Everything in its place
Entry posted by Josh ·
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I've been working a lot on the business side of Leadwerks lately, and although the results aren't yet visible, it's important to ensure our long-term goals are achieved. I wish I could say more right now. 
My main machine is back on Windows XP. I don't want to discuss the relative merits of operating systems, but for me Windows XP is more productive. Other people might not work the way I do, so they will have their own preferences, and no one is "wrong". That said, I am surprised with how simple everything feels. Instead of "experiencing" someone else's idea of what a computer should be like, I feel like I have things back under my control. I looked up a lot of registry tweaks, and am tuning XP to work just the way I want. Here are some of the modifications I made:
- Modified Explorer search to include all file types.
- "Computer" now opens with file tree on the left.
- Shortcuts don't display an arrow.
- Modified places bar shown on the left with file request dialogs.
- Disabled Autoplay on all drives.
- Disabled logon screen.
Yeah, I know it is funny that a programmer is talking about Windows XP like it's 2001, but I like it.
TweakUI is a neat little application I found handy that you might like, and it's offered on Microsoft's website, so it might be a little more reliable than some others.
Another good aspect of my setup on XP is security. I love Sygate Personal Firewall. It prompts the user for every single connection that is attempted, and gives you the option to allow, deny, and save your setting to use again later. There's probably other Firewalls for Windows 7 that work just as well, but none of the ones I tried were as intuitive.
I'm surprised with how few program I actually need. It's also interesting to see how they have changed over the years. Here's a partial list of installed apps:
- Firefox
- Digsby (I had a brief quarrel with this program, but I love it.)
- SmartFTP (inexpensive and fantastic)
- OpenOffice
- Microsoft Visual Studio
- BlitzMax
- BLIde Plus
- XNView
- Media Player Classic (I like Media Player 12 a bit, but it's not available for XP, and I always keep this installed anyway)
- WinAmp 2.95 with Blackdawn skin.
- Paint.NET
- Sygate Personal Firewall
- Avast Antivirus
- CDBurnerXP (very good free program!)
- Steam (of course)
- WinRar
- TGA thumbnail viewer
- DDS thumbnail viewer
- Windows Texture Viewer
- Adobe Reader
So I have everything the way I want, in my own little obsessive-compulsive method of organizing my computer. I think today will shape up to be a very productive day, programming-wise. 
What common programs do you find useful? How have these changed over the years? Now that I have Digsby, I don't need Windows Messenger. I'm attempting to replace Microsoft Office with OpenOffice.org. What about you?
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