Worthwhile programs that you should download

[Chaos]

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!*

[Snakeman]

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

[Mr Pwnage]

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)

[Mystery]

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/

[ARTgames]

good topic chaos. Do you mind if other people suggest things also?

[Meiun]

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.

[Seifer]

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.

[Scotty]

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

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

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

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.

[11clock]

Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc...

Most Windows computers come with these. If yours doesn't have them, get them NOWZ.

[Scotty]

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

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.

[Chaos]

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. 

[ARTgames]

all right thank you.

[EpicPhailure]

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

[Matty_Richo]

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.

[Specialboy]

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.