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What programs do you use or would recommend?

TommyT

TommyT

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21
TX
Like the browser thread, I find these threads good to visit every so often and find new/cool programs others are using that I might benefit from. Lots of nifty programs are popping up regularly to fill some gap it seems. So what are some of your programs you always install on your computer or would recommend others install?

Work:
Slack
Team Viewer - Easy to use remote desktop software
Notepad++
LibreOffice - Free and open source Microsoft Office/Open Office replacement.
VS Code - https://code.visualstudio.com/ - Really lightweight and great program to develop in.
Fiddler - Network sniffer

Misc:
CD Burner XP
WinDirStat - Great for visualizing your hard drive and seeing what's taking up space.
VLC
Flux
Firefox
Chrome
Foxit - PDF suite
7zip - compress and uncompress everything

If you're looking to update or install multiple programs via a 'package', don't forget to checkout https://ninite.com/

Also, there are lots of compilations like this one on imgur. If you know of a compilation that has something not mentioned post it as well!

edit: Woops! Too early on the submit and borked the thread title ><;;
 
Goskarrr

Goskarrr

Member
Oct 27, 2017
422
Atom - great editor with rich ecosystem of plugins
Git - must have decentralized synchronized working platform
Evernote- keeps memos and remainder well organized, cross platform
 
HighlanderCZ

HighlanderCZ

Member
Oct 28, 2017
335
If you're into web/app design, check out Affinity Designer/Photo. Much more bang for your buck than with Adobe, since it's just one-time purchase and then you just own it, no subscription required.
 
Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,135
I use Sandboxie a lot, to lock programs into their own shielded environment.
Especially useful for programs I'll only need for a short time. When I delete the sandbox it's in, I can be sure everything will be completely gone with no traces left behind
 
Annubis

Annubis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,660
What comes to mind at the moment that hasn't been listed yet.

CheatEngine - By far the best free memory editor out there
CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) - You will never have a codec issue ever again and can stop using VLC
HxD - Easy to use hexadecimal editor
 
Kthulhu

Kthulhu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,670
Trello is a great project management tool we've started using

If you ain't using Discord then I don't know how you're on this forum.
 
Afterimage

Afterimage

Member
Oct 27, 2017
190
Would absolutely recommend Flux to anyone working at a computer all day. Provided you're not doing any colour-sensitive work, of course.
 
NotVeryFriendly

NotVeryFriendly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,669
These two are very domain specific, but TeXStudio to write in LaTeX is quite nifty and pretty easy to use. Definitely the best way to type up maths, and give you control over documents you create (can be a bit tricky, but you get a lot of control over articles; I'd definitely do my CV in it instead of Word). The ability to also input code in a very neat way also is a godsend in including it into documents without having to spend time trying to format it correctly.

TextExpander is something I was using for a job I've done before, and it's honestly been extremely convenient for me. Although I got the full version free through the job, it's been very seamless in allowing me to shortcut certain words, emails templates, form fields, etc. and enter them without having to remember complicated keyboard codes. Sometimes it can be irritating if you make poor choices for the shortcuts, but if you type similar things quite often (or long specific phrases regularly) it can be very helpful to really increase your efficiency.
 
Prophet Steve

Prophet Steve

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,177
Hmn, most of the useful ones that I can think of have already been mentioned.

I enjoy QTTabBar for tabs in Windows explorer though.
 
Mexen

Mexen

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,930
TLP for managing AC and battery
Sublime Text and Firefox Developer Edition for web development
CMUS for playing music as I code
Finally, Tilix and Guake for CLI such as cmus above and ssh/sftp-ing servers.

That's basically my life. I would like to add occasional use of Postman for USSD testing, Netbeans and Android Studio to that list.
I don't use VSCode because workspaces /multiple project folder support have not made their way outside of the Insider's program yet. And honestly, it fails where ST 3 shines easily.
 
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Master Kazuhira

Master Kazuhira

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
249
Israel
x5w5MtD.png


My stuff

Red Dot - Recommend! ( + 7zip )
Other - Optional

and must HAVE! f.lux
 
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Nidonodin

Nidonodin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
103
Flux is awesome. I cannot use a device at night if it has the default blueish/cold colors anymore.

For people suffering from RSI, i would recommend Workrave. It alerts or forces you (depending on your preference) to take small and long breaks, in case you forget to do so.
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,890
No MPC-HC love here? That's THE movie watching program. Better color and black-level accuracy than say VLC or WMP.
 

Deleted member 20296

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
685
I was on a massive hunt for a cross platform note takiNg tool

Boostnote

Works with Dropbox or any cloud folder. Edit in markdown so it takes code notes perfectly and supports clever screenshot taking as well, so it really fills the needs of my ops/sometimesdevops role.

Visual studio code is great for writing ansible and has good git integration

We use rocket chat at work. It's a poor man's slack and I really want actual slack :(
 
Reversed

Reversed

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,365
Itsycal for calendar viewing on macOS. How come it doesn't have it out of the box?

UnRAR Archiver used to give me ads. :/ Any suggestion for another .rar (de)compressor?

For videos mpv is king.
 
Scavenger

Scavenger

Member
Oct 27, 2017
225
The Netherlands
OptiPNG - an easy to use command line program for lossless batch re-compression of png pictures.
MakeMKV - Blu-ray/DVD ripping software that is free while in beta (in beta for nearly 10 years)

BLEEN said:
No MPC-HC love here? That's THE movie watching program. Better color and black-level accuracy than say VLC or WMP.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I use MPC-HC in conjunction with the madVR renderer as my default player. madVR color output is accurate when set up properly, so I also use it to take accurate Blu-ray screenshots.
 
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DBT85

DBT85

Resident Thread Mechanic
Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,282
My remote desktop app of choice is Anydesk. Can run from an exe if needed, very fast and responsive.
 
Hokey

Hokey

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,164
CCleaner
Program is real easy to use
I've never had any problems or viruses on any of my computers
I've never used a virus check
I keep all computers running smooth and problem free using this program by removing unwanted files, uninstalling, clearing registries etc.

People have no idea how much resources are used up by installing too much stuff on your computer especially in startup. I have zero programs on startup and this program helps me manage that at a glance.

Windows Media Player Classic (MPC-HC) - Best program for watching movies (color rendition etc) and allows me to bitstream Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio on movies which VLC cannot.
 
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brokenmachine

brokenmachine

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,101
ShareX - A free and open source program that can capture or record selected area from the screen with a single keypress, automatically save them to your hard disk/clipboard, and instantly upload them to an image/file hosting service and then can copy the URL to your clipboard.
 
Shoes

Shoes

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,586
Hokey said:
CCleaner
Program is real easy to use
I've never had any problems or viruses on any of my computers
I've never used a virus check
I keep all computers running smooth and problem free using this program by removing unwanted files, uninstalling, clearing registries etc.

People have no idea how much resources are used up by installing too much stuff on your computer especially in startup. I have zero programs on startup and this program helps me manage that at a glance.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

CCleaner scared me off with their client being hacked a month or two ago.
 
Hokey

Hokey

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,164
Good to know but the version I use is pretty old as I don't really update the program and the last time I downloaded it was because the version I already had did not support 64bit OS.
 
Zukuu

Zukuu

Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,809
Potplayer is the best video player period. It seems to be somewhat unknown to the general public tho.
 
Vestal

Vestal

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,297
Tampa FL
Adding to the list of must haves.

Work Programs:
MobaXterm for SSH and terminals.
Postman
WCFStorm
Visual Studio Enterprise - I'm a Developer what can I say?
Powergui - Quick and dirty way to make Powershell scripts. The underlaying snapin are still pretty competent eventhough it hasn't been updated in ages.
Powershell Studio - Amazing piece of software to build robust Powershell scripts. (Makes building Windows Form based scripts a snap)
Tableau - Data Visualization Software.
Vizio

Add the following for home use.
Discord
 
mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,249
Maryland
PowerShell ISE - Built into Windows. I use it for scripting and automating.

VS Code (listed in OP) - I just learned about it recently from a colleague and have been using it non-stop! Might take over my use of PowerShell ISE.

Putty - SSH for a Windows desktop user if you want to work on a Raspberry Pi or Linux VMs. Alternatively, Windows 10 has a bash subsystem feature you can enable.

VM Workstation - Virtualization environment for building a test lab.

DropBox - Everyone knows what it is. I've been using it for years, and haven't bothered trying any other cloud storage service other than my own AWS S3 buckets.

Media Player Classic with CCCP is a good one mentioned in here.
 
Fer

Fer

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
1,022
At work, I always ask for:
FileZilla - FTP thing
7zip - to zip/unzip things
PicPick - screencap and quick image editor, perfect for email and power point stuff.

Edit: Google Chrome too.
 
fatty

fatty

Member
Oct 27, 2017
135
Just to help out those of us not familiar with some of these, would you guys mind putting a short description of the program? Thanks for posting these!
 
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Capt_Shanu

Capt_Shanu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
155
Classic Shell, makes Windows 10 feel like home again.

http://www.classicshell.net/

From the website:

Classic Shell™ is free software that improves your productivity, enhances the usability of Windows and empowers you to use the computer the way you like it. The main features are:
* Highly customizable start menu with multiple styles and skins
* Quick access to recent, frequently-used, or pinned programs
* Find programs, settings, files and documents
* Start button for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
* Toolbar and status bar for Windows Explorer
* Caption and status bar for Internet Explorer

Classic Shell has been in active development for 6 years and has tens of millions of downloads.
 
lordxar

lordxar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,103
Be careful using ccleaner or any other reg cleaner for that matter. One thing I hate to see when I get a ticket is that someone used that before I got the problem. Why is this an issue? Because it just wipes sections of the registry out without regard of whether its needed or not. Fortunately my company outlawed it since its not free for corporate use. When I see that someone used that thing before I got the ticket I just send it back and say have fun fixing it. There is a pretty good reason Microsoft says leave the registry alone unless you know exactly what your doing and ccleaner is like running a chainsaw in the dark.

Notpad++ is an echo but that program is amazing with the amount of things it does for coding and just general text file work.
Greenshot is my go to for screen capture.
Virtuawin is a damn good desktop manager.
 
Currygan

Currygan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
307
Revo Uninstaller Pro, it clears everything out of a program to the smallest registry entry
 
shnurgleton

shnurgleton

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,864
Boston
Steam

I use Cmdr a lot. Good replacement for cmd.exe, handles basic bash commands within the Windows environment and allows tabs
 
Hat22

Hat22

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,652
Canada
Use Flux. Changes the screen brightness based on the time of day. Simulates the progress of time so you don't get a blinding shock when you go outside.

Also helps with sleep.
 
Vestal

Vestal

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,297
Tampa FL
mhayes86 said:
PowerShell ISE - Built into Windows. I use it for scripting and automating.

VS Code (listed in OP) - I just learned about it recently from a colleague and have been using it non-stop! Might take over my use of PowerShell ISE.

Putty - SSH for a Windows desktop user if you want to work on a Raspberry Pi or Linux VMs. Alternatively, Windows 10 has a bash subsystem feature you can enable.

VM Workstation - Virtualization environment for building a test lab.

DropBox - Everyone knows what it is. I've been using it for years, and haven't bothered trying any other cloud storage service other than my own AWS S3 buckets.

Media Player Classic with CCCP is a good one mentioned in here.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


I would suggest you give mobaxterm a try to replace Putty. If you ever want to do more than simply scripting in Powershell I suggest Powershell Studio.
 
hobblygobbly

hobblygobbly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,573
NORDFRIESLAND, DEUTSCHLAND
If you've always felt that Windows' file manager is missing features like tabs or split views, I highly recommend Total Commander which I've been using for more than a decade. I pretty much use it exclusively to navigate the filesystems on my Windows machines and is highly customisable with tons of plugins too.

There are similar programs like Multi Commander that looks more modern but I've been using Total Commander for so long that I've never found the need to use another.

Total Commander: https://www.ghisler.com/download.htm
Multi Commander: http://multicommander.com/

Also the Write! program is really good for writing essays, novels, notes, basically anything. https://writeapp.co/book-writing-software
 
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mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,249
Maryland
Vestal said:
I would suggest you give mobaxterm a try to replace Putty. If you ever want to do more than simply scripting in Powershell I suggest Powershell Studio.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I've heard of PS Studio, but never looked into it. I did a quick search and I will definitely give it a go! It looks like it has a number of great features. Same goes with mobaxterm. Good lord.
 
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