TR Forums

Klyith wrote:

I'm the king of freeware - at this point the only non-free software that I have installed on my computer is photoshop, games, and windows itself. I'm also a minimalist, which means I'd rather have three programs that each excell at a specific task than one program that does three functions badly.

I like the way you think!

Audio Players
foobar2000

Codecs
How about mentioning ffdshow a general purpose DivX/XviD decoding filter.

ffdshow is known to consume way less cpu time than DivX

Data Verification/Recovery
QuickPar
Allows for file recovery via the creation or decoding of “stripe sets” of extra data files

Image Viewer
XnView

Optical Media Authoring
burnatonce

File Compression
WinRar is not freeware as far as I am aware

Did a Google search and I found this site with 46 nice freeware apps, many have been listed here aleady, but a few had not...

I went there using Firefox with Adblock, I didn't see any annoying pop-ups or anything, YMMV.

Rather then plagerize their list, if you are interested go there -->

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46 ... lities.htm

Hi
I have quite a few favorites, but most of them are already listed:

But if you want a little cleaner interface than Gimp and something based on .Net technology

Then this application is great for Graphics and Photo Editing
Photo Editing
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

The application is Paint.net and it's free

One of the most powerful and useful utilities I have ever seen: nLite:
http://nuhi.msfn.org/

What it does is take you Windows install CD, and lets you slipstream in service packs and drivers, remove the junk MS forces down your throat (ie, Internet Explorer, Media Player, Outlook, etc), and has a ton of tweaking options (which is awesome! Have your OS install already tweaked out like you want it!)...

I'm surprised ZoneAlarm isn't on here. To be honest I've not tried either of the two free firewalls listed here, so I can't say which is better (and if anyone can I'm interested to hear arguments), but ZA has always done a good job for me and doesn't usually get in the way too much. (There are some respects in which I'd like it to be more configurable, but it's still effective.)

Personal firewall
ZoneAlarm Free

Also, shouldn't LAME be categorised under 'Audio encoding' rather than 'audio editing'?

UNIX command-line tools, X server and stuff under Windows (how's that for a category?)
Cygwin (because JBI hasn't posted it yet...)

Virtual desktop manager
Virtuawin: have multiple desktops in Windows. There are quite a lot of programs that do this, but VW is small, fast, does only what it says on the tin, and does it well. You can switch desktops by mousing off the side, you can assign key combinations to each desktop, make windows appear on all desktops, etc.

Registry Tweakage

What Is It? Does It Do?
RT.Net contains lots of registry tweaks. The GUI is checkbox/textbox based with 14 sections of tweaks to browse through. When you have selected all the tweaks you want you can click the compile tweaks button and they will be compiled onto the screen for you to view. There is also an option after you have compiled to save the file to your drive. In the new version you have the options to save your selections so you dont have to start from scratch all the time. It is also a standalone exe file and doesnt require installation.

I think its very very cool.

Two more that might help:

DVD viewing
VaroDVD
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/dvd_utils_3.shtml#VaroDVD%202000

Network Analyzer
Ethereal
http://www.ethereal.com

TheDVDMan wrote:

How can you all forget this:

CD Ripping
http://www.cdex.n3.net/ - CDex, best CD ripper EVER.

Well... at least it's the best CD ripper that isn't EAC

bah!!! crap. redundant data deleted.

also check out
http://www.mlin.net
http://www.karenware.com (karen is huge - I think she has pizza and coke delivered right to the computer desk)
http://www.sysinternals.com (everyone knows this one right?)

Web Authoring (sp?)
http://www.nvu.com (NVU or New View)
Macromedia Dreamweaver competition

Xnews is a great freeware program for Usenet viewing

I thought somebody had already recommended this: Audacity for Sound Editing, even music creation when using some of the multitude of available compatible plugins, both freeware and commercial.

Edit: Oh, it was already posted by Klyith.

File Compression

IZArc

Awesome program;

IZArc Website wrote:

IZArc is the ultimate archive utility supports many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO

.

CD Ripping

FreeRIP

Rips to WAV, OGG or MP3, uses LAME and Ogg Vorbis encoders. CDDB lookup and submit option, great path and filename customization options. Automatic Gain Control option. Still in development.

The only bad thing I can say is that during setup, it gives you the option of installing my search bar. Of course just uncheck it. Within the program there's a Search toolbar for MySearch, which you can disable in the options. I ran both Spyware and Adware just to be certain, and both return zero spyware.

If you're like me, you'll just use it to rip cds anyway. My program of choice of CD ripping.

Kraft75

This is the easiest and most convenient to use screen cap program around,install it,hit your "print screen"key and its done.
This program works.Get it here:http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen
Regards,
Fighterpilot

Some good freeware programs can be found here:

XP Media (sorted by categories)

Some file management/ghosting action for free too:
Xxcopy

I have found a new tool that helps people quickly review many websites. In addition it helps prevent you from going to sites with spyware, adware, viruses, or even just poor content. The tool is the ReviewToolbar which allows users to rate sites, so that legitimate sites with good content are easily distinguishable from malicious or poorly designed sites. The program embeds site ratings directly in the search results of the web's most popular search engines. The best thing is that like all good tools, it is free. It is available for free at http://www.reviewtoolbar.com

jquindlen wrote:

I have found a new tool that helps people quickly review many websites. In addition it helps prevent you from going to sites with spyware, adware, viruses, or even just poor content. The tool is the ReviewToolbar which allows users to rate sites, so that legitimate sites with good content are easily distinguishable from malicious or poorly designed sites. The program embeds site ratings directly in the search results of the web's most popular search engines. The best thing is that like all good tools, it is free. It is available for free at http://www.reviewtoolbar.com

?

Sounds like a spyware ad to me.

Understandable concern. I ran adware and Spybot Search and Destroy after I installed it and I'm all clean.

jquindlen wrote:

:lol: Understandable concern. I ran adware and Spybot Search and Destroy after I installed it and I'm all clean.

That may be so, may not be so. With only 2 posts, it seems a bit impluasible to me that a real user's first messages would be borderline ad-copy about a questionable product.

However, if you're a person from that site or company and just want to spread your product, I understand the motive, but not the highly suspect approach.

Fess up, did you register to this site just to post some gibberish about a toolbar you may be involved with, or do you actually use this, and if so, do you realize there are only 58 sites listed? This is a review-project in severe infancy. I have more than 6,000 book marks, and this site only has 58??

http://www.reviewtoolbar.com wrote:

Total: 58 sites, 63 ratings, and 7 reviews

So, there are only 58 sites listed, w/ 63 ratings? 7 reviews? Do you work for these people / are you the guy that made this? If so cool, but why post under false pretenses? I wouldn't mind having a review site, and I wouldn't mind contributing some of the many thousands of web sites I've visited w/ the occasional review over time, but I'm not going to comply w/ a devious method to get me there.

Especially when low-volume use and suspicious methods are present.

reviewtoolbar.com certainly has a suspicious WHOIS record:

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.

DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: REVIEWTOOLBAR.COM
Created on: 13-Nov-05
Expires on: 13-Nov-06
Last Updated on: 15-Nov-05

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration [email protected]
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration [email protected]
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.REVIEWTOOLBAR.COM
NS2.REVIEWTOOLBAR.COM


Registry Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK

Using a "Domains by Proxy, Inc." registrar seems a bit cheesy right off the get-go. Seems like these people want to hide. Notice on the site there is no PERSON to contact, no COMPANY phone to contact, nothing. Just an e-mail form, which probably goes to some bogus hotmai account that never gets anwersed.

Thousands!? Jeeze how do you find what you are looking for ever? Do you organise them someway? Howso? /me Wants screenshot O.o

Spike™ wrote:

Thousands!? Jeeze how do you find what you are looking for ever? Do you organise them someway? Howso? /me Wants screenshot O.o

Well, I've saved all my files since about 1992. I have backups of old-school ones which are .URL files among more abscurity filed away somewhere. I have Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet files on DVDs, lol. I have new ones which are Firefox browser-readable-files. I use a basic system of orginization, but realize, I've been using the Internet for a long time ... heavily. I was doing web design in unix vi before Notepad became hip. haha.

Seriously though, I have "Categories" in the menu. It's like.... basically a web directory. I have everything from a "Research --> Particle Physics --> String Theory" folder to a "Food --> Recipes --> Mixed-Drinks --> Whiskey" folder. Many of them are probably dead, but internet archives and google cache are nice. Plus, since I'm insane, I've saved important websites, in total form, since the mid-nineties when I was interested in them. It's harder now w/ dynamic content and ridiculous ads, but..... hehe..Plus, I have 120GB, 200GB, 400GB drives just laying around. I'm always working on hardware, so I will never run out of harddrive space.

There is NO BETTER SEARCH ENGINE THAN YOU STORING A DECADE OF DATA SYSTEMATICALLY!

Oh, and "how do i find what I'm looking for" can be answered in a few ways. I have certain terms which I use to categorize within categories, like, say, if I find something off-the-scale cool, I use the number "99" (as an example) somewhere in the file name. Then if I run a search in my bookmarks for "*99*" it pulls up cool stuff from past-present and future. I also use the "Links" or "Quick Links" as a temporary queue in Firefox / IE before I file bookmarks away into categories. Sometimes it can take months before I decide to file them, then I start again w/ main ones like Mail / Frequently Visited Sites / etc.

You crazy.

It'd be pretty interesting to see some of the older stuff you've saved

what's the point of saving crap that long? I can count on one hand the number of times I'v needed data that I haven't accessed in two or three years.

Found via the Inq:

Unlocker - A free program that can help delete files/folders that would normally give you fun messages like:

Cannot delete Folder: It is being used by another person or program..

Cannot delete file: Access is denied

There has been a sharing violation.

The source or destination file may be in use.

The file is in use by another program or user.

Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Just spotted this:
Desktop Manager Powertoy for XP
-Mole

edit: as an update to this thread, this powertoy is a bit funky. Or rather, I've noticed that some applications don't behave with it.

Of note:
- MSN windows don't update properly (big gaps where there should be bits of the chat window)
- MS excel has similar issues (half the toolbars get hidden).

You can now add MS Virtual PC 2004 to the list.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Yeah yeah it's not technically freeware but it is free, and that's the idea, right?