Essential Software Installer

Users who often reformat and reinstall their operating system, or install and configure computer systems regularly, have to repeat specific processes over and over again. One of those processes is the installation of applications on the new system.

While it is perfectly possible to install the apps one-by-one, or to restore them from an existing backup, installing them in bulk proved to be a flexible time-saving option as well.

We have covered several programs in the past, that offered to create application collections to install the apps contained at once on a target system. Among them was AllMyApps, Ninite Custom Software Installations and FreeApp.

All those software installers have in common that they offer to install a limited selection of programs in bulk. Those programs are usually very popular or common apps.

Lets see if Essential Software Installer follows the same principle. The JAVA application displays a list of supported software on startup. The programs are divided into web browsers, plugins and software.

The application detects installed software automatically, and indicates them with a checkmark.

The main difference between Essential Software Installer and programs like Ninite is the way applications are downloaded and installed. There is no option to select multiple programs for download and installation, each program needs to be selected individually in the program interface.

A click on download opens a new window with links to the developer website and a file hosting download. Both links open websites with a download link in the default web browser. This basically means that software has to be downloaded and installed manually.

Now that the process has been established, it should be clear that Essential Software Installer is not a program to speed up the installation of applications.

In its current stage, the program acts as a bookmarking tool containing links that point to download pages for supported applications.

The developers should consider adding the capabilities to automate the download and installation of programs that are supported by the program. The program in its current stage is as helpful as a bookmarks folder with the same set of links.

Considering that this is an early beta we have our hopes set high that the developer will integrate that functionality in a later release.

Essential Software Downloader can be downloaded from the project's website over at Sourceforge.

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