Windows 7 install guide + App lineup (Vostro 1700)

In one of my previous posts, I wrote about my decision on whether it would be ok for me to get a free copy of windows 7 (Reason: I payed for an OS that should have been what Win7 is but received Vista instead) or not. In the end I acquired a legal and legit version of Win7. I decided that since I’m installing a clean OS for the first time in 2 years, that I would do everything right this time. I’d get only the best tools for the job. This post is about which applications works the best in Win7.

Installation:

Installing from DVD is slow and outdated. I followed Kevin’s post to create a bootable flash drive from which to install Win7. Not only is it faster than installing from DVD, but it makes it easy to add critical drivers to the install beforehand.

On Dell’s site, it is mentioned that Windows 7 is not supported on my Vostro 1700. If you’re searching around and trying to find out whether it is, I have good news: It is, and works very well. There is one catch though, search for a download for this driver: AHCI driver Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge – 2448 (I think I got mine from a Lenovo driver website). Make sure the driver is for windows 7 or Vista, not XP.

Extract and put the driver files on a flash drive (or the installation flash drive if you’re following that method). Without this driver, the windows 7 installation will complain about not being able to access the DVD-rom and fail.

Drivers:

I was surprised to see that Win7 detected and installed all drivers correctly for the Vostro 1700 except for one: The memory card reader. Just download the Ricoh card reader driver from dell.com: R234107

Install it, then download and install the latest display driver from nvidia.com and everything is perfectly set up and good to go. I sometimes have a problem where my headphones don’t want to work, but it doesn’t happen often.

Optimising settings:

Disable Autoplay: The first thing I do with a clean windows install is disabled autoplay (autorun) as it increases the risk of virus infection. Go to control panel -> hardware and sound -> autoplay and disable it.

Speed up boot process: If you have a multi-core system, you can reduce boot time by telling Win7 to use more cores for booting up. Open msconfig (winkey+r -> msconfig -> boot tab -> Advanced options -> Check “Number of Processors” and select the number of cores you have. Apply. This worked very well for me. Also see: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-speed-up-windows-7-boot/

System protection:

I looked around and read reviews to find the best anti-virus and system protection suite available. At the moment it looks like the highest recommendation is for Avira (free) or Avast (free), with AVG (free) also being popular. But there’s a new player in the anti-virus arena which gets very favourable reviews from Microsoft called “Microsoft Security Essentials”. I’ve been very happy with AVG for over 5 years but decided to try out MSE this time and I have to say it’s pretty good. I don’t know the hit and detection rates off the top of my head, but to me it’s more important that AV not use too much resources, otherwise I might as well have a virus bogging down my PC. MSE is light-weight and non-intrusive.

Boot time:

At this point, my boot process takes about 35 seconds and the following processes show up in process explorer: mmc.exe, explorer.exe, dwm.exe, taskhost.exe, nvvsvc.exe, winlogon.exe, csrss.exe, msseces.exe

App Lineup:

Since I’m installing a fresh OS, I wanted just the best apps for the job so after much reading and review I’ve compiled this list. I am not going to go into detail why each is better than alternative applications, you can look it up for yourself. You just have to trust me that most of these apps are better than their alternatives.

• Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials (for the reason stated above). You can also try Avira, Avast or AVG.(all free)
• Video player: MPC-HC (mediaplayer classic home cinema) + FFDShow-tryout. In case you’re wondering, yes, this is better than VLC which I have used for many years. There’s lengthy discussion as to why MPC-HC is the best, however most forums just mention that the best video player is MPC with FFDshow. The problem is that MPC and FFDshow are dead projects and haven’t been maintained for years. I feel that people who don’t explicitly state that you have to use MPC-HC (branch of MPC) and FFDshow-tryout (branch of ffdshow) are contributing to the problem of people using crappy players. Get qtlite if you need quicktime video support. (all free)
• Audio Player: Foobar2000. This is not debateable. Especially with the foo_w7shell plugin which integrates it nicely with Win7. Along with a clean OS installation, I’ve begun the massive task of properly organizing and tagging all my music using the extremely useful tagging tool: Musicbrainz Picard. With foobar2000, all this organizing pays off. (free)
• Web browser: Mozilla Firefox. I’m sure many will disagree that Firefox is the best browser, but that’s not what I am saying. Firefox + firefox plugins simply provides an unrivaled browser combination. Chrome may be better than vanilla firefox, but firefox with the following plugins installed simply make it the best: Weave (online password/bookmark/settings synchronization), NoScript, PasswordMaker and Tree-style tab(!). If you can live without these plugins, then you might as well rather use Chrome which is snappier and more stable.(free)
• E-mail reader: None. I haven’t found an email client that doesn’t suck. Just use the gmail web interface.
• IM client: Digsby. Actually, this one is a case of preference. I like miranda-im and pidgin more, but digsby provides a vital feature that the others do not: E-mail notification. I do not want to run more than one app for communications notification and Digsby integrates e-mail, IM networks, twitter, myspace chat and facebook chat, everything but Skype in one app. The interface design could be a little cleaner, but it’s low on system resources and snappy enough.(free)
• File manager: Altap Servant Salamander. This is a two-pane file manager similar to Total commander. This is probably the single app I use the most. Unfortunately it’s not free. ($37)
• CD/DVD image mounting: Virtual Clone Drive I just like it a little more than daemon tools because it doesn’t require a restart to install and it uses less system resources. It doesn’t have all the emulation support Daemon Tools have though. (free)
• CD/DVD burning: InfraRecorder or ImgBurn. Both are small (Under 4MB), lightweight, and have all of the features of bloated commercial pacakges like Nero. Apparently InfraRecorder is the more user-friendly one and ImgBurn is the hardcore one. (both free)
• PDF Reader: Foxit PDF Reader. Far smaller and less bloated than Adobe Acrobat. A giant improvement over Adobe’s own PDF reader.(free)

If you think you know of an app that’s better than one of those in the list above, please leave a comment.