[Draft] Topic Moved to Tech Forum
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List of Useful Applications
3D Modeling/Animation
Anti-malware (including anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewalls)
- Ad-aware Free Edition
- AVG Anti-virus and Anti-spyware Free Edition
- Kaspersky Anti-virus
- Comodo Personal Firewall
Relevant Links:
How to test your antivirus software
Audio Editors
BitTorrent Clients
Codecs
- QuickTime Alternative
From its name, you can tell that it's an alternative to QuickTime. This codec is useful if you don't want to download QuickTime Player, which eats up your resources.
It works with Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player.
- Mayi - Real Alternative
Real Alternative is an alternative codec for Real Player. It's free of advertising, no expiry unlike the original Real Player which often shows pop ups while playing a song or video. It doesn't start at startup as well, using up lesser system resources.
Works with Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player.
- Mayi - CCCP
Disc Burning
Disc Ripping
Document Creators/Viewers/Editors
- Adobe Reader
- CutePDF
- OpenOffice
- PDFCreator
To make PDF-files you need the payed version of Adobe Writer. But you can make them free and without advertisements with PDF Creator. PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
Source is not needed if you don't know any programming. - Mayi
File Archiving
- 7-Zip
- ExtractNow
ExtractNow is a useful freeware application that unzips almost every commonly used compromised file. Think about zip, rar, iso, bin, ima, IMZ, 7Z, ace, jar, gz, lzh, lha and sit. .sit is not used in Windows. Mac users will know. - Mayi - WinRAR
Image Editors/Organizers
- GIMP
- Picasa
- IfranView
Simple but handy tool for photo editing. Handles very many different imaging formats. - Mayi - Paint.NET
- PowerDraw
Looking for a powerful 2D vector-drawing program that also supports macros, plugins, import of AutoCAD DXF, exporting to WMF, BMP and DXF, infinite undo possibility, working with layers and much more? Then Powerdraw probably suits your interest. - Mayi
Instant Messenging (IM) Clients
- Trillian
- Miranda IM (lightweight)
- aMSN
- Pidgin
Media Converters
Media Players
- QuickTime
- Winamp
- iTunes
- VLC Media Player
- RealPlayer
- Adobe Flash Player
- Adobe Shockwave Player
- DivX Video Player for Windows
- musikCube
- foobar2000 (lightweight)
Screen/Video Capture Utilities
- VirtualDub
- Windows Media Encoder
- Fraps
- smartison ScreenCopy
System Optimizers
Text Editors
- TextPad
- Notepad++
- SciTE (lightweight)
- Delphad
- Crimson Editor
It is used mainly for editing source codes, but you can use it to edit text files as well.
One great feature that Crimson Editor has but Notepad doesn't is TABS!!!! One window, many tabs, great for editing.
Since it's a source code editor, it will have features that make editing easier. Take for example the curly brackets ( { } ) in Java. It will mark for you the open and closing tags for you, so you will know where you go wrong. The markings aren't that obvious though, it's just an underline.
It also has a highlights the current line you are editing.
If a file that you are editing has changed (by using external programs other than Crimson Editor itself), it will prompt you to reload it. - Mayi - RJ TextEd
Looks pretty weird, but very useful. If you want to create CSS file, you will need an addon called TopStyle.
On the left, it has an explorer-like pane. You can open and close file by navigating through it. On your right is where you edit or create HTML files.
There are other features as well... need time to play with them. - Mayi
Video Editors
Video Encoders
Virtual Machines (VM) and Cooperative Virtual Machines (CVM)
Web Browsers
- Opera (lightweight)
- Mozilla Firefox
Web Development
Others
- Java
- TheSage's English Dictionary and Thesaurus
- Google Earth
- Hydrogen (drum machine)
- Eventcorder (macro recorder)
- Windows Grep (search and replace utility)
- ExamDiff (file comparison utility)
- NetTerm (network terminal)
- Civil Netizen (personal file transfer program)
You want to send big files to your little brother, but that doesn't allways succeed with email, ftp and different messengers will also cause problems. Civil Netizen is a software programm that solves this. When both parties (sender-receiver) have installed Civil Netizen you can place folders or files by "drag and drop" into the "send parcel" window. Files are encrypted and zipped. The receiver gets a hyperlink by email to download the files. Civil Netizen also works on the local network and handles routers/firewalls correctly. Only proxyservers at the office can cause trouble. - Mayi - Pixie (colour picker)
Pixie is an easy, fast and small tool to specify colors. Place the cursor on a color and Pixie tells you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK en HSV values of that color. - Mayi - Cubic Explorer (Windows Explorer replacement)
The Windows Explorer is limited in its options. That's why there are several replacements that can do more and are handled more easily. Now there's a new one called CubicExplorer. What we like about it is that it works like a browser with Favorites and tabs. - Mayi - Task Coach
Never forget anything anymore? Then use Task Coach. It can handle complex tasks and makes to-do lists. - Mayi - EverNote
With the free EverNote Basic you can easily save memos, webpages, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and so on and find it back real quick. The paid version also has handwriting recognition. - Mayi - osFinancials
Full accounting software! Totally free! - Mayi - Scribus (desktop publishing)
- Google Desktop (desktop search engine)
- Bulk Rename Utility
Rename many files in a few clicks. - Mayi - Unlocker
Notice that you sometimes will get a "file in use" and all sorts of errors while deleting files.
This program helps you to delete files by changing some properties before deleting it. - Mayi - MRU-Blaster
Winodws has a habit of keeping track of users' habits. All opened and saved files are stored in the registry (for what I don't know).
MRU Blaster helps to find and delete them. A great privacy tool. - Mayi
Useful Sites
- http://sourceforge.net/
- http://bearware.info/
Bear Bottoms lists the best freewares for Windows, completely spyware free. - Mayi - http://freewarewiki.com/ClifsCurrentNewsletter
Freeware Wiki has a list of freewares, tested and reviewed. - Mayi - http://www.davescomputertips.com/
Dave's Computer Tips writes about some computer tips, and lists some free apps. - Mayi - http://www.bestdownloads4free.com/
As its name suggests, this website lists the best freewares. However, there are some problems with downloading from this site. I've got to debug that whole website to download something I want. - Mayi - http://snapfiles.com/freeware/
A pretty comprehensive list of freewares. - Mayi - http://www.winaddons.com/top-300-freeware-software/
Notes:
- If an application is labelled as lightweight, it means it runs very well on systems with a limited amount of RAM. And that doesn't necessarily mean it lacks functionalities as compared to their more resource-heavy counterparts.
- To Mods: I've stopped at Page 5 of this topic. I may have missed a few items from the topic up till that page though, which you can add on to the list. Please include relevant information in this "Notes" section if you are updating this list. Categories may require revising (such as merging Audio Editors and Video Editors into Media Editors and moving VM/CVM into Others since there is only one entry; need opinions from you guys). May consider shortening/removing comments for most applications. May consider adding commericial applications such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop which are not free of charge into the list.
- Please post any comment in the existing topic. Suggestions for new entries can be made in that topic as well. Once this list is finalized, it will be carried over to a new topic which will be locked and stickied, and will only be updated manually by moderators to maintain neatness. This topic itself will be deleted.
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