What's your favourite productive app/program to install

Edwin said:

Not too many native/UWP apps in anybody's lists! That's gotta tell ya sumpthin!

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I install Lenovo Vantage on my laptop because it has usefulfeatures I like. For the rest of UWP apps, they're already there so no need to specifically install anything.

Edwin said:

Not too many native/UWP apps in anybody's lists! That's gotta tell ya sumpthin!

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Most of the UWP apps I use are already pre-installed anyway. (Notepad, New Media Player, Snipping tool, etc...)

Hazel123 said:

Am I the only one that uses Panda USB vaccine?

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I used to use it back when I used panda. But windows defender has been doing a good job at staying near the effectiveness rate as panda. And it's not really necessary anymore. Any decent antivirus will do its job here. But as hdmi pointed out, autorun has been fixed but its still possible.

I just dont plug in any usbs other than my own systems, and the one I do plug into other systems, I use a hardware write protect switch to prevent anything from being copied to it. I stick that one into infected machines all the time to run my tools/scripts and other things.

Edwin said:

Not too many native/UWP apps in anybody's lists! That's gotta tell ya sumpthin!

Click to expand...

Most of the apps I use are not in the microsoft store, however that is slowly changing. All the microsoft store apps I use are included out of the box like others have said, and I do find them useful. I actually use a few widgets from the microsoft store as well for the widgets panel. I also use a wifi analyzer tool on there to give me basic info.

Wow - great thread! I have many of the apps mentioned, but I was surprised to read that one I truly couldn't manage without hasn't been mentioned: Quicken. It's not free, but it's worth far more to me than the cost, and I've been using it on each computer I've had since 1986. It has left me with a fantastic record of our financial history as well as details about was going on over the years.
Gini

Hazel123 said:

Thanks. So the panda vaccine basically just disables auto play on the computer (when you select it to “vaccinate” the computer) presumably. And does the same to a usb stick. Presumably that protects from user error if it’s been turned on.

I’m curious as to how that worm/trojan managed to get onto a Windows 10 laptop (which had been clean installed). I seem to remember the av didn’t block it but removed it a few seconds after the usb stick was inserted.

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Computer Vaccination
The free Panda USB Vaccine allows users to vaccinate their PCs in order to disable AutoRun completely so that no program from any USB/CD/DVD drive (regardless of whether they have been previously vaccinated or not) can auto-execute. This is a really helpful feature as there is no user friendly and easy way of completely disabling AutoRun on a Windows PC.

USB Vaccination
The free Panda USB Vaccine can be used on individual USB drives to disable its AUTORUN.INF file in order to prevent malware infections from spreading automatically. When applied on a USB drive, the vaccine permanently blocks an innocuous AUTORUN.INF file, preventing it from being read, created, deleted or modified. Once applied it effectivelly disables Windows from automatically executing any malicious file that might be stored in that particular USB drive. The drive can otherwise be used normally and files (even malware) copied to/from it, but they will be prevented from opening automatically. Panda USB Vaccine currently only works on FAT & FAT32 USB drives. Also keep in mind that USB drives that have been vaccinated cannot be reversed except with a format.

From: https://www.pandasecurity.com/en/mediacenter/panda-usb-and-autorun-vaccine/

Gini said:

Wow - great thread! I have many of the apps mentioned, but I was surprised to read that one I truly couldn't manage without hasn't been mentioned: Quicken. It's not free, but it's worth far more to me than the cost, and I've been using it on each computer I've had since 1986. It has left me with a fantastic record of our financial history as well as details about was going on over the years.
Gini

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I got away from Quicken when I could get check register Templates from Microsoft Office to use in Excel, had simple needs and could read the same file on any computer with a spreadsheet program.

andrew129260 said:

I used to use it back when I used panda. But windows defender has been doing a good job at staying near the effectiveness rate as panda. And it's not really necessary anymore. Any decent antivirus will do its job here. But as hdmi pointed out, autorun has been fixed but its still possible.

I just dont plug in any usbs other than my own systems, and the one I do plug into other systems, I use a hardware write protect switch to prevent anything from being copied to it. I stick that one into infected machines all the time to run my tools/scripts and other things.

Most of the apps I use are not in the microsoft store, however that is slowly changing. All the microsoft store apps I use are included out of the box like others have said, and I do find them useful. I actually use a few widgets from the microsoft store as well for the widgets panel. I also use a wifi analyzer tool on there to give me basic info.

https://www.elevenforum.com/account/th-attachment-manager/90267/view

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How do you create a hardware write protection switch?

I guess it gives me peace of mind to know all my usb’s are “vaccinated”. If one is formatted, Panda immediately vaccinates it again.

Hazel123 said:

How do you create a hardware write protection switch?

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Don't have a USB Thumb drive with it but maybe some are like the SD/SDHC cards or the old 3.5" floppy disks, have a small slide button to prevent writing or deleting.

I also install photos legacy from the App Store, because it allows for brief video clipping which the new photos app doesn’t.

Hazel123 said:

How do you create a hardware write protection switch?

I guess it gives me peace of mind to know all my usb’s are “vaccinated”. If one is formatted, Panda immediately vaccinates it again.

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I have this:

Amazon - Kanguru usb drive

Hazel123 said:

How do you create a hardware write protection switch?

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You could create a write blocker with enough knowledge of USB and some soldering. I made a crude one in my youth.
Apart from that, there are drives with write-protect switches, such as the ones from Kanguru. There are also devices to block any USB writes to any device plugged into it, typically used by forensics teams, e.g., the ones made by WiebeTech. They all seem to be super expensive though.

Update: Some semi-interesting write-block tests from NIST: Hardware Write Block

Forgot about one precious little gem:
Crypto Notepad

I also forgot about Amazon Kindle for desktop - quite handy. Not for "reading books" exactly but for dipping into reference books.

Hazel123 said:

I also forgot about Amazon Kindle for desktop - quite handy. Not for "reading books" exactly but for dipping into reference books.

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Note also Calibre where you can convert e-books into a whole slew of formats which means you don't have to rely solely on Amazon for the source of your literature. You can get epub formatted e-bboks for example into AZI3 or whatever amazon use these days and there's zillions of books in the public domain including scientific papers etc in epub format. This in any case is a far better app for perusing e-books too rather than the kindle desktop app.


Cheers
jimbo

my install list

discord
FF <-- optional
notepad++
Excel2010, Excel 97 <-- both
python
Thunderbird

discord is my must-be. Firefox is optional.
it's Data PC. therefore, e-macro and python are must-be. notepad++ is an easy tool for coding.
(macro runs slow on cloud-based Office, hence forget those Office 2013 or higher versions. Excel97 runs fastest but almost extinct)

I'm surprised OneNote hasn't been mentioned. OneNote is one of my most used apps.

Most I use already been mentioned.

Havent saw anyone mentioning WingetUI its the first app that I install for them installing all other apps

TraderGary said:

I'm surprised OneNote hasn't been mentioned. OneNote is one of my most used apps.

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Mine too, but it's habit of creating unremovable duplicates on its Home page is infuriating. I wouldn't be without it though - never go out without it.

fixer said:

Mine too, but it's habit of creating unremovable duplicates on its Home page is infuriating. I wouldn't be without it though - never go out without it.

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What do you mean by unremovable duplicates? I've used OneNote for many years and don't know what you're talking about.

TraderGary said:

What do you mean by unremovable duplicates? I've used OneNote for many years and don't know what you're talking about.

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Maybe it just happens when the app is installed on Android phones but if you attempt to delete duplicates then all versions get deleted. The duplicates only appear on the Home page so if I go to the Notebooks page no duplicates.