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Most useful PC applications?

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IrfanView - Free picture viewer
uTorrent - Torrent client
Handbrake - Video editing
Skype
Firefox
MPC/VLC
Foobar/Winamp
ImgBurn
Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD temps etc
SpaceSniffer - What's using all that space on your HDDs?
Malwarebytes
Steam
CCleaner
WinRAR

MSI Afterburner
CPU-Z
GPU-Z
Prime95
D3DOverrider
 
Classicshell - 95-7 style interface for windows 8
Everything - search tool so you don't need to use window's unreliable garbage
Bulk Rename Utility - rename files
Libreoffice - free ms office replacement
Firefox - best windows internet browser
CCCP - collection of the lastest version of MPC-HC and the latest codecs (media player)
7zip - fast & great compression
Malwarebytes - malware scanner
CPU-Z - system identifier

Surprised to see so many CCleaner mentions in this day and age. I'm assuming none of you use it as a registry cleaner, so what function does it provide now that makes it useful?

dmr87 said:
uTorrent - Torrent client
Click to expand...

Isn't that a bloated mess now? I'd have thought tixati or something would be more useful these days
 
Dmented said:
Programs I always install after a fresh Windows installation:

CCleaner - Clean registry, unused files, etc.
CPU-Z - For CPU information.
GPU-Z - For GPU information. (Duh)
Core Temp - CPU temperature monitoring.
Notepad++ - A better Notepad.
KeePass - Password manager.
ImgBurn - To burn ISOs to CD/DVDs. Mostly use it to burn Windows because I always seem to misplace the damn DVD.
foobar2000 - Music player. Only recently started using it. It looks nice when you mod it.
VLC - Video player.
CCCP - A codec pack, comes with MPC-HC (Another video player).
7-zip - Pack/unpack zips, rars, 7z, etc. No real need for WinRAR with this.
Avast - Virus scanner.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro - Anti-malware scanner and real-time protection.
Comodo Firewall & Defense+ - Firewall and HIPS scanner/real-time protection.
DeepBurner - Burn files to CDs/DVDs or make music CDs. (Really a thing of the past now with phones and MP3 players.)
DropBox - File backup/sync.
FileZilla - For FTP.
WhoCrashed - Look at crash logs.

Left out ordinary things almost everyone knows about like Flash.
Click to expand...

Wow, we have a lot of the similar programs.
 
Definitely subbing to this, lotta programs I already use but a lot I've never heard of as well.

As for me, I'll immediately download Irfanview, FRAPS, foobar, and MPC-HC whenever I move to a new computer or reformat mine.
 
VLC can be used to play, encode, stream, and do all sorts of other stuff, MPC-HC does not even compare. Don't see a single objective reason why someone would use MPC-HC over VLC besides personal preference.
 
Everything by Voidtools

The most recent addition to my list of awesome software.

At first I didn't see the point in it but holy shit it's awesome.

You'll be able to find any file or folder within seconds. So much better than the built in Windows search. Give it a try - it's worth it.

Sumatra PDF

Another brilliant program. So quick and lightweight. Searching HUGE documents is a breeze. Awesome.

HWMonitor by CPUID

Awesome monitoring program for temperatures etc. Quick, light and easy to use.

You then have the usual stuff that has already been mentioned such as CCleaner and Treesize.

If you have Windows 8, you need to get Oblytile. Make awesome custom metro icons. This makes W8 a much nicer experience.
 
I like Musicbee for music. I could never get Foobar setup in a way that I liked it. If you don't use or want an in-program library it's probably almost perfect out of the box though. Musicbee was a lot easier to customize.
 
Let's see:

7-zip - Packing and unpacking zip etc files.
Audacity - Editing sound files.
CCleaner - Clean cookies and safely delete trash.
CDBurnerXP Pro - Burn CDs and DVDs
DoPDF - PDF Printer
FileZilla - FTP Program
GifCam - Make animated GIFs
GIMP - Image editing
HandBrake - Encode videos
HashCheck - crc/md5/sha1 checking. Great for comparing files and see if they're the same too
Hitman Pro - Cloud-based malware scanner
HxD - Hex editor
IsoBuster - Make iso files and more
MalwareBytes - Malware scanner
MediaInfo - Check encoding info in video/music files
Notepad++ - Text editor
Paint.NET - Image editing
SUPERAntiSpyware - Yet more spyware removal
VirtualBox - Virtualization software
VirtualDub - Light video editing
VLC - Video playback
Winamp - Music playback
WinMerge - Compare text files
 
JasoNsider said:
Somebody already mentioned this, but I'll jump in as well: For someone who finds themselves on a computer in the evening, I feel like downloading flux is one of the best decisions I've made. I find bright lights to be too harsh at night and this has even made my sleep noticeably better (get sleepy at the right time rather than those all-too-common late-nighters people get on computers):

http://justgetflux.com/
Click to expand...

Yeah I heard about it on GAF, and it has immensely improved the time I go to sleep, and consequently I sleep better. Now all my friends use it too, and they all love it. Must-have application for your computer.
 
sharex is cool. i can use it to take snapshots with a keyboard shortcut and automatically upload them and copy the url to my clipboard. watch this stealth edit:
nJQgPMU.png

qpyGlr0.png
 
7Zip
Anki-But I use the mobile app more.
FileZila
Foobar2000
Notepad++
Visual Studios- Best IDE imo
VLC media player- I have MPC-HC but I only use that for 1080p videos...plus I never figured out how to adjust subtitles on that
 
Honestly besides games/steam 99%+ of my time is in the browser even photo editing/word processing/music.


edit: Totally forgot I have flux going on both machines.
 
Valnen said:
The worst program. I don't want to intentionally make my monitor look worse.
Click to expand...

Congrats. You have no idea what f.lux does!

My only gripe is that you can't set a time on it. I want it to turn on at 9-10, but during the winter, it'd turn on at 4, because that's when the sun sets here. I ended up changing location to NYC, since then it would turn on at 10. However, I'd have to turn it off in the morning. But an amazing program. If you turn it off when you've been using it for an hour, you immediately go "OH GOD, THAT'S BRIGHT". And the effects are obvious, to me.
 
Everything is fantastic. It should be the king of this thread and all others like it. Blazing-fast searches through all of your files.

Dropbox, Flux, and Teracopy are nice too.
 
MPC-HC(Kawaii Codec Pack)
VLC
7zip
foobar2000
NitroPDF
Google Drive
Dropbox
Libreoffice
Skydrive(which has CPU-Z, GPU-Z, and Prime 95)
Steam
Firefox
Opera
Chrome
Visual Studio
Code Blocks
WinDirStat
 
Timeless said:
Everything is fantastic. It should be the king of this thread and all others like it. Blazing-fast searches through all of your files.

Dropbox, Flux, and Teracopy are nice too.
Click to expand...

So the name is "Everything"?

Also, that relies on heavy indexing, hogging up resources. I always turn off windows indexing, at least on my gaming rig.
 
MPC-BE - A modified version of MPC-HC. I use it with LAV filters and MadVR.
Avast - I trust it to protect me when I watch porn.
Malwarebytes - But then, I can never be too careful.
Chrome - My personal favorite NeoGAF browser.
Notepad++ - Good Notepad alternative.
Steam - Duh.
MSI Afterburner - A useful overclocking tool with on screen stats display and screen recorder. For free.
NVIDIA Inspector - Must have for tweaking NVIDIA driver and stuffs.
GIMP - Free Photoshop.
ImageMagick - I use it because I just don't like how GIMP, Photoshop, Paint.net, etc. has limited options when it comes to scaling images. I also use it to make gif.
7-Zip - At least I don't have to feel guilty for not paying for WinRAR.
XnView - Or just any image viewer that I feel comfortable using.
Foobar2000 & Spotify - Life would be so empty without music.
VirtualDub - Just for basic video editing. Also use it to make gif.
AviSynth - Advance video editing. Also use it to make gif.
MakeMKV - For ripping DVD.
Audacity - Basic sound editing.
MeGUI - Encode AviSynth files to videos.
VidCoder - Re-encode DVD, or videos in general.
MediaInfo - Video, audio, image stats.
Teracopy - Mainly for checksum stuffs, but it's also a nice tool to copy/move files.
CCleaner - Remove unnecessary stuffs.

Not sure if I missed anything but these are how I roll.
 
Mr_Zombie said:
CadetMahoney said:
ACDSEE photo Explorer v3.1 build 921 (Simple and does the job)
Click to expand...
Highfive. Still the best photo explorer there is. Shame that further versions turned to crap thanks to filling it with useless features and ugly UI :/
Click to expand...

Pretty much.

3phemeral said:
MP3Gain.
Click to expand...

"
Does normalizing the mp3 degrade its quality?

No. MP3Gain does not decode and re-encode the mp3 to change its volume. You can change the volume as many times as you want, and the mp3 will sound just as good (or just as bad!) as it did before you started.
"

3627999-download.jpg
 
SpyGuy239 said:
+1 for displayfusion. A must have for all the multi-monitor users out there!
Click to expand...

I really wish NVIDIA's nView was part of their GeForce drivers and not just for their Quadro line. Because then you'd get a lot of multi-monitor specific features like unique desktop settings for other monitors as part of the driver software.
 
Drive Fusion former driver sweeper. Useful when your upgrading video card often.
Speedfan software controller for your fans.
MSI Afterburner also decent for recording and screenshots
CrystalDiskInfo for ssd/hdd

Steam, MPHC, Chrome after every fresh format.
 
Auslogics DiskDefrag
Auslogics Registry Cleaner
CCleaner
Display Driver Uninstaller (previously Driver Sweeper)
f.lux
foobar2000
Google Chrome
Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware
MPC-HC
Steam
Tixati
WinRAR

These are all things I would put almost immediately back on my PC after a reformat.
 
coldfoot said:
VLC can be used to play, encode, stream, and do all sorts of other stuff, MPC-HC does not even compare. Don't see a single objective reason why someone would use MPC-HC over VLC besides personal preference.
Click to expand...

The main reason a lot of people prefer MPC HC is because of MadVR and LAV filters. VLC is good as a backup but for video quality it's no contest. It's a pain in the ass to set up but Kawaii Codec Pack does it all automatically anyway
 
My favorite Windows applications:

MPC-HC
MKVMerge (to turn AVI/MP4 into MKV)
XBMC (god tier media center)
WinAmp
Handbrake (video conversion)
Itunes (for my iPad/iPod)
Tag & Rename (MP3 tag editor)
ACDSee
ImgBurn
Cdisplay (CBR/CBZ comic viewer)
Total Commander
UltraEdit
Adobe CC (I use Photoshop every day, didn't cost me a thing thanks to educational license)
Calibre (god tier ebook management tool)
Office 2013
Cyberfox (64-bit Firefox)
WinRAR (my favorite archiver)
Filezilla (FTP)
Ableton Live 9 (midi/audio sequencer)
Cubase 7 (midi/audio sequencer)
Dropbox
Eset Nod32 (lightweight virus scanner)
StartIsBack (Windows 8 start menu replacement)
 
blainethemono said:
The main reason a lot of people prefer MPC HC is because of MadVR and LAV filters. VLC is good as a backup but for video quality it's no contest. It's a pain in the ass to set up but Kawaii Codec Pack does it all automatically anyway
Click to expand...

Seriousy, MadVR is so fucking good I don't even care for anything else.
 
blainethemono said:
The main reason a lot of people prefer MPC HC is because of MadVR and LAV filters. VLC is good as a backup but for video quality it's no contest. It's a pain in the ass to set up but Kawaii Codec Pack does it all automatically anyway
Click to expand...
Pretty much. madVR on either MPC-HC or Potplayer is amazing, and Potplayer is way better than VLC.
 
blainethemono said:
The main reason a lot of people prefer MPC HC is because of MadVR and LAV filters. VLC is good as a backup but for video quality it's no contest. It's a pain in the ass to set up but Kawaii Codec Pack does it all automatically anyway
Click to expand...

Right. That's pretty much the reason for grabbing it at this point.
 
Tenck said:
Just downloaded "Everything" program. Wow don't know how I'll live without it now.
Click to expand...

Yep saw it recommended in one of these very threads some years ago and my computer browsing life has never been the same since.

Mine is a plugin for firefox - Fire gestures, browsing the internet feels wrong without this.
 
MusicBee - Great lightweight, customizable audio player. Have support for Music, Podcasts, Audiobooks and Radio as well.
MP3Tag - Great software for managing tags in music files (Not only mp3 too)
MP3Gain - Normalize your musics without altering the music itself.
TeraCopy - A much better file transfer tool than the default windows one.
f.lux - Just get f.lux.
Notead++ - Really good notepad, especially good for coding. Customizable, and full of good features.
DAEMON Tools Lite - Great for mounting images on virtual disc drives.
 
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