Cool Free Software

[dar512]

I don't think we have a thread going for this. This thread is for cool open-source or otherwise free software.

I'll start. One of the first things I do when setting up a new machine is to download better screen savers.

Really Slick Screensavers have some really impressive ones that show off the better graphic processors in newer machines.

[glatt]

Firefox
web browser

Thunderbird
e-mail

Audacity
turn vinyl (or anything) into cds or MP3s.

irfanview
basic picture viewer that does easy resizing

the GIMP
basically identical to photoshop. Very advanced.

Google Earth
detailed maping of the whole world

sketchup
free CAD style designer

[Pie]

PSPad (programming editor)
Bluefish (programming editor)
FileZilla (ftp tool)
Foxit (free pdf reader, without the adobe bloat and vulnerabilities)
CutePDF (allows 'print to pdf' capability)
VLC Player (media player)
Cygwin (Linux-like environment for Windows)

Second Irfanview
Second FF/TB
Second Audacity

[Flint]

I use Irfanview, like, every day.

[Crimson Ghost]

Firefox
Irfanview
Audacity
Xmplay - music player
Deep Burner - CD burner
FileSieve
PDFCreator
Bulk Rename Utility
ePrompter - email checker*
PopTray - email checker*
PostAssistant - Usenet posting (Usenet? What's that?)
Xnews
Defraggler
Belarc Advisor


* Some accounts won't work on ePrompter

[Undertoad]

Linux

[mbpark]

PuTTY - Free SSH/Telnet/Serial Client
WinSCP - Free SFTP client
FileZilla - Free FTP/SFTP client
TrueCrypt - Open Source drive encryption, including boot drives!
VLC - best video player out there
Cygwin - Free unix-like shell and X server
Firefox - my favorite web browser

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by mbpark

PuTTY - Free SSH/Telnet/Serial Client
WinSCP - Free SFTP client
FileZilla - Free FTP/SFTP client
TrueCrypt - Open Source drive encryption, including boot drives!
VLC - best video player out there
Cygwin - Free unix-like shell and X server
Firefox - my favorite web browser

Questions/Comments/My List:

Can you provide some examples of what PuTTy is used for? Or is it one of those 'if you have to ask, you don't need it' kind of things?

True Crypt is a little scary. Is there a guide to make using it a little more straightforward. I worry that I'll encrypt my stick and then never be able to access it again.

I like VLC. A lot. But the sound quality is average at best. Foobar's DSP add-ons are far better but Quintessential Player's iZoTope Ozone DSP add on is the best sound quality I've ever heard - even better than my registered version of Nero.

Here are some less widely known apps I think are worth checking out:

Samurize desktop configuratorizorthingamajig. Not for everybody but allows unlimited potential for desktop customization. It even takes text files and displays them as part of the desktop which is a lifesaver for me - I use it to make my toDo list part of my desktop. Check out the user configs - some are amazing.

Portable Apps for your USB stick: Many apps already mentioned are available as USB apps that run off your USB drive. I'll highlight one in particular: Toucan file synchronizer. May not be the best in class but for me, its elegance is its simplicity.


Fiddler: Web debugger - a Swiss Army knife of intarweb utils including a URL snooper. Unfortunately, it only runs on IE.

Duplicate Finder: I dunno about you but I have duplicates of duplicates. This program will find them even if they have different names! And, if you want, it'll delete the dups. A lifesave for us packrats.

Q10: When you just want to focus on writing something and want the rest of your computer to leave you alone, Q10 to the rescue.

FolderICO: Some days, I couldn't find a fly in a bowl of milk. For me, there's folderICO - make folders different colors.

Scaleable fabric: Your desktop will never be the same.

Sysinternals Suite: Be the master of your domain.

Unlocker: For when you absolutely, positively cannot delete a file.

Rainlender: Desktop calendar.

And, saving the best for last...

RoboForm: The grandaddy of password managers. On a USB stick. It automatically logs you in to any site and has its own bookmarks for login sites. I have run out of superlatives for this one.

[Sperlock]

Originally Posted by Beestie

Questions/Comments/My List:

Can you provide some examples of what PuTTy is used for? Or is it one of those 'if you have to ask, you don't need it' kind of things?

Yes, pretty much. If you don't need to login to the command line/shell of another computer or server, you probably don't need it.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by Sperlock

Yes, pretty much. If you don't need to login to the command line/shell of another computer or server, you probably don't need it.

Though you can use it for vpn tunneling -- useful behind firewalls.


Don't ask me how, I never got it to work.

[Meursault]

[except for nlite, everything mentioned here is freeware, portable, and written to the win32 api]

nlite http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html
nlite's purpose is to customise windows before you install it. you copy your source files from disc to hard drive, use nlite to modify those files, and then you have a set of files that will install windows your way, every time. if you haven't tried it, you don't know what you're missing. this is the single best enhancement to your windows 'experience' i can think of.

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explorer.exe is a dual-purpose binary that supplies the file manager your are familar with as "My Computer", AND provides the user interface you see as your desktop, taskbar, etc. when it is first run it checks to see if there is another instance running, and if not, it creates a desktop etc for you. if Yes, it open as a file manager. if you replace each of these functions with different software, you don't even need to have explorer on your drive.
there are a number of shell replacements out there, some portable some not, some popular some not. many are smaller and more efficient than the one explorer provides. if you'd like to look into this, you can start at a place like http://shellcity.net/ or you can just google something like "windows shell replacement".
there are also a number of file manager replacements.

http://www.primitus.us/a43/
A43 file manager. it's not the one i use daily, but it's the one to have around for the low-resource environments as it'll run anywhere and do a lot.

http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm
xplorer2 lite. dual-pane file manager. this is the one i actually use.
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http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx
autoruns. this is a program to manage windows startup. "msconfig" is for noobs. this is much better. one of many tools by mark russinovich, who could fairly be considered the Guru of Gurus in the windows world. His 'Process Explorer' http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx is another must-have. its purpose is to replace windows' TaskManager with something that gives you a little more control.
Russinovich wrote a lot of interesting and useful things, so i'd definitely suggest checking them all out. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...s/default.aspx .
These used to be hosted at his site Sysinternals.com but were bought out by microsoft a few years at ago. a condition of the sale was that ms swear not to change his code, so the tools should still work fine. but they _did change the license agreement (still freeware tho), and if that bugs you (i never even read it), you can download the last versions available from before the sale at http://court.shrock.org/sysinternals/.
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ShutDown Pro http://www.nonags.com/software.asp?id=2955
one-click instant shut down killing all processes etc...
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Killbox http://killbox.net/ kinda fits in here. it's purpose is to delete files that are giving you the "cannot delete file in use" error. between this, process explorer, and autoruns, you can get rid of most trojans if you know what you're looking for.

and speaking of trojans: Clamwin http://www.clamwin.com/ is a portable av that'll run from a flash drive or even a bart cd. and although it's not as reliable as the best avs out there, it's damned good, and the only portable one i'v seen
antivir http://www.free-av.com/en/trialpay_d...antivirus.html is a good resident av, tho not portable. it keeps up with most of the commercial offerings tho.

and speaking of bart: once you have gathered together all the little portables you want, it's good to keep a copy on a bart cd so you can use them in recovery scenarios. bart pe http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ uses your windows source files to build a cd that will boot into a bare-bones copy of windows, allowing access to downed machines. and if you have some nice portable recovery progs included on your bart cd, well, cool....
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comodo http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/d..._firewall.html
software firewall +. noobs hate the popups, but this thing will lock down your computer. besides basic firewall, this thing has modules to monitor access to resources, spawned processes, etc. for those who dont know about secpol templates and adm files, it's a solid fix
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there are a lot of notepad replacements. if you'd like something with a lot of features, it's out there. this is just a very small and simple one i use: http://liquidninja.com/metapad/
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agent ransack. http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/
searches drives for files according to criteria simple or sophisticated. gives contextual results and allows immediate access to found files.
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windirstat http://windirstat.info/
the purpose of this one is to figure out what's taling up the most space on your drives. i use it when i'm looking for virus footprints or just doing cleanup. after scanning drives it spits out both list and graphical representations that let you jump right to the most clogged locations.
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Clone Spy http://www.clonespy.com/
add any location or series of location and check for duplicate files by name, crc, size, whatever. can also use it to build a crc list of files from a given drive and check other drives against the list, thus not needing to have all drives present or plugged in.
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DirLister http://dukelupus.pri.ee/dirlister.php
spits out a list of the contents of a location in either text or html, including only the informaton you choose.
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flexible renamer http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014...lish/FlexRena/
point it to a folder and it will allow you to add, remove or replace any given string from filenames, change dates or attributes, and recurses subfolders. best of its kind if you need such a thing
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7zip http://www.7-zip.org/
although winrar is the only non-freeware thing i use, and i cannot bear to switch, 7zip is a flexible and comprehansive piece of freeware and many swear by it
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InstallSpy http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html (waaay at the bottom of the page)
this one tracks changes made during an install. i use it to make installer programs portable (though ironically i had to make this one portable first). often, if you're installing something and it copies some ddls to the win32 dir, maybe makes a config file in Profiles, u can copy these thing to the program directory, make a copy, uninstall the program, and then run the copy as a portable. always useful.
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aklog http://www.myplanetsoft.com/free/antikeylog.php (requires a stupid email addy -_- didnt used to)
this is an anti-keylogger, useful for when you're on a public windows kiosk or something, and dont want want your passwords stolen. intercepts clipboard too i believe
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i'm not including a clipboard replacement on this list because the one i use is an oldie called ClipTrak from PCMagazine, and you can't get it now without registering
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regprot http://diamondcs.com.au/freeutilities/regprot.php
tiny program that monitors for changes in only those registry keys that decide what loads with windows startup. minimalist protection against persistent trojans
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neutron. http://keir.net/neutron.html
very simple prog to sync your computer's time with online time servers.
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DependencyWalker http://www.dependencywalker.com/
"Dependency Walker is a free utility that scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module, and which of those functions are actually being called by other modules. Another view displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file including a full path to the file, base address, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more."

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by Beestie

True Crypt is a little scary. Is there a guide to make using it a little more straightforward. I worry that I'll encrypt my stick and then never be able to access it again.

I'm not sure about a guide.. I expect there's one around here somewhere. But, for each encrypted device or container file, there's a header . You can extract that container information and save it to a file. If you ever need to reset the password (to whatever it was when you made the header backup) you can restore the header info and use the old password.

Of course, this assumes you'll know the old password . . . .

Originally Posted by Beestie

I like VLC. A lot. But the sound quality is average at best. Foobar's DSP add-ons are far better but Quintessential Player's iZoTope Ozone DSP add on is the best sound quality I've ever heard - even better than my registered version of Nero.

I'm going to check it out just to see if I hear a difference! I'm not much of an audiophile.


I'd second many of the recommendations made so far. One I'd add that's not software... but you can get an email certificate for free from Thawte. It doesn't certify your identity (just that you're in control of the email address you register), but it's good enough for many personal uses.

[Crimson Ghost]

Hey, Meursault, do you know of any cool free software?

[Meursault]

cg: i might. i'l look into it

[Elspode]

Bruce, UT, or Wolf...how's about making Mersault's reference posts here into a sticky? That's some good shit.