Switching from OSX to Windows

[Joe]

Hi chaps. I've been using OSX every day for the last 6-ish years and have recently been given a Windows 7 laptop in my new job. I've not found the transition back to Windows too painful (remember I came from PCFF) but I'm at a complete loss as to what the "essential" apps are any more.

I'm mainly looking for productivity-enhancing stuff, little tools or apps that make Windows more useful and improve my workflow. Browser extensions also count.

Suggestions please?

[Joe]

Points worth adding:

I've sort of settled on using Todoist for task management because it supports the GTD workflow and is available across multiple platforms, but if there's a better alternative please let me know!

I still have an iMac at home and iPhone 5S/ iPads so would appreciate suggestions that also have equivalent mobile apps or Mac counterparts, preferably with sync options where applicable.

[Ekona]

Must admit that I don't really stray away from the native stuff any more.

Firefox is still my browser of choice, with Adblock Plus the only real addon for that.
Thunderbird for email, no addons apart from the British dictionary.
Mozbackup backs up both the above, that's pretty handy.
iTunes handles all my media, apart from hooky BD rips for which I use VLC to play back.
Office 365 is all I need for everything else, which is dirt cheap if paid for annually and gives me programs for everything.


That's really not helpful, I know, but I've moved away from fiddling with small programs these days and just go with the basics.

[Joe]

Yep I'm browsing with Chrome, using Spotify for music and virtually everything else work-related comes from Office (because it has to).

I've even started using OneNote for collecting together and organising meeting notes and stuff. It's surprisingly good, for an Office product

[kingweed]

Here's my essentials fwiw

Firefox - browser, just use the standard gmail client for email
Spotify - music
Google drive has now replaced office/open office. Doesn't cost anything and works flawlessly with the apps for the iphone/ipad.
VLC - plays the vast majority of media and their containers.

[Mr.Clark]

Office 365 is all I need for everything else, which is dirt cheap if paid for annually and gives me programs for everything.

Try and get your work to upgrade. I'm running Office 2013 on my personal PC and laptop, plus Office 2010 at work (they're behind the times), all on the company's license (1 user license lets them install it on up to 5 devices... if MS pull their finger out and make the Android version compatible with the Nexus 7, I'll get that too)

Google Drive is OK, but our roleplaying group use fairly complicated spreadsheets, and the Google spreadsheet app is.. very basic. To put it nicely. Nowt wrong with the word processor though.

My essentials are Chrome with a crap-ton of addons (LastPass, ScriptSafe, Adblock Plus and ZenMate are the key ones), Media Player Classic Home Cinema (have yet to find a video it won't play), Dropbox (and Boxcryptor) and Notepad++ are my main ones.

[kingweed]

Yeah, should have added that. The spreadsheet part of drive is very basic no frills piece of software but they're slowly upgrading it and releasing new parts to it. I think once they get it up and running to a similar level of excel then it'll be perfect.

I've still got office 2007, i've never felt the need to upgrade to 10 or 13.

[Sam]

After 6 years of OSX you might want to get checked for AIDS first,

[Ekona]

Office 365 is all I need for everything else, which is dirt cheap if paid for annually and gives me programs for everything.

Try and get your work to upgrade. I'm running Office 2013 on my personal PC and laptop, plus Office 2010 at work (they're behind the times), all on the company's license (1 user license lets them install it on up to 5 devices... if MS pull their finger out and make the Android version compatible with the Nexus 7, I'll get that too)

But if we get the 'proper' version it costs more and we need one copy per machine. With 365 we get five machines plus the mobile version, albeit we need to renew annually.

I always thought that 2013 and 365 were identical, what's the difference?

[Mr.Clark]

Office 365 is all I need for everything else, which is dirt cheap if paid for annually and gives me programs for everything.

Try and get your work to upgrade. I'm running Office 2013 on my personal PC and laptop, plus Office 2010 at work (they're behind the times), all on the company's license (1 user license lets them install it on up to 5 devices... if MS pull their finger out and make the Android version compatible with the Nexus 7, I'll get that too)

But if we get the 'proper' version it costs more and we need one copy per machine. With 365 we get five machines plus the mobile version, albeit we need to renew annually.

I always thought that 2013 and 365 were identical, what's the difference?

Ah, sorry. That was unclear in my post. I meant, if you get work to buy the 365 license then you, personally, don't have to (because of the 5 machine thing)

365 is the license. If you get that, you can use the latest version (and potentially the previous one), which is currently 2013. If you get the "proper" version, you're stuck with that until you shell out more for the next one.

[Ekona]

Ah right, I gotcha. Thought I'd been sold a bum steer then!

[Joe]

Hm ok nothing particularly new or revolutionary then.

I'm curious as to why so many of you browse with Firefox rather than Chrome? Is it a preference for Gecko over Webkit, or is it just more flexible than Chrome?

[Polito45]

I use all three...

I used to use Firefox for regular browsing but it started getting a bit lumpy - slow to start up etc. I probably just need to re-install it.
I still use it to connect to the server at work because I can't connect with IE for some bizarre reason.

I switched back to IE for regular browsing till I sort out Firefox, but IE seems solid at the mo so I might not bother my arse.

I use Chrome for youtubing... I don't know why I don't use it for regular stuff. I don't like it, but I couldn't really tell you why.

[Ekona]

I just don't like Chrome, feels odd and clunky. FF feels comfy like an old friend.

[Polito45]

I just don't like Chrome, feels odd and clunky.

Yeah that's it, plus it's not intuitive - Google is my homepage in Chrome, I enter a search term and the term goes up to the address bar.
There doesn't seem to be an auto complete and to actually make it search for the term I have to take my hand off my cock and click "Enter".
I mean WTF!

I could probably figure it out in 5 minutes, but it's 2014 for fucks sake... I want everything done for me.