Best utility programs out there, IMO.

[Kawaii]

Ok, here goes:

Powerarchiver
Simply better than Winzip. Too bad it's only a trial.

Spybot - Search & Destroy
Great tool for removing ad-/mal-/spy-ware. Free.

The GIMP
Like Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro combined, only better. And it's free.

Ad-Aware 6.0
Ridiculously good tool for removing Ad-/Spy- and Mal-ware. Free, can be upgraded at a cost. Works great even in free version.

Sonique or Winamp
Both great media players. Free.

MSN Messenger
Great for just sitting there in the background and notifying you when mails arrive, chatting, webcam conversations, games, and more. Free. Messenger Plus is highly recommended, which is also free.

WinISO
Very handy for handling virtual cd's. Free.

Daemon
Simple but powerful program for emulating cd's from *.iso files and such. Free.

Kazaa Lite K++
Way better than regular Kazaa. Blocks the RIAA and similar companies. Free.

DivX
Very handy media player for playing DivX-compressed files. Free.

DC++
Great P2P program. Free.
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There are more, but these are the ones i like the most. I cincerely hope i've improved your computer by posting this and letting you know of such great programs.

 

[tommyj27]

nmap - network testing utility

ethereal - net troubleshooting tool

samba - supercharged windows filesharing

sylpheed, gkrellm, bird, and qpopper are a couple more goodies

as for windows tools, my favs are PuTTY (telnet,ssh client), winSCP(scp client), wsftp_le (ftp client), winamp 2 was a good one too. there must be other good windows ones, thinks, bah windows isn't worth my brain.

 

[Scn64]

convert - Converts many kinds of measurements to many kinds of measurements.

 

[tommyj27]

that one looks great, i wonder if there's a linux equivalent

 

[Inkara1]

I used to have a little "weights and measures" program that did the same thing. It's too bad I don't have a 5-1/4" drive anymore so I can use it.

 

[Mirlyn]

nmap - network testing utility
ethereal - net troubleshooting tool
samba - supercharged windows filesharing
...
as for windows tools, my favs are PuTTY (telnet,ssh client), winSCP(scp client), wsftp_le (ftp client), winamp 2 was a good one too. there must be other good windows ones, thinks, bah windows isn't worth my brain.

amen

Don't know what else to add......tightVNC and rawritewin for windows....

I use a Alcohol 120% a lot now too.

 

[electric_mind]

Lets see:
- Mozilla Firebird: great browser in any platform.
- PGP and especially PGPdisk: encrypt your secret stuff (or that pr0n you dont want mom to watch) (i know this is windows stuff but hey, i like it) (btw: look for the freeware version, its there somewhere)
- ACDSee / ImageMagick: Paraphrasing Keanu Reeves in both Bill & Ted and Matrix: wow.
- perl: great tool (this is not meant to start a flamewar, just a matter of personal taste )
- FAR Manager: for those of us old enough to remember Norton Commander and its clones.
- vi/vim/gvim: ...can't live without them.
:x

 

[Aunty Em]

Also Ashampoo Winoptimizer Suite... gets rid of all the junk left behind on your drive, registry, etc. I've used it since the '99 version and it has steadily improved. Well worth the money. And the Ashampoo Uninstaller Suite - also since '99.

Powerquest Drive Image... need I say more?

I also have to include Grisoft's AVG 6.0 Free Antivirus program and Agnitum's OutPost Firewall Free Edition... You don't need to pay for effective protection against intruders.

 

[rrfield]

analogx has some neat, if often trivial, utilities.

www.analogx.com

ive use netstat live and packetmon before.

 

[AnomalousEntity]

Also Ashampoo Winoptimizer Suite... gets rid of all the junk left behind on your drive, registry, etc. I've used it since the '99 version and it has steadily improved. Well worth the money. And the Ashampoo Uninstaller Suite - also since '99.

Powerquest Drive Image... need I say more?

I also have to include Grisoft's AVG 6.0 Free Antivirus program and Agnitum's OutPost Firewall Free Edition... You don't need to pay for effective protection against intruders.

I just use a cd burner to back up files

And to clean up a hard drive, I find nothing does it better than a format and fresh install! About every 2 years or so at least.


I use Zone Alarm for the firewall....are the ones you mentioned really good?

If you have never used the the Symantec "super utilities" professional edition is pretty good.

Also Sandra Soft, flashget, infranview, are good.

 

[Aunty Em]

I use Zone Alarm for the firewall....are the ones you mentioned really good?

Comparison tables between Outpost and other firewalls

One reason I use Outpost is that it compares pretty well with the other firewalls and it's free, the other being that unlike Mcaffee, Trend and Norton software I haven't experienced any conflicts with my other software or hardware. I refuse to pay for something that fucks up my drive. Zone Alarm Free pretty much sucks.

 

[AnomalousEntity]

Comparison tables between Outpost and other firewalls

One reason I use Outpost is that it compares pretty well with the other firewalls and it's free, the other being that unlike Mcaffee, Trend and Norton software I haven't experienced any conflicts with my other software or hardware. I refuse to pay for something that fucks up my drive. Zone Alarm Free pretty much sucks.

I had the same problem with Nortons Firewall.

 

[Aunty Em]

As for AVG 6.0 Free Anti-virus, while everyone else seemed to be suffering from MSBlast and SoBig, they haven't bothered me at all. They update their definitions every thursday and sooner if something nasty appears in the meantime.

 

[PostCode]

Tuff Test

PC Doctor

PC Technician Pro

Check-It Pro

 

[chcr]

I used to have a little "weights and measures" program that did the same thing. It's too bad I don't have a 5-1/4" drive anymore so I can use it.

I was cleaning the attic out some and found three that say they contain lap times and setup info for Willow Springs, Firebird, and Sears Point.

 

[rrfield]

Comparison tables between Outpost and other firewalls

One reason I use Outpost is that it compares pretty well with the other firewalls and it's free, the other being that unlike Mcaffee, Trend and Norton software I haven't experienced any conflicts with my other software or hardware. I refuse to pay for something that fucks up my drive. Zone Alarm Free pretty much sucks.

Software firewalls suck in general. Get a hardware firewall. Most broadband routers come with basic firewall features like NAT/PAT. port filtering, WAN access blocking, port forwarding, etc.

rrfield

 

[Aunty Em]

I have a Lynksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router with NAT... I've only had it for about 10 days so I'm still learning about it's features... Doesn't hurt to be excessively paranoid though so I still have software firewalls as well.

 

[electric_mind]

I have a Lynksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router with NAT... I've only had it for about 10 days so I'm still learning about it's features... Doesn't hurt to be excessively paranoid though so I still have software firewalls as well.

That's one of the biggest bangs for the buck you can get. Congratulations!! It's a great little gadget!!

 

[Aunty Em]

That's one of the biggest bangs for the buck you can get. Congratulations!! It's a great little gadget!!

Thanks, I did a bit of research before I chose that one... apparently with a normal router the connection speed of each port depends on how many ports are in use - with all 4 ports in use that would be 1 quarter of the total connection speed - 25Mbps, but this router allows each port to connect at full speed - 100Mbps.

I'm just waitng for their proconnect integrated 2 port KVM to arrive - scheduled by tuesday. I'm using a manual data switch at the moment, which works fine but occassionaly when switching between comps I have to reboot because the mouse becomes disconnected, especially after a long period on stand-by. It's also quite big and I don't have a lot of space...

 

[Aunty Em]

Oops!