Electronic Music 411 - Essential XP Apps - Windows, XP, apps, utilities

I need to reinstall XP on my music rig. I'm making a collection of all the apps I consider to be essential for 32bit XP, so I'll be ready to transfer and install them all in one session.

Here's the list:

SP3 (I love msconfig)

7Zip - Open Source WinRAR/WinZip alternative.

ASIO4ALL - Freeware low latency drivers for your soundcard, whatever your soundcard is.

Wavosaur - Basic freeware wave editor with VST support.

WindowSpace - Window manipulation, including tiling, snapping, always on top, minimize to tray, etc. NOT freeware/open source (boo!).

Microsoft Powertoys - Tweak UI, Open Command Prompt Here and Desktop Manager. I absolutely must turn autoplay off and be able to open a command line from any folder in explorer. Also, having 4 desktops gives me that warm and fuzzy GNOME feeling. The Desktop Manager + WindowSpace combination allows me to send running apps to different desktops by minimizing to tray, switching desktops, then restoring the window from the tray. Really, WindowSpace is what XP's window management should be.

The NirSoft Utilities - A more comprehensive uninstaller than the default "add/remove programs", plus various system tweaks (right click menu customization, file type associations...)

CoolPlayer - Lightweight, skinnable open source mp3 player. A big plus of this player is that the volume slider controls the system volume, so I leave it on all the time and use the volume slider as the master output fader for all my apps.

MPlayer - I like to watch movies too. No GUI for this open source video player (GUI is available, but who needs it, really?). It's lightweight, performs well, even on HD content, and will play most anything.

VLC Media Player - Super reliable open source media player. Supports a huge number of formats. It isn't the most efficient player, I like to use MPlayer for HD content, but it is unstoppable, even if the vid is corrupted. Also supports flac (which CoolPlayer doesn't

), so it's a great fallback option as an audio player.

HD Tune - Freeware (+ a commercial "Pro" version). Because I'm paranoid about the health of my hard disks.

SumatraPDF - Open source (maybe freeware?) pdf viewer. NO Adobe garbage gets installed on my machine. This viewer is phenomenally lightweight, and works great for reading manuals.

Foxit Reader - I SAID NO ADOBE GARBAGE ON MY COMPUTER. Another pdf viewer, this one with more comprehensive features, including a tabbed interface, and the ability to copy text from documents (a notable shortcoming of SumatraPDF). Also allows me to create tables of contents / bookmarks. Freeware, with a commercial "pro" version.

K-Meleon - An open source browser based on old Firefox code. I don't connect to the internet, but I still need to view the occasional HTML document. I use this because IE makes me angry, and Firefox has become bloated.

InfraRecorder - Open source CD/DVD burning. Nero is the most bloated POS software I have ever had the misfortune to run. InfraRecorder does a great job, and it's a 3MB download.

Also I use Reaktor + Cubase... They don't really count as essential.

Did I miss anything? Do you see anything that you know a better alternative? I like software that's lightweight and free, it leaves more memory + CPU cycles for my music apps.

As you can see from this list, commercial apps have really been pushed out of the utility market and into larger, more complicated software suites. I sure hope that open source / freeware alternatives continue to push the envelope in the future!