Best Applications

[Ctwizzy]

Internet

Chat: MSN + MsgPlus!, Yahoo Messenger

Download Manager: Dont need one

Torrent: Azureus

Browser: Firefox

E-mail: Thunderbird

CD-DVD

Games: Record Now MAX (PS2)

SVCD: WinAvi

Converter/Editor: Tmpgenc

DVD Ripping: DVD Shrink

DVD Authoring: DVD Maestro

CD Burning: Nero

Media

K-Lite Codec Pack

WMP 10

WMP Classic

Bsplayer or The Core Media Player

QuickTime Alternative

Real Alternative

AVICodec

Winamp

Graphics

Photoshop CS

Illustrator CS

The GIMP (free if you cant afford Photoshop)

Web Development

Eclipse - J2EE development

HTML-KIT: standard web design (php etc)

Crimson Editor (text editor) gona look at UltraEdit hear good things

and of course NOTEPAD

Security

Norton

Zone Alarm

Tools

Diskeeper

WinRar

TweakUI - dont know of others

Error Checking: Norton Utilities

Others:

Goldwave

Iso Buster

[nelix]

Firewall : IPTables

Anti-Virus : Useless

Advanced Windows Tweaking : REGEDIT.EXE

Download Utilities : wget, MLDonkey

E-mail : sqirrel mal

Webdesign : Notepad, Emacs

Graphics Development : gimp

Hard Drive Optimisation : hdparm

Irc Client : Irssi

SSH Client : SSH, Putty

Web Browser : k-melon, links/links2/lynx, firefox

Instant Messaging : irssi + bitlbee + jabberd

Media : MPlayer, xmms, xine, Media Player Classic (depending on mood and operating system) most all media is played on one box (the one with the large tv and speakers. )

lets not get into a debate about anti virus and firewalls.. i think they are pointless and i have never been infected or attacked, common sense is a much better alternative. Keeping updated, good iptables polocys on your router will get you by . oops i just got into the debate. sorry.

Might notice i like deamon/service based applications, this is because i have alot of computers in my house and its much easyer to be able to access the same thing everywhere i go.

Windows boxs are normaly putty to my server, k-melon to sqwirrel mail and mldonkey.

Screen allows me to have the same console on all my boxs, normaly containing irssi connectected to bitlbee (which connects to msn and aim and jabberd) and irc.

[ZileXa]

I would recommend Raxco Perfectdisk instead of O&O

and also InstantCopy instead of DVDShrink (even DVD2One is better then DVDShrink).

best way to copy a DVD9 to DVD5 is however by Encoding instead of Transcoding (like dvdshrnk/dvd2one etc. do) with DVD2DVD-R (uses CCE encoder) if you want Movie only or DVDrebuilder (uses CCE encoder) if you want full dvd.

[Afterdawn]

Firewall: I am behind a NAT router, that's safe too right?

Anti-Virus: Kaspersky

Advanced Windows Tuning: My own imported tweaks

Download Utilities: Firefox built-in dl-manager

E-Mail: Gmail webmail!

Webdesign: Notepad.exe (die-hard )

Graphics Development: Mspaint (also die-hard )

Hex-editor: Hexplorer

Media: Media Player Classic with Ffdshow-filters

I'd also like to know what are your favourite hex-editors?

[anandus]

Firewall: Windows Firewall

Anti-Virus: AVG Free

Advanced Windows Tuning (software like tweakXP): TweakUI & TuneUp Utilities

Download Utilities: Extensions for Firefox

E-Mail: Thunderbird

Browser: Firefox

Webdesign: Notepad++

Graphics Development: Paint.NET (small, great & sufficient for most computers)

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): PerfectDisk

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): TuneUp Utilities

Antything else that comes to mind: Microsoft Antispyware (a musthave!), K-Lite Codec Pack (including the ever brilliant Media Player Classic) & 7-zip of course

[WotC]

I tried out a loooooooooooooot of different proggys, but heres what i use (stability and speed "optimized")

Firewall: Agnitum Outpost 2.6 (like the features and the option to save my rules definition to another partition, although Sygate is imo the better program)

Anti-Virus: Speed&Usability: AVG >(=) AVAST > Kaspersky

Professionality: Kaspersky rulez (althoug makes the system incredible low)

Advanced Windows Tuning: regedit.exe

Download Utilities: FreeDownloadManager (free and more features than u use for downloading)

E-Mail: Outlook (okok, its M$, but it has nice features), otherwise Thunderbird (b/c of the spamfilter)

Webdesign: dunno? Dreamweaver? Frontpage?

Graphics Development: Photoshop, CorelDraw; sometimes CorelPhotoPaint

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): for initial defragmentation Winternalsdefrag manager (unbelievable performance, although its a cmd proggy), Diskeeper 9 for "screesaver" mode

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): Registry Mechanic rulez, Norton sux, RegSupremePro deletes some entries i need badly

Anything else that comes to mind:

xplorer2 (must have) > ExplorerXP (no shares, network support)

Opera 8 (must have, even with the banner at the top) >>>>> Firefox (IF you really think ff ist faster, then give this here a try: http://www.numion.com/stopwatch/ and enter http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ as website). Afterwards, run FireTuner 1.1 from http://www.totalidea.com/freestuff4.htm - CLEAR the firefox cache and do it again! And NOW - TATA- do the same running Opera -its almost twice as fast! )

and so on...

[eben]

browser: opera 8

mail: opera 8

irc: opera 8

download manager: opera 8

antivirus: don't need one (avg was scanning opera's cache so reporting every few minutes viruses, instead of adding cache folder to exclusion list i simply uninstalled )

firewall: xpsp2 + wifi router w nat

media: ffdshow, qtalt, realalt with mpc and winamp

shell: bblean

file manager xplorer2lite

web design: swishmax & notepad

search: copernic

cd/dvd: dvdshrink/dvdecryptor/deepburner/xp mat

cheers

[Scubar]

Firewall: Sygate

Anti-Virus: Anything but norton. personally Nod32

Advanced Windows Tuning : Learn how todo it manually so u actually learn something instead of relying on programs todo it for u

Download Utilities: Free Download Manager as its free and has easily as many features as any that u have to pay for

E-Mail: Thunderbird

Webdesign: Notepad and a brain

Graphics Development: Adobe Photoshop CS

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): O&O Defrag Server or Pro

Windows error Checking : never had to use one so wouldnt know.

[TheeBeets]

Firewall: Kaspersky Anti-Hacker

Anti-Virus: Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Advanced Windows Tuning : TweakXpPro

Download Utilities: Flashget

E-Mail: Mozilla Thunderbird

Webdesign: DreamweaverMx

Graphics Development: Paint Shop Pro & Adobe Photoshop CS2

Hard-Drive optimization tools: PerfectDisk (Defragmenting)

Windows error Checking : "chkdsk"

[Gaav]

Firewall: your router, and Windows SP2 built-in firewall.

Anti-Virus: PC Cillin Internet Security 2005

Advanced Windows Tuning (software like tweakXP): none, tweak them in your silent install.

Download Utilities: none, it's in firefox. if you need one, GetRight will do fine.

E-Mail: MS Outlook 2003

Webdesign: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004

Graphics Development: Adobe Photoshop CS

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): none

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): none

Antything else that comes to mind:

TotalCommander as filemanager

WhereIsIt for database

MSN Desktop search for finding files

FlashFXP for FTP

some newsgroup/p2p/irc tools

not to mention Office, Nero and some dictionairies, if you're building an office computer.

[Fritz_Saxi]

Firewall: Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6, the free version

Anti-Virus:Norton Antivirus 2004

Advanced Windows Tuning (software like tweakXP): Regedit.exe or TweakUI

Download Utilities:Flashget only when i need to resume 300MB files from crap web servers

E-Mail: MS Outlook 2003 and/or gmail

Webdesign: dreamweaver mx 2004

Graphics Development: adobe photoshop cs2

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): disk defragger

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): Norton Utilities 2003

Anything else that comes to mind:

Games manager type thing: Steam with Counter Strike Source in mind

Video player: Media Player Classic

Audio player: WMP10 or iTunes if the iPod makes me

Video editing: Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5

DVD authoring: Adobe Encore DVD

DVD/CD burning: Nero 6.6.0.8

MST and MSI tampering: Adminstudio Evaluation

Antispyware: Adaware SE personal, Spybot 1.3 and MS antispyware

FTP: Flashget

Unattended setup apps: Nlite and WPI

[blinkdt]

Firewall: Router

Anti-Virus: AVG

Advanced Windows Tuning (software like tweakXP): Regedit

Download Utilities: N/A

E-Mail: Gmail synched w/Outlook

Webdesign: HomeSite & Dreamweaver & TopStyle

Graphics Development: Photoshop & ImageReady

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): Window Washer & Diskeeper

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): N/A

Anything else that comes to mind:

Burning & Images - Nero & UltraISO

Audio & Video: WMP10 & MPC

Spyware: MS AntiSpy

Browser: IE

Productivity Suite: Office (complete)

I don't know what a virus is, I don't know what a pop-up is, I don't know what Spyware is, and I haven't seen a blue screen since loading XP.

[m4dh0]

Firewall: Router

Anti-Virus: Nod32

Advanced Windows Tuning (software like tweakXP): regedit

Download Utilities: built into firefox

E-Mail: Outlook 2003 and Thunderbird

Webdesign: Dreamweaver MX2004, NVU

Graphics Development: Photoshop CS2

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): O&O Defrag

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): N/A

Video Player: Media Player Classic

Audio Player: Foobar

DVD/CD Burning: Nero

Antispyware: Adaware SE personal, Spybot 1.3 and MS antispyware

[sanjaykumar]

Firewall: Norton Internet Security 2004 (not that good. makes me feel y i bought it )

Anti-Virus: Symantec AV corp 9.x

Advanced Windows Tuning (software like tweakXP): regedit; mostly format c: fixes all .

Download Utilities: built into firefox, flashget if file size 2 big

E-Mail: Outlook 2003 and Thunderbird+extensions (will get rid of outlook once sunbird becomes more feature rich)

Webdesign: Dreamweaver MX2004, textpad

Graphics Development: Photoshop 6 and above

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): Diskeeper

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): format c: fixes all (dont waste your money here)

Video Player: Media Player Classic/ WMP 7 upwards

Audio Player: Winamp

DVD/CD Burning: Nero

DVD Ripping: Gordian Knot pack/VirtualDubMod

DVD Decoder: Cyberlink PowerDVD

Antispyware: Adaware SE personal, Spybot 1.3

[NoMaR]

Firewall: OpenBSD Packet Filter

Anti-Virus: Kaspersky

Advanced Windows Tuning (software like tweakXP): .reg files (know what u do!!)

Download Utilities: wget

E-Mail: GroupWise, Thunderbird

Webdesign: DreamWeaver

Graphics Development: Adobe Photoshop CS

Hard-Drive optimization tools (defraggers for example): PerfectDisk

Windows error Checking (Like Norton Utilities): your brain

UltraEdit32