Suggestions for useful programs for Windows

I was asked to recommend a couple of programs (which happens enough to make me wish I had a fiver for every time!), and I didn't know offhand either type of program, but since work is slow ATM, I've tried a few, and UK's Kalender and Free Youtube Download seem to do what was asked for. So I thought that since we've not had a "Useful Windows programs" thread in a while, that I'd create one now.


Please post any Windows programs (not games, but anything else that you find interesting, please), preferably free, but also shareware or professional if they're worth the cash. And if you post something that you think is better than a similar program in someone else's post, then please post why you think it's better.


Here are some programs that I use (except for the first two listed, I'm new to those), and that I put on new/fixed PCs that go through my hands, if needed. All of these are either free or have free versions that contain the functions that you need. Just google for them.






UK's Kalender - displays a calander on boot up (and whenever you want to see it, of course) and can be used to set reminders, even in the form of an event that's every x days (or weeks).


Free Youtube Download - allows you to queue up Youtube videos to download, and then to automatically convert them to different formats.




7Zip - archiver/dearchiver (uses the usual formats, such as zip, 7z, rar, etc).


VLC - Movie player.


WinAMP - Music player (yes, it's ancient, but it does what I want it to, so whay change?).


Irfanview - image viewer.


Format Factory - movie/music converter.


Calibre - ebook viewer and converter.


FileLocator Lite - searches for files on your discs, a better file finder than Windows' own.


Treesize - shows you how much space different folders and files take up on your hard drive.


Unlocker - deletes or moves files that Windows refuses to.


Avast! - anti-virus and anti-malware software.


Malwarebytes Anti-malware - use this with Avast! (they don't clash, don't worry) so you have two great products protecting your PC from infection.


Zone Alarm - firewall.


CCleaner - clears unwanted data from your PC, to speed up your PC and save hard drive space.


Foxit - PDF reader.


Internet Download Accelerator - for queueing up and downloading files.


DoubleKiller - Duplicate file finder.


Folder Sort - alters the order of files on a drive, which I use to order songs alphabetically on my mp3 player.


SmartDisk Fat32 Format Utility - allows you to format USB sticks/external drives to FAT32 for media players etc that need FAT32. Windows does this, but has severe limitations on the size of the drives it will format, so use this program instead.






Warning:

You're probably aware of this already, but some programs (including some above) have the nasty modern habbit of installing stuff that you don't want, such as a new search bar, or changing your home page, etc. All of the programs in my list (if they do that) allow you to select an option NOT to do that, but they might be set to install them by default, so when you run the installer, ALWAYS click custom install if it is an option, and ALWAYS read what the installer says (well, maybe not the long text itself (I never do), but always the click-able options) and make sure there is no tick inside the box of any option that you son't want.

 

Avira - A great free anti-virus, with an impressive level security comparing to others.

Audacity - A awesome audio editor, with a lot of features, easy to use, and open-source.

Opera - A very impressive Internet browser, even passing Google Chrome on some tests, principally at the RAM usage.

AdBlock - An add-on for various Internet browsers, blocking those annoying ads that keeps popping up everywhere. You can too whitelist websites and change it's configuration.

These are just a few of some free programs that I use everyday.

 

Some free programs I use

Comodo Internet Security - Free complete security suite with virus updates every day.

TCP Viewer - Captures and displays all data that is transferred between client processes and a server process communicating through TCP/IP

PeerBlock - PeerBlock blocks anti-P2P organizations, ads, spyware, and educational institutions and universities.

FileZilla - FileZilla is a cross-platform FTP, SFTP, and FTPS client with a vast list of features, which supports Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and more. FileZilla's dynamic tools help you move files between your local machine and your Web site's server effortlessly.

 

GIMP - Image editor

LibreOffice - Office suite

Testdisk- Partition recovery

Photorec ​- File recovery

I would also agree with the Opera suggestion, though I don't think they are quite there yet with the new blink powered version (especially the Linux version).

Instead of an adblock extension, I always edit the hosts file. Though obviously that's not a program

 

SumatraPDF - Lightweight and free PDF, eBook (ePub, Mobi), XPS, DjVu, CHM, Comic Book (CBZ and CBR) reader.

SpywareBlaster - Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software.

NoScript - Firefox plugin, allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS and Clickjacking attacks.

Process Explorer - shows information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

Privatefirewall - Free, lightweight and very capable firewall software.

TeraCopy - Software designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed and other extra feature like pausing, error recovery, file listing and more

CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) - Simple playback pack with the goal of supporting the majority of video formats in use today. Comes with MediaPlayerClassic HomeCinema

HWiNFO64 - Software with professional hardware information and diagnostic tools. Very complete

 

On every PC I set-up for friends I install eVince (PDF), CCleaner, Auslogik DiskDefrag, VLC, Chrome/Firefox with adblock/disconnect/ghostery addons.

Everyone on Windows should use an antivirus. I prefer eset as it's cheap when bough in batch, very very safe and lightweight. Installing and setting up in a secure manner VNC/ssh clients is also a good idea if you're building a PC for your parents and they live far away.

 

Add MalwareBytes Anti-Malware in that pack. It's a very good malware detector.

 

f.lux - Gradually changes the colour temperature of your display depending on the time of day e.g. warmer at night, cooler during the day.

 

Unassociate (Unassoc) - Let's you clear programs that associate with certain file types easily.

DScaler - a program that handles TV-tuners & other capture devices extremely well.

Daemon Tools - Let's you emulate disc drives (CD, DVD, Blu-ray.)

JDownloader - Download manager.

Snagit - Let's you capture whatever is on your screen. Can do free-hand selected areas, full-screen, capture text from images into a text file, or take an image of a scrollable screen.

WinMerge - I know this program has multiple functions, but it's most useful one is file comparing. Allows you to compare text based documents for differences between files. A must have for programmers.

MagicISO & ImgBurn - Both great programs for burning different disc media as well as searching through it.

CuteFTP - My favorite for FTP.

HxD - Simple Hex editor.

Notepad++ ​- What every text editor should be. Easy to use & powerful. Also good for working with code.

Earlier mentions that deserve bringing up again...
VLC
Audacity
CCleaner
Infranview
Gimp

 

I always prefered mplayer over VLC even back when I still was on Windows. Don't remember which (if any) GUI I used with it though - SMPlayer maybe? - also there are improved forks now (especially mpv).

SciTE is a great editor for when you don't need all the bells and whistles of Notepad++ (they're based on the same control, Scintilla).

...and then there's VirtualDub (NB: been ages since I last touched this, no idea if people still use it) for all kinds of video editing/conversion, and Paint.NET for image editing if Gimp isn't your thing.

Finally, honorary mentions for cygwin (despite this) for trying to provide a sane environment inside of a rather insane one.

edit: Autoruns is nice for clearing out random programs that get started at boot, as well as other unnecessary crap like browser plugins and whatnot.

 

Guiformat - fat32 formatting utility
Haozip - great for batch compression/decompression and conversion
Kawaii Codec Pack - my favorite "pack" for video playback
Foobar2000 - top notch audio player with a bunch of awesome plugins
WinCDEmu - free, open source cd/dvd image mounting
HashCheck - calculate md5s and such with a right click
PuTTY - SSH/telnet
VidCoder - nice Handbrake frontend
AndreaMosaic - a niche art program that does one thing very well
Classic Shell - gui tweaks

 

You know what I would really like? a program that can make a list of all the programs I already have and if possible reinstall them all as a batch process, which is 99% of the hassle I have to go through every fucking time windows decides to crap out and I need to nuke my drive and install it from scratch.

So far the only things like that are steam which only covers games and the win8 store which only reinstall the shitty apps from that store of which I have zero.

Any alternatives?

 

A piece of paper & a pen. Do it yourself. Your idea is good, but unless you have all of the installers for each program along with some batch file, it would be a pain in the ass to make something that goes to those specific sites & navigates it's way to the .exe

Now if you uploaded all of those programs yourself to a Dropbox, this might actually be feasible, but they wouldn't update without you doing it manually.

 

if the thread include tools in general, can do. :witless: (free is subjective. the apps i have was, but they're old)
...
fo xp (sp3 i presume?)
1, izarc
2, 7zip
3, dvddecryptor
4, isobuster
5, cdgen
6, vlc
7, modplug tracker
8, dbpoweramp
...
that's about it off top of head, don't really do much with a computer other than to catalogue, convert, view and serve. (not a pc masterracer/gamer)

 

I know, thats why I wish there was something like that. I remember an app that installed a bunch of FOSS apps but the selection was quite limited.

Still, an app that at least made a list of all the stuff you have installed would be really useful, windows program manager still sucks ass

 

Agreed. Windows program manager doesn't even show some apps as being installed even though a third party application CCleaner can see them.

A program that outputs installed programs shouldn't even be too much of a challenge. I'd be surprised if it didn't exist already! That being said, I'd use the damn thing too! I should just build an OS disc that already is loaded with what I need.

 

:witless:
1, hkSFV
2, clrMAMEpro
3, filezilla
4, firefox
5, h2testw (for scanning and confirming echo/authenticity of sm's, as there's MANY frauds out there)
6, fat32 formatter GUI (does a far better job than the windows default format tool)
[edit]
typo.

 

Chocolatey or Ninite

 

Sorry, I can't help there, but there is a different solution, which (to me) is much, much better;

Format your C: partition/drive, install Windows, drivers, and every program you can think of that you want.

Then make an image of the C: drive, using Acronis True Image or similar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_disc_image_software) then in future, when your PC is running slow, or corrupt, then just copy the disc image back over your C: drive, and the C: drive will be in the EXACT state that it was in when you made the image, even if it's five years after you made it.

This isn't a perfect solution, of course (nothing is perfect in this world, sadly) - for one thing, some of the programs will need to be updated (if updates were released since you made the disc image), you might have to update the drivers (if you've added/changed hardware in the meantime), and you might have to take the trouble to partition your hard drive before you create the image*, but it's still a very good thing to do, and saves you a lot of trouble in the future.



* Say you have only one hard drive, with everything on it. You'll need to parition it into at least two partitions, as firstly you need a partition to create the disc image to (so if you make a disc image of C: then you'll have to create it on D: or E: etc), and secondly you don't want the disc image to be too large, you only want it to contain Windows and system stuff and programs (probably not games), so make C: a resonable size for Windows, say 150 - 200 GB (that's a lot larger than you really need, but it gives you a lot of space for if you need or want to add anything else).

 

I know, I done that in the past, but I rarely install everything I need on the get go and thats without counting all the configs and shit, specially for dev and design programs.

Honestly I'm getting tired of this crap, I thought that by this day and age there would be a better solution but nope, still stuck in 1998