Favorite freeware/utilities from web?
 

I just got a new notebook this week, and had to go through the joy of reinstalling all my work/play apps and configuring it the way I like. I figured that since it was fresh on my mind that I might as well post the "must have" freeware apps and files that I went to the web for after first boot. Who knows, you might find something you haven't heard of that's useful, or you might have another free app that does the job even better. Anyway here goes:

Media Player Classic: This no-frills media player replacement is especially dear to my heart. It's reminiscent of Windows Media Player before they started adding a crappy interface, tons of bloat, and DRM to it. The best part about Media Player Classic though is that you can get codecs that play Real audio/video files and quicktime movies without installing those programs on your machine at all!

Quicktime Alternative
Real Alternative

You can also download Microsoft's Windows Media Player 9 codecs separately. Combine these with your latest divx codec (make sure to get one without spyware), latest xvid codec, and AC3 filter, and you should be able to play pretty much any movie/video file you find on the intareweb.

Irfanview: A great free image viewer/editor for basic tasks like converting bmps to jpgs and resizing pics for posting and such

Powertoys XP The TweakUI and command line here utilities are must haves, of course. I'm also fond of Black Viper's WinXP service descriptions

I'm a tabbed interface junkie too. I use Myie2 for web browsing (popup stopper, tons of plug ins, tabs, and compatibility of IE6) and GAIM for instant messaging (connects to pretty much all IM networks simultaneously and keeps all conversations in a single tabbed window).

You might have tried to download desktop themes from the web on Windows XP to find that they wouldn't show up or install on your box unless you bought MS's Plus pack. No worries; you just need a single uxtheme.dll from the web. More discussion is found here on that topic.

At the risk of being labeled a homo, I have to admit that I use iTunes for mp3 playback. Its equalizer and search are really nice and other than being forced to get my ID3 tags in order I have no complaints. I found a way to play Vorbis OGG files in iTunes btw.

Speaking of ID3 tags and mp3s, Tag&Rename is the greatest app ever if you have poorly named/incorrectly tagged mp3s of albums. For cd ripping to mp3 I am pretty fond of CDEX with the LAME codec at 256kbps highest quality.

Rainlendar: This little app puts a calendar on your desktop that's synched up with your Outlook calendar. Somewhat a mix between eyecandy and useful but I have gotten quite used to it on my work machines.

The rest of the apps I use daily and love I mostly had to pay for, but I'm sure that you guys have some additional tips/utilities/freeware that you can recommend.

well, I gotta put in my plug for OpenOffice, I'm a recent convert to that. It's a great MS Office open source clone which includes all the apps you need, even powerpoint, paint, and html editor clones. www.openoffice.org

i'd have to add

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/ for messenger services and

http://www.bb4win.org/ for the shell. i don't recommend it as much on a gaming machine, but on a work machine it's amazing. i can organize my work out on different desktops, and it seems to be a bit faster of a flow. plus i love the clean dektop :)

for web of course firefox, and mail i'm still liking thunderbird. although i'll admit, i'm not a complete convert just yet, i'm still mostly using outlook :(

Great list Ph I would like to add lavasoft Lavasoft .

Great idea for a thread.

I like EA7, a free utility for backing up Outlook Express. No more cut and paste of the registry, it does everything for you.

http://www.ajsystems.com/ea7.html

How 'bout MBM , or WCPUID .

:D

prime95
speedfan
trillian
pegasus mail
AVG antivirus
spybot
Refreshlock
Iplay Gamma hack - windows key, task switch disable, volume adjust and gamma hack via keyboard hotkeys

All i can think of right now ;)

well i don't actually use the utility.. i found it easier just to set the website as my homepage... but here it is http://www.slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8642 it's called slickalerts basically it just relays added threads from this site www.slickdeals.net which i must say kicks ass... great for all the cheap/ i mean frugal people out there

Miranda IM.... so much better than Trillian, and I'm prefer Litestep to Blackbox.

The rest are pretty much covered as far as I'm concerned apart from winamp 2.91 (none of that v3 or v5 nonsence)

You guys have forgot the must have need to download first program after a new windows install www.winzip.com
Never likes the inbuilt winxp zipper.

Buzz

Total Commander is a must :)

Total Commander - home

lemme add WinRAR
I prefer WinRAR over Winzip...

and Audiograbber which is now FREEWARE! :)

Mozilla
 

Not exactly a favorite but a definate must have is Acrobat Reader

Dave

HijackThis, StartupList and CWShredder, nice and useful...

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

We must not forget The Gimp

Serious Samurize
http://www.samurize.com/modules/news/

Can display basically anything you want on your desktop. 100% customizable. I love it.

I don't know how "free" this is but Alchohol 120% I find invaluable.

MozBackup

A free util to backup Mozilla, FireFox [or FireWhatever :)], Thunderbird and Netscape.

It also works perfectly fine to import your e-mail accts, filters etc. from Mozilla Mail to Thunderbird. Thunderbird 0.8 comes with a built-in importer, but didn't correctly import my data from Mozilla mail. So MozBackup works...

Nlite
 

OK, not exactly a utility per-se, but I've heard good things about N-Lite.
Basically compiles an ISO of windows with any registry settings, programs, service-packs etc. al. directly off of the burned disc. I have to admit I havn't tried it, but it sounds like a great way to keep from having to d/l all of your software and get everything configured off the bat. Just think of it, windows WITHOUT that dumbass search dog, straight off the disc...

I was just looking at this thread to remember how to customize the windows xp themes and thought I should add some freeware and see if anyone has any new ones to add...

Axcrypt - Useful for easy encryption on windows
Eraser - Good for wiping clean hard drives or just files that need to be gone
Objectdock - (eyecandy) sort of a rip off of OSX icon launcher thing.
Stickit -Sticky notes for the desktop

Well there are a couple of nice ones

xplorer² lite - File manager, designed to look a lot like windows explorer, only with LOTS more features - dual panes, folder tabs etc. Theres also payware Pro version.

Truecrypt - Real-time hard drive encryption for paranoiacs! Sweet, and totally transparent in use

Surprised nobody mentioned it yet: the tools available from Sysinternals Heaps of stuff there tcpview, pstools etc etc

Hmmm...
Unit Converter cool little utility that lets you convert from one measurement system to another (extensible with your own formulas)
The foundstone free tools (mostly security and network stuff)
Seagull Free FTP client not as slick as some others, but does a great job getting FTP data when the connection is bad (just keeps retrying in mid-capture)
Popfile - a great spam filter (baysean filter, simply marks categories in a header field, your email client then needs to do "whatever")
Privoxy a http "proxy" that can remove ads, "web-bugs", whatever.
I guess that's all I can think of that haven't already been mentioned...

Here's another one I've used:
http://www.softbytelabs.com/

Principally, the BlackWidow program, that downloads a copy of an entire website down (used for the DB core project).