You just bought a new laptop, built a new desktop PC, or are simply clean installing on a new solid state drive, good for you! Gotta love the taste of a fresh new machine, but now you have to get back to productivity Zen by recovering your files and installing programs.

Not sure which ones? Well, let us help.

We've compiled a list of essential programs to get you started. Many of these apps are also available as web services, but app versions have the advantage of offline access.

Downloading movies or music to local storage can be useful when you are expecting hours with no connection. Even if you just want to write emails when an internet connection isn't available, you may want to be able to read the messages that you are writing replies to. Depending on the browser or the network you use, relying on web services can also cause privacy concerns.

From security utilities to productivity tools, and many suggestions for the areas in between, here are top app recommendations with a special emphasis in great free software you can download right away...

https://www.techspot.com/article/2159-desktop-software-essentials/