The perfect Windows XP environment

Through the years of computer addiction, I have formed a standardized setup of the computers I am working on. Here are a few tips to work efficient with use of as much free and open software as possible.

1. Keep your desktop, system tray, quick launch, and Start Menu clean and limit the number of shortcuts to an absolute minimun.
2. Install Launchy
3. Personalize the standard “Save as.. dialog” by adding your most used directories to the sidebar. Follow the simple guide.
4. Set all the system Temp directories to the same dir, and clean it manually from time to time.
5. Use Windows explorer for file browsing, but modify the shortcut so it automatically starts with displaying c:\. Add /select, /n, /e, c:\windows to the shortcut target
6. My favorite user programs:
   1. Music: Foobar2000
   2. Video: VLC media player
   3. Image editing: Paint.net
   4. Office: OpenOffice.org
   5. Msn: Windows Live Messenger + A-patch
   6. Browser: Firefox
   7. Mail: Thunderbird
   8. FTP: FileZilla
   9. VNC: TightVNC