What are your "Must have" applications?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by cthorpe, Jul 31, 2006.

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  1. securityx

    securityx Registered Member

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    My Top Ten (In no particular order).......

    Truecrypt

    Golden Section Notes

    Faststone Image Viewer

    Faststone Capture

    Powerdesk Pro

    Roboform

    Tweak-XP Pro

    Partition Magic

    Tuneup Utilities 2006

    NoClone


    ----securityx----
     
  2. iceni60

    iceni60 ( ^o^)

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    these are the programs i have installed so far on a fresh install, so i suppose they are must have.

    Look@Lan look at Lan :D
    Songbird for music.
    Proxomitron http proxy
     
  3. Tommy

    Tommy Registered Member

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    Location:
    Buenos Aires - Munic
    The ones i use very often, and which i don't want to miss besides AV/AT:

    1. Total Commander
    2. Opera
    3. Jetico
    4. TheBat!
    5. PGP
    6. Erunt
    7. MPC
    8. Ultraedit
    8. IrfanView
     
  4. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

    Joined:
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    Posts:
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    Location:
    West Yorkshire, UK
    Putty, 7-Zip, Media Player classic (and the alternatives), Winamp, Notepad++, Fox It Reader, SmartFTP and Firefox on my Laptop.

    Works machine all the same plus Office 2003, Visual Studio 2003, 2005 and SQL server 2005.
     
  5. dog

    dog Guest

    OpenOffice
    Mplayer/Media Player Classic
    Firefox
    Thunderbird
    KTorrent/utorrent
    Amorak/Foobar
    GNUPG
    Tor (privoxy/privoxy+proxomitron)
    Ark/WinRAR
    Acronis TI
    K3b/Nero
    iPodder
    xChat
    Various ripping software Audio/Video
    Various Video editing and conversion software

    Both unix and windows software listed (ie linux / windows) ... no slash indicates software is available on both platforms.
     
  6. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Massachusetts, USA
    Here are just a few of mine but I have many more which fit the "must have" designation. Most are free or a slight charge or donation.

    The first 3 are by Mike Lin and head the list as "must have"
    http://www.mlin.net

    1. PathCopyEx.msi (adds "Copy Path to Clipboard" option to Right Click Context Menu). Used extensively--invaluable.
    2. StartupCPL (edit Startup Programs)
    3. StartupMonitor (a Window popup notifier of any changes to StartUp programs)
    4. NoteTab Pro (text editor& much more). Use extensively. Pre-construct postings, or emails, etc.
    5. PrintScreen http://www.Gadwin.com (capture screen content into file or printer. Use this extensively.

    6. Irfanview (Audio player & image viewer).
    7. Mmm http://www.hace.us-inc.com/ (Cleanup Right Click Menu by moving lessor used items to alternate menu.) A real neat improvement.
    8. Free Launch Bar (Enable major improvement to Quick Launch Bar and More. This makes programs very accessible without using the program menu.) I have multiple Tools bars on bottom & left side and Right sides of my desktop.) http://www.freelaunchbar.com/
    9. Karen Kenworthy's PowerTools http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp
    ..a) Replicator (File copy & much much more). I use this to copy/synchronize folders via a nightly backup of designated personal files.
    ..b) CountDown Timer (Important dates and times notifier).
    ..c) Director Printer (print file names, etc within folders).

    10. Flashget (Download manager)
    11. Ulead PhotoImpact (image editing). Edit screen captures for forum postings.
    12. WinDriverBackup (Makes a copy of all drivers into one folder for archiving).
    13. System Restore Point Creater (Automates their daily creation via Task Scheduler or shortcut)
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/System-Restore-Point-Creator.shtml
    14. Long File Names Finder (Check length of file name.) http://www.dcsoft.com
    15. HandyFile Find & Replace (search/replace text in text or html files).
    16. Cleaners: (Ccleaner; EasyCleaner; JV16 PowerTools; Symantec WinDoctor).
    17. Security protection (NOD32; WebRoot Spysweeper; TrojanHunter; HiJackThis; AutoRuns; SysInfo for Windows).
    18. CoolEdit 2000 Now part of Adobe. (Audio Editing) A very essential tool.

    19. TreeSize (Identify folder/file sizes or drive size,etc) http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml
    20. HandyFile Find & Replace (search/replace text in text or html files).
    21. Backup Programs(Acronis TI 9 Home; DriveImage7; Replicator and others0
    22. Firefox with many "must have" extensions including extension "File Title". With this extension for Mozilla Firefox you can save HTML pages like in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Default filename is generated according to HTML tag TITLE.
    23. MozBackup (Backup of Firefox essentials)
    MozBackup is a utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite and Netscape profiles. It allows you to backup mail, favorites, contacts, etc.
    24. Wizmo by Steve Gibson (Open or Close your cd/dvd tray by clicking a desktop shortcut---& so much more
    http://www.grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2006
  7. iceni60

    iceni60 ( ^o^)

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    i have just got a new computer, i hadn't installed too much because when i get my other computer running again i'm going to install Ubuntu on this then copy configuration files over here and delete windows.

    but, i just installed afew programs which i find useful. here are afew.

    cpuz. a great standalone program.
    http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/3386/capture05082006085251zq1.th.jpg

    http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

    pcwizard
    pcwizard is another standalone program (there is an .exe version too), it's a system information program. the amount of things it does is incredible - it can help update drivers by taking you to the correct download page, analyze and benchmark your computer system, and more.
    http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

    IPNetInfo another standalone. it's a brilliant whois tool
    http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/ipnetinfo.html

    DeskPins
    DeskPins is a great little program that will keep a window "always on top"
    http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/programs/deskpins.html

    NetMeter
    a very good program that shows a little graph on your screen, it can be made transparant too so you can hardly see it. when there is network activity it is displayed on the graph so if you think you might have a trojan or spyware this program can help you catch it. it can also show daily, weekly or monthly upload and download levels and alert you when you reach a certain volume.
    http://readerror.gmxhome.de/

    SpaceMonger
    SpaceMonger is a tool for keeping track of free space on your computer. Each file or folder on a given drive is displayed in a box in the main window whose size is a relative comparison to all the other files in your system. it's really worth trying out. i find it so much easier to see what's going on with HDD space then other programs.
    http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spacemonger.html

    Locate32
    This program saves names of all files on your hard drives to a small database. After that you can locate files. it's Very fast. i needed to find a file yesterday and it made the database then found the file in the time it took me to type the name of the file :eek:
    this is the fastest HD file locater there is. it is brilliant.
    http://www.uku.fi/~jmhuttun/english/softwares.shtml

    PowerShell-XP3.01
    It adds items to your context menus (right click).
    http://www.jastek.net/

    i forgot Pingplotter
    Pingplotter is a network troubleshooting and diagnostic tool
    http://www.pingplotter.com/
     
  8. Mascot

    Mascot Registered Member

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    Apr 6, 2005
    Posts:
    64
    To boil it down to the barest minimum:

    - Total Commander

    Everything else I use I can either live without or there are several alternatives I can make do with. Total Commander is absolutely indispensable in my everyday use, and there's no viable alternative covering everything I use it for.
     
  9. trojan

    trojan Registered Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2005
    Posts:
    123
    Location:
    london
    vmware

    uninstal manager

    sandboxie

    portexplorer

    unlocker

    keen sense

    snag it

    hijack this

    turbo sfx

    hfs file server

    firefox

    azureus

    limewire

    regseeker

    jetaudio

    vlc

    asviewer

    tuneup utilites

    windows internet cleaner

    proxomitron

    resource hacker

    socks cap :thumb:
     
  10. hsj

    hsj Registered Member

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    Jan 5, 2005
    Posts:
    34
    Regshot & Elcomsoft's Advanced Registry Monitor. I use them to make my other software "portable" by creating redo.reg & undo.reg. I don't know how I can live without them...:)
     
  11. Genady Prishnikov

    Genady Prishnikov Registered Member

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    Mar 9, 2006
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    I assume you're talking about Advanced Registry Tracer from Elcomsoft? I found that at http://www.elcomsoft.com/art.html . I'm curious how it makes your software "portable." I was reading about the redo and undo, but how does that help with portability? Or did you just mean you can install software on a computer and uninstall it without a trace?
     
  12. hsj

    hsj Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2005
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    34
    For most smaller apps I would create the redo/undo reg files and copy the installed directory onto my thumb drive. I use the redo file to put all the necessary reg entries (i.e., registration info) into the registry and run the app (no installation since I have the installed directory), then run the undo file to remove them from the registry after I am done using the program.
     
  13. toadbee

    toadbee Registered Member

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    123
  14. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    Location:
    UK
    In no order really, all free

    ccleaner
    shrink/decrypter
    picasa
    SysSpec
    foxit reader
    media player classic
    power dvd (came pre-loaded)
    unlocker
    serif pageplus
     
  15. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2002
    Posts:
    8,102
    Location:
    Hawaii
    Freebies = ***

    Image for DOS -- next to wire cutters, IFD is the ultimate security program

    PopPeeper*** -- for my 15 email accounts & multi-hundreds of emails daily, PP is the ultimate email & anti-spam magician.

    K-meleon*** -- Gecko-based browser on steroids

    DTaskManager*** -- what the Windows task manager SHOULD have been

    XP SysPad*** -- Swiss army knife for Windows system utilities. AMAAAZING!

    AxCrypt*** -- someone crept into the crypt & crapt.:ninja:

    TextShield Fusion*** -- THE word processor for high-level exexcutives who don't aspire to be secretaries

    Power Bible -- waiting for the shout! ><)))°>
     
  16. HAN

    HAN Registered Member

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    Feb 24, 2005
    Posts:
    2,098
    Location:
    USA
    Most of my favorites have been mentioned (Image for DOS being a BIG one!). I can only think of a few others...

    Some kind of process monitoring app. My go to freeware pair is either:

    MJ Registry Watcher http://www.jacobsm.com/mjsoft.htm#rgwtchr (+ a thread here at Wilders https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=54666 )

    WinPatrol http://www.winpatrol.com/

    IMO, at a minimum, something like these 2 should be on every PC. The best thing about WinPatrol is it's easy to learn and interact with. If you want advanced features/customization and monitoring, check out MJ Registry Watcher. It does require some knowledge of how Windows and the registry works to get the best out of it though.

    The only other program I use quite often is Starter http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/products_starter.html It places msconfig, taskmanager, services.msc and in one place. It adds web search capability for unknown processes and much more. Very handy!
     
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