favorite apps

A list of the best programs - It‘s taken me a really long time to come up with this list.. program after program.. it‘s just really hard to find the right one. This is generally a best programs for Windows list, but most of these programs are cross platform, so I recommend them to people of all operating systems that can support them. My general rule for the best applications is simple, fast, configurable and low resource consumption. Most of them are free too. There are so many programs that seem like they‘re tailored just for me and I‘m glad I‘ve found them. I‘d like to share this list with you as well.
OperaOpera is the combat knife of my arsenal. This is the one weapon I would never leave behind and the first one I‘d ever think to pack. Opera is the best browser on the face of the earth. Opera‘s capabilities far exceed those of Internet Explorer and Firefox (Firefox is recommended over IE of course and is also quite a capable browser). Opera is free and easy to use and is by far the fastest browser. Operahas a ton of features that would take me pages and pages to describe. I like it because it‘s highly customizable, easy to use and improves my productivity while browsing. I would easily enter any web browsing speed competition without hestiation and be confident for a win just because of Opera. As a web developer, designer, programmer, etc I rely on Opera‘s professional features to help me get through every day. It really is made for power users, but it‘s easy enough for anybody to use. Anyway. Some of my favorite features:
Fastest browser out there Easy to use built-in professional features for web developers Address bar keyword shortcuts Mouse gestures Keyboard shortcuts Popup Blocking Tabbed Browsing (it‘s the original tabbed browser) Highly customizable interface Ability to quickly toggle features like plugins, JavaScript, Java, sound and cookies Fantastic built-in email client Undo - if you accidentally close a window you can undo it and get your window back Saved sessions - if your OS or Opera crashes it‘ll save exactly where you were and all the windows you had open. It saves your emails for you too. Absolutely amazing feature. Free
Like I said, Opera has a billion other features. You should check it out. What‘ve you got to lose? Increase your productivity, speed and quality of browsing.
Runner up:Firefox
Adobe PhotoshopPhotoshop is my number one software tool for makingthe images I do on this website. It‘s a great photo editor with a ton of features and can pretty much do whatever you want it to do with a photo. Doesn‘t really fit the "simple, fast, low resource consumption" profile, but formy professional life I have to make sacrifices sometimes. Alternately I would recommendthe GIMP; it‘s nice and free and has many Photoshop-like features.
jEditNo matter what language you program in, even if it‘s just html,jEdit is a great editing tool. It‘s free and does exactly what I like it to do. Favorite features:
Tons of plugins for tons of programming languages Tag completion FTP/SFTP plugin so I can edit right off of remote sites Highly customizable interface Code coloring Free
It‘s not really resource friendly since it‘s Java-based, but it is simple and speeds up my work. If you‘re looking for a great all-around editor jEdit is really worth a try.
FileZillaUsed just about everytime I do anything with a text editor or image manipulation program,FileZilla is probably your best bet for FTP and SFTP on Windows. FileZilla is fast, stable, simple, reliable and free. It blows the competition out of the water (Yes even SmartFTP). It has drag and drop support, a no-bullshit interface, easy management of ftp/sftp locations (essential in my field) andplenty of other cool features. Filezilla is pretty awesome and definitely suits my needs. A very close runner-up in my book isWinSCP. If you need a new client you‘ll probably want to try both.
RainlendarWant to get organized easily?Rainlendar is your best bet for a simple, fast, no bullshit calendar. Easy to use and has yet to fail me. Some of us don‘t have outrageously tight schedules and we‘re by our computers most of the time, but occasionally we need a reminder. If this is you too, you‘ll want to try this program - it‘s free.
foobar2000foobar2000 - simply the best audio player for Windows. If you are a fan of the early days of Winamp in all its simplicity, if you just like simple programs, if you want a resource friendly player, if you want a shitton of features or you just want to try a new program - this is for you. I would recommend no audio player for windows other than this one. It always does exactly what I need it to do, it‘s fast as hell and has a completely no bullshit interface. Favorite features:
Global Hotkeys Fastest player out there Low resource consumption Extremely simple interface Highly customizable Easy to use Tons of supported audio formats Free
If you‘re interested in visual features or just how customizable foobar2000 is you can just take a look at somescreen shots.
If you download it most of you will want the "Special installer" since it contains all the software you‘ll need to play the greatest number of audio formats.
DiskeeperDiskeeper is almost essential for any Windows user. Windows comes with its own dumbed down version of it, but the paid version will serve you best. Not everyone understandsfile fragmentation, but all you need to understand about it is that it can make your computer run slower and decrease your harddrive‘s reliability. Diskeeper can fix this for you and is quite the easy application to use. I have mine set to run whenever my screensaver runs so I never have to do anything manually.
WindowsAnd of course I can‘t forget the operating system that houses all these wonderful applications for me; yesMicrosoft Windows is on my list of favorite applications. There are a lot of people who hate Windows, plenty more who hate Microsoft as a whole, but quite honestly Windows has been extremely good to me. Windows XP is incredibly stable, runs all my applications that I need, is easy to use and understand and I have very few complaints about it. I have yet to find a more user friendly workstation OS that supports all my needs and really runs the way I want it to. I‘ve sampled various other operating systems, I even run Linux on my server, but as far as my desktop goes Windows is the only route for me.
SynergyEver wanted aKVM switch but couldn‘t afford one? Well,Synergy isn‘t a KVM exactly.. just a KM.. and it‘s not really a switch.. it‘s just software - but doesn‘t that make it better? Yes it does. Synergy is a low-resource consumption program to link two of your computers together - incredibly useful if you have two or more computers with monitors on your desk. Synergy will easily let you move your mouse back and forth between the two screens and type on them using just one keyboard. Good for pasting text from one computer to the other, typing or mousing on another screen when a keyboard or mouse might be missing from it or even just when it might be out of reach. Oh yes.. and it‘s free.
Media Player Classic bundled in K-Lite Mega PackDownload any media you want and this will play it. Media Player Classic isn‘t much on its own, but bundled with theK-Lite Mega Pack of codecs and utilities it‘s the best media player choice you have for Windows. It‘s resource friendly and extremely easy to use. The interface is clean and it has yet to fail me when playing video. I actually found this while trying to get rid of the outrageously stupid and annoying QuickTime and Real Media players for Windows; this pack comes with Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative which both work fantastically. Yet another fantastic free application.
Runner up:VLC media player
WinDirStatWinDirStat is one of the coolest tools for viewing your drive space on Windows and just what‘s taking it up. It scans selected drives and gives you a directory list and a really cool graphical display of what data is where and how much space everything is taking up; it‘s an excellent tool for cleaning up your drive space. The graphical part of the program is probably one of the coolest parts because it will show you a map of your drive and you can click right on the biggest files and see what they are and where. Too bad they don‘t have a logo as cool looking as the graphics in the program. It‘s an incredibly simple program to use, it‘s fun to look at even if you aren‘t having space problems, it‘s a great diagnostic tool, has an incredible user interface and it‘s absolutely free.
GaimDump AIM, getGaim. If you‘re still using AIM, seriously you have to switch; if you use Trillian and you think you‘ve found the best thing in the world, you‘re sadly mistaken; if you‘re aMiranda user then you probably won‘t want to switch - so yes I also recommend Miranda. Gaim is my choice instant messaging client because it operates exactly how I like it to. It‘s got a great user interface, tabbed message windows, connects to AIM, MSN, IRC, Yahoo!, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber and more.
Spybot Search & DestroyI don‘t useSpybot much anymore, but that doesn‘t mean it‘s not a great application. The combination of Opera and my being a competent computer user have kept spyware off my machine and Spybot hasn‘t had the chance to find anything here in quite some time.. I don‘t even run it more than once every few months, but I still use it excessively on other people‘s computers for finding spyware and find plenty. It‘s a great app, easy to use, updates itself and it‘s free - highly recommended especially if you use anything besidesOpera for a browser.
Foxit PDF ReaderFoxit is a free PDF reader for Windows. It‘s a billion times faster than Adobe Acrobat to load and faster to use as well. There‘s not much to say about this program other than it beats the hell out of Acrobat.
Windows PowerToysWindows would not be complete withoutPowerToys for Windows. All the PowerToys programs are small, efficient little programs and I often wonder why they are not included as default tools with Windows. They‘re also completely free. The two favorites of mine (actually the only ones I use) are Tweak UI and Image Resizer.
Tweak UI
A default Windows installation is usually far from being perfect. There‘s plenty of optimizing you‘ll want to do on your own; Tweak UI will let you do that. Easily change shell, mouse, keyboard and other settings in Windows. This program is a requirement for anyone who is serious Windows user.
Image Resizer
Not everyone has Photoshop; even if you do you probably don‘t always like loading it up just to resize an image. The folks over at Microsoft have taken care of this one for us in a very simple and elegant manner. Image Resizer does just what it says. You‘ll want this program for yourself and definitely for all your friends who can‘t seem to figure out how to resize their images before they upload them to their blogs or send them to you in emails.
礣orrentI‘ve used all the big name torrent programs.. this is the only one I ever want to use again.礣orrent is the smallest, most efficient, most resource friendly, easiest to use BitTorrent client out there for Windows.
One Response to 揻avorite apps?/H3>themaxx.ca Says:
November 27th, 2005 at 16:36
Excellent list ;)
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