Note: This page is out of date, mostly because it was written way back when I used Windows.
Main:
- Firefox - Browser
- Pidgin - Best IM program out there. once GAIM.
- Thunderbird - Mail Client
- SyncToy - For synchronizing two folders, so the files in both folders are the latest versions.
Diagnostics:
- Spybot Search and Destroy - checks mostly for spyware, also does some work with firefox and internet explorer to help prevent cracks. Then it has a more user friendly version of ms-config that allows programs to be disabled and re-enabled...
- Lavasoft Ad-aware - Checks mostly for ad-aware
- AVG - you already know...
- Zone Alarm - A freeware firewall.
- Hijackthis - Basically just helps to make a list of programs that are running. I think you don't want it for anything else...The detailed list is very useful, and can often be posted in a forum to allow plenty of people to tell you all the bad programs you have running in the background...
System:
- CPUZ - gives detailed info about the specs (CPU, Memory, etc.) of the computer the tool is being run on.wireshark - Gives you too many options as far as what's coming in and out of your computer. I don't know how to use it, though it was a tool I used when I took Computer Security.
- tweakUI - For editing options in Windows XP.
Media:
- RAD_tools.exe - good for playing video files that have very obscure extensions. I used it to rip files out of a video game, but you can use it for useful re-coding also.
- VLC - probably does a lot of that too, but I'm not entirely sure how to use it's full capabilities. In anycase you'll need XP_Codec_pack to fully encode stuff the way you would want. Use the codec ffdshow for all your encodings. It works the best.
- SAFlash_player.exe - a good flash player if you want to download a swf (shock wave file) file from the internet, and then just play it... Generally Windows computers (after you fully install Shockwave) have SAFlashPlayer.exe hidden somewhere...
- Audacity - Allows Audio editing, importing, etc. Image Resizer - Perfect for quickly resizing pictures. Has an option on a drop down menu.
- PaintDotNet - A good program for editing pictures that is very similar to MS-Paint (in comparison to the other free version: gimp). However it requires .Net (which if you keep your computer up to date isn't a problem)
- DVDShrink - Sorry, you'll have to search google for this. the website doesn't host the program anymore (though the forums may help if you need it). It's meant to strip DVDs and skip all the encoding etc. that makes them trouble to copy.
- WinAmp - personally the best (windows) library media player a lot of music.
Coding:
- Crimson Editor - Code writing. It has syntax highlighting, ftp access, almost everything you'd want (as a programmer) in a text editor.
- Devcpp - a C++ compiler? I'm not actually sure why I have it, but it must be decent...
Other:
- Ascgen - A pro that turns images into text. Kinda fun to play around with... It makes very good images out of text. You'd be surprised. An example.
- folder2iso - in case you want to make an image of a folder. It's hard to think of a reason to do it, but if you need a *.iso file instead of a folder, here's what you use.
- 7-Zip - Best extractor, compressor. It works seamlessly with windows, much better then win-zip. It does very good compressions...only thing is it won't compress into rar files. It extracts though, which is good enough. The Program becomes accessible through the right click menu. Note on Downloading: Just choose the first one if you don't know which one...(I think?)
- GadwinPrintScreen - Allows additional features when "Print Screen is pressed"
- Beyond Compare - Double checks the actual file to find differences.
- zip2exe - Creates an extractor program out of a zip archive.