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A lot of people got the impression that if they bought a PC with a pre-installed Windows OS, they could have started to use it for gaming or multimedia purposes at once. Unfortunately, Windows is only the operating system and besides it, one needs other software and updates in order to have a fully functional computer. By a fully functional computer, I mean the fact of being able to view all offline or online multimedia content (music, movies, flash presentations), play offline or online games, edit home made multimedia files, learn how to use different software, etc.
I'm pretty sure that many of the users, especially the beginners may find disappointing the fact that some extra software is required in order to run different applications. Therefore, we will try to build up a "must have" selection of software and add-ins which are usually freeware and, at the same time, are necessary for running other applications.
We shall start with the core components and runtimes:
DirectX, a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs. Microsoft DirectX comes embedded in any Windows OS, but in different versions: for example, both Windows XP Professional Edition with Service Pack 2 and Windows XP Home Edition come with DirectX version 9c, which is the latest; former Windows releases may contain older version of DirectX, so you will need to update. For this and for further information about DirectX, please visit the Microsoft download center.
Windows XP both Home and Professional Edition come with Internet Explorer 6 and you can upgrade it to version 7 by following this link: Internet Explorer 7 . Internet Explorer version 7 is only available for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and above operating systems.
Another security feature available from Microsoft is Windows Defender anti-spyware tool; a very effective tool for detecting and removing spyware, downloadable from Microsoft Windows Defender.
More advanced users may need to install the .NET framework, available in two versions; The .NET Framework version 1.1 provides improved scalability and performance, support for mobile device development with ASP.NET mobile controls (formerly the Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit), support for Internet Protocol version 6, and ADO.NET classes for native communication with Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Oracle databases (downloadable from Microsoft Download Center).
The Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 redistributable package installs the .NET Framework runtime and associated files required to run applications developed to target the .NET Framework v2.0; it can be downloaded from Microsoft Download Center. And, of course, let's not forget Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.0 available for download also at the Microsoft Download Center. That's about all concerning all the important addins downloadable from Microsoft Corp.
Most important: do not close the automatic Windows Update Service, as it continuously patches your operating system with the latest security solutions and continuously updates your system keeping it fit and secure.
We shall move on towards the multimedia chapter and what is one supposed to install, besides Windows Media Player, Winamp or any other player in order to securely view movies, listen to music and edit multimedia files. First of all, you need to install a pack of codecs. Usually, the Microsoft Windows Media codecs are automatically downloaded by Windows Media Player. In case of download failure or if you do not wish to stay online while watching a movie, you can choose to install a codec pack from the many codec packs available, yet we will mention only a couple: DivX codec pack, which contains DivX and Xvid codecs, available for download at http://www.divx.com or XP Codec Pack available at http://www.xpcodecpack.com.
In case you want to edit your multimedia files (video or audio files such as splitting, joining, converting files to other formats, besides the actual editing software, you will most probably need the Windows Media Format. With support for the Windows Media Audio and Video 11 Series codecs, the Windows Media Format provides technology and documentation you can use to create and manipulate Windows Media files in your applications. Download from Microsoft Corp.
Another very useful component, actually player for offline and online component (MOV, MPG, etc) is Apple's QuickTime available for download at Apple.
Java Runtime Environment is a core component necessary to run applications created using Java technologies, such as Web based applications and not only. Download at Sun Technologies.
Moving on to online multimedia content, you will find extremely useful a couple of components needed to play online multimedia content. Adobe Shockwave Player allows you to view high performance multimedia created in Macromedia Director and is available for download at Adobe ;
Adobe Flash Player may prove necessary for playing Flash content and running flash applications.You can download it from Adobe.
Of course, there are lots of free programs suitable for just about anything you may want to do, but I will only add here some free office solutions: Microsoft Office Online File Converters and Viewers and OpenOffice.org, an open source project. Another useful tool for opening PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) files is Adobe Reader.
Basically, the above mentioned components should enable you to fully explore the potential of your computer at a beginner to medium level. Of course, you will need to keep your computer up-to-date with all these components, by regularly checking for their latest versions.
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