What is the coolest and possibly most unique software on your computer?

[ZeroBits]

I love searching for and checking out new software and I am always surprised at what awesome programs are out there. Curious what forum members have found in this regard and what tops the list. Doesn't necessarily have to be security related.

A few of my favorites:

PGP Desktop
VMware Workstation
VMware Thinapp
Meta Products Software
Conceptworld Software
Shadow Protect
Perfect Disk
Adobe Acrobat
Xplorer2
TI Disk Director 11
WinPE
MS Office
Shadow Defender
AppGuard
Online Armor
History Explorer
All Image (for XP...no go on 7)
WonderShare Time Shuttle (Have not tested yet)
VMlite (Still has a alpha/beta feel but sweet concepts)
http://sanbarrow.com/ (VM cutting edge info on cold booting)

Appreciate your replies and input!

[JRViejo]

Moved Thread to this Forum for More Exposure!

[Osaban]

Security programs: Sandboxie, Shadow Defender, ShadowProtect.
Other programs: MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, Google Earth.

[TheKid7]

Sandboxie, Image for Windows/Image for DOS/Image for Linux.

[rolarocka]

Im in love with XYplorer. Its so fast to get things done :thumb:
Chrome and Firefox 4 are also nice because they are fast and you can customize them so much.
Image for Windows because i only double click a batch file on my desktop to make a full backup :)

[DOSawaits]

Directory Opus (not free)
Proxomitron (local proxy, free)
Handycache (Russian, local cache, free)
PicPick (screen capture, free)
7-zip (compression, free)
K-Lite Codec Pack (with Media Player Classic Home Cinema, plays everything, free)

[ZeroBits]

Checking out progs from above...I will have a busy weekend!

[ExtremeGamerBR]

Security Softwares: Keriver 1-Click Restore Pro and Hitman Pro!
Others Softwares: CCleaner, MPC-HC Portable, Keepass!

[drhu22]

One of my favorites is Universal Extractor
I keep a shortcut on DT and when i dl an installer just drag it onto the sc to extract the contents. Voila...portable app! Doesnt work with 100% but most.

[Cvette]

Pithos I can't live without :)

[doktornotor]

Everything search engine: http://www.voidtools.com/

Find your files in realtime, IOW, this is how Windows search should look like. ;) 8)

[MerleOne]

AJC Backup, that handles backup of a file and its revision in a very clever and optimized way. Never crashed, helped me many time to recover earlier versions of documents, databases I was working on.

[Brian K]

BootIt NG

[Daveski17]

I don't think I have any 'cool' software on my computers. I do like trying to fly that virtual F-16 on Google Earth, unfortunately I just keep flat-spinning it into the ground at about Mach 1! Good job I'm not in the air force, I've crashed enough virtual F-16s to bankrupt a small virtual country. :wacko:

[twl845]

The original FDR-ISR :)

[wat0114]

SuRun
EasyBCD
Youtube to MP3 converter
TrueCrypt
VMWare Workstation

[steve161]

Stellarium

http://www.stellarium.org/

[Ibrad]

Let see:

Google Earth (Just because I love to fly the planes)
Yahoo Messenger v11 Beta (It keeps me in contact with people)
Echofon for Firefox (My favorite twitter client)
Dropbox (I have not really got to use this yet but its installed and waiting)
Panda Cloud (To keep me safe)
Firefox v4 (The best version of Firefox yet)
Windows Live Mail (The best email client in my opinion)

[Daveski17]

-{ Quote: "Stellarium

http://www.stellarium.org/" }-

That does look pretty cool. 8)

[JRViejo]

-{ Quote: "That does look pretty cool. 8)" }-
Daveski17, here you go: Stellarium Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/education/stellarium_portable), courtesy of PortableApps.com.

[Acadia]

-{ Quote: "The original FDR-ISR :)" }-
8) !!! Fortunately the criteria for this question did not include that it still exist for purchase because FD-ISR is also without a doubt my personal coolest and most unique!

Acadia

[Daveski17]

-{ Quote: "Daveski17, here you go: Stellarium Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/education/stellarium_portable), courtesy of PortableApps.com." }-


Thanks JRViejo, that looks pretty cool as well. Brilliant! :thumb: 8)

[J_L]

Most unique: That would be a program I wrote myself that nobody else uses.

Coolest: Too many to list.

[JRViejo]

-{ Quote: "Thanks JRViejo, that looks pretty cool as well. Brilliant! :thumb: 8)" }-
Daveski17, you're welcome! Take care.

[The Seeker]

foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/). Couldn't live without it.

[Osaban]

-{ Quote: "Stellarium

http://www.stellarium.org/" }-

Very nice indeed. Thanks!

[Zeena]

Hi :)


New to Sandboxie - & - Think that Sandboxie is extremely Cool!

However!
I'm going to say... inSSIDer : http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ 8)
As I don't think it's been mentioned by anyone else in this thread yet.
&
My teenage son would probably say... CamStudio : http://camstudio.org/


Zeena

[hugsy]

Neo's safekeys (http://www.aplin.com.au/)

[jnthn]

There was a time when while installing Hashtab, you have to agree to the EULA which says it's "the coolest thing ever" or somewhere along those lines... Had to agree to install it so yeah, it's the coolest software installed on my desktop right now. ;D

[midway40]

Fast Access (http://www.sensiblevision.com/homeusers/) Facial Recognition software that came with my Dell laptop.

I also like Stellarium too. Be sure to get the satellite tracking addon to see satellites moving across the sky. It also tracks the International Space Station as well.

[rolarocka]

AIMP (http://www.aimp.ru/index.php) for music (choose Euphoria Remix Skin) and PotPlayer (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/PotPlayer) for video . SumatraPDF (http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html) for pdf and IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/) for picture :thumb:
Karen´s Replicator (http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp) for quick file backups. Hashcalc (http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/index.htm) to get hash values. VisiPics (http://www.visipics.info/index.php?title=Main_Page) to sort out identical pictures.

[1chaoticadult]

-{ Quote: "foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/). Couldn't live without it." }-

I would have to agree with you there. I'm addicted to it. :thumb:

[Mrkvonic]

It would be Kerkythea 3D rendering.
It lets me do things like this:

226230


Cheers,
Mrk

[ichito]

Shadow Defender
SpyShelter
Runscanner.NET
TrueCrypt

Autoruns
CCleaner
ERUNT Gui
Regseeker
Vit Registry Fix
PageDefrag
Ultimate Defrag
ProcessHacker
Device Remover
TCPOptimizer

FreeCommander
XnView
XMPlay
1by1
Media Player Classic HC
----------
edit:
sorry...so obvious that I forgot :)
Launchy :)

[drhu22]

Ichito...nice list
Some of mine...

Emet
Bit Che
DosBlaster
mameuifx32
zsnesw
Batchrun
Libcomplearn
Virtual Hypnotist
XMind_Windows
Blumind
SmallBasic
CelestiaPortable
Equake3d
Avi2Dvd
dns_jumper
FreeRapid
FTPHoover
ArtRage

[Boyfriend]

Sandboxie
CCleaner
Google Chrome
Autoruns
Process Explorer
Deep Freeze
Media Player Classic-HomeCinema
CoreAVC
Perfect Disk
CoreTemp

[pajenn]

VBoot (http://www.vmlite.com/index.php/products/vboot)

It's free at the moment because they are still developing it. It's a mix between VMware Workstation and grub boot loader. That is, you boot into the virtual machine rather than running it simultaneously with the host system. That way your "virtual" machine can use the full resources of your computer. You can also use vboot to boot virtual cd/dvd's and floppies (like grub). For example, I installed 64-bit Windows 7 Enterprise into an 18 GB VHD file with vboot. Now I can boot to it anytime and do everything with it as if it were my primary system. You might think running a machine from a virtual hard disk file slows it down, but that's not how it works.

Another incredible tool I've become addicted to is AutoHotkey (http://www.autohotkey.com/). It's for automating tasks, adding hotkeys, and much much more. To learn to use it you need to spend some time with the help file and searching their help forum, but it's well worth the time.

Other programs I use daily: Everything Search, Keepass 2 (with KeeFox plug-in), Fastcopy, Beyond Compare and Filemenu Tools.

[BG]

NIS 2011
MBAM
Family Tree Maker 2011
Weather Defender

[Daveski17]

Of course, if we are going to include antimalware apps, I still think SUPERAntiSpyware is pretty cool. 8)

I've been using it for about three years now & I rate it highly, although I appear to be in a minority opinion about that. ;)

[ZeroBits]

AutoHotKey does look really cool

[noone_particular]

That's actually a tough question. There's lots of cool apps that do some really good stuff. The most unique software I've ever used has to be KernelEX. It's made specifically for Win 98/ME and enables them to run software designed for NT systems.

Another very unique app is Revolutions Pack, also for 9X systems. It has solved or mitigated most of the resource and memory handling issues on 9X systems, upgrades the desktop appearance, and addes many of the visual features found on newer systems, including clear type.

With these 2, I can run up to date browsers, the current flash player and projector, Tor/Vidalia, and a host of other apps that aren't supposed to work on 98, including a version of Virtual PC that runs Linux live CDs guests as well as a virtual XP-Pro.

Another cool app I use is Splinterware's system scheduler. In addition to the usual scheduler abilities, this one lets you send keystrokes and mouseclicks to the application, making it easy to send entire chains of instructions. It also can watch for the presence or absense of specific windows or processes and send them commands, keystrokes, etc. It can be used for anything from closing browser windows with certain words in their title to restarting a terminated firewall or HIPS.

They also have a command called Launchkey that lets you launch applications, then send keystrokes and/or mouseclicks to specific locations on their interface from a batch file. That makes it possible to automate apps that don't recognize keyboard shortcuts or instructions send from conventional schedulers.

[stapp]

FD-ISR

Sandboxie

Karens Replicator

Inpaint

[J_L]

Actually I'll list my coolest:
VideoCacheView
F.lux
PicPick
JDownloader
WordWeb
Comodo Firewall
SandBoxie
Autoruns
CleanMem
Dataram RAMDisk
Everything Search

[Bambo]

I would say WSCC http://www.kls-soft.com/wscc/index.php since it covers Sysinternals and Nirsoft and Shardu http://www.sarducd.it/ since it covers most bootable stuff worth mentioning. Most alternatives are copycats or plain junk.

[CloneRanger]

@ noone_particular

Yeah i was very happy with 98SE :) I never got round to trying out KernelEX :( even though i DL'd it, and still have it somewhere. I think i was afraid of possibly messing things up ;D From what you said, i wish i had installed it now instead of being forced to build an XP comp so i could use software that only worked on that OS !

I don't recall hearing about Revolutions Pack but i would loved to also have had that too. By the sounds of it, that could have been the icing on the cake :) Do you have a link to it please :thumb:

TIA

[whitedragon551]

Spyshelter Premium is hands down one of my favorites.

EMClient- Email client
uTorrent
Alpine Imprint Sound Manager- Car Audio Audyssey RTA
FILEMinimizer Pictures- Batch Photo resizer
GIMP
JCreator/TextPad- Programming notepad on steroids
LayerView- Packet capture software
XFire

[noone_particular]

-{ Quote: "@ noone_particular

Yeah i was very happy with 98SE :) I never got round to trying out KernelEX :( even though i DL'd it, and still have it somewhere. I think i was afraid of possibly messing things up ;D From what you said, i wish i had installed it now instead of being forced to build an XP comp so i could use software that only worked on that OS !

I don't recall hearing about Revolutions Pack but i would loved to also have had that too. By the sounds of it, that could have been the icing on the cake :) Do you have a link to it please :thumb:

TIA" }-
The KernelEx download link is in the first post of this thread (http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/130936-kernelex-45-final/) at MSFN.
Revolutions Pack is available through the same forum on this thread (http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/131040-revolutions-pack-97/).
Although KernelEx is listed as version 4.5 final, I strongly suggest that you treat it as beta software. KernelEx itself works well, but some of the newer software has hardware requirements that KernelEx can't address. For me, it works very well on a P-4 2.4GHZ Dell, but not as well on a P-3 Compaq or a P-2 HP. KernelEx doesn't make all NT software work on 98. Microsoft's own software, designed for planned obsolescense is problematic. With Open Source software, the results have been much better. Based on the limited testing I've seen, as long as there are drivers available, the newer the hardware, the better KernelEx will work. On a 2.4GHZ Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM, 98SE flies! Other testers are running 98 on even more powerful hardware.

What KernelEx did for compatibility, Revolutions pack does for stability and appearance. I'm not one who values eye candy. I tried Revolutions Pack for the improved resource handling and the resulting stability. That said, the themes and icon packs in RP9 are sharp.

A partial list of other 9X specific issues that have been solved or mitigated by other "unofficial upgrades" includes:
1, The ability to copy/move files larger than 2GB. 98 can now handle file sizes up to the limit of FAT32.
2. The ability to install 98 on and use hard drives larger than 137GB (48bit LBA). 98 can now handle much larger hard drives.
3. The NUSB package (available from the same forum) gives 98 full USB 2.0 compatibility (assuming 2.0 compatible hardware). Flash drives, external hard drives, card readers, etc work just like they would on XP.

For the most part, KernelEx and Revolutions Pack uninstall easily. If you make a full system backup before installing them, there's no risk or need to worry about messing up your system. For me, an older version of the Acronis rescue CD handles this just fine. I've also used a DOS bootable CD with USB, DPMI, and long file name support with a command line version of 7zip to make full system backups. It's slower but works well. I don't recommend these unofficial upgrades for the casual user, but if you're one who liked 98 and enjoys working on and improving a system, these upgrades can produce some amazing results, especially if you're using newer hardware.

[icr]

For me the unique software is:
WinqCAD
DIP Trace

not any security software but these two softwares have helped alot in my ongoing final year project and by far I am quite impressed with its easy to use library and just because this softwares I started liking the circuits and may even think of going for my further studies in embedded systems:)

[CloneRanger]

@ noone_particular

Thanks very much for the info & links :) :thumb:

@ icr

I might try one or more of those Apps out, when i have more time :thumb:

[Robin A.]

Returnil, of course.

[essjay22]

I cannot live without :
Stardocks Virtual Desktops or Object Dock ( actually a lot of their stuff )
Powerdesk Explorer Plus
Winstep Xtreme
Rainlender (free)
Word Web Pro
Harddisk Sentinel
Floola
dbPoweramp
Mp3Ext (free)
LastPass
Image converter (almost free)
VueScan
;D
some free some not but all priceless to me.
I didn't mention the ones everyone else listed that I too love but thanks for reminding me of them.
s

[bgoodman4]

RollBack Rx
SnagIt
Zentimo
ESET

To whoever it was that mentioned VMLite thanks, I am going to look into this one.

[SweX]

IMO ESET is very cool 8)
And Safari wich I can't browse without 8)

[rolarocka]

This one:
http://www.den4b.com/?x=products&product=renamer

-{ Quote: "ReNamer is a very powerful and flexible file renaming tool, which offers all the standard renaming procedures, including prefixes, suffixes, replacements, case changes, as well as removing contents of brackets, adding number sequences, changing file extensions, etc. For advanced users, there is a PascalScript rule, which let users program their very own renaming rule." }-

[Mr.PC]

Rollback Rx, EAZ-FIX, and AyRecovery on different Desktops.

Shadow Defender on Laptop.

[Peter2150]

Well for me, it's Stardock's Multiplicity.

I can have my laptop sitting next to the desktop, and run my mouse of the side of the desktop, to the laptop, and then my mouse and keyboard control the laptop. Also I can cut and paste between the two. That is cool.

Pete

[bgoodman4]

-{ Quote: "Well for me, it's Stardock's Multiplicity.

I can have my laptop sitting next to the desktop, and run my mouse of the side of the desktop, to the laptop, and then my mouse and keyboard control the laptop. Also I can cut and paste between the two. That is cool.

Pete" }-

I must agree, that does sound very cool.

[JRViejo]

FYI. Celestia Portable 1.6.1 (planetarium) Released (http://portableapps.com/news/2011-07-04_-_celestia_portable_1.6.1_released) for PA Platform users, courtesy of PortableApps.com.

[Noob]

EAM + OA Combo. :thumb: :thumb:

And i love Windows itself D00d! ;D

[JRViejo]

FYI. Stellarium Portable 0.11 (planetarium) Released (http://portableapps.com/news/2011-07-06_-_stellarium_portable_0.11_released) for PA Platform users, courtesy of PortableApps.com.

[ernie40]

Sandboxie
Autoruns
Exact Audio Copy
Audiotester

My wife will love Stellarium; thanks for the link!

ernie

[ExtremeGamerBR]

Now:

1. Sandboxie Paid
2. Ad Muncher Premium
3. Shadow Defender
4. CCleaner
5. Keriver 1-Click Restore Pro
6. VMware Player
7. Keepass
8. Process Explorer
9. Sumatra PDF
10. MS Office 2007 SP2

[blasev]

Sandboxie
Emsisoft Anti Malware
Look n Stop Firewall


although all of them are well known in wilders
none of my friend even know what those are :argh:
sandbox only popular here because of avast

[JRViejo]

-{ Quote: "My wife will love Stellarium; thanks for the link!" }-
ernie, you're welcome! Take care.

[cm1971]

-{ Quote: "Returnil, of course." }-
I have Returnil too. Others would be DefenseWall, Private Firewall and DosBox (playing Dos games in XP is cool ;D )

[The Seeker]

DefenseWall. It's very cool and most certainly unique.

[SirPeterPan]

Pale Moon
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
CleanMem
DNSBench
SG TCP Optimizer
VisualCustomKick
CCleaner
KC SUMo
A-Patch
xp-AntiSpy
Snippy
CPU-Z
PC Wizard
SumatraPDF

Well, these are great ("cool") pieces of software for which I can't find appropriate replacements (considering the reasons that made me choose them), so they are in this sense "unique".

[treehouse786]

:-* :-* :-* Active@ Disk Image :-* :-* :-*

[moontan]

Zbrush, Xara Designer Pro 6 and Xenodream.

[iceni60]

i have Stellarium too. if you like it and you haven't heard of the astronomycast you should download one and see what you think. http://www.astronomycast.com/

i got radiotray (http://radiotray.sourceforge.net/) today for my linux desktop.

[DOSawaits]

In the heap of security apps of all kinds and colors, i stopped having respect for ALL of them, no more security recommends, after all they're constantly running far behind reality anyway. So my recommended tool, my real precious thing that is there for ages, silently running in the background, doing it's job wonderfully well every single browsing minute of the year is THE PROXOMITRON.

That's one of those extremely few tools that truly deserves the "gem" title. :)

[Sully]

I would have to rank Speedfan and Rivatuner up there with the coolest if you like automation and such.

For unique, I would say Lupus Rename, Volumouse, Qdir and WinCDEmu.

For overall most "cool and unique", I would vote for IMGburn, which for me has kept me from installing crappier and crappier cd burning "suites". Lean, mean and clean, and not to mention free.

Sul.

[031]

LOCATE32 (http://www.locate32.net/)

It is the best search tool available in this world :thumb:

[MerleOne]

AJC Active Backup, very flexible, very useful, very bug free, saves my work everyday.

[sweater]

Bill Gates is cool and Microsoft is unique. ;D

Firefox is so cool and its tons of add-ons, excepts with its memory resource hugging problem. When they could fix it..then...it'll become super cool. 8)

Eset NOD32 Antivirus is unique as it does meet my needs. I felt "safer" having it in my system. ;)

DefenseWall Personal Firewall is super cool, it didn't bombards me with pop-ups like those other HIPS and firewall programs I've tested out there and the protection capabilities is unique. Two thumbs up. :thumb: :thumb:

CCleaner
Revo Uninstaller
Foxit Reader
Nero
ScreenShot Captor
iTunes Player
MP3 Cutter
MP3 Merger
Neuro Programmer
etc... 8)

[noone_particular]

-{ Quote: "THE PROXOMITRON.
That's one of those extremely few tools that truly deserves the "gem" title. :)" }-
:thumb:
As close to obsolete proof as an app can get!

[boonie]

Defensewall - Sweet security

Photoshop - Big and bloated, but still the standard of image editing programs.

Nik Software - Really amazing and advanced filtering software plugins for Photoshop.

ChaosScope and Apophysis - Fun fractal art programs.

FastStone Image Viewer - Not that unique, in that there are many viewers out there, but the best and fastest I've found.

PS3 Media Server - PC to PS3 media server. Simple set up.

Screamer Radio - Small and light with a good collection of stations.

Fraps - Essential for game tweaking.

F.LUX - Cured my PC-induced insomnia.