You just turned on your new PC or Mac and wondering where to start? This comprehensive guide brings together the must-have software to transform your new machine into a complete workstation. From security tools to creative software, discover a selection of 50+ free and paid programs with their official download links. This list will help you save time when setting up your computer.
🔒 1. SECURITY & PROTECTION
Antivirus
Avast (free) - https://www.avast.com
Norton (paid) - https://norton.com
VPN
ProtonVPN (free) - https://protonvpn.com
NordVPN (paid) - https://nordvpn.com
🌐 2. BROWSING & COMMUNICATION
Web browsers
Mozilla Firefox (free) - https://www.firefox.com
Google Chrome (free) - https://www.google.com/chrome
Brave (free) - https://brave.com
Messaging & Video
Discord (free) - https://discord.com
Zoom (free) - https://www.zoom.com
Signal (free) - https://signal.org
Teams (free) - https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software
📝 3. PRODUCTIVITY & OFFICE
Spreadsheet, text editor, presentation
LibreOffice (free) - https://www.libreoffice.org
OpenOffice (free) - https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html
Microsoft 365 (paid) - https://www.office.com
For PDFs
Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) - https://get.adobe.com/reader
Advanced text editor
Notepad++ (free - Windows) - https://notepad-plus-plus.org
Organization
Trello (free) - https://trello.com
JIRA (free/paid) - https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
Slack (free) - https://slack.com
🎵 4. MULTIMEDIA & CREATIVE
Media players
VLC Media Player (free) - https://www.videolan.org/vlc
Audio editing
Audacity (free) - https://www.audacityteam.org
Simple photo editing with layer support
Paint.NET (free - Windows) - https://www.getpaint.net
Professional photo editing
GIMP (free) - https://www.gimp.org/
🔧 5. UTILITIES & SYSTEM
ZIP, RAR compression/decompression
7-Zip (free) - https://www.7-zip.org
WinRAR (paid) - https://www.win-rar.com
System cleanup
CCleaner (free/paid) - https://www.ccleaner.com
🔌 6. DRIVERS & COMPONENTS
Graphics drivers
NVIDIA GeForce (free) - https://www.nvidia.com/drivers
AMD (free) - https://www.amd.com/support
Drivers, SDK...
Microsoft various (free) - https://www.microsoft.com/download
Printer drivers
HP - https://support.hp.com/drivers
Canon - https://global.canon/support
Epson - https://epson.com/support
⚙️ 7. PROGRAMMING
Java Runtime Environment (free) - https://www.java.com/download
IDE
Visual Studio Code (free) - https://code.visualstudio.com
Eclipse (free) - https://eclipseide.org
WebStorm (paid) - https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm
Xcode (Mac) - https://developer.apple.com/xcode
Android Studio (free) - https://developer.android.com/studio
🎮 8. GAMING
Platforms
Steam (free) - https://store.steampowered.com/about
Epic Games Store (free) - https://store.epicgames.com/download
🧠 9. AI PLATFORMS
ChatGPT - https://chatgpt.com
Le Chat - https://chat.mistral.ai/chat
Perplexity - https://www.perplexity.ai
Gemini - https://gemini.google.com
Meta.ai - https://www.meta.ai
Copilot - https://copilot.microsoft.com
Grok - https://grok.com
Claude - https://claude.ai
Images
Midjourney (paid) - https://www.midjourney.com/home
Leonardo (paid) - https://leonardo.ai
Audio
Suno - https://suno.com/home
ElevenLabs - https://elevenlabs.io
📋 10. INSTALLATION CHECKLIST
Recommended order:
Security (Antivirus, password manager)
Drivers (GPU, system components)
Browser and communication
Office suite
System utilities
Specialized software according to your needs
Key Takeaways
✅ Always download from official websites
✅ Check Windows/Mac compatibility before installation
✅ Configure automatic updates
✅ Create a restore point before major installations
This article will be updated regularly to include useful missing software. Bookmark this page for your next installations!
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