Author Topic: Links to helpfull pc software anyone? (Read 22832 times)

ñòóKýçrÕôK · « **on:** January 24, 2009, 03:17:09 pm »

I thought it might kind of nice just to have a thread where people might could post some links to some helpfull software that makes using windows or linux or whatever OS (operating system) you might run go just a little easier. No links to hack, cracks, or cracksites. I will check the links as I can to try my best to ensure their safety but I ask that you be the first to check if you do post one. I obviously cannot guarantee the safety of every link so I ask that you use your own discretion as you click a link. If I find a link connected to spyware and/or a trojan I will do my best to find a more suitable and safe alternative link to whatever program a link hosts which means I will modify the post to show the better link. I'm sure a lot of users out there have certain programs they've always used and thought "man if everyone used this they would love it like I do!". If you will just post the link and a brief description of the program and what it's used for and by doing so perhaps you'll help someone with something they've always had an issue with but never known a way to fix.

I reckon I'll start with 2 links to the XP/Vista half-open tcp limits patches that were originally posted by Hell and Deux in another section of the forum. Have visited both links and they appear to be safe.

Quote from: Deux on January 19, 2009, 10:42:05 am

i probably should of made a post about this little tool earlyer.
Its called tcp-z. Ive been using it for a long time now. I follow its updates via this site http://deepxw.blogspot.com/ Now ive used his on both windows vista 64/32 and XP32 and it works a charm. Its a bit of a pain in the arse of vista 64 due to al the added security inbuilt to 64bit windows. An due to this issue was the reason why i scrapped vista 64 and went down to vista 32 bit. But the tool explains how to get round the 64bit probs.

With the method in tcp-Z the patch is done in memory. So no actual modification is done to any windows system files and any updates etc dont wipe out the tcpip.sys in vista and require re-patching. All you have to do is run the program after you boot up and patch an its active.

**edit, works with windows 7 too **

Quote from: ]-[êll.Ôñ.ËÀR'][']-[. on January 20, 2009, 11:31:54 pm

Another great patcher avalable from here supports Operating system: Windows XP SP1(x64)/SP2(x86,x64)/SP3, Server 2003 SP1(x86)/SP2(x86,x64), Server 2008(x86,x64), Vista without SP(x86,x64) and with SP1(x86,x64), 7 beta(x86,x64).
Interface language: English and Russian.

http://www.half-open.com/download_en.htm

DiK420 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 25, 2009, 01:49:00 pm »

http://portableapps.com/apps a wonderful collection of freeware/gnu software that will run from a flashdrive and make troubleshooting your pc a doddle... firefox

, clamwin AV, File managers, OpenOfficeOrg.. loads of applications and utilities for all your tinkering and tweaking.. or even to just carry a lil bit of home from home when using someone else's computer. check it out, rates 11/10 for me!

White Stripes · « **Reply #2 on:** January 25, 2009, 03:35:55 pm »

Quote

No links to hack, cracks, or cracksites

hmm.... ok... then...

www.linux.org
www.ubuntu.com
www.slackware.org

gotta have a free OS before you can find -good- free tools to fix it...

www.rootkit.nl -- rootkit hunter and lynus security auditor

www.insecure.org/nmap -- network auditor.... (if you dont know what this is already dont play with it... this thing is not a toy... you can get in some deep sh*t with it with a single typo)

http://www.tldp.org/ -- if you dunno how to do it, whatever the 'it' may be, this site has that 'how'.... this last one has info about the software you will need to do the 'it' as well... so its kinda an all-in-one for fixes and how-to-do-its....

using that pain in the glass called "windows"? well... you paid for it (remember no cracks in this thread

) so might as well pay to fix it too... *snickers*

www.tune-up.com -- tune-up utilities... this will automatically fix any/all of whats ailing your machine... also has a user friendly configuration system to do tweaks that would normally need the registry editor.... 30day free trial ... 60$ to buy (last i looked anyway)

www.driveragent.com -- BSODs? (they happen... sometimes often.... ) many times bad drivers can be the reason.... free scan.... $30/yr to actually download the fix.... (but at least that $30/yr gets you fixes on any computer you want to use your account on)

----

im sorry for my sarcasm nooky... i know you are being helpfull.... but the only way i have found to make my life easier with window$ is to simply get rid of it....

however the link DiK420 posted pretty much has it -all- for the windows crowd..... you need it... its there... one exception being 'pagedefrag' from www.sysinternals.com... its the only free thing i could link to thats not already on that site...

www.annoyances.org (along with the prepackaged regedit utility) is the best free way to fix things... sorta like tldp (when using search) or just help when you need it when posting a question...

[EDIT] fixed one of the links

~~birdman~~ · « **Reply #3 on:** January 25, 2009, 05:44:29 pm »

found this valuble for removing nasties from the pc and its free http://www.malwarebytes.org/

ñòóKýçrÕôK · « **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2009, 07:11:06 pm »

Quote from: Silver Stripes on January 25, 2009, 03:35:55 pm

im sorry for my sarcasm nooky... i know you are being helpfull.... but the only way i have found to make my life easier with window$ is to simply get rid of it....

No worries dude. It's your opinion and I can't make you change that no more than you mine. Just glad to see people posting in this thread. I really believe we can reach a lot of peeps and help a lot by doing something like this. As for hacks, cracks or cracksites, we just can't openly support going around a software makers registratrion just because they want money for it and we may not like spending it. Be just as bad as doing the opposite and charging for WinMX which is something we absolutely do not do.

White Stripes · « **Reply #5 on:** January 25, 2009, 09:37:51 pm »

Quote

No worries dude. It's your opinion and I can't make you change that no more than you mine.

come next year i wouldnt even have the opinion/option really to keep windows... extended support (read: security patch releases) for windows 2000 ends... ...imagine if it ended in 2009... that would leave me with a windows machine that would have avast antivirus in constant battle with the 'downadup' worm.....

a purchase of XP wouldnt be feesable since it wouldnt exactly 'fit' too well in 256mb of ram and 550Mhz of cpu... (windows 2000 does... but its the minimum amount of ram and cpu recommended for 'plesant' use...) and it would only get me to 2014... in essence buying 4 years of time for ~100$... windows 7? heh... no... would need a whole new 'wintendo' to do that... and 7 isnt even out yet... (they are cutting these dates a little close IMO... unless you bought a licence to use vista.. which if you did -that- you might as well wait for 'windows 8' or whatever they call the version that comes out after '7'...)

tho considering what this thread is for and that i mentioned 'avast' and 'end of life OSen' here are some more usefull links....

www.avast.com -- avast antivirus... has a linux version and a windows version that supports windows versions as old as 95 (with system requirements for 95 being a 486DX2 @ 66Mhz... a very old setup indeed)... the free version is much easier to find than AVGs free version.... AVG also does not support OSen older than 2k and eats more ram than a starved stray dog eats scraps... so i highly recommend it over AVG if your system is old and/or ram starved...

www.spybot.com -- spybot search and destroy.... the software for removing and protecting against all the 'dirt' in the web... i do not recommend installing the 'tea timer' component however... it is more of an annoyance than a help...

www.secunia.com -- secunia PSI... (free)... informs you of out of date (vulnerable) software installed on your computer... and helps to fix/update it.... PSI is still 'fresh' software so its still a little wobbly at times... but it does work...

www.windizupdate.com (not a typo) -- alternative to windowsupdate.microsoft.com... works in firefox, mozilla, netscape and opera and works for windows versions older than 2k (9x isnt really supported by the official windowsupdate site anymore... as some here may know...) note: doesnt work in IE (by design) so you'll need one of the supported browsers (listed on the site) to get it to work... updates -are- official... they are downloaded from microsofts website (its technically illegal to host updates for windows on any other site)... but using a database and scanning engine of their own design... ....or put another way... if youve got a 9x machine with netscape 4+ still on the web... go here to get any updates you may not have....

ñòóKýçrÕôK · « **Reply #6 on:** January 29, 2009, 04:31:36 am »

This is one I use even with a dual moniter setup but has good use for sure one a single moni system. Vista/XP Virtual Desktop Manager.

http://www.codeplex.com/vdm

Quote

One of Vista's most talked-about new features is the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). A new set of thumbnail API's can be used to access thumbnails of open windows. This virtual desktop program takes advantage of this new API and uses some tricks of its own to provide a powerful virtual desktop manager with a full screen thumbnail based preview. You can have as many desktops as you want and can seamlessly switch between them.

It's actually pretty cool. You can open different internet explorer pages, or firefox on several different screens and then right click the virtual desktop toolbar icon and click the Show Switcher option and it will let you preview all of your virtual desktops and the windows you have open on them. It's completely free of charge. Can be a little high on memory usage so if you have a low-end pc it may not be a viable option for multiple desktops for you.

Another option for multiple desktops on A single moni system would be Active Virtual Desktop.

http://www.active-virtual-desktop.com/index.html

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Ever wished you had several screens on your computer? Active Virtual Desktop is a virtual desktop manager which will create up to 9 virtual desktops allowing you to have different programs running on each of them.

I think I used this one on XP at one time. If it's the same one, on a dual moni setup it will only do the virtsual desktops on one individual moniter. Was not too harsh on resources if I remember correctly. Another free program itself.

White Stripes · « **Reply #7 on:** January 30, 2009, 01:52:13 am »

http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/

FOSS (free open souce software) virtual-moni app.... runs in 9x+ (so its not just for XP users)

do i detect a potential competition nookie?

ñòóKýçrÕôK · « **Reply #8 on:** January 30, 2009, 04:23:22 am »

WHAT??? Me compete? Not in any way ever. Just haven't used some the older software in ages but as long as you're here I know you have that covered.

Anyway, for a media player for most Windows media and none of the drm enrichments of Windows Media Player I throw up GOM Player. GOM Player comes with most of todays needed codeks to play most vid files and works with other codek packs that I have seen to date anyway. Although I've never tried it for music I understand it works with that too. http://www.gomlab.com/eng/ GOM also is free software and is being updated fairly regularly at the moment for potential bugs n such. I've been using it for a while with Vista and I like it. Plus I haven't tried it with the beta Windows 7 but so far most Vista programs I've tried with Windows 7 have worked. I haven't tried the GOM Encoder that is also reffered to on that url and I don't believe it's free but if anyone tries it please report back and let us know if you will.

ñòóKýçrÕôK · « **Reply #9 on:** January 30, 2009, 04:42:47 am »

For burning cds and dvds I use DeepBurner Free Edition. There is a Deepburner Pro which costs and for the difference in what both do I don't personally feel it's worth the money but I use the free edition for almost all of my non-media burning and my mp3 discs. There is a comparison page for the differences for those who'd like to take a look. http://www.deepburner.com/index.php?r=products&pr=provsfree But for the actual download the url is http://www.deepburner.com/index.php?r=download

Quote

There are two versions of DeepBurner - DeepBurner Free and DeepBurner Pro. The first one is intended for home users, while the Pro edition is for advanced and business users.
DeepBurner works on Windows 95/98/2000/NT/ME/XP and is virtually compatible with ANY CD/DVD burner.

White Stripes · « **Reply #10 on:** January 30, 2009, 02:28:30 pm »

i throw ffdshow; http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow into the media player category..... an all-in-one audio/video codec that does everything from xvid and divx to theora and vorbis.... use whatever dshow/vfw compatible player (and encoder) you want....

for burning cds.... well... i do that in linux (windows seems good at making coasters but thats about it... course it could be a misconfiguration but ive used linux for burning for so long ive never taken the time to really do it with windows...)

Daniel · « **Reply #11 on:** January 31, 2009, 11:42:30 pm »

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ - This is the media player I use. It will play almost every video format.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ - I use this for editing songs and recording wave out.

http://winff.org/html/ - This is what I use for converting video files to other formats.

http://www.xp-antispy.org/index.php/lang-en/download?func=sellang&iso=en - This is a small program that lets you disable all the known 'Suspicious' Functions in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ - This is free picture editing software. I use it instead of Photoshop.

http://www.ccleaner.com/download - This cleans all the unneeded temporary files off your computer.

http://registry-cleaner.comodo.com/ - Self explanatory.

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/ - Online version of Nod32.

~~birdman~~ · « **Reply #12 on:** March 07, 2009, 11:00:58 am »

http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html?Str=download - All in one free pc optimizer/spyware remover
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html - Block spyware from getting in free

Also found many useful tips on this page http://www.infiltrated.net/cipav.pimp#sblast

FlapJack · « **Reply #13 on:** March 10, 2009, 04:45:13 pm »

A great little program that I use once a week on all of my windows computers is a little program called CCleaner.

Check it out, I have nothing but good things to say about the program.

Check it out here: www.ccleaner.com

thunderwinds · « **Reply #14 on:** March 10, 2009, 08:36:07 pm »

here's a few more for the list:

http://www.lvllord.de/ another half-open connection patcher.

http://www.free-av.com/ free antivirus software.

http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/home-home-office/sunbelt-personal-firewall/ there are both paidfor and free versions of this firewall. the free one seems to work well.

http://www.sofotex.com/reviews/r7528.html easy to use registry cleaner.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx there are many usefull apps on this site.

http://www.oldversion.com/ a very usefull site. but know the app you are looking for not everything on there is spyware free.

ñòóKýçrÕôK · « **Reply #15 on:** March 13, 2009, 11:27:38 am »

Here are a couple for you fans using Vista who hate the builtin defragger as much as I do. I personally like to see my pc working, not just go on its word, lol. Found these to be a nice resolution to that problem.

Quote

Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startups and shutdowns. Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimization of modern hard disks.

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag

Quote

UltraDefrag is a powerful Open Source Defragmentation tool for Windows Platform. It is very fast, because the defragmenting is done by kernel-mode driver. There are three interface available : Graphical, Console and Native.

http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/

Another good program from sourceforge. I have and do use both. Both work on XP, Vista, and the Windows 7 beta. I'm not sure about Windows 2000 but if someone would like to try and report back about it it would be nice to know.

app103 · « **Reply #16 on:** March 18, 2009, 01:04:21 pm »

Here is a nice collection of tools, available in both exe and ahk script form. (use autohotkey to run the ahk files)

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/

The nice thing about the ahk files, is that you can open them in notepad and tweak them if you want.

Additionally, that site has a forum in which one of the boards allows you to request small custom made freeware tools (coding snacks). You'll find a lot of goodies there too.

And don't forget to check out stuff that was released as part of NANY 2007 and NANY 2008.

My favorite release from NANY 2008 is a little audio player called Trout. Very minimalistic GUI, but loaded with features. It has a lot of stuff recently added that would be of particular interest to people that listen to audiobooks. Read that full thread to see all the details of features that were requested and added, and how they work.

Oh, and it's portable, too.

You can get involved with the Trout project by posting feature requests to that forum thread. Get creative. As long as the request is reasonable and the developer can do it, he will add it. Skwire is a great guy, very friendly and aims to please.

And just for the sake of trivia, Trout is the largest application ever released, written entirely in ahk. One of it's purposes was to show the world that you can develop real software with ahk and not just simple automation scripts.

^{Disclaimer: Yes, some of my software is floating around in various places on that site & forum.}

silicon_toad2000 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 19, 2009, 03:11:07 am »

Maybe this doesn't quite fit as its more about software than for software itself. I have found the blackviper website invaluable in cutting out some of the bloat in windows.

www.blackviper.com/

I dont trust any of that tweakware so this is a great resource.

wonderer · « **Reply #18 on:** March 19, 2009, 11:48:32 am »

A site with loads of freeware and many usefull links to other sites

http://www.nirsoft.net/

app103 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 19, 2009, 04:32:40 pm »

Quote from: wonderer on March 19, 2009, 11:48:32 am

A site with loads of freeware and many usefull links to other sites

http://www.nirsoft.net/

YES!

NirSoft has some wonderful tools, especially if you like command line stuff. It belongs right up there with Sysinternals.

When DonationCoder selected the site as the official site of the month for August 2007, the site admin (mouser) described it like this:

"If you are one of those people who love to use programs that let you see what is really happening behind the scenes on your computer, a visit to the NirSoft site is going to be a bit like getting a visit from santa claus on crack."