List of Useful & Free Software Programs

Trekker8 · Oct 15, 2006

Graphics:

Blender - blender.org
Open Source 3D-Modeling/Graphics program. Easy to use (after a few minutes of learning). Personally, my friends and I think it's better than professional programs (like Maya).

glisp42 · Oct 15, 2006

Ewido Anti-Spyware. A very good anti-spyware program. The free version includes auto update and spyware sheild free for 30 days but the scanner stays indefinately, as does the manual update feature. I ran it on my friends computer and it caught a worm that Norton, Spybot and Ad Aware missed. I highly recommend this program.

t0mme · Oct 15, 2006

MP3Gain for normalizing your MP3's. Can't live without it anymore...

Tired of reaching for your volume knob every time your mp3 player changes to a new song?
MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume.

MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do. Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the file actually sounds to the human ear.
Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding.

GIR · Oct 16, 2006

jEdit: very powerful programmer's text editor. (side / wiki)

kimme · Oct 16, 2006

The best audio ripper for the windows platform is Exact Audio Copy, and it can grab any copy protected music compact disc with amazing quality.

And foobar for playing audio files.

medwynn · Oct 16, 2006

NASA's equivalent to Google Earth
Worldwind

Ranbir · Oct 16, 2006

Avant Browser

the top rated multi-window browser in Internet, which adds a batch of features and functionalities to Internet Explorer. Avant Browser is the fastest web browser on Earth. Its user-friendly interface brings a new level of clarity and efficiency to your browsing experience, and frequent upgrades have steadily improved its reliability. Now, Avant Browser is available in 41 languages.

Also, the same developers have Orca which runs on the Gecko engine.

Avant Browser 2006 (unreleased) will run on both IE and Gecko engines, providing the compatibility and security of both!

NubianMercenary · Oct 16, 2006

http://www.grc.com/intro.htm

A very good site, can test your firewalls strength (safely) and has lots of free software and hints how to maintain a virus free comp.

http://www.crystalspace3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-view_articles.php

Nice progamming engine.

NubianMercenary

Rhymes · Oct 16, 2006

I use the Sygate personal firewall on windows. (with AVG anti virus and Ad-aware). So I'm entirely protected with free programms, and frankly, I like them way more then Norton security.

Sygate has the most user friendly interface among free firewalls imo. You can get it at zdnet here
Or by searching Sygate personal firewall on google.

CommandoBob · Oct 16, 2006

Two that would be part of System Utilities:

Cacheman XP which lets you know how much free memory (RAM) is available to use. Handy to have when your machine runs slow; at least you know why.

WinASO Registry Optimizer cleans out trash from your registry. Free version will correct 10 errors at a time.

One for Internet Security:

BHO Demon keeps track of Browser Helper Objects (BHO) and tells you how harmful they may or may not be. However, from the author:

I am very sorry, but BHODemon is currently on hiatus, as I no longer have the time to devote to it (due to a house fire). You will not be able to download updates or upload reports, and I will no longer be answering emails. At some point, BHODemon may return. I would like to thank everyone for their support over the years.

Underseer · Oct 16, 2006

Memtest86+

Updated version of Memtest86. Creates a bootable floppy that you can use to test your system RAM. If you suspect you have bum RAM and want to test it, run this program for as long as possible (let it loop through a few times), as your CPU cache can obfuscate test results for a pass or three.

Turner · Oct 17, 2006

Perfection said:
Do any of these free image software suites have good stuff for making animated .gifs?

GIMP works pretty good.

GrendelS · Oct 17, 2006

Thunderfall, nice list - but since when do personal firewalls have any measurable effect on one's security?

To add something to the list:

A good, non-bloatware anti virus program is Avira (http://www.free-av.com/), if you blog, you'd like Windows Live Writer (never mind the source ;-) - http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/ )

If you're a techie and have lots of non- or lowtech friends, install UltraVNC on their computers to make your life easier (http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/).

Skype is great, even better if both users have a webcam (http://www.jajah.at/ is nice and free, too, but doesn't belong in a list for free software).

Software encryption: The one and only, TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/)

Webdesign: Phase5 (http://www.qhaut.de/forums/index.php?dlcategory=1)

Xenu Linkchecker (http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html)

Safe file transfer: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

Aphex_Twin · Oct 17, 2006

Ranbir said:
Avant Browser

the top rated multi-window browser in Internet, which adds a batch of features and functionalities to Internet Explorer. Avant Browser is the fastest web browser on Earth.

Actually, Opera is the fastest out there:
http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html
Avant is still pretty fast though.

But most sites these days are optimized to work in IE and Firefox. Which is making Firefox in particular rather slow (complacency).

Heretic_Cata · Oct 17, 2006

^
Yup Opera is the free, best and fastest.

Aphex_Twin said:
Azureus - A very good BitTorrent client

BitCommet is better. (even acording to XtremPC)

AMule - A P2P client for the E2K and Kad networks (>20 million users at all times).

EMule forever.

Turner · Oct 17, 2006

Firefox has been incredibly slow on any system I've run it on. Avant has always been faster.

But whatever. I really don't care what browser other people use. Avant is pretty good, I've been using it for quite a while. And if Firefox or Opera get your goat, well, then, good for you.

Although I have to admit I'm not too impressed with Avant 11.0.

Impartial, &amp; VR · Oct 17, 2006

www.izarc.org -- izarc is the best zip and rar compression utility I've used, and it's entirely free. Check it out.

Perfection · Oct 18, 2006

Celestia, Good free Planetarium software stuff thingy goodness
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Titi · Oct 18, 2006

Impartial said:
www.izarc.org -- izarc is the best zip and rar compression utility I've used, and it's entirely free. Check it out.

But sometimes it's slow... so slow you sometimes think you didn't launch it!

GrendelS · Oct 18, 2006

the ultimate list is here... http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/

List of Useful & Free Software Programs

Chieftain

Chieftain

Great Red One

It'sNotStupidIt'sAdvanced

Chieftain

Chieftain

Civ junkie

Warlord

Drive 4 25 is back

AbstractArt

King

Deity

civ addict beyond remedy

Evergreen

We're gonna live forever

Deity

Impartial, &amp; VR

Guest

The Great Head.

Prince

civ addict beyond remedy

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