Programs you cant "live" without

[Arafinwe 0]

There are many Registry cleaners out there but most of those are not

to my liking, so I was glad when several years ago I found Regseeker.

 

One of the great things about this one is that it can be set to many

languages

 

Program Title : Regseeker

Area of application : Windows registry cleaner

Recommended because : Easy and save to use

Download from : http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Cost : Free for personal use.

Known drawbacks / limitation : As far as I am aware 1.55 is the last version,

there are no known updates to me.

 

 

This one is IMO a lot safer to use then some of the others I have used.

Ofcourse it is possible that I just didn't know the right settings for the

other Reg cleaners I used..but with Regseeker I never ever have problems.

Edited July 30, 2008 by Arafinwe

[fRACTAL 1]

Program Title : ThreatFire

Area of application : Antivirus

Recommended because : Light on your resources, and offers another layer of protection to whatever else you have.

Download from : ThreatFire

Cost : Free for personal use. Upgraded Version avaliable

Known drawbacks / limitation : On higher security levels the pop-ups can get annoying

~Doom

[stubbie 22]

I found this little utility in 2000 and have had it installed on every computer since then

Startup Monitor

 

Its a tiny program, uses no resources and can save your pc.

It simply monitors any program that wants to set itself up to start when Windoze next starts.

For example...know when you install programs and the next time you start the pc you find extra icons in your Taskbar or your pc starts connecting to the net for updates all by itself?

 

Well the next time you install something and it secretly sets itself up to run at startup this will ask you if you actually want that to happen.

 

But even more important......by doing that it will also let you know when a potential trojan is trying to set itself up to run at next boot up.

 

stubbs.

[Arafinwe 0]

I have tried many AV software over the years and the last 2 years I

have come to realy like this one.

 

Program Title : Avast Home edition 4.8

Area of application : Anti virus

Recommended because : It is a all around package.(IMHO )

Download from : http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Cost : Free(Although there are also version which DO require payment. )

Known drawbacks / limitation : Not one of the fastest AV scanners. And those

who are looking for AV with HIPS..this one doesn't have it. (Thankfully not. )

 

 

 

It has a whole area of nice features as you can read on the site, and

one of those features is the ability to scan at boot up. Just look at the

Technical features to see most of it.

Edited August 26, 2008 by Arafinwe

[Anestty 0]

Program Title : Windows Cleanup!

 

Area of application : System maintenance

 

Recommended because : Small - Free and totally safe to use.

 

Download from : Windows Cleanup!

 

Cost : Free

 

Known drawbacks / limitation : No limitations - Very safe

[fRACTAL 1]

All right So its not actually a program ^^

 

Program Title : Royale Remixed

Area of application : Complete Windows Theme

Recommended because : It includes an improved version of the three newer windows XP themes, Royale, Royale Noir and Zune. Along with a new set of nicer looking cursors and totally redone sounds, which are far, far more pleasant than Microsoft's standard ones

Download from : deviantART, Softpedia

Cost : Free

Known drawbacks / limitation : Only works with Windows XP, SP3 users need to download and run UxTheme to be able to run unsigned themes (such as this one)

(Displaying as Royale Noir)

Edited November 12, 2008 by TimOfDoom

[Scleameth 19]

Program Title : Taskbar Shuffle

Area of application : Windows taskbar

Recommended because : For some reason I like to have my task items in a specific order and this allows you to drag taskbar items in the order you'd like them

Download from : http://www.snapfiles.com/get/TaskbarShuffle.html

Cost : Free

Known drawbacks / limitation : None yet...

[Scleameth 19]

Program Title : Tweak UI

Area of application : Windows XP PowerToy

Recommended because : Change some handy settings without probing the registry. Especially disable Windows XP balloon tips. Also you can setup "My Places" which makes for easy saving to folders that you regularly use.

Download from : http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloa...ppowertoys.mspx

Cost : Free

Known drawbacks / limitation : None yet...

[Scleameth 19]

Program Title : Vista Start Menu

Area of application : Windows start menu replacement

Recommended because : Easy access to my files and customizable. I hardly use explorer anymore. Looks great when using Zune theme.

Download from : http://www.vistastartmenu.com/index.html

Cost : Free. Pro Version is $19.99

Known drawbacks / limitation : It does have 1 or 2 very minor bugs. But nothing that crashes so far. It can take a while to expand folders with loads of files in them.

 

Ps: Tim, Zune and Royale are signed themes, so no need to have UxTheme for them. Not sure about Royale Noire, though...

Edited March 24, 2009 by Scleameth

[stubbie 22]

This was recommended to me by a friend who is very computer security minded. I absolutely swear by it now.

 

Program Title : Secunia Security Check

Area of application : Check for program vunerabilities

Recommended because : This will check all your programs to see if they are vunerable to any security problems and also checks to see if you have the latest patches.

Download from : http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

Cost : Free.

Known drawbacks / limitation : None that I am aware of.

 

 

The beauty of this program is that you have total control over everything. Also it only gives you options that the original program developer has recommended.

You can download the recommended patches, you can check for online references about why you need to upgrade the programs, you can go to a forum about the program that is highlighted and see what people recommend and more, all from within the Secunia program. There is a simple menu and a menu for advanced users.

If you care about your computer having the best security and the latest patches for your programs then this is a must have.

Edited March 24, 2009 by stubbie

[Timotheus 430]

Program title: Stardock Fences

Area of application: easy desktop management: organize shortcuts and files/hiding & restoring icons with double-click on desktop

Recommended because: it's easy, small and makes your desktop tidy

Download from: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/downloads.asp

Cost: FREE, though a paid PRO version is on it's way

Known drawbacks / limitation: BETA stage, functions properly though

 

Edited May 6, 2009 by Timotheus

[Timotheus 430]

Program title: Stickies

Area of application: taking notes, like you would on sticky notes

Recommended because: it's easy, small and will always come in handy!

Download from: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/stickies_setup.exe

Cost: FREE

Known drawbacks / limitation: none

 

 

[Nihilith 0]

Program title: Python 2.5

Area of application: Application Development

Recommended because: it's free, powerful and easy to learn

Download from: http://www.python.org

Cost: FREE

Known drawbacks / limitation: not a multithreaded language... but anyway, for the use I make of it, it's not a problem

 

 

 

This code would take more than twice this number of line in another language. This code browse a directory and all the subdirectories (if the option is checked), and filters the files according to the file extensions you selected. I made it and use it frequently to quickly browse tons of dvd containing various stuff such as MP3 or DivX compilations.

 

# -*- coding: cp1252 -*-
import os
import os.path


def lister(chemin,recursivite = 1,showdirs = 1,extensions='*'):
   if extensions == 'EXT_IMAGES':
       extensions = ('.jpg','.gif','.bmp','.svg')
   elif extensions == 'EXT_DOCS':
       extensions = ('.doc','.xls')
   for dirs in os.listdir(chemin):
       if os.path.isfile(chemin+dirs):
           if extensions == '*':
               print ('FILE : '+chemin+dirs)


           else:
               if (os.path.splitext(chemin+dirs)[1]) in extensions:
                   print ('FILE : '+chemin+dirs)

               else:
                   pass
       if os.path.isdir(chemin+dirs):
           if showdirs ==1 :
               print ('DIR : '+chemin+dirs)

           else:
               pass
           if recursivite == 1:
               lister(chemin+dirs+"/",recursivite,showdirs,extensions)
           else:
               pass



chemin_a_lister = 'c:/données/'

lister(chemin_a_lister,1,0,'EXT_DOCS')
print 'DONE'

[candesco 0]

Program title : Defraggler

Area of application : Defragmentationtool. Is used to defrag your harddrive and make Windows faster

Recommended because: It works better then the standard windows defragmentation tool. Yes, it is build on the windows API, but handles the defragmentation different. You can also defrag just a single file and it has a search option. And it is from the same makers as CCleaner; Piriform.

Download from: http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

Cost: Freeware

Known drawbacks / limitation: It may take a while to finish defragmentation of a disc or partition. Defraggler moves the files one by one.

 

Edited January 26, 2010 by bhj

[junkcollector 21]

Program title: CCleaner

Area of application: Registry/File Cleaner

Recommended because: Free, works well, has good functionality.

Download from: http://www.piriform.com

Known drawbacks / limitations: As this program lets you make changes to your PC, you can hurt your system if you're careless. (Although it lets you make backups before applying changes.)

Edited February 16, 2013 by junkcollector

[junkcollector 21]

Program title : ZBar
Area of application : Extends/clones taskbar for when using two monitors
Recommended because: Free, and has a very small memory print: it's only 2 files, and is <1 MB in size.
Download from: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/zbar/
Cost: Free
Known drawbacks / limitation: Not as robust as commercial software

[chattius 2,626]

GIMP

Doing all graphic and photowork with it. Free, multi platform and scripting, so you can apply the routines on all 300 photos at once

Since it is multiplatform you can choose what you need from homepage: http://www.gimp.org/

[gogoblender 3,224]

Program title : ZBar

Area of application : Extends/clones taskbar for when using two monitors

Recommended because: Free, and has a very small memory print: it's only 2 files, and is <1 MB in size.

Download from: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/zbar/

Cost: Free

Known drawbacks / limitation: Not as robust as commercial software

Ah!

I just upgraded to windows 8, I saw the bar cloned across both the screens... does win 8 now offer this automatically?

 

GIMP

Doing all graphic and photowork with it. Free, multi platform and scripting, so you can apply the routines on all 300 photos at once

Since it is multiplatform you can choose what you need from homepage: http://www.gimp.org/

No number of computers or programs can ever help me., wah!

I can cut/paste though

 

 

gogo

[junkcollector 21]

 

Ah!

I just upgraded to windows 8, I saw the bar cloned across both the screens... does win 8 now offer this automatically?

Perhaps it does. I've not used Windows 8, so I cannot say for sure. I -do- know that nVidia's driver software has built in support for extending the taskbar across multiple monitors. ATI's software doesn't (that I know of).

[chattius 2,626]

Once upon a time there was a little (obviouisly not me) boy who was overlooked at school. Things changed at university when musics bands and good looking girls surrounded him like bees a honey-pot. What was the change?

 

TeX

 

A nice program which allowed to write chemical formulas, mathematical equatations, music and a lot more in a programming way. Way faster than changing the type wheels in a typewriter to type a Sigma, alpha, beta, ...

 

The best is: even today I am faster in typing formulas with TeX than in any other word processing program. Decades of using it....

 

The quadratic formula is $-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac} \over 2a$
\bye

 

 

For windows I would choose an implementation with a GUI: http://www.texniccenter.org/

 

Of cause my daughters use it too: who wants to ask a shy little mathematician for help when visiting university

[Timotheus 430]

Program title: Foxit PDF reader
Area of application: Viewing PDF files
Recommended because: Lightweight Adobe replacement
Download from: http://www.foxitsoftware.com
Cost: Free
Known drawbacks / limitation: one automatically installed piece of software called CloudReading causes crashes, solution:

• Close Foxit Reader.
• Open Control Panel>Programs and Features>Select CloudReading and click on Uninstall button.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Timotheus

[Schot 414]

Good one. I'm using that too. No more adobe reader.

[Timotheus 430]

I haven't looked back since I started using it.

[Flix 5,184]

For me, it's XYplorer. It started out as just a way to view thumbnails for some rare video and and image files, but once I realized the sheer amount of control it gives you for file browsing, I completely replaced Windows Explorer with XYplorer. If I had to choose only one program I could not manage without, it's this one, because it's the basic way I interact with my computer.

 

Firefox has been my browser since around 2003 IIRC (I had Mozilla before that). But lately, it seems like any Flash on websites is always freezing up my browser. It may just be an Adobe Flash issue, but it doesn't happen on Google Chrome. So I'm slowly starting to migrate over to Chrome I think.

[gogoblender 3,224]

Here you on the flash freezing FireFox... very very frustrating.

I've just about finished moving all my habits and data into online google cloud, love the ecology, love the browser, though do keep FF sometimes for editing pix and working on the Wiki

 

 

gogo