What software do you use and on what setup?

Yes it's time for a thread where you can brag about all the cool programs that you have on your PC!
What? No bragging about my PC itself? Okay, fine! But don't expect anyone to think that you are cool because your mom bought you a Dell PC or because you've got a lot of money which you use to buy the newest gear. In other words, keep it nice!

Ow well, I have a HP Pavilion DV6 1020ED laptop which I bought in the early 2009:
Windows 7 Ultimate RC 32-bit.
Intel Duo Core 2.0GHZ.
4GB RAM (will upgrade to 8gb when after buying 64-bit win7).
nVidia GeForce 9200MGS with 512mb embedded vram, 1762MB total.
My sound comes from my stereo which is a old JVC with a plug input which I use for my laptap (jack to plug cable, best thing ever!). When I'm downstairs or when it's late I use a Philips headphone which gives me a decent sound without bothering the world :p

Now, the programs I use:
Browser: there can only be one, Mozilla Firefox (or Chrome when a site hates me for blocking ads)
Mediaplayer: For music I use Winamp (got a realy good organized collection) but for movies I use either Media Player Classic or VLC depending on the filetype.
IM: Windows Live, Skype and Chatzilla (IRC-client).
Image editing: Flash CS4 and PaintDotNet.
Other programs: µtorrent, powerISO, RPG Maker VX and Audacity

So, what do you use?

Hey pepper we have some similarities in programs. I also use firefox, skype, audacity, winamp and utorrent.

I had a nice dual core computer with a good processor and graphics card but we had burglars and they stole that one along with another pc and an LCD monitor.

Now i have a temporary 'ahum' workstation from my business i am using. I ugraded it to 2GB memory and inserted a 512MB ATI card for playing TF2. The only thing special i have is my [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. A real gaming mouse.

I recently got a Dell Inspiron laptop for my birthday. At first i thought it would handle TF2 easily but it's very laggy! Even when lowering the display settings and running on -dxlevel 80. The laptop had 4GB memory and dual core processor so i thought this would be enough. I don't know how much the memory of the graphics card is but that must be the problem.

Does anyone know if you can upgrade the graphics card in a laptop?

No, you can't change your videocard in a laptop (so says google after I wanted to do it myself). Even if you could, it would be cheaper to buy a new laptop then lose parts :/
Next time, I'll buy a desktop and keep this laptop as a media center (long live having a Remote Control)...

-dxlevel 80? You know, I haven't changed a thing in my settings except for pressing the 'use the recommed settings'-button...

I use utorrent too, and Audacity for micspam. I also use Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0

Warning: Entering bragging zone.
And btw, for myself, I use only a laptop for gaming as I have to go between my divorced parent's houses quite often. I got it in late October (I have no idea what the fancy number-letter-number-number-letter name is) and I can play TF2 perfectly on it, and games like L4D2 only lag in really big wide open areas. It's a really nice laptop.
End bragging zone.

totally forgot, I also use WINRAR and 7-zip.

Hey Pepper, what do you think of Windows 7?

I think it's one of the best Windows OS's ever!

I remember win98se, was good for the time but when you introduced internet to it, you would get 1001 toolbars, virusses en other unwanted crap (bonzo buddy, gator).
XP was the first windows OS that didn't had problems with internet (except for wifi). It was stable, custimizeble and just near perfect. It is however a bit dated, with it being near 10 years old and I recon you should update to win7.
Vista was decent as long as you have +2GB ram and the second Service Pack installed. Still, it could have been a lot better. You had to disable certain services to win back the needed ram and cpu power (searchindexer had a bad habit of eating 50% CPU)

Win7 is Vista as it should have been and the future. You can't keep on using that old OS for ever. Win7 is stable, has a lot of new features that are actually usefull and isn;t a memoryhog. If you dislike the Aero-skin like most XP-users, you can go back to the old win98-skin.

However, f you want to update to win7 you need to be carefull. a lot of the older PC's (mostly XP) have outdated hardware that just fit the minimal requirements. Yes you can update, but first look up your specifications (winkey+r -> dxdiag or start -> run -> dxdiag).
If you have a Vista-computer you can just update no mather what. Although you might want to do a fresh instal instead of an 'upgrade' because a upgrade leaves behind a lot of vista-crap.


tl;dr: win7 is better then Vista and is the future, so let you next pc have it or upgrade it sooner or later.

My game pc is XP but i think it's too slow for W7. My laptop has Vista but it's legal and nice to have to crack windows update...

If I updated to Win7, (I have Vista) would I lose all my info, games, skins, etc?

Jeez... It has been a logn time since I installed it (still using the RC)...
If I remember is correctly, you either upgrade or perform a clean instal.
When upgrading you won't lose anything and you will be able to revert to Vista.
Clean install installes windows 7 in a new directory, I do believe that you keep your files as logn as you don't let it format your PC.

I formatted my laptop because I wanted to start out clean like I always do when I ahve to many problems.
Anyway, you should backup your files before upgrading anything. In fact, you should backup your files every week just so you wont lose any important data.

I completely agree with Pepper, allways make backups. And don't upgrade. Its better to format and start fresh.