Useful Freeware Apps

[ceramic'cow]

Right - We had one of these before, but it appears to have got lost in the reshuffle. I know that I for one found it pretty handy, so let's have your suggestions for useful programs that you can get for free, and I'll try and keep this first post updated.

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Security

AdAwareand Spybot S&D - both do spyware detection.]

AVG Free Edition - regularly-updated virus scanner.

Avira AntiVir Personal- Virus protection, including guard; free for personal use.

Comodo Firewall Pro - Firewall including malware defense, detailed adjustments (if wanted).

Zone Alarm - Firewall

Sophos Anti-Rootkit - Anti-Rootkit application.

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Internet

Mozilla Firefox - Fantastic free web browser that makes Internet Explorer look and feel positively archaic. 'Nuff said.

Mozilla Thunderbird - The e-mail client equivalent of Firefox. Not quite so revolutionary as Firefox, but does the job exactly as it's meant to.

Mozilla Sunbird - for those that want Outlook Calendar features but don't want outlook.

Pidgin - instant messenger that works across many different providers, ie. aol, MSN, yahoo.

Trillian - same as above.

Miranda IM - Basic, low-resource, fully customisable instant messaging client; protocols (ICQ, AIM, Jabber, MSN etc.) are added via plugins.

mIRC - Internet Relay Chat client.

SmartFTP - Clearly arranged FTP client that supports SFTP over SSH; compatible with RTSR FTP server ; free for non-commercial use.

SyncBack Freeware - Backup and synchronisation tool, highly customisable via GUI (include/exclude by file format/folder/date etc., exclude specific files etc.).

A Bit Torrent client that for some reason I can't manage a to post a link to. But I guess you could always Google It.

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Media (General)

ImgBurn - lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application.

DAEMON Tools Lite- Emulates optical devices so as to mount images (.iso, .nrg (Nero), .cue sheets etc.) you made of CDs, DVDs etc.

DVD Decrypter - Burns DVD images (.iso, .bin, .nrg etc.) or copies of audio and video files from DVD to DVD-R/RW; development discontinued due to legal issues; explanation available from Wikipedia.

DVD Shrink - Creates backups (harddrive images or burnable files) of DVDs; download locations for installation file here or via search engine.

IrfanView - Fast, low-resource graphics viewer, supporting a great variety of file formats, including full-screen slideshow functionality.

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Audio

dbPowerAmp - A neat little tool for converting your audio files between pretty much any and all formats you can think of. It comes ready with an MP3 codec, but there's a load more just waiting for you to download as needed HERE. (I only use the convertor tool linked above, but there's a suite of tools available - CD ripper, Audio player, etc.)

Mp3tag - very useful program for batch tagging of mp3s. Also FAST, unlike itunes and the like.

Audacity - audio editing and conversion.

Exact Audio Copy - CD Audio Extractor.

Medieval Cue Splitter [Formerly developed and distributed under brand of "Enfis The Paladin".] - Splits compressed audio files (.mp3, .ogg., .flac etc.) into separate tracks if you have/create the according cue sheet.

MP3Gain- Analyses and adjust the volume of .mp3 files, so as to make them sound roughly equally loud, by altering the ID tags; this is a lossless procedure that can be undone.
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Video

VLC - I reckon you're probably mostly well aware of this little gem, but it's a video player that will handle damned near anything you can throw at it. Great if you've got a video file that Windows Media Player can't handle, and it also has a reasonably small footprint

SUPER Video Converter- converts beween a huge number of formats. Very useful to convert movies into a format suitable for playback on ipods.

Handbrake - DVD to MPEG4 converter

K-Probe - DVD media quality testing software for Liteon drives.

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Other

Dosbox- a DOS emulator, so you can play all your old DOS games and apps.

7-Zip- File archiver supporting multiple formats (.zip, .rar, .7z etc.).

SiSoftware Sandra Lite- System analyser that tells you what hardware (mainboard, CPU, Ram, harddrives etc.) is in your computer; free for personal/educational use.

PortableApps - is a good resource for applications of all kinds that you can install and run from a USB disk, ie. you don't have to go through the painfull windows install process and have it dump files everywhere.

[Bargo]

Here's some for inclusion that I use, I'll post more as they come to mind:

For starters:
PortableApps is a good resource for applications of all kinds that you can install and run from a USB disk, ie. you don't have to go through the painfull windows install process and have it dump files everywhere.

Now onto categorized stuff..

Internet
Mozilla Sunbird - for those that want Outlook Calendar features but don't want outlook.
Pidgin - instant messenger that works across many different providers, ie. aol, MSN, yahoo.
Trillian - same as above.

Audio
Mp3tag - very useful program for batch tagging of mp3s. Also FAST, unlike itunes and the like.
Audacity - audio editing and conversion.

Video
SUPER Video Converter - converts between a huge number of formats. Very useful to convert movies into a format suitable for playback on ipods.
Handbrake - DVD to MPEG4 converter.

Utilities
AdAware and Spybot S&D both do spyware detection.
AVG Free Edition - regularly-updated virus scanner.
Dosbox - a DOS emulator, so you can play all your old DOS games and apps.

[Skie]

Zone Alarm - Firewall

[Spooky Shoes]

Exact Audio Copy CD Audio Extractor.

ImgBurn lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application.

K-Probe DVD media quality testing software for Liteon drives.

Sophos Anti-Rootkit Anti-Rootkit application.

[froopy seal]

All for Windows XP 32-bit (and perhaps other OS's).

7-Zip - File archiver supporting multiple formats (.zip, .rar, .7z etc.).

Avira AntiVir Personal - Virus protection, including guard; free for personal use.

Comodo Firewall Pro - Firewall including malware defense, detailed adjustments (if wanted).

DAEMON Tools Lite - Emulates optical devices so as to mount images (.iso, .nrg (Nero), .cue sheets etc.) you made of CDs, DVDs etc.

DVD Decrypter - Burns DVD images (.iso, .bin, .nrg etc.) or copies of audio and video files from DVD to DVD-R/RW; development discontinued due to legal issues; explanation available from Wikipedia.

DVD Shrink - Creates backups (harddrive images or burnable files) of DVDs; download locations for installation file here or via search engine.

IrfanView - Fast, low-resource graphics viewer, supporting a great variety of file formats, including full-screen slideshow functionality.

Medieval Cue Splitter [Formerly developed and distributed under brand of "Enfis The Paladin".] - Splits compressed audio files (.mp3, .ogg., .flac etc.) into separate tracks if you have/create the according cue sheet.

Miranda IM - Basic, low-resource, fully customisable instant messaging client; protocols (ICQ, AIM, Jabber, MSN etc.) are added via plugins.

mIRC - Internet Relay Chat client.

MP3Gain - Analyses and adjust the volume of .mp3 files, so as to make them sound roughly equally loud, by altering the ID tags; this is a lossless procedure that can be undone.

SiSoftware Sandra Lite - System analyser that tells you what hardware (mainboard, CPU, Ram, harddrives etc.) is in your computer; free for personal/educational use.

SmartFTP - Clearly arranged FTP client that supports SFTP over SSH; compatible with RTSR FTP server ; free for non-commercial use.

SyncBack Freeware - Backup and synchronisation tool, highly customisable via GUI (include/exclude by file format/folder/date etc., exclude specific files etc.).

uTorrent - Small, clearly arranged BitTorrent client, moderately customisable; compatible with RTSR tracker .

[Leon]

Cool topic. I've been using VLC player for some time now and I have some issues:

1. When I use Fullscreen mode, I can't get to appear a menu or anything... I have to quit Fullscreen mode and only then I can see the menu and all. How do I get a menu at Fullscreen mode?

2. When I click anywhere on the timeline, it doesn't go exactly to where I point it, it just skips a certain amount of time per click. If I want the marker to go to an exact time, I have to click the marker, hold it and move it. Isn't there an easier way? It's kinda annoying, because when I use Media Player Classic, I can click wherever on that timeline, and it'll go there.

Hope you understand my questions. Hope you can help me.

Thanks.

[froopy seal]

Originally Posted by Leon

1. When I use Fullscreen mode, I can't get to appear a menu or anything... I have to quit Fullscreen mode and only then I can see the menu and all. How do I get a menu at Fullscreen mode?

You don't. Simply use key shortcuts ('space' for pause, 's' for stop, 'ctrl+pageup/pagedown' for volume up/down, 'o' or 'ctrl+o' for opening media etc.). Or use full window mode (i. e., maximizing the window), then you have a menu (and a window frame).

Originally Posted by Leon

2. When I click anywhere on the timeline, it doesn't go exactly to where I point it, it just skips a certain amount of time per click. If I want the marker to go to an exact time, I have to click the marker, hold it and move it. Isn't there an easier way? It's kinda annoying, because when I use Media Player Classic, I can click wherever on that timeline, and it'll go there.

It doesn't work just by clicking, you have to click, hold, and drop. As an alternative, use 'ctrl+right arrow/left arrow' for navigating in ca. one-minute steps, or 'ctrl++/-' for changing playback speed (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, ...).

[sanakan]

http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages

SCNR

[Spooky Shoes]

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Not an application as such but a source for a modified HOSTS file "You can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, 3rd party Cookies, 3rd party page counters, web bugs, and even most hijackers."

[Troy McClure]

Thanks for posting the Audacity and MP3tag program links...they are really straight-forward and user friendly. I used both for tagging and converting the RiverRun 12" downloads from UnderworldLive.com

Could anyone comment on any worthwhile download accelerators? I've tested my connection thru speedtest.net but my actual download speed is 1/10th of that on average. I'm not very computer savvy.

Thanks Jason