said on July 17, 2006 5:50 AM PDT:
WinZip is ubiquitous, WinRAR very good but the best compression AND open source app is
7zip.
Dr Nic said on July 17, 2006 6:52 AM PDT:
Ruby as a scripting language instead of Perl, etc. Pity it doesn't come on most machines already installed - you then have to convince administrators to install it and support the gems etc.
said on July 17, 2006 6:56 AM PDT:
xplorer2 is definitely a few steps in front of anything else I have seen when it comes to directory browsing.
said on July 17, 2006 7:02 AM PDT:
Hi. The best app I use out there is
Mobilemeter, a system monitor software. I love it and I've used it for a few years now.
jilm said on July 17, 2006 7:33 AM PDT:
I have to recommend the music player
Billy. It's simply the best music player - clean, fast, very useful.
said on July 17, 2006 7:41 AM PDT:
Here are some of my offbeat free favorites:
calc - a C-style arbitrary precision calculator
clamwin - free antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and 2003.
irfanview - graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.
csved - a csv (comma seperated values) file editor
puTTY - a free telnet/ssh client
filezilla - ftp and sftp client for windows
topgun - a small, fast notepad replacement written entirely in assembler
said on July 17, 2006 10:00 AM PDT:
Google Deskbar is great. The google search box from Google Desktop, without everything else. You can even search without opening your browser. You can find it
here.
said on July 17, 2006 10:12 AM PDT:
NewsBin Pro:
Not free but excellent program to use with your newsgroups.
Winrar:
I prefer this over all others including 7-zip.
Alcohol 120:
Great software to mount cd/dvd images.
Nero 7 Ultra Edition:
Still the best to burn cd/dvd's, create images, etc...
Picasa:
View, baby edit, and mass email pictures (best function I think).
Microsoft Virtual PC:
Now free for all. Great software to run virtual OS's. You can run windows and linux. Test test test, then when it breaks just reload your backup and start over.
rAjaT said on July 17, 2006 10:19 AM PDT:
hey thanks for that list.. those really are some good free softwares and I was not even aware of them.
Thanx again!
said on July 17, 2006 12:44 PM PDT:
Don't use Super.
Not only does it violate the GPL license by including a bunch of Cygwin DLLs without mention of source code, it also installs them into the Windows system32 directory which causes problems and version conflicts if you have Cygwin installed.
- Michael
said on July 17, 2006 1:58 PM PDT:
ObjectDock - an amazing free program. Great if you want to clean up your shortcuts on your desktop. I have used to replace my Windows taskbar. I recommend the plus version for multiple docks.
said on July 17, 2006 5:12 PM PDT:
avast antivirus
http://www.avast.com/
is a very very good antivirus for windows...updated every other day
it is also free.
coreforce firewall
http://force.coresecurity.com/
we have tested and tested and we do believe this is the best firewall out there right now...its not for the faint of heart or for the ones that do not read the manual
it is also free
Sure said on July 17, 2006 8:06 PM PDT:
I found Launchy to be very useful. Applications can be opened in a jiffy. It is very effective.
leeor said on July 17, 2006 10:08 PM PDT:
Grisoft has a free Anti-virus www.grisoft.com
I keep Key Folder on my USB drive, it keeps all of my passwords and it is strongly encrypted. A Must, i dont know why it's not more popular!!! http://www.mag2soft.com/
I'd have to recommend GAIM. It's an IM client (open source) that lets you be on multiple networks at once, including, GTalk, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Jabber and others. You can also have multiple accounts on each network.
It's doesn't have VoIP yet, but thats apparently comming in the future.
You can download it from http://gaim.sourceforge.net
said on July 18, 2006 1:16 AM PDT:
-VLC Media Player
-Miranda IM
-Azureus
said on July 18, 2006 2:39 AM PDT:
I would have to say mediacoder over SUPER. It is found at http://mediacoder.sf.net
Freshdownload for a download manager found at http://freshdevices.com
Netmeter for bandwidth monitoring found at http://readerror.gmxhome.de/
SDP (Streaming Download Project) for capturing streaming audio/video found at http://sdp.ppona.com/
And on the linux side
Krusader for a file manager found at http://krusader.sourceforge.net/
gkrellm for a system monitor (but I use it just for bandwidth) found at http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gkrellm/gkrellm.html
Mplayer plays pretty much any audio/video and it is available for windows found at http://mplayerhq.hu
I think that is a decent enough list.
said on July 18, 2006 5:41 AM PDT:
opensourcewindows has a list of some of the best open source software for windows such as gaim, filezilla, turbocash, etc
said on July 18, 2006 9:01 AM PDT:
NOD32 is by far the best overall antivirus software. I have tried/tested Avast, AVG, Symantec, Sophos, Panda, Trend Micro and McAfee. NOD32 simply uses less resources, is non intrusive and still provides you with the same protection (viruses, worms, adware, spyware and phishing) oh yea and it really works. Unfortunetly they do not have a free version; however, I do encourage all to try since you will end up feeling like I do.
www.eset.com
Sure said on July 18, 2006 10:53 AM PDT:
I just came across this wonderful program that lets you capture screenshots. It is very flexible and runs easy on memory.
url: http://www.faststone.org/
said on July 18, 2006 2:02 PM PDT:
1) MPUI - MPlayer frontend - http://mpui.sourceforge.net/
2) XnView - image viewer - http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html
3) Ant Renamer - http://www.antp.be/software/renamer
4) XMPlay - audio player - http://www.un4seen.com/xmplay.html
5) Foxit Reader - PDF viewer - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
6) AutoRuns - better than MSConfig - http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/autoruns.html
7) ExplorerXP - file manager - http://www.explorerxp.com/
8) nLite + XPize - customize XP setup - http://www.nliteos.com/
9) DM2 - GUI tweak - http://dm2.sourceforge.net/
10) µTorrent - BitTorrent - http://www.utorrent.com/
11) KeePass - password manager - http://keepass.sourceforge.net/
12) DeepBurner Free - CD burning - http://www.deepburner.com/
said on July 18, 2006 2:33 PM PDT:
1) BeamFile - send large files - http://www.beamfile.com/
2) AbiWord - word-processor - http://www.abisource.com/
3) Unlocker - no more sharing vialations - http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
4) Foobar - light music player - http://www.foobar2000.org/
5) TheDude - network monitor - http://www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php
6) RyanVM - slistream hotfixes in Windows setup - http://ryanvm.net/msfn
7) WinSnap - beautiful screenshots - http://www.ntwind.com/software/winsnap.html
said on August 22, 2006 3:58 PM PDT:
Tweak UI...can't remember the site...
Demen
said on August 23, 2006 8:04 PM PDT:
NIST Internet Time Service.
The official tool for setting your computer's time to the atomic clock operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Did I mention it's only a quarter megabyte?
http://tf.nist.gov/service/its.htm
said on October 17, 2006 1:51 AM PDT:
Here are some of the tools i found very useful
iPhox - lets you use the Internet to place traditional telephone callsEvilLyrics - Automatically searches and displays lyrics to current song in Winamp, Windows Media Player, Foobar, iTunes, Real Player, MusicMatch or QCD, JetAudio, XMPlay, Meedio, Yahoo! Music Engine, AlbumPlayer and moreACE Mega CoDecS Pack 6.03 - plenty of usefull CoDecS (CoderS/DeCoderS), Media Player FilterS, Media Players and other Utilities
said on October 24, 2006 1:59 AM PDT:
Well SUPER sounds super, but the download link is no-where visible on the site!
said on October 29, 2006 12:11 AM PDT:
Installed FreshDownload, Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Live Desktop Mail broke.
Uninstalled FreshDownload and both work.
Besides, the FreshDevices freeware require e-mail for registration
said on October 31, 2006 10:44 AM PDT:
For those who like to use keyboard more than mouse, try FAR manager from rarlabs
TuneUp utilities is a comprehensive set of tools which i found very useful for sys maint.
Notepad++ is a very gud editor and competes with EditPlus2
said on November 7, 2006 1:10 PM PDT:
NOD32 BEST antivirus in market.
said on November 9, 2006 7:33 PM PDT:
Avast! antivirus is excellent, low resources, thorough!
FastStone image viewer is also excellent and is loaded with features.
Picasa2 from google is very good and has some useful features.
WinRar is by far my favorite compression software!
uTorrent is a very light weight torrent client.
said on November 10, 2006 5:23 AM PDT:
Linux - openSUSE 10.2
Beryl on Linux... it literally blows windows Vista away
Avast Antivirus - as someone mentioned above
Open Office - 99% like MS office, all for free, why pay for MS office??
said on November 17, 2006 12:28 PM PDT:
I was looking for a free, small and plain CD player.
I tried a couple of freeware apps but they only worked with the first CD drive in your system.
And then, I found HACP.
Don't expect equalizer, filters or a nice wave dancing with the music. It's just a CD player and works really fine; with any CD player (even virtuals, like Daemon Tools).
One more detail, you can set it to "Tiny mode" wich turns the program main window into a really small rectangle which you can drag wherever you want on your screen. Combined with "always on top" mode, it's all I could ask for.
You can get it at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~hneel/software.htm
said on November 24, 2006 5:53 PM PDT:
Attributemagic ProVery powerful utility to change the photo exif dates. every exif field can be manually changed. It can rename files according to file or exif dates. I use it also for creating exif data for cameraphone images.
said on December 5, 2006 12:41 PM PDT:
Synergy - Kinda like a software KVM Switch but ten time more powerful - http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
I garanty it will give you geek a hard on.
said on December 5, 2006 7:58 PM PDT:
Well, most I was going to post were mentioned previously.
I would like to add that:
* Total Commander
* Avast antivirus
and many others also mentioned, are above all, very stable and give me very little headaches.
I would like to add:
a new acquisition from Spain (well Catalonia):
WinRSSAfter installing it all, I had an M$ avatar parrot that came flying over my desktop and started talking all the news of my RSS feeds. This, allows me to keep on doing other important :) tasks while I am listening at all the news and doing a 'subcontious filtering' of what deserves further attention. It also has an option to go to an html page built with all my selected RSS news (atom, XML and all) where I can read the complete news and go to the original page to take other actions...
It is nice, and one of the very few applications well done using the infamous Microsoft's avatars (like clipo, einstein, etc).
Besides, installing completely an avatar would allow you to use it for other jobs.
It's all free.
said on December 5, 2006 8:17 PM PDT:
Sorry,
I forgot to mention a guy that has being developing a very useful password manager that is multiplatform and freeware!
PASSWORDMANAGER (though not a very original name)
it is one of the most complete encripted systems to keep all your passwords by only remembering one...
As it works as a .jar file in JAVA you only need a JRE (included in the download) to have it working in any operating system.
It is a bit slow to start (JAVA). But it also accepts commands from any command line. It is also as much skinnable as a JAVA application could be. It could also be used as a bookmarks encripted file. It has a password generator. And allows recording tags for every password as if you where using Del.icio.us. Besides, it has a very comfortable comments windows that authomatically records date and time of your password creation. The files can be exported/imported in XML, HTML, CSV or plain text.
He hasn't being well promoted in the same proportion as he desserved for the quality of his program.
You should give it a try!
said on December 13, 2006 5:25 PM PDT:
Mp3/Tag Studio - if you're cool enough to be the kind of person whose mp3 library simply MUST be tagged with all the correct Artist/Album/Track No./Genre/Release Year data, this is the most useful tool around!
*Full support for ID3v1.0, ID3v1.1 and ID3v2 tags
*Auto tag from filename
*Auto rename from tag
*Mass set tags
*Mass clean tags
*Mass convert between tags
*Repair mp3 headers (very useful for VBR files that confuse your media player)
*Advanced customizable filtering capabilities to only perform operations on files that meet certain custom set criteria
*Includes powerful generic utility for case fixing and string replacement in any tag field or filename, plugged into all the applicable tools
*Highly customizable shell extension (Windows explorer right click menu) with powerful operations on files and directories
*
and a helluva lot more!!Admittedly it's got a bit of a complex GUI but well worth the effort!
My only real criticism is it doesn't support insertion of Album Art into mp3 headers. I use Musicmatch to do that then Mp3/Tag Studio to clean up the mess ze Jukebox makes of my lovely tags :)
said on December 21, 2006 12:19 PM PDT:
VLC Media Player! The program that will play absolutely any video! has not failed me once till this day! its brilliant!
Noctiluca said on December 26, 2006 9:56 AM PDT:
i suggest tagscanner for your audio files
http://xdev.narod.ru/tagscan_e.htm
and instead of windows search and find :
Ava Find
http://www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind
its not free but may be you want to check it..
artxp said on December 28, 2006 3:36 PM PDT:
here is a great list: http://digg.com/software/Top_25_Essential_Microsoft_Windows_XP_Substitutes
said on January 11, 2007 11:36 PM PDT:
Far Manager - console TC for hackers with macros and plugins sugar. Forget about your mouse.
ImgBurn - Greatest DVD burner.
WinSCP - SSH client for Windows.
said on January 18, 2007 9:45 AM PDT:
1. screenhunter - for screen shots
2. notebook hardware control - Amazing utility for controlling the hardware of your laptop, cpu speed, battrery usage..etc great for extending battery life.
3. CCleaner - very small and robust for cleaning your computer junk
4. converter - for all scientific units converter
5. Syncback - for sync-ing your files and backup
6. VNCreal for controlling other comps on your network..[ make sure you add in the XP addon for added security]
7.Md5summer - for checking integrity of files after copying them from CD or other folders..works recursively inside folders or on individual files.
8.Ch - http://www.softintegration.com/ a nice combo of C, C++, Matlab compiler and graphics utilities .. and free
thats it for now :)
NOTEPAD
GENS Sega genesis Emulator
CAMTASIA STUDIO
PARTIMAGE
NAOMI http://www.naomifilter.org/ internet porn filter
SEBRAN
GCOMPRIS
TUXPAINT
HONESTECH TVR 2.5
SMARTFTP
ITUNES
FIREFOX
GOOGLE DESKTOP
GMAIL
GOOGLE!!!!!!
I endorse Avast, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop Search and WinRAR...
Software Architects should look up StarUML at www.staruml.com
Subbu
said on February 10, 2007 5:02 AM PDT:
SIW - Everything you want to know about your computer
http://www.gtopala.com
said on February 28, 2007 5:52 AM PDT:
Metapad - replacement for Notepad (one of best features is undo/redo)
http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/
Mihov Image Resizer - it takes digital photos and resizes/converts them in batch mode, the best feature is that you can put it on memorystick and use it in cybercafes
http://www.imageresizer.com/
I will only ask you to google these terms, that's probably easier than listing links.
1. Explorer Breadcrumbs: Vista's breadcrumb navigation for XP, free, you won't ever go back to the plain old Address Bar.
2. VisualTaskTips or VisualToolTips, both free, the former is more like Vista's LiveTaskbarPreview, while the other is more customizable
3. EvolutionMediaCenter, free, very very beta, but trust me, not even Vista's Media Center is this cool.
4.Madotate, free, grab the English version, makes your windows 3D very customizable, try Okatu TopDesk, non-free, for more Flip3D like effect.
5.Drempels, free, not like DreamScene coz its still image transitions not video, but still beautiful
6.Yod'm, free, crave the Xgl spinning cube, want it for windows? get this
7.MonoCalendar,free iCal clone for Windows, and I mean clone.
8.Valil.Chess.WinFX, free 3D & 2D, hardware accelerated chess with voice control.
9.VSE (Vista Start Menu Emulator), free, that's what it does very well.
10.James Bond in 007 Nightfire (PC/Mac), not sold anymore, get by unscrupulous means if necessary. Brilliantly fun multiplayer, great mods/maps, good community. I know this isn't really "software" but play it. seriously.
said on April 14, 2007 2:38 PM PDT:
u should check this website http://myprogs.net
recently found Apollo
"Sound quality is not skinnable"
immediatly replace Winamp
http://koti.welho.com/hylinen/apollo/
energy69 said on April 23, 2007 6:17 PM PDT:
One little treasure I love is MWSnap 3 - Freeware. absolute reasure tat takes screen captures by dragging a cross hair and selecting. super fast and light
Brian said on May 8, 2007 7:03 AM PDT:
http://www.nliteos.com
nLite, nlite, nlite, in use with RyanVM Update Pack, and XPize can create a lightweight, secure Windows XP build that can be an excellent base for creating you OS.
Benifits:
Performance
Security
Stability
Appearance [XPize]
Cons:
No Time to get coffee when booting your PC... :P
http://www.nliteos.com
said on May 23, 2007 3:27 AM PDT:
WINACE is also very good zip software
Also esnips.com its free and 5 GB space to upload data! WoW
vialde said on May 24, 2007 2:11 AM PDT:
Vim...for vi like goodness on Windows.
sandow said on June 6, 2007 2:39 AM PDT:
i love free softwares like firefox browser, webaroo offline website viewer, AVG antivirus free edtion, utorrent, lingoes translator. I think they do pretty well, even compared with their commercial counterparts. Most of them are on my PC since the day I discovered them on the internet a year ago. Hope more people support these guys!
said on June 7, 2007 1:48 PM PDT:
DVDDecrypter
the ideal tool for copying DVD's and burning images, you can find it here:
http://mrbass.org/dvdrip/
said on June 19, 2007 10:29 AM PDT:
XINE - Movie player (linux)
Bluefish - Programming editor (linux)
Editplus 2 - Programming editor (Win)
sftp - embedded app on most linux distros
And of course WINE if you cant find the same thing on linux and it has to be windows.
OpenOffice - Well the name says it..
vivek said on June 29, 2007 1:03 AM PDT:
Hoekey lets you configure shortcuts to launch programs, or anything you could do via the command line. Even lets you mimic actions in programs though this gets very geeky. Very useful and tiny footprint.
My Open Source Transition Pack
firefox
thunderbird
open office
skype
cdex
audacity for podcast creation
the juice
NVU web design
GIMP
inkscape
scribus desktop publishing
said on July 16, 2007 7:47 AM PDT:
Litestep
Sharpe-shell
xoblite
are great windows shell replacements
Google Deskbar is great. The google search box from Google Desktop, without everything else
cwg said on July 31, 2007 5:21 AM PDT:
A few that haven't been mentioned yet, unless I missed them:
CH, interpreted programming language that runs on most OS's, can be used as shell if desired; ChScite, a text editor with syntax highlighting that can also be used as an IDE for CH
Blender for moviemaking
Gimp for graphics editing
Media Player Classic to play everything video or audio, versatile and with great options to control rendering. K-lite Codec Pack to go with it.
Python
Virtual Clone Drive to mount ISO images as disks
fix8 for cute video avatar stuff
FolderShare to synchronize files between multiple computers
said on August 4, 2007 9:30 AM PDT:
I used all sorts of stupid software to edit my avi videos until I stumbled into vdub. reccomending it whole-heartedly. simply a brilliant piece of software with all of opensource goodness
dmitri said on August 22, 2007 1:06 AM PDT:
Nothing beats VLC player. Plays everything. When downloading torrents,it will play partially downloaded ones
I can't remember the last time I used windows media player
There's however a 3d party upgrade pack for the media player that can modify it in some sort of vlc player with Real Media playing capabilities.
said on September 11, 2007 2:22 PM PDT:
Where did all my disk space go?
Space Monger is a great graphic disk usage display tool. V1.4 is free, although unsupported. I use it on XP and W2k3 machines. There is a supported commercial version as well.
www.sixty-five.cc
Des Speed said on October 8, 2007 12:31 PM PDT:
fSekrit is a small application for keeping encrypted notes. Use it to keep all personal information on a USB Flash Drive. Only 60kb:-
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Other/fSekrit/
QClip is a clipboard extender for Windows, similar to that found in the Microsoft Office suite, with the exception that it can copy and paste data to and from any other program. Only 60kb :-
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~acurti1/cadae/
said on October 8, 2007 11:59 PM PDT:
try virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) for virtualization..... better than MS virtual PC ..it supports Linux OSes too.
exapted said on October 15, 2007 8:36 AM PDT:
Tor (http://tor.eff.org):
Gets around China's firewall if you happen to be in China. Hides your browsing activity from your LAN, since it encrypts everything. Just make sure your DNS requests are not leaked.
Worldlingo.com:
Very good automated translator for Chinese<->English.
Yahoo Pipes:
Great for figuring out how to actually *use* RSS feeds.
Google Checkout:
Better than Paypal if you have an online store. Cheaper and offers better analysis tools. Of course offer Paypal as a secondary option in case your customers really want to use it.
said on October 19, 2007 1:29 PM PDT:
To rename photos in chronological order with exif date:
Namexif
Hi. Here some the best free favorites app i used :
filezilla - ftpclient for windows
Opera - browser
Spy-Bot - anti spyware
Nicolas said on October 30, 2007 5:23 AM PDT:
SuperCopier replaces windows explorer file copy and adds many features,Transfer resuming,Copy speed control,Copy speed computation ,Better copy progress display, Copy list editable while copyin , Error log, Copy list saving/loading,...
said on November 1, 2007 3:01 PM PDT:
Comodo has some very useful privacy tools. Like a firewall; spam-filter; anti-malware and site verification. I have to concur that Clamwin is a very useful app, Irfanview rocks and Fire ftp is built into the browser.
All this and I said that computers were for the younger generation before I bought my first one at age 50 :o)
roger said on November 9, 2007 4:18 AM PDT:
I have used Directory Opus for years. It isn't free but it costs very little - I don't remember now but I think it's around $30. I never use Explorer now, either in Vista or XP - they just seem so lame after Opus.
MY kids love the dual pane facility. I use the built in ftp client. It is also great as an image viewer with some basic built in image file-conversions and viewers.
There isn't much it can't do!
R
pony said on November 24, 2007 1:12 AM PDT:
Nobody has mentioned WAMP yet, one click install WAMP stack for development. Installs, Apache, MySQL,PHP, PHPMyAdmin and loads of other useful dev tools.
Charles T said on December 10, 2007 2:04 AM PDT:
what about Seamonkey its
firefox and thunderbird all rolled into one.
so you only have one to backup.
-
and I really love the html editor.
and the contacts list
but I still use Gmail 97% of time.
said on December 23, 2007 6:38 PM PDT:
I2P and
Tor.
Great blog. Thanks for keeping it on...
Total Commander.... No doubt, The Best file manager ever for the Windows Environment(with a good set of extensions could be used for a lot of things more)
EditPad PRO.... Notepad and Coding Editor Replacement... Great one whit support for Regular expressions
This two are unmissable.
t3ch said on March 12, 2008 3:25 PM PDT:
Notepad ++-
Nice source code editor, which support a lot of programming laguages.
NetBeans - Very powerfull Java
editor (Supports other languages too)
Thunderbird-
Simply the best mail client. Forget about OE and OE Express.
Firefox - Take back the web
;-)
IrfanView - Very sweet app for
renaming, resizeing and converting many images at a time.
RkLauncher - OS X look a
like taskbar for Windows.
SpyBot - Good
spyware remover.
ImgBurn - Best app to burn / make
disc images.
VoIP Buster - Free calls from
computer to regual phones.
Joost -
Free online TV.
Zattoo - Free online TV.
SSH Secure Shell - SSH and SSH file transfer client.
All your friends use Skype, but you've found an application much better than Skype. You ask you coworkers why they still use Windows Explorer to go to a specific folder. Nobody wants to listen when you say that the Start Menu is useless or that you spend most of your time using the command-line.
