Must-Have Freeware Tools

[Oceanic]

I'm in the middle of reinstalling my windows xp system after one and a half years. i wan't to share my tool list because some of the programs i've installed are pretty unknown but really amazing.

if you have some tools that are worth mentioning, please post them.



7-zip open and save zip, rar, 7z files much better that winrar or winzip

ccleaner removes junk files from your pc, cleans the registry, lets you change the startup programs

cdburnerxp burn cds, dvds, audio cds & co, easy and fast burn program

foobar2000 fast and easy audioplayer, doesn't eat resources like winamp

foxit reader small and fast pdf reader, the acrobat reader is huge and slow 300mb so you can only read pdf files???

miranda tiered of having, icq, msn, aim, yahoo tools installed? tired of the annoying ads and tool-bars that come with them? miranda combines most chat tools with recourse friendly interface (skype is as far as i know the only one unsupported by miranda)

notepad++ awesome notepad/wordpad alternative, compare you orbiter scenario, config, ini -files, it highlight's you the differences

openoffice freeware alternative to microsoft office

opera -please don't start a firefox vs. opera vs. internet explorer vs. chrome vs. safari battle-
in my opinion the best internet browser out there, save, fast, built-in mail client, built-irc client, built-in bittorrent client, only addons you will ever need: adsweep no more ads, urlfilter-list even less ads, flashblock blocks flash objects

paint.net want to edit a picture but you don't need photoshop or gimp, paint.net is the link between paint and photoshop

picasa if you want to organize your pictures, upload photo albums. picasa is you choice. smaller and faster that acdsee and comes with a beautiful replacement for the windows picture and fax viewer. only downside is it can't show you animated pictures (.gif files)

processquicklink ever opened taskmanager and wondered what xyz.exe is? processquicklink put a small icon next to each running process in the taskmanager, follow that link to find out if it is a system application or malware, virus & co

revo uninstaller at first i didn't think that this tool was necessary, but it really is, deleted 42 registry keys and 112 files after the application (in that case it was a 2mb email recovery tool) was uninstalled

unlocker ever had some files you could not delete/move/rename. unlocker saves you the trouble

vlc-player video player that plays most available formats without the need of downloading any codecs

xp-AntiSpy disable windows "call home" functions, and many more


Now the best tool ever!!!

radarsync this tool is just amazing, especially if you installed a fresh xp and need the new drivers for your hardware. this small freeware application scans your pc and lists all driver updates that are available for you system. not enough, radarsync checks your applications for the newest versions. not enough? you don't have to search the web for those updates, driver or application, radarsync downloads and installs them for you! oh and did i mention that you don't have to pay a dime for it? there is a paid version available that removes the ads and automates the process even more but the free edition is more that enough!



the user interface of most tools in this list may look a bit spare to some of you, but they are very resource friendly. a good example is foobar2000 vs winamp. foobar2000 starts in 3 to 7 seconds on my macine and uses 13mb ram with my library loaded, winamp start in 20 to 45 seconds and uses 52mb with the same library. easy dessision if your pc is not brand new anymore.



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i'm looking for a freeware solution, to record, convert and edit videos. anyone got a good tip?

 

[Jarvitä]

ccrypt - the Unix-standard individual file assymetrical key encryption utility.

truecrypt - encrypt an entire partition, or create a hidden encrypted partition for plausible deniability

GNU privacy guard (GPG) - FOSS implementation of the OpenPGP protocol

dd for windows - for when you're tired of keeping track of a dozen different image writers and other data management programs

GIMP - superior to paint.net

 

[ar81]

Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5
It allows to emulate old Windows systems.
It may not work with games that run on DirectX 5 or lower.

Audacity
Free audio editor and recorder

 

[Kveldulf]

I really like Enso. There are two varieties available, Enso Launcher and Enso Words.

Enso Launcher turns your Caps Lock button into something useful, and a simple press will open up a launcher window, from which you can open windows, programs, navigate between windows and tabs, as well as several other trivial computer functions such as maximizing and minimizing windows, and even basic calculations. Plus, it's capable of learning functions, so yes, you can tell it how to open Orbiter, and your various mod folders :speakcool:

Enso Words I dont have much experience with, but it will help you spellcheck in any application, as well as defining various words, and looking up synonyms on the fly.

Edit: Forgot to add, there is also a beta version available of Enso Translate. This allows you to do on the fly translating between English and 8 different languages. According to their website, the languages available are: French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and even Pirate. All using Google's translation services, but you no longer have to copy and paste.

 

[Oceanic]

grate additions guys keep em' coming

 

[Urwumpe]

My personal favorites:

Eclipse: Extremely powerful SDK for Java - and almost anything else. I mostly use it for writing LaTex documents. And if you ever wanted to learn programming, Java & Eclipse are IMHO the best combination.

FreeMind: Software for organizing brain storming sessions. If you are an add-on developer, this one is a must-have.

Spybot Search &Destroy - One of the most powerful tools against trojans and malware.

Microsofts Debugging Tools for Windows - Allow you to analyze the crash dumps after a BSOD, giving you far better information about the cause than the simple BSOD.

And don't forget:
Inkscape - vector graphics program, extremely powerful and one of the few native editors for the SVG format. I use it very often for making drawings for documentation or Orbiterwiki.

 

[agentgonzo]

SpaceMonger
Scans your hard drive and presents all files to you in an intuitive 2D arrangement to show you which files/directories are taking up the space on your hard drive. Useful if you're running out of space and need to clean out the old rubbish you forgot you had.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Wings3d One of the best free 3d modelers there is. Similar enough to Anim8or so users aren't lost, but with an easier simpler interface and better anti-stupidity stuff (i.e. can't arbitrarily delete faces, vertexes etc.) and a very powerful easy to use UV mapper. Also has an export script to .msh format on OrbitHangar thanks to Hielor.

 

[astrosammy]

XnView Opens nearly every image type, and also converts images to other formats.

Thanks for that programs, guys, never found such great stuff with google.

 

[TSPenguin]

Total Commander is a must have Norton Commander like filesystem tool. Extremely versatile, lot's of options and addons. Especialy user who like to use the keyboard will love this. This is shareware, but not limited in any way, it just nags you on start up.

IrfanView, a versatile and fast image viewer with limited editing options. Many plugins available, most of them in an AllInOne package, including lossless jpeg crop.

POP Peeper. Very minimalistic email client with support for IMAP and SSL.

HFS - HTTP File Server the name says it all. Leightweight, virtual filesystem and very easy to use. Ideal for quick filesharing if your messenger fails to establish a direct connection.

Pidgin, another messenger, GTK based.

Putty, free Telnet and SSH client for win32.

That's it for now.

Edit: Very usefull thread, stickied!

 

[Bj]

clonezilla -- Free disk cloning freeware


I thought I would just put this in here as well;

Everest-free Edition - Free version of Everest. EVEREST Home Edition is a freeware system information system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for home PC users.

 

[Hielor]

xp-AntiSpy disable windows "call home" functions, and many more

From that tool's "About" page:

For example, there's a service running in the background which is called 'Automatic Updates'. I don't know what this service transfers from my machine to other machines on the internet, especially the MS ones. So I play it safe and disable such functions.

Disabling Automatic Updates is not only not playing it safe, it's not a good idea, as it will prevent you from getting critical security updates. Rather than disabling it entirely using this tool, I would suggest setting it to "Ask me before installing updates" using the system settings. I would recommend not getting this "tool" at all.

And my contribution to the list:
Trillian another "combined messenger" program, which I use for AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, and IRC.

 

[Oceanic]

Disabling Automatic Updates is not only not playing it safe, it's not a good idea, as it will prevent you from getting critical security updates. Rather than disabling it entirely using this tool, I would suggest setting it to "Ask me before installing updates" using the system settings. I would recommend not getting this "tool" at all.

1. well that's is true, but remember you have a shortcut in the start-menu directly to the windows-update website. if you check it regularly you can save yourself a few mb ram and your system will boot faster. i personaly don't disable the service.

2. no options are choose automatically by xp-antispy and all can be restored, there are several options that you should really consider deactivate in your xp system. (windows media player global unique id ; mesaging service -net send; error report service; scripting host; internet explorer intergreated windows authentification; and others depending on you working/browsing behaviour)

 

[Unstung]

Orbiter, obviously.
FRAPS, for anyone who wants to film computer games.
ObjectDoct, by Stardock, for an easy-to-access Macintosh-like bar.
YSFLIGHT, for anybody who could be bored enough to play a free flight simulator.
Google Earth, because it's more fun than Google Maps.
WM Converter, my favorite, and easy-to-use, file conversion tool.
AVG, good, free, antivirus software for any PC.
Game Booster, for any computer that is slow playing games.
Firefox & WinRAR, because one cannot have too many browsers and compressors.

 

[astrosammy]

Another one:
TimeLeft
allows you to create clocks, countdowns, alarm clock and stopwatches for the desktop. Only allows one countdown in the free version, but still good enough for me for shuttle launches.

 

[Ghostrider]

UltraVNC: nice server/viewer VNC tool, great if you need to access your PC remotely.

FileSeek: because the windows search tool sucks and sometimes you absolutely need to find that file with the word "felgercarb" in it.

SamSpade 1.14: want to know stuff about a website? Chances are this is what you need.

Look@LAN: everybody needs to diagnose a LAN sooner or later for technical or espio... Er, security issues.

Wireshark: networks are cool, being able to see what goes to and fro on the aforementioned networks is cool too.

HTTrack Website Copier: some things are best browsed offline, because you know, things on teh interweb sometimes are there and sometimes are not.

Audacity: sound editor, freeware. Sounds cool. And it is.

Lightscreen: freeware screengrabber, because taking pictures of what's on your screen may be useful.

 

[Unstung]

I think Oceanic should amend his first post with his favorite additions so they would be easier to find.

 

[ar81]

Modplug Tracker
Useful to make tracked music. Supports IT, MOD, XM tracked formats and WAV samples and IX instruments. It can produce WAV output files. I have tested other music softwares and it is my fav, and it is free. I posted a tutorial at OH.

Sound Engine
WAV audio editor, useful for EQ.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Camstudio Camstudio is like Fraps, but completely free, no trial version. I haven't used it much, but from what I have used of it, it's very capable!

 

[TSPenguin]

Camstudio Camstudio is like Fraps, but completely free, no trial version. I haven't used it much, but from what I have used of it, it's very capable!

Camstudio proved very uncapable for me. It is nice for 2D stuff, but once you try recording a D3D window with 1280x720@30fps, the result is crap to say the least.