7-Zip:
A flat out great program for zipping and unzipping programs, it's super easy to use. (Yes I realise that most everyone has this)
Audacity:
Perfect of editing and recording sound. My brother uses this a lot to make adventures out of character Quips.
NoteTab lite:
An alt to notepad, it's good for HTML editing and has more features like find/replace as well and mulit-tabs.
Paint.NET:
An great digital art maker, it lacks a few vital features, like smudge and mulit-layer editing, but all around it's much better then MS paint.
ninite.com
Making this thread redundant. The site may look a little sketch, but this is the best way to get all those useful programs you want.
Notepad++
It's probably better than NoteTab Lite in every way.
Dropbox
For backing up files to the intertubs, giving them to your friends, and sharing files between computers.
f.lux
Makes your screen oranger at night, to be easier on the eyes and less disruptive to your circadian rhythm.
Daemon Tools Lite
When you don't have a CD, you can use Daemon Tools to pretend you have a CD. I've yet to use this for lawful purposes.
Winamp
It's better than iTunes. It's better than Windows Media Player. Stop listening to music with those. Use Winamp instead. It really whips the llama's ass.
Sumatra PDF
A PDF reader that's not sluggish and bloated like Adobe's.
Hacking Tool is an amazing program, though I can't recall which member made it (was it Jacob?) and solved all of my Cave Story modding and hacking problems, and then some! I highly suggest you all try it out.
Notepad++ is what I use. A vastly improved notepad, and it's COMPLETELY FREE (whereas the one you linked has a trial version and a PURCHASABLE version. Imagine spending money on a notepad clone.)
Paint.NET:
An great digital art maker, it lacks a few vital features, like smudge and mulit-layer editing, but all around it's much better then MS paint.
FormatFactory, despite looking a little dated, is regularly updated and is actually a really good tool for converting one file type over to another. I use it exclusively for videos or music, though, since pictures are usually unnecessary.
Paint Tool SAI (Link contains English Translated Version) is a fairly good drawing program. Would recommend it.
ShareX allows you to easily and quickly upload photos and shit to the internet. You ever used puu.sh? It's like that but it goes to Imgur. Or dropbox. Or wherever you tell it to. Basically, a version of Puu.sh minus all the things that make Puu.sh suck.
HexChat is a fairly nice IRC client. All there is to say.
Gifcam lets you record your screen and save it DIRECTLY as a gif. Very useful.
Notepad++ is what I use. A vastly improved notepad, and it's COMPLETELY FREE (whereas the one you linked has a trial version and a PURCHASABLE version. Imagine spending money on a notepad clone.)
No it doesn't?
And I'll throw in some programs I can think of.FormatFactory, despite looking a little dated, is regularly updated and is actually a really good tool for converting one file type over to another. I use it exclusively for videos or music, though, since pictures are usually unnecessary.Paint Tool SAI (Link contains English Translated Version) is a fairly good drawing program. Would recommend it. ShareX allows you to easily and quickly upload photos and shit to the internet. You ever used puu.sh? It's like that but it goes to Imgur. Or dropbox. Or wherever you tell it to. Basically, a version of Puu.sh minus all the things that make Puu.sh suck.HexChat is a fairly nice IRC client. All there is to say.Gifcam lets you record your screen and save it DIRECTLY as a gif. Very useful.
Graphics Gale is literally made for doing pixel art. If you take a day to get used to it then it should prove much faster. It also works for creating spritesheets and pixel animations.
Virtualdub http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/
- a useful quick tool to view video files of all sorts with the right plugins and setup. When I want to quickly check something out (it could me a mp4, or a movie file disguised as a random filetype from a game), I don't load up something like Windows Movie Maker, Adobe After Effects, or any heavy editors. I load up Virtualdub, load the file and compress, append, rip audio to wav and am able to quickly prepare an upload to youtube. Just make sure you don't try to save something uncompressed...
Requires some knowledge to get the most out of it.
Yamb http://yamb.unite-video.com/index.html
- a tool to extract mp4 streams, and join them back again without re-encoding. Can also split files without re-encoding; and grab audio.
Cheatengine http://www.cheatengine.org/
- a useful tool for things other than cheating! I mainly use it for slowing or speeding up a process or game. It could produce unstable results, but so far it hasn't failed me.
Jdownloader http://jdownloader.org/
- a useful tool for downloading from links without the trouble of dealing with advertisements from download websites. I've had better success with downloading some resumable downloads than to trust Internet explorer's default downloader.
Translation Aggregator http://meltdowner.tumblr.com/post/4397307575/how-to-install-and-use-agth-and-atlas-translation
- There might be better tools now, but I still use this when I want to scour a game or document in a foreign language. Plus with the right options you can use the hooker program to translate information on the fly, or pesky windows error messages. It's a bit complex to get the best results (alternate programs increase its usability), but not a bad tool.
Livestream Procaster http://www.livestream.com/userguide/?title=Procaster
- A good video capture utility and streamer. Keeps video files small, and captures desktop, audio, games, etc. Free too. Requires a pretty good PC for best results. Check the requirements.
Splashtop Streamer http://www.splashtop.com/
- A handy free desktop streamer. (if running on your local wifi). Great if you have a tablet, and want to take a desktop around the house! Unfortunately some of the features require paid subscriptions; but it works great without paying anything too. Probably won't run Cave Story flawlessly unless you have an expensive wifi setup... I was using it to draw to a photoshop desktop using my tablet with the remote desktop... worked very well!
Shutdown Guard http://code.google.com/p/shutdownguard/
- Well... it's not a bad little program. It will prevent some non-forced restarts triggered by programs, protecting you from basic PC shutdown hacks and the lot. If you've ever had a bad experience with your PC shutting down before you got to save your work... This might be proved mild reassurance. (NOTE: It won't stop Windows Update from restarting your PC... there's another way to deal with that.)
VirtualMIDISynth http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth
- If you have some old games that utilize MIDI, or just want to give your system a makeover when listening to MIDI files. For those that still find MIDI useful... Well, this program allows you to load soundfonts to change the instruments and vastly improve the sound of MIDI music. No one soundfont sounds perfect for all songs, but it sure makes a difference... You'll still need to download soundfonts to take advantage of this though. Here I made this video to show what it can do :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwMgsN8wvgA
Alcohol 52% http://www.alcohol-soft.com/
- I still use this as an alternative to Daemon Tools for mounting images. It may come with some irritating software for the free version, but you can use something like AVG Free, which will detect the harmless but unneeded software and it kinda breaks it, yet Alcohol 52% still runs...... WORKS FOR ME!
Disabling Automatic Restart of Windows on Windows 7 machines (For EXPERTS, at your own risk) http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/i-want-to-turn-off-the-automatic-restart-for/88191194-d3e7-428d-a2a5-89e427756ccc
- Not a program, but an immensely useful registry edit. For those who like the automatic update to download, and install; but NOT to decide to restart when you are in the middle of work. SERIOUSLY WHYYYYY MICROSOFT!!! Lots of input going on, and BAM RESTARTING PC! WHATTTTT ................. Anyway, it will still ask you to reboot, but no automatic timer forcing restart. AND AGAIN FOR EXPERTS ONLY. Regedit is a dangerous tool if you don't know what you're doing. Don't mess up your PC!
Symlinks in Windows machines (For EXPERTS too) http://www.tested.com/tech/windows/39-using-symlinks-in-windows-for-fun-and-profit/ http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-symlinks-in-windows-vista/
- Okay, you just got a new harddrive, and you're almost out of space on your primary drive... Oh geez... gotta uninstall, and reinstall everything... NO! With the proper use of symlinks, you can redirect the PC when it goes to a certain location. For instance, I copied my entire SteamApps folder to a different drive; and then made a symlink so when Steam goes to the previous file location, it is seemlessly redirected to the new location. No reinstalls needed~ It's easier to just read the sites posted to get a better idea of what it does.
WinRAR and 7zip http://www.rarlab.com/ http://www.7-zip.org/
- My preferred file compression programs. Winrar for most cases; but 7zip comes in handy sometimes. I've seen 7zip get better compression, but most people don't have it... WinRAR will work even after the trial runs out.
Winamp http://www.winamp.com/
- As mentioned previously, it's a nice audio program. But, currently it is in the process of switching ownership... It'll be worth keeping an eye on. The old version should work well, lots of plugins! Even ORG, NES, SNES, Playstation, etc, etc...
AVG Free
- A good baseline virus scanner. It has its share of false positives, but you can report them or add them to your exceptions. Don't go unprotected! Use something!
ffdshow http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/
- A useful bunch of directshow and VFW filters/codecs that should get almost all videos working. Though it might require some advanced work to get it working completely... Also you might need ffdshow for 32bit, and 64bit if you are running a 64 bit system.
For W7 and maybe W8, you might need this : http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Preferred-Filter-Tweaker
And if you get this, and virtualdub, then you should get the directshow input driver, so you can load many other types using the drop down menu.
You might want the FLVsplitter too... Hmmm...
motioninjoy http://www.motioninjoy.com/
better ds3 http://betterds3.ciebiera.net/
- For those who have a PS3 controller, but no X-Box controller for the PC... motioninjoy will get the controller working, and betterds3 will run it without the troublesome motioninjoy interface (might have advertisements, and leave your PC vulnerable so switch to betterds3 after getting it working) It can create some issues if you have a non-supported bluetooth hub, but I was able to get it working anyways. Love my PS3 controller in Cave Story xD
Microsoft Applocale http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13209
- Occasionally some programs created in other languages require changing language settings to run. This is a good first step program to use, before switching the language unicode, if you don't plan to run many programs in a foreign language.
Wireshark http://www.wireshark.org/
- A basic networking tool. I forget the one I wanted to mention...
Now on to some programs that are only trials and may require paying to unlock the full program :
Hot Virtual Keyboard http://hot-virtual-keyboard.com/
- Useful tool to show what keys you are pressing while recording a video. Good for troubleshooting, and has other features like autocomplete and macros...
Virtual Audio Cable http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm
- Useful tool for creating audio channels for recording purposes. Perhaps you only want to mix a certain few channels together, while not recording others you can hear? Well virtual audio cable will do that.
Adobe Products http://www.adobe.com/
- I love em. Photoshop, After Effects, Audition, Acrobat and Flash. I like the old model where you bought the product... now I think it's subscription based? But, students can get nice deals. There are plenty of free alternative programs though. I just got used to these from class.
Microsoft Office http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/
- Well, for the longest time I resisted. But, classes make use of these filetypes often, and they are good programs. So...
Sothink SWF Catcher/Decompiler/Editor http://www.sothink.com/product/flashdecompiler/download.htm
- Occasionally you want to snag or grab stuff from a flash file that is protected. Like translating a flash game... Seemed to be one of the few that worked pretty well, when I needed it.
Cyberlink PowerDVD http://www.cyberlink.com/
- A good software blu-ray/DVD player. It's been a while since I've watched anything on the PC... But, this is pretty much the standard.
Maya http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/overview
- My limited work in 3d was taught in Maya. Most people I know prefer other products, but talking with a film director; this seems to be one of the products to shoot for, for commercial use.
VMWare http://www.vmware.com/
- Some useful and not too costly virtualization solutions... Good if you need to run another OS for some reason.
Wow, I already have a lot of these. Alright, here's my contribution:
Faststone Capture is a screen capture/recorder/color picker/magnifier and image editor. I've found it to be pretty useful. It comes with a 30-day trial but uninstalling it, deleting its files from the registry etc, and reinstalling it can keep it running forever.
XnView is a free versatile image viewer/editor with lots of cool features.
Here's another useful program :
HTTrack http://www.httrack.com/
It's a very useful website downloader. When downloading a single MHT or html won't cut it... Just make sure you configure the options... Some sites surely do not like MASS downloading, and might result in automatic bans if you run tons of connections at once, and slow down a site. I play it safe usually, and just set it to 1 connection. Oh, and pay attention to how many local or external links it should download. ... Things can get out of hand very quick if you set things improperly.
Awesome for converting videos, as well as downloading Youtubes. You can control the output as well as the quality. and you can also choose to only download the audio/video part of the video.
IrfanView You can view any file using this program, with the right plug ins. It makes me sad that not more people use this. It's depressing seeing a friend having to open a gif in windows media player or some other tedious program.
Currently I've been using it to write to ramdisk while recording video to prevent excessive hard drive usage...
Though I am planning to get more ram (currently 12 GB, upgrading to 32 GB CL 9, giving me a safe 24 GB ramdisk to work with!)
I'll look into dangerously creating careful symlinks to temporarily speed up stuff like the browser, temp files, etc...
Though, what would be safe, is copying large games that have loading screens into RAM and just re-routing the save data... That would be impressive...
How can you say no to 10 GB/s? (Oh besides the fact if the power goes out, everything on the RAM drive disappears... lol)
>ctrl+f
>no results for youtube-dl
>no results for ffmpeg
Savages.
Youtube-dl: A command-line program for downloading youtube videos (and videos from other sites too). Works pretty well, although it breaks occasionally.
FFMpeg: A command-line program for which I mainly use for converting videos. But you can record and stream with it apparently.
