For today's post I'm getting my geek on. When I first started blogging I actually expected that technology-related posts would be the largest category for me. I am pleased to see that has not been the case as more important topics have taken over (e.g. family.) But it is true that I am a geek and spend way too much time playing around with computers.

I also have a bad habit of reinstalling the OS on our computers every few years. For me it is just the best way to keep computers running smooth and allows me to get rid of the junk that I tried but never actually use. Occasionally those re-installs are forced, as was the case recently when the hard drive went out on our home desktop computer. I now have my laptop and the home desktop both running clean copies of Windows 7 RC.

Every time I start with a fresh install it allows me to decide which applications I really need and which applications were simply wasting space. This post shows my top "Must Have" Apps for any computer I set up.

1. Firefox – http://www.getfirefox.com

This is usually the first application that I install. Installing it first allows me to use it for downloading the other installers I need. I won't go into the big browser debate, but I definitely prefer Firefox.

2. AVG Anti-virus – http://free.avg.com/

Many people would contend that anti-virus should be the first application installed. I agree, but still install it second. There are plenty of good anti-virus programs out there. I do not like the way Norton and McAfee seem to take over my computer. There are others that work. I have used AVG for years without any issues and love the fact that it is free for personal use.

3. Picasa – http://picasa.google.com

Having three children provides me with a lot of photo opportunities. Picasa is a great, free tool for viewing and organizing photos. It will do a lot of the basic edits required such as cropping, light balance and straightening even though it is not an editor like Photoshop. The thing I like best about Picasa is the integration with Google's online web albums Picasaweb. This tool makes it easy for me to come home from the zoo, import all of my photos, make minor corrections and upload them tot he web for the rest of the family to see. It also has plug-ins that will allow you to upload photos to Facebook or post to Blogger if you need that.

4. 7-Zip – http://www.7-zip.org/

Most people do not need a compression tool today. Since Windows XP, compression has been a standard part of the operating system. Files with a .zip extension can be opened like any other file. But if you work with cross-platform files you will eventually encounter compression other than zip. Windows does not natively handle tarballs or gzip files. Extensions for many popular CMS tools such as Drupal and Joomla are often put together on Linux machines and come with this compression. 7-Zip allows you to open the file and view the contents similar to the way windows opens .zip files. Did I also mention it is free?

5. iTunes – http://www.itunes.com

When it was first released I was not a big fan of iTunes. There were other music players that had better features and what I considered to be a better interface. I also didn't like the fact that I couldn't put music purchased on iTunes onto my mp3 players. However, as Apple hoped, I have long since moved to using an iPod Nano and iPhone for listening to music. I now purchase most of my music from iTunes and it is therefore a requirement for any new installation. The important thing to keep in mind, though, is that you deauthorize your account on any old computers or before reinstalling windows. Since each account can only have a specific number of authorized machines, deauthorizing will ensure that you do not use up all your allowance. It will save you some hassle down the road.

6. Image Editing Software – TBD (currently http://www.gimp.org/)

I initially had Photoshop Elements on this list. I like the features it provides for touching up and editing images. The clone tool can be invaluable in creating web graphics. With my most recent OS reinstall, though, I am testing whether Photoshop is the required tool. Given my penchant for free software, I downloaded and installed Gimp. The jury is still out on whether Gimp will replace Photoshop for me, but I have been impressed thus far with the clone tool and some of the advanced selection tools.

7. Office Software – http://www.openoffice.org/ and http://docs.google.com/

There was a time where Microsoft Office would be in this spot on the list. As soon as everything else was installed I would load it up to make sure that I could use my documents and spreadsheets. Lately, I have been using a combination of OpenOffice and Google Docs. Now that Google Docs has offline capabilities, I really enjoy keeping my work there for easy synchronization when I connect. This has the added benefit of allowing me to access my documents from my iPhone quickly and easily. I still install Microsoft Office 2007 on our home computer since my wife has not warmed up to OpenOffice yet, but for now I'm doing fine without it.

8. FireFox Extenstions - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox

After everything is in place I make sure that I have my FireFox extensions installed. While these are not technically applications on their own, they are a part of my standard installation. I have become dependent upon a few of these while the others simply make things easier. FireFTP is the first extension I install. This extension eliminates the need for an FTP client and accomplishes everything I need for uploading files to my websites. After that, I generally install Google Gears (needed to use GoogleDocs in offline mode), Xmarks (synchronizes my bookmarks) and DownThemAll (makes downloading files from websites a lot easier.)

What about you? Have I missed any applications that you just can't live without?