[Windows Software Repository] - Popular Software

Discussion in 'Windows' started by Swarvey, Feb 23, 2010.

  1. Swarvey

    Swarvey Moderator

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    Below is a list of active links to most popular software. Beginners take note as throughout your use of the AAO (not to mention other Windows based systems) You will, more than likely, end up having to use these softwares. I have provided the original developers links where possible. If you have any suggestions to add to this list please feel free to post them below. All links I find and share will be in Post #1. All links will be for the Windows OS unless otherwise stated.

    System Utilities
    *AutoPatcher Official Site - Easily create and maintain your own offline collection of Windows Updates, then apply the necessary updates to multiple computers or use the official updates when slipstreaming your own OS disk
    *Auslogics BoostSpeed Official Page - My favorite system maintenance application(s) Contains a bunch of utilities to tweak, clean & maintain system performance over time
    *WinRAR Official Download Page - File compression and decompression utility
    *WinZip Official Download Page - File compression and decompression utility - Note: ZIP files are natively supported under Windows OS
    *7-Zip Official Site - *FREE* File compression and decompression utility - Thanks ForOne
    *Defraggler Official Site - *FREE* File and Disk Defragmenter - Thanks ForOne
    *Eusing Registry Cleaner - *FREE* Registry cleaner - Thanks Forone
    *CCCleaner Official Site - *FREE* System Optimization Tool - Thanks ForOne
    *Haihaisoft PDF Reader - *FREE* PDF file reader and printer - Thanks Bramster
    *XPlorer2 Lite - Substitute for Windows Explorer - Thanks ForOne
    *Revo Uninstaller - Alternate add/remove programs - Thanks ForOne
    *FileHippo Update Checker - Scans installed software and attempts to locate updated versions - Thanks ForOne
    *DropBox - Online syncronisation of files between multiple computers
    *Xplorer 2 Lite - Alternate file browser
    *Revo Uninstaller - Alternate Add/Remove Programs app
    *Auto Window Manager - Adds features and functions to otherwise normal windows

    System Security
    *Trend Micro Official Website - Home of Trend Micro Internet Security, my favourite paid-for system security solution - Too many features to name here, just check out the website if you're interested
    *Avast! Antivirus Official Website - A great free virus scanner *free for the home edition only*
    *McAfee Antivirus Official Website - Not recommended, causes too many problems, you may need their website for the removal tools though
    *Symantec Official Website - Same as McAfee, not recommended, causes problems, you may need their website for the removal tools
    *Microsoft Security Essentials Official Site - Microsoft's own security suite, as suggested by users - Thanks kekinash

    Multimedia Applications / CoDec's
    *Free-CoDec's.com - My favourite repository of CoDec's - Files for assisting in playing music / viewing video
    *Free-CoDec's.com - K-Lite Mega CoDec Pack - My favourite CoDec pack, never needed anything else. Huge collection of input/output CoDec's, comes with Media Player Classic
    *Shrink Pic Official Site - *FREE* Photo resizer - Thanks Bramster

    P2P / File Sharing Utilities
    *Vuze (Formerly Azureus) Sourceforge.net download page - My preferred BitTorrent client for downloading .TORRENT files
    *Limewire Official Website - Popular P2P File Sharing network, supported on both Windows & Linux OS

    Internet Browsers / Web Applications / Sites
    *Mozilla Firefox Web Browser Official Site - Arguably one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer - Supports both Windows & Linux OS
    *Microsoft Download Center Official Site - The official Microsoft download center, for updates, MS Applications, Sync Software etc
    *Microsoft Update Catalogue - Official Windows & Microsoft Update repository, useful if you want/need to download individual updates or service packs for slipstreaming or other purposes -*ONLY works in MS Internet Explorer*
    *Google Chrome - Arguably one of the best alternatives to Internet Explorer - Thanks Bramster
    *DropBox - Online file storage for synchronisation between PC's

    Performance / Tuning
    *GMA Booster Official site - Official website of GMA Booster
    *Flashfire SSD Accellerator - Software to assist in speeding of SSD based machines
    *Microsoft Tweak UI - Windows XP Tweaking Utility - Thanks ForOne
    *TCP Optimizer - Tweaks settings to help speed up internet connectivity - Thanks ForOne

    ADVANCED System utilities - Use at your own risk!
    *GMER Official Site - Rootkit detection and removal, can force deletion of system files and services, haven't had a virus that's evaded it yet - Please show your support for the program if you use it
    *Eraser - Secure file eraser - Thanks ForOne
    *TrueCrypt - Drive Encryption - Thanks ForOne
    *axCrypt - Individual File Encryption - Thanks ForOne
    *FileRenamer - Mass File Renaming - Thanks ForOne
    *Microsoft Autoruns - Configure programs that launch on startup - Thanks ForOne
    *WinToFlash - Utility for making USB drives bootable and copying your Windows installation source to them for USB installation
    *Memtest x86 - Software to be run in "native mode" to thoroughly test your systems Memory (RAM)
    *Prio - Nifty addon for Windows Task manager to set and save priority levels for processes
    To be continued...
     
    Swarvey, Feb 23, 2010
    #1
  2. Swarvey

    kekinash

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    *MOD EDIT*
    ... Microsoft Antivirus, it's free, works and combined with malwarebyte's Anti-Malware it's the best defense for me...
     
    kekinash, Feb 26, 2010
    #2
  3. Swarvey

    Swarvey Moderator

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    *MOD EDIT*
    ...as for the M$ Antivirus, I'll hunt down a link and add it to the list :mrgreen: Thanks :mrgreen:
     
    Swarvey, Feb 27, 2010
    #3
  4. Swarvey

    Forone

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    Norton poisoned a lot of minds a few years ago, including mine, with bloated, intrusive products, but its current offerings are the very best for effectiveness and light resource use, but they cost. Just read the credible online reviews, e.g. PC Mag, PC World, MaximumPC. I'm running NIS2010 on the little netbook now and it barely uses CPU or memory.

    The new MS Security Essentials looks like the best free choice right now, running well on an older machine. Of course, malware suites change every year, and the best time to review and buy them is at Big Box Xmas sale time - Staples sold NIS2010 for $20 then.

    Lots of other good, less costly or free alternatives to the list of utilities above, which readers can find elsewhere on this site. Examples: why pay for file compression when 7-zip is free? Why pay for file or registry defrag when Defraggler and Eusing are free? Finally, every Windows user should be running CCleaner regularly to eliminate the gradual buildup of outdated and useless files and registry entries that clog operation.
     
    Forone, Feb 27, 2010
    #4
  5. Swarvey

    Bramster

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    Haihaisoft: PDF Reader
    ShrinkPic: To automatically compress image you upload to the web
    Google Chrome: Fast Browser
    DropBox: Use same files from desktop and netbook
     
    Bramster, Feb 27, 2010
    #5
  6. Swarvey

    Swarvey Moderator

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    @ForOne
    Thanks for the additions, they've been added

    @Bramster
    Thanks for finally inputting something useful, your additions have been added to the OP. I've probably heard of DropBox, but never used it. I've found their official site but the landing page just tells you to download their software. Before I add it to the list, can you give me a bit more information on what it's for? So far looks to me like an online storage facility. Just need to know so I can attempt to categorise it properly.

    :mrgreen: Thanks to both of you for your input :mrgreen:
     
    Swarvey, Feb 27, 2010
    #6
  7. Swarvey

    Forone

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    This seems to be getting some views - congratulations on a good idea. I'll let you in on the rest of my regular "stable" of free XP software (much of it has been updated to W7, but no guarantees.)
    . Xplorer2 Lite (substitutes for Windows Explorer - dual pane display and a lot more - never go back)
    . Revo Uninstaller (much more complete than XP add/remove programs)
    . PageFile Defrag (used rarely in case the XP pagefile splits, fragments can slow the system)
    . Eraser (file shredder/overwriter to military standards, works off right-click)
    . TrueCrypt (high standard disk or "container" encyrption)
    . AxCrypt (high standard individual file encryption - I'm not wild about the latest update but love version 5 - works off rt-clk)
    . File Renamer (versatile batch file or folder renaming - good for camera downloads, etc.)
    . Microsoft Autoruns (from sysinternals - utility for seeing what's going on - there are some others)
    . Tweak UI for Windows (Microsoft product)
    . TCP Optimizer (adjust DSL settings to optimize internet)
    . FileHippo Update checker (I don't like resource draining background update checkers for each Windows app - this along with Windows Update catches most of them on demand, rather than running as process all the time. There is something else called Secunia that's more comprehensive, but found it a bit of a nuisance since I prefer older versions of some things to lighten the resource load on the little netty.)

    Others come and go, but these and the ones I listed earlier are my faves. I'll leave to you or others to look up the downloads - people really ought to do due diligence before taking any chatroom advice, even mine.
     
    Forone, Feb 28, 2010
    #7
  8. Swarvey

    Swarvey Moderator

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    Sweet!

    Thanks again ForOne, I gotta drop my kid off at school soon, but when I get back I'll extend the list some more. Thanks heaps, this is exactly the kind of input we need. Now let's just hope the developers don't change their websites or anything soon LOL
     
    Swarvey, Feb 28, 2010
    #8
  9. Swarvey

    Bramster

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    https://www.dropbox.com/
    Just watch the video and get an idea what you can do with drop box

    This is what MaximumPC wrote about DropBox:
    Get this: a Windows app that "just works." Yes, we're being serious. Dropbox came out of nowhere last year to stun us with its amazingly intuitive approach to online storage. The program creates a user folder that acts just like a folder on your hard drive. You can drag, drop, copy, and even save up to 2GB worth of files to the cloud ($100/year for 50GB), while the service works its magic and syncs up your documents in the background. The online interface lets you track your file transfer history and download any file remotely, as well as restore any files that may have been accidentally deleted. You can even create shared or public folders to pass files along to your friends and family. And you don't even have ot bear any online ads. Of course we're smitten.

    Easiest way in the world to sync folders / files with the computers never even being in the same hemispere !


    Another review available at:
    http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/4460/ ... ng-service
     
    Bramster, Feb 28, 2010
    #9
  10. Swarvey

    Swarvey Moderator

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    @Bramster

    Cool as, thanks for the extra info. Like I said to ForOne, i gotta drop junior off at school and will update the list when I'm back.
     
    Swarvey, Feb 28, 2010
    #10
  11. Swarvey

    Forone

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    I endorse DropBox, I use it to sync three PCs. It's simple, fast and reliable.

    It should be clear to users that DropBox is sync, not secure backup, in the sense that what is stored online can be easily deleted in any of the linked local machine DropBox folders. Users who want permanent "cloud" storage that can't be casually deleted locally should look elsewhere, e.g. Carbonite or Mozy. A free 25GB cloud storage service is available from Microsoft SkyDrive - the only problem being a 50MB limit on individual files. Since I found I prefer to store large zipped and encrypted folders instead of lots of little files, I don't use it. Cloud users should always consider security - the staff who operate the service have access to everything, and you don't have much legal recourse if they are irresponsible with your data - it is certainly possible to securely encrypt data on these services, but it's less convenient.
     
    Forone, Mar 1, 2010
    #11
  12. Swarvey

    thomaseg1

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    thomaseg1, Mar 5, 2010
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  13. Swarvey

    Swarvey Moderator

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    Gotta say I was a bit suspicious as your first post ever included a web address, but after looking at it, it does indeed appear to be a useful tool / site. I'll investigate it further and possibly add it.

    For those of you who read the post and wondered what it was before you clicked on it, it seems to be a web-based installer where you can select one or more popular applications to download and install. From what I've seen so far, this site will do all the hard work for you, including downloading the selected software and installing it in a quiet mode.

    Now I've never seen / heard of this before, so I cannot attest to its safety, anyone else who uses the service and has some feedback about it, let me know.

    There's no advertising on the site, so one has to wonder how they get funding to promote what looks like a heavy traffic site.
     
    Swarvey, Mar 6, 2010
    #13
  14. Swarvey

    Forone

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    Updating that Eusing is also making a free Registry Cleaner (as opposed to Registry Defrag) that is catching registry entries that CCleaner's comparable feature doesn't. I've added it to my monthly XP maintenance routine.

    Also I forgot to mention a nifty free add-on to the Windows Task Manager, called Prio, that adds some info to the XP Ctl-Alt-Del dialog, but most usefully lets a user permanently set process priorities instead of having the settings disappear each time Windows is shut down. (Some of these things are so integrated I've forgotten they're there - once Prio is installed you forget what Task Manager used to be like.)
     
    Forone, Mar 6, 2010
    #14
  15. Swarvey

    Forone

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    Updating that Eusing is also making a free Registry Cleaner (as opposed to Registry Defrag) that is catching registry entries on my XP machines that CCleaner's comparable feature doesn't. I've added it to my monthly maintenance routine.

    Also I forgot to mention a nifty free add-on to the Windows Task Manager, called Prio, that adds some info to the XP Ctl-Alt-Del dialog, but most usefully lets a user permanently set process priorities instead of having the settings disappear each time Windows is shut down. (Some of these things are so integrated I've forgotten they're there - once Prio is installed you forget what Task Manager used to be like.)
     
    Forone, Mar 6, 2010
    #15
  16. Swarvey

    Swarvey Moderator

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    Although this thread seems to be getting buried, I hope it's still as useful as I originally hoped it to be. Just added Prio (sorry for the delay). Can't believe I missed that one, been looking for an app to do that for years, and all this time I've been using the command line method with shortcuts.... THANKS!!!!! :mrgreen:
     
    Swarvey, Apr 14, 2010
    #16
  17. Swarvey

    thomaseg1

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    Ninite.com easy installer
     
    thomaseg1, Apr 21, 2010
    #17
  18. Swarvey

    Forone

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    I recently checked for updates to Eusing Registry Cleaner and Registry Defrag, above and there are some.

    But what caught my attention was the Auto Window Manager, which adds a lot of functionality to the little upper left corner icon, including minimizing any window to tray, "stay on top" and sizing or transparency, and allows setting these as permanent "Rules" for specific applications, as well as on the fly. Since I have have both a search box and Links taking up width on the Task Bar, there's little room left for a big clunky box for each open application, and this saves mucking with the multiple icon menu when there are too many of them. The process runs on about 2000KB. There are some other freebies here that others might like:

    http://www.eusing.com/Download.htm
     
    Forone, Jul 13, 2010
    #18
  19. Swarvey

    wozofoz

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    Hi, here is my list.
    I just did a quick copy from my post on another forum so forgive me if there are duplicates (I'm in a rush)

    Software that deserves a special mention:
    JavaRA: makes life with Java so simple.
    ERUNT: A backed up Registry is a thing of beauty.
    Everything Search: The Bees Knees of search software
    SysInternalsSuite: Again Caution, it is possible to break something with these tools.
    Having said that, if you have a problem and need assistance at this forum then there is a good chance this suite will contain a tool that can give a report on the problem and/or help to fix the problem

    Drivers
    Driver updates can be found by going through NetBook > Aspire One > ??? @
    http://gd.panam.acer.com/home/

    Software (All are Free)

    7Zip
    WinZip type software but free and can unpack almost everything
    http://www.7-zip.org/

    Advanced System Care
    Clean and tuneup tool, has some great features
    http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

    CCleaner
    Harddrive cleanup tool. In options you can select to have CCleaner appear in the Recycle Bin context menu, so I use it as my daily clean up tool. I have selected it to clean temp files, empty the Recycle Bin and a few other things and usually run it every night before bed.
    http://www.ccleaner.com/

    CleanMem: (Portable or Install) Flush the unneeded stuff from RAM. Just gets Windows to do it
    http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem

    Comodo CIS
    Firewall with Host Intrusion Prevention (HIPS) and Anti-Virus.
    This is not 'set and forget'
    http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/free-internet-security.php

    Erunt & NTRegOpt
    Auto backup the registry once a day and manually whenever you like
    http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

    Everything Search
    Fast, lite and easy to use Search tool. I find it to be much better than Windows Search.
    http://www.voidtools.com/

    FastStone Capture
    Portable screen capture with editor. Download the freeware version from this site.
    http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=775

    FileHippo
    Checks for updates for your software
    http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/

    Foxit PDF Reader
    Lite and fast PDF reader
    http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

    HWMonitor
    Shows the temperature of the HardDrive and Core.
    If you use your NetBook under hot conditions it can be handy. Install or no install (aka: Portable) just launch from the folder
    http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

    Jarte
    NotePad (txt) and WordPad (rtf) replacement
    http://www.jarte.com/

    JavaRA
    Gets rid of the extra Java files that are left behind after an update
    http://raproducts.org/

    MoveMe
    Moves any window on the screen.
    http://www.damnsoft.org/cgi-bin/ghostgui.cgi?nographics=;app=projects;section=moveme

    PastIconsFlusher: Clears the Past Notifications in the Customize Notifications area.
    http://raproducts.org/

    PCDeCrapifier
    Gets rid of the trialware etc. Use it once
    http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

    PhraseExpress
    Text shortcuts, launch apps, fill out forms and more
    http://www.phraseexpress.com/freeware.htm

    PureRA: It removes files from your computer that other mainstream cleaning programs tend to oversee.
    http://raproducts.org/

    Recuva: Recover deleted files
    http://www.piriform.com/recuva

    Revo UnInstaller
    Uninstalls and then cleans up the mess apps leave behind
    http://www.revouninstaller.com/

    RocketDock
    Mac like dock launcher, handy and pretty. For XP users.
    http://rocketdock.com

    Run and Hide
    Raise/Lower the Taskbar
    http://www.technixupdate.com/hide-and-show-taskbar-with-a-desktop-shortcut-tips-and-tricks/

    Secunia
    Checks for 'security holes' in software and provides links to an update when possible. I only use it on demand.
    http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

    Skype
    Speak to the sky and friends
    http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/

    Smart Defrag
    Auto defrag or manual. Optimize the disk space
    http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

    SyncToy
    Synchronize, overwrite or copy files, directories etc from/to your computer and a Card, Flashdrive or external HardDrive.
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&displaylang=en

    SysInternalsSuite
    Very handy collection of troubleshooting tools. Caution: If you don't know, don't touch.
    But still, very handy to have on standby for when getting assisted troubleshooting help.
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx

    System Information for Windows (SIW)
    All the info you need
    http://www.gtopala.com/

    Unlocker: (Install or Portable) Unlock and delete files folders etc
    http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

    Update Notifier
    Checks for updates for your software
    http://cleansofts.org/view/update-notifier.html

    VLC (VideoLan) Media Player
    Plays almost all video and music formats.
    http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

    Windows In A Box: (Portable) Shortcut to various functions etc
    http://www.big-daddy-design.com/windowsinabox.htm

    WordWeb Dictionary
    Onhand dictionary
    http://wordweb.info/free/

    XnView Picture Viewer
    View and edit many types of images
    http://www.xnview.com/en/index.html

    All the best, woz of oz
     
    wozofoz, Jul 14, 2010
    #19
  20. Swarvey

    4shizzle

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    Me too. Then I saw the press page:
    http://ninite.com/press

    They are recommended by some big sites. Hmmm...
     
    4shizzle, Aug 17, 2010
    #20
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