Personal computing discussed

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ordskiweicz
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Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:11 pm

I suspect there have been changes since 2004! (Of course I haven't upgraded either my hardware or my software since DOS).

What are the must haves now?

AV = MSE, EST, Kapersky

VLC

WinAmp

EAC for ripping

I still use 2 explorer as a dual panel explorer alternative - runs fine on 8, free for non-commercial, academic use.

I use DVD Fab to rip DVDs (but don't use many of its options)

I use several others regularly but will stop and let the group mind guide!
 
DPete27
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:25 pm

Since we're on the subject, has anybody heard the latest on MSE losing their AV certification? I have to assume that Microsoft quickly deployed a team to work on a fix to get their cert. back. Should we be looking elsewhere for free AV programs. I am using Avast on my gaming computer and it's decent but I'm not in love with it.

I like Media Player Classic for my video viewing needs.

Daemon Tools Lite for mounting disc images. IMO, You need something like this these days since optical media is dissapearing. Heck, I don't even have an optical drive in my new rig that I built in August.

Other programs are probably more specific to your usage. CPUZ and HWMonitor are must-haves for me with new builds to make sure everything is running properly and temps are good.
Main: i5-3570K, ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, MSI RX480 8G, 500GB Crucial BX100, 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4, 16GB 1600MHz G.Skill @1.25V, EVGA 550-G2, Silverstone PS07B
HTPC: A8-5600K, MSI FM2-A75IA-E53, 4TB Seagate SSHD, 8GB 1866MHz G.Skill, Crosley D-25 Case Mod
 
steelcity_ballin
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:41 pm

 
sircharles32
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:51 pm

For virtualization, I use both VMWare Player (free for home use) and Virtualbox.
For Ripping, I still find that DVD Decrypter works well with older DVDs and mainstream TV shows.
With that said, I still use Gordian Knot to encode my DVDs into Divx .avi files (I have little to no need for .mkv files, as the quality gain is lost to the speed of a divx encode).
For cutting,splicing, and light re-encode jobs, I use Virtualdub and TMPGEnc
Media Player: I whole heartedly agree on VLC (works with everything I've got)
Compression: I now use 7-zip for everything (even the occasional .rar file)
For some reason, I still prefer using WinAmp, for my MP3s.

That's, at least, some of the software I use with any regularity.
Workstation: Phenom II X4 965
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 1:05 pm

WinCDEMU (http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/) for mounting ISOs. (How does Windows still not have this?)

IZArc (http://www.izarc.org/) for compression formats that aren't zip. (It's an okay program, but I haven't found anything to replace it.)

MuCommander (http://www.mucommander.com/) for connection to NFS shares and WebDav mainly.

Clementine (http://www.clementine-player.org/) for my music player.

Paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net/) for whatever light image editing I need to do.

Irfan View (http://www.irfanview.com/) because it supports a wide variety of image formats.

Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org) for running Unix-like guests on Windows because Cygwin doesn't really cut it.

Microsoft Mathematics (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downloa ... x?id=15702) because MS killed the PowerToys calculator that I liked.

Python3 (http://www.python.org/) because it's cross-platform and I like it.

PSPad (http://www.pspad.com/) for text editing. (I'm still keeping my options open.)

Moo0 System Monitor (http://www.moo0.com) for a systems monitor. (Coolmon went dormant, so I needed something else.)

Dexpot (http://www.dexpot.de) for virtual monitors.

PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) for SSH connections.

WinSCP (http://winscp.net/) because it compliments PuTTY very nicely.

WinDirStat (http://windirstat.info/) for find what is eating my disk space.

WinMerge (http://winmerge.org/) for merging files and folders.

Filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) because it's good for FTP diagnostics.

Xming (http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes/) because Windows does not have an X11 server.

Mercurial (http://mercurial.selenic.com/) for source control.

MobaXterm (http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/) is a great portable Cygwin environment, and it's nice when I don't have a full environment.
 
Chrispy_
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 1:33 pm

Here's my list. Most of it is on Ninite.com which strips a lot of the bloatware out of the installers, especially for the runtimes

7-zip
CDBurnerXP
Chrome, Opera or Firefox
CutePDF
Foxit Reader
Filezilla
K-Lite Codec pack (including Media Player Classic)
Logmein, or Teamviewer for a PC I'm likely to be connecting to over WAN
MSE, Avast, or AVG Free. If you're building for idiots who click to win iPads, Russian brides, or to speed up their computer then MalwareBytes is mandatory.
Notepad++
OpenOffice
Putty
RealVNC for LAN clients instead of Logmein or Teamviewer
Spotify
The GIMP
Trillian
WinDirStat

Then there's the runtime selection of Flash/Java which you only install if you absolutely can't live without it. Oracle and Adobe are like the pedophile rapists of the PC industry, as proven by most of the IT security experts on the planet.
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absurdity
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 1:42 pm

Flatland_Spider wrote:
WinCDEMU (http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/) for mounting ISOs. (How does Windows still not have this?)


Oh but it does! Hello Windows 8.
 
Flying Fox
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:41 pm

axeman wrote:
http://www.cccp-project.net/
Is CCCP still 32-bit only?

axeman wrote:
Sumatra PDF over Foxit. Foxit is not that light anymore, and bundles toolbars now. Ewwww. Sure you can choose not to install them, but maybe I'm having a brain-fart day, and I click next, next, next as usual.
I still keep around a real PDF app for the odd cases, but I have been using Chrome to read PDF files ever since it first gained the ability to do so. If the document does not contain complex graphics (usually motherboard manuals) or has some weird fonts, it renders fine.
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ChronoReverse
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:54 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
axeman wrote:
http://www.cccp-project.net/
Is CCCP still 32-bit only?

Generally speaking, 64bit codecs are pretty pointless as there are no benefits (performance or compatibility) right now.

You're also better off spending the extra few minutes setting up madVR, LAV filters, MPH-HC and Haali's splitter (and maybe ffdshow tryouts) to handle everything properly.
 
Flatland_Spider
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 4:11 pm

absurdity wrote:
Flatland_Spider wrote:
WinCDEMU (http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/) for mounting ISOs. (How does Windows still not have this?)


Oh but it does! Hello Windows 8.


Ah, I see. Why do I still not have that?! :)
 
RealWolf
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Re: Must have programs seriously needs an update!

Thu Dec 20, 2012 4:55 pm

Malware Tools
TDSSKiller
Anti Rootkit, checks boot sector. Small and fast.

HitmanPro
Not a complete scan, but very fast. I use it to quickly confirm that a machine is infected and remove the worst offenders. It has also informed me of network issues. Highly recommend.

Malwarebytes
If you're not using Malwarebytes, you're doing it wrong :P

Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit BETA
I've only been using this for a couple weeks, but so far have been impressed. Scans more of the system than TDSSKiller, but is much faster than a full Malwarebytes scan.

Housecall
Slow when running a full scan, but a nice double check / final scan.

HiJackThis
USE CAUTION. Useful for removing startup entries left by malware.

ComboFix
USE CAUTION. I've seen combofix do amazing things repairing damage from malware.

FileHippo Update Checker
Useful to check for old browser / java / reader versions after removing malware

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