Favorite and Best Software List
by Stephen Schmidt, steve@czmyt.com
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Show: All software and services, only personal favorites, only software services, or only installable software programs.
Introduction
This is a list of my personal favorite software and services.
Those programs marked "personal favorite!" are ones that I install and
frequently use on my main desktop computers or those of my clients.
This list includes other highly-rated software and services too.
When I am setting up a new computer for myself or a client,
I go through this list to figure out what software to install on it.
I have chosen to focus this list on software that works with
Microsoft Windows, so I have omitted dozens of Linux-based programs
that I frequently use in my work as a computer consultant.
This list also omits software development programs that are meant
mostly for computer programmers.
List of Categories
Click on one of these categories to jump directly to it.
LIST OF SOFTWARE & SERVICES
- Windows Defender, free, personal favorite!
Anti-spyware program purchased by Microsoft, made available for free for Windows XP, and bundled with Windows Vista.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
2007-02-20: Arguably the best free anti-spyware program.
- WebRoot Spy Sweeper, $$, personal favorite!
The consistently highest-rated anti-spyware program. New edition available that includes built-in anti-virus software from Sophos.
http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/spysweeper
- HijackThis, free, personal favorite!
Detailed analysis of startup programs, running programs, etc.
http://www.merijn.org
- A-Squared, free
Free anti-spyware program that has a very wide-ranging definition of what constitutes spyware.
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free
2007-02-20: Generally good but identifies some legitimate software like UltraVNC as spyware.
- Blacklight, free
Finds malicious rootkit programs that secretly monitor your computer usage and abuse your Internet connection.
http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight
- Ad-Aware SE Personal, free
One of the original (and free) anti-spyware programs.
http://www.lavasoft.com
- Spybot Search & Destroy, free
One of the original (and free) anti-spyware programs.
http://www.spybot.info
- AVG Free Edition, free, personal favorite!
Excellent anti-virus program free for non-commercial use.
http://free.grisoft.com
2007-04-07: My personal favorite free anti-virus program.
- avast! Home Edition, free, personal favorite!
Excellent anti-virus program free for non-commercial use.
http://www.avast.com
2007-04-07: Was my favorite anti-virus program for a while but it interferes with programs that use Macrovision copy protection.
- Norton AntiVirus, $$, personal favorite!
One of the best commercial anti-virus programs.
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=is&pvid=nav2007
2007-04-07: Probably the best anti-virus software if your computer is prone to tricky virus infections. Also includes anti-spyware and elementary firewall, worm, and intrusion detection software.
- AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic, free
Another good, free anti-virus program.
http://www.free-av.com
- Symantec Security Scan, free, service, personal favorite!
Online scan to detect but not repair viruses and spyware.
http://security.symantec.com
- Trend Micro HouseCall, free, service, personal favorite!
Online scan to detect AND repair viruses and spyware.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com
2007-04-07: Requires that you use a Web browser that supports ActiveX controls or Java: Microsoft Internet Explorer works best.
- Celestia, free, personal favorite!
Free space simulation program that lets you explore the universe in 3D.
http://www.shatters.net/celestia
- Hallo Northern Sky (HNSKY), free, personal favorite!
Planetarium program for Windows that simulates the night sky from the perspective of the planet Earth.
http://www.hnsky.org/software.htm
- Open Universe, free, personal favorite!
Similar features to Celestia in that you can move throughout the universe instead of being limited to seeing the night sky from the perspective of the planet Earth.
http://openuniverse.sourceforge.net
2007-05-03: This program used to be named Solar System Simulator (Ssystem).
- Stellarium, free
Planetarium program that features realistic images by mixing sky views with earth terrain pictures.
http://www.stellarium.org
2007-05-03: I like this program, but dislike the fact that it only runs in full-screen mode, unlike 99% of Windows programs.
- WinStars, free and $
Similar to Stellarium in that it combines pictures of the horizon on Earth with sky views. Add-ons to the basic program cost money.
http://www.winstars.net/english/index.html
- TomeRaider, $$, personal favorite!
Versions available for Windows and handheld computers. Web site has 4,000 eBooks available for it, including an older, complete version of the English-language Wikipedia.
http://www.tomeraider.com
- DAEMON Tools, free, personal favorite!
Mounts files that contain CD and DVD disc images, simulating the insertion of a physical disc into an optical drive.
http://www.daemon-tools.cc
2007-02-20: Includes support for mouting image files of copy-protected CDs.
- Nero Burning ROM, usually free, personal favorite!
Reads and writes CDs and DVDs.
http://www.nero.com
2007-02-20: Some version of Nero is packaged with most CD and DVD drives.
- MagicISO, $30, personal favorite!
Similar to Nero Burning ROM is that its emphasis is on non-copy-protected discs.
http://www.magiciso.com
2007-04-07: There are other very similar programs like PowerISO, UltraISO, and WinISO.
- Exact Audio Copy, free, personal favorite!
Rip audio CD tracks to audio files; copy audio CDs; write audio CDs from audio files.
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
2007-04-07: Provides the best support of any program for working with audio CDs.
- DVD Decrypter, free, personal favorite!
Reads and writes DVDs, including ones with all but the latest copy protection schemes.
http://www.doom9.net
- DVD Shrink, free, personal favorite!
Create DVDs that contain parts of another DVD; shrink large DVDs to fit on smaller discs by selectively dropping frames.
http://www.doom9.net
- DVD 43, free, personal favorite!
Decrypts DVDs and removes audio CD protection on the fly in the background as the disc is read by other programs.
http://www.dvd43.com
- AnyDVD, $40
Similar to DVD 43 in many ways.
http://www.slysoft.com
- DVDFab, $$
Easy to use program for copying any video DVD.
http://www.dvdfab.com
2007-05-01: Supports the latest copy protection schemes.
- 1Click DVD Copy Pro, $80
Similar to DVDFab.
http://www.lgsoftwareinnovations.com
- Windows Desktop Search, free, personal favorite!
Excellent full-text indexing and desktop search program from Microsoft.
http://desktop.msn.com
2007-04-07: My personal favorite program for the full-text indexing and search of e-mail messages and files.
- Copernic Desktop Search, free
Another good desktop search program with some features that the others don't have.
http://www.copernic.com
- Google Desktop, free
Just like the Google Web search service, but indexes and searches for e-mail and files on your computer and local area network. Has serious problems detecting when to reindex e-mail and files.
http://desktop.google.com
2007-04-07: Sidebar, widgets, Web browser toolbar, file indexing and search: Too much stuff in one product, but some people really like that.
- X1 Desktop Edition, $$
More complete edition of what you can get for free from the Yahoo! Desktop Search program.
http://www.x1.com
- Yahoo! Desktop Search, free
Based on the X1 Desktop Search software. Yahoo! and free X1 editions of this program do not allow you to index and search files stored on a network drive, which is a major drawback.
http://desktop.yahoo.com
- TweakUI, free
Several miscellaneous Windows XP utilities from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com
- ChangerXP, free
Set the picture that shows for Windows startup, the login screen, your desktop, Internet Explorer background, and/or screensaver. Make those pictures changes automatically.
http://www.nihuo.com
- Filmloop, free
A photo ticker that scrolls pictures across your screen.
http://www.filmloop.com
- MSN Screensaver, free beta
A screensaver that displays your pictures, current date/time, news, weather, and/or RSS feeds.
http://screensaver.msn.com
- SphereXP, free beta
Replace the standard two-dimensional Windows dektop with a unique three-dimensional interface.
http://www.hamar.sk/sphere
- Windowblinds, free and $$
Customize all aspects of the Windows desktop.
http://www.stardock.com
- PaperPort, $$, personal favorite!
Organize, find and share digital documents. Suitable for individual use only. Comes free with many scanners.
http://www.nuance.com/paperport/
- OmniPage, $$$, personal favorite!
Perform optical character recognition to convert scanned images of documents into text and numbers.
http://www.nuance.com/omnipage/professional
- Alfresco, free and $$$$
Enterprise-class document management, workflow automation, collaboration, records management, knowledge management, Web content management and imaging.
http://www.alfresco.com
- KnowledgeTree, free and $$$$
Enterprise-class document management system.
http://www.knowledgetree.com
- DNS Stuff, free, service, personal favorite!
Web-based service that provides a variety of information about domain names (like czmyt.com) and IP addresses (like 24.132.120.98).
http://www.dnsstuff.com
2007-04-07: One of their most important lookups will tell if an IP address that hosts an e-mail server is listed as a source of spam by any known blocklist.
- Go Daddy, $$, service, personal favorite!
Register a domain name like czmyt.com and handle domain name service for your domains. Offers a wide range of domain name registration, Web site hosting, e-mail and other services.
http://www.godaddy.com
- DynDNS, free and $$, service
Provides dynamic domain name service, so you can map a machine name like www.czmyt.com to an IP address that is subject to frequent change. Also provides robust static domain name services for a price, so you can map machine names to IP addresses that are not subject to frequent change.
http://www.dyndns.com
2007-04-29: Their free dynamic DNS service will not work for people whose dynamic IP address does not change enough! For example, Comcast Cable only changes your IP address when you hookup new cable modems or hookup new equipment directly to an existing cable modem.
- Network Solutions WHOIS, free, service, personal favorite!
Find out information about who own domains, what their name servers are set to, etc.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp
- Alexa Internet, free, service, personal favorite!
Find out about the popularity of Web sites, which are the most popular Web sites, etc.
http://www.alexa.com
- Exchange My Mail, $10 per mailbox per month, service, personal favorite!
Hosted Microsoft Exchange e-mail accounts that support synchronizing e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks between multiple PCs and smartphones.
http://www.exchangemymail.com
- Gmail, free, service, personal favorite!
Google's Web-based e-mail service offering.
https://mail.google.com
2007-04-28: This is my personal favorite, even though it is not that much better than Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail in my opinion. Also, I only use Web-based e-mail services for testing my real e-mail accounts.
- Yahoo! Mail, free, service
Yahoo!'s Web-based e-mail service offering.
http://mail.yahoo.com
2007-04-28: Thought by some to have the most sophisticated (best) user interface of the bunch.
- Hotmail, free, service
Microsoft's Web-based e-mail service offering.
http://www.hotmail.com
2007-04-28: Considered by most to be the worst of the major online e-mail providers, especially because of their poor spam prevention.
- AOL Mail, free, service
AOL's Web-based e-mail service offering.
http://mail.aol.com
- SpamPal, free
http://www.spampal.org
2007-04-07: I personally prefer the combination of Postini (a Web-based anti-spam service) and Microsoft Outlook's Junk E-Mail features.
- PGP Desktop Professional, $200, personal favorite!
Complete encryption suite for e-mail, files, virtual disk drives and whole disks. PGP Desktop Home edition also available.
http://www.pgp.com/products/packages/desktop_pro/index.html
2007-07-01: They finally have a version in which the Whole Disk encryption program works with Windows Vista.
- PGP Whole Disk Encryption, $150, personal favorite!
Encrypt the hard disks attached to your computer.
http://www.pgp.com/products/wholediskencryption/index.html
2007-07-01: They finally have a version in which the Whole Disk encryption program works with Windows Vista.
- PGP International, free, personal favorite!
E-mail, file and virtual drive encryption for free.
http://www.pgpi.org
- TrueCrypt, free
Virtual drive encryption program.
http://www.truecrypt.com
- BitLocker Drive Encryption, free with Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate edition
Whole-disk encryption like PGP Whole Disk.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/bitlocker.mspx
- See also the File Compression category.
- Wikipedia, free, service, personal favorite!
Available online or in TomeRaider (http://www.tomeraider.com) format.
http://www.wikipedia.com
- Encyclopędia Britannica, $$, personal favorite!
Computer program with the full text and pictures from the printed edition that costs over $1,000.
http://www.eb.com
2007-07-01: Only the most recent version of this program works with Windows Vista. That version is hard to use because it still has some serious bugs (it doesn't refresh when it should so you cannot see what you are typing and where the control are).
2007-02-20: Windows-based version doesn't work too well because of poorly-implemented Java-based retrieval program.
- Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium, $$, personal favorite!
Symbolic math program, graphing calculator program, various learning tools, Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia content, kids encyclopedia, etc.
2007-07-15: I don't like the encyclopedia interface as well as I did the interface for earlier versions of Microsoft Encarta. I wish that there was a way to get to all of the yearbook articles for a year.
- Encarta, $$, personal favorite!
Started with content from the Collier's Encyclopedia.
http://www.microsoft.com/products/encarta
2007-04-07: I especially like the yearbook articles.
2007-02-20: Started with content from Collier's Encyclopedia.
- See also the Dictionaries category.
- 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities, The, free, service, personal favorite!
Comprehensive list of the best few programs in each of 46 categories.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm
2007-04-07: Receive access to their Extended Best-ever Freeware Utilities page by subscribing to their newsletter.
- File Hippo, free, service
Web site that lists the best free software with a small amount of commentary on each program.
http://www.filehippo.com
- Open Source Alternative, free, service, personal favorite!
Interesting site that lists free alternatives for popular non-free software programs.
http://www.osalt.com
- The OSSwin project, free, service
List of good open source software programs that run under Windows.
http://osswin.sourceforge.net
- File Ratings, free, service, personal favorite!
Ranks the most popular files being downloaded on the Internet.
http://www.fileratings.com
- The Linux Alternative Project, free, service
Interesting site that lists free Linux-based alternatives for popular non-free software programs.
http://www.linuxalt.com
- 100-downloads, free, service
"The top 300 free downloadable programs for Windows XP."
http://100-downloads.com
- Free Software List from Chi3 Hacklab, free, service
Interesting list of free software programs for Windows and other operating systems.
http://www.chi3.org/en/software.html
- Freeware Genius, free, service
Only lists the best software that is completely free.
http://www.freewaregenius.com
- FreewarePlanet, free, service
Only lists free software.
http://www.freewareplanet.net
2007-07-15: Probably lists too much software, some of which is not the best.
- Mohawke's Best of the Best Free and Open Source Software Collection, free, service
It is what the title says.
http://www.digitaldarknet.net/thelist
- The Webware 100 Awards: The 100 best Web 2.0 Sites and Services, free, service, personal favorite!
List of the best 100 "Web 2.0" sites and services.
http://www.webware.com/html/ww/100.html
- Make Use Of, free, service
"Cool Websites, Software and Internet Tips." "web applications | cool tools | tricks | soft reviews"
http://www.makeuseof.com
- Populair.eu, free, service
"Where do you get all those cool crazy hot fresh new links from?"
http://www.populair.eu
- popurls, free, service
"popular urls to the latest web buzz"
http://popurls.com
- THEWEBLIST.net, free, service
"what people are clicking on today"
http://theweblist.net
- SyncBack, free and $$
Backup, restore, synchronize, copy, send and transfer files.
http://www.2brightsparks.com
- Mozy Online Backup, free and $$, service
Inexpensive online backup service.
http://mozy.com
- iBackup, $/GB, service
Backup, store and access files remotely.
http://www.ibackup.com
- Iomega iStorage, $/GB, service
Backup, store and access files remotely.
http://www.iomega.com/na/products/istorage.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=26891301&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=26890319&bmUID=1178431078280
- Xdrive, $/GB, service
Backup, store and access files remotely.
http://www.xdrive.com
- ZipGenius, free, personal favorite!
Like WinZip and PKZip Windows but with better support for reading files that use compression methods other than Zip.
http://www.zipgenius.it
- SecureZip, free for now, personal favorite!
File compression and encryption with strong Microsoft Outlook integration.
http://www.securezip.com
2007-04-27: This will only be a personal favorite as long as it's free. From PKWare, the company that originally created the Zip compression method.
- WinZip, $$
Very similar to ZipGenius and SecureZip.
http://www.winzip.com
- 7-Zip, free, personal favorite!
Usually achieves very good compression compared to other similar programs.
http://www.7-zip.org
2007-04-07: All Windows versions of this program seem very buggy except for the command line (7za.exe) version!
- SBC Archiver, free
Features strong encryption and very good compression, especially on multimedia files that usually don't compress very much.
http://www.geocities.com/sbcarchiver
- eMule, free, personal favorite!
Peer-to-peer file sharing program.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/emule
2007-02-20: Currently one of the better peer-to-peer file sharing programs; supports the top two file sharing networks.
- Cartoon Network Free Games, free, service, personal favorite!
More than 160 online Flash-based games for kids.
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/games/index.html
- PBS Kids Games, free, service
Online Flash-based games for kids based on PBS Kids TV shows.
http://pbskids.org/games
- Nick Jr. Playtime Games, free, service
Online Flash-based games for kids based on Nick Jr. TV shows.
http://www.nickjr.com/playtime/cats/games/index.jhtml
- Club Penguin, free and paid versions, service
Kid-friendly virtual world wth games.
http://www.clubpenguin.com
- Flash Games.net, free, service, personal favorite!
Over 3,000 free Flash-based games for older kids.
http://www.flash-game.net
- Microsoft Streets & Trips, $$, personal favorite!
Print street maps and plan trip routes.
http://www.microsoft.com/streets/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=002
- Microsoft MapPoint, $$$, personal favorite!
Business-oriented version of Microsoft Streets and Trips that lets you plot geographic data. I recommend Streets and Trips instead if you only need to print maps or plan routes.
http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/default.mspx
- Google Earth, free, personal favorite!
Satellite maps of the whole world.
http://earth.google.com
- NASA World Wind, free
Similar to Google Earth in some ways but with an emphasis on longer-range views of the planet earth from different satellites and other sources.
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov
2007-05-03: See also the large collection of downloadable data here http://www.worldwinddata.com.
- Home Planet, free, personal favorite!
Astronomy, space, and satellite tracking program for Windows whose main view is a flattened map of the Earth.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/homeplanet.html
2007-05-03: Shows which parts of the Earth are covered by sunlight and which are in darkness, similar to the Geochron wall clocks. Has the ability to view stars like the other astronomy programs but it's not obvious how to do that!
- iRotate, free, personal favorite!
Rotate the Windows desktop screen 90, 180 or 270 degrees. Works great with various Samsung flat-panel displays that can rotate 90 degrees to give you a full-page display.
http://www.entechtaiwan.com
- UDPixel, free
Program that helps to locate and fix LCD screens with dead pixels.
http://udpix.free.fr
- SpeedFan, free
Detect the temperature of computer components and detect and change computer fan speeds.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
- Notebook Hardware Control, free
Easily control the hardware components of your Notebook.
http://www.pbus-167.com/nhc/nhc.htm
- Sveasoft Talisman, $20/year, personal favorite!
Upgrade the software in Linksys, D-Link and other routers to add several features including wireless bridge, wireless mesh, power boost, etc.
http://www.sveasoft.com
- Default Password List, free, service
List of the default passwords for various hardware devices.
http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html
- Default Router Passwords, free, service
List of the default passwords for all brands of network routers.
http://www.routerpasswords.com
- PhotoPlus, free
Raster (photo/picture) image editing program.
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com
- GIMPshop, free
Raster (photo/picture) image editing program.
http://www.plasticbugs.com
- Corel Paint Shop Pro, $$, personal favorite!
Raster (photo/picture) image editing program.
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1155872554948
2007-04-07: I still like early versions of this program because they are more capable than Microsoft Paint but less complicated than Adobe Illustrator.
- See OpenOffice.org Draw in Office Suites.
- Creature House Expression, free
Vector (drawing) image editing program like Adobe Illustrator.
http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/previous/expression3_home.aspx
- Google SketchUp, free, personal favorite!
3D sketching program.
http://sketchup.google.com
- Meez, free, service
Create animated 3D digital personas for export to Web profiles, blogs, etc.
http://www.meez.com/home.dm?
- ImageMagick, free, personal favorite!
Command-line tools for creating, editing and transforming images. Can be used for the batch processing of several images at one time.
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php
- Image Robot, $$, personal favorite!
Provides a graphical interface with step-by-step wizard to convert, resize, resample, and otherwise process several digital image files at one time.
http://www.jasc.com
2007-04-07: Now part of Corel Paint Shop Pro?
- Adobe DNG Converter, free
Converts the RAW files from 113 different cameras into Adobe's open-standard DNS (Digital Negative) RAR format.
http://www.adobe.com
- Exposure, $$$
Adobe Photoshop plug-in that mimicks the looks of various classic film types.
http://www.alienskin.com
- Fluid Mask, $$$
Isolates the subject of a picture from the background.
http://www.vertustech.com
- Machine Wash Image Filters I, II and III, $$ each
Degrade photos in various realistic ways.
http://www.misterretro.com
- Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer for Windows XP, free
Thumbnails, previews, prints, and displays metadata for RAW images from specific Nikon and Canon cameras.
http://www.microsoft.com
- Photozoom Professional, $$$
Enlarges digital photos by increasing the pixel count with greater control than is provided by most image editing programs.
http://www.benvista.com
- Rawshooter Essentials 2005, free
Program for viewing, correcting, and converting RAW format image files.
http://www.pixmantec.com
- Sharpener Pro, $$$
Adobe Photoshop plug-in that sharpens images for printing at a specific size.
http://www.nikmultimedia.com
- Windows Live Messenger, free, personal favorite!
Latest version of Microsoft's instant messaging (IM) software.
http://get.live.com/messenger/overview
2007-02-20: Changes names more than any other program on earth!
- Trillian Basic, free
Instant messaging program that works with all of the major services including AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger.
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com
- Vonage, $$, personal favorite!
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone network and PC-based PC-to-phone calling.
http://www.vonage.com
2007-04-28: Just like conventional telephone service in many ways except that the calls are routed via your high-speed Internet connection. I will highly recommend them until the day that Verizon sues them out of business!
- AT&T CallVantage, $$, service
VoIP service similar to Vonage.
http://www.att.com/callvantage
- Skype, free and $$
Instant messaging, PC-to-PC voice communications, and PC-to-phone calling (for a price).
http://www.skype.com
- Google Talk, free
Instant messaging with Voice-over-IP (VoIP) PC-to-PC voice calling features.
http://www.google.com/talk/
- ChatZilla, free
Mozilla Firefox add-on application that is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16
- See SeaMonkey in Web Browsers which includes an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.
- Tubes, free and $-$$/month
Similar to Microsoft Groove: Create secure, synchronized lists of files with other people.
http://www.tubesnow.com
2007-07-15: You are probably better off using Microsoft Groove if you have it as part of Microsoft Office since there is never any per-month charge for using Groove.
- Maxima, free, personal favorite!
Symbolic math program. Clone of MACSYMA. Smarter than your average college math student!
http://maxima.sourceforge.net
2007-07-16: This program seems to install and run under Windows Vista. I ran the install program as administrator, which I do for most install programs, and when I first ran it, I received a firewall warning so I chose the unblock option.
2007-07-01: The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor flags this program as being incompatible with Windows Vista.
- Axiom, free, personal favorite!
Comprehensive computer algebra system like Maxima.
http://wiki.axiom-developer.org
- SAGE, free
Another computer algebra system that combines Maxima with several other open source math programs.
http://www.sagemath.org
2007-05-01: Sage would probably be a personal favorite if it ran natively under Windows instead of requiring that you use the Cygwin environment.
- Mathematica, $$$
Graphically-oriented symbolic math program. Defines the category for PC-based programs.
http://www.wolfram.com
- Maple, $$$
Graphically-oriented symbolic math program.
http://www.maplesoft.com
- Winamp, free, personal favorite!
Best program that plays audio files in any format. Has limited support for playing videos.
http://www.winamp.com
- Lyrics Plugin, free, personal favorite!
Excellent add-on program for Winamp and Windows Media Player that shows the lyrics for the currently playing song.
http://www.lyricsplugin.com
2007-07-15: Seems to have a slightly better than 50% success rate at finding the lyrics for dozens of random songs that I played.
- VLC media Player, free
Plays all kinds of audio and video files.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc
- Full Motion Viewer, $$, personal favorite!
Slow-motion video viewer.
http://www.f-m-v.com
2007-04-07: Buggy, weird interface, irreplaceable one-of-a-kind program.
- PowerDVD, usually free, personal favorite!
DVD player that comes bundled with most DVD drives.
http://www.cyberlink.com
- iTunes, free, personal favorite!
Essential program for synchronizing audio to your iPod.
http://www.apple.com/itunes
- DivX Player, free, personal favorite!
Player for DivX-encoded movies.
http://www.divx.com
- Juice, free
Organize podcasts the way RSS readers organize RSS feed and the way e-mail programs organize e-mail messages.
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net
2007-04-07: This program used to be named iPodder.
- TiVoToGo, free, personal favorite!
Transfer TiVo TV programs to your desktop or notebook for viewing; access music and pictures on your TiVo unit.
http://www.tivo.com/4.9.4.1.asp
2007-07-01: This program still does not work with Windows Vista.
2007-04-07: This program is also called TiVo Desktop.
- Audacity, free, personal favorite!
Excellent audio editing program for slicing, dicing, splicing, and applying special effects to audio tracks.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net
- Accusplit, $$
Splits an AVI or MPEG-1 video clip into smaller, independently-playable clips.
http://members.cox.net/accusplit_support/index.htm
- RM Recorder and WM Recorder, $$
Records streaming audio and video from RealMedia and Windows Media respectively.
http://www.applian.com
- Steadyhand, $$
Removes the shaking from handheld video footage.
http://www.goodervideo.com
- Video Cleaner, $$
Converts video clips to the universal DV format.
http://www.riverpast.com/en/prod/videocleaner/index.php
- Video Converter, $$
Converts video clips between a wide range or formats.
http://www.xilisoft.com/video-converter.html
- Videora Conversion Tools, free
Convert videos between different formats.
http://www.videora.com
- Windows Movie Maker, free
Video editing software available for free for Windows XP and comes pre-installed with Windows Vista.
http://www.microsoft.com/moviemaker
- Comodo Firewall Pro, free, personal favorite!
My current favorite firewall. Block unsolicited incoming network access and unwanted outgoing network access.
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com
- ZoneAlarm, free, personal favorite!
This was my personal favority for a long time, but the free version is more limited than the free Comodo Firewall.
http://www.zonelabs.com
- Outpost Firewall Pro, free
Another good free firewall program.
http://www.agnitum.com
- Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall, free
Another good free firewall program.
http://www.kerio.com
- Sygate Personal Firewall, free
Another good free firewall program.
http://www.sygate.com
- Leak Test, free, service
Determine if your firewall blocks outgoing connections.
http://www.grc.com
- OpenVPN, free, personal favorite!
Free virtual private network (VPN) software for Windows, Linux, etc.
http://openvpn.net
2007-07-15: Not easy to configure but quite excellent if you can get it working correctly.
- LogMeIn Hamachi, free
Zero-configuration virtual private network (VPN) software. Create a virtual, encrypted channel between two computers via the Internet.
http://www.hamachi.cc
2007-07-15: The free version of this program is too limited to be very useful (for example, it cannot be run as a Windows service, meaning that the computer must be logged in for the software to be enabled) and the paid version is pretty expensive ($60 per year per computer).
- NMAP, free, personal favorite!
Scan computers and networks for open ports.
http://insecure.org/nmap
- Shields Up, free, service
Scan your public IP address for accessible ports.
http://www.grc.com
- Wireshark, free, personal favorite!
Analyze network traffic and find out what it means.
http://www.wireshark.org
2007-04-07: This program used to be named Ethereal.
- TCPView, free
See all of the network communications happening on your computer.
http://www.sysinternals.com
- Nessus, free
Network vulnerability scanner.
http://www.nessus.com
- Metasploit Project, free
Software and info for network penetration and exploit testing.
http://www.metasploit.com/
- Languard Network Security Scanner, $$$
Scans an entire network for hundreds on known vulnerabilities.
http://www.gfi.com
- NetStumbler, free
Detects wireless networks.
http://www.netstumbler.com
- Ferret, free
Wireless network data sniffer gathers and presents info from local b