Cool windows utilities:
http://www.AnalogX.com/
http://www.sysinternals.com/
http://www.securitysoftware.cc
http://www.grc.com/
Those sites have several cool utilies. Recommended viewing and downloading.
Sysinternals I'd recommend above the rest, as it has teh coolest stuff. Programs to view which files or registry settings are viewed/written/accessed/deleted at any given time. As well as a very cool process viewer.
AnalogX has an atomic clock syncer, caller ID, some audio programs (including a program to scratch samples, like you would a record, or one to get your PC to tlak).
All the above sites' stuff is free.
Of course there are other things for functionality.
Adaware. :tup:
There are image viewers and editors.
The Gimp is comparable, somewhat, to Photoshop. And free.
If you want a smaller package that views and can do a few filters, there are two:
Irfanview and
xnview.
And for a viewer comparable to ACDSee, but free (as most of the things in this post are) go for
Slowview
For video, I mostly just use WMP because I haven't really found anything better.
Sometimes I use
VirtualDub to play files, because on a few it stutters less and syncs audio to video better.
I have a DVD/MPG/MPG2 player called
VideoLAN. It has a few problems, but if you want a free DVD player, its decent.
If you want to do some video editing, virtualdub above can come in handy. As well as
DDClip. I also had a free video editor called MovieXOne, but I don't recommend it currently cuz I can't get it loaded up anymore on my PC.
As for audio programs, you can't go wrong with
winamp (Anything <3.0).
For audio CDs I only use
cd-hacp. Reads CD-text, queries freedb (sea dee dee bee? Wuzzat?)
To rip CDs there is
EAC and
CDeX.
A few other cool audio programs:
WinLame: Windows Lame frontend. I find it much nicer than RazorLame or the command prompt.
MP3Gain: 'MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume.'
ModPlug: For those old mods and S3m's you have. As well as for your UT tracks.
Audacity: One of three FREE audio editors. Dump in your .wav and edit, do filters, etc.
Encounter 2000: One of three FREE audio editors. Dump in your .wav and edit, do filters, etc.
Soliton II: One of three FREE audio editors. Dump in your .wav and edit, do filters, etc.
What about diagnostic utilities? Information grabbers, etc?
Head to
http://www.cylog.org/ and pick up CyberShredder. It can delete your files securely. Includes the NSA approved seven pass method too.
For little desktop things that show uptime, computer name, look for
Coolmon. Faded text on desktop.
Want information about your dvd-rom or cd-rw? Get
NeroInfotool.
Inhotus: Freeware skinnable system monitor.
Then there's
sysmetrix, which is another skinnable system monitor.
To find out your cpu, and its capabilities:
MyCPU or head to
http://www.h-oda.com/ and pick up wcpuid, which has more features and abilities.
Tired of using explorer's filemanager? Want a different view?
Check out
2xExplorer. There used to be a cool one called GxExplorer, but the homepage disappeared and I can't find anything recent about it.
If you want a cool little clock on your screen, there are several that I have installed that I could recommend.
One is
Beatnik, which has downloadable skins and with the right skin can look killer. Can show Internet time. (See next entry).
Another is
@time, which also can show 'Internet time.' Something developed by Swatch, a time that has no time zones, so its the same time all around the world. The median is through Switzerland. Unfortunately, I can't find the download link anywhere on their site. Hehe.
Wondering where those internet programs are heading off to?
Grab
Aports. Shows which programs are connected to which IP. Similar to going to a command prompt and doing netstat.
There are all in one utilities that let you ping, finger, whois, tracerout, and other things, such as
CyberKit or
NetInfo. NetInfo is a fully functional evaluation version, much like winzip.
There are of course free email programs like Foxmail (unfortunately the one I have is all in Chinese or some such, hence I never use it) or
phoenixmail.
Free popup filters (The best evAR!! =>
Proxomitron.
A free usenet reader, if you are big into NNTP, is
GrabIt or
Xnews.
You want a free ftp program? Reach out and leach
leachftp.
Most people claim the only real IRC client for windows is
mIRC.
Others you can try include
bersirc,
hIRC,
iam,
vIRC,
WiRC, and
XircON.
And of course there is mozilla as a browser. And if you'd rather use IE, but want the tabs, and popup blocking of mozilla, grab
Avant Browser.
If you want ICQ, but something different, you can look for
Miranda. No ads, very small and easy to use. Its what I use.
I tried
GAIM, but it had a bad habit of crashing on me. It did do AIM and ICQ, the only 2 things I use. But it just crashed too often.
I was gonna recommend AIM+ as an addon to AIM to remove ads, and enable logging and cloning, but I just found out that
some of the versions contain spyware!
Some sites say
it has been removed, but I am still weary of teh whole prospect of it.
I think AIM+ can be gotten from
http://www.big-o-software.com/ but so far it won't load for me.
If you want a free CD burning program, look at
burnatonce.
Or CDimage. Its from Microsoft.
Check for the GUI for it, CDimagegui, which makes it all tons easier.
http://www.tech-hints.com/prog/.
Then of course there are text programs. Gotta have text programs. Free ones, since most everything here so far has been free Free FREE!
AbiSuite is an open source word processor. Then there is
OmniPad, a freeware code editor.
And for some beefed up notepad replacements, you can get
NoteTab or
Metapad or the one that I use all the time,
EditPad.
(Those text editors may offer full featured pay programs, but they also offer free equivalents, which are good enough for me. EditPadLite and NoteTabLight do just fine.)
And of course you need a hex editor. Why? Because you do!
A.X.E. is a free editor. Of course it asks you to go to their site to register, or some crap, and has a nag screen every time it loads, but its still free, or something. Thats the only hex editor I've found that wasn't costly.
If you have a lot of fonts and want to have an easy print out of what each one looks like, grab
snork's font printer. Very nice, of course it leaves an S out of the message it reads. And I haven't found a way to change that. *shrug*
And if you want a cool alternative to character map, one with more features and easier to see, grab extended character map. If you can find it. I've been looking but their site seems down, too.
What? You want more?!
I'd suggest Glass2k, from
http://www.chime.tv/ but I think thats for NT/2k/XP only. Lets programs stay always on top and makes windows transparent.
Then there's
arsclip which can hold the last, like, 10 things you copied to the clipboard. So, say, you copied something, the copied something else, but forgot what you first copied, or closed that page. click the arsclip logo (Since you need to have it running to work) and select what you copied earlier. This also does not need to be installed or write to teh registry, its non intrusive, and for that I highly recommend it!
Another non intrusive program that I cannot recommend highly enough is
FreeShade. It runs silently, but it lets you make windows always on top. Also, if you double click the title bar, the window will roll up into the title bar, freeing up space.
Similar to the above is
powermenu. I haven't tried powermenu so I can't recommend it. Anyways, it doesn't seem as powerful (freeshade does all powermenu does, and more!)
There are 2 programs I have that sit in the systray and can show you what color it is that your mouse pointer is hovering over. In RGB, or Hex, or whatever you choose. Cool for grabbing that one color that you find so awesome without having to go through hoops trying to find what color it is.
Those 2 programs are
colorcop and
eyedropper.
If you are often typing commands into the console, or popping up the run line to type in stuff, you might like
mcl. Just like the run dialog box (winkey-r) but always on the screen, and can keep a running history as well.
Other programs there to look at.
Lost that password, and the only thing you can see is ****'s? There is hope!
passwordreveal
showin (Foundstone has several other cool free apps for download as well)
passwordspectator (this works for internet passwords, apparently)
snadboy's revelation
Rainlendar, a desktop calendar:
http://vapaa.dc.inet.fi/~rainy/
Then there's RUNit, which is another launchpad for windows. Think start menu, but much more configured, just for you.
http://www.magister-lex.at/RUNit/
A right click brings up RUNit, so its not the kind of launchpad that just stays on screen 24/7.
Then we have zip programs, since winzip is not exactly free, and we want free Free FREE!
7-zip
http://www.7-zip.org
QuickZip
http://qzip.cjb.net/
PowerArchiver
http://www.powerarchiver.com/
[edit]
Just looked at this one. Its now shareware. I have version 6 on my HD and its free in that version.
:\
The others, on quick inspection, are still free.
7zip uses a file manager type deal, so you have to browse to the file. So I'd recommend QuickZip over the rest.
There is also
WinIMP.
Those are all the utilities and applications you'd probably find a need for while running around.
Of course no zone alarm (Figured you'd already have that) and an antivirus program (AVG is a good free one if you still need one).
If you want free games, that's a bit more difficult.
There's of course shareware. Doom, Duke3d, Rune, Quake, UT, tons of demos available. That'll last for a while.
There's stuff like Crimsonland (
http://crimsonland.10tons.org) and soldat.
Apart from that, go check out some flash or shockwave games. I know they have bejewelled online.
Or go look for an old demo disk with, like, Zork.
Nethack
Nethack in isometric 3D (ala Diablo)
GLTron
There are freeware program, but you use them at your own risk.
I would do a full backup in any case.
FIPS - this is a freeware program, which can split large FAT partitions
http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/
Partition resizer - this is also a freeware program. It can resize and move FAT16/32 partitions
http://members.xoom.com/Zeleps/
http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
Ranish partition manager.
For some general info, and a partitioning program that may be useful.
It allows multiple operating systems on up to 31 partitons and can hide partitons or boot from any hard disk or primary partiton.
Great utility and free to boot !
http://www.xosl.org/ Also has a partitioner.
Also
http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/Zeleps/Files/PRESZ131.ZIP
A demo version of Partition magic may still be avaialble here:
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/
Paragon Partition Manager (commercial,
http://www.partition-manager.com/n_pm_main.htm) and
http://www.compguystechweb.com/trou...disk/index.html
The Partition Resizer
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/...00-4498815.html