programs for sending and receiving electronic correspondence (Outlook Express). I can quickly search for the necessary information on the Internet, I can work with various browsers (Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Amigo, Internet Explorer). Good knowledge of the features of the Windows operating system.

The universal version of this section may look slightly different:

Intermediate PC skills. Ability to work with MS Office programs (experience with Excel, Word), search and download necessary information via the Internet (worked with Opera, Firefox browsers), can send emails.

Specifics of professions

There are a number of specialties for which it is necessary to list knowledge of programs that help work. Of course, it is better to start the description with general information about the level of computer skills and the ability to work with basic programs. For example, in an accountant’s resume this column might look like this:

Confident computer user. Knowledge of basic Microsoft Office programs, such as MS Access, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, ability to work with email (including Outlook Express, Mirramail, EmailOpenViewPro). Excellent Internet skills in various browsers (worked in Opera, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and others). Knowledge of specialized computer programs: 1C: Accounting 7.7 and 8, Parus, Client-Bank systems.

Too large a list listing all kinds of software can have the opposite effect: the employer will decide that your knowledge is very superficial.

It would be nice if an applicant for the position of sales manager, in addition to the list of basic PC programs, also indicates knowledge of specialized ones. In his resume, the specified section of the “professional skills” column may look like this:

Level of competent user. Skills in searching for specialized information on the Internet, experience working with various browsers (including Explorer, Opera, Chrome and others). Knowledge of the basics of working with Linux and Windows operating systems, basic office programs, text and graphic editors (Word, WordPad, PowerPoint, Access, Paint, Excel, Photoshop). Skills in working with specialized systems “BEST”, 1C:Enterprise (specification “Trade and Warehouse”), experience in working with a CRM system that regulates relationships with customers.

If the position requires more in-depth knowledge of certain programs, then they must be indicated. So, for the position of PHP programmer, in addition to the ability to work with a PC, you may need the following: knowledge of PHP, social media API, WordPress API, CSS, HTML, JS, CSS.

In the latter case, you need to focus on your knowledge and the employer’s requirements.

If mastering new programs does not cause you any difficulties, this is worth noting at the end of the section.

A standard Windows installation includes a set of some programs, but, to put it mildly, their functionality is insufficient for normal user operation. In this regard, it is necessary to replace them with more advanced ones. If desired, you can supplement the software with the missing software. It will significantly expand or improve the functionality of a personal computer.

Antiviruses

Installing a fresh antivirus is mandatory, as it protects your computer from unwanted software and hacker attacks. It is not recommended to install several antiviruses, as this can lead to conflicts between them and will significantly slow down your computer.

Perhaps an antivirus is the only thing that is better to buy and be calm about the safety of your data. The most common antiviruses in Russia: DrWeb, Kaspersky Antivirus and NOD32.

Good free ones include AVG, Avast and Comodo Antivirus. Having installed a free antivirus, you must periodically scan your entire computer with the free DrWeb CureIt!

Avast is a popular free antivirus designed for mass use on personal computers. Users using avast! Free Antivirus, fully protected from viruses and spyware in real time. Apart from this, the antivirus also has several other useful tools to keep your computer safe.

Nod 32

Perfectly provides stable and timely protection of your personal computer. The advanced detection methods used by the antivirus even protect against potential future threats.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus

A good solution to the problem of protecting your computer from malware and spyware - Kaspersky Anti-Virus. It guarantees the most reliable protection against the main types of viruses, and performs well both in detecting known viruses and new ones.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus provides a high level of information protection with minimal impact on the speed of the computer.

DirectX

DirectX is a set of multimedia interfaces and libraries designed to implement three-dimensional graphics, video and audio.

DirectX is included with Windows. Moreover, every game or multimedia application requires DirectX, and, as a rule, the newest version, and therefore it is better to immediately update its version to the current one.

Adobe Flash Player

An indispensable free application for traveling on the Internet, since watching online videos on such popular sites as YouTube, VKontakte and many others that use Flash animation technology will be impossible without the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.

What program is needed to watch videos on a computer?

Windows offers Windows Media Player installed as standard. The player interface leaves much to be desired; to watch movies properly, you need to install a bunch of video codecs.

In this regard, replacing the standard Windows Media Player is quite obvious. No matter how hard the developers try, they cannot optimally combine both the video and audio player. For these purposes, it is better to use separate programs.

Player KMPlayer

The best choice is KMPlayer because it contains all the major codecs. After installing KMPlayer, even the built-in Windows player can play all formats. This player has an excellent customizable interface and adequate operating speed.

Photo: watching the cartoon in KMPlayer

Browsers

For better navigation on the Internet, it is advisable to install one of the alternative browsers.

Free ones are especially popular in Russia:

• Opera;
• Mozilla FireFox;
• Google Chrome.

Opera

Opera is compact, has decent loading speeds, is versatile, has a wide range of settings, and has excellent functionality. Thanks to these advantages, Opera can provide the most efficient computer experience.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is considered one of the most advanced WEB browsers. It has many undeniable advantages and makes a very pleasant impression from the very beginning.

A simple and concise interface helps you learn Mozilla Firefox in a short period of time. Guaranteed security, extensibility and flexibility are the main qualities that make the browser so popular.

Photo: official Mozilla Firefox page

Google Chrome

The main advantage of this browser is its simple and friendly interface. Another important feature is the highest speed and reliability of operation. Thanks to this, it loads pages and downloads files quite quickly.

Messengers

Messengers are programs for instant messaging over the Internet in real time. Text, sound, video and images can be transmitted. Such applications are suitable for teleconference communication.

Skype

One of the most popular applications for free communication over the Internet around the world. It can work in the following modes: voice, video and chat.

For its operation, you need a microphone, headphones (or speakers) and a web camera (for video communication). To establish a connection, the Skype program must be installed on both workstations of the communicating people.

The paid version allows you to make calls to telephone numbers.

ICQ

A client that is popular among users for communicating via the ICQ protocol. It was created as an application for exchanging text messages, but the new version of ICQ provides opportunities for a diverse exchange of information.

I CQ is becoming more and more like Skype in its capabilities. In addition to the possibility of audio and video communication, it allows you to search for new interlocutors, reminds you of birthdays, supports sending congratulations, and also allows you to send SMS for free

Archivers

Archiver is an application that is designed to add and extract files from an archive. Data archiving is necessary to reduce the size of data, which is useful for transporting and storing information.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a wonderful free archiver. One of the main advantages of 7-Zip is the presence of a convenient file manager.

It is possible to embed the archiver into Windows Explorer and self-extract 7z archives. Among other things, the application has an excellent level of compression and supports many file types.

WinRar

It is a powerful archiver. Applications downloaded from the Internet are usually archived, and using WinRar you can extract files from the vast majority of archives.

The program is based on a highly efficient data compression algorithm that provides the highest compression ratio.

This application has the ability to restore damaged files.

Burning discs

DVDs are used much less frequently than just a few years ago, however, the need to burn discs still arises from time to time.

For this purpose, they usually use an application with great functionality, Nero Burning ROM. Among the free software, we can recommend Infra Recorder.

Nero

Nero is a disc burning program that offers an almost unrivaled range of options and makes burning discs as comfortable as possible.

As software for burning discs, it is one of the best. Nero Burning ROM is characterized by excellent quality and high writing speed.

The trial version works for 15 days, after which it is offered to be purchased.

Infra Recorder

InfraRecorder is not inferior to paid analogues. The program provides recording of information on most types of disks, supports the ability to create and burn disk images, copy disks, and simulate recording. The program works with dual-layer DVD discs.

Reading PDF and DJVU files

A significant amount of information on the Internet is stored in pdf or djvu formats. The Windows operating system does not contain built-in viewers, so to read files of these formats you must install the necessary applications.

A small, fast and feature-rich PDF viewer that allows you to open, view and print any PDF file. Unlike other free alternatives, it allows you to create PDF files and participate in collaborative reviewing.

Adobe Reader

Adobe (Acrobat) Reader is a software package designed for complex work with PDF files.

The application provides basic functions for working with PDF files and supports all the features of implementing the latest versions of PDF (working with three-dimensional images in a document).

Photo: reading a book in Adobe PDF Reader

STDU Viewer

Software for viewing DjVu and PDF files, which allows you to download the contents of a document to instantly jump to the desired sections, and create personal bookmarks in documents.

Photo: screenshot of STDU Viewer program

WinDjView

WinDjView is a fast, small and powerful tool that can be installed on your computer to read books in DjVu format. It features a modern bookmark interface and advanced printing functions.

Programs for downloading files

A download manager is a computer application that downloads files from the Internet. Its main tasks: protection against download errors by checking the integrity of the file, speeding up its download time.

Download Master

Download Master is a high-quality application for downloading files with the ability to integrate into all the most popular browsers Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and others. In this case, the standard download modules in these browsers are replaced.

uTorrent

Used to save information from torrents. It is distinguished by its compact size and simplicity, with decent functionality. It has almost all detailed statistics, autostart, RSS support, download scheduler and much more.

The disadvantages include the lack of a full-fledged torrent search engine and a preview player.

Photo: downloading files via uTorrent

Office suite

Office packages are a set of programs for working with documents on a PC. Having an office suite today is almost mandatory for any user.

Microsoft Office

The most popular and easy-to-use office suite, including programs for working with various types of documents. The entire product line has simplified navigation. This package is paid, there is a trial period limited to 60 days.

OpenOffice

Free, feature-rich office suite. Ideal for home use. Consists of software for editing tables, texts, creating presentations and working with databases.

Codec set

A newly installed Windows can play only the most basic video and audio file formats. To play other formats, you need to install one of the codec sets.

K-Lite Codec Pack

A universal set of codecs and decoders for playing any multimedia files in a wide variety of audio and video formats.

The package contains both 32- and 64-bit codecs, so it can be used equally well in different versions of Windows.

The list of supported formats is impressive:

Utilities

Utilities are computer applications for solving auxiliary tasks that expand the standard capabilities of the operating system and simplify the process of changing certain parameters. Most of the necessary utilities can be found freely available on the Internet.

CCleaner

A useful free utility for cleaning the operating system from garbage. During its operation, the application searches for and deletes temporary and unused files.

The advantages of the utility include simplicity, accurate, error-free work with the registry. It is possible to roll back to an earlier version of the registry.

Defraggler

A free application for defragmenting your hard drive, which increases its speed and service life. Unlike its analogues, this application allows you to defragment not only the entire hard drive, but also specific files.