List of Useful & Free Software Programs

aimeeandbeatles · Feb 14, 2009

Media Player Classic.

I use this to test authored DVDs before burning them.

aimeeandbeatles · Feb 14, 2009

Pete Atoms said:
Not sure if it's been added here before.

DriverMax

Spoiler :

Note: DriverMax only works on Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2003 (all service packs). Driver downloads are *only* available for Windows Vista and Windows XP users.

DriverMax is a new tool that allows you to download the latest driver updates for your computer. No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Just create a free account, log in, and start downloading the updates that you need.

You can also export all your current drivers (or just the ones that work ok) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place!

Most of the situations when Windows is running slower are caused by faulty driver installations. Windows stores all versions of older drivers just in case you want to go back; sometimes it messes up older versions with more recent ones. The Export Wizard will only export the drivers you select by copying the needed files to a folder or a compressed ZIP file.

After reinstalling Windows all drivers will be back in place in less than 5 minutes - sparing you of searching, inserting disc after disk and losing precious time. The Import Drivers wizard allows you to install all the drivers that you exported earlier. The entire operation might take up to 5-10 minutes.

Just one single computer restart will be required after all drivers are reinstalled!

DriverMax is able to display a complete report of all drivers (versions, release dates) installed on your system. This feature can also be very useful when you want to analyze the differences between the drivers installed on different machines.

I've taken a look, I like it although I'm a little leery of it -- there's a devices.exe it adds to the process list, and googling says it may be harmful, so I'm not sure. Of course, the devices.exe could be a different devices.exe than the harmful ones...

ainwood · Feb 28, 2009

Start up Delayer

You can look at your list of start-up programs, and schedule them so that they don't all try to start the minute the windows gets to the desktop. E.g. Why spend your CPU cycles trying to load the adobe launcher, itunes helper and steam all before your wireless router connection software has loaded?

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 8, 2009

Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder
It's mainly for getting your Windows license key out of the registry, but I found several other programs as well.

Highly recommended.

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 13, 2009

What's a good program for splicing several pictures together? I have a bunch of pieces of pictures of Petty & the Heartbreakers and I want to put them together

an example:
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/448/vts01320080428164550.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2103/vts01320080428164444.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4041/vts01320080428164619.jpg

Thanks.

I googled it and got a bunch of Photoshop tutorials for versions newer than mine (5.5).

Genocidicbunny · Mar 13, 2009

GIMP
You gotta know how to do it though. There are dedicated proggies for this, but man are they pita's to use.

Turner · Mar 13, 2009

I second gimp, and it being a pita to use.

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 13, 2009

thank you.

I read somewhere that if you're coming from Photoshop, GIMP can be hard to navigate. I don't really use Photoshop much, though, so I'd probably figure it out.

Genocidicbunny · Mar 13, 2009

I agree with that. GIMP is kinda annoying to use, but for the more basic editing tasks, its perfectly fine. The GIMP team should look into getting an interface designer though.

Zelig · Mar 13, 2009

It's slightly better in recent versions, the default interface at least doesn't open up 4 windows on the task bar anymore.

GoodGame · Mar 14, 2009

Gimp and Blender. I actually made my own avatar on another board with just opening Gimp and going on intuition.

For Blender, I've needed the online help and a Dummies guide. Still it's like $3000 of software for free.

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 14, 2009

I may or may not mention it before -- for hardware identification, I use HWiNFO32. the Windows (32) one is freeware, DOS one costs. And I've tried Everest Home, it couldn't identify some things. Except for accidentally melting my computer it works fine.

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 15, 2009

MPEG Streamclip -- A lot of functions. One of the ones I use is to demux the audio and video streams.

ffdshow -- The video decoder I recommend. Link 1, Link 2

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 15, 2009

Belarc Advisor -- "Free Personal PC Audit." Identifies hardware, software, missing Microsoft hotfixes, serial numbers. anti-virus, etc etc. I downloaded this to try to identify my mobo (other programs either gave me several, couldn't identify, or weren't in English) and it worked.

Speedfan is a good temperature monitor. It takes the sensors and tells you temperature. And also tells the fan speed.

HDD Health (scroll down) -- monitors S.M.A.R.T. values. You can stick it in your system tray.

Empty Folder Nuker -- Finds and lets you delete empty folders.

BadPeggy (scroll down) -- finds corrupted JPEG images. Also tells you exactly what's wrong with them.

MS DirectShow SDK CPU Grabber (scroll down) -- Takes up a certain amount of CPU usage. I use it for slowing down the CPU to play old games, I could also imagine other uses for it.

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 16, 2009

SuperTux. Just addictive. :lol:

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 17, 2009

Edit: never mind, this can be deleted

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 21, 2009

MozBackup -- backup Mozilla profiles without manually copying and pasting.

happy_Alex · Mar 23, 2009

Does anyone know of a way to recover pictures after a system restore? I know there is photo recovery software, but which one?

I lost a few years of family photos, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

aimeeandbeatles · Mar 23, 2009

happy_Alex said:
Does anyone know of a way to recover pictures after a system restore? I know there is photo recovery software, but which one?

I lost a few years of family photos, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

If they've been overwritten, you're screwed. Which is likely possible, if you're still using the same HDD. However, I did get some luck with this. PhotoRec Some weren't recoverable, while others were partially corrupted (if the corruption is at the bottom, you can crop it off.)

To prevent further overwrtiing, I recommend putting it on a USB stick and recovering photos to there.

to open partly corrupted pics, I found IrfanView works, if you have a newer version of PhotoShop, try that, I read somewhere if PS can't open something, it's gone for good.

ori · Mar 23, 2009

happy_Alex said:
Does anyone know of a way to recover pictures after a system restore? I know there is photo recovery software, but which one?

I lost a few years of family photos, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Recuva - can work wonders - make sure though to not write anything on the disc which had these files until you are done recovering

List of Useful & Free Software Programs

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Consultant.

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Red, White, & Blue, baby!

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Happiness set to 11

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