Ultimate Freeware Machine

[dman]

Thanks for great links, TBM. The dbPowerAmp is cool.

Yeah, a "totally freeware machine" would not include MS OS, but then again it wouldn't belong on a MSFN forum either.

[toyrum]

for pdf viewing only, try this. really loads faster

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/system/fwpdftools.html

[Fredledingue]

toyrum

Does it realy load faster than FOXIT ?

Beyond a freeware machine, I strive to make an adobe-free machine as well!

[dman]

Foxit is nice prog, no doubt. Perfect for "hardware challenged" machines. I did not care for adobe5 and 6 because of annoying splash and slow load. v7 is very nice, however. no splash and very quick load (no, maybe not as fast as foxit).

[Fredledingue]

I repost here all the freewares I'm using and tested so far... There is no link but a simple google search should lead you to them.

I realy recommand all these softwares!

Unofficial Service Pack 2.01 for W98se by Gape (forget about crashes and BSOD on W98)

ContextEdit (add/remove items on the right-clic menu)

Sequoia (look or the large, space consuming files on your drives, amazing)

RegSeeker (clean your registry)

CodeStuff Starter (check and kill what's running now on your system)

ffdshow (decode DivX, Xvid and other video formats, you don't need these codecs installed, works better and many tweaks)

DivX5.2 (6 months trial, but with new version coming it should be renewed)

CDex (extract cd tracks and convert to mp3)

Foxit (Adobe acrobat replacement)

IrfanView (you know it yet)

1By1 (easy to use mp3 player)

Notepad++ (script, htm and software editor)

Metapad (Notepad replacement)

FastStone Player (and all FastStone softwares, video/media player/viewer)

Zorro (hide anything unhideable on your screen)

Xplorer2 lite (windows explorer replacement, a must-have, attention the free version is hidden in some text on their homepage)

Photo Filtre (photo editor)

Wild Rename (batch rename files)

AntiVir (antivirus)

Audacity (audio editor, mp3, wav etc)

AviUtl (avi video editor)

Virtual Dub (video editor)

DVD shrink (copy dvd, please be honnest and use it only on non-copyrighted dvd!)

Page breeze (web editor)

NVU (web editor)

Wall Street Analyzer (or wsa, stock chart software)

DBXtract (outlook express dbx files extractor)

WOE5Extract (outlook express extractor, has some bugs)

Iconize (minimize anything to taskbar icon)

Doughnut (wrap up any window, leave only the title bar visible)

StormView (a little bit minimalist image viewer, for tinyware fans)

fipictor (old abandonware, but very easy image editor, may look outdated somewhat)

CLCL (clipboard manager)

Cookie Jar (delete unwanted cookies)

But the best of the best (cuz it's mine B) ) is the Dingue Calculator/Unit convertor (calc.exe replacement) , see the link in my signature

A little bit confusing at the biginning, but when you understand the way it works, you can't use anything else anymore! You understand, at least that a computer is more than a pocket calculator.

[lleoliveira]

My List

bbLean- Shell Replacement

Dark Files- Security

Directory Lister- Information of files in a directory

DirMonitor- monitor changes in directories

DScaler- software to watch tv

EssentialPIM Pro- Contacts manager

Everest- pc information

Filemon

FlashGet- download manager

GetRight-download manager

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004-

Miranda IM- messenger

Nero- burn cd

OpenExpert- "open with" selected programs

Paragon Mount Everything Professional- NTFS read and writer

FoxIt PDF Reader- Alternative to Adobe PDF reader

Process Explorer- task proccess

Program Protector- password to exe files

Regmon- monitor changes in registry in real time

TrayIt!- minimize any program to tray place

VideoLAN- Very good player

Aston- Shell Replacement

Babylon- translate

Barca Pro- Very good email program

eMule-P2P

EvilLyrics- download song lyrics

eXescope

FullRemover- total uninstall

IM2- messenger

Irfan View- image viewer

Media Player Classic- video player

Mozilla Firefox- browser

Opera- browser

ps2rate- mouse smooth

RadLight- video player

RegCleaner- Registry cleaner

Resource Hacker

Resource Workshop

Shareaza-P2P

SIM- messenger

Skype- voIP

TaskInfo

Acronis True Image- Image partitions

WinRAR

xplorer2- File manager

Java2SE RE 5.0- Sun java

Acronis Disk Director

Xstarter- automation

Tasker- record and play mouse and keyboard movements

Winamp- audio and video player

[lleoliveira]

Hi,

Recently i downloaded a program called DirMonitor: http://www.esat.kuleuven.ac.be/~eschoofs/

(DirMonitor will enable you to automatically monitor files, folders, registry keys, services and processes.)

Anyone knows a program like Dirmonitor? with the same functions.

[dman]

@Fred, lleo

That's what I'm talking about. Nice lists!

I like your scripts too, fred. I think a lot of people don't realize the power that comes pre-installed on every windows machine if you know how to unleash it.

[TheBlackMan]

Okay, so here is my freeware machine. I also reviewed and gave details to some of the programs. Feel free to post your own reviews. If you want me to simplify this post just ask and I’ll edit it and make it just the program list with links provided. Enjoy!

Operating System:

Windows XP SP2

Component Removal Utility:

nLite: nLite, in my opinion, is the holy grail of all component removal utilities for Windows! I absolutely love it. I have never had any problems with it. Although I have only personally used it alongside Windows XP, I have heard only great things regarding Windows 2000, 2003, and 64. It lets you slipstream service packs into your build, as well as integrate any drivers and/or hotfixes. There are also many miscellaneous tweaks you can put into your build. I find that by using nLite I can decrease my install time by at least 20 minutes if not more. This is a great program and I would highly recommend it! Best of all, it was created by our very own nuhi! Spank that OS!

Windows XP Updates:

RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack: RyanVM has done a great job at creating this pack. The full pack not only includes all the hotfixes that you need, but it also incorporates some great extras such as Unlocker, Shockwave Flash, CMDOW. One of the things I like best about the pack is the ability to integrate it into a build using nLite. This makes things tremendously easier and I would like to personally thank you RyanVM for creating the pack, as well as nuhi for allowing the automatic integration of the pack using nLite.

Web Browser: Firefox

Firefox Extensions:

fireFTP: fireFTP is a FTP client for Firefox. I don’t like to clutter up my computer with miscellaneous programs and have never found an FTP client that I liked significantly over the other. I have found fireFTP to be the middle ground. It is not too complex, but still provides the quality one would expect from a program with many menus and what not in a simple and very navigable interface. Enough said!

FoxyTunes: I, like may, like to listen to music while I browse or multitask on the computer. I always hate having to minimize my media player and then maximize it to change a song, mess with the volume, stop, etc. My solution is FoxyTunes. It allows me to control my media player from within Firefox without having to maximize my media player. It is very sleek and has a built in alarm clock. It also supports many media players; for a complete list click here.

DownThemAll!: DownThemAll! is basically an extension that allows you to select all the links in a particular webpage and download them at once. Instead of clicking on all the individual links within a webpage you can just open DownThemAll!, select all the links within a page that you want to download, choose the destination, and let it go!

ieview: The name of this extension should give it away. ieview adds to the context menu when you right-click in a webpage a tab that allows you to view the webpage in Internet Explorer. Some websites don’t view properly in Firefox or Netscape and this allows you to simply view them in Internet Explorer. You click on view in IE and Internet Explorer loads with the webpage you were just at without closing Firefox.

ImageZoom: Again, name should give it away. Allows you to right-click on an image and choose how much you zoom. Simple, but very handy.

E-mail Client: Thunderbird

E-mail Service: Gmail (PM for invite)

Web Server: SimpleServer

This program is so easy. You just run the program, select the file you want to host, and click “start.” You minimize it into your system tray and it only takes up roughly 6 mb of memory. All the web user has to do to connect to you is know your IP. One issue that I have come across is having a firewall enabled either with your router or within Windows. This is not an issue with the program; however, and can easily be fixed by unblocking it from Windows firewall or your personal firewall, unless you have Verizon DSL where they block port 80. This is a great program and I recommend it to anybody wanting to host a file for a short period of time. One thing that could be improved upon is being able to see how many people connect to your server (server stats), but I have no complaints as it is a simple application.

Firewall: Windows Firewall

AntiSpyware: Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)

Originally a GIANT product, it has since been purchased by Microsoft. Although I preferred GIANT’s original product because of the extras it included such as a file shredder, I have no complaints with what Microsoft has done with the program. It is very stable and the agents that you can choose to run all the time have always detected any sort of spyware on my machine. It does seem to slow my bootime, but I feel that security is worth the extra minute.

Password Manager: AnyPassword

Imaging: The GIMP

Screen Capture: HoverSnap

This program is great. It is a standalone executable to start off with. It uses about 1.2 mb of memory while maximized, 800 kb minimized to the system tray. At first the program may look intimidating, but after a quick read through you will realize just how easy it is to capture screenshots. After you have captured, it saves the image to the directory of your choice. You can then upload it via FTP. I have never used this feature, but if somebody does please tell me how it works.

Office Alternative: OpenOffice

PDF Reader: Adobe Reader (RyanVM's Installer)

I use v7.0.1. I find v7 runs faster than v6. Basically enough said; it reads PDF files. I also mentioned in an earlier post about Adobe Reader SpeedUp, you should check it out.

Compression: 7-Zip, TUGZip, WinZip

File Manager: 2xExplorer

File Joiner: Simple File Joiner

File Splitter: Simple File Splitter

Disk/Registry Cleaner: CCleaner

Boot-CD: BartPE

Virtual Drive: DAEMON Tools

Audio Player: Winamp v5.09 Lite

MP3/ID3 Tag Organizer: TagScanner

Audio Editor/Recorder: Audacity

Audio Ripper: CDex

Audio Converter: dBpowerAMP Music Converter

Video Player: Media Player Classic

It’s slim, a single executable, and plays anything!

Codecs: K-Lite Mega Codec Pack

This pack includes absolutely everything you could possibly imagine. Quicktime and Real Alternative…no problem! It’s all there. You can play pretty much anything with this pack.

Notepad Replacement: Notepad2

Startup Viewer: StartupRun

Shell Viewer/Manager: ShellExView

Diagnostics: AIDA32

This program is now known as Everest and was purchased by Lavalys. I still stay with the original version because Everest has three different versions (Corporate, Ultimate, & Home) and only the Home Edition is free. AIDA32 brings these together. It may be out of date, but I still love it!

Net Monitor: SoftPerfect Network Scanner

Torrent: Azureus

P2P: Ares, eMule Plus

Instant Messaging: AIM

Instant Messaging Add-Ons: AIM Ad-Hack

You may be wondering, "why the heck isn’t he using a multi-protocol instant messaging client like Gaim or Trillian?" Well, to be honest, the only people I talk to either have AOL or AIM. It’s basically the standard I use. Anyway, AOL has a tendency to scatter links to AOL and puts ads in the interface of AIM. This program removes them…COMPLETELY! This is honestly a must have if you use AIM.

Games:

GTA Yes, it is legally free!

GTA2 Yes, it is legally free!

Madness Interactive: This game is absolutely awesome! It is addictive as well. Breed GTA and Super Mario World SNES and you’ve got Madness Interactive!

Icons: FOOOD's Icons, XPize (created by the very talented XPero)

File Shredder: Eraser

This program completely erases any data you want it to. It takes longer than many shredders that I have tried. This is because Eraser wrties over the data hundreds of times with miscellaneous combinations of zeros and ones. It supports NTFS and FAT32. It follows several methods of deletion, but you can define your own making this little program great!

Wow! I'm finally done with all of that. I will add more, but this seems like enough for now. I hope you all benefit from this... Later! Edit: Added Instant Messeging, Games, Icons, and File Shredder.

Edited May 30, 2005 by TheBlackMan

[dman]

@TBM,

WoW!, Your post sets the standard! Great list (can't even call it a list, more like a guide). You spent a lot of time on this with the links and your comments. Much appreciated.

Only thing I don't like about it is it makes my original post look cheesy by comparison I think I will try to clean it up and emulate your style.

[TheBlackMan]

@TBM,

WoW!, Your post sets the standard! Great list (can't even call it a list, more like a guide). You spent a lot of time on this with the links and your comments. Much appreciated.

Thank you!

[Yzöwl]

I am yet to see anyone include Cygwin in their machine software listing!

Jeremy sets an even better standard with his 'free' program which is less than the cost of couple of bottles of wine!

Edited May 29, 2005 by Yzöwl

[dman]

yeah, Cygwin.

Great *NIX on Windows implementation, and essential for one of best freeware disk tools, TestDisk

Edited May 30, 2005 by dman

[Yzöwl]

Certainly, regarding a shareware application...

@ Jeremy: By purchasing the application of course! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't purchase software. I am in no financial circumstance where I could spend money on software. So I have to use other means unmentionable in these forums.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[dman]

All of the great progs listed here are proof that there is enough good freeware out there that you dont have to BUY or STEAL software to get a really nice system.