Recommended Software
All free unless otherwise stated. Where I use commercial software, I've suggested free alternatives. Some software may require Windows 2000 or up.
You may also be interested in the list of Portable Applications I keep on flash drives.
Last edited: 4th December 2007.
Text / Office Apps
Microsoft Office 2000 - nothing worthwhile new has been added in seven years.
OpenOffice.org 2.x (
site) - decent enough substitute for most tasks.
TextBridge Pro Millennium or later - improvement over 9, cheap on eBay.
SimpleOCR (
site) - not a package I'd really recommend, but it is 100% free.
jEdit (
site) - requires Java and can be tricky to configure, but extremely powerful.
Notepad++(
site) - svelte text editor with plugins, highlighting, etc. Also
portable.
NoteTab Light (
site) - the swiss army knife of text editors. Good regex, also portable.
Treepad Lite (
site) - tree-based organiser with a decent search function.
WordWeb (
site) - powerful dictionary and thesaurus that sits in your system tray.
The Font Thing (
site) - the best thing for organising and browsing fonts I've found.
7-Zip (
site) - has replaced IZArc in my affections as an all-round archiver.
PDFCreator (
site) - free virtual printer driver solution for creating PDF documents.
GUIPDFTK (
site) - decent free PDF split/merge tool. Download the "complete" pack.
Adobe Reader 8 (
site) - actually not that bad compared to older versions.
Graphics
CorelDRAW 9 Suite - cheap on eBay, with many useful new features versus 7.
CorelDRAW Select Edition 7 - about five quid and very capable. Includes PhotoPaint.
Serif PhotoPlus (
site) - older basic package from Serif, released to encourage interest.
The GIMP 2 (
site) - not being able to lock windows makes this hassle in Windows.
GIMPshop (
site) - recent attempt to address the interface of GIMP under Windows.
XnView (
site) - best image browser I've found bar none, though some prefer
IrfanView.
Media / Audio / Video
EAC / Exact Audio Copy (
site)
- a bit more fiddly to set up than
CDex, but worth it.
Winamp (
site)
- handy for transcoding, though I use
1by1 more these days...
The GodFather (
site)
- feature overkill, but great for mass-tagging MP3 files.
DVD Shrink (
site)
- minimum effort backup of DVDs for travelling.
DVD Flick (
site)
- the current beta's the best thing for AVI to DVD I've found.
Subtitle Workshop (
site)
- easily convert subs to .SRT format for use with DVD Flick.
RazorLame (
site)
- ideal for encoding batches of files to MP3.
CoolEdit96 (
site)
- ancient but powerful non-expiring trial.
Audacity (
site)
- modern free audio editor.
VirtualDub (
site)
- video processing and encoding. You may want
DivX and
Lame ACM.
VLC / VideoLAN (
site)
- video playback without codecs (eg, DVD.)
ASFTools (
site)
- repair, clip and join ASF/WMV video content.
Web Development
HTML-Kit (
site)
- I don't use this, but it's a decent HTML editor for newcomers...
FileZilla (
site)
- FTP clients aren't very sexy, but we need 'em. Also see
WinSCP.
EasyPHP (
site)
- probably the easiest way to run a local server for MySQL and PHP.
MySQL-Front (
site)
- the old free 2.5 is more than sufficient for most purposes.
Net & Security Utilities
NetTransport (
site)
- get audio/video streams. Non-expiring shareware, freeware
here.
WinHTTrack (
site)
- automated file/site downloader. Grab the minimum necessary.
Comodo Personal Firewall (
site)
- the Windows Firewall only blocks incoming traffic.
AVG Free Edition (
site)
- easy to use and free-for-personal-use antivirus software.
Firefox (
site)
- the best protection is to avoid viruses and spyware in the first place.
Thunderbird (
site)
- email client with facilties to strip HTML mail, inline images, etc.
FreeProxy (
site)
- better than ICS for basic two PC net connection sharing.
Trillian (
site)
- I don't use instant messaging as a rule, but Trillian is a decent client.
Misc. Utilities
SpeedFan (
site)
- monitor temperatures for your hard drive, CPU, case, etc.
Unlocker (
site)
- force badly behaved applications to release open file handles.
Tray Wizard (
site)
- tidy tray icons and minimise windows to the tray.
TClockEx (
site)
- customisable system clock and a calendar in one tiny package.
Shutter (
site)
- need to leave a computer on and have it hibernate later?
Eraser (
site)
- useful for thoroughly wiping drives before you pass them on.
TrueCrypt (
site)
- handy to secure business data. Portably, but requires admin access.
Bulk Rename Utility (
site)
- for renaming lots of files. Supports regular expressions.
ICE Mirror (
site)
- quick way to mirror two directories. GUI or scripted use.
Portable Applications
Some of these programs don't have homepages or developers any longer, so I've tried to spot places still offering them. Tell me if you find any dead links, and remember it's particularly important to antivirus scan executables from third-party repositories!
1by1 (play MP3s, accepts plugins)
AF7 Merge (splice text files)
AF9 Replace (binary-safe batch replace)
AriskKey (recover passwords)
AutoRuns (enumerate startup tasks)
BurnCDCC (burn ISO images)
CD Reader (plugin to use with 1by1)
CDex (rip CDs + convert MP3/WAV)
Contig (basic defrag for NT)
Copier [0X Copy Machine] (scan + print)
CWShredder (clean spyware)
DComBob (tame DCOM)
DeskPins (windows on top)
DirLister (make quick file lists)
Discover (force windows onscreen)
DupeLocater (find and clean)
Easy ISO Creator (use with BurnCDCC)
Filemon (see access in real time)
FileRecovery [PC Inspector] (undelete)
FolderSize (graphical space use)
FoxitReader (read PDFs)
GUIPDFTK (split/join PDFs)
HDTune (check harddrive integrity)
HijackThis (find spyware)
HJSplit (split/join files)
Identify_Boards (identify hardware)
KatMouse installer (due to MS drivers)
LCISOCreator (make ISO image from CD)
Leaktest (test firewall)
Media Checker (verify files on media)
MultiRes (change res + force refresh)
Multi Timer (stopwatch)
NoteTab Light (text editor)
NTest (test monitor setup)
Most apps can be usefully compressed with UPX, but don't try this on RootkitRevealer, KatMouse or Shred, as they seem to verify file checksums. I've retired WinImp in favour of 7-Zip Portable (and tend to include VLC on thumbdrives too) but you might want it in order to keep filesizes down to fit on, say, a 32Mb drive.
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