💻 What’s the First App You Install on a Fresh Windows Machine?

First app is Macrium Reflect so I can take an image of the fresh install. Then I repartition to C/D, move my user folders (documents, pictures, etc.) to D. Then I take another image. After that I begin installing my base apps before imaging one more time.

Further note: Because Microsoft insists on crammine OneDrive down our throats, moving the My Documents is damn near impossible. I've found the easiuest way is to initially set up my computer using a Microsoft Account (something they have also made it almost impossibole to avoid), then create a local admin account and always log on with that. That results in several plusses:

1. I can always log on to the MS account if the local account goes belly up
2. I can now easily relocate the user folders to D
3. OneDrive no longer runs

My problems with OneDrive are numerous. The reason I put all my user folders on D is so that I can restore an image to C if necessary without losing any user files. With OneDrive active, anything that goes into My Documents gets stored on C. Not only that, but those files get copied to the MS cloud. Not only is the cloud not secure, but online services (particularly MS) have a habit of shrinking the quota or charging for storage after first offering it for free.

• Microsoft Office (for macOS)

And then to manage DaniWeb:

• PhpStorm
• Remote Desktop Manager
• Viscosity
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Jim, I have not used Windows in a very, very long time, but can you not configure Windows to store My Documents on D? I'm quite sure that you can, if I remember correctly?

https://superuser.com/questions/1725456/wha-cant-i-move-my-documents-folder

I'm quite sure that you can, if I remember correctly?

Before OneDrive it was easily done. Not anymore.

Microsoft is slightly brain dead. Locations for shell folders are stored in the registry. You'd think they'd all be under "Shell Folders", but not all of them are. And you'd think they would have consistent names. But here are the relevent entries

1.  My Music        B:\My Music
2.  My Pictures     C:\Users\rjdeg\OneDrive\Pictures
3.  My Video        D:\My Videos
D.  Personal        C:\Users\rjdeg\OneDrive\Documents

Note that I numbered the entries the way Microsoft might. Seriously? What should be "My Documents" is called "Personal"? Not to mention, the shell folder "Downloads" is not there. Here's the kicker. You can select properties for any shell folder and the location tab shows something like

You can change the location for some folders but you get an error for others, even though the change location option is still presented. And the error message makes no sense. It complains about a duplicate folder when none exists. Without creating a local account (I didn't know about this when I last installed Windows) I had to resort to going to C:, renaming the target folder to <folder>.old, then creating a junction (hard link) to my equivalent folder on D:

Unfortunately, when you try to save to My Documents it still thinks you are saving on C:. It actually goes to D: but it is still confusing. Also, the actual folder is named "Documents", not "My Documents" with appropriate adjustments being made according to the hidden desktop.ini file. What an abortion of a file system.

And OneDrive is impossible to uninstall or disable.

BTW I've spoken with a former Microsoft Engineer. He also agrees OneDrive is an abomination.

the app "Everything" after Comodo Internet security

I agree. Everything is always a definite install after imaging. It's something that should have been built into Windows. I've never found the need for any security software other than what comes with Windows.

As a macOS user these days, does Windows not have a find tool? /confuzzled

As is typical with Microsoft, their search/find tools work poorly, can hog resources, and are difficult to use. "Everything Indexer" is easy to use, has a small footprint, and has almost no effect on my resources. Search queries show you results as you type, and you can create complex search terms with logical operators, as opposed to the lame wildcarding Windows offers.

I should mention that Everything tracks files (by path & name), not file contents. It isn't grep.

BTW I've spoken with a former Microsoft Engineer. He also agrees OneDrive is an abomination.

I’ve spoken to several current and former Apple engineers who agree that Siri is an abomination.

Siri is an abomination

Is it? I've never so much as touched an Apple computer so I have no opinion on that whatsoever.

Siri is an abomination

Is it? I've never so much as touched an Apple computer so I have no opinion on that whatsoever.

Oh, yes. That's well known. Apple should be embarrassed. In fact, they recently fired the head of the Siri team.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/20/apple-puts-vision-pro-exec-in-charge-of-siri-in-exec-shakeup/

Jim, I have not used Windows in a very, very long time, but can you not configure Windows to store My Documents on D? I'm quite sure that you can, if I remember correctly?

https://superuser.com/questions/1725456/wha-cant-i-move-my-documents-folder

You can't, directly, but you can cheat, of course. Put your documents directory on D: (or anywhere else), then go to C:\users[username], delete the Documents folder (admin permissions required, probably), then open a command prompt, and at that location, make a directory junction to the folder on D: with a command like so:

mklink /j "C:\users\[username]\Documents" "D:\users\[username]\Documents"

Everything that expects the Documents folder to be on C: will find it there, but when it accesses that junction, it will, in fact, be accessing the folder on D:. Of course, good practice demands that you back up your current Documents folder before you start fiddling with it - just to be safe. Keep the backup until you're content that all of your applications are functioning as expected.

That's exactly what I did except I used sysinternals junction.exe. This still leaves things screwed up in that the address bar may still show you in OneDrive even though you are saving to the junction point.

Hello

For me, the first app I always install on a fresh Windows machine is a solid browser—usually Chrome or Brave—because the default one just doesn’t cut it for me. After that, it’s 7-Zip, Notepad++, and my password manager. If I’m setting up for work, then definitely Slack, Zoom, and whatever payroll software my team’s using—it’s a must-have. Can’t forget antivirus either. It's funny how we all have that ritual of setting up our “essentials” right after a fresh install. Curious to see what apps others consider non-negotiable! Anyone else here into automation tools early on?