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Most useful PC applications?

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hateradio said:
CS2 is like the slowest version of Photoshop. I remember it would take ages to start. I think they finally fixed that with CS4.
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probably, and it doesn't play nice with win7 either, asking you to register your copy every single time you start up, whether you have already or not. but i already own it and see no need to spend any more money on photoshop given the infrequency with which i use it. if i'm doing a lot of work in it i just start it once and don't close it until i'm done.
 
MikeHattsu said:
So I finally tried MP3Gain today. Great stuff. Added to my must-have programs.
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Great! People should also meddle more with TagScanner. Possibly the best way to tag and rename your music collection and keep it pristine. Same with Caliber for ebooks, but it's obviously a lot more involved organizing those.
 
St3v3 said:
I tried VLC but I hated that you couldn't pause using space bar, was this ever added?
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Never had that problem, space bar worked fine in all the versions I tested on both Windows and OSX IIRC. For many versions it did have an unfixed issue where pressing pause had a slight delay, which was most annoying - plus it regularly crashed.

Discovered KMPlayer, then it's spiritual successor PotPlayer and I'm golden now. They have the best customizability of all the video players I've used and didn't suffer from the same issues.
 
Tabasco said:
A free program I use called WinDirStat has always been helpful to me.

It shows you all of your stuff on your hard drives and which ones take up the most space so you can organize.
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I prefer spacesniffer because it gives me a big visual representation with squares sizing the largest bits.
 
Mozilla Firefox - enough said

MPC-BE - same player like everyone has posted, just with some minor changes/fixes. I switched it to because the HC version didn't play nice with my setup (LAV + MadVR + ffdshow + xySubFilter + SVP)

MusicBrainz Picard - my favorite MP3 tagger, not as feature rich as other taggers but I'm not that picky with tags in the first place

7-zip - switched from WinRAR once more people started using split .7z files which the latter can't extract

AM-Deadlink - quick and easy way to check if your bookmarks are updated or dead

Honeyview 3 - best comic/manga reader (didn't try the new version yet)

SABnzbd - for those few who use Usenet like me

Spyware Blaster - one of the few programs I still kept from when I was still in the whole "let's clean out the bad files and registry using Spybot/CCleaner/etc" phase. Mainly use it for its blacklist.

Microsoft Security Essentials - no 'fuss anti-viral program

Steam Mover - a must have for SSD users (or limited HD space) who want to control where their game directories get installed in by Steam in an easy to do way
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Those are what I currently have that I use on a regular basis. And MadVR owns.
 
Cathy. It's a hdd catalogue app. Just drag your hdd and you can search its contents regardless of it being connected or not. Very handy for when you have media scattered across drives. Also very handy if a hdd dies and you need to find out what you've lost.
 
Just discovered the joys of a virtual KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) switch. Installed the Microsoft app Mouse Without Borders and can now use a single keyboard/mouse across two entirely different Windows systems by moving the mouse from screen-to-screen. Also supports copy/paste and dragging files across. Sogood.gif

There's also Synergy (free and open source) which is more advanced and is cross-platform, too. Would be perfect for those with Macbooks.

If only I'd known about this earlier while migrating to my new system. One unfortunate limitation is it doesn't work with graphics tablets and sees it only as a standard mouse (perhaps Synergy supports this, haven't tried it yet).
 
Sorry to bump this thread, but httrack is an awesome free program that I just used to backup a whole website that my mentor wanted. This website was going to go down after few days as it was my mentor's old site from the 90s but the content was really good. My mentor did not have access to it due to being from the 90s and nor did the IT department.

It was able to back up everything and the links that it referred to within the website/folder.

http://www.httrack.com/

Also its free under the GPL license.

I just wanted to share it with everyone here. :)
 
I want to recommend Clover. Makes the windows explorer work like a browser, with tabs and shit. It has made navigating various directories at the same time a breeze.
 
kami_sama said:
I want to recommend Clover. Makes the windows explorer work like a browser, with tabs and shit. It has made navigating various directories at the same time a breeze.
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I concur. Being able to save sets of tabs into bookmark folders, have them restore regular sets of explorer windows into a tabbed application speeds up file management for me.

My suggestion is StexBar. Has a bunch of features, but the ones I like the most are:

1. Command Prompt here (I used to use the powertoy, but now just use this)
2. Insta-filter the filenames visible in the current explorer window, based on your text input.
3. Copy Paths. Useful when prompted to open/save files to locations that you have conveniently opened/bookmarked in explorer already.

Available in x86/x64 flavours (Vista and above is needed for the latest versions, but XP is supported fine in older builds).
 
Dmented said:
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro - Anti-malware scanner and real-time protection.
.
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Believe the hype. this is amazing. oh my god is it amazing. You wont understand how many malware it catches unless you have it on. Holy shit I have been a fool for all these years. You better believe. this product is king if you browse a lot. even if you know what not to click, I have tried even here on gaf getting ads that it catches.
 
Is there anything that allows me to color-code files / folders in W7 like you can in OSX?
Would be immensely useful for the workflow in multimedia projects.

Also, is there a way to password protect folders?
Believe it or not I don't want it for porn.
 
kami_sama said:
I want to recommend Clover. Makes the windows explorer work like a browser, with tabs and shit. It has made navigating various directories at the same time a breeze.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately when I used Clover, it caused Explorer to crash a lot, so I had to uninstall it. It also doesn't seem to have been updated since 2012. I use W8.1.

I hope Explorer gets native tabs for W9. Shit is annoying.
 
MyLifeOrganized keeps my To-Do list synced across multiple devices
OneNote keeps all my Schoolwork, work-work, journal, and other stuff synced across multiple devices
Dropbox keeps everything else synced across devices

Other than that, I usually keep Rename Master on all of my computers so I can quickly rename a bunch of files whenever I need to. (It comes up surprisingly often.)
I also like JitBit Macro recorder for accomplishing the same task over and over again.
 
Piano said:
Is there anything that allows me to color-code files / folders in W7 like you can in OSX?
Would be immensely useful for the workflow in multimedia projects.
Click to expand...

As for folder colors check out FolderIco. It creates a hidden desktop.ini file in the folders which points to an alternative (colored) icon. Desktop.ini files are a native, non-permanent way for Windows to display the new icons without the need for the app to be running. Portable version available, too.

I don't use that particular app myself, but once upon a time used a similar program, FolderIcons, which does the same thing.
 
Piano said:
Is there anything that allows me to color-code files / folders in W7 like you can in OSX?
Would be immensely useful for the workflow in multimedia projects.

Also, is there a way to password protect folders?
Believe it or not I don't want it for porn.
Click to expand...

Directory Opus, which I use as a replacement for Windows' file browser, has categories with color coding. It's paid software and not cheap, but for years it's been great for me (for a lot more than color coding).

I don't think there is a way to password protect folders in Windows in a way similar to stuff on the web. However, native file/folder permissions can come pretty close, assuming the password protection is meant for different users.


After spending a year with only a macbook, I acquired a taste for some of its automation and convenience software. The best I've found for Windows:
PhraseExpress - for quickly typing common phrases (to replace Text Expander from mac)
File Juggler - automated file management based on a bunch of criteria, closest to Hazel on mac
 
Sublime Text 3: Fantastic, easy to use text editor that's almost as powerful as vim/Emacs but not made by crazy people.

Sumatra PDF is in fact fantastic.

PowerShell for a slightly less awful console on Windows. Still not nearly as nice as zsh (or even bash) but being able to use 'ls' instead of 'dir' is already nice.

7-Zip: Free, open source alternative to WinRAR.

Blender: Free, open source 3D modelling/animating/rendering software.

Not sure if it counts because it's fairly specialized, but IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition is a fantastic IDE for Java and other JDK languages. Same for Visual Studio Express for C#, F# and I believe also for web development? Not sure though.
 
strokeit - I have been using mouse gestures since sensiva (many years)

however I would recommend not to use complicated gestures - only up, down, left, right, and diagonals; it's mainly to speed up os navigation

in os:

down -> close program (alt-f4)
up-right diag -> maximize/restore


explorer:
left -> back
right -> forward

in browser:

down-right diag -> close tab
up-left diag -> new tab
left -> back
right -> forward

and remember to disable it in programs you don't want it in (especially games if they aren't already)
 
There's a tiny program I like called GammaSutra that just sits in your tray and lets you adjust monitor brightness on the fly.
 
Can anyone suggest a simple and free agenda? It's for my mother, so it should be a simple program, basically a calendar with the option to add events on specific dates. Maybe with a desktop widget or a pop-up alarm when the events comes up.
 
eot said:
There's a tiny program I like called GammaSutra that just sits in your tray and lets you adjust monitor brightness on the fly.
Click to expand...

If you're already using f.lux they silently added this feature as well. Press ALT + PG UP or ALT + PG DOWN to adjust the brightness of your monitor.
 
For media players, I am going to go with some of the other suggestions and say Pot Player. Absolutely love it, plays everything I can throw at it and has tons of customization and options.

It doesn't show up in the taskbar and I can create a global shortcut to pause/play the video.
With the only on top option I can watch programs discretely at work and am able to hide the video very, very quickly and easily.
 
Commander Jameson said:
Thanks for the Sumatra PDF recommendation. Able to uninstall Foxit, Calibre and CBR Reader all in one go.
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I still use Calibre to manage my books. I would have them disorganized otherwise.

mackattk said:
For media players, I am going to go with some of the other suggestions and say Pot Player. Absolutely love it, plays everything I can throw at it and has tons of customization and options.

It doesn't show up in the taskbar and I can create a global shortcut to pause/play the video.
With the only on top option I can watch programs discretely at work and am able to hide the video very, very quickly and easily.
Click to expand...
I like PotPlayer, and use it almost exclusively, but after the recent updates I feel like it's not as lightweight as it used to be.

However, once I installed the optional LAV codecs and enabled them, I notice that H.264 video playback is a little less CPU intensive.
 
Some great suggestions so far!

As for applications I did not see listed yet, for my PC I use...

DFX audio enhancer. A neat program that really seems to add music and speech

Dragon UnPACKer. I have used this to get audio straight out of my PC games. (Not sure if it still works on newer games)

Game Booster 3. It shuts down background process in order to speed up games. It also updates drivers.

Format Factory. An video converter that has always worked well for my needs.

HiJackThis. As it is a useful tool for finding vulnerabilities in a PC and helps in locking them down.

Hitman Pro. A cloud based anti spyware and malware remover.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery. For getting back lost files like photos.

SRWare Iron a fast source build of goggle's chrome browser without Google update and search spying included.

Pale Moon (an awesome Firefox source build that is better for 64 bit windows PCs.

As for web browser extensions for Pale Moon

Ghostery. It removes all those social media elements in random websites like Facebook and blocks out trackers like Google Analytics.

Session Manager, it lets you restore or save browsing sessions.

YouTube Center 2.0.1 (it makes YouTube bearable for me) by removing adds and allowing html 5 in place of flash.

WOT (web of trust) it lets users rate sites in order alert other of phishing or other untrustworthy websites.

It would be nice to get feedback on the above apps listed in order to determine if there are even better choices out there.
 
Steam

6603dc5a9292104b44c349b85b5aaf7a-5-crazy-fan-theories-that-make-total-sense.jpg
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Cygwin is probably the best thing I've ever downloaded. Completely replaced my Command Prompt.

Other than that, anything else I could think of was already mentioned.
 
I just wish to make known my love of the two freeware programs irfanview and Scanner.

One is a small and no-bullshit image viewer/browser. Unobtrusive, lean, extensible via plugins.

The other is one of the countless masses of HDD space usage discombobulators. It shows everything in a sort of stacked pie view, making it really easy to find really big files or directories.

I have a huge list of utilities I usually install on my PC, but I suspect all of those programs have already been mentioned elsewhere, and I'm too lazy to get off my couch. Which I will have to do eventually to check out some of the nominations in this thread.
 
Guys who use Notepad++ or Sublime? Do you use it as default .txt viewer or? I tried Notepad++ but the icon it changes all txt files is awful ;(
 
Eraser
Unified Remote
Raw Therapee
Synergy
Convert.exe
Exact Audio Copy
Net Transport if Download Helper doesn't work
ImageHost Grabber plugin
 
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