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Best FREE Desktop Software

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Drek

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Got this idea from the gaming side's thread about transcoding divx to the XB360 using tversity.

I recently did a full system reinstall and other than Windows itself and games I decided I'd aim for a fully free software library. Thought it'd make a good thread for people to share what free software they really like.

The core programs I put on my system:

OpenOffice.org - free office software that is entirely compatible with MS Office, I'm guessing most people know what this is.

QuickMediaConverter - media converter that can recognize and converte almost any file type to almost any other file type. Great for setting up media to stream on your PS3 or 360 as it has preset resolution and format options specifically for most systems.

ImgBurn - an excellent disc burning software, small footprint, low system resources costs, and a very straight forward interface.

DVD Flick - DVD authoring tool that will take a host of different video types and convert them to DVD player recognizable MPEG2 while also adding chapters and converting to your desired resolution. Best of all, if installed with ImgBurn and you select for the disc to automatically burn after conversion it'll self start ImgBurn and create the disc for a totally contact free disc creation process after a quick initial setup.

VLC - Best media player going, I'm sure many are familiar with it.

ffdshow - great codec pack that covers pretty much everything.

PeaZip - widely compatible zip program.

Sumatra PDF - quality free PDF reader that is more responsive than Adobe.

Anyone else have some good suggestions?
 
Already mentioned a lot of times but:

PS3 Mediaserver

The BEST mediaserver and transcoder for PS3 and Xbox360. Everything just works and has support for all fileformats, none of the hassle of the other competitors. For PC/MAC/Linux. A must try for anyone streaming media to their console.
 
For what it's worth, VLC is the worst media player going...it just plays almost everything. It just looks awful and the UI is janky.

I'd throw Synergy into the fold for anyone who is running two systems next to each other or has a desktop/laptop combo.

It allows you to control both systems using one keyboard/mouse. It's not a KVM switch, as it uses the software and your network to send your commands to the other system.

Really great software, and is cross platform.
 
Nabs said:
vlc < media player classic
Click to expand...
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!

Media Player Classic with a codec pack is infinitely better than VLC.
Confidence Man said:
I use Foxit PDF reader
Click to expand...
100% yes to this one as well. Foxit owns.
 
RubxQub said:
For what it's worth, VLC is the worst media player going...it just plays almost everything. It just looks awful and the UI is janky.
Click to expand...

You can skin VLC though. And it just plays everything perfectly. Still Mediaplayer Classic is another great choice.
 
Audacity
GOM Player
Paint.NET
Pidgin
SUPER Video Converter
Auslogics Disk Defrag
CCleaner
Avira Antivir
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Launchy
DVD Decrypter
7-Zip
CCCP
VLC
ID3-TagIT 3
MediaMonkey
Rainmeter
Winamp
CD Art Display
Objectdock
Rocketdock
XNView
CDBurnerXP
Foxit Reader

RubxQub said:
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!

Media Player Classic with a codec pack is infinitely better than VLC.
Click to expand...
Not really. Codec packs can mess up your system if you install more than one, VLC is much more convenient. However I use MPC with a Codec pack myself because VLC seems to use a lot of memory :(
 
I just hated how VLC works. When you attempt to time shift in VLC it like jumps to that point, does some kind of back tracking flicker and then plays.

In MPC you click a point in time and it just jumps you there, no jittering. With a good codec pack it plays everything VLC does and more.
 
What I want to know is between Windows Media Connect, PS3MediaServer, XBMC and TVersity which one is a) The quickest and b) the most lightweight for streaming. I've tried all of them, and I keep going back to windows media connect (I use it more to stream music to my 360 rather than videos)
 
Threi said:
What I want to know is between Windows Media Connect, PS3MediaServer, XBMC and TVersity which one is a) The quickest and b) the most lightweight for streaming. I've tried all of them, and I keep going back to windows media connect (I use it more to stream music to my 360 rather than videos)
Click to expand...

PS3 Mediaserver. Quickest, most lightweight, easiest to use, respects your filestructure and crossplatform.

Just download and try it. I mostly use it for video though.
 
jakershaker said:
PS3 Mediaserver. Quickest, most lightweight, easiest to use, respects your filestructure and crossplatform.

Just download and try it. I mostly use it for video though.
Click to expand...
I tried it, it didn't really recognize my playlists properly on the 360.

And although the configuration wizard was pretty lightweight, the streaming process seemed no different from the other programs.
 
Threi said:
I tried it, it didn't really recognize my playlists properly on the 360.

And although the configuration wizard was pretty lightweight, the streaming process seemed no different from the other programs.
Click to expand...

Haven't tried mp3 playlists at all so can't really help. And just for mp3's I guess you could use anything that just streams it as no transcoding is needed. You could try their forum if there is an issue still to be fixed with the music part.

For video and such its the best app bar none though.
 
jakershaker said:
Already mentioned a lot of times but:

PS3 Mediaserver

The BEST mediaserver and transcoder for PS3 and Xbox360. Everything just works and has support for all fileformats, none of the hassle of the other competitors. For PC/MAC/Linux. A must try for anyone streaming media to their console.
Click to expand...
I'll have to check that out.

Anyone know other alternatives for streaming flash content to the PS3 and/or 360 from PC besides Tversity and PlayOn? I've been looking for an option to stream MLB.tv to the two systems but early reports on Tversity and PlayOn say they don't play well with MLB's stream format.
 
Anything i can use to check out Google reader without opening a browser?
 
RubxQub said:
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!

Media Player Classic with a codec pack is infinitely better than VLC.
Click to expand...

This guy knows what's up.

CCCP for the best and most stable codec pack

Rainlendar2 for a skinnable desktop organizational tool (saved me through college)

jDownloader for streamlining downloading off those file-sharing sites (doesn't work for megaupload though)

If you have Firefox:

Fireshot an extension that is a lot better than print screen since it captures the entire page

Greasemonkey extension that allows you to runs scripts (no reason not to have this)

yousabletubefix script customizes youtube and makes it a lot more usable
 
I got this from one of the many previous GAF free software threads, but in case anyone missed it:

Katmouse

It's a windows utility that allows you to use the scroll wheel on the window that the mouse is currently over, rather than whichever one is in focus (ala Linux). Very useful, especially for dual monitor people.
 
A defragmentation tool from the makers of ccleaner:

Defraggler

The best thing about it is that you can choose which files you want to defragment as opposed to having to defragg the entire hard drive.
 
Bananakin said:
I got this from one of the many previous GAF free software threads, but in case anyone missed it:

Katmouse

It's a windows utility that allows you to use the scroll wheel on the window that the mouse is currently over, rather than whichever one is in focus (ala Linux). Very useful, especially for dual monitor people.
Click to expand...

Oh, now that is helpful. I'll definitely be getting this. As well as the Google Reader desktop version someone posted above.
 
Drek said:
Got this idea from the gaming side's thread about transcoding divx to the XB360 using tversity.

I recently did a full system reinstall and other than Windows itself and games I decided I'd aim for a fully free software library. Thought it'd make a good thread for people to share what free software they really like.

The core programs I put on my system:

OpenOffice.org - free office software that is entirely compatible with MS Office, I'm guessing most people know what this is.

QuickMediaConverter - media converter that can recognize and converte almost any file type to almost any other file type. Great for setting up media to stream on your PS3 or 360 as it has preset resolution and format options specifically for most systems.

ImgBurn - an excellent disc burning software, small footprint, low system resources costs, and a very straight forward interface.

DVD Flick - DVD authoring tool that will take a host of different video types and convert them to DVD player recognizable MPEG2 while also adding chapters and converting to your desired resolution. Best of all, if installed with ImgBurn and you select for the disc to automatically burn after conversion it'll self start ImgBurn and create the disc for a totally contact free disc creation process after a quick initial setup.

VLC - Best media player going, I'm sure many are familiar with it.

ffdshow - great codec pack that covers pretty much everything.

PeaZip - widely compatible zip program.

Sumatra PDF - quality free PDF reader that is more responsive than Adobe.

Anyone else have some good suggestions?
Click to expand...

If you're using VLC media player, ffdshow is not necessary as it is not used by VLC.
 
Threi said:
Compared to Auslogics i found defraggler EXTREMELY slow.
Click to expand...

It depends how fragmented your hard drive is. If you defrag daily it would take usually take 1-2 minutes to do all the worst effected files.
 
RubxQub said:
I just hated how VLC works. When you attempt to time shift in VLC it like jumps to that point, does some kind of back tracking flicker and then plays.

In MPC you click a point in time and it just jumps you there, no jittering. With a good codec pack it plays everything VLC does and more.
Click to expand...

I've old had that problem with old machines. Even my subnotebook moves without jittering...
 
Threi said:
Compared to Auslogics i found defraggler EXTREMELY slow.
Click to expand...

I use the PowerDefragmenter+Contig combination. It's hella fast.

Also, whenever I do fresh installs of Windows, I always install Real-Alternative, which comes with Media Player Classic. Every now and then you need to play those old fashioned .rm and .ram files.
 
RubxQub said:
For what it's worth, VLC is the worst media player going...it just plays almost everything. It just looks awful and the UI is janky.

I'd throw Synergy into the fold for anyone who is running two systems next to each other or has a desktop/laptop combo.

It allows you to control both systems using one keyboard/mouse. It's not a KVM switch, as it uses the software and your network to send your commands to the other system.

Really great software, and is cross platform.
Click to expand...
Second this. Although most people with two or more systems already know about this.
 
I've been using Winamp since I could remember, definately one of the first things I install on my computer after a fresh reformat or when I get a new one

its pretty much an mp3 player, if you haven't heard/tried it out
 
old VLC sucked ass on the UI, but it was awesome to not have to install any codec shit pack.

The new VLC is awesome, works awesome, transcoders awesome, broadcast awesome and still you dopn't need with stupid codec packs that fuck up your encoding sessions.


Imgburn is awesome too. Best burner software since Nero(older versions, the ones that weren't 400Mb of shit)

For PDF I use pdf-x-changer

7-zip for archiving
 
Other programs

Caledos Automatic Wallpaper changer.

Cleanmem

The CleanMem application was designed to be a very simple to operate as it will run and clean the memory out of all processes it can, without any user input.


Infotag Magic

InfoTag Magic is a Windows shell infotip extension that that displays extra data stored in the tag fields of MP3, WMA, APE and Ogg Vorbis files in a tooltip window when mouse pointer is hovered over a file in Windows Explorer. Also it provides a quick preview for plain text files, shortcuts properties and version information of executable files.

MediaInfo

MediaInfo supplies technical and tag information about a video or audio file.

Startup Delayer

Startup Delayer allows you to setup how many seconds after Windows has started, to load each program.
 
What does everyone that uses Google Docs do if they do not have access to a Wi-fi connection but need to edit a document? Is there an offline version of Google Docs? Or is the best way to just use Open Office and then upload the file later?

My old laptop had Office 2007 on it and I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to bring that over to my new laptop I just got yesterday. I owned it on the old one, but I'm not sure if I'd just be able to copy over the setup files or if MS will nail me on something. :lol If I can do that, I'd probably prefer that.
 
RubxQub said:
I'd throw Synergy into the fold for anyone who is running two systems next to each other or has a desktop/laptop combo.
Click to expand...
Another vote for Synergy. At one time, I had 4 separate computers, Win2k, WinXP, Vista, and OSX, all using the same KB and mouse with a flight-sim-style, wrap-around display setup using 4 monitors. Just move the mouse from one monitor to the next. So natural.

Now I'm down to only 2, Win7 and OSX. D:

Tabris said:
Notepad++ (Best text editor out there)
Click to expand...
Never used Notepad++, but I'm willing to bet Textpad is better. It's the very first app I put on a new install. <3 <3 <3

Threi said:
Not really. Codec packs can mess up your system if you install more than one, VLC is much more convenient. However I use MPC with a Codec pack myself because VLC seems to use a lot of memory :(
Click to expand...
Uninstall whatever codec pack you've got installed, and get Shark007's Vista Codec Pack. It's super-clean, and will likely be the last time you ever install a codec.
 
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