Essential Software

Having just run through a clean install of Windows (and knowing Sheepy's recently done the same), I thought I'd start a thread on what everyone considers to be essential software - programs that you use on a nigh daily basis that make your PC run at its optimum.

Here's a list of mine so far:

• 7-Zip - An open-source file archiver, 7-Zip is all you need to open and extract virtually all the commonly used compressed filetypes, including .zip, .rar, .cbr, .gzip and it's own .7z extention.
  
• Adobe Photoshop - Adobe's flagship product, Photoshop is easily one of the best graphic editing programs out there for both casual and professional users. Those seeking a cheaper alternative may be interested in GIMP.
  
• Avast Antivirus - Freely available for non-commercial use, Avast boasts over 100 million users and has won numerous Virus Bulletin VB100 awards for 100% detection of "in-the-wild" viruses. Unlike Norton and McAfee, it also monitors your system without becoming an obtrusive nuisance.
  
• Combined Community Codec Pack - Not really an application on its own, the CCCP is a one-stop resource for all the codecs required to play most video formats. If you plan to download videos rather than simply watch them on Youtube, this pack will definitely come in handy.
  
• Daemon Tools Lite - Used to create a virtual disk drive to mount and run .iso files. There might be better programs for this, but I like the simplicity of DTL in that it quietly sits in the taskbar and does exactly what it should.
  
• FeedDemon - NewsGator's RSS reader quietly collects updates from your favorite sites and displays them in a neatly organized list for you to browse at your discression. Offering Google Reader synchronization, what won me over is a very simple feature that's often overlooked and omitted from other readers - that it chimes and displays a simple notification of new items as they arrive.
  
• Firefox - Mozilla's browser is (supposedly) faster and more secure than Internet Explorer, but I've had issues with it ever since the introduction of FF3. I still prefer it to Microsoft's IE though for the wide variety of useful add-ons, such as Firebug and DownThemAll!.
  
• mIRC - Though archaic in its presentation, the Internet Relay Chat  networks are  still incredibly popular and house millions of users wanting to play Multiplayer Notepad. Alternatives include HydraIRC, which I haven't used but have heard good things about.
  
• ?Torrent - A lightweight (282KB as of writing) BitTorrent client designed to use minimal computer resources while offering a great amount of functionality.
  
• Winamp - While iTunes seems to have replaced it out of popularity, I prefer Winamp for its familiarity and wide support of sound-based file types. Those interested in a comparison between the two (as well as Media Monkey and Windows Media Player) can find a detailed article here.
  
• Windows Live Messenger - Essential when keeping in touch with people outside the forum and IRC. Sadly I consider this to be the best of a bad bunch, with the only real competitor being Yahoo Messenger (which I've used for the past 12 years and have seen it become more bloated with each update).
  

KatMouse - "The prime purpose of the KatMouse utility is to enhance the functionality of mice with a scroll wheel, offering 'universal' scrolling: moving the mouse wheel will scroll the window directly beneath the mouse cursor (not the one with the keyboard focus, which is default on Windows OSes). This is a major increase in the usefullness of the mouse wheel." (straight from the website - couldya guess?)

Also, not really a program, but more of an edit: Keep Flash Videos in Full Screen on Dual Monitors. Super handy for those Dualies!

I would have to say one piece of software that hasn't been mentioned yet is Open Office which does everything that Microsoft Office does including support Microsoft Office files but completely for free and it's fully functional and robust.



Thank-you for your other suggestions!

Real Alternative - Real alternative is a plugin which lets you play RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix (.rp) on Media Player Classic without actually installing Real Player. (This codec is not in CCCP)

PS, thanks for the full screen flash thing seso, been looking for this for weeks :-D

Ah Real studios. Why do you have to have your own file formats? :<

Also, nice to see you posting again airrad! I see you also meticulously typed up HTML, only to see it not work so well :( This forum uses BBCode, which has tags like [this]. There are also handy dandy buttons for quick formatting :3

Seso;

Thank-you and apologies for being away from the Ashtear forums!

First of all I forget which forum boards use HTML and which use BBCode. I will admit that I haven't had much exposure to BBCode and have been away from coding for a few years in general now.

Oh how rusty am I!

Anyway the link to the extremely good open source office suite Open Office

I have also been thinking about what was said about Yahoo and MSN Messenger by Outrack and I have come across two universal messengers that could be a possibility that cover Yahoo, MSN and Facebook.

eBuddy was the first one that sprang to mind and the second one was Nimbuzz!

Just wondered what you thought about those!

Please let me know!

Almost all forums use bbcode these days as anything besides basic HTML may allow malicious code to be used that may compromise security - if interested, you can find a full list of usable code here including the various custom tags I've added

Completely forgot about OpenOffice, thanks for mentioning it! I'll look into eBuddy later on, seems like it could be useful (the last time I looked into a bridging ap was when Trillian was released).

Here's a few more applications I consider "essential", though only for web-based programmers.

• FileZilla - An FTP client used to transfer files to an online server, FileZilla provides a simple Explorer-based interface that supports the transfer of files by simply dragging-and-dropping them from your HDD to the server.
  
• Notepad++ - Suggested to me by ShiiN, Notepad++ is a free text and source code editor that was designed to replace the standard Window's Notepad by offering more functionality - such as automatic spacing for tiered text, multiple undo states and saving the most recent document to memory to prevent unexpected data loss.
  
• WAMP - An acronym for Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP; WAMP is an application that emulates a local web server on your PC and is very useful when creating web applications, testing and configuring SQL databases and the like without having to connect to a live server.
  

Nick;

That brings back memories; Windows Apatche MySql PHP - I never fully got the hang of that one, I always got things and entries into the database but I never got the hang of getting them out again.

I might look into your download selection as downloading mySQL and all that stuff took an awful lot of memory, ditto Java for that matter.

More applications I've found useful:

• AnyDVD - This useful program sits in the background and automatically bypasses the region lockout on your DVD drive so you can play films from any country, which is a much better alternative to flashing it (which may cause permanent damage). It also strips DVDs of copy protection, which is especially useful when running...
  
• CloneDVD2 - All you need to make backups of your films. CloneDVD2 features a clean interface and makes use of a simple checklist system so you can customize the backup to your liking by including/excluding menus, trailers, special features, audio channels and so on. It compresses dual-layer DVDs with a minimal drop in quality and is all-round awesome.
  
• ConvertXtoDVD - As the name implies, this application converts various video formats to DVD and creates attractive customizable menus with scene and language selection (when applicable). MKV subtitle conversion can be iffy, but works very well with downloaded avi files.

Goes without saying, but...

• Google Chrome - This has become my browser of choice after I got sick of Firefox's poor performance and various memory leaks. Features an indispensable developer tool and several useful extensions to make browsing easier - the interface takes some time to get used to and the bookmarks could do with better organization, but Chrome is by far the best browser available right now.
  

Hey all! Remember me? 


I'm mostly running Mac for my web design, development, and programming nowadays, but I'll include my Windows list as well. I'll include screenshots for all the Mac applications for those of you wondering what they look like.


Mac OSX Snow Leopard

Google Chrome (Screenshot) - I think this goes without saying. Chrome is easily the best browser out there.


Adobe Photoshop (Screenshot) - My design application of choice. I've tried Fireworks and it has things Photoshop doesn't, but Photoshop is what I always go back to.


Twitterrific (Screenshot) - The Twitter application I use to manage the hand full of accounts I am responsible for.


Sparrow (Screenshot) - Best mail application for Mac in my opinion. Relatively new, but makes managing my inboxes easy with shortcuts, etc.


Skype (Screenshot) - It's well...Skype.


Adium (Screenshot) - AIM, MSN, and Google Chat. All taken care of.


Wunderlist (Screenshot) - A wonderful task management application that's free across their web app, Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android versions. Essential to my work flow.


Notational Velocity ALT (Screenshot) - An awesome application for note keeping that's available on my Mac and iPhone.


Terminal (Screenshot) - Well...a terminal. Used for running code tests.


TextMate (Screenshot) - The best editor on Mac in my opinion.


Reeder (Screenshot) - My feed reader, which apparently doesn't like getting its picture taken.


Linkinus (Screenshot) - My IRC application of choice. It's brilliant.


Windows 7 64bit

Google Chrome, Steam, Ventrilo. That's about it.