Recommended/Useful Software Thread

[Archangel]

I thought it might be useful for each of us to post the software we consider to be indispensable for our pc so that the rest of the people of the forum get to know it too

Firefox (http://www.mozilla-europe.org/)


Mozilla Firefox is a web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Official versions are distributed under the terms of a proprietary EULA. Firefox had 22.05% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of March 2009, making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide, after Internet Explorer.

UTorrent (http://www.utorrent.com/)


µTorrent (or uTorrent and commonly abbreviated as "µT" or "uT") is a freeware closed source BitTorrent client by BitTorrent, Inc.. It is available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Both versions are written in C++. It gets the "µ" in its name from the SI prefix "micro" meaning one one-millionth and it refers to the program's small footprint. The program is designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet.

Combined Community Codec Pack (http://www.cccp-project.net/)


The Combined Community Codec Pack, more commonly referred to as the CCCP, is a collected archive of codecs (video compression filters) packed for Microsoft Windows, designed originally for the playback of anime fansubs. The CCCP is developed and maintained by members of various fansubbing groups. The name is a pun on the Russian name for the USSR (Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, Soyuz Sovyetskikh Sotsialistichyeskikh Respublik); the Cyrillic name for the USSR is initialized CCCP, however it transliterates to SSSR.

That's it for now, i'll update it as it comes to mind.

[Board of Command]

I've always been against the idea of codec packs. I'd much rather install the individual components (ffdshow, vsfilter, etc.) myself, but that's just me.

For me, an indispensable program on all my systems is Rocketdock (http://rocketdock.com/). It makes organizing your commonly used programs very easy and does it in an efficient manner if you customize it properly. The default settings render it useless (like the MacOS Dock), but once you play with the configuration and figure out the magic settings, it's surprisingly useful.

[Kraco]

Rename-It! (http://www.beroux.com/english/softwares/renameit/)

This was a mass file renaming program Yuki suggested to me once. You need an application such as this if you intend to archive manga as most releases have whatever if any naming conventions. Supports regular expressions, multiple filters, and most of the other jazz you could imagine.

- - - - - - - - - -

Agent Ransack (http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/)

A file/text search program I found years ago. It's easy to use when looking for a string somewhere in a mass of text files.

[Buffalobiian]

How's RocketDock different from, say desktop shortcuts? It looks pretty snazzy, but the website didn't tell me a lot about what it's good for.

Xmarks: (http://www.xmarks.com/)

Plug-in for Firefox that synchonises your bookmarks across multiple computers as long as you have internet. Not that I modify my bookmarks on a daily basis, but it really helps when you use multiple computers (desktop/laptop) frequently. There's also been some new features added, like password synching, Enhanced Google Search (modifies google results for "better" matches), and Site Info&Suggestion.

The only features I use are the bookmark backup and Site Info/Suggestion. The latter is sometimes useful. It adds an icon in your address bar, and when you press it, shows a summary description of what site you're on, and then a further 5 similar sites that you may be interested in.

Process Explorer (aka Procexp) (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx)


Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.

The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.

Ever thought Windows Task Manager is lacking some features? Process Explorer is your answer. Can't do without it.

[Board of Command]

How's RocketDock different from, say desktop shortcuts? It looks pretty snazzy, but the website didn't tell me a lot about what it's good for.
You need access to the desktop if you want to use icons. You may not have such access if you have windows open on top of it. With Rocketdock, you can set it to pop up on top when you move your mouse to the edge of the screen. When not in use, you can set it to go to bottom so that it's not in the way of anything.

It's very practical if you get the settings right. Like I said earlier, the default settings make it useless.

[Psyke]

Rocketdock reminds of a similar software I used back on XP, but it was consuming too much resources and I had to remove it to run some applications. I'm downloading to give it a try though. :)

[Archangel]

Rocketdock reminds of a similar software I used back on XP, but it was consuming too much resources and I had to remove it to run some applications. I'm downloading to give it a try though. :)

Great to see the thread is getting results so fast :)

[Konohamaru!]

For any IT people out there, here is one of my favorites...

Visionapp (http://www.visionapp.com/freeware.html):

If you manage different servers, or remote desktop to a number of machines, this is such a handy program. The freeware version only supports up to 3 concurrent connections though. =(

Trillian (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/):

For those that instant message on different platforms, this takes AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ and rolls them into one program.

[Archangel]

Trillian (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/):

For those that instant message on different platforms, this takes AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ and rolls them into one program.

Does it allow file sharing and videocalling with all the messengers?

[Konohamaru!]

yes, it's suppose to support that stuff, although I haven't tested anything more then some file sharing...

[Xelbair]

Rocketdock is awesome indeed.

vDownloader - you wanted to have some song fron youtube and you didin't saw it on torrents? you want a movie from youtube? get this and you'll be able to download them and they are automaticly converted to avi. (i used them to get my biggest motivator for playing guitar http://www.youtube.com/user/17586063 after i see some of those movies i always want to play.)

Deepburner CD/DVD burning free program - 50mb only on hdd, fast and imo way better than nero

Foobar2000 music player - imo way better than winamp due to clearer menu, great plugin support(supports my lovely g15 lcd display and my creative x-fi remote) and it takes up much less system resources.

RealVNC - remote desktop, those who want to use it already know what it is.

Notepad++ - notepad with tabs, plugins and it supports programming/scripting language coloring text, if you try it - you'll never use notepad again

Audacity - imo best recording program - it is open source and is used by professional studios too

Applocale - used for running non-Unicode application - for example visual novels

some interesting stuff:
Xoblite - blackbox for winXP - google it to see what it does - looks neat but for me it was impractical.

Rainlendar - multipurpose application, it started as calendar but thanks to plugin support it can do much more(check mail, cast weather, show system resource usage, foobar/winamp integration and much more)...a bit too annoying for me - i prefer calendar with notes in my cellphone, but its great for tweeking look of your system, and looks totaly awesome with xoblite.


all stuff mentioned above is free

[David75]

Trillian (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/):

For those that instant message on different platforms, this takes AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and ICQ and rolls them into one program.

Pidgin is Opensource and does the same too for those interrested ;)


Powerstrip, for those interrested in actually controlling their screen refresh rate and much more (exotic resolutions etc...). Beware, poweruser tool that can create resolutions your screen can't manage, and it won't turn back to normal after reboot, so you must know hos to deal with such situations. You have been warned. Apparently, works better with Ati cards.

Reclock
Directshow filter to synchronise frequencies between the processor, video and sound for better playback. A tad hard to understand all the implications and how to use it to actually have a better experience. You may need other tools and avisynth scripts to solve motion judder for example.

[itadakimasu]

Photofiltre

This is a great free picture editer. Use it every day.

[Buffalobiian]

Windows Install Clean Up

Not commonly used by me, but quite handy. Have you ever been ABSOLUTELY sure you've uninstalled something, but it's staying on the "add/remove programs" list? Or the uninstaller corrupted itself, and the only way to remove a program is to delete the install directory and remove it from the list? Windows Install Clean Up will force your computer to recognise a program is uninstalled, though any files remaining will still be there (reg tweaking only).

[Xelbair]

Powerstrip, for those interrested in actually controlling their screen refresh rate and much more (exotic resolutions etc...). Beware, poweruser tool that can create resolutions your screen can't manage, and it won't turn back to normal after reboot, so you must know hos to deal with such situations. You have been warned. Apparently, works better with Ati cards.
.
just press F8 after BIOS "press del to enter setup" screen then choose run windows in VGA mode - it'll return resolution to the 800x600. So now you can play with this program :]

[David75]

just press F8 after BIOS "press del to enter setup" screen then choose run windows in VGA mode - it'll return resolution to the 800x600. So now you can play with this program :]

I know, I just put an example so that those with weak computer experience do not try this tool and have problems they can't solve by themselves.
Another easy way, if you installed logmein prior to powerstrip, is to access the resolution cripled comp from another one. You can then access the desktop and restore failsafe resolutions. Last time I tried, *VNC didn't work in that case (no usable desktop if resolution is screwed)

So another piece of software:
LogMeIn: Use with caution as your comp becomes accessible from your logmein account. So if logmein is controled by the CIA, or someone steals your logins... they can access your comp, and if they also know logins on your comp, you're screwed...
Other than that, it's very helpful to help your parents, grandparents, or anyone you care who has weak technical skills. They do not even have to click on anything and you can use their comp as if it were yours. Of course, when there's no internet access...

[Xelbair]

I thought that you know - but some might not.

DBAN one of best free disk-kill software - it destroys all data on all hdd it can detect - beware before using it, and think before doing so - and makes it so that it'll take a lot time to get even 1kb back

[Buffalobiian]

I thought that you know - but some might not.

DBAN one of best free disk-kill software - it destroys all data on all hdd it can detect - beware before using it, and think before doing so - and makes it so that it'll take a lot time to get even 1kb back

What data must you destroy so thoroughly (and frequently?)? :rolleyes:

Nice app though, could come in handy. Does it have a feature to shred single files, or is it limited to utterly nuking the HDD?

Spybot Search and Destroy No longer the "leading" antispyware program, but I still use it as it's still got decent spyware protection, has a file shredder, and an immunisation ability. I leave the proactive detection up to Avast (comes with both antivirus and antispyware since a few months ago).

Pretty sure it's well known, but going with the topic, it's indispensable to me:

Gmail notifier: Really, I love it. Install it, log in everytime you turn on your computer, and it checks for mail ever 2 minutes. Popup displays the Sender, Topic and a snippet of the message when you have new mail, and silently pops back into the system tray after ~1 second without intervention. If at any time you want to see what new mail you have, but don't want to sign into the browser, just right click and ask it to "tell me again".

So much better than the hotmail/MSN notification.

[Xelbair]

i just found it randomly on the net :] utter nuking only from what i know.

Gtalk has got gmail notifier merged with google IM client.


i hope i don't have to mention Daemon Tools - CD\DVD virtual drive. I'll for for R4 DS slogan here "you know what i does".

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah, the beauty of gnotifier is that you can quietly check your mail WITHOUT talking to anyone, or seeing anyone sign in. I hope they don't discontinue it in favour of Gtalk.

[Xelbair]

you can just set yourself to busy or something like that and you wont receive this messages.

[Yukimura]

Beyond Compare (Costs Money/Needs Crack) - Smart File/Folder Comparison software, great for editing code.

irfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/) - my tool of choice for batch processing of image files, mainly manga. Supports tons of image effects like croping, resizing, converting between types etc, also has a renamer. I primarily use it to protect the manga scene from idiots who think manga pages should be 2MB PNG's

Kraco already mentioned my most used program renameIt so I'll just second that. It's a great program, regular expressions are awesome and being able to apply multiple regular expressions to the same files is even more awesome. If any one is interested I even wrote a set of generic regexes for renameIt that converts most standard formatted anime release titles into "Title - ep - [Group]" so they'll sort by episode number instead of group in the event a series is picked up by several groups but you still want to archive it.

mIRC (http://www.mirc.com) - Why isn't this here yet? mIRC is open pretty much 24 hours on my PC. It's useful for much more than just chatting. With it's built in scripting language it's great for getting files and information as well.

[itadakimasu]

Spybot Search and Destroy

.
Malwarebytes

This is my new favorite AV program. When I first used it a month or so ago it was completely free, now it looks like it's still free but w\ purchase option, haven't really looked into that.

This finds alot of stuff that symantec and avg might miss.

[David75]

Do you guys know any piece of software that is more anonymous thant µtorrent, for the same use?

I mean µtorrent (or the torrent protocol) isn't stealth at all.

I've tried freenet and gnunet, but they seem to be shared by a too small community so there's no interresting content and speeds are incredibly slow.

TOR is not too bad for web browsing only though, since there are more and more peers in the pool to increase the swarm bandwidth.

If you guys know a procedure or something, thanks for sharing.

[Buffalobiian]

I'm waiting for something like that too. I'm not in a big rush though, since Australia's relatively lax when it comes to this sort of thing. They're starting to hit on the movies and stuff, but anime kind of takes second place. (in the hunting and aggressive parties regard).

We need something like Share in the Western world.

[Buffalobiian]

Does anybody here use Rivatuner?

Backstory:

-------------------------------------------------

I downloaded it today so I can control fan speeds. It's under Nvidia Control Panel's "Automatic Control" right now. According to it, it spins at 0% (that's BS since it's physically spinning - though how slowly I can't be sure) at ~59C, and will dynamically climb to ~9% @ 63C etc. Temps max out at ~71C using ATI Tool, and the fan spins at 49% at that point.

Since the 9800GTX+ is rated for a max temp of 105C though, I figured I could set the threshold higher, or at least allow a longer period of zero/low fan speed, followed by a steeper climb in fan speed/ degree when I'm actually gaming.

Due to season temperature or day/night temp variances, the fan is audible when things get to 60C or higher (5%?). I hoped to do something about that.

-----------------------------------------------

Anyway, for people used to this program, I notice that the fanspeed range you can adjust on it is 25-100%. According to Nvidia Control Panel though, my fan's usually a lot slower anyway. Is this a limitation of Rivatune, or is it a misread by Nvidia Control Panel {NPC from now on}(ie the fan's min speed is 25%, Nvidia just scews up reading it right).?

The logical thing to do would have been to set it on 25% using RivaTuner and see if the fan ramped up audibly.

I didn't actually hear any difference (If I ramped up to 25% on NCP, I would hear it), which leads me to my second question.

No doubt NCP and Rivatune would be fighting over fan-control, amongst other video-card settings. If I used Rivatune, would I have to uninstall NCP/nTune, leaving only the drivers behind?

[Archangel]

Mozilla addons

AdBlock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/pt-PT/firefox/addon/1865)

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.

[David75]

Mozilla addons

AdBlock Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/pt-PT/firefox/addon/1865)

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.

Oh I wish someone would port it to chrome/chromium/safari4

[Buffalobiian]

WinDirStat (http://windirstat.info/) is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows.
On start up, it reads the whole directory tree once and then presents it in three useful views:


The directory list, which resembles the tree view of the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size,
The treemap, which shows the whole contents of the directory tree straight away,
The extension list, which serves as a legend and shows statistics about the file types.

I looked this up when I had to figure out what was using up all my space in my C drive (partitioned to 50GB), but was sick of right-clicking each folder to view its size. Great little program for when Disk Cleanup doesn't free enough space.

[David75]

WinDirStat (http://windirstat.info/) is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows.
On start up, it reads the whole directory tree once and then presents it in three useful views:


The directory list, which resembles the tree view of the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size,
The treemap, which shows the whole contents of the directory tree straight away,
The extension list, which serves as a legend and shows statistics about the file types.

I looked this up when I had to figure out what was using up all my space in my C drive (partitioned to 50GB), but was sick of right-clicking each folder to view its size. Great little program for when Disk Cleanup doesn't free enough space.

HDgraĥ is nice too, same purpose, different presentation.