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Essential Windows Programs


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It's time that we had a thread for you to let us know the Windows apps that you think are essential!

 

My list:

 

Firefox and Opera

I feel like you should have both. Opera is my main browser and use FF for a few other things.

 

Irfanview

This is the quickest image editing program I've seen - it's free, fast, and good for those times when photoshop is too much.

 

Flashget

Best downloading app ever.

 

Trillian

Until we get a Windows port of Adium, this is the IM client to go with

 

uTorrent

I switched from Azureus and have been very impressed. Small footprint.

 

SysSense

If you check your adsense totals a lot like I tend to do, this app sits in the taskbar and updates itself automatically. Very handy. (Google Ads are the only thing keeping this up, so it's always nice to know how much is in the bank)

 

NetStumbler

For finding free wifi.

 

Pixie

A great little app that tells you the color codes of whatever you mouseover.

 

FlashFXP

The best FTP app I've seen for Windows.

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AVG Antivirus

Possibly not the best, but free for personal use. (free.grisoft.com)

 

Sygate personal firewall

Too paranoid to use the windows firewall ;) (appears to be discontinued by symantec, found it on tucows though)

 

Spybot s&d

Remove those annoyances that come with surfing irreputable websites :D (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html)

 

These always go on my windows installs immediately.

 

Also, dont forget those essential tools for mac things:

 

Macdrive

Access your mac-formatted disks from windows.

(http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/)

 

Transmac

Like the above, but more an app than a driver.

(http://www.asy.com/sharetm.htm)

 

UltraISO

Manipulates ISO images, convert from one format to another etc..

(http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/)

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PuTTY

Tiny and intuitive fully-featured Telnet and SSH client, a must have on any Windows installation of mine.

 

PDFCreator

Another must-have for my systems, the free PDFCreator acts like a native printer driver for Windows, allowing one to essentially "print" to a PDF document from any application. This makes distributing professional publications online a world easier.

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winopen.exe - opens a window or windowed application from the command prompt

 

command here - (MS powertool) - opens a command prompt in the current or selected windows folder

 

I would love to have the latter feature in OSX - to open terminal already CD'd to the current directory from wherever you are in Finder.

 

Also VI and Grep.

 

ACDSee (older versions, not the current bloated do-everything-but-not-well version)

WSFTP Pro (V.8, the latest version sucks).

 

Winzip with Command Line extension (V.9 since V.10 is much slower), WinACE - love that one, WinRAR.

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Laptop:

RMClock - reduce CPU voltage, thus reducing heat and lower power consumption

 

AceMegaCodecPack - codec pack that's huge, plays everything I throw at it. use "its Dashboard" to utilize it's full power

 

BitSpirit - BT Client. Looks like BitComet but 100% better. Can regulate reading/writing cycles to hd, excellent for huge RAM systems, and for people that don't want their HDD to die after a year to do the excessive reading/writing to the HDD BT requires

 

GraphCalc - my Window's Calculator

 

Everest Home - System information gathering tool

 

Xnews - my newsgroup reader/downloader

 

Tweak UI - remove bloated looks throughout XP

 

Foobar2000 - my music player. highly customizable

 

Miranda-IM - multi-protocol IM that has great customizable features

 

Daemon tools - reading cd/dvd images w/o burning

 

Firefox w/ Tabs, gestures, download manager, Adblock, NoScript = Disturbance free browsing

 

Synergy - maps one set if input device to multiple computer system. Clutter-free your work area from excessive input peripherals with this software.

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ActiveSync

 

Microsoft ActiveSync provides a great synchronization experience with Windows powered PCs and Microsoft Outlook right out of the box. ActiveSync acts as the gateway between your Windows powered PC and Windows Mobile powered device, enabling the transfer of Outlook information, Office documents, pictures, music, videos and applications from your desktop to your device. In addition to synchronizing with a desktop PC, ActiveSync can synchronize directly with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 so that you can keep your e-mail, Calendar, Notes, and Contacts updated wirelessly when you’re away from your PC.

 

F-Secure SSH Client

 

Reflection for Secure IT (formerly F-Secure SSH) is WRQ’s SSH-based security solution. Built for both UNIX and Windows environments, Reflection for Secure IT protects networks from spies, hackers, and industrial espionage.

 

Mozilla products: Self explanatory

 

EditPlus

 

EditPlus is an Internet-ready 32-bit text editor, HTML editor and programmer's editor for Windows. While it can serve as a good replacement for Notepad, it also offers many powerful features for Web page authors and programmers.

 

TopStyle pro

 

Then tap into the power of cascading style sheets (CSS) and XHTML

 

DaemonTools

 

DAEMON Tools is an advanced application for multiprotection emulation. It is further development of Generic Safedisc emulator and incorporates all its features. This program allows running Backup Copies of SafeDisc (C-Dilla), Securom, Laserlock, CDCOPS, StarForce and Protect CD (and many others) protected games. Also included is a Virtual DVDROM drive (Generic DVD-ROM) enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD! DAEMON Tools works under Windows9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with all types of CD/DVDROM drives (IDE/SCSI) and supports nearly any CD protection.

 

Diskeeper

 

Diskeeper 10 Professional Edition provides high-speed automatic defrag along with advanced settings and features that allow you to fine-tune its operation.

 

UltraIso

 

UltraISO is an ISO CD/DVD image file creating/editing/converting tool and a bootable CD/DVD maker , it can directly edit the CD/DVD image file and extract files and folders from it, as well as directly make ISO files from your CD/DVD-ROM or hard disk. At the same time, you can maintain the ISO bootable information, thus creating your own bootable CD/DVDs. You now have the power to make and edit your own ISO files, and then burn them to CD/DVD for your own needs.

 

HiJackThis

 

HijackThis examines certain key areas of the Registry and Hard Drive and lists their contents. These are areas which are used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers. It's up to you to decide what should be removed. Some items are perfectly fine. You should not remove them. Never remove everything. Doing that could leave you with missing items needed to run legitimate programs and add-ins. This Page will help you work with the Experts to clean up your system. For those of you needing instructions on how to Copy and Paste the contents of a text file into a Forum Post, please look at the Table of Contents. A link to the instructions is included.

 

NOD32

 

NOD32 Antivirus System provides well balanced, state-of-the-art protection against threats endangering your PC and enterprise systems running various platforms from Microsoft Windows 95 / 98 / ME / NT / 2000 / 2003 / XP, through a number of UNIX/Linux, Novell, MS DOS operating systems to Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus Domino and other mail servers.

 

WinRar

 

WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.

 

Windows AntiSpyware :D

 

Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including slow PC performance, annoying pop-up ads, unwanted changes to Internet settings, and unauthorized use of your private information. Continuous protection improves Internet browsing safety by guarding over fifty (50) ways spyware can enter your PC.

 

VMware:

 

VMware Workstation is powerful desktop virtualization software for software developers/testers and enterprise IT professionals that runs multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single PC. Users can run Windows, Linux, NetWare, or Solaris x86 in fully networked, portable virtual machines.

 

Photoshop: Self explanatory

 

Nero: Self explanatory

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Norton Antivirus Corporate - It is the best in terms of protection and resource usage

 

Sygate Personal Firewall - The Best. I love it

 

Window Blinds 5, Logon Studio, Boot Skin, Icon Packager - Make my comp look sweet. hate the XP theme

 

Nero - Burn stuff

 

Paint Shop Pro - Picture Editing

 

WMP10 - Music

 

WinRAR - Extract stuff

 

Alcohol/Daemon 4 - Virtual Drives

 

VMWare - My main OS is emulated, the base is a performance oriented gaming OS.......i have like 5 services running

 

Firefox

 

Flashget - Perfect Downloader

 

Drivers - MB, nVidia

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Firefox and its extensions

 

Mcafee Security 2006 : security

 

Nero : 7 premium

 

Bittornado : the ebst client ive ever seen

 

Adobe Acrobat : pdf editing

 

Office 2003 : AUK

 

Progdvb : Technisat satellite receiver software

 

Itunes & Jriver media Center : itunes for ipod ..jriver for PC

 

WinRar & Winzip : archiving utilities

 

Klite codecs pack & Bsplayer : for viewing movies

 

Flashget & flashgit : downlaod manager

 

Alcohol % 120 : virtual disx

 

Torrent harvester : Best torrent search proggie

 

Real Draw : Vector editing

 

StyleXP : themes for XP

 

and some games for killing time

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I wonder why no one listed MS Office yet. Well here's my list:

 

Zone alarm + AVG (free edition). Both are free and a deadly combination for your internet security

 

Firefox + Thunderbird. I prefer browsing with Safari though (although its KHTML engine sometime failed to render certain pages).

 

MS Office, self explanatory isn't it? My job is mainly about writing and this is the only solutions for professional writings. I prefer using Apple's Pages which has a better rendered fonts. It's because of the OS I assume.

 

Photoshop, not a heavy user but I do install the whole suite of Adobe family on my laptop just in cases.

 

Macromedia Dreamweaver. Same as above, just an occassional user. Installed the whole suite on my PC.

 

iTunes, like it better than WinAmp.

 

I'll post more

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NLITE!!!

 

Have you ever wanted to remove some Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger...

 

How about not even to install them with Windows ?

 

nLite is a tool for permanent Windows component removal and pre-installation Windows setup. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn't include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.

 

nLite Features

 

- Service Pack Integration

- Component Removal

- Unattended Setup

- Driver Integration *

- Hotfixes Integration **

- Tweaks

- Patches ***

- Bootable ISO creation

 

* - Textmode (CD Boot) and normal PnP

** - hotfixes with white icons, *KB*.exe

***- supports generic SFC, Uxtheme, TcpIp and Usb Polling patching.

 

So far it supports Windows 2000, XP x86/x64 and 2003 x86/x64 all languages.

 

It needs .NET Framework 2.0 in order to run it... Check if you have it already, maybe on some of your CDs before downloading if your connection is slow.

 

You may report on the forum any bugs or annoyances found. And remember it's freeware, meaning that only fuel is a good word or a donation.

 

nlite_screen.png

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Laptop Software

 

Windows Blinds :: OSX Theme

 

Reactor Server :: Apache 2, PHP 5, and MySQL

 

McAfee SDAT Scanning Engine (x5000) :: /adl /all /clean /delete /program /report report.txt

 

Macromedia Studio 8 :: DevTools Include

 

Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, GoLive, AfterEffects

 

CCleaner :: Beta Version

 

Mozilla Firefox :: Nightly Build Updated Daily

 

Mozilla Sunbird :: Nightly Build Updated Daily

 

VMWare Workstation :: Running Win98SE, Ubuntu Linux, and Caldera Linux - SCO Group

 

foorBAR :: Custom Design and Personal Plugs

 

RainMeter :: Custom Skin

 

Thats all I keep on the system by Default. Always looking for good stuff :)

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Additions:

 

- Bluetooth for Windows

- Widcomm v5.0.1.802

- Skype

 

 

I have been tinkering around with my Bluetooth headset and the somewhat new and patched Widcomm driver stack v5.0.1.802 for the past few days. I finally figured out a way to use my Bluetooth headset as an audio gateway in conjuction with Skype, MSN, Yahoo, gtalk, and any other Windows messenger that allow voice or VOIP. I mostly use skype because the audio and video streams is so much more crisp than the other messengers I have used.

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iTunes iPod thing.

 

PuTTY SSH and Telnet.

 

DVD Decrypter you know

 

DVD Shrink You know, also :(

 

AC3 Filter For getting AC3 very well handled, even DTS can be decoded.

 

Active Perl Sure I love perl.

 

CygWin Unix things without booting in another OS

 

AutoCad To maintain happy my significant other

 

SonyEricsson Theme Creator Create my own phones themes :P

 

eDonkey2000 No comments.

 

UT 2004 Essential

 

VMware Mac OS X thing.

 

SpeedFan Temperature monitoring tool.

 

 

I have been tinkering around with my Bluetooth headset and the somewhat new and patched Widcomm driver stack v5.0.1.802 for the past few days. I finally figured out a way to use my Bluetooth headset as an audio gateway in conjuction with Skype, MSN, Yahoo, gtalk, and any other Windows messenger that allow voice or VOIP. I mostly use skype because the audio and video streams is so much more crisp than the other messengers I have used.
I use a Linksys PAP2 phone Adapter with my VoIP account and a free VoIP and free Thelephone number from ipKall :D

 

Thinking to buy a WiFi VoIP Phone too.

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iTunes - iPod

 

VOIP Stunt - Free VOIP to Landline Calling

 

MPlayer Classic - The best Media Player

 

Azureus - torrents

 

PeerGuardian2 - For protection of my "privacy"

 

Daemon Tools - For ISOs

 

TA Spring - The best remake of the best RTS game of all time

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I use a Linksys PAP2 phone Adapter with my VoIP account and a free VoIP and free Thelephone number from ipKall :)

 

Thinking to buy a WiFi VoIP Phone too.

How is FWD these days? I had a horid experience with it last time I used it. I think a WiFI VOIP phone is well spent if VOIP quality gets better. Those in the USA, most parts of Europe, Canada, Japan, and South Korea will have the best experiance. Others can will just regret purchasing hardware, a dedicated IP, and a phone number. Of course I'm speaking in regards to Skype and Vonage services.

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How is FWD these days? I had a horid experience with it last time I used it. I think a WiFI VOIP phone is well spent if VOIP quality gets better. Those in the USA, most parts of Europe, Canada, Japan, and South Korea will have the best experiance. Others can will just regret purchasing hardware, a dedicated IP, and a phone number. Of course I'm speaking in regards to Skype and Vonage services.
I do not use FWD, I get an account with fonosip.com, it works fine, of course I haven't much calls to my number because I'm in Mexico and my friends too, but I get it for demonstrations purposes now that I begin with VoIP recommendations/business.
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I always install the cygwin tools on any Windows installation. http://www.cygwin.com.

 

Otherwise:

  1. FileZilla
  2. SecureCRT
  3. iTunes
  4. vlc
  5. UltraMon
  6. FireFox + Session Saver + Adblock
  7. Thunderbird
  8. Daemon Tools
  9. CDBurnerXP Pro, although sometimes I have used Nero
  10. uTorrent
  11. Peerguardian

Then on pay tools, I always have Office and Photoshop, among other things.

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