The Dissected Chicken

Part of The Whole Chicken

06 FEB 2022

Well, I just went through a operating system disk failure, which took maybe 30 hours to fix, and the resultant paralyzation of Skyrim, which took over a week.

So this is a list of files OUTSIDE of Skyrim and its mods that you may end up needing to play modded Skyrim. (on Windows)

Microsoft files - I don't know why they don't include these in their OS packages.  It's not a security measure; Microsoft doesn't know security from monkey poo.  This is the same company that thought it would be a good idea to automatically run any program that showed up attached to an email.  But anyway.

• .NET Runtime Redistributable  (32 or 64 bit as appropriate) 4.8 is the latest; the page shows older versions also.
• Visual C++ Redistributable  (32 or 64 bit as appropriate)  I  got both 32 and 64 bit versions; I don't know if this is a good idea or a bad one.
• DirectX (June 2010) Redistributable juuuust in case

Unarchiver

7Zip - it handles ZIP, RAR, and its own format 7Z compressed files.  Don't even think about getting WinRAR, put your money into this program instead.

Graphic Viewer and Editor

Irfanview - I have never figured out why the program icon seems to be a squished cartoon cat.  Still, this program is fast, efficient, isn't Microsoft, is free, and handles not only viewing but also light editing such as cropping and saving into a different format.

There may be a reason to download the 32bit version even if you are using a 64bit operating system.  I think it's because there are more plugins for the 32bit version.  RTFM.

Editor

Notepad++ - also free, and has been going for a long time.  It seems to update every month if not more often, and it's very powerful.  Note that it's not quite a 'word processor' unless you are VERY old-school (like me).  It's an editor.  It will save files without adding lots of hidden funky formatting characters; this is EXACTLY what you need to edit files like .INI files, or Papyrus source code.