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Essential software pr. II

Two weeks ago I put together a guide on how to start over with your PC, wiping everything and starting over with a clean, well-organized slate.

Two weeks ago I put together a guide on how to start over with your PC, wiping everything and starting over with a clean, well-organized slate. Part II of that column, a list of essential multimedia software, was supposed to run last week but the release of the iPad 2 and some curious misstatements by Apple head honcho Steve Jobs were too good to pass up. If you missed the first column, email me at andrew@piquenewsmagazine.com and I'll send it to you.

Here, a week late, is Part II.

Browser - Very few people get by with just one browser these days, but that often leads to confusion when looking for bookmarks, history and downloads. Some browsers have plug-ins that others do not, like the always useful Wikipedia toolbar, or additional security widgets like Web of Trust.

The thing is, most browsers work pretty much the same most of the time. Occasionally, if a site is using an unusual plug-in or uses the newest HTML 5 or CSS3 functionality then your experience is going to differ. If there are online forms or other elements built for one platform, they may not be available at all using certain browsers - hence the need for more than one browser. Some people also like using two browsers so they can separate work use from home use, or because they like to sync one set of bookmarks with another computer or a phone.

Basically your choices are Firefox, Chrome, IE8 (soon IE9), Safari and Opera. All browsers have strengths and weaknesses. Some are faster than others, for example, while others have more plug-ins, or an interface that allows for a better or more customized user experience. My advice is to pick two at the most.

If you're a power user you're probably looking at Chrome for speed and Opera for power - Opera is the only browser to pass the Acid3 test at this point, and it's widely regarded as providing one of the best mobile experiences as well. Firefox is the best browser for security, especially with plug-ins. It's also fast (the lead in speed yo-yos between browsers from generation to generation), and has plug-ins for everything.

If you're into games, graphics and HTML5, the much-maligned Microsoft Internet Explorer browser actually wins that department in early tests - IE9 anyway, as previous versions are not so good.

Safari is a good all-around browser based on the Webkit platform, which is quickly becoming the standard, but it really isn't the best at anything at this point. However, if you use Mac computers and devices it makes sense because of the ability to sync bookmarks. It also has a simple, elegant layout.

Multimedia - This is going to be a personal choice as well, although every computer should have VLC Player (www.videolan.org/VLC/), which can play pretty much any type of video or audio file.

For music I do use iTunes for the store, but on my 64-bit PC it's really not a great experience. It's a must-have if you have an iPod or iPhone, but I find it slow, hard on memory and somewhat annoying with constant updates. The experience is much better on my iMac at work, but iTunes freezes and crashes all the time on my HP laptop.

For PC users, I recommend picking up Media Monkey (www.mediamonkey.com) - it's streamlined and lightweight, great for organizing music and it will sync with your gadget. It doesn't let you buy music like you can at iTunes, but it does a great job organizing the music you already have. It supports every type of audio file, and there are a lot of useful extensions available, like one that finds duplicates (DuplicateReport) and Genre Finder, which helps organize your collection without much work on your part.

I don't use my computer to record or watch television, even though it's perfectly capable of it. Windows Media Centre is actually pretty great for that kind of thing, although if you have lots of shows, movies, music, etc. to organize you're going to want to pick up Boxee (www.boxee.tv) or XBMC (www.xbmc.org). XBMC is slightly better in my experience although it's also a lot more hands-on. Boxee is a better out-of-the-box experience.

Another must-have title is Handbrake (www.handbrake.fr), a program that lets you rip your DVDs and convert video files for any purpose - shrinking and optimizing the file for your gadget, converting your .ai files into mpg, etc. Arguably this software can also be used to steal movies as well, but my argument has always been that DVDs are unnecessarily flimsy and easily scratched, and you have a right to back them up.

Games - If you're into gaming you should probably get an account at Steam (www.steampowered.com), which is a great download site. Games for Windows has also made a bit of a comeback, and often has games for sale at a reasonable price. OnLive has potential, but it's not in Canada just yet.

Images - Photoshop is great but even the stripped down Elements is going to set you back a good chunk. Gimp (www.gimp.org) is free (though donations are appreciated) and powerful, and you can download literally thousands of brushes and plug-ins from around the web.