Easiest Hack Ever: Install All Your Essential Programs at Once with Ninite
If you've ever had to do a format and reinstall of Windows XP (and I like XP, but everyone's had to do it at least once), you're familiar with the hours spent on a fresh desktop hunting down drivers and all the essential programs you need to get back to being productive.
Ninite (formerly a project called Volery) can take one of the lengthiest steps out of the process of any new Windows install. It's a site with a catalog of useful free software--familiar apps like Firefox, Pidgin, Skype, and VLC--that you can select for download. Once you've selected all the software you need, simply click "Get Installer" and you'll download a sub-200K file that you can carry anywhere for future installs. (The installer will have a huge filename, so you may want to rename it for convenience, but this is optional.) Keep it on a flash drive, or even save it in a draft email in your Gmail like I do, and you'll always have one-click access to your most-needed apps for those dark days when there's no other way to be sure but to nuke your hard drive from orbit.
Using the installer will install each of the programs you selected without any input needed, selecting each program's default settings and automatically refusing any addons like browser toolbars. Note that this does mean that if you need special settings, like different install paths, they won't be available; once it starts, you can cancel the process but otherwise can't affect it.
There are only a couple of catches. First, no 64-bit apps are available, though they're reportedly coming soon. Second, as mentioned, you only get the default settings with each install, so you'll still have to do a little configuring once everything's up and running. Lastly, Ninite is currently free to use, but will eventually have the option of "premium accounts", with free accounts to lose some features (but not the basic purpose or functionality). So you may want to hop on and grab your essential programs while you can.
Ninite works for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Grab your own custom installer at the Ninite website.
Rob on October 26, 2009 at 07:58 PM
Great idea, I'm going to try this out!
Carlin on October 27, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Wow, that's the coolest program idea EVER :) When I used to work as a computer tech, I could have used this about 14 times a day! Will keepthis in mind, thanks for the great post.
Carlin
@carlincomm on twitter