Insomniac Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67603 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Just thought I'd post a topic where you can list any useful, free (non-security related) programs that you reccommend. This is my third attempt at posting this topic... due to the multitude of tabs open that it requires to get all the urls, I've accidently closed this halfway through the post, twice. Back on topic, here's a few free programs I like:7-Zip: Simple file archiver and extractor. Supports many file types including .zip, .rar and .7z. Simple, hassle-free install and easy to use.Paint.NET: Fairly powerful image editor with support for layers, transparancy and plugins. Not as powerful as a full-featured editor, but much easier to use.GIMP: Powerful multiplatform image editor. More difficult to use than Paint.NET, but more powerful.Virtualdub: Simple .avi editor. Useful for basic editing such as cropping and compressing video. Can combine a sequence of images into a video for purposes such as time-lapse. Does not require install.Apophysis: Fractal flame editor and renderer. Can be used to make interesting computer wallpaper. Does not need install.Coretemp: Small application to measure the temperature of each individual CPU core. Logs teperatures for later analysis, and can run in the notification area to provide constant info. Does not install.wPrime: Multithreaded CPU benchmark and stress test. Does not install.CPU-Z: Application to gather information about the CPU, memory and motherboard. Does not install.GPU-Z: A similar application to CPU-Z, but for the GPU (It's not made by the same person, but they got permission to use a name so similar to CPU-Z). It also measures GPU temperature. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile360 Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67616 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Great list Insomniac. I love GIMP and I keep copies of both CPU-Z and GPU-Z in my toolkit . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insomniac Posted March 26, 2009 Author ID:67620 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Thanks. Have you ever tried Paint.NET? I prefer it to GIMP when I'm just doing some more simplistic stuff... It takes me less time to do basic editing, although that may be because I just haven't learned GIMP very well yet. One annoyance with GIMP if you just want to resize somthing or adjust some colours is that GIMP often takes a while to start up. I just tested and it takes GIMP 42 seconds to load (mainly spent looking for fonts). After closing it and starting again it only took 4 seconds, but that initial load can be annoying. PDN only took 4 seconds the first time I opened it since a reboot.Can't belive I forgot this, but here's another program:CCleaner: Clears out windows temp files, internet temp files and browsing history. If run in an admin account it deletes index.dat on a reboot. Includes registry cleaner, although this desn't really offer any benifit and may cause damage. Also has a startup list editor and an uninstaller.EDIT: Just remembered another cool program.Anim8or: Fairly simple 3d modelling and animation software. Not too hard to use once you get to know the basics (use tutorials). Does not require install. Works perfectly on xp, 'sorta' works on vista. The first time it is ran you may need to run it as administrator when using Vista. Also, there may be slight GUI bugs in vista, such as selection boxes leaving trails. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile360 Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67624 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Yeah, GIMP takes a while to load for me as well, but I very seldom use it as I'm no artist. Generally I just use it to convert image formats that Windows Paint can't do. It has some neat special effects though. As far as Ccleaner goes, I have it installed (the slim version without the toolbar) and I use the portable version in my toolkit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insomniac Posted March 26, 2009 Author ID:67628 Share Posted March 26, 2009 So the slim version is just the regular one minus the toolbar?Seeing as I unticked the toolbar option, I suppose I'd be using the same version as you then. Or are there other differences? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Vee Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67630 Share Posted March 26, 2009 So the slim version is just the regular one minus the toolbar?Seeing as I unticked the toolbar option, I suppose I'd be using the same version as you then. Or are there other differences?Yes it is. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile360 Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67632 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Yup, it's the same. Just a smaller download . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Vee Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67634 Share Posted March 26, 2009 OH WHERE DO I START?First of all apologies for any double ups and apologies if any links are broken (or against the rules) and apologies for not making it all colourful and standoutish.BROWSERSFirefoxOperaANTIVIRUSAvast HomeAvira Antivir PersonalOFFICEOpen OfficePDF READERFoxitReaderFIREWALLSOnline ArmorINSTANT MESSAGINGPidginDigsbySkypeMEDIA PLAYERVLCReal AlternativeARCHIVERSWinzip WinRAR equivalentsIZArc7ZipINSIDE YOUR MACHINEPC Wizard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
exile360 Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67635 Share Posted March 26, 2009 A great list. I also love Sysinternals Utilities. Very handy for malware removal as well as general use . Spacemonger is useful as well (and even though it's so old, works with Vista x64). I also like Unknown Devices for identifying those exclamation marks in the device manager.edit: Forgot to mention my beloved Vista Codecs Package. It works with XP, Vista (including x64) and they have a version for Windows 7 as well. It has all the freeware codecs for audio and video that you could need to be able to play just about any file with any player you like (including Windows Media Center). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night_Raven Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67685 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Here's my contribution...Since the list is a rather long one I'll skip the descriptions. I will also skip the already mentioned programs.Sorry if the programs don't fit the categories but it's kind of hard to categorize every program correctly.Haven't included include any security programs as the topic starter requested/suggested. BrowsersInternet Explorer FTP ClientsFileZillaFresh FTPCore FTP LEMessengersICQQIPTrillianMiranda IMGoogle TalkWindows Live MessengerooVooVentriloRemote access/assistanceRealVNCTightVNCUltraVNCTeamViewerHamachiDownload managersFlashGetFree Download ManagerInternet Download ManagerDownload Accelerator PlusWeb filters / otherProxomitronCodecs & Codec packsCoreWavPack/CoreFLAC/CoreAAC/CoreVorbis/RadLight MPC DirectShow Filter/RadLight APE DirectShow FilterAC3Filterx264x264vfwHuffYUVMSU Screen Capture Lossless CodecMPEG-1/2 DirectShow Decoder FilterK-Lite Codec PackCombined Community Codec PackXP Codec PackX Codec PackSatsuki Decoder PackffdshowHaali Media SplitterVideo/audio converters, rippers and other toolsAny Video ConverterAny Audio ConverterMediaCoderSUPER Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoKenny1 Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67721 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I like Lists of Lists:http://lists.thedatalist.com What's new or updated:http://lists.thedatalist.com/pages/New_Links.htm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesT Posted March 26, 2009 ID:67779 Share Posted March 26, 2009 oh wow Lol so many to choose from ...... but since I am not home yet and cant check all those listed from my smartfone which one would be a simple easy driver scanner/updater that is hassle free sort of driver updater for example either listed in this list or another not yet posted . thanks for in advance . edit: I found one i like now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimnall Posted February 2, 2011 ID:383208 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Just thought I'd post a topic where you can list any useful, free (non-security related) programs that you reccommend. This is my third attempt at posting this topic... due to the multitude of tabs open that it requires to get all the urls, I've accidently closed this halfway through the post, twice. Back on topic, here's a few free programs I like:7-Zip: Simple file archiver and extractor. Supports many file types including .zip, .rar and .7z. Simple, hassle-free install and easy to use.Paint.NET: Fairly powerful image editor with support for layers, transparancy and plugins. Not as powerful as a full-featured editor, but much easier to use.GIMP: Powerful multiplatform image editor. More difficult to use than Paint.NET, but more powerful.Virtualdub: Simple .avi editor. Useful for basic editing such as cropping and compressing video. Can combine a sequence of images into a video for purposes such as time-lapse. Does not require install.Apophysis: Fractal flame editor and renderer. Can be used to make interesting computer wallpaper. Does not need install.Coretemp: Small application to measure the temperature of each individual CPU core. Logs teperatures for later analysis, and can run in the notification area to provide constant info. Does not install.wPrime: Multithreaded CPU benchmark and stress test. Does not install.CPU-Z: Application to gather information about the CPU, memory and motherboard. Does not install.GPU-Z: A similar application to CPU-Z, but for the GPU (It's not made by the same person, but they got permission to use a name so similar to CPU-Z). It also measures GPU temperature.****Great List but when I tried 7ZIP I got an MBAM notice that it has an virus......when I downloaded from http://www.7-zip.org/download.html I did not get the virus error..........be careful where you download 7zip from Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimnall Posted February 2, 2011 ID:383216 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Comments on some of these i've used:OpenOffice - GREAT! and free worth a donation if you canRealVNC - 'port forwarding' aka remote access to computer on a LAN remote from yours.... works great, displays entire desktop and allows remote running of any App on that desktop....there does appear to be some conflict with MBAM though....separate post7ZIP - with Winzip changing its download rules 7zip appears to be a good alternativeAVAST & Avanti - i've had situations where neither program prevented an infection that MBAM picked up...I'm telling everyone that they should run MBAM in addition to any of these AV pgmsGIMP - only used it using UBUNTU but its very powerful thereJim Nall Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave.m Posted February 3, 2011 ID:383751 Share Posted February 3, 2011 NOW! That Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrCharlie Posted February 9, 2011 ID:386698 Share Posted February 9, 2011 List of ListsMrCEDIT: I didn't see that someone else had already posted this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
milica Posted July 20, 2011 ID:456182 Share Posted July 20, 2011 (edited) Another one - Edited July 20, 2011 by AdvancedSetup link removed - that link is a bit too much like SPAM or Advertising so was removed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSnakeKobra Posted July 20, 2011 ID:456269 Share Posted July 20, 2011 My personal favorite free software list. Only a small list of what I use/recommend@exile I agree GIMP is quite slow on loading. Office SoftwareLibreOfficeSumatraPDFThunderbirdPicture EditingGIMPPaint.NETAudio/Video Playback/Editing/RecordingCamStudioVLC Media PlayerAudacityIntigrated Development Enviornment'sCode::BlocksNetBeansQT SDKPythonC++ Compiler SetsCygwinMinGWDebuggersOLLYDBGIM Clients and Remote ClientsPidginSkypeTeam ViewerUltraVNCUtilitiesCcleanerRecuvaSpeccyBrowsersSeaMonkeyFirefoxLinuxUbuntuCentOS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobc11 Posted July 20, 2011 ID:456281 Share Posted July 20, 2011 GIMP is so useful. Thanks for telling me about that! I am using it to create graphics! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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