What I Use

With the understanding that the reality of my daily computing repertoire changes on a regular basis because of the nature of my day job, I do get a lot of requests about the hardware and software I actually use. So what the heck, here's the list. I'll try to keep this up-to-date, but again, my testing requirements often cause me to change things up.

Disclosure: One reader pointed out that I didn't mention whether I paid for any of this stuff. That's a valid concern. With the exception of Windows Vista and Office/Outlook 2007, I've paid for all the commercial software I use and mention below. The ThinkPad T61 is a loaners, but I paid for all of the other hardware, and I pay for any subscription services discussed here. That said, I would pay for all of this stuff if I had to and I do pretty much recommend it all unless otherwise noted. This isn't an opportunity for me to sell you on some vendor's products. This is what I really do choose to use every day.

August 2007 update: I've subcribed to Wakoopa so you can see what I'm using in real time now. Also available in

September 2007 update: I've added sections for the Mac and video games, and have updated the Windows PC section extensively.

December 2007 update: A lot has changed, again. Maybe my software usage isn't as stable as I thought.

Windows PCs

While I have a number of PCs and servers dedicated to storage, gaming, and testing, I'll just focus on the machines I sit down in front of regularly and actually use on a daily basis. There are two: A desktop machine that is currently serving as my family's Media Center PC (and thus, the front-end to our TV experience via a networked Xbox 360) and a notebook computer that houses my email and goes with me on trips. There's also a third machine, a Mac, I use for testing and digital media purposes.

Desktop PC: HP Pavilion m7690y Media Center PC

Dating from late 2006, this desktop PC has a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor, 4 GB of RAM, a DVD-RW-DL optical drive, a 400 GB SATA hard drive, and a 500 GB HP Personal Media Drive (internal and removable, but USB-based). I've upgraded the pathetic built-in video card with a now somewhat dated ATI Radeon X1600 with 512 MB of RAM. The display is a Samsung 2232BW 22-inch LCD that runs at 1680 x 1050.

Notebook: Lenovo ThinkPad T61 7662XDU

This 2007-era ThinkPad includes a 2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo T7700 processor with the Intel Santa Rosa chipset, 2 GB of RAM, 1 GB of Intel Turbo Memory, an NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M video card, a 100 GB hard drive, and a DVD Multi-Recorder optical drive.

Portable devices

I use a number of portable media devices. I have three Apple iPods I use fairly regularly: A 30 GB iPod with video (late 2005), which I keep in my VW New Beetle and use with an iPod-friendly Alpine stereo, an 80 GB iPod classic, which syncs with all my iTunes-managed content, and a 16 GB iPod touch, which I use solely for video. I also travel with a late 2006 2G iPod shuffle, which is sort of a backup of sorts and includes just my favorite songs. I also use a Zune 80, which has a mix of audio and video content.

My cell phone is an Apple iPhone, which recently got a new lease on life when Google added IMAP support to Gmail Mobile.

My digital camera is a Panasonic DMC-TZ3, an utterly fantastic 7.2 megapixel device that features 10X optical zoom (yes, you read that right) with image stabilization functionality. The Panasonic can also take 16:9 widescreen photos (basically at 6 megapixels), which I'm using exclusively. Highly recommended.

I use, love, and highly recommend the Amazon Kindle e-book reader.

Windows software

I have a collection of software that I regularly install on each of my Windows-based machines. I'll break these down into logical groups, and I recommend all of these solutions.

Operating system

I use Windows Vista Ultimate on my main desktop PC and Windows Vista Home Premium on most notebook computers.

Digital media

Media jukebox: My primary jukebox is now Microsoft Zune 2. I also use Apple iTunes (latest version), and occassionally Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 (Vista version). To keep the media managed by these three applications in sync, I used the wonderful and highly-recommended MusicBridge.For media compatibility reasons, I install the Combined Community Codec Pack rather than a lot of separate audio and video codecs. I also pay for Apple QuickTime Pro 7, which is useful for Web videos and can do simple conversions.

Online services: I download music from online services that offer high-quality files, preferrably in DRM-free MP3 format, such as Zune Marketplace and Amazon MP3 Downloads. Any protected songs I purchase are copied to CD-RW and then ripped back to the PC in MP3 format. I use Amazon Unbox to purchase TV shows (when I miss them somehow) and rent movies. I use Audible.com for audio books. We utilize the Blockbuster Total Access service, and not NetFlix, because you can return DVDs to local stores and get free DVD rentals each time. (Blockbuster also sends free DVD and game rental coupons regularly; it's almost ludicrous.)

Digital photos: I acquire and manage photos with Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery. I also utilize Google Picasa 2 for some acquisition and editing purposes and, to a much greater degree, Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, which I also use for all the graphics on this site. I also use the Editor application in Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 for certain digital image editing functions: It's particularly good at cropping and resizing and could easily replace Photoshop for most people.

I back up my personal photos to Google's PicasaWeb online service, where I pay an annual fee for 40 GB of storage.

DVD: I use Windows Media Player 11 for DVD movies. Every Windows user should grab a copy of Slysoft AnyDVD or Slysoft AnyDVD HD, which are critical DVD tools. They add two important features: First, they let DVD apps automatically skip all the ads and junk that most DVD movies have and jump right to the movie or main title menu whenever you insert a DVD. Second, they make copy-protected DVDs appear to the system as non-protected, so you can back them up or rip them to the hard drive for use in portable devices. I use Slysoft CloneDVD to backup DVD movies and Handbrake and Slysoft CloneDVD Mobile to rip DVDs. Note: I do not steal DVDs; I do, however, make copies of my own DVDs so I can watch them at the gym on the iPod touch and Zune 80.

Digital movies: I very rarely ever need to edit movies. However, I do use Microsoft Windows Movie Maker 6 (Vista) to edit AVI and WMV-based movies and Media Center recorded TV shows. I use Apple iMovie on the Mac or QuickTime Pro on Windows to edit MPEG-4 movies.

Watching and recording TV shows: Microsoft Windows Media Center (Vista) is incredible, and we have a Microsoft Xbox 360 connected to our TV, from which we access Media Center content over the network. Absolutely superb, though I'd like a quieter Extender than the Xbox 360. We also have an Apple TV connected to our TV, primarily for an H.264-based video collection.

Internet

My primary Web browser is Mozilla Firefox 2, though I use Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (Vista) regularly as well and don't fear using it, as I did with IE 6. I use the antiquated LeechFTP for my occasional FTP needs, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 to keep up with friends throughout the day (though I abhor instant messaging in general) and Skype to record podcasts and talk to friends internationally.

Office productivity

I use Microsoft Word 2007 extensively (hey, I write for a living).

My primary email account is via Google Gmail and I use that service to collect mail from my other accounts, giving me a handy, single email access point. Gmail is truly excellent.

I manage my schedule with Google Calendar. I also use a utility called SyncMyCal to sync Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook 2007. I manage my master Contacts list with Windows Live Contacts (part of Windows Live Hotmail); Gmail Contacts is utterly useless for this purpose.

Security

Since switching to Vista, I've given up on bulky security suites. I use Windows Live OneCare 2 on most of my machines and AVG 7.5 Free on the others. AVG works great, and it's not particularly big or resource intensive at all.

Utilities

I use a number of other software utilities for various reasons, including Adobe Reader 8 (for PDF files), Techsmith SnagIt 8 (screenshots) and Camtasia Studio (desktop recordings), VMWare Workstation 6 (OS testing), WinRAR 3.70 (with Vista Ultimate 48x48 theme) for file archiving, ImgBurn for burning ISO files to disc, and uTorrent for occasional BitTorrent downloads.

Web development

I use Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express for Web development.

--Paul Thurrott
March 4, 2007
Updated March 6, 2007; March 10, 2007; June 8, 2007; August 25, 2007; September 15, 2007; December 13, 2007

Mac OS X

I think it's important to keep any eye on the Apple side, though I've always found Windows-based PCs to be more productive, given my work style (not to mention my job). But it's not really about work: I just prefer Windows, sorry. That said, Apple makes good stuff, and of course I'll be evaluating Leopard soon.

MacBook

Dating from June 2006, this is a white, first-generation Apple MacBook with a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo T2500 processor and a DVD-RW SuperDrive. I've upgraded both the RAM and the hard drive: The machine now includes 2 GB of RAM and a 160 GB SATA hard drive. I use the MacBook to keep up with Mac OS X and other Apple software and hardware, and to order photo books via iPhoto. This machine is now running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Mac mini

My wife uses an old G4-based Mac mini as her primary computer. It has 1 GB of RAM and is generally unexceptional, but it gets the job done. It currently runs Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. I see no reason to upgrade it to Leopard.

Mac software

While I don't use the Mac regularly, I do utilize a number of Mac-based software applications for various reasons.

I use Firefox 2, Microsoft Word 2008, and Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4.0 on the Mac when required.

I use iPhoto from iLife '08 to create beautiful photo books. There are PC-based solutions, of course, but I find the iPhoto interface superior.

For ripping DVDs to H.264 format, Handbrake is free, and excellent. (In fact, the Mac version is vastly superior to the PC version.) I also use a handy utility called iSquint to convert video on the Mac. It's great for converting almost any video format into H.264, for example.

VMWare Fusion is the best desktop virtualization solution I've ever used, and it works only on the Mac: I use this to run Windows Vista in a VM under Mac OS X. Sweet.

Video games

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is my primary video game platform, and you can follow my exploits via my Gamercard. I have three Xbox 360 game consoles:

Xbox 360: My main console, and: My main console, and the one connected to my public Gamercard, is where I do most of my gaming. It's in the home office and connected to a 720p HDTV display.

Xbox 360: My secondary console is attached to a second private Xbox Live Gold account. I use this via my PC display for head-to-head and cooperative gaming with my son, and take it to Halo Havoc matches with friends up the street.

I move through video games pretty quickly. Check out my Xbox 360 Activity Center for the latest reviews and games I'm playing.

We have a 60 GB Sony PlayStation attached to the 1080p HDTV via HDMI. It is used mostly for Blu-Ray movie playback.

Wii

We also have a Nintendo Wii, but it is used very rarely.

Mobile

Because I've switched to the iPhone, I can't really run any custom mobile apps at this time. That said, I do use Google's amazing Google Mobile, Gmail Mobile, Google Calendar Mobile, and Google Reader Web apps for the iPhone pretty regularly.