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[CritterB]

Here's another one I've been using a lot. It's Foxit Reader and I use it instead of adobe to open pdf files lately as it's much faster.

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader_2/down_reader.htm

[Nergen-Ak1-Defender]

Pencil - A free alernative to flash. Not as much features but has the same purpose.

http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/

[delveneto]

I am a leftie but I can use the mouse with any hand. To avoid RSI (or to avoid worsen my RSI) I have two mice, one to the right, one to the left and so there is a problem: the buttons! When using the right mouse, I want the left button as primary; when using the left mouse, I want the opposite. Swapping mouse buttons via Control Panel is a pain so I use a small utility that makes swapping a breeze. Here's the link.

Swap Mouse Buttons

I would recommend to anyone that uses the mouse on only one hand to try and get used to use it on both, so you are going to distribute between both hands the load of your usual one million everyday clicks. Why not use only one only mouse? If it's a symmetrical mouse, ok, but I like a non-symmetrical mouse for my right hand (and a symmetrical for the left, since there is not a specific mouse that I know of that is only for lefties).

Some other useful freewares I use (many of them are already mentioned previously in this thread):

For creating photo albuns for the internet:
JAlbum

For compressing music:
Monkey's Audio

For adding folder size to Windows Explorer:
Folder Size for Windows

A couple of good freewares:
Collection 1
Collection 2

I specially love CurrPorts, from Nirsoft, but there are more interesting ones in these collections.

[TOR_LordRaven]

Audacity: Free Digital Audio Editor.

Has a neat feature that allows you to sample any audio you hear and export it to MP3.

Great if you cant access any torrent sites from work but want to get a song. Just search for the song on YouTube, start recording then start playing! Got a ton of songs on my iPod doing that

of course, if there are any system sounds (errors, notifications, etc.) they will be sampled as well, so turn those off first.

Or you can just use it to sample or open existing audio files and play around with them.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net

[d3jake]

AP Tuner, shareware, but it only has a nag window that comes up everytime you run it if you don't register. Good program, for tuning an acoustic guitar.

AP Tuner

[Grendel]

CDBurnerXP

Quote:

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components. Key Features - burn all kinds of discs - audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks - burn and create ISO files - data verification after burning process - create bootable discs - multi-language interface - bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more! Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

ImgBurn

Quote:

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit! It has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task: Read - Read a disc to an image file Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc Write - Write an image file to a disc Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing ImgBurn supports a wide range of image file formats - including BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.

[Sllik]

OMG.... they're not in here, anywhere. I'm ashamed of you.

NX (termserv/VNC replacement like no other)
- http://www.nomachine.com/

Synergy (share keyboard and mouse across endless hardware platforms, regardless of OS)
- http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

I swear by both for work as well as home.

[TechPro]

Heh, I only just learned about Synergy two weeks ago. Now I've got my Office systems (both Windows and Mac) all sharing the same keyboard. Pretty cool just move the mouse to the edge of the screen and the mouse reappears on the other screen and the keyboard follows. Way better than using a KVM switch.

Cord is a Mac OS X remote desktop client for Microsoft Windows servers using the rdp protocol. Very cool (tho still in beta, occasional bugs)
http://cord.sourceforge.net/

[TechPro]

Krom mentioned this one in another thread ...

"Core Temp" (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/) is designed to read the core temperature of your processor. Instead of reading the BIOS' external temp sensor and deriving a temperature from that, Core Temp reads the "DTS" (Digital Thermal Sensor" which both Intel and AMD recently released detailed, public information about.

• How it works: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/howitworks.html
  
• List of supported processors: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/supportlist.html
  
• Also has a nice graphing addon: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/addons.html

Some feel that "Real Temp" (http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/) is more accurate. However it supports fewer processors.

[Grendel]

If Real Temp supports your CPU use it instead of CoreTemp. See this for some background info about DTS temperature measurement.

[Krom]

Grendel wrote:

If Real Temp supports your CPU use it instead of CoreTemp. See this for some background info about DTS temperature measurement.

Just for kicks I ran CoreTemp and Real Temp at the same time, both reported exactly the same temperatures. In any case where CoreTemp is going to be wrong, Real Temp will be wrong too since they both use the exact same DTS.

[Daffy]

Great thread!
I used Audacity and Phonezoo to make a nice Descent ringtone.

Here it is: http://users.connections.net/houser/selfdestruct.mp3

[TechPro]

NirCmd is a rather interesting command line tool. At first it seems like a simple "fun" little toy, but dig a little deeper and there are some rather useful features, and also has the ability to give commands to remote computers. Figure out the command (or commands) that you want, put them in a batch file and you're in business, and is easily task scheduled.

I discovered it when looking for something to automate emptying the recycle bin on a computer (the users create a lot of sizable media files but can't seem to figure out how to empty the recycle bin now and then ... eventually filling the had disk) ... and this tool not only empties the recycle bin, but it empties the recycle bin for ALL of the users of the computer.

[AlphaDoG]

Caligari Truespace 7.6

http://cdn.caligari.com/download/tS76.exe

[Duper]

Daffy wrote:

Great thread! I used Audacity and Phonezoo to make a nice Descent ringtone. Here it is: http://users.connections.net/houser/selfdestruct.mp3

'awww... ya didn't get all the burning noise in there.

Nice job tho!

[flip]

Tuxguitar. Best real time tab player I've found.

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=tuxguitar&filename=tuxguitar-1.0-windows-x86-installer.exe&use_mirror=superb-east

[Gekko71]

flip wrote:

Tuxguitar. Best real time tab player I've found. http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=tuxguitar&filename=tuxguitar-1.0-windows-x86-installer.exe&use_mirror=superb-east

Flip, your timing is impeccable - I've been looking for a freeware TAB player - thank you!



My turn to contribute:

FREE STUDIO - idiot-proof, user friendly spyware-free suite of audio/video tools: http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/


Super © - Extremely powerful multimedia conversion tool, converts (almost) anything to anything. (Not very video-newbie friendly ...but still useful) http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html


Debugmode WAX - pretty good FX program for digital video - nice range of 3D transitions: www.debugmode.com

FTP Commander: Bare-bones FTP software. I provide it to my smaller clients when necessary as it's totally idiot-proof. Great for newbies! www.internet-soft.com

(For more involved FTP tasks, I agree with Krom's recommendation of smartFTP.)

More to come later...

[TechPro]

Came across this little gem:

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (download from Download.com) ... Malwarebytes.org.
Gets rid of the nasty "Antivirus 2008" and "Antivirus 2009" malware along with a lot of others.

Their "Pro" version (look here) is not free but provides active protection (in addition to cleaning).

[Krom]

Well, while I was checking out Windows 7 I discovered that one of the features that has been around since Windows 95 that I always use is no longer available: the ability to create a toolbar along one edge of the a screen by dragging a folder to it and then filling it with shortcuts to launch applications. Think of it as a quicklaunch on steroids.

So I went snooping on the great internets looking for something with the same functionality and I stumbled across RocketDock. While I would have settled for the core functionality of a toolbar with shortcuts, I have to admit with a bit of performance tweaking (lowering the show/hide/etc delays) its kickin rad.

[Skyalmian]

gparted
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
"With GParted you can accomplish the following tasks: Create a partition table on a disk device. Enable and disable partition flags such as boot and hidden. Perform actions with partitions such as: create or delete, resize or move, check, label, copy and paste."
No Operating System Required; USB Flash Drive or Live CD Versions Available

(ext4 filesystem (relatively new to partitions) is reportedly badass. Unfortunately, no drivers yet for Windows...) Will post source to any whenever any becomes available.

Ext2 IFS
http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html
"It provides Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes (read access and write access). This may be useful if you have installed both Windows and Linux as a dual boot environment on your computer."
Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008

[TigerRaptorFX]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned SuperAntiSpyware yet. If you don't have it, go get it. It finds things many popular spyware removers failed to detect.

http://www.superantispyware.com/

[Isaac]

Anki
Geared for studying vocabulary but can easily be used to study other subjects that require memorization.
http://ichi2.net/anki/

[Zantor]

MP3tag

Edit ID3 tags for MPEG and other files in bulk and simultaneously.

[TechPro]

inSSIDer is a great tool for seeing the wireless signals around you, what channels they are, comparing strength, and finding problems.

Unlike NetStumbler, inSSIDer doesn't require your wireless to disconnect in order to analyze the signals.

Nice signal comparison graphs, too. Can also be used with GPS devices.

[Isaac]

Zaxxon

1.1MB open gl 2d game. Linux or Windows.
http://www.pankhurst.uklinux.net/zaxxon.html

[BUBBALOU]

this thread is for productive software.......MKAY

[Isaac]

Mail Notification™
http://www.nongnu.org/mailnotify/

Ubuntu>Applications>Add/remove>Search[mail notification]
Set it. Forget it.

I tried many of these and so far it's the best.

[TigerRaptorFX]

Since Windows 7 doesn't support the blinking LAN activity lights. I found a nice replacement.

Lan lights.
http://www.paulmather.net/lanlight.asp

[Duper]

OOhh neat TR, thanks!

[Isaac]

Grab and drag - for firefox. Ever use an iphone browser? Now you can flick pages to scroll. You can even tweak it to where it reacts the way you want.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1250

It's very comfortable. I can even grab the page, move the mouse slowly, then let go. And the site continues scrolling at that slow speed.