Freeware Worth Using

[sodface]

This thread started a little differently and has been edited to become a list of freeware that BE members use and would recommend.

I like:

VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)

7-Zip file archiver (http://www.7-zip.org/)

Filezilla FTP client (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/)

Grabit Usenet binary downloader (http://www.shemes.com/)

Gimp image editor (http://www.gimp.org/)

GoGo MP3 To CD Burner (http://www.cd-mp3.org/)

Foxit PDF Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/)

PSPad text and code editor (http://www.pspad.com/en/)

Daemon Tools CD-Rom emulator (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/portal/portal.php) I haven't been able to get it to work with Vista Beta 2, see next entry.

Virtual CloneDrive - CD-Rom emulator (http://www.elby.ch/fun/software/index.html) Works with Vista Beta 2

Tftpd32 - DHCP, TFTP, SNTP and Syslog servers as well as a TFTP client. (http://tftpd32.jounin.net/)

SolarWinds TFTP Server (http://www.solarwinds.net/Tools/Free_tools/TFTP_Server/)

Darik's Boot and Nuke Hard Disk Wiper (http://dban.sourceforge.net/)

Audacity, The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)

Iso Recorder (http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm)

PhotoFiltre image editor (http://www.photofiltre.com/)

bughouse likes:

Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html)

Avast Anti-Virus (http://alwil.com/CZ/)

Simply Safe Backup (http://www.simplysafebackup.com/)

Magicky likes:

Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)
--I second this, I've used the windows password utility a couple of times!

Cheech likes:

Freemeter: lightweight, powerful system monitor for Windows (http://www.tiler.com/freemeter/)

PuTTY: Telnet and SSH client (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html)

flexkill likes:

ZipGenius file compression suite (http://www.zipgenius.it/index_eng.htm)

Eraser: Secure file/folder deletion. (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015&package_id=186615&release_id=407684)

Moop likes:
CCleaner system optimization and privacy tool (http://www.ccleaner.com/)

Hawk likes:
WinSCP: Freeware SFTP and SCP client for Windows (http://winscp.net/eng/index.php)

d.justice likes:
Starter: Startup manager for Windows (http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/)

Just Learnin' likes:
Moveonboot - Copies, moves or deletes files and folders on the next system boot. (http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/bin/moveonb.exe)
Note- this is the last version that was freeware.
Alcohol 52% CD & DVD emulation software (http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/)
Note- use to create disk images too!

huncherman likes:
Security Toolkit - File encryption utility. (http://www.qdsecurity.com/default.asp?contentID=481)
Note- soon to be replaced by CleverCrypt (http://www.qdsecurity.com/default.asp?contentID=523)

BeeHay likes:
Unknown Devices - Find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are. (http://www.halfdone.com/Development/UnknownDevices/)

DVD Shrink - Software to backup DVD discs. (http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html)

DVDDecrypter - Rips encrypted dvd video files to harddrive. (http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip/)

BB_One likes:
Open Office- free office suite. (http://www.openoffice.org/)

[FB]

cool, i am going to try some of them out!

[Snafu]

Cool but don't forget to list your firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware...

[sodface]

Cool but don't forget to list your firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware...


As soon as I start using them I'll list them.. :o :rolleyes:

[sodface]

cool, i am going to try some of them out!

I really like all of these, even over the commercial ones I've used. I especially couldn't wait to stop using adobe acrobat reader - foxit pdf reader is fast!

[RotorHead]

I just started using Filezilla FTP, thanks for the tip sodface :thumb: I like it a lot. :yup:

[sodface]

I just started using Filezilla FTP, thanks for the tip sodface :thumb: I like it a lot. :yup:

:thumbs:

[sodface]

Added solar winds tftp server. This is nice for uploading and downloading config files and op code to switches etc.

Thanks to Joe K. for this one.

[bughouse]

A few more that I'm using:

Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html)

Avast Anti-Virus (http://alwil.com/CZ/)

Simply Safe Backup (http://www.simplysafebackup.com/)

All get :thumbs: from me.

[sodface]

A few more that I'm using:

Kerio Personal Firewall (http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html)

Avast Anti-Virus (http://alwil.com/CZ/)

Simply Safe Backup (http://www.simplysafebackup.com/)

All get :thumbs: from me.

Thanks bughouse, edited post 1 to add your entries and make this a list. :thumb:

[Magicky]

Just wanted to drop a note of thanks for the Foxit PDF reader, a tool that I made use of 5 minutes after I DL'ed it

The history of Adobe and it's PostScript language is one that goes back per-Bill Gates even, and has ALWAYS been an expensive proposition to own. Despite never getting a patent on thier early programs Adobe has made itself and it's investors a ton of money.

My humble opinion is that using the Foxit program to fill forms that I DL off the net in Adobe format saves me from laying out significant amounts of $. It's my belief that almost all (if not truley all) gub'ment forms are transcriped in Adobe format, true? Well, until today I,ve had to do all kinds of shananagins to get someting to my printer so I could print out a form and then have to fill it in by hand. Shoddy looking stuff really, offends my sense of order.

Enough rambeling, thanks again for the tip, and kudos to Sodface :thumb:
Magicky

[sodface]

Interesting Magicky, I'm not that familiar with adobe's history - I never really understood the popularity of the .pdf format other than adobe was around at the right time to get the format entrenched. Yeah, I know, cross platform, hence portable document format and all that, but any document can be cross platform as long as there is a way to read and create them on every OS. Oh I don't really know what I'm talking about, I'm sure there are other aspects of it like document security, pics and text all wrapped up in one file, etc. - I still think the major factor in the wide spread use of pdf was timing.

Which gets us to the end user and the fact that the "free" adobe reader has become a bloated, slow-loading pig, which is why I love Foxit myself!

Anyway, glad you like it and the real kudos go to Foxit Software. :yup:

[Snafu]

Any suggestions for a registry editor that is reliable and some what easy to use? Regedit is not letting me remove an entry that is in there due to a virus.

[sodface]

How about one of these:

Linky (http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm)

I'm thinking what you need is a way to boot from CD and access the registry - that way the main OS (and virus) aren't even loaded.

The entry for Austrumi on that page looks particularly promising:

Austrumi is a Linux bootable ISO image for recovering NT passwords and other cool tools and methods, sized for Business Card size CD media (50Mb). It allows you to change any password, including that of the Administrator, on a partition occupied by Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Simply boot the CD and when you get to the initial boot prompt, type:

boot: nt_pass

This will launch a console utility that will detect Windows partitions on the hard disk and provide you with a menu to modify any user or Administrator passwords on the Windows system. It will even give access to the Windows registry for recovery purposes. Quite a handy utility to keep in your wallet (AUSTRUMI is small enough to fit on a business card-size CD) if you are unfortunate enough to having to deal with Windows machines in your line of work.

[Snafu]

Interesting. All the software is removed from the system and it is only now that MS antispyware found these registry entries.

[BB_One]

Look at your email..the solution is there.

Seems you are/were not alone with this problem.

Issue is that the registration code has been created with NULL caracters in it, rendering regedit inoperative as it ignores anything with NULLS in it. Unknowned to me (learn some every day), and apparently becoming more and more exploited by worms,spywares and the likes.

[Snafu]

Thanks for the email. Will try smitRem.exe first in safe mode and see what happens. If all else fails then I can always try running the remaining steps :yikes:

(btw - hijackthis log is clean - this is only a remnant in the registry)


Not sure how you fixed Smitfraud/PSGuard,there are still remnants.
Download and run the below fixes, and then post back the logs created , please.

1.Download smitRem.exe and save the file to your desktop......Do NOT run it yet, ....run it later in Safe Mode.


2.
Download the trial version of Ewido Security Suite from here:http://www.ewido.net/en/download/
When installing,... under "Additional Options"..uncheck "Install Background Guard" and "Install scan via context menu".

Launch Ewido (there should be an icon on your desktop... doubleclick it). The program will now go to the main screen. You will need to update ewido to the latest definition files.

On the left hand side of the main screen click "Update" and then click on "Start Update".
If you have problems with the updater, you can use this link to manually update ewido:http://www.ewido.net/en/download/updates/
.....Do NOT run Ewido yet, ....run it later in Safe Mode.

3.
Download Ad-aware SE Personal 1.06 , ......and Update Ad-Aware SE.
Do NOT run it yet, ....run it later in Safe Mode.

4.
Download CleanUp
....when it opens click "Cleanup!", ..we need to cleanout your Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders.
Smitrem will clean them this time, but keep it for regular cleanup of Temp files,etc.

5.
REBOOT INTO SAFE MODE...--> How to reboot to Safe Mode -->(reboot and tap F8 immediately after BIOS screen ( the Bios screen is the first black and white screen you see)....choose Safe Mode from menu)


6.
Once in Safe mode, run Smitrem.exe,...Run the smitRem.exe tool you downloaded earlier. Follow the prompts on the screen to extract to a new folder.Open the new folder and double-click on RunThis.bat Wait for the tool to complete and disk cleanup to finish.

The tool will create a log named smitfiles.txt in the root of your drive, eg: Local Disk C: or partition where your operating system is installed. Please post that log along with all others requested in your next reply.

then run Ewido.........

then run Adaware SE 1.06

Reboot and post back a new HijackThis log, and Ewido log,and Smitrem.txt log, please.

[Magicky]

Two sites for "Ultimate" booters:
1) http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm
2) http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

#2 pulled my bacon outta the fire when I got a little too agressive with regedit once *ahem*. And it's free, where as #1 may have fees. I dunno if it does, I was just told about it by my 74 year young neighbor (who, BTW, is my golf hero, he just shot 74 on his 74th birthday). The Ultimate Bot CD handles any OS out there and has morer bells and whistles than I know what to do with...
Magicky :bonk:

[sodface]

bump for a couple of additions to the first post...

[Snafu]

BTW - the advice given by BB worked- of course :lol:

I also turned off system restore when running these suite of programs.

[sodface]

I don't know how I missed this one:

Iso Recorder (http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm)

Free windows power toy that gives you a "Burn Image to CD" menu option when you right-click an .iso image, which launches a simple .iso burning window.

Works great.

[Cheech]

I really like this tool Freemeter (http://www.tiler.com/freemeter/)

Anybody using this?

[sodface]

I really like this tool Freemeter (http://www.tiler.com/freemeter/)

Anybody using this?

Just checked it out.. :cool: small executable too, which is nice to see.

Updated post 1.

[flexkill]

I don't know if this has been posted, but incase not....ZipGenius (http://www.zipgenius.it/index_eng.htm) is a great program for compressing and unzipping files.:yup: :beer:

[Hawk]

www.winiso.com Killer Application. . . . . . :beer:

[Moop]

I've always liked http://www.ccleaner.com/
:thumbs:

[sodface]

@flex and Moop - thanks gents, post 1 updated. I'm trying ccleaner out now.

@Hawk - Winiso is good, I agree, but it costs, and I haven't found much I can't do with other utilities like daemon tools etc.

//edit

ccleaner is done:

CLEANING COMPLETE - (9.925 secs)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1,599.1MB removed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That much garbage would have maxed out my first hard drive. :rolleyes:

[Cheech]

Gotta love Putty (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) as well :thumb:

[sodface]

Gotta love Putty (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) as well :thumb:

:bonk: How'd I forget that one?? I use it everyday!

[Hawk]

Gotta love Putty (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) as well :thumb:



Putty & WinSCP. . . . :thumb:

[sodface]

Putty & WinSCP. . . . :thumb:

Yup, WinSCP too :bonk:

Post #1 updated.

[sodface]

Added PhotoFiltre (http://www.photofiltre.com/) which is:


PhotoFiltre is free for a private, non commercial or educational use (including non-profit organizations).
In this case, registration is not necessary.

Small, fast, and has a ton of nice features. I wanted something quick loading and easy to work with for doing basic crops, resizing, thumbs, shapes, text etc. but I didn't want a photo manager like ACDSee bloated into.

I know irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/)is very popular, I didn't actually try it because it doesn't look like it has some basic editing features like adding text or shapes, which is nice to have occasionally.

PhotoFiltre also has batch processing. I like it.

[d.justice]

i am using this: http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/ utillity to edit my startup processes, and regestry processes, it's fast and usefull, but if you use all the tools in this sticky, it's obsolete.

and old tool, but still pretty good: tunexp : http://www.driverheaven.net/dforce/default.php

btw: type-o's be gone! can i blame them on a new keyboard? just getting used to it :)

[sodface]

Starter is very nice, just installed it... will update post #1 with that one. The other one though seems to have had a long pause in development (2004?) and also requires the .net framework to be installed - :( . Should I include that one in the recommended list also?

Thanks for the input d.justice. :wave:

[d.justice]

nah tunexp is handy for tuning certain parts of the os, like optimize xp for ramsize, speed up startup and shutdown time, but the reqirement for .net framework is a real bummer :( and the tweaks are a bit out dated (like pagelock limit, her the max ram you can set is 512 mb up, would rather see an update to 1024 and up) so i guess it's for the specially intrested) not worthy of a sticky

[Just Learnin']

Moveonboot, awesome little utility for removing files that sometimes seem to just get "stuck", also allows you to move or copy files that windows locks or alters. Works great, moveonboot (http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/moveonboot.html)

[flexkill]

Moveonboot, awesome little utility for removing files that sometimes seem to just get "stuck", also allows you to move or copy files that windows locks or alters. Works great, moveonboot (http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/moveonboot.html)
Yes this is a great tool, Thanks JL for sharing.:thumb:

[huncherman]

I've been using an encryption program named QDS Security Toolkit to secure "sensitive" files. I really like the ease of use.


The Security Toolkit is a powerful utility that allows you to create encrypted hard drives, encrypt your removable drives (USB, CD/DVD's, Firewire etc) and securely delete files, including Internet History. You can also encrypt files and send them by email.

Link (http://www.qdsecurity.com/default.asp?contentID=481)

Looks like it is soon to be replaced by CleverCrypt, but I haven't tried that program yet.

[sodface]

Post #1 updated, thanks huncherman and Just Learnin' :thumbs:

[flexkill]

I have been using this little tool for years:yup: The only way to really get rid of stuff off your PC!!! No more recycle bin....EVER!!!:yup: :rock: :beer:
OH ya...and its FREE:wpleased:
Eraser 5.8 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015&package_id=186615&release_id=407684)

[sodface]

I have been using this little tool for years:yup: The only way to really get rid of stuff off your PC!!! No more recycle bin....EVER!!!:yup: :rock: :beer:
OH ya...and its FREE:wpleased:
Eraser 5.8 (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015&package_id=186615&release_id=407684)

I've been using this for a while too Flex... awesome app! :thumbs:

Post 1 updated.

[sodface]

Added Elby's Virtual CloneDrive (http://www.elby.ch/fun/software/index.html).

I couldn't get Daemon Tools to install on Vista Beta 2. Virtual CloneDrive works flawlessly and boasts the following features:


Supports all common image formats such as ISO, BIN, CCD
Supports up to 8 virtual drives at the same time
Easy to use - just double-click an image file to mount as a drive
Virtual CloneDrive is freeware, you may use it at no cost.

[BeeHay]

i just posted this link in another thread, but i think it's worth-while when doing a wipe and reload and those 'unknown' devices splat out at you :D

unknown prog (http://www.halfdone.com/Development/UnknownDevices/)

:thumbs:

[BeeHay]

oh yea, these 2 DVD encrypters (http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html)/rippers (http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip/) are my dvd copying proggies of choice :D

prolly some of you use these :thumbs:

[sodface]

Thanks BeeHay, post 1 updated.

:thumbs:

[BB_One]

Just realized it is not in here - certainly freeware and worth it's pound of gold. Now does it fall under utility that be the other question? More an Application I think but no section for that....

But OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/) certainly is a great free alternative to MS Office and compatible to it to boot.

[sodface]

Just realized it is not in here - certainly freeware and worth it's pound of gold. Now does it fall under utility that be the other question? More an Application I think but no section for that....

But OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/) certainly is a great free alternative to MS Office and compatible to it to boot.

Thread title updated. Post 1 updated.

:thumb:

[Lady_Bunny]

Kerio personnal firewall (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm)
AVG free anti-virus (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5)
Lavasoft adaware free edition
(http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/)
These three have been really good to me... I have tried others but I always go back!

Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/) Not worth paying for M$'s stuff... ;) this is the sh*t... :p
Friendly and bug free... the latest versions as far I experienced... :)

Grc.com (http://www.grc.com/default.htm) This guy can be a bit outdated... but he has tons of little apps that do a lot for you! Shoot The Messenger & LeakTest are two that come to mind... His online "ShieldsUP!" is a good security test tool too...


I've always liked http://www.ccleaner.com/
:thumbs:I don't want poop your boop, Moop... but I used to be really impressed with Crap Cleaner... recommended it to my skeptical Boyfriend and... one day, about two years ago... it wiped most of our everything... both of our computers... a couple of days apart... I have since kept away from it.CrapCleaner has been EVIL to me...

He recently figured it was abug that should be fixed by now. So he went ahead and dled it, carefully checked all the options... and Boum! it erased everything important again... including some (most) MP3's, all his emails, bookmarks and such... it seems they were labeled as crap... :look: SO... A word of advice, it does a good job if you have backup everything... then it's good! ---> My two cents...

I have a lot more links to share... :)
Now I must sleep ;)

Cheers!
Lady Bunny

[sodface]

Added Allway Sync file synchronization tool. It's free but with the following limitation:


Customer agrees that Allway Sync Free has certain limitations, that these limitations may change over time without notice or obligation on the part of Developer. Currently, these limitations allow Customer to synchronize no more than 20000 files per 30-day period.

I haven't hit the limit though, and it's super simple and effective.

[Just Learnin']

Released today, get it here: http://www.free-downloads.net/programs/Alcohol_52__Free_Edition

"Emulation software allowing users to play CDs DVDs without the need for the physical disc. Notebook users and PC Game players would benifit the most from Alcohol 52% Supports 25 plus languages Can handle up to 6 virtual CD DVD-ROM drives, all at once. The reading speed of a virtual CD-ROM is 200X. This means you can play a CD from the virtual CD-ROM with 200X reading speed. Supports normal CD DVD and CD RAW sub-channel reading methods: RAW reading method enables to emulate all CDs. CD formats supported: CD-DA, CD+G, CD-ROM, CD-XA, Video CD, Photo CD, Mixed Mode, Multi-session CD DVD for... "

[sodface]

Thanks Just Learnin', added it to the list. This actually knocks out not only a freeware way of mounting disk images in all the common formats, but also the creation of images as well - something I've been looking for.

One gripe - the installer requires that you install the Alcohol browser toolbar. It does make it clear that it can be uninstalled at any time though - which I did right away, and it does not affect the operation of the main program.

[Just Learnin']

Apparently the toolbar enhances the program, see if I can find how again.

[Just Learnin']

Found this,
The toolbar that is included in this free version allows you to quickly search what protections are used on media which then allows you to quickly set up the software.

It is 100% spyware/adware free and can easily be uninstalled at any time.

Posted by Quinton on this page Digg (http://digg.com/software/Alcohol_52_DVD_CD_emulation_software_goes_freeware) Seems to be an insider for Alcohol Software so.....:scratch:

[Snafu]

Giving SpamPal (www.spampal.org) a try. Free email scanner so thought it was worth a try. So far so good although it does take a bit to set it up (I like apps that are easy such as left clicking an email and assigning it as spam) but hey what can I expect for free :lol:

[sodface]

A couple more to try out:

AVS Disc Creator (http://www.avsmedia.com/DiscCreator/download.aspx?dl=no) I'm using this one now and it's pretty darn good.

Write your data to CD, DVD and Blu-ray Discs quickly and easily using FREE AVS Disc Creator.

AVS DVD Player (http://www.avsmedia.com/DVDPlayer/index.aspx) Besides the free DVD codec I found a couple of years ago, I haven't seen too many free DVD players. Haven't tried it yet but will.

UNIVERSAL DVD, VIDEO & AUDIO PLAYER Support for a very wide variety of video formats: apart from regular DVD (PAL, NTSC, VCD, SVCD) formats, also supported are: the entire range of MPEG4 (including DivX, XviD, etc.), MPEG1, MPEG2, AVI, Real Media video, Quick Time files, WMV files (including WMV-HD), H.263, H.264, mobile video formats (3GP, 3GP2, MP4). This strong compatibility makes AVS DVD Player a universal player;

Burrrn (http://www.burrrn.net/?page_id=4) This one looks nice and simple and supports a lot of audio types. Haven't tried it yet.

Burrrn is a little tool for creating audio CDs with CD-Text from various audio files. Supported formats are: wav, mp3, mpc, ogg, aac, mp4, ape, flac, ofr, wv, tta, m3u, pls and fpl playlists and cue sheets.

[sodface]

Have to add Poderosa (http://en.poderosa.org/)to the list.
It's a terminal emulator that features tabs and telnet, ssh, and serial port connections. Requires .net framework 2.0

Works great and very configurable.

[Timber Jockey]

I like the Free Zonealarm Firewall (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp) it gets :thumbs: :thumbs: in my book.

[sodface]

Tunnelier (http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier.html) is a great app. The main thing I'm using it for right now is the FTP-SFTP bridge. This feature lets you connect to SFTP servers using clients that only support vanilla FTP. The great freeware text editor PSPad for instance, I like to use for writing code, but it only supports FTP transfers from within the program itself. So if I want to save my work to the server and the server only allows SFTP I'd have to save locally and then upload with a different app like WinSCP. With the bridge I can now save to the server directly from PSPad. Nice. (Ultraedit supports SFTP but Ultraedit isn't free!)

Here's some other reasons to use it - possibly can ditch PuTTY and WinSCP if you are using that for SSH connections / transfers.



one of the most advanced graphical SFTP clients;
state-of-the-art terminal emulation with support for the bvterm, xterm, and vt100 protocols;
support for corporation-wide single sign-on using SSPI (GSSAPI) Kerberos 5 and NTLM user authentication, as well as Kerberos 5 host authentication;
support for RSA and DSA public key authentication with comprehensive user keypair management;
powerful SSH port forwarding capabilities, including dynamic forwarding through integrated SOCKS and HTTP CONNECT proxy;
powerful command-line parameters which make Tunnelier highly costumizable and suitable for use in specific situations and controlled environments;
an advanced, scriptable command-line SFTP client (sftpc);
a scriptable command-line remote execution client (sexec) and a command-line terminal emulation client (stermc);
an FTP-to-SFTP bridge allowing you to connect to an SFTP server using legacy FTP applications;
WinSSHD remote administration features;
single-click Remote Desktop forwarding.

[sodface]

I'm going to have to retract my recommendation for Allway Sync file synchroization utility in favor of:

Microsoft Synctoy - File Synchronization Utility (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx)

I hit the file limit with Allway Sych. MS Synctoy is totally free (except for the OS you need to run it ;) ) and seems to work really well so far.

While you're at it, check out all the Windows XP Powertoys. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx)

This is all probably old news, but I really like the enhanced alt+tab as seen below:

[glorfy]

Faststone Image Viewer 2.9 (http://www.faststone.org/)


FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF and DNG).

I like this piece of software, small download, quick, intuitive easy to use - although I wish it had an option to automatically specify a target directory when batch editing.

I'm going to have to try FastStone Capture 5.2 as well which allows screen capture of scrolling windows.

[sodface]

Faststone Image Viewer 2.9 (http://www.faststone.org/)



I like this piece of software, small download, quick, intuitive easy to use - although I wish it had an option to automatically specify a target directory when batch editing.

I'm going to have to try FastStone Capture 5.2 as well which allows screen capture of scrolling windows.

Yes! I've used this and the FastStone resizer quite a bit recently and both work great. Resizer is cool because you can make the image file size smaller without changing the actual dimensions of the pic (better compression / slight reduction in quality). With the ability to recursively process folders and reproduce the exact folder structure elsewhere but with the resized pics, it's great to get a group of pics down to CD size say when originally they were over.

[joeMan]

Hey Carl, I used PuTTY to SSH into my slack server today...had to set up some relay permissions...it worked great. Really good one man.

[sodface]

Hey Carl, I used PuTTY to SSH into my slack server today...had to set up some relay permissions...it worked great. Really good one man.

Awesome :rock: PuTTY is great especially due to it's compact size and no install required operation. You can take that anywhere.

You might also want to check out tunnelier (http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier) which is free also, but gives you some additional functionality. You can setup and save multiple profiles. Establish a connection to one and then you can open a terminal window or, and this is the bonus, an SFTP transfer window. Check out the screenies below. The terminal isn't as nice as PuTTY's but it's functional. The SFTP client I like better than WinSCP. I also use tunnelier as an SFTP-FTP bridge as detailed in this thread (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28764). It's a great free app, but does require an install, unlike the lightweight PuTTY.

http://www.sodface.com/shared/pics/tunnelier1.jpg

The terminal window:
http://www.sodface.com/shared/pics/tunnelier2.jpg

The SFTP transfer window:
http://www.sodface.com/shared/pics/tunnelier3.jpg

[joeMan]

Wow, super righteous. :cool:

I need to get into that one at some point here. Very nice indeed. :rock:

Thanks :thumbs:

[BeeHay]

I'm gonna add another one of these to my favs... :D

This tool comes in handy when you just cant find those files eating away at your hdd space! :rock:

FolderSize (http://www.rotebetasoftware.com/FolderSize.html)

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c139/beehay/woot2.gif

[Just Learnin']

:thumbs: All To AVI (http://alltoavi.sourceforge.net/index.php) Found this while looking to unwrap/covert an .MVK file. Worked a treat! :bow:

[Nosfer@tu]

Avast Antivirus

avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

I cant post URLS yet :D

so add the first part your selfs :D

[sodface]

Thanks for the updates gents. I need to go through and fix up post #1.

[markdeb]

Great collection of freebies. Just to mention another one, I use this free plugin called Process QuickLink (from ProcessLibrary.com) to know exactly what processes are running in Windows Task Manager.

[Dave3d]

Great collection of freebies. Just to mention another one, I use this free plugin called Process QuickLink (from ProcessLibrary.com) to know exactly what processes are running in Windows Task Manager.

Ooooh.
A good one for this is Precess Explorer, available form MS (formerly a sysinternals app).

You can not only see the processes, but you can see what threads a process is running, a mutex or mutant, events, pretty much anything you would ever want want to know, and a few (at least I) that you have no idea what they are.

:thumb:

[sford]

What are folks recommending for a good freeware registry cleaner/tuner for winxp nowadays?

[Dave3d]

I have tried a LOT of these here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads15.html

I just cant remember wich ones I liked and which I didnt.
And which ones were really free,or trial.
Sorry.

I am still using Registry Mechanic on my 32 bit windows, although its not free.

[Just Learnin']

I gave this a go recently and it seems decent: CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/)

[Dave3d]

Well, for all those people that are losing their data, here is a good article on free file recovery software, and a little on how to use them.

http://lifehacker.com/393084/how-to-recover-deleted-files-with-free-software

Think I am going to open an old recovery thread and add this there also.

[sford]

I gave this a go recently and it seems decent: CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/)

I been usin cc for quite a while, wasn't even aware it had reg cleaner. Downloaded the newest and, well, there ya go.

Good choice, thanks!

[Dave3d]

http://www.spywareterminator.com/

Pretty good app for free.

Found some of my test files (like eicar.txt, that just has the eicar string which isnt dangerous), and notified me that the file wasnt dangerous (which it isnt). But the amazing thing is that it found it, and reported it to me, and was correct in saying it was no longer a threat. The other 5 spyware software I tested did not even report and/or find it.

And it is xp, xp64, vista, vista64 compatible. :thumbs:

Edit:
I strongly advise against installing the crawler toolbar (web security guard) though.
It seriously slowed down my browsing, and even seemed to affect my general windows speed.
Spywareterminator by itself is great though.

[Just Learnin']

I like this: SUPER © (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html) :yup:


SUPER © Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer.
A GUI to FFmpeg, MEncoder, MPlayer, x264, mppenc,
FFmpeg2theora & the theora/vorbis RealProducer plugIn.

If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file,
without reading manuals or spending long hours training, then SUPER © is all you need.
It is a Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player, easy-to-use with 1 simple click.


SUPER © "The Player" surpasses any known player by supporting just
any Multimedia file format. SUPER © plays files that cannot be played with
WMP or even MPC and VLC the advanced Libavcodec based players.
SUPER © also plays and saves Internet Media Streams of different
protocols ( mms:// rtsp:// http://)

SUPER © "The Encoder" is the fastest and simplest tool to encode full
length movies to any other format without any time or function limitation.

NO trial or evaluation version of SUPER © but one unique
Free to download and Free to use fully working version.

SUPER © does NOT require any additional external codec to
be installed, absolutely nothing. Necessary codecs are built in!

Please read the changelog and the following details to see how:
SUPER © does for FREE what other encoders CAN'T do for money.

I watched a video online and it left a *.flv file in this folder: C:\Documents and Settings\Peter\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

I used this program to convert the file to a *.AVI file which I can watch in media player or most any file player. Works excellent and is super easy to use!!! :thumbs:

[OnYX]

JL, I've been looking for a converter that can convert most video formats to .mp4 since I got a Samsung Instinct recently (I love this thing)... so let's see what Super © can do for me :)

[Just Learnin']

Any luck OnYX? :scratch:

[Reese]

Don't know if it has been mentioned, but I like Foobar2000 for music
superfast, customizable, and uses very little memory
http://www.foobar2000.org/

[Dave3d]

For tomorrow only (today to some of you?):

Zone Alarm Pro for free.
1 day only.
15th anniversary special.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/check_point_celebrate_15th_anniversary_giving_away_zonealarm_pro_software

[huncherman]

Just discovered Virtualbox OSE Virtualbox OSE (http://www.virtualbox.org/). Awesome and easy to set up. Here's a screenshot of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit external usb hard drive install running on a Virtualbox VM on Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit.

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6180/screenshot4g.th.jpg (http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot4g.jpg)

[Dave3d]

For those that use a lot (or any) freeware that has popups (buy me! buy me now!), you can use this:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/web_exclusive/download_week_clickoff

It will catch the window (after you point it to it) and close it automatically.

No more popups !!!!

[Dave3d]

http://bumptop.com/


Wow.
This is a great app (for work).
Cleaned up all of my text, doc, xls, etc files, and put them in a little 'pile'.
Also, all of those 'barely used' desktop shortcuts go into a pile.
All of the stuff I use frequently I leave outside the piles.

I dont know if I would like it for my home gaming desktop, but it is great for work scenario's.

[Reese]

Don't know if it has been mentioned, but I like Foobar2000 for music
superfast, customizable, and uses very little memory
http://www.foobar2000.org/

If anybody uses this...(Like I do, religiously)
This theme makes Foobar2k WAY better, which is hard to believe I know.
Curacao (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=67465&pid=600767&mode=threaded&show=&st=&)
Most Foobar themes are very difficult to install and hard to configure. Curacao on the other hand comes with an AMAZING guide and was a snap to install and use.

To illustrate the difference...

Before, with standard UI.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y33/dynadrifter/th_foob1.gif (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y33/dynadrifter/?action=view&current=foob1.gif)


After, with Curacao UI.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y33/dynadrifter/th_Foob-1.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y33/dynadrifter/?action=view&current=Foob-1.jpg)

The difference is amazing. There are no limits to what people can do with Foobar. The new UI consumes no more memory, and is even said to load faster than the standard UI. I personally can't tell the difference speedwise. Foobar is so quick and responsive, as soon as you click a song it plays instantly, 0 load times. I <3 this program. :o

EDIT: Replaced img's w/ thumbnails. Didn't know photobucket had that. :thumb:

[Just Learnin']

Bless this apps soul, Refresh Rate Patcher 1.0.1 (http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=88933), best cure for Win7's issues with some monitors I have come across. :thumbs: Worked for me in Win7 64bit anyway. :yup: