Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Essential Software (Read 362256 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Essential Software

Reply #150 –
I am not using any of the soft listed in the original post. Don't know why I am living though...

Essential Software

Reply #151 –
Seems everyone got their faves here

So here's my non-multimedia-related tools, in no particular order (actually, in order it appears in my Start Menu):
  • Advanced PDF Password Recovery Pro -- Cracks open those finicky protected PDFs.
  • CPUidle Extreme -- Cools down your CPU.
  • HASHcalc -- Freeware graphical drag & drop hash calculator, MD5, SHA1, CRC32, you name it.
  • 4NT -- CMD.exe replacement.
  • Spybot Search & Destroy -- Free anti-spyware. Join the forums for updates & bugfixes.
  • TreeSize Professional -- Freeware tool to Find out the sizes of folders of a selectable tree. A much more commercial version available.
  • InfoRapid Search & Replace -- Free multi-file search & replace tool, regexp support, handy for those webpages.
  • JDirPrinter -- Freeware. Does a nice directory dump direct into a text file, recursively if need be, and choose just what info you want to dump.
  • AllWaySync -- Freeware. Synchronizes files between drives real quick.
  • avast! Antivirus -- IMO the best AV.
  • Daemon Tools -- Freeware CD image mounter.
  • EditPlus 2 -- Best text editor with amazing powers.
  • DOSBox -- Open source DOS emulator for playing DOS games (yes, I have a whole bunch of them)
  • SCUMMvm -- Free Win32 SCUMM interpreter, for playing LucasArts games and more under Windows.
  • GetRight -- Shareware Download manager and resumer
  • Firefox -- Freeware browser with extensions
  • Thunderbird -- Freeware email client
  • MUSHclient -- Shareware MUD/MUSH/MUCK client
  • uTorrent -- Freeware BitTorrent client, only 160KiB!
  • IrfanView32 -- Freeware image viewer, converter, manipulator, etc.
  • Norton Utilities - ONLY the Norton Protected Recycle Bin and Norton UnErase. Other components are horrid! <-- this is replaced with the next one:
  • Executive Software's Undelete -- From the makers of Diskeeper (next entry), an undeleter that can capture all deletes and saves them to a temporary holding (configurable size/age-limit), and also search the disks for uncaptured deletes.
  • Diskeeper -- Best windows defragmenter.
  • InternetPal -- Freeware connection timer and also email checker.
  • WinRAR -- One of the most widely used compression. Can also decompress others, e.g. .zip, .7z, and .ace.
  • HardCopy Pro -- Screencap capable of auto-saving (i.e. capture several screencaps in a row, and it automatically give a sequential filename).
  • Trillian -- Freeware messenger, connects to Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, AIM, IRC, Rendezvous at the same time with one program.
  • ZoneAlarm -- Free firewall.
Edit: Links and short descs now provided.
Edit2: Scratch Norton, add Undelete, more info on WinRAR.

Essential Software

Reply #152 –
Too lazy to do the links, but I noticed some of my favorites were missing!
  • MediaMonkey - fantastic for music organization, tags from Amazon, tons of features just in the free version
  • PhotoFiltre - an extremely small and versatile image editor
  • EasyCleaner - similar to CCleaner, but has a few more system maintenance tools that I find handy; useful to keep on a flash drive
  • Restoration - easy undelete tool
  • 7Zip - zips and unzips most archiving formats
  • EssentialPIM - Personal Info Manager; takes care of your calendar and contacts with a smooth interface
  • Maxthon - basically an IE shell, but it has many features that I can't live without anymore; has a small memory footprint

Essential Software

Reply #153 –
fb2k, fb2k, fb2k, fl studio, opera, 7-zip, keepass pw safe, pspad editor, totalcmd, truecrypt+tcgina, pgp, hamster mail/newsserver, forte agent...

Essential Software

Reply #155 –
Links, my people, links.    Nobody's gonna enter all that in Google.

Essential Software

Reply #156 –
Media player no one mentioned so far - xine with two cool frontends - amaroK and Kaffeine. Supports external Win32 codecs as well.

Essential Software

Reply #158 –
Quote from: krmathis on
Camino, Adium, Colloquy, iTunes, Max, VLC, HandBrake, QuickSilver, SeaShore, 7zX, Smultron, Xcode Tools, ...


More for OS X:

Abiword (also Win, Linux) word-processor
Cog audio player
Flip4Mac Windows Media Components for QuickTime (also available direct from the ISV: Flip4Mac)
Google Earth (also Win, Linux) 3D interface to the planet
HexEdit hex editor
TinkerTool GUI for access to additional preference settings
NetNewsWire Lite RSS reader
Vienna RSS reader

Essential Software

Reply #159 –
AccuConference offers free conferencing with powerpoint and recording (no charges) via AccuTalk.net.

The web conferencing works with Mac: Article

Essential Software

Reply #160 –
small guiless ftp server for windows with bandwidth limiting abilities? (other than slimftpd or filezilla)
PANIC: CPU 1: Cache Error (unrecoverable - dcache data) Eframe = 0x90000000208cf3b8
NOTICE - cpu 0 didn't dump TLB, may be hung

Essential Software

Reply #161 –
I happened upon EverNote, a nifty free note taking program.

It's basically a freetext database. Its capability to integrate with FireFox is really wonderful: Just select, click, and the selected text (with its formatting and links intact) are copied into the database, complete with a link to the source page.

I also use it to consolidate my personal notes. Up to now I kept them in .txt files, with the unavoidable result of inevitable duplicates. I have been moving them into EverNote. Nicely categorized (it supports multi-categories per note), and there's a quite smart hot-search function to prevent duplications.

This is quick becoming an indispensable tool for me.

Essential Software

Reply #162 –
Quote from: smok3 on
Quote
You should test MyIE2. It uses your IE-engine, but adds so much features.. Of course the most important are tabs-support  
good stuff, so far iam (ab)using 'undo close window(s)', tabbed browsing, no popups. tested phoenix also, very nice, still prefer the ie engine tho  B)

MyIE is a great ....

Essential Software

Reply #163 –
MyIE is now known as Maxthon Browser

Essential Software

Reply #164 –
Putty, Filezilla, Firefox, Foobar, Electricsheep screensaver, Xfire, Msn, RealVNC, Battlefield 2142, mplayer, blackbox, mirc, winrar, utorrent, foxit reader
Always installed upon every format.

Must checkout EverNote.
Im tired of storing notes in text files named "New Text Document.txt", "New Text Document (1).txt". Bah

Essential Software

Reply #165 –
Quote from: TREX6662k6 on
Must checkout EverNote.
Im tired of storing notes in text files named "New Text Document.txt", "New Text Document (1).txt". Bah
Ha, you're like me then  By all means, try it! Even Walt Mossberg (of WSJ fame) praised this nifty tool.

It can not only store notes, it categorizes them, secures them (optional encryption). You can search all of them really fast, plus it has this nifty feature called "Time Band", which enables you to quickly see notes you created since a certain time in the past (just drag the Time Marker, the 'tape' scrolls accordingly).

It has passable to-do list template -- heck, helps me when at home I remember I have to do something at office. Just open EverNote, find the To-Do list for the day (or create a new list), type the thing to do... voila!

I also rarely save webpages now. I just select the interesting text, click the "Add note to Evernote" button (installed when you install the Evernote extension)... done. The note even contains a live hyperlink pointing to the source page.

My Evernote database is now 9 MiB and counting... heck, there's this blogger who called herself GTDwannabe (spelling?) .. her database (she claimed) is 80MiB and counting. She used Evernote not only for taking personal notes, but also as a note-taking tool for her doctorate research.

I found the free version of Evernote good enough for my need. Since I don't do digital ink (no tablet PC nor wacom pads) I don't need its advanced ink recognition. And for synchronization, I found Allway Sync to be good enough to synchronize the database to/from a flash disk.

Disclaimer: I have no relation to the maker of Evernote beside a very satisfied user. And they don't pay me in any way, nada.

Essential Software

Reply #166 –
I played with it a bit and can't really see what the killer feature or two are.

What, in particular, grabbed you and pulled you in?

-brendan

Essential Software

Reply #167 –
What grabbed me in? Let's see... (in no particular order)

1. I consolidated all my electronic .txt notes that previously were lying around in my hard disk.

2. I do not need to save web pages anymore, with its related "..._files" directories. Furthermore, saved snippets also have links pointing to its source. And saved snippets need not be whole web pages; they can be mere selection in the webpage. The selection (and any images selected) gets saved with formatting.

3. Everything I saved in Evernote can have multiple categories. Prior to Evernote, I must think carefully where to put a .txt note. And when I search, I will inadvertently (more than 50% of the time) search in the wrong place first, and finally resort to Inforapid Search & Replace.

4. I can search all my notes really quick, e.g. if I want to find a certain joke regarding genie, I just click on the "Jokes" category, and type the search word. Or even if I am not sure of the category, I will just click "All Notes", type the search word and I'll find the note I'm looking for.

5. Nice To-Do template. I usually use .txt files to jot down things I plan on doing on the office, or back home, or etc. Now I just use Evernote. Even better, Evernote clearly (and automatically) indicates which To-Do's are finished and which ones are "in progress".

6. Custom categories. For instance, I add "@unsent" to denote notes that I want to send using my email, "@URGENT" (boldfaced and red) to indicate things that must immediately be handled upon arrival at office or home, etc. ("@" sign optional, just my way of indicating 'state' instead of mere 'category')

7. I can easily replicate Evernote between home and office by copying mere 4 files.

Well, Evernote is much more functional than just the 7 points above, but those 7 are the reasons that really grabbed me

Essential Software

Reply #168 –
Too bad EverNote doesn't have the same editing keys and functions as Emacs.  If it did, I'd jump on it right away...

EDIT:  Looks like the encryption associated with it is really weak!  I guess I'll just stick with Emacs+GnuPG for now...

Essential Software

Reply #169 –
i uninstalled it after figured out that the plugin for ff is not working at all (after the ico).

Essential Software

Reply #170 –
Quote from: sn0wman on
i uninstalled it after figured out that the plugin for ff is not working at all (after the ico).

The plugin works like a charm for me.
I have some doubts about the screen capture tool though.
Evernote has been added to my list of standard software.

Other things are:

AVG free - a good free antivirus program
Kerio firewall - free and good
Cyberhawk - free, monitors the behaviour of your software
SuperAntiSpyware - free and very good
Adaware - free antispyware scanner
Unlocker - free, solves those "cannot remove ****, is being used by who knows what" annoyances
Diskeeper - very good and fast defragmentation tool
Winrar - file extraction/compression
Fineprint - pre-print formatting tool, because we love the trees

Firefox - free and very good browser
Proxomitron (patched and with grypen filters) - free, web filter
IP-Tools -  to solve those annoying connection related problems

Rainlendar (Moderna skin) - good, discrete calendar and todo utility
YZdock - free, good lightweight object dock (and probably the oldest windows dock)
A wallpaper from studiotwentyeight

VLC - free, best? media player
EAC - no comment, free, best CD rip app
Winamp   , free, I've been using it for almost 10 years and I still use it as my main music player.
EditPlus - free, good, lightweight, text editor

Wireshark - free, sniffing tool - formerly known as Ethereal
Araxis - compare and merge code, documents, etc.

Essential Software

Reply #172 –
totalrun
http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/TotalRun.html
(making total commander (and bunch of my scripts) portable)
PANIC: CPU 1: Cache Error (unrecoverable - dcache data) Eframe = 0x90000000208cf3b8
NOTICE - cpu 0 didn't dump TLB, may be hung
 

Essential Software

Reply #174 –
With all this talk of text editors, I'll throw in my favorite:

evolvEd

It's 100% free and has context highlighting for several languages.

I'd also suggest this font to make reading your code easier:

Proggy Clean Slashed Zero Bold Punctuation (the  8th font on the page)

Here is a description:

Quote
Proggy Clean Slashed Zero Bold Punctuation is identical to the well-liked Proggy Clean but has a slashed zero instead of a dot.

In addition, this font contains some bold punctuation characters and delimiters. The bold characters make things like variable scope (braces/brackets/parentheses are bold) and function arguments (commas etc are bold) more apparent to the eye.


Enjoy!