Favorite software tools

[Signa]

I'm just wondering what everyone likes to install on their computers to make their life easier. There's the basic tools and programs like 7zip or VLC/WMPC that just about every PC ever has, but what else do you use? What are some of your favorites? Since I'm big into managing a lot of computers and data all at once, from anywhere, here's mine:


Neorouter:
This is my answer to Hamachi since Hamachi hasn't been doing it for me for years now. I have all my friends on it, and it networks all of our PCs together, no matter where we are. There are even remote desktop options that can be used from tablets or smartphones, so I've been able to control my PCs from my parent's house or at work. It's a bit more complex to set up at first, but it has no limits like Hamachi. The only downside is if your home router is crap like mine, there might be some connectivity issues with it. Still, I'm happy with it overall.

ClipX:
Clipboard manager. Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V too basic for you? ClipX lets you copy multiple objects and paste them back in any order later. I don't find a ton of use for it at home, but I LOVE it at work, because I can do things like copy the first name field, last name field, and email address all in one go and paste each back into a new profile, just as an example. You can even set stickies with a plugin, so if there's something you type a lot (say, an address field on an order form) you can always have it available to you.

Teamviewer:
Way more robust than what Neorouter offers, so I've been using this a bunch too. Between a file server, my gaming machine, a laptop, and and my tablet, managing all my devices gets a bit tricky. There's aspects I'm not 100% awesome with, but it does it's job well, and from pretty much anywhere.

BitTorrent Sync:
I just installed this, and it's what inspired me to make this thread. Basically, if you have folders you want synced across two or more computers, you can set this up and keep both computers up to date. I'm installing it to emulate Steam's cloud saving for games that don't support cloud saving. I'm pretty sure both computers will need to be on in order for the sync to happen, but it's easier than pulling out a flash drive or setting open folder shares in a house with multiple roommates.

HFS:
Ever wish you had one of your files when you were somewhere else? HFS (Http File Server) sets up your computer to be accessible with any browser. All you need to do is remember your public IP address (easier said than done for some people, I know.) and then you can access any file you have set up without the need for extra software. There's been times I've been wanting a mp3 from my home computer, and just jumped on and downloaded it with a phone.

So, those are the tools that have been exciting me most. What tools do you guys use on your computers?

 

[Signa]

[forum glitch]

Edit: HOLY shit. One more. After typing that all up, the server apparently ate my post. Ugh, I would have had to abandon this thread idea, because I wouldn't have bothered again. I have a plugin for Firefox called Lazarus Form Recovery. It brought back the whole post to start a new thread with. Wow.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I guess there are a few worth mentioning on my end, not all of it outlandish just good to use:
- Sketchup, simplest to use 3D modeling software I know, you can also get/share your models on their site for free. Used to be tied to Google Earth and you could model out buildings that would go into public repository but Google got bored of that.
- Audacity, open source audio editor, not the most fancy looking thing but technical versatility is all there. You can also get more add-ons from the community.
- GIMP, open source alternative to Photoshop, as far as I can tell it does all the same stuff but do always have a tutorial open when using it because the feature list is endless.
- Eclipse, open source software development kit, this thing finds 95% of your code problems on the fly and works with all popular languages. Again if something isn't there you can add it on your own, or someone in the community already has.
- Notepad++, a free source editor, when you just want snappy code file editing without an entire project loaded this thing does the trick. (Limited to Windows)

And some more regular stuff:
- Firefox, certainly not as sleek as they once made it but the range of tools you get for it still makes it the most versatile browser, also works on every system imaginable
- OpenOffice, long story short... because MS Office is fucking annoying to use, their compatibility issues are beyond insane. Not to mention the price and cross platform use.
- Foxit Reader, for PDFs, because Adobe bloatware might soon reach critical mass and create the worlds first digital black hole. (Limited to Windows)

 

[Signa]

OH man, I LOVE Notepad++

A year or so ago, I was installing EVERY Steam game I owned. I just got an external 4TB drive, and I wanted all of the games on it. The problem was, the web interface was my only hope of doing that, because you could install a game with a single click. Installing through Steam would have taken hours just to queue up, since it would take 10-30 seconds to preallocate after I started the download. I had over 400 games at the time, so that would have taken too long.

The problem with THAT was that I couldn't choose the drive the game got saved to, so I had to deal with every game going to the default drive. After they downloaded, I could then move the game directory to the right folder, but then Steam wouldn't find the game anymore. Turns out, there's a bunch of little files that are readable in plain text that describe the install directory for any given game. I was able to open all 300+ of these files, and do a mass replace from the default directory to the new one. Got done in seconds once I figured out I could do it that way.

 

[Mikeybb]

Sequoia view.
Displays your files in a visual format that makes it easier to judge space usage.
Simple idea that I've found indispensable when deciding what to delete.

 

[Poetic Nova]

For music I personally like to recommend Winamp.

Anyway:

-GIMP: As stated above, it's a good alternative to Photoshop and absolutely free.

-WhoCrashed: Program I keep around incase I encounter a BSOD, handy tool that allows you to view every dump file crated during a BSOD without having to delve in the Windows folder yourself. And in most cases will give you the solution aswell.

-LastFM Scrobbler: I like to be able to keep a database of all the songs I've listend to. Just download the program for free and set up a account.

-NGlide: handy tool to gett 3Dfx Glide API games from the 90's to run on modern systems, allows to overwrite resolution and that kind of stuff.

- Foxit Reader, for PDFs, because Adobe bloatware might soon reach critical mass and create the worlds first digital black hole. (Limited to Windows)

Almost forgot this little nifty program.

 

[lechat]

rename - tiny little app that allows you to easily rename files by using simple context like "replace this with that"

xpadder - gamepad keymapper

uniextract - extract pretty much any form of compressed archive

 

[K-lusive]

Well would you look at that. I can actually add something usefull to a thread for once!

- Everything for Windows is what I consider to be a much better search-tool than the built-in search functionality offered by Windows.
- Most of the software mentioned here in portable form, saved to Dropbox so I can do all the things I need to do even on a pc I don't get admin-rights on.

 

[Mutant1988]

Paint Dot Net.

I like drawing, but I'm not keen on paying a subscription to use something like photoshop. If I used such tools in a professional capacity, then sure, I wouldn't mind paying. But at the moment I'm just a hobbyist, if even that.

 

[ForumSafari]

Most of my home file stuff is on a server so here's a list of what that runs:

[a href=https://owncloud.org/]Owncloud[/a] - Basically it's Dropbox on your own server.

[a href=http://www.serviio.org/]Serviio[/a] - DLNA server for streaming films to any device in my LAN.

[a href=http://openvpn.net/]OpenVPN Server[/a] - For the rare occasions I need to VPN home.

For my Windows 8 desktop I use:

[a href=http://www.mremoteng.org/]MRemoteNG[/a] - multi-protocol tabbed remote desktop/VNC/SSH program with decent extensibility, an encrypted credential file and good support for tiling connections. I sue this one for work in supporting a multi platform network and being able to RDP or SSH from the same program is great.

[a href=https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881]Sysinternals Desktops[/a] - Simple virtual workspaces for Windows. I use all 4 virtual desktops at work to help split my work into logical areas.

At work I use the above and:

[a href=http://www.nagios.org/]Nagios[/a] - The granddaddy of network monitors.

[a href=http://www.adminarsenal.com/home]PDQ Deploy and PDQ Inventory[/a] - automated software deployment and inventory scanning. Basically it's a cut down version of System Centre but it works great for the price. We got caught up in that Panda thing on Wednesday and this saved us a fair whack of time.

 

[Signa]

Paint Dot Net.

I like drawing, but I'm not keen on paying a subscription to use something like photoshop. If I used such tools in a professional capacity, then sure, I wouldn't mind paying. But at the moment I'm just a hobbyist, if even that.

I'm not a drawer at all, but I love paint.net too. Basically, it's great for just dropping screenshots into when you are trying to edit a caption or something.

 

[Dizchu]

Photoshop 7.0 for general graphics stuff (yes I am THAT out of date)

Paint Tool Sai for tablet drawing

FL Studio 10 for mixing (probably not the best choice)

Audacity for simple audio editing

Amplitube 3 for guitar amp simulation

TuxGuitar for reading guitar tabs and writing MIDIs.