List of must have Windows utilities

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List of must have Windows utilities

Started 5 years ago by Steven Hodson

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Steven Hodson

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Quite often we see folks asking for utility programs to help make their life a little easier. So I figured that rather reposting the same info over and over again it would be better to have them listed in one thread.

how this will work - This post will be the main list which I will maintain from your suggestions posted as replies to this post. Please include the following:

1. Name of program
2. Brief explanation / blurb about the program
3. valid URL to the program homepage and one to it download page
4. valid url to screenshots if available
5. rate it for ease of use for an average user - from 1 to 10 with 10 being drop dead stupid simple to use

Let's see if we can put together a killer list of utilities that will help everyone.

Program: Irfanview
Home Page: Website Link (http://www.irfanview.com)
Download Page Page: Download Page (http://www.irfanview.com)
Rating (1 to 10): 10

Description: This is an simple image/sound viewer. You may translate between most all extensions.
I use it all the time to crop, resize, and change bmps to jpeg and gif. Freeware. (posted by: xcarlosx)

Program: List Style Sheets (IE browser plug in)
Home Page: http://www.mrgrieves.com/cssbrowser/
Screenshot: http://www.moosepucky.com/rightClickListStylesheets.gif
Rating (1 to 10): 10

Description: a must have utility for web designers that adds a "List Style Sheet" right click option (works in IE 7 too) (posted by moosepucky)
Steven Hodson
WinExtra / Shooting at Bubbles / Braincell Soup

Posted 5 years ago #
PJ

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Program: FFDShow

Homepage: Afterdawn.com -> http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm

Download Link: http://www.afterdawn.com/general/download.cfm?mirror_id=0&version_id=1349&software_id=446

Description: FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing several video formats, including DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies. FFDSHOW also supports decoding of virtually all audio formats used in movies, including AC3, DTS, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, and several subtitle formats. This codec also features postprocessing capabilities, support for virtually all MPEG-4 video formats, support for various processor enhancements (such as SSE and MMX), etc. To summarize its main idea, the FFDSHOW consumes way less CPU power than original DivX or XviD codecs, even with maximum post-processing. At the same time the post-processing seems to give excellent quality results and allows more configuring than the original DivX codec. It can even automaticly reduce post-processing if your CPU is getting overloaded. The noise filter adds a kind of a rasterising effect to the picture - might be useful in some cases.

Rating: 8 of 10

Personal Comments: I use FFDShow even though I purchased the latest Divx de/encoder. For daily use, FFDShow is very light on CPU power and the quality difference is noticible. Moving video windows while playing divx movies used to create diagonal tears. Not anymore with FFDShow. This will also add in AC3 and DTS decoders if you don't have them. Power, power, power and it's all for free.

Posted 5 years ago #
Pierre

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Program: Screamer Radio
Home page: http://www.screamer-radio.com
Download page: http://www.screamer-radio.com/download.php
Description (straight from the site):
There is little reason to listen to commercial FM radio anymore, it is an old medium that provides little choice of music and is saturated with ads. For the last couple of years there has been an alternative, streaming internet radio. An alternative that has been somewhat complicated to use.

Screamer Radio attempts to remedy this problem by bringing most of the required steps into a single, easy to use, freeware program.

Rating: 10

Remark: it doesn't really scream, that really depends on how loud you set it
I use it when I'm on the computer rather than have a radio on that I have to get up to adjust
"If those who say bad things about me knew what I think of them, they'd say even worse." (Sacha Guitry)
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"Earth is the cradle of mankind. Nobody can live in the cradle forever" (Constantin Tsiolkovski)

Posted 5 years ago #
Billy

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Pierre wrote:Program: Screamer Radio

Windows *utility*?

Posted 5 years ago #
Steven Hodson

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as a side note - should I remove the posts that have had items added to the list? .. my thinking is that this will make the thread a little less confusing

suggestions/thoughts

Posted 5 years ago #
Billy

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codenut wrote:as a side note - should I remove the posts that have had items added to the list? .. my thinking is that this will make the thread a little less confusing

suggestions/thoughts

Agree, but be sure proper credit is given.

Posted 5 years ago #
Steven Hodson

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Billy wrote:Agree, but be sure proper credit is given.

is including the posters name after the description good enough or ahould itbe more obvious

Posted 5 years ago #
Billy

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codenut wrote:is including the posters name after the description good enough or ahould itbe more obvious

No, I just need to look closer.....

Posted 5 years ago #
moosepucky

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shorten the thread by removing Incorporated suggestions
Messes made. Jobs left undone. FREE estimates.

Posted 5 years ago #
moosepucky

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- IE Spel Chek-r
- An IE plug in that gives you a right click spell checker for all forms input fields (works in IE 7)
- http://www.iespell.com/
- http://www.iespell.com/images/screenshot2k.PNG
- 10
Posted 5 years ago #
xcarlosx

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moosepucky wrote:shorten the thread by removing Incorporated suggestions
We need to stick to a precise form, and remove posts such as this. Better still why not have a seperate catagory for these utilities. I've a feeling this will get real long and be VERY popular with visitors. Could evolve into what we had started a while back, perhaps a cd.
No sweat G.I., pretty soon payday.

Posted 5 years ago #
Steven Hodson

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xcarlosx wrote:We need to stick to a precise form, and remove posts such as this. Better still why not have a seperate catagory for these utilities. I've a feeling this will get real long and be VERY popular with visitors. Could evolve into what we had started a while back, perhaps a cd.

I had thought of doing it that way .. will look at it again later .. have a few other things on my plate at the moment that I want to get done first

Posted 5 years ago #
PJ

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codenut wrote:as a side note - should I remove the posts that have had items added to the list? .. my thinking is that this will make the thread a little less confusing

suggestions/thoughts

Having already started a similar thread in a different part of this forum as well on a different forum, I've seen some areas that I would prefer to see made better.

1. Start the thread/sticky and make it editable by all users.
2. Don't make attributions of the suggester, unless they are writers/co-writers of the software. The attribution adds nothing and you'll find, for the most part, about a sum total of six folks that contribute the vast majority of the suggestions. That will intimidate the others that post only one or two links.
3. The information should be limited to the essential: Name, Link to the Homepage (or download of there is not homepage), Description of what it does, Rating, Cost, Category
4. Allow several categories, you'll find some folks have excellent links to productivity software but not utilities. Given the wide interests of our group, we'll have some real winners in all groups.
5. Don't put a time limit on suggestions. Let it be a living document.

Posted 5 years ago #
Steven Hodson

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PJ wrote:Having already started a similar thread in a different part of this forum as well on a different forum, I've seen some areas that I would prefer to see made better.

Maybe this would actually be better placed in the WinExtra FAQ (http://www.winextra.com/kb/) .. I just checked the admin backend and it is getting a fair amount of traffic if the stats are any indication

Posted 5 years ago #
James

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Are you still looking for must have utilities?

Any program to minimize applications to the tray is good to have when you use virtual machines.

This is the latest one I'm using.
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/4t_Tra ... mizer.html

Posted 5 years ago #