Some Mac users are now dual booting OS X and Windows XP using Apple’s recently released Boot Camp (free). Some are even using “virtualization” with Parallels Workstation (free as a beta, $10 discount on pre-orders, making the cost $39.99) which allows you to run Windows on top of OS X at nearly full speed with no rebooting required. There has never been a better time for Windows users to try a Mac.

I was a full-time Windows user for many years and I still use Windows daily (because I have to). As it is true I prefer Mac OS X and also use Linux, this post will discuss some of the applications that I consider “must-haves” for Windows XP.

First and foremost, this is Windows, and the first thing I suggest is making sure to install all of the Windows updates from Microsoft. This will take awhile, but is an absolute must. Do not load anything before you do this. Even if you are installing Windows XP on Apple hardware you are not safe on the Internet until you do this. Launch Windows Update and install all the updates that Microsoft has available. Keep running Windows Update over and over until there are no more updates to do. Like I said it may take awhile.

Spyware/AntiVirus
Yes, it’s true. Mac’s don’t get spyware or viruses (at least not yet). But Windows does, and you will need some form of protection against spyware and viruses. You will want to install Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware protection. Some spyware is so hard to remove now-a-days you will want to try and stop it from installing in the first place. As it is true that this will slow down your machine, it is better than getting infected. Also consider running a personal firewall and switching browsers.

If you need to remove spyware, these are the popular spyware remover tools you may try AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy Microsoft’s Windows Defender and Malicious Software Removal Tool.

There is one piece of Spyware that is common and hard to remove called CoolWebSearch. This can be usually be removed with Trend Micro’s CWShredder, which also removes CWS.Cassandra, a desktop hijacker as well as a browser hijacker. 180search Assistant is malware that can be removed as many other applications are removed via the Windows add/remove programs dialog.

Many browser hijackers, addons, and malware can be removed with HijackThis for Windows. For a list of items HijackThis can find as well as other spyware removal tools, check out Sysinfo.org.

AntiVirus software I recommend is NOD32, as it does one thing, AntiVirus and is not “bloated” like Norton and some of the others. NOD32 is also cheaper. It is an absolute must to run Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware for most users on Windows.

Learn to use the Internet Connection Firewall in Windows XP or think about a third party software firewall like ZoneAlarm, Kerio Personal Firewall, NetVeda Safety.Net, or Norton Personal Firewall.

Alternative Browsers
It is a great idea to download an alternate browser to Internet Explorer. You will find these free browsers to be safer and more advanced. I highly recommend Mozilla Firefox, Opera or the Mozilla Suite. All of these web browsers run faster than IE and work better with web standards, have more features like RSS, tabbed browsing, and are not nearly as prone to being infected with spyware as Internet Explorer due to its ActiveX components. Another nice feature if you use Firefox is being able to run the same browser on both Windows and Mac OS X. Make sure to check out all the great extensions and themes for Firefox.

Defrag That Drive
CCleaner is a free system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. Defragging Windows is just something that should be done to keep your machine running well. Mac OS X does not need to be defragged in most cases.

The included Windows defragmenter tool is OK, but I prefer Power Defragmenter (freeware) or Diskeeper. Power Defragmenter provides a nice GUI allowing for faster defrags, higher efficiency and increased ease of use.

Sysinternals’ Process Explorer is an application that provides you with extensive information that the Windows Task Manager doesn’t. The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle memory leaks, and can provide you some insight into the way Windows and applications work. Worth the time if you are interested in this.

XP Powertoys
Microsoft’s Powertoys are a collection of helpful tools such as Image Resizer and Tweak UI is a nice addon to Windows XP.

Adobe Acrobat Enterprise Edition
On Mac OS X, PDF is built-in to the OS and Acrobat Reader is not needed. Windows has a different story as you will need something for PDFs. The standard version of Adobe Acrobat is pretty much bloatware and takes a long time to load when opening a PDF. Thankfully, Adobe has released a lightweight version called Adobe Reader Enterprise Edition. Also you can try Foxit Software’s Foxit Reader.

Image Editors
Don’t have Adobe Photoshop for Windows (of course there is no iPhoto for Windows) when all you may want to do is crop something? Try these two free alternatives GNU Image Manipulation Program and Paint.NET.

If you want something closer to Adobe Photoshop try the user friendly and free GimpShop. Gimp is a powerful, open source image editing application. GIMPshop is essentially the same program with some cosmetic changes with menus that are similar to Adobe Photoshop.

Productivity Applications
Mozilla Thunderbird makes a great email client and OpenOffice is a free open-source productivity suite that reads and writes Microsoft formats. No need to buy Microsoft Office for most users.

Window’s Notepad may not be the text editor you need for some tasks. Try these free solutions, Notepad 2 and Notepad ++. Both offer line numbering and colored text. Notepad ++ is offers tabs, syntax highlighting and auto-completion. Either of these are needed upgrades if you edit HTML, CSS, etc. if you want a simple and lightweight editor. If you like to do a lot of HTML and web coding, the free open source NVU web authoring suite may be for you as it can rival GoLive, FrontPage or Dreamweaver.

Internet Utilities
WinSCP or FireFTP (integrating into Firefox) are small and free FTP clients. If you are looking for a full featured FTP client I recommend WP_FTP from IPSwitch. WinSCP can handle SSH activities but if you really need a terminal, there is Putty. One of my web-hosting companies recommend Putty.

The ChatZilla Firefox extension allows you to IRC quickly and easily, but if I want a more feature-rich IRC environment it’s always been XChat or mIRC. Don’t forget Google Talk and Gaim. Gaim is a big step-up from AIM, boasting an ad-free IM client with support for several instant messaging protocols as well as tabs and chat logging.

BitTorrent clients for Windows: Azureus, uTorrent, BitComet and BitLord.

File Utilities
WinRAR with its support for folders, unlike WinZIP, is a well-needed upgrade from Windows XP’s compressed folders. UltraISO is an application for dealing with ISO images.

Media Players
VLC (free) and iTunes (free) are both great choices for Windows XP. VLC is a great open source application that plays back most audio and video formats including DVDs. Many times the “boxed” version of Windows does not include a DVD player. iTunes is the best jukebox on Windows or OS X. Apple has done a nice job giving Windows users a “Mac-like” experince with the Windows version of iTunes.

Change The Windows Theme
If you dislike the Windows XP theme (I do) try the theme that the Windows Media Center Edition version uses, XP Energy Blue 2. It is a whole lot nicer and more modern looking.

Benchmarking And Information
The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status. If you need to get information about your Windows PC (like OS X’s System Profiler) this is a free download that will help.

Benchmark your computer to see if your machine is running well. The SiSoft Sandra benchmarking suite is a great way to track system performance and compare it with other computers. Futuremark’s PCMark and 3DMark series of benchmarking applications are slowly becoming the industry standard. AquaMark used to be a great GPU-intensive benchmarking application, and still is, but their publisher isn’t in existence anymore.

Other Applications Worth Looking At
Audacity, free and open source software for recording and editing sounds.

Skype and GizmoProject are available for Windows for making calls via the Internet (VoIP).

Marratech, freeware – Video conferencing and collaboration on the web.

Yahoo!Widgets (formally called Konfabulator) is now free and available to Windows users.

SpinRite data recovery and drive maintenance application. Also see the other apps for Windows protection at GRC.

So if you are a Mac user and just have to run Windows for that occasional application, for a certain game, or just want to compare Windows to OS X go ahead and give it a whirl. If you are a Windows user and are happy, great I hope my suggestions help. If you are a Windows user and want to try the fairer platform there is no reason not to buy a Mac, dual boot, and compare. I will warn you, once you try a Mac, you usually will end up a Mac user!

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