Free software that I use

[tacomancer]

Hugh's post gave me an idea. I will list some of the free software I use and hope that someone benefits from it.

Web Browser: Firefox web browser | Faster, more secure, & customizable
Video Encoder: HandBrake
Video Player: VideoLAN - VLC: Free streaming and multimedia solutions for all OS!
Audio Converters: Winamp Media Player - MP3, Video, and Music Player - Winamp (for interfacing with my ipod) / CDex | Open Source Digital Audio CD Extractor with more than 38,000,000 downloads (for batch conversions)
Batch mp3 tagging : Mp3 Tag Tools Home Page
Antivirus: www.avast.com
Audio Players: Winamp Media Player - MP3, Video, and Music Player - Winamp / SharePod
Programming: Microsoft Visual Studio Express - Build cutting edge Windows applications (C# for me) (I use the ABAP language at work, which is specialized and not free)
PDF Creation: CutePDF - Create PDF for free, Free PDF Utilities, Save PDF Forms, Edit PDF easily.
Burning CD/DVD: CDBurnerXP: Free CD and DVD burning software
Malware: ComboFix | freeware <-- this one almost always works / Windows Defender: Home Page

I also use Ubuntu Linux on my laptops at home.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

-- Antivirus: www.avast.com

AVG is pretty good too - but you can't run AVG as well as Avast. They are an either / or.

Hand Drawn animation and pencil testing
Painting and drawing software with layers and zoom functions
Word Processing that opens, edits and saves in Word as well as other formats

 

[TheGirlNextDoor]

AVG is pretty good too - but you can't run AVG as well as Avast. They are an either / or.

Hand Drawn animation and pencil testing
Painting and drawing software with layers and zoom functions
Word Processing that opens, edits and saves in Word as well as other formats

I use OpenOffice as well and have had no issues with it at all.

 

[Manc Skipper]

I find that Google Chrome is smaller and faster than Firefox.

 

[tacomancer]

www.paint.net <-- image editing.

 

[spud_meister]

I find that Google Chrome is smaller and faster than Firefox.

Smaller and faster isn't always better. :mrgreen:

 

[tacomancer]

I find that Google Chrome is smaller and faster than Firefox.

Once Chrome gets extensions (next version I think), I may see about moving, but I loves me some adblock.

I recommend Open Office even though I don't personally use it. I have several licenses for MS Office from tradeshows and I like to keep MS Office around for my kid's school work since education institutions can be pretty inflexible when it comes to software.

 

[tacomancer]

I thought of a few more things I use

Instant Messaging (works for all platforms) Pidgin, the universal chat client
Torrents www.utorrent.com
Sound editing Audacity: Windows (I use finalcut on a mac for video editing, and thats very not free)
FTP/SFTP FileZilla - The free FTP solution <-- this one is a bit more technical
Shell Download PuTTY - a free SSH and telnet client for Windows <-- this is very technical
Zip/Archive 7-Zip

 

[roughdraft274]

Once Chrome gets extensions (next version I think), I may see about moving, but I loves me some adblock.

I recommend Open Office even though I don't personally use it. I have several licenses for MS Office from tradeshows and I like to keep MS Office around for my kid's school work since education institutions can be pretty inflexible when it comes to software.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom

 

[roughdraft274]

Many of the ones I use are already listed but for any guitar players out there...

.:: TuxGuitar ::. Open Source Tablature Editor :: TuxGuitar

It's a tablature editor and can read and play all of the tabs that were created in guitar tab editors that you have to pay for. Loops any section you want at any speed you want so you can learn something slower and then speed it up, or to write down your songs that you created etc... Great piece of software. Best place to get the tabs for songs is ultimate-guitar.com

 

[jamesrage]

Format factory.It converts different audio,video(avi,mkv,mp4 and ect), and pictures formats
Format Factory - Free media file format converter

 

[Infinite Chaos]

www.paint.net <-- image editing.

Does it support Wacom tablets or penabled pc tablets?

 

[zimmer]

Does it support Wacom tablets or penabled pc tablets?

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program and it's Wacom friendly.

.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program and it's Wacom friendly.

Thanks - I've never managed to get GIMP to install or run on any of my computers. I've even tried "Gimpshop" but that wouldn't install correctly either. For image editing till then I stick with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

 

[tacomancer]

Sorry Infinite Chaos, but I have no idea. I only do minor manipulations on pictures and pretty irregularly at that.

 

[Ockham]

Reaper - DAW recording app for Windows (very good)
ZoneAlarm - Firewall app - haven't used it n a while but still avail in free version
WSFTP - FTP client - Earlier versions were free - newer versions are $54!! Greedy SOB's.
Wireshark - network analyzer software - excellent if you have the know how to use it. More features on Linux rather than Windows.

OpenOffice - MS Office replacement is awesome!
mp3gain - automatically adjusts the gain of mp3's - can do 100's at a time
UIF2ISO - converts UIF type files to ISO so applications can be burned to a CD/DVD


I use lots of stuff on Linux - Ekiga, Gimp, Pidgin, Empathy --- all are open source and supported by the linux community and available for free downloads so I haven't spent a dime on any software running Ubuntu Linux.

 

[Hoplite]

I use Google Chrome for browsing ever since Firefox went belly up on my machine. I find it to be much more stripped down and a lot faster. It occasionally gives me trouble with sites designed for IE or Firefox, but that's rare if ever.

Image editing is usually done on GIMP, it's basically a freeware version of Adobe Photoshop, great program.

Antivirus is Avast, Malware Bytes and Microsoft Security Essentials. Combofix if something get's REALLY dug in. CCleaner is also a much-used program.

Since I still use XP (F U VISTA!), I have a program called Free Ram XP Pro. Great for squeezing a little bit more speed out of an XP machine.

There's an online tool that I would consider indispensible for any PC gamers, it's called Can You Run It? It automatically checks your specs and gives you recommendations as to what games you can and cant run on your machine

For video, there's the CCCP Codec and VLC player, between the two of them I can read virtually any video file.

CoreTemp and XFire are also common use programs, but I'm starting to not like XFire because it doesnt pick up a lot of games.

 

[marduc]

Great thread idea, thanks!! - Although as I read it I see many that make me think "got that, use it often, used to use it, no need for it" <shrug>

First off for those who like to fight bloatware:

Portable App Directory | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives - Good resource for many of the apps already mentioned in leaner versions that can run from a thumb drive as they are designed, or you can use them directly on your hard drive to replace bulkier versions.

A few more things I use that I do not recall seeing mentioned:

7-Zip - File archiver that also unpacks many other file types including rar's

Free PDF Reader - Sumatra PDF by Krzysztof Kowalczyk - PDF reader, miniscule in size compared to Adobe Acrobat reader which is just a giant space hog.

CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download - cleans and fixes registry entries, clears temp files, and log files ect.

Malwarebytes - malware scanner/removal

 

[molten_dragon]

Cool thread idea. Some free stuff I use on a regular basis.

IMGBurn. Free CD/DVD imaging and burning program. Great to make DVD images to put on my netbook (which doesn't have a dvd drive)

Daemon Tools Lite. A free program that uses a virtual CD/DVD drive to mount images and play them as if you had a drive on the computer.

 

[marduc]

Cool thread idea. Some free stuff I use on a regular basis.

IMGBurn. Free CD/DVD imaging and burning program. Great to make DVD images to put on my netbook (which doesn't have a dvd drive)

Daemon Tools Lite. A free program that uses a virtual CD/DVD drive to mount images and play them as if you had a drive on the computer.

I use Daemon all the time, I may have to check out IMGburn, I have not really ever found a free burner app I have been overly satisfied with - although I rarely burn anything anymore since HD space is plentiful