I figured, as computer savvy people, we're always looking for some good programs to fulfill some need. I've made this topic so that we, as a community, can share our discoveries of awesome programs so that anyone who needs a certain program, they can simply look here and see if someone has found a really good one.
7-zip
This is a freeware compression program that allows you to compress and uncompress 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR files, and allows you to uncompress ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z files. In my opinion, an absolute must for EVERY computer.
http://www.7-zip.org/
Avast! Anti-virus
This is probably a fairly well known program, and is likely the best freeware(free home-use version) Anti-Virus you'll get your hands on. If you need Anti-virus, and don't want to spend money on it, this program is for you.
http://www.avast.com/index
Audacity Audio Editor
I only just recently obtained this program, but from what I've done so far, it work wonderfully. This is a freeware program for recording and editing audio.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
SUPER - Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer
This program is an extremely versatile freeware video and audio conversion program. If you need to convert video or audio from one file format to another, this is your program. Pay close attention to the web page, as it's a bit hard to find the download link, but it's there.
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Hamachi
Hamachi is a freeware program (non-commercial license) that allows you to create a virtual private network. Essentially, you and any person you allow into your network will all be on a virtual LAN. One advantage of this is for games, where you can play using LAN without actually being on the same local network, among other things. Definitely a worthwhile program to have.
https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi2/
Winamp
In my opinion, one of the best media player programs available. It supports a very large number of file formats, and is extremely customizable.
http://www.winamp.com/
*I'll probably add more to this list later on when I think of some, but for now, add your own!*
Beneton Movie GIF. It's basically a very easy-to-use freeware animator program. You can load up some pictures, edit them, preview the anim, screw around with the built in animations if you wish, and then export it as a fresh and tasty animated gif.
http://www.benetonsoftware.com/Beneton_Movie_GIF.php
I've got a couple:
1) Beneton Movie Gif http://www.benetonsoftware.com/Beneton_Movie_GIF.php Awesome high-quality GIF animator.
2) Fraps http://www.fraps.com/ Awesome screen recording software. Purchasable version is amazing.
3) Videora http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod Best software I've seen yet for adding media of all kinds to an iPod of any kind.
4) Frostwire http://www.frostwire.com/ Great torrent program for acquiring media "less-than-legally". (Obviously use only if your into torrenting)
GraphicsGale. One of the best spriting shareware programs you can get. I usually have stuck with good ol' MS Paint and GM for simple sprites and art, but I've started to use this more and more lately because of it getting sprites done faster and making complex ones easier to make. (Keep in mind, there IS a version which you have to pay for, this is simply the shareware edition.)
*Supports Windows icon format (*.ico) *
*Supports Windows cursor format (*.cur, *.ani) *
*Supports animated GIF format *
*Supports AVI format (*no audio)
*Supports any bits-per-pixel
*Real-time preview in editing
*Multiple layers
*Onion Skin
*Batch conversion
*Outputs an animation as multiple files or a combined file
*Prints multiple frames
*Acquires an image from a TWAIN
*Image Browser
(Shareware edition)
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/
good topic chaos. Do you mind if other people suggest things also?
I also recommend...
CCleaner- also known as crap cleaner. It basically does what your operating system can do in terms of a "disk cleanup", except it does a much better job and offers much more customization. Can free up a lot of space filled with worthless junk and temporary files off your hard drive. It also lets you clean your registry.
Defraggler- Made by the same company as CCleaner, it is a very nice substitute to the built in defragmenting program for windows. Does a great job, and even lets you defragment individual files.
Malwarebytes- Like Chaos recommended, I too like Avast 5 quite a bit for an antivirus program. However, if you want an additional scanner on hand, Malwarebytes is an additional free anti-malware program that simply offers an on demand scan without any real time protection that you already would have with avast or your other antivirus. It works alongside most other antivirus programs well, and has very good detection rates that might pick up on some stuff others don't.
First, I think Mr.pwnage should retract his statement regarding Frostwire. It's the same as limewire, and 9/10 when a friend contracts a virus and I have to fix it, these programs are the culprit. If you want to torrent, use Utorrent or Azereus or whatever else.
I have a folder I've named "Fresh Install Programs". It's full of installers for various programs I require, which I keep handy for when I format or re-install. These are the contents.
DisplayFusion - Handy tool for those with two monitors, allows different wallpapers and other neat features.
Adobe Reader - Duh
Avast - Previously mentioned
Camtasia Studio - This is what I use to record video's, it's simply amazing. It is not free. ;)
DivX Installer - I usually use this for the codecs
Extract Now - I download alot of very large files. This works wonders for extracting files that come in mass rars. If for example I download an entire TV series, and each episode is in a couple rar's, this will easily go through them all for me, as opposed to doing it manually.
Firefox - Duh
Itunes - As much as I hate Mac, I love my Ipod and I'm simply to accustomed to switch from Itunes these days, even if it is buggy.
Mirc - Great IRC client.
Orbit Downloader - This is what I use to easily download a big list of rapidshare files(since I'm a user)
Paint.NET - If you don't have PS4, this works wonders.
PowerISO - For using and abusing ISO's. This has always been my favorite, Daemon tools always comes full of jank.
Quicktime Installer - Sadly a requirement for Itunes
ImgBurn - Great program to burn ISO's.
Spybot S&D - My personal favorite Malware and adware cleaner
Teamspeak - Incase I need to game it up
Ventrillo - Incase I need to game it up
Utorrent - For my torrenting needs
Videora - Great program to convert any filetype into ipod friendly format
VLC - simply an amazing Video Player
Winrar - for all my zipping/unzipping needs.
JKDefrag (http://kessels.biz/JkDefrag/)
JkDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/X64. Completely automatic and very easy to use, fast, low overhead, with several optimization strategies, and can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a Windows version, a commandline version (for scheduling by the task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts), a screensaver version, a DLL library (for use from programming languages), versions for Windows X64, and the complete sources.
The main reason I recommend this over any other defragmenter, is that a lot of common defragmenters (including the stock windows defragmenter and even Defraggler) is that both have a hard time getting a thorough defragmentation, especially with large files. This is simple, easy to use, and free.
Filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/)
For FTP of any kind: Filezilla. It supports ftp over SSH, so you don't need to go the typical SFTP route with a SSL Cert on your server, which costs money. SSH is free (as long as OpenSSH or any other SSH server is installed). The best part is how so many would charge money for their alternative of a crappy FTP program, half of which might not even support SFTP over SSH.
VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/)
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Netbeans (http://netbeans.org/)
The NetBeans IDE is an award-winning integrated development environment available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris. The NetBeans project consists of an open-source IDE and an application platform that enable developers to rapidly create web, enterprise, desktop, and mobile applications using the Java platform, as well as JavaFX, PHP, JavaScript and Ajax, Ruby and Ruby on Rails, Groovy and Grails, and C/C++.
The NetBeans project is supported by a vibrant developer community and offers extensive documentation and training resources as well as a diverse selection of third-party plugins.
Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc...
Most Windows computers come with these. If yours doesn't have them, get them NOWZ.
Quote from: 11clock on April 11, 2010, 07:32:55 PM
Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc...
Most Windows computers come with these. If yours doesn't have them, get them NOWZ.
Or, you could say screw buying any more into M$ and go with OpenOffice, as they support all M$ Office file types and is available for any OS (for absolutely free).
OpenOffice (http://why.openoffice.org/)
OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
This topic is mostly for suggesting (PREFERABLY free) programs that you have found to work excellently and that people can go and easily download to fulfill a need that have. I would not include Microsoft Office on that list (considering it's NOT free, and is in fact $100-200). Open Office is an excellent suggestion as an alternative to it, though.
Yes, Art, people are free to and ENCOURAGED to contribute. That's the whole point of the topic. ;)
For those that are contributing, however, I recommend you put a clear description of WHAT the program does, and preferably its website (or alternative location to obtain it), so that anyone viewing this topic can clearly and easily find if the program will be useful for them, and where they can obtain it.
all right thank you.
Quote from: Seifer on April 11, 2010, 06:34:55 PM
Paint.NET - If you don't have PS4, this works wonders.
I second this. It's an excellent alternative, one of the best infact, to Photoshop. I use this myself. It has a userfriendly interface, and has most of the features that Photoshop has that are actually frequently used.
You can get it at http://getpaint.net
Any Video Converter - can convert just about anything you need it to. (Audio and Video)
Burn4free - Great software for anything to do with burning and ripping CDs/DVDs/BluRays
ConvertXtoDVD - Burn any video file to a proper DVD file for use on DVD players that don't come with AVI support.
K-Lite Codec - For all those people who like obscure video file types eg. RMVB, RM etc. . .
TeraCopy - Make copying a crapload Faster.
Seifer, I'd have to disagree with you on the subject of virus' amongst various torrent softwares. It's not so much that frostwire/limewire or that type of thing causes virus's, as with any torrent software, it all comes down to what you download with it. Now, generally those who use limewire and so much "Tech People", and as a result, are more likely to get a virus anyways!
On a related note, I would like to suggest uTorrent. I have found it to work very well, as customizable or easy as you are prepared to go, good for manageing torrents.
Stick Online - This smalltime MMO, created using gamemaker is one of the most addictive MMOs available. It has a wide range of areas, equipment, and enemies, as well as an extremely fluid PVP system. It has a small but growing community and those in it are considerably more mature than those that you would find playing many other, larger MMOs. There is currently a small 10$ paypal donation required to play, but a remake is currently in development and is set to be completely free of charge.
Last.fm (http://www.last.fm/home) Scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download)
Last.fm is the social network of online radio. I personally am a HUGE fan of Last.fm, as I am a huge advocate of social networking (via my job) as well as the fact that I love music. Combine the two, and you are golden! They have a desktop application that "scrobbles" your music that you listen to, and it submits every song played to your profile. As an example, you can view my profile here (http://www.last.fm/user/sjmiller85) If you like social networking, and you like listening to music, this is quite possibly one of the best ways to find more music!
Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm)
As a great substitute for the regular notepad or wordpad, I present Notepad++. I like it as a simple, quick and easy IDE. Being that I quite often will write up just a quick script or two, this is an excellent tool to do just that, vice working on a project level amount of scripts, in which case I would recommend Netbeans from my previous posts. This is just a great quick and easy IDE that supports just about every single programming/scripting language under the sun, as well as other features via plugins like FTP and such. Go check it out!
Game Maker: An easy to use game creation program that uses a drag and drop feature that allows you to take what you want and drop it into the game for easy quick game development. While D&D is a main focus of Game Maker more serious developers can use the inbuilt Game Maker Language (GML) to create more advanced games and gives you a gateway into the world of programming as GML is similar to many high end programming languages such as Java and C++.
Steam: Steam is created by Valve (the guys who made Half-Life and TF2) and is used as a digital distribution platform for video games. Many of the games you find on steam will be cheaper than a retail copy (a lot of retail games now activate and require steam) and you don't have to leave the house to buy them as they are delivered via the internet straight onto your computer. Steam also includes a community where you can add and chat to friends, view others profiles / what games they've been playing / game stats and create and join groups where you can organise events and such.
So just wondering Chaos, are you going to populate your first post with some of the suggestions from other people or is it just going to be a running list like this?
I made a long post with a lot of stuff when the topic was just starting but fire fox crashed and i got pist an never remade my list. Good thing some of you suggested the stuff i was so i can suggest a lot less things. now back to what people care about:
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3227/cdbxpplogo.png)
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CDBurnerXP
http://cdburnerxp.se/
"CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components." -from site
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(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/1269/mediacoderlogo.png)
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MediaCoder
http://cdburnerxp.se/
"MediaCoder is a free universal media transcoder since 2005. It integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools in an elegant and transparent manner into an all-in-one transcoding solution. With a flexible and extendable architecture, latest codecs and tools are updated added in constantly. MediaCoder intends to be the swiss army knife for media transcoding in all time." -from site
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These are just two things i can think of that have not ben said.
I'd like to bump this topic with something I recommend.
SUPERAntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/): A very useful free virus scanner. It gets rid of viruses that other scanners can't detect. It's also frequently updated.
Quote from: 11clock on June 11, 2010, 12:43:28 PM
I'd like to bump this topic with something I recommend.
SUPERAntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/): A very useful free virus scanner. It gets rid of viruses that other scanners can't detect. It's also frequently updated.
Is it better than AVG?
GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/)
Like Photoshop but don't want to pay the ump-teen hundred clams for it? GIMP is a thriving free and open-source alternative. It has an ever-growing list of free add-ons that extend the capabilities, and is highly regarded as one of Photoshop's top competitors. From Wikipedia:
GIMP (short for the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool. In addition to free-form drawing, GIMP can accomplish essential image work-flow steps such as resizing, editing, and cropping photos, combining multiple images, and converting between different image formats. GIMP can also be used to create basic animated images in the GIF format. At present, GIMP is usable for amateur or professional work with images intended for viewing on monitors and printing on ink-jet printers.
Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/)
Inkscape is a vector graphics editor application. It is distributed under a free software license, the GNU GPL. Its stated goal is to become a powerful graphics tool while being fully compliant with the XML, SVG, and CSS standards.
Inkscape is cross-platform and runs on Mac OS X (typically under X11, although the underlying GTK+ toolkit can be compiled to run natively under Quartz), Unix-like operating systems, and Microsoft Windows. Inkscape's implementation of SVG and CSS standards is incomplete. Most notably, it does not yet support animation, or SVG fonts, though base support for the creation of SVG fonts has been implemented as of version 0.47. Inkscape has multi-lingual support, particularly for complex scripts, something currently lacking in most commercial vector graphics applications.
Quote from: Scotty on June 11, 2010, 01:49:10 PM
GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/)
Actually, I have photoshop CS4 and i prefer GIMP over it. Screw the big brands, GIMP owns it.
Quote from: YayForLife on June 11, 2010, 04:11:24 PM
Quote from: Scotty on June 11, 2010, 01:49:10 PM
GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/)
Actually, I have photoshop CS4 and i prefer GIMP over it. Screw the big brands, GIMP owns it.
Not to get into this topic too much, but I tried GIMP once and I couldn't even figure out what to do with it. The interface, in my opinion, was not very intuitive. Adobe products seem to be a lot more intuitive in the interface department. Photoshop and Illustrator work great for me. I think it's all preference...
Quote from: Lingus on June 11, 2010, 04:15:23 PM
Quote from: YayForLife on June 11, 2010, 04:11:24 PM
Quote from: Scotty on June 11, 2010, 01:49:10 PM
GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/)
Actually, I have photoshop CS4 and i prefer GIMP over it. Screw the big brands, GIMP owns it.
Not to get into this topic too much, but I tried GIMP once and I couldn't even figure out what to do with it. The interface, in my opinion, was not very intuitive. Adobe products seem to be a lot more intuitive in the interface department. Photoshop and Illustrator work great for me. I think it's all preference...
Yeah I havent actually used GIMP in a while, i forgot about the interface. That was always a let down.
Quote from: Lingus on June 11, 2010, 04:15:23 PM
Quote from: YayForLife on June 11, 2010, 04:11:24 PM
Quote from: Scotty on June 11, 2010, 01:49:10 PM
GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/)
Actually, I have photoshop CS4 and i prefer GIMP over it. Screw the big brands, GIMP owns it.
Not to get into this topic too much, but I tried GIMP once and I couldn't even figure out what to do with it. The interface, in my opinion, was not very intuitive. Adobe products seem to be a lot more intuitive in the interface department. Photoshop and Illustrator work great for me. I think it's all preference...
It is a preference. You could really say the same for Photoshop, the main GUI difference is the windows. All of these high-capability programs are going to have more than a lemming's worth of a learning curve, but once you get it, you are gold! Look at it this way, take an average user who would like to get into Photoshop or GIMP, but doesn't take the time or effort to learn it well, then after a couple of months, observe them and see how much they use the programs, and how much untapped potential you'll see. I'd say both would average about equal in that regard. Also, I will agree with you, in that if you go from one to the other, you are in for a wild ride. If you start out on or the other, you're likely to be biased and say the same thing about either, aka preference.
Quote from: Forum on June 11, 2010, 01:27:48 PM
Quote from: 11clock on June 11, 2010, 12:43:28 PM
I'd like to bump this topic with something I recommend.
SUPERAntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/): A very useful free virus scanner. It gets rid of viruses that other scanners can't detect. It's also frequently updated.
Is it better than AVG?
AVG and SUPERAntiSpyware are both about equal, and it's suggested you use both.
Quote from: 11clock on June 11, 2010, 09:29:06 PM
Quote from: Forum on June 11, 2010, 01:27:48 PM
Quote from: 11clock on June 11, 2010, 12:43:28 PM
I'd like to bump this topic with something I recommend.
SUPERAntiSpyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/): A very useful free virus scanner. It gets rid of viruses that other scanners can't detect. It's also frequently updated.
Is it better than AVG?
AVG and SUPERAntiSpyware are both about equal, and it's suggested you use both.
Oh ok i will try out SuperAntiSpyware.
EDIT: I remember i used it before on my old computer and it was ok but i'ma just stick with my current virus protector.
deamon tools
used to create virtual drive containing mounted .iso files, rather. rather than burning the image on a medium, you can mount it and access it in a matter of seconds.
rocket dock
a mac-like dock. can be used to easily access stuff you need occasionally, rather than jungling your desktop or start menu. fully customizable, and awesome =)
jet-audio
not really a celebrity, which is amazing since i personally prefer this media player over winamp. many add-ons, included audio recorder, converter for most video and audio filetypes, burning, audio editing, etc... absolutely amazing.
i also support openoffice and gimp...
EndItAll2 (http://www.docsdownloads.com/Tier1/enditall.htm)Quote from: WebsiteEndItAll 2 lists all the programs running on your system, and lets you decide which ones to close down. The processes necessary for basic system operation are protected from termination. From the remaining processes, you can choose which to close, which to kill (close down forcibly), and which to protect. Once you know which files you want to shut down, you can configure EndItAll for automatic action via script or batch file. This is useful for backups and defrags during off-hours. Options let you block power management and the screen saver during operation.
I recommend you know what you're doing when dicking around with processes, it's the same as opening up task manager, just more user friendly. I've used this program occasionally for the past few years, whenever I'm running way too much shit and need a little speed up.
@Lucifer:
Do you find it more efficient than task manager in terms of how it goes about shutting down things (how fast it is able to terminate) or is the only benefit of the program a more user-friendly GUI?
Quote from: Mr Pwnage on June 15, 2010, 10:30:47 PM
@Lucifer:
Do you find it more efficient than task manager in terms of how it goes about shutting down things (how fast it is able to terminate) or is the only benefit of the program a more user-friendly GUI?
It's incredibly fast, and extremely easy to use. One click of a button can close or kill any process you want. Doesn't matter how many things you want it to terminate, it generally takes less than 5 seconds, and it'll usually warn you before you do something completely stupid. Also when using task manager you're given a wall of processes that you have to look up one by one if you're curious about them, EndItAll provides short descriptions of their functions, and also the location of where the .exe starts. I.E: svchost.exe - Generic Host Process for Win32 Services - c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe. Or, hamachi-2.exe - Hamachi2 Client Tunneling Engine - c:\program files\logmein hamachi\hamachi-2.exe.
I think it's kinda nifty, although I'm sure theres other more legit looking programs that do the same thing, I just don't know of im.
Quote from: Lucifer on June 16, 2010, 02:10:16 PM
Quote from: Mr Pwnage on June 15, 2010, 10:30:47 PM
@Lucifer:
Do you find it more efficient than task manager in terms of how it goes about shutting down things (how fast it is able to terminate) or is the only benefit of the program a more user-friendly GUI?
It's incredibly fast, and extremely easy to use. One click of a button can close or kill any process you want. Doesn't matter how many things you want it to terminate, it generally takes less than 5 seconds, and it'll usually warn you before you do something completely stupid. Also when using task manager you're given a wall of processes that you have to look up one by one if you're curious about them, EndItAll provides short descriptions of their functions, and also the location of where the .exe starts. I.E: svchost.exe - Generic Host Process for Win32 Services - c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe. Or, hamachi-2.exe - Hamachi2 Client Tunneling Engine - c:\program files\logmein hamachi\hamachi-2.exe.
I think it's kinda nifty, although I'm sure theres other more legit looking programs that do the same thing, I just don't know of im.
Well that sounds pretty useful, I'll DL it and give it a try later.