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Leovinus
Apr 28, 2005

by Y Kant Ozma Post


There have been various different SA-based useful app lists, but all the good ones are now out of date or not very easy to use. The Windows and Windows Software Megathread contains plenty of app discussion but doesn't carry an exhaustive list of useful software in the OP, and the old shsc.info list is only available to internet archaeologists. The recent "Must-Have PC Software" thread was a good idea, but wasn't executed very well and the OP disappeared. movax suggested that someone else could take on curating and updating a similar thread.

What I think we need is a reliable, up-to-date list of useful, user-recommended Windows applications, with quickly-accessible rundowns of pros and cons so that we can individually decide what's best for our needs. It would also be useful to know what to avoid, and why.

This list is not finished! And it'll never be finished. If you quickly read through the list below, you'll probably notice that it doesn't contain your favourite app! If that's the case, suggest it in the thread! Briefly overview it, say why you like it, and tell us why we might hate it. Then, other posters should discuss the app, and once a small consensus has been reached, I'll add it to the OP if it's worth doing. (This won't be a particularly strict process - all I need are a couple of rough opinions and that'll be fine).

Without community support, this thread won't go very far. Between us all we probably know the best stuff to use for any given task. It shouldn't take long, between us, to build something pretty extensive and well-organised, and then it'll be way easier to maintain it whenever something new and good comes along. So post, throw in suggestions, and discuss what you want added and removed. The second post in this thread will be used for things like FAQs as they arise, and will also suggest the most important things that you guys could help add to the list. I have PMs, so if there's a great suggestion in the thread and a week goes by without me addressing it, please feel free to PM me a reminder. Sometimes I need a kick up the rear end to get around to things.



The Directory (last update: 29 Jan 2013)

INTERNET!

    Browsers

  • Google Chrome - Clean, fast, and customizable with plenty of add-ons. It's not as lightweight as it used to be, and the interface is not easily directly customized like you can with Firefox, but it'll do just about everything you want, including syncing settings between computers and platforms. It's Google's browser, though, so if you're uncomfortable with sending Google even more of your personal data you might go for something else.
  • Firefox - Customizable as all hell. You can set Firefox up pretty much any way you like depending on how deep you want to go into the settings. It's still pretty poorly optimized, though, so expect it to chew up a lot of resources and memory leak like crazy.


    IM/Chat

  • Pidgin - a clean, simple, open-source multi-IM program. Supports a bunch of the most widely-used protocols including IRC.
  • Skype - You've already got it installed. A bit ugly and ad-supported, but Skyping is now the accepted verb for voice chat, in the same way that Googling is what everyone calls web searching.
  • mIRC - Showing its age a bit now, but still one of the best pure IRC clients. Lightweight and extensively scriptable. Still looks pretty much the same as it did when we were using it on Windows 98.


    Twitter

  • MetroTwit - Available in a desktop version or a Windows 8 app, MetroTwit is a Twitter client visually based on the Windows 8 UI Style Formerly Known As Metro. The best thing I can say about it is that it works like Tweetdeck used to. It's very configurable and looks pretty nice, but can be a little sluggish, especially when starting up. The free version doesn't support multiple accounts and is ad-supported, but the ad is unobtrusive and can even be positioned in whichever column you want.


    Privacy

  • Tor Browser Bundle - A custom build of Firefox that uses the Tor network to anonymise your activity. Free and pretty secure, but not suited for heavy Internet use due to slow speeds and restrictions and bans placed on Tor IPs.
  • proXPN - A secure and easy-to-use encrypted VPN. Download it, install it, then just click the button to anonymise all your traffic. The free account limits you to 300kbps and has port restrictions, so you'll need the $6.25 subscription if you want to torrent or do other funky things.


Documents

    Office Suites

  • Microsoft Office - Office is expensive, but deserves a mention here. If you only need it for basic word processing, a full version of Office is probably overkill, but if you're going to be working with spreadsheets or presentations, you should consider finding the best discount you can and splashing out on the behemoth - while some of the alternatives offer this functionality, Office does Powerpoint/Excel best.
  • LibreOffice - Open-source free alternative to Microsoft Office, and a fork of OpenOffice. Libre will do word processing pretty much as well as Word, but its equivalents for Powerpoint and Excel are noticeably less functional, feeling more like bare-bones imitations. Fully recommended if you just want to bash out a few documents, but not for the big talk you're giving tomorrow. On older computers and netbooks, Libre can be a bit slow to start up, so bear that in mind if you're planning to take lecture notes or meeting notes on it.
  • Google Docs - Google's office suite is a different beast - you use it through your browser so there's nothing to download, it saves your documents to Google Drive and supports real-time collaboration. Again, it's a lot lighter on features than Microsoft's offering, but it's still well worth a look for the cloud features alone, if you have a use for them.


    PDF Readers

  • Sumatra PDF - An incredibly lightweight, minimalist reader with support for extra formats like ePub, MOBI, and CBZ/CBR. Doesn't feature editing or annotation support, so look elsewhere if you need that functionality.
  • Foxit Reader - Lightweight and fast, with plenty of options for viewing and annotations. However, the free version will watermark any file you annotate, and the installer asks you to optionally install some extra shitware.


    Note-taking/Note-syncing

  • Evernote - Almost indispensable for college students, or people who occasionally want to take notes about things. Create a note, fill it with whatever you want, tag it, and press F9 to sync it to the cloud. Then download, view and edit it on your tablet, phone, laptop, home computer and microwave, sorted by tags, dates, sub-notebooks, or whatever you specify. The free account allows you to upload 60MB of files per month, which is adequate for basic class notes, but if you need to upload a lot of pictures, consider getting a premium account.


    Image Editing

  • Paint.NET - A free replacement for the increasingly inadequate MSPaint. Supports all the main image things, such as layers, paintbrushes, and an elliptical select tool.
  • IrfanView - A nice, simple image viewer and converter, with great batch conversion options.


Media

    Music Players/Organisers

  • iTunes - Well-established and almost essential if you use an iPod touch or iPhone as your portable player. Functional, but light on organizational options and a bit bloaty. Not much good at tagging, and doesn't embed downloaded album art into MP3 metadata, so your artwork may not work on non-Apple players. Also has some kind of music store built-in, I hear.
  • MediaMonkey - The king of organisation. Can auto-tag albums from a web search, download and embed cover art directly into compatible audio files, analyse and level track and album volumes, and arrange your music library by metadata any way you specify. Also plays MP3s. If your music collection is horribly disorganized, give this a shot.
  • Winamp - Very customizable, with plenty of plugins to make it do whatever you want. The trade-off is that it's less intuitive than iTunes and MediaMonkey, and installation is a pain - you have to specifically order it not to hijack all your video file associations, and it'll ask if it can install a crapware toolbar. Still an excellent player when set up right.


    Video Players

  • MPC-HC - A fork of the old Media Player Classic, focusing on compatibility, customisability and light weight. Supports all major formats without needing to rely on codec packs.
  • VLC - Highly compatible, lightweight and simple to use, with a clean, easy interface hiding extensive customisation options. Can struggle to play HD video on older machines where other players work fine.


    Games

  • Steam - iTunes for videogames. Not the fastest program ever written, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of the competition because of its enormous library. Also famed for its impressive holiday sales (known semi-affectionately as Money Vortexes) and Daily Deals, which generally slash prices on selected games by 25-75%, or even more. Thread here.


    E-books

  • calibre - Multi-format e-book manager. Handles all common formats, generally converts formats well, edits metadata, and syncs to most e-readers and tablets. Will only convert non-DRMed books without using third-party DRM-removal plugins. While it updates regularly, there's no built-in update facility, so you have to redownload it every time, which is annoying. Features a bare-bones reader, but is meant as an organiser for physical e-readers.
  • Kindle for PC - Amazon's official offering. Solid enough if you want to read your Kindle collection on a PC screen. It'll work with your purchased Kindle books, and any non-DRM MOBI files. Certainly prettier than calibre's built-in reader, but limited in format support.


Security

    Antivirus/Anti-malware

  • Security Essentials - For home use, MSE is a simple, easy option. Set it and forget it - it'll update and run scans in the background. Oh, and it's free. Unfortunately, the detection rate is not nearly as good as it used to be.
  • Malwarebytes - Excellent anti-malware software that'll run alongside your main antivirus. The free version won't do real-time scanning or auto-update, but it's an excellent back up to have if you're not 100% sure about a file.


    Passwords

  • KeePass - Creates a database in which you can securely store and generate random passwords for websites and applications, with an auto-type feature. You probably want the 1.xx version rather than the 2.xx one - it's not an older version, it's just geared towards home use.


    Encryption

  • TrueCrypt - Create a partition or file secured by a strong password. TrueCrypt then mounts that file as a virtual hard drive. Really very secure and secret and things. You can even hide an undetectable hidden volume inside another volume, so that if you're forced to give up your password, you can still keep the existence of the hidden volume secret. Really useful if you're a spy or heavy pornography collector.


Utilities

    App Installation

  • Ninite - Choose the apps you want from a list, click "Get Installer", and Ninite will produce a small executable file that will download and install those apps. It automatically says 'no' to any toolbars and sets appropriate file associations. It does all this totally silently in the background. If you ever need to update the apps, just run the installer file again and it'll upgrade everything to the latest version. The available app list is well-curated and good - a lot of the apps in this directory are installable via Ninite - but it probably doesn't have everything you need. Use Ninite after a Windows reinstall and you'll save yourself hours.


    File Copying

  • TeraCopy - TeraCopy - Replaces the Windows file-copying utility with something useful. Far more accurate progress bars and remaining-time display, support for resuming interrupted copy operations, and CRC verification.


    File Search

  • Everything - Lightning-fast filesearch - indexes your whole hard drive in seconds, allowing instantaneous search. 334kb download. You will be amazed. Doesn't search file contents.


    Desktop Widgets

  • Rainmeter - Extremely customisable, reskinnable widget app. Does everything as long as somebody's thought to write a widget for it, or you can write your own if you're that sort of person. Clock, calendars, email, weather, system tray, app launchers, RSS feeds.


    Archiving/Compression

  • 7-Zip - 7zip - Pros: Open-source, free, lightweight, powerful. Cons: File associations aren't set during install and you have to do it from within the software (installing from Ninite will set this up automatically), responds to corrupt files by panicking and often crashing.
  • PeaZip - open source archiving/compression utility. Supports over 150 formats, including it's own PEA (Pack Encrypt Authenticate) format. Slightly prettier GUI than 7-Zip's, but less lightweight.


    PC Cleaning/Maintenance

  • CCleaner - A spring-cleaning app by Piriform. Cleans out caches, unwanted files and broken/unwanted registry entries. Highly recommended.
  • CCleaner Enhancer - small tool that adds cleaning support for over 1000+ new programs to CCleaner.
  • Secunia PSI - Scans your computer for software that needs updating and then updates it. Marvelous. Slight tendency to get stuck while scanning programs.


    Defragmentation

  • Defraggler - Powerful defragger made by Piriform. Will do whole hard drives or individual files.


    Remote Desktop
  • TeamViewer - Easy-to-use remote desktop software with additional collaboration/presentation features. I install this on every new laptop my family buys. Makes fixing problems much easier. It is, however, nagware.

Leovinus fucked around with this message at Jan 29, 2013 around 20:27

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Leovinus
Apr 28, 2005

by Y Kant Ozma Post


FAQs/Notes (last update: 22 Jan 2013)

I want to add a piece of software to this list!

Excellent. Suggest it in the thread. The best format to use for me to quickly get it into the OP is like so:

Program Name - [description]

The program link should be in bold and link to the most appropriate page - not necessarily the download page. If the software has a domain to itself, like, for example, MetroTwit, link to that. Don't link to third-party file download sites like CNET unless there is no other suitable source.

Make sure that your description also talks about what your program doesn't do well! This isn't about finding the best possible app for a certain task, it's about finding the best app for a certain user.

Things the thread could use:

  • More discussion about other people's suggestions! There have been plenty of presumably decent suggestions already that I haven't added to the OP because I've never used them and can't vouch for their quality. If you see a suggestion you agree with, second it, and add extra information if you can. Once the suggestion's been seconded a couple of times, I'll add it to the list.
  • More suggestions
  • Programs to avoid - if a popular piece of software is actually an awful piece of poo poo that should be avoided, that's good advice for people making use of a thread like this. If there's some agreement, we can throw it into the OP with an "avoid" tag.

Leovinus fucked around with this message at Jan 26, 2013 around 19:06

cs25230
Jun 13, 2005


-Media Player

MPC-HC - lean media player for Windows. Includes common video and audio file codecs. Does not include support for broadcasting/trans-coding like VLC.

-IM/Chat

Jitsi - multi-IM SIP client. Features encryption for video/voice/instant messaging. Uses self contained Java libraries.

-Security

EMET - helps prevent vulnerabilities in software from being successfully exploited.

-Archiving/Compression

PeaZip - archiving/compression utility. Features a clean interface. Performance is on par with 7Zip/WinRAR

-Cleaning/System Maintenance

Secunia PSI - automatic way to keep most of your software up-to-date. Tends to get stuck "examining" depending on the program it's trying to update. If you want an on-demand alternative use PatchMyPC or FileHippo Update Checker instead.

CCleaner - used for cleaning junk/cache/history from Windows. Closed source, can only clean the current logged in user's profile.

CCleaner Enhancer - automatic way to update definitions and then silently run CCleaner on startup. You can manually download definitions from here and copy it to your CCleaner directory if you don't want to use CCEnhancer. winapp2.ini adds 1000+ definitions to CCleaner.

JavaRA - simple way to update or forcibly delete files, directories and registry keys associated with JRE.

System Ninja - file scanning engine that removes junk files from your computer. It uses a heuristic way of determining what files are junk. Pay attention to what you're removing because you can potentially break programs/games that rely on thumbnail caches.

PC Decrapifier - remove bloatware from new computers. Features a way to remove programs en masse sequentially after the automatic bloatware removal. Can only make your own removal rules/list with the paid version.

-Misc

RAMDisk - creates a virtual RAM drive. Also includes an easy to use interface to save/load disks from file. Free version can only make up to 4GB drives.

cs25230 fucked around with this message at Jan 25, 2013 around 20:22

Mr. Gravy
Mar 17, 2004

Oh! Mr. Gravy!

For lightweight PDF viewing Sumatra PDF definitely deserves a mention. As a longtime user of Foxit, I've grown to like this more over time (and it's fast as hell). It's color scheme can be retina searing though.

C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

Actually, Lucy, my trouble is football. I just don't understand it. Instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down.

Go Lions.


I'm always down for more free, handy software. While I download far more of it than I actually end up using I've got a nice little set of computer maintenance programs:

HDGraph- Scans any sort of computer drive and reports its contents back in a multilayered pie chart. Good for figuring out where large files and folders are, and how to best free up disk space. A bit slow at times but that probably varies by machine.

Secunia PSI- Scans your computer for out-of-date programs and directs you to new updates. There's a paid version but the free one here works just as well. Can be a little slow, plus it picks up programs that you can't always update.

Malwarebytes- Great, fast, free anti-malware program. Microsoft Security Essentials might cover a lot of the same ground but it couldn't hurt.

Spybot Search & Destroy- Anti-spyware program. Admittedly I haven't used it to clean out spyware lately since I think MSE or MBAM does this, but Spybot has a feature that notifies you when a program attempts to make registry changes, which could be handy. Or annoying, since every time you install a new program there are registry changes being made.

C-Euro fucked around with this message at Jan 25, 2013 around 16:42

ChocolatePancake
Feb 25, 2007


Mr. Gravy posted:

For lightweight PDF viewing Sumatra PDF definitely deserves a mention. As a longtime user of Foxit, I've grown to like this more over time (and it's fast as hell). It's color scheme can be retina searing though.

Seconding this. I used to use Foxit, but Sumatra is just so much faster. When installing, make sure you check the box on the first screen that lets you customize some installation options. Otherwise you might not get the excellent browser plugins (not sure if the installer still doesn't have these checked by default).

Red_Mage
Jul 23, 2007

No seriously, fat stacks of disposable income.

--<3, Traditional Games


IM/Chat
KVIrc is not pretty, but it is full featured and cross platform. It also features just about everything mIRC does with an entire object oriented scripting language.

Music Players/Organisers
Musicbee is like Songbird if songbird had gotten good. It uses BASS as a backend, so it can play drat near anything, features a dizzying array of features for getting music/podcasts organized and onto things the way you like them, and even has limited support for Winamp plugins.

Video Players
Someone already suggested MPC-HC and it is the correct answer.

zachol
Feb 13, 2009


Another vote SumatraPDF.

Also, for image viewing, I like XnView.

e: How do people feel about the GIMP and Inkscape?

zachol fucked around with this message at Jan 25, 2013 around 04:14

NotWearingPants
Jan 3, 2006

Certainly I was sufficiently insecure to have felt the need to establish to my own satisfaction before the age of 33 whether or not humans can fly. If that makes me a chippy little autodidact in your eyes then so be it.

I also prefer SumatraPDF.

I would recommend CutePDF for generating PDF documents. http://www.cutepdf.com/

Also, I don't see PuTTY on the list yet: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~...y/download.html "PuTTY is a free Win32 Telnet and SSH client"

Not technically a Windows app, but in your description of Winamp I recommend you mention aWARemote http://www.geb-dev.de/ which is a great Winamp remote control for Android.

~~~~

For clarification, is this list for free software only?

I think you will generate some discussion with a few of your choices. In particular the choice of MSE and the recommendations in the music player categories. I look forward to reading them and seeing what people are using these days. I still go with Eset.

NotWearingPants fucked around with this message at Jan 25, 2013 around 04:56

zachol
Feb 13, 2009


CutePDF is great for printing PDFs. Found it works better than the "Export to PDF" options I've tried (like with LibreOffice).

In Windows 8, I think MSE is just bundled with the OS, the way the firewall has been. Go into the security center, turn on the antivirus, without installing anything. Maybe a mention of this, and some comments on whether people feel it's sufficient?

rebelEpik
Jun 9, 2012


No mention of foobar in the music section?

Meta Ridley
Jan 15, 2007

May I help you with your order?

Everything search. Everyone is already using that though, right?

HexiDave
Mar 20, 2009


I use Pandora pretty regularly for music, but hated having some garbage Flash applet running somewhere. My buddy found Elpis and I've been using it ever since. Cuts a lot of the nonsense out, runs natively (skipping their Flash applet), and works with media keys (pause/play, next). It's also open-source!

As for another handy utility for discovering which directories are full of files, I use TreeSize. Gives me a pretty simple representation, and lets me directly access the folders from the right-click context menus.

Now, something for people that use eBook readers (I use a Kindle), this thing has been pretty much essential: Calibre. Handles converting file formats, organization, fixing up table of contents and covers, storage management, etc. It's updated regularly.

thelightguy
Feb 6, 2007

Well there's your problem.


I'm going to have to pimp Dexpot for virtual desktops again. It's free for private use, multi-mon compatible and even plays nice with UltraMon's second taskbar.

Leovinus
Apr 28, 2005

by Y Kant Ozma Post


Some great suggestions already - I'll update the OP later this evening. One thing I want to ask is that if you're recommending something, don't only list its good points, list the things it doesn't do so well, too. People want different things out of a program, so even if your amazing DVD ripping software suggestion can compress a 3-hour film into a 50MB file which will play on any device with a monitor, you should still mention that the GUI is a bit poo poo.

Edit: Case in point, MPC-HC. I haven't used the program in a while, so it'd be useful to know the drawbacks - do you still need to install codec packs for it to be any good?

Leovinus fucked around with this message at Jan 25, 2013 around 16:33

cs25230
Jun 13, 2005


No, MPC-HC is a fork of MPC that includes codecs and is optimized for home cinema use.

But I'll go back and add some pro/cons to the programs I suggested in my other post.

RevSyd
Sep 23, 2005


Here's a few I use every day:

-Utility
Process Hacker - Task manager replacement
Pros: System tray histogram icons (CPU is very useful), vast amount of information and diagnostic functions, service and driver control screen, portable
Cons: No help file, overwhelming number of options, easy to crash/lock up processes if you start meddling
Note: Suggested companion literature for programmers: Windows Exploratory Surgery With Process Hacker PDF

Serviwin - Windows services and drivers control
Pros: Far superior to Windows services screen, drivers in a separate screen, portable
Cons: Real easy to mess your system up if you're not careful

Speedfan - System temperature and fan speed controller
Pros: It's the best at what it does, includes SMART disk monitor
Cons: Difficult to set up, not all hardware supported

Windows System Control Center - Utility suite, combines Microsoft's old Sysinternals Suite with Nirsoft's free utilities
Pros: A zillion utilities, some very powerful, central program for launch, search, and updates, portable
Cons: Many obscure, CLI, or poorly documented utilities, can be overwhelming
Note: WSCC includes Process Hacker and Serviwin, it has a lot of other "must-have" programs that you might want to install even if you don't want the whole WSCC shebang.
---

-Desktop
DesktopOK - Remembers desktop icon positions
Pros: Small, set-and-forget, autosaves and remembers different screen resolutions
Cons: That's all it does
Note: Author has a lot more mini utilities
---

-Antivirus
Kaspersky Malware Removal Nightly Builds - Malware removal
Pros: Portable, self-uninstalls, includes its own database, for on/offline scanning of infected/suspected infected systems
Cons: One-time use, nagware, doesn't update itself, new version every few hours (save the URL, get the program as needed)

Avast Antivirus - antivirus suite
Pros: comprehensive, good, real-time, sandbox, popular, the last of the "Big 3 A's" to not succumb to adware/crapware
Cons: activated through email

Eset Online Scanner - downloads and runs an antivirus scan
Pros: Good for cleaning up malware
Cons: One-time use, nags
---

-VPN
Teamviewer - PC remote control/VPN/video conference
Pros: Fairly easy use/install (for instructing family members over the phone etc), video, text, and audio chat, good for fixing grandma's computer
Cons: "casual" VPN program, nagware
---

-Drivers
3dChip Drivers - Driver scanner & installer
Pros: Portable, 3DNet contains a big database of LAN drivers
Cons: Not a total solution, but just enough drivers to get a system online
---

-Disk Utilities
Crystal Dew World - Disk benchmark and monitoring utilities
Pros: Diskmark is a popular benchmark program, DiskInfo monitors SMART and temperature, portable
Cons: Some versions of the installer may want to install OpenCandy

IOBIT SmartDefrag - online disk defragging
Pros: Set-and-forget, runs as needed entirely in the background, good for grandmas computer
Cons: lack of options, nagware

Defraggler - another disk defragger
Pros: Popular, good, can defrag individual files and directories
Cons: Doesn't defrag real-time
Note: Piriform makes several good freeware utilities, but be careful when using CCleaner.
---

-Firewall
Zonealarm - software firewall
Pros: Good at keeping programs from getting out
Cons: A bit gaudy

Comodo Firewall - Firewall suite
Pros: powerful, lots of settings, sandbox, process security, antivirus
Cons: avoid the sucky antivirus, overwhelming number of options

RevSyd fucked around with this message at Jan 26, 2013 around 05:55

amishpurple
Jul 21, 2006

I'm not insane, I'm just not user-friendly!

Meta Ridley posted:

Everything search. Everyone is already using that though, right?

Killer, thanks.

To contribute, ZoomIt is pretty cool doing presentations/demos. JDiskReport is great for seeing what's chewing up your disk and is especially handy if you manage file shares at work.

unpronounceable
Apr 4, 2010

I told you already, it's pronounced ugzofdodwollicasjab!

Antivirus
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
If Microsoft Security Essentials is your set and forget protection, this is its backup. The free version doesn't run passively, but if you suspect a virus got past MSE, a scan with this should be your next step.

Utilities
Launchy
Launchy is a program that will automatically index shortcuts and run programs from a few keyboard strokes. While it's functionality is largely duplicated by the startbar search, it has, in my experience, been faster, and better at learning what the more commonly used programs are. It also supports plugins to extend its functionality. One of my favourites is the built in calculator.

VirtuaWin
VirtuaWin is a program to create virtual desktops on a windows computer. Virtual desktops allow you to organize windows so that they aren't all cluttering your screen or taskbar. They are a great way of simulating multi-monitor functionality on one screen. If you are familiar with it, it's the same thing as Spaces on a Mac. VirtuaWin allows you to create window rules to keep certain programs on certain desktops. One con is that it doesn't work perfectly with steam. To work around this, create a window rule to show it on all desktops.

Display Fusion
Display Fusion is a great tool for people running multiple monitors. It enables window snapping, taskbars on all monitors, better wallpaper management than built into Windows 7, and a ton of customizable hotkeys for positioning and resizing windows. It also includes classic style start menus if you are so inclined. While there is a free version, it has a ton of functionality removed from the full version. The full version costs $25 for a single computer licence or $35 for unlimited computers.

WinDirStat
WinDirStat will analyse your hard drive, and provide a graphic display showing what files and folders are taking up space. It is incredibly useful when you have to be space conscious, like on an SSD.

TheCoon
Mar 3, 2009



Utilities

WizMouse - WizMouse allows scrolling of non-focused application windows with your mouse wheel. Also offers reverse mouse scrolling (like OSX Natural Scrolling?) and enabling of the mouse wheel for applications lacking mouse wheel support by converting mouse wheel commands into scroll bar commands.

Cons: Apparently doesn't work on Windows 8.


SuperF4 - I can't really explain this any better than the developer: "SuperF4 kills the foreground program when you press Ctrl+Alt+F4. This is different from when you press Alt+F4. When you press Alt+F4, the program can refuse to quit. Windows essentially only asks the program to quit, and lets it decide for itself what to do."

Super useful if some crappy game locks up in fullscreen or whatever.

TheCoon fucked around with this message at Jan 26, 2013 around 17:35

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

less faggotry, more rs4.

WinSplit Revolution - Stuck in window management hell? Have multiple monitors? Just want to make better use of the one you have? Probably the best window snapping tool there is. Like Aero Snap on steroids. Well worth your time. Free.

Edit: http://www.ninite.com should feature somewhere at the top of the list - because it is an ultra convenient way to install many of the recommended bits of software in one go.

HalloKitty fucked around with this message at Jan 26, 2013 around 22:57

Lum
Aug 13, 2003



Waterfox - Not much to say, it's a 64bit build of Firefox optimised for modern CPUs rather than for the original Pentium. Significantly faster than Firefox though updates come out a little slower. You can get a 64bit version of Flash from this page, which also has 64bit versions of Java and Silverlight, but I'm not sure why you'd want to install those. You do not need special 64bit versions of Firefox extensions, just the plugins.

Lum fucked around with this message at Jan 27, 2013 around 01:09

teh z0rg
Nov 17, 2012


Wow it is faster. I need to stop watch this poo poo.

Sylink
Apr 17, 2004


Is there anything for Windows 7 that makes windows that you resize snap to a grid of some kind? I often have a couple things open and it would be cool to have stuff resize to a grid (sort of like a Diablo style tetris inventory?) so I could lay it out nicely.

hifi
Jul 25, 2012


Sylink posted:

Is there anything for Windows 7 that makes windows that you resize snap to a grid of some kind? I often have a couple things open and it would be cool to have stuff resize to a grid (sort of like a Diablo style tetris inventory?) so I could lay it out nicely.

Winsplit Revolution can do this, press Ctrl + Alt and then drag the window around, and there's a blue transparent rectangle to preview what the window will be resized to.

Zen Punk
Dec 26, 2005

interfaced


I've been using Astra32 for many, many years to scan a (Windows) machine and find out everything possible about what's in it. It tells me detailed specs about the hardware, down to the brand of the DIMMs. It's saved me hours of work on many occasions.

It uses a table to associate detected info with known parts/brands, and it's constantly being updated. As far as PCI devices and peripherals go, what Astra detects doesn't always line up with what's printed on the actual device, but it will usually tell you what chipset it's actually using as opposed to whose brand is on the outside.

It can occasionally cause hang-ups/lock-ups, especially when running tests on the memory subsystem(you can choose which tests are run.) This is mainly on older(pre-2006) hardware, though, and I haven't seen it crash in years.

There is also a DOS version for when you don't have a bootable OS on-machine but I've never used it.

Zen Punk fucked around with this message at Jan 27, 2013 around 19:51

Mr Crucial
Oct 28, 2005
What's new pussycat?

DropIt: http://dropit.sourceforge.net/

A utility for automatically copying or moving files from one location to another. I use it to automatically move files on my laptop to various locations on my file server, such as moving all MP3s from my 'Downloads' folder and putting them in the 'Automatically Added to iTunes' folder on my server.

AutoUnpack: http://www.see-and-be.com/AutoUnpack/index.php

Scans a folder every 5 minutes. If it sees any ZIP or RAR files it will automatically extract them. Saves you having to do it manually in WinRAR or 7Zip or whatever, and works really great in conjunction with DropIt to automatically organise files.

Alereon
Feb 6, 2004

For me but LEFTHANDED

Leovinus posted:

Firefox - Customizable as all hell. You can set Firefox up pretty much any way you like depending on how deep you want to go into the settings. It's still pretty poorly optimized, though, so expect it to chew up a lot of resources and memory leak like crazy.
This is not really true anymore, Firefox is much more efficient with memory than Chrome so if you have more than a couple tabs open Firefox will use less memory. If you're using Firefox 18 and still see it using a lot of memory, you may have a bad add-on or extension installed or may need to reset your Firefox profile. See the Firefox thread for more information.

Lum posted:

Waterfox - Not much to say, it's a 64bit build of Firefox optimised for modern CPUs rather than for the original Pentium.
Note that 64-bit versions of Firefox can't use the optimized JavaScript engine, which is 32-bit only. Since JavaScript is one of the most important factors for web performance today, this more than erases the gains from turning on more compiler optimizations. Third-party builds also update infrequently which can leave you exposed to critical security vulnerabilities, so you're probably better off using the official build.

Lum
Aug 13, 2003



It's claimed that IonMonkey, the new JS compiler, does work on 64 bit as of WaterFox 18.

I'll go find a JavaScript benchmark and compare them.

Edit: Well it looks like the sunspider results would agree with you, though the difference is slight:

Waterfox 18: 215.0ms
Firefox 18: 193.5ms

Lum fucked around with this message at Jan 27, 2013 around 18:49

Shadowhand00
Jan 22, 2006

Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.

Leovinus posted:


Passwords

[*]KeePass - Creates a database in which you can securely store and generate random passwords for websites and applications, with an auto-type feature. You probably want the 1.xx version rather than the 2.xx one - it's not an older version, it's just geared towards home use.


I don't know why I never did it before, but I tried using Keepass this morning. This is a godsend and something I should have used ages ago.

PerrineClostermann
Dec 15, 2012

Everyone loves Perrine

CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
--
Displays very useful information about the precise CPU on your computer, including its current voltage, clock, multiplier, and bus speed. Also provides some specs on your motherboard, RAM, and GPU (though bare bones, so you'll want to use some other utility for more detailed info. I believe they have a GPU-Z for GPUs).

Hardware Monitor http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
--
Gives a quick overview of the status of pretty much any hardware you'd be concerned about. Various motherboard supply voltages, temperatures, fan speeds, CPU temps, HDD temps, and GPU temps are displayed. The GPU information doesn't work for multiple cards if they're in a Crossfire or SLI configuration, though.

MSI Afterburner http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm
--
I'm not quite sure if it works with nVidia, but for my Radeons, it's a very useful tool. Works with all manufacturers, not just MSI. Basically, it allows you to monitor all sorts of GPU info such as fan duty cycle, GPU temp, and GPU usage. It also allows you to overclock your cards. You can set your fans to run at a specific duty cycle, or customize the temperature vs. duty cycle curve of your video card. I'm sure there are other programs out there, but it's a solid one.

Putty Tray https://puttytray.goeswhere.com/
--
A simple TTY/SSH/TELNET client for Windows. Differs from normal Putty in that it minimizes to the system tray and not the taskbar. Otherwise, does what it's supposed to. SSH into servers and tunnel your connection, play some nethack, whatever.

Visi Pics http://www.visipics.info/index.php?title=Main_Page
--
Honestly I don't like this program that much, but it's also the only one of its kind I've found. Got a folder full of pictures? Not sure you remembered not to save the same picture seven times? This will compare every picture in a folder (or folders), finding duplicates for you to compare side-by-side and either keep or trash.

PerrineClostermann fucked around with this message at Jan 28, 2013 around 07:16

zachol
Feb 13, 2009


PerrineClostermann posted:

Visi Pics http://www.visipics.info/index.php?title=Main_Page
--
Honestly I don't like this program that much, but it's also the only one of its kind I've found. Got a folder full of pictures? Not sure you remembered not to save the same picture seven times? This will compare every picture in a folder (or folders), finding duplicates for you to compare side-by-side and either keep or trash.

Second for Visipics. Unlike duplicate file finders, that just get exact duplicates, this can get variations, different sizes, and different quality levels, and lets you compare them.
Although honestly I wish the automatic picker was smarter, going through them all manually is a pain.

PerrineClostermann
Dec 15, 2012

Everyone loves Perrine

zachol posted:

Second for Visipics. Unlike duplicate file finders, that just get exact duplicates, this can get variations, different sizes, and different quality levels, and lets you compare them.
Although honestly I wish the automatic picker was smarter, going through them all manually is a pain.

True, but if we had put forth the effort earlier and simply organized our pictures, we wouldn't have to use Visipics now. I found it when I went through a stint using Chrome when it first came out. For some reason it didn't remember the last download location, defaulting to some folder in My Documents. A month later, I switched back to Firefox and used Visi to remove the mess of duplicates in that folder, which had accumulated some 2000 unorganized images.

Shitty Treat
Feb 21, 2012

Stoopid?


Leovinus posted:


Security


Antivirus

Security Essentials - For home use, this one is the business. Set it and forget it - it'll update and run scans in the background, with a great detection rate. Oh, and it's free.


It seems that this is no longer as good as it once was.

http://www.techspot.com/news/51367-...tion-again.html

cs25230
Jun 13, 2005


If you need a free antivirus program similar to MSE (but not poo poo) Bitdefender Free Edition is pretty great.

Pros: Better 0-day detection and really simple interface similar to MSE. Works well with Malwarebytes Pro.
Cons: Uses slightly more resources then MSE but the trade off is worth it for using a better AV solution.

cs25230 fucked around with this message at Jan 28, 2013 around 14:35

The Third Man
Nov 5, 2005

I know how much you like ponies so I got you a ponies avatar bro


Anybody have a simple clock widget or something that I can move/scale and that will sit in the foreground? I like to keep my taskbar hidden but I want to be able to see the time without having to mouse over it again.

Sebastian Flyte
Jun 27, 2003

Golly

Actual Window Manager

Swiss army knife of several window management tools. Runs in the background and automatically controls new application windows according to whatever rules you define. Want a particular application to always open on the top right of your secondary monitor? Want your chat application to always be on top, without the maximize or minimize buttons? Want to automatically close any window that has "goatse" in the title? Actual Window Manager actually does all that, and lots more. Not free, but the individual tools can be purchased seperately, if you don't need all the features of the complete app.

astr0man
Feb 21, 2007

Don't get old.


KiTTY
It's a putty fork that adds support for clickable links and some other things like minimizing to the system tray.

Super Putty
It's basically just a wrapper for putty that adds support for tabbed sessions. It also supports using kitty (or any other putty fork I guess) as well as cygwin sessions inside tabs.

unpronounceable
Apr 4, 2010

I told you already, it's pronounced ugzofdodwollicasjab!

The Third Man posted:

Anybody have a simple clock widget or something that I can move/scale and that will sit in the foreground? I like to keep my taskbar hidden but I want to be able to see the time without having to mouse over it again.

I think you might want to look at Rain Meter. I haven't used it all that much myself, but it comes with a clock widget, and I'm pretty sure you can set it to always be on top.

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PerrineClostermann
Dec 15, 2012

Everyone loves Perrine

unpronounceable posted:

I think you might want to look at Rain Meter. I haven't used it all that much myself, but it comes with a clock widget, and I'm pretty sure you can set it to always be on top.

Rain Meter's a good way to rice up your desktop, if you're into that. I've seen some really neat setups using it and some sort of shell replacement. Unfortunately, they never seem to be that functional and are a bit bloaty.

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