Free, Useful Programs

[youdontknowme]

CHRISNOTE: DO NOT RECOMMEND ANY MORE P2P PROGRAMS IN THIS THREAD OR I WILL BAN YOU.

Mozilla Firefox (http://mozilla.org/products/firefox)
Firefox has endless amounts of features (considering extensions [plugins] that you can download); tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, live bookmarks (for RSS feeds, etc), and is more secure than Internet Explorer. It also imports your bookmarks from IE.
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Mozilla Thunderbird (http://mozilla.org/products/thunderbird)
A great email program. Blocks spam (sends to Junk Mail folder), has extensions, etc.
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Avast! Antivirus (http://avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html)
Good antivirus program.
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Grisoft AVG Free Virus Scanner (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php)
Another virus scanner
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Ad-aware SE Personal Edition (http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5)
A free spyware scanner. Gets rid of spyware junk.
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Spybot-Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html)
Spybot-S&D is also a spyware removal program.
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Open-Office (http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.3/index.html)
Office suite if you don't wanna pay for MS Office, etc.
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foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/)
Very good audio player. Light-weight, supports many various audio formats.
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Winamp 5 Media Player (http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php)
Audio player. Also plays videos.

[Jeff]

One I have, but don't see on there is the GIMP (http://www.gimp.org). (GNU Image Manipulation Program, an image editor)

It's mostly aimed at geeks so it's not exactly the easiest to use, but it does a heck of alot more than MS Paint does, including transparency.

Edit: added link

[Aipom Of Doom]

Ah, nice list :). I'd been meaning to do something like this. *stickies*

Anyway, I'll recommend IrfanView (http://irfanview.com/) for things like image converting and viewing, as well as making things transparent, and some other minor things... And it supports just about every image type you'll ever see, as well as plays some video/audio file types.

[kainashi]

ftp programs: filezilla (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/) and smartftp (http://www.smartftp.com/)

audio programs: foobar2000 ( http://www.foobar2000.org/), itunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/), and qcd (http://www.quinnware.com/)

firewalls: kerio personal firewall (http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html), sygate personal firewall (http://smb.sygate.com/download_buy.htm), and zonealarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?lid=zaskulist_download).

anti-virus: anti vir (http://www.free-av.com/) and avast antivirus (http://www.avast.com/eng/av4_version_comp.html)

image viewing/etc.: picasa (http://www.picasa.com/content/download.php) and xnview (http://www.xnview.com/)

instant messaging: gaim (www.gaim.sourceforge.net), miranda im (www.miranda-im.org), and trillian basic (http://trillian.cc/downloads/)

mail programs: mozilla thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/)

spyware: spyware blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html)

image manipulation/editing: the gimp (http://www.gimp.org/)

video players: media player classic (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=227046), bsplayer (http://www.bsplayer.org/), and videolan (http://www.videolan.org/)

there's a bunch more but some were already posted and some are irrelevant. :)

edit: tweakui (http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe) is great for configuring stuff under the hood, etc. of windows xp. other programs can be downloaded here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx). i only use tweakui though and i think it's a must have.

[Legends-Kuja]

I DO NOT recommend anti vir for anyone with Windows 98. This damned thing randomly restarts your computer if you load too much on it... especially with fire-sharing systems.

AdAware is more useful than you'll ever know: It can delete some cookies, allowing you to use some shareware programs indefenitely

[HavoX]

John posted the link to this disk cleaner earlier, and it has got to be the BEST ONE I have ever used.

Crap Cleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/)

WARNING: I STRONGLY recommend backing up your registry before you use the Registry Cleaner that is included with Crap Cleaner.

[Apathy]

I'm suprised MusicMatch JukeBox (http://musicmatch.com) Isnt on your list. It is a good free program, I prefer it over winamp myself. But that may just be because I have so many things set up already.

Oddly enough, Weatherbug (http://weatherbug.com) has been a good download for me, just any time you feel like it click the little bug next to your clock and find out if it is going to be hot tommorow.

Also, There is always 40 Tude (http://40tude.com). It's a good program that ehlps when you forget certain codes. It may be shareware but you can always find a patch.

Ap

[HavoX]

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING UTILITIES ARE ONLY FOR SUPERGEEKS WHO NEED TO MONITOR THEIR PC SYSTEMS. DO NOT DOWNLOAD AND USE THEM UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. THE HAVOX CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE DONE TO YOUR SYSTEM RESULTING FROM MISUSE OF THESE UTILITIES.

System Monitoring
Motherboard Monitor 5.3.7.0 (MBM5) (http://mbm.livewiredev.com/)

ATI / nVidia Driver Cleaner
Driver Cleaner 3.3 (http://www.drivercleaner.net/)

Hijack THIS.
Hijackthis v. 1.99 (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html)

[Jeff]

One that I was introduced to on this very board that I cannot belive hasn't been posted yet: Trillian (http://trillian.cc)

Excellent chat program, with no ads!

Edit: oops didn't see that...

[HavoX]

One that I was introduced to on this very board that I cannot belive hasn't been posted yet: Trillian (http://trillian.cc)John (kainashi) has already posted a link to that

[Bulbasaur4]

Hmm... I suppose I could provide a few links.

If you need another good video player, one that's clean and can play .avi's (I needed it to play .avi's) then DivX (www.divx.com) is the sight you want. You can download it for free and it plays any downloaded video media.

KAINASHI EDIT: no warez, kalah. :no: sorry.

[Sceptile_Master]

Well you know you need this:

Brilliant peer 2 peer downloading. I use it alot.

KAINASHI EDIT: no p2p programs/stuff to download warez/etc. :no:

[Sceptile_Master]

Sorry about that i thought it might be useful, as it isn't illegal. Anyhoo sorry again also what is the closest i can get to paintshop pro for free off the net.

[Chris]

Anyhoo sorry again also what is the closest i can get to paintshop pro for free off the net.

No freeware program can compare to PSP in my opinion, but a lot of people use The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org). I've used it a couple of times and it's pretty good, but it does take some getting used to.

[Sceptile_Master]

I have heard PSP is hard to use, but my dad is thinking about getting it anyways but I might give that GIMP a check first. Thanks oh great admin Chris.

[Animelee]

*Image Viewing: IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com)

Fast, simple, and most of the time, you won't need to change up the default settings.

*Video Viewing: MPlayer Frontend (http://mpf.dzm.hu/)

Can play DivX, XviD, RealPlayer, Quicktime, Matroska, and many, many more file formats. MPlayer doesn't even lag on old, shitty computers -- even on full screen mode. It's takes a little getting used to, but it's definitely the best video player I've dealt with.

[youdontknowme]

disregard this post.

[kainashi]

can't believe i forgot this one when i first posted. ;o

media player classic (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358&release_id=227046)

[fat man with a monkey]

I don't know how many of you use flash cards, but I live off of this program at school. It's perfect if you're on a computer where you can't download things, and you have a flashcard. Portable Firefox (http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/)

[Animelee]

Oh, the person who works on MPlayer Frontend changed to a better server, so here's the new address, which has been edited in my earlier post: http://mpf.dzm.hu/

[Wild Bill]

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
A free, open source audio editor. This is a lot more than Sound Recorder 32.

Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/)
Text editor with syntax highlighting for various languages.

Quintesential Player (http://www.quinnware.com/)
A free media player that I find to be better than Winamp. Give it a shot.

[youdontknowme]

Yay for Notepad++ :)

A bunch of free, open-source programs and stuff at http://sourceforge.net/

[pokemasterfrank]

http://www.corecoded.com/

Didn't see this on the list. TCMP. Media player. Very nice one. Has a lot of the codecs in it already, I think. Plays practically everything.

[Sceptile_Master]

Thanks oh great admin Chris.


LOL I didn't put oh great admin Chris. Not that I care. Anyhoo i suppose this is handy, if you want to make up your own MIDIs anyways.

Anvil Studio (http://www.anvilstudio.com/)

[Jeff]

Anyone who is annoyed by GIMP's user unfriendlyness, and doesn't want to put out a buttload of cash for a different image editor can check out paint.net (http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/). I just downloaded it and have pretty much figured out everything just by tinkering with it in the past half hour or so, very intuitive and nice.

[Kevin]

Firetune (http://www.totalidea.com/freestuff4.htm) for Firefox v1.x. -=- "According to your specific computer speed and internet connection speed, FireTune will optimize several internal settings of Firefox for better performance."

I just tried Firetune out and it seemed to speed up some page loads for me.

Quicktime Alternative (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm) -=- "QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages."

Real Alternative (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm) -=- "Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player."

I've been using these alternatives for awhile and they work fine.

[youdontknowme]

7-zip (http://7-zip.org): a file archiver that supports 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB

[Lyte]

id also suggest the gimp aka the gnu image manipulation program if you want a good free program it does alot of useful things such as having multiple file formats and can be used for gif animation its also open source (its been listed here twice allready so im not gonna provide a link)

[Master Kirby]

I just built a new computer, so I have the base Windows XP Pro. OS loaded. What would be the best free music playing program? I had iTunes on my Mac. The new PC, using XP, has Windows Media Player 9. What is the best music player for windows. I liked the playlists of itunes. What is the PC version of iTines like, and how does it compare with WMP 9, Winamp, Real Player....?

What is the best Graphics Program? I used the AppleWorks Paint program on my mac, but I'm sure there are better programs. I saw GIMP listed.

[mr_pikachu]

Does anyone know of a quality, easy-to-use Java compiler? I'm developing a randomizing program for Pokemon Hangman, but it won't be of much use to anyone there if they can't use the program. And I can't give them mine, since I'd be breaking copyright laws by doing so (since it came in one of my school textbooks).

...I know BlueJ's a good system, but I can't even figure out how to get that to work right, and I've been working with Java programs for quite some time. :P

[Jeff]

What is the best Graphics Program? I used the AppleWorks Paint program on my mac, but I'm sure there are better programs. I saw GIMP listed.


For Windows, I like paint.net (http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/) personally. IMO, it's alot easier to figure out than GIMP.



Does anyone know of a quality, easy-to-use Java compiler?


I do believe Sun has a free one on their site, not sure though.

[Jeff]

Sorry for the "double post" :P. Anyway, here's a couple more:

PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) - Telnet/SSH client
jEdit (http://www.jedit.org) - Java-based text editor, has syntax highlighting for over 100 languages and pretty easy to add more. Also, with the ftp plugin, you can access files on an ftp server directly through the editor, nice for school programming projects and web development.

[youdontknowme]

Time to add some more stuff. :p

Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) - A very good CD ripper
MP3 Tag Tools (http://sourceforge.net/projects/massid3lib) - An mp3 tag editor (I use this for batch editing)
MP3Tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/) - Tag editor that supports Unicode (ie. you can use Asian text in your tags)
IconTweaker (http://icontweaker.com) - Change your system icons :D

[Sceptile_Master]

Audacity (http://"http://audacity.sourceforge.net/")
Been using it recently. And its fairly good for quick audio tweeks and alignments. Works well.

[Jeff]

Here's a link someone showed me today, ton of freeware programs listed:
http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/
enjoy! :)

[pokemasterfrank]

For those with USB flash drives: http://portableapps.com/

The guy that made Portable Firefox seems to have expanded into a whole Portable Apps Suite. It's very handy. Includes the Mozilla suite, Open Office Suite, a virus scanner, and sudoku :P

EDIT: The site's been mentioned indirectly a few times, but I thought I might mention it again. If you're looking for open source software, http://www.sourceforge.net is where to look.

[kainashi]

old and outdated. going to post a new list.