Windows Software
From DuncanWiki
This is my list of Free (as in beer and/or speech) software products that have a high quality level and are ad/spyware free. These range from simple zip file utilities to 3d modelling and network snooping software. I do not maintain nor support any of these software products and do not profit from advertising them on my website. I can not guarantee the fitness for a task nor that these programs will even work or not limit the workability of your system.
This is all created from a several years old list, so I can't guarantee any of it works or even exists anymore.
Contents |
Utilities
7zip Similar to WinZip, 7zip lets you create/open/extract any compressed archive (zip/arj/rar/cab/etc) without any annoying popups.
Ad-Aware Ad-Aware scans the various pieces of your Win32 environment for Malware and Spyware and quarantines or deletes them at your option.
CD Burner XP One of the few things on this page that I havn't personally tried out, but the review on TechTV sounds favorable and it looks like alot of the problems they had with it have been resolved since the review was initially undertaken. http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/freefile/story/0,24330,3452332,00.html
Office
OpenOffice.org is a full featured office productivity suite including word processing, spreadsheet use, presentation and diagram creation. Fully MS compatible, this suite can do everything the average home user needs and alot more.
Internet
Firefox Web Browser is a free and open source browser and is feature rich. Great features are the built in popup blocking, easily installed themes to customize the appearance of your browser, Flash and Shockwave support.
Thunderbird Email Client is a free and open source email client.
IceCast Broadcast your own audio across your LAN or onto the internet.
AnalogX Collection AnalogX is run by an extremely taltented person who has created software for virtually everyone. Here's a quick list of a few of the projects currently released.
- proxy : share your internet connection with other computers on your local network
- atomic clock sync : ensure your system clock is syncronized to the millisecond
- stock quote : get real time stock quotes with graphs
- web server : a basic web server
- shout server : stream audio from your machine to other people
- cookie management : clean out unwanted cookies
- pop up blocker : prevent popups in ie
- caller id : find out who's calling you with a window on screen
- file shredder : eradicate files from your machine
Putty An excellent SSH/RSH/Telnet client who can emulate several terminals. Features include session management, X-Window forwarding, port forwarding and several other advanced features.
Audio/Video
OggDS Lets you play OGG/Vorbis files (.ogg) in media player. It's a pretty popular thought that .ogg files are superior to .mp3 and .wma files amongst armchair audiophiles.
FLAC Free Lossless Audio Codec : FLAC decodes/encodes your audio without dropping any of the information from the track and is compatible with most mp3 players.
Multimedia
Audacity A multi-track audio editing suite. Plugins, multiple format saves, effects, envelope editing and many other features.
Blender A 3D modelling software to create stills, animations and about anything your imagination can come up with.
CD-DA X-Tractor Extract and encode a CD to .mp3 and .ogg files on the fly. Supports CDDB (album and track listing lookups) and jitter correction.
FlaskMPEG Encode / Re-Encode video and audio into any codec format you have installed on your system. Cutting, cropping and several other features are included.
Development / Power User Tools
MySQL A full featured SQL database server and client package. Interoperable with various programming languages (C/PHP/PERL/ASP/etc) it can deliver just about anything you would need from a database.
Apache HTTP Web Server The most prevalent web server in existance as of this writing. Compatible with just about all web based CGI and SSI languages and (somewhat) easy to configure.
GnuPG A replacement for PGP, a popular message encryption suite.
Ethereal Like the Un*x/Linux equivalent, analyze network traffic with filtering and other features.
Vim An EXTREMELY powerful (and esoteric) text editor with many IDE plugins to make programming and troubleshooting "easier". Considered the defacto UNIX editor and vastly superior to EMACS no matter what anyone else says.
Cygwin A Linux/Un*x work-alike environment for Win32. It includes compilers, command line cd burning tools, X-Window server (XFree86), and many other tools that will enrich your Win32 experience.
Bochs An i386 emulation package. Run any operating system (even another instance of Win32) in its own environment and in its own little window.
Free Fdisk I havn't used this yet, but it's a work-alike to MS's fdisk with an expanded feature set. Also has a boot loader and several other utilities listed on their site.
Memtest86 Tests the RAM installed in your machine for defects.
NetBeansIDE A highly advanced IDE for several languages, includes built-in version control.
Real VNC Allows you to take control and let others take control of a Win32 (and other platforms) desktop. Excellent for troubleshooting problems from afar.
Nmap A great way to raise the ire of many SysAdmins. Check to see what operating system a remote computer is running, including services and other aspects of the machine.
