What are the mandatory programs i need f

I mean what are the absolute only programs i need to keep my computer running.

the only things I want are: iTunes mozilla firefox picasa AIM AVG zone alarm lime wire

what else, besides those do i need on my add/remove programs so that my computer and all of those will run smoothly? i remember deleting something once and it made my iTunes not function..

Q: Do NOT go into Add/Remove programs and just start removing things. You really have to know what the program is before you get rid of it. That said, the computer will "technically" run with very little.

What you should do, if you want to clean up the apps on your computer, is to go down the list, and thoroughly google each application you see. For example, if you see "MS Word", and you were to google it, you'd find out it was a word processing application. Knowing what a word processing app is, you should know you can safely remove it. If you don't know what it is, and can't find out, then leave it alone. Some of that stuff IS important. You can do serious damage removing stuff you're unsure of, and potentially corrupt windows, forcing a whole reinstall.

As for program suggestions... You have AVG for virus protection (I would also recommend spybot on top of that), and zone alarm as a firewall. That's great. I'd suggest ditching limewire for something else... as most files on limewire are viruses, and you're bound to run into one eventually. Look into torrents, or try azureus. (Miro is awesome if you go the torrent route). Most other non-essential applications (that is, besides virus and spyware protection, and a firewall) is pretty unnecessary.

Just be careful about finding out what is essential.

EDIT: The last poster is WRONG. You will do serious damage to your computer if you were to remove everything but the programs you list above. Windows updates will sometimes show up in add/remove programs, just as one example.

EDIT2: This is a list of some of the apps I have on a testing computer I own. I put notes next to a few that I felt you might have, that you might be unsure of. This is by no means all inclusive in your environment. Adobe Color Common Settings Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit 2 Adobe Flash Player ActiveX Adobe Flash Player Plugin Adobe Photoshop CS3 Adobe Reader 8.1.2 Apple Mobile Decive Support Apple Software Update avast! Antivirus Bonjour CCleaner COMODO Firewall Pro DivX Codec DivX Converter DivX Player DivX Web Player FileZilla Client 3 GlashFish GnuCash Google Desktop Google Earth Google Photos Screensaver Google Toolbar for IE Google Updater GTK+ Runtime Handbrake IBM Lotus Symphony Intel(R) Extreme Graphics Driver iTunes Java DB Java(TM) 6 Update 10 (DON'T REMOVE) Java(TM) SE Development Kit Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (DON'T REMOVE) Microsoft Compression Client Pack Microsoft Office 2000 Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Feature Pack Miro Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Sunbird Mozilla Thunderbird Netbeans IDE 6.0.1 Opera 9.27 Picasa 2 Pidgin PowerQuest Partition Magic Privoxy Quicktime (DON'T REMOVE) RealPlayer (Removable, but I wouldn't suggest it) Skype 3.6 (Removable) SoundMAX Spybot Tor 0.1.2.19 Vidalia 0.0.16 Internet Explorer (Removable, but I wouldn't suggest it) Windows Media Player (Removable, but I wouldn't suggest it) Windows XP Service Pack 3 (DON'T REMOVE) YPOPs! 0.9.5.1

When I start up a computer, I run through and remove a few of these (just off the top of my head... there are more): Anything that says "trial period" or "demo". Windows Messenger MSN / AOL / etc Some components in "Windows c(flv to mp4) ( flv to mp3) ( flv to mov) (mov to swf) ( online flv converter) (flash website)

For more tips : like as use flv to video converter to covnertflv to mp4,flv to mp3, flv to mov for your portable player, otherwise, you may need free online flv converter to convert mov to swf for you flash websitepublish flash videos omponents" including: All the accessories I don't use (paint, etc) "Internet Games" Indexing Service MSN Explorer Outlook Express Windows Messenger

Then, I run through the registry, and clean out all the unnecessary programs that startup with the computer. This will do that for you: http://www.glarysoft.com/qs.html

Then, I setup virus programs, spyware programs, and a firewall. Then, I install all the applications I want. I run a clean virus/spyware check after that, then run a defrag (right click on the C:/ drive in My Computer, select "Properties", then "tools", then "defragment now".

That generally cleans up a computer for me. Just be careful if you don't know what you're doing.

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