Software I use when running Windows
This is a list of software I find useful when running Windows. Some of it is free (as in beer), some of it is free (as in speech and some of it costs money)
Office / Production
AbiWord – Great word processor that I use when I don’t need all the features of Microsoft Office or Openoffice. [http://abisource.com] Microsoft Office – Use this for compatibility reasons. OpenOffice – Use this when compatability with my college is not required. [http://openoffice.org] FoxIt Reader – PDF Reader / Alternative to Adobe PDF Reader. [http://foxitsoftware.com] The Gimp – The GNU Image Manipulation Program, an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. [http://www.gimp.org] Adobe Photoshop – Sometimes it’s just needed. Paint.NET – Most of the time I don’t need the extensive features of Adobe Photoshop or The Gimp. [http://getpaint.net]
Net
Halite – A small, lightweight bittorrent client and a replacement to uTorrent. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190114184503/http://www.binarynotions.com:80/halite-bittorrent-client/] Pidgin – A nice opensource instant messaging client with support for multiple platforms and protocols. [http://pidgin.im] Mozilla Firefox – Great open source browser. [http://firefox.com] Opera – Used for when I’m testing stuff. [http://opera.com] FileZilla – A great FTP/SFTP client. Opensource. [http://filezilla.org/] xfire – Instant messaging client that you can use while in almost all games. [http://xfire.com] mIRC – IRC Client. [http://mirc.com] Metasploit – Find vulnerabilities in the software you run on your network. [http://metasploit.com] nMap – Probe your network for open ports. [http://nmap.org] Putty – Useful when working with SSH. [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html] WireShark – Capture packets. [http://wireshark.org]
Media
Handbrake – Ripping DVD’s. [http://handbrake.fr/] VLC – A great player which can play many formats. [http://videolan.org] Audacity – Useful for working with audio. [http://audacity.sourceforge.net] Windows Media Player – I’d prefer amaroK but it does the job.
Development
Code::blocks – The main IDE I use for C++ development. [http://codeblocks.org] Dev-C++ – Rarely use this anymore. [http://bloodshed.net/devcpp.html] Py2Exe – Useful for when the target system does not have python. [http://py2exe.org] Python – An interpreted programming language that is awesome. [http://python.org] SPE [Stani’s Python Editor] - A great Python editor/IDE. [http://pythonide.stani.be] Game Maker – Rarely use this anymore but has it’s uses. [http://yoyogames.com] Java BlueJ – Java editor. [http://bluej.org] FarPy GUIe – A graphical editor for generating wxPython code. [http://farpy.holev.com] Microsoft Visual Studio Express -- Microsoft’s series of IDE’s for C++, C# and VB.NET.
Tools
7-Zip – Use this for decompressing/compressing various formats (ZIP/RAR/7ZIP/TAR/GZ) [http://7-zip.org] Ccleaner – Great for cleaning crap from the system [http://ccleaner.com] ClamWin (ClamAV Win32) – A no fuss virus scanner. [http://clamwin.com] Eraser – Use this for secure deletion of files. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/] MagicDisk – Great for mounting images to virtual disks, etc.. [http://magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm] SiSoftware Sandra – Great for finding information about the system. [http://sisoftware.co.uk] Truecrypt – Encryption tool, can create encrypted volumes, etc.. [http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/] WinDirStat – A ‘file visualiser’ as it were. Creates a graphical representation of a drive. [http://windirstat.info] CDBurnerXP – Useful for burning files and images to CD’s. [http://cdburnerxp.se] XMing – I use this for connecting to machines that are running XDMCP. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming] Qemu – This can simulate a real computer. Great for testing stuff. [http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu] Cygwin – A unix environment in Windows. [http://cygwin.com]
Other tools also include CPU-Z, Steganos Locknote, Notepad2 and Process Explorer (SysInternals).