Networking
- SSH Client
- PuTTY
- Bitvise Tunnelier
- Does SSH and SFTP at the same time
- Only free for personal use
- http://www.bitvise.com
- SSH Server
- WinSSHD
- Only free for personal use
- http://www.bitvise.com
- WinSSHD
- FTP Client
- Mini CoreFTP Server
- Tiny server to run for transferring a few files quickly
- Works as a good test server when debugging
- Mini server link is down the page
- http://www.coreftp.com/server/
- Filezilla
- Seems to be friendliest interface.
- Installer now downloads an installer and tries to install other software on top, if you don't watch the messages
- http://filezilla-project.org
- Bitvise Tunnelier
- Does SSH and SFTP at the same time
- Only free for personal use
- http://www.bitvise.com
- WinSCP
- Does FTP, SFTP, and SCP
- http://winscp.net
- Mini CoreFTP Server
- FTP Server
- FileZilla Server
- Remote desktop
- UltraVNC
- Great improvements since reaching the 1.0 version. Lots of options. The VideoDriver works really fast. Pretty easy to set up.
- http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net
- LogMeIn
- Multiplicity
- Lets you control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse.
- http://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity
- TeamViewer
- Works on Mac, Linux, Win
- http://www.teamviewer.com
- UltraVNC
- Browsers
- Chrome
- FireFox
- Download Manager
- Free Download Manager
- Bandwidth Meter
- Bandwidth Meter Pro
- Twitter
- MetroTwit
- Windows
- http://www.metrotwit.com/
- Polly
- Linux
- https://launchpad.net/polly/
- sudo add-apt-repository ppa:conscioususer/polly-unstable
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install polly
- MetroTwit
- SMTP Server
- smtp4dev
- Dummy SMTP server
- Does not deliver the received messages
- Received messages can be quickly viewed, saved and the source/structure inspected
- Useful for testing/debugging software that generates email
- http://smtp4dev.codeplex.com/
- smtp4dev
- Email
- Thunderbird
- https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/
- Not in feature development anymore, but still gets security updates
- 5 Thunderbird Add-Ons That Will Make it Better Than Gmail
- My favourite addons for Thunderbird
- Official Thunderbird Add-On Page
- Postbox
- https://www.postbox-inc.com/
- Proprietary version of Thunderbird
- Official Add-Ons
- Thunderbird
Image
- Viewing
- IrfanView
- Free program. Does lots of image processing, as well as image viewing. No image editing, but it is supposed to be a viewer. Will allow you to change many other parts of the image, though. Highly highly customizable.
- Started using this as scanner interface to avoid installed all the scanner programs.
- www.irfanview.net
- IrfanView
- Editing
- Paint.Net
- Free
- Windows
- http://www.getpaint.net/
- Corel Paintshop Pro X4
- I got it heavily discount through a coupon
- Use it for Saturation, Brightness, Highlights, Background
- http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4130078
- Microsoft Live Photo Gallery
- Very good program
- Does panoramic photo stitching natively, but I also use their specialized plugin
- Does pretty good at importing pictures from SD cards
- Use it for straightening, cropping, red eye, and managing photos
- Microsoft Image Composite Editor
- Panoramic photo stitching, and auto suggests the largest crop area
- http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/
- Gimp
- Free. Plenty of options. Interface isn't too much and not too little. Although not always an eye candy setup. Startup is a little slow.
- http://www.gimp.org/
- Jasc Paint Shop Pro
- Pay. Newer versions have gotten some good updates. Good tools at a reasonable price compared to Photoshop. Also, quick startup.
- Photosynth
- Combines lots of pictures into a 3D wireframe to move through space and view different angles easily
- http://photosynth.net/default.aspx
- Perspective Image Correction
- Used to rectify the perspective in natural taken images - good for building pictures
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/perspectiveimg/
- Paint.Net
File Conversion
- Online
- Zamar
File Conversion
- Online
- Zamar
Movie
- Viewing
- VLC Media Player
- Free. Does almost everything. Hangs on most wmp files. Maybe I just don't have the correct plugin yet. Quick and light weight. I can view movies there when some other players hog the system. Does not lock the file when you stop playback or leave phantom locks on files.
- www.videolan.org
- VLC Media Player
- Save Video Streams from Webpages
- StreamTransport
Audio
Editing
- Audacity
- Free. Simple and easy to use. Has quite a few options. Software is the best I've tried.
- http://audacity.sourceforge.net
Player
- WinAmp
Save YouTube sound to MP3
- ListenToYouTube.com
VU Meter
- Darkwood Designs Digital Level Meter (Microphone)
- Darkwood Designs Mini Peak Program Meter (PPM) (Audio out)
- Burnsy Enterprises Windows VU Meter (Audio out)
WinAmp Visualizations
- MilkDrop - Version 1.04
- Classic Spectrum Analyzer
- Tripex3-12
Music Players to test out
- FooBar2000
- DoubleTwist
- Clementine
Virus scanning
- Microsoft Security Essentials
- Fast. Good. Small. Update well in the background.
- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
- Avast
- Use this if you can't do Microsoft Security Essentials. Free. When I was looking for something, it was always in the top rankings. Used to like McAfee, but they got too bloated and conked out for a while, although I think they are coming back some. Norton is just too bloated. And the voice that says "Virus database has been updated" is just the best. It's not much of a reason, but that's the biggest catch they have on me. Just get the basic free version.
- www.avast.com/en-us/index
Text Editing
- Crimson Editor
- Good. Fast. Small. Handles big files. Does column editing. Nothing extra pretty, but very good. It just does monospaced fonts. I could not find a free, complete monospace unicode font to install.
- http://www.crimsoneditor.com
- Notepad ++
- Good. Some people swear by it. Does a pretty good job. Has a prettier interface than Crimson Editor. I don't like the tabs as much as Crimson Editor. Favorite feature is code "folding" or "collapsing" where you can collapse lines of code into just one line. Makes it much easier for scrolling through long files of code. Pretty small program to do that, rather than using Visual Studio. I used Arial Unicode to get full character set.
- http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net
- BareTail
- Real-time file viewing
- View files of any size (> 2GB)
- Scroll to any point in the whole file instantly
- View the end of a growing file in real time, no matter how fast the file grows
- Like "tail -f" on Unix systems, but with many more features
- Single small executable, no installer
- http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail/
- XML Notepad 2007
- Simple intuitive user interface for browsing and editing XML documents.
- Microsoft
- Free
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=7973
HTML Editor
- WYSIWYG Online
- CKEditor
Directory Sizes
- TreeSize Free
- Faster then WinDirStat
- Just a simple, but effective list, not the fancy graphics of WinDirStat
- http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/index.shtml
File Comparison
- WinMerge
- Free
- Allow pasting in text to compare
- Decent at detecting moved blocks
- http://winmerge.org/
- ExamDiff
- Free, $35, $50
- Free version only detects different lines. Need to pay to get work/character differences
- Now allows pasting in text to compare
- Not good at detecting moved blocked, not good at showing moved blocks
- http://www.prestosoft.com/edp_examdiffpro.asp
- KDiff3
- Araxis Merge
- $129
- Easy to read buttons in ribbon interface
- Good at detecting moved blocks, good at showing moved blocks
- http://www.araxis.com/merge/
- Reader
- PDF XChange Viewer
- Free viewer, editor around $45
- http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer/download
- SumatraPDF
- Backup choice
- Looks old in the preview, but it may work
- http://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader.html
- FoxitReader
- Don't like this anymore because the push for buying full version is getting very annoying
- http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/
- PDF XChange Viewer
- Printer
- CutePDF
- Been using this one forever, but it has the very old file save dialog box. Need to switch to another printer.
- Free for personal, commercial, gov or edu use
- CutePDF
- Editing
- PDF Split and Merge
- Merge, rotate, split. Each a separate process.
- Basically, a GUI for command line operations.
- http://www.pdfsam.org
- FoxitReader
- Can add simple annotations and text. Does not rotate.
- PDF Architech
- Visual interface for rotate, merge, re-order.
- http://www.pdfforge.org
- PDF Split and Merge
- Sending
- FaxZero
- 3 pages free
- Has ads on cover page
- http://faxzero.com
- FaxZero
OS Utilities
- Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
File Compression
- 7zip
- Fast and easy to use. Free. Should be installed everywhere.
Hardware Utilities
- CPU-Z
- CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.
- www.cpuid.com
- Check Flash
- Read/write pattern checking for USB Sticks
- http://www.mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?page=PROGRAMS/chkflsh_en
- USB Flash Tools
- Verify the actual size of the USB drive/flash card's capacity
- http://www.sdean12.org/USBFlashTools.htm#Description
Windows Utilities
- Disk / File activity
- Disk Activity Monitor and Logger
- Unlocker
- Unlocked files, or kill the locking process
- http://www.filehippo.com/download_unlocker/
- 3 more unlocker programs: http://www.guidingtech.com/10175/tools-to-delete-locked-files-in-windows/
- Installation / Uninstalls
- Revo Uninstaller
- Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall Fixer
- Removes bad registry key on 64 bit operating systems.
- Windows registry keys that control the upgrade (patching) data that become corrupted.
- Resolves problems that prevent new programs from being installed.
- Resolves problems that prevent programs from being completely uninstalled and blocking new installations and updates.
- Use this troubleshooter for an uninstall only if the program fails to uninstall using the windows add/remove programs feature.
- http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall
- File Copying
- TerraCopy
- http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php
- Other file copy programs: http://lifehacker.com/5280976/five-best-alternative-file-copiers
- TerraCopy
- Mount ISOs
- Virtual CloneDrive
- Create ISOs
- Find software keys
- Belarc
- The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder
- Can find keys from attached disks, not just the running Windows image
- http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/
- Windows File Explorer
- Add tabs to file explorer
- Clover 3
- Add tabs to file explorer
- Clipboard Managers
- Best free clipboard manager — ArsClip vs Ditto vs ClipX vs CLCL vs Clipboard Help+Spell
- http://dottech.org/91792/windows-best-free-clipboard-manager-program-review/
- To Test Out
- 1) CLCL -
- Free (Donations)
- From 2005
- Very simple
- Has some extensions
- http://www.nakka.com/soft/clcl/index_eng.html
- 2) ClipX
- Free (Donations)
- Very simple
- From 2005
- http://bluemars.org/clipx/
- 3) ArsClip
- Free (Donations)
- Simple; advanced feature: macros
- Still developed (from 2015)
- http://www.joejoesoft.com/vcms/97/
- 4) Clipdiary
- $25
- Simple, no advanced features
- http://clipdiary.com/
- 5) ClipCache Pro
- $30
- Semi-simple; advanced features: clean copied text, categorize clips
- http://www.xrayz.co.uk/clipcache/
- 6) ClipMate
- $35
- Complex
- Advanced features: edit saved text, clean copied text, permanent clips, parse lists
- http://www.thornsoft.com/
- 1) CLCL -
- Best free clipboard manager — ArsClip vs Ditto vs ClipX vs CLCL vs Clipboard Help+Spell
- Dos Console
- cmder
- Portable console emulator for Windows
- Color / transparent background, shortcut pasting, unix style completion
- http://bliker.github.io/cmder/
- mintty
- Terminal window for Cygwin and MSYS
- https://code.google.com/p/mintty/
- cmder
- Keyboard Scan Codes
- KeyCodes
- Info on Scan Codes
Bittorrent
- Vuze
- uTorrent
Visual Effects
- CursorFX
- Animated mouse cursors - usually easier to see
- Earlier version, CursorXP had one called BubbleGum that I liked. I haven't been able to find it again.
- Can use most of it free
- Scaling cursor size requires buying license
- http://www.stardock.com/products/cursorfx
- WindowFX
- Animate windows.
- I like the wobbly windows when dragging, fire/burn windows when they close
- http://www.stardock.com/products/windowfx
- DeskScapes
- Animated desktop backgrounds
- I remember when computers couldn't process fast enough to handle this
- http://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/index.asp
Presentation Annotation Draw on Screen
- PenAttention
- (http site - will show an unsecure warning)
- http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~afkjm/PenAttention/index.php
- highlights the cursor/pen/stylus
- PointerFocus
- https://www.pointerfocus.com
- Highlights mouse
- Draws on screen
- Epic Pen
- Seemed nice, but...
- Includes BrightTalk to let them use your computer's power for their own computation
- Switched to subscription model, but is not creating updated software
- No longer offers a perpetual license
- There is a hard to find free version that allows freehand drawing, but not shapes
- Pushes an affiliate program for 30% commission. Feels very MLM.
- Not going to post their link
- Presentation Assistant
- https://www.presentation-assistant.com/assistant/index.htm
- by Presentation-Assistant.com by GoldGingko
- For drawing on screen
- Ultimate version contains their Presentation Pointer
- So it also highlights the mouse
- https://www.presentation-assistant.com/ppointer/index.htm
- Presentation Pointer
- by Presentation-Assistant.com by GoldGingko
- Highlights the mouse
- Presentation Marker
- https://www.goldgingko.com/screen-marker/index.htm
- by GoldGinko
- Seems to be nearly the same as Presentation Assistant Ultimate, but $5 less
- Ink2Go
- http://ink2go.org/
- (Not an https site, so gives insecure warning)
- Draws on live screen, but no shapes or zoom
- Shows webcam
- No mouse highlighting
- Records screen
- LiveDraw
- https://github.com/antfu/live-draw
- by Antfu
- Free
- Draws on screen in brush or line. No shapes
- gInk
- https://github.com/geovens/gInk
- by geovens
- free
- only freehand drawing
- ppInk
- https://github.com/pubpub-zz/ppInk
- by pubpub-zz
- Extends gInk to include shapes, clipart
- free
- Paint on Whiteboard Desktop
- https://sourceforge.net/projects/powd/
- free
- needs Java to run
- freehand, lines, arrows
- EaseUS RecExperts
- https://recorder.easeus.com/
- Screen recorder with annotations during recording
- bandicam
- https://www.bandicam.com/
- Screen recorder with annotations during recording
- IPEVO Annotator
- IPEVO Annotator
- Meant to work with IPEVO interactive physical whiteboards
- Appears to work by itself in Windows
- Freehand, lines, shapes
- Free
- Reactive Suite
- https://vizetto.com/
- By Vizetto
- Just for presenting static images, not interacting with a desktop
- OpenBoard
- https://openboard.ch/index.en.html
- Whiteboard, not interacting with a desktop
- Free
Virtual Machines
- VirtualBox
Music Players to test out:
- FooBar2000
- DoubleTwist
- Clementine
QR Codes
- QR Stuff
- http://www.qrstuff.com/
- Has direct encoding, and offers a tracker URL
System Tools
- Backup
- Clonezilla
- Data Recovery
- Debugging
- Process Explorer
- Easy way to see information from processes.
- What is each thread doing? Call stack is available.
- How is the CPU usage? You can see the CPU usage, Kernel and User Mode.
- You can see which program has a particular file or directory opened.
- You can search for a specific handle or DLL among the processes running.
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
- MPSReport
- Check DLL’s versions, hotfixes, software updates.
- Compare if two machines have the same drivers, registry settings and softwares.
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823393/
- SPSReport
- Think of MPSReport for SharePoint.
- The SPS Reporting Tool is utilized to gather detailed information regarding a systems current configuration.
- http://www.codeplex.com/spsreport
- Dependency Walker
- Scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules
- For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module.
- Detailed information about each file including a full path to the file, base address, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more.
- Useful for troubleshooting system errors related to loading and executing modules.
- http://www.dependencywalker.com/
- SQL Nexus
- You don’t need to be a DBA to use this tool. J
- You can quickly and easily load SQL Trace files; T-SQL script output, including SQL DMV queries; and Performance Monitor logs into a SQL Server database for analysis.
- Excellent tool for isolating problems on the SQL Server side.
- http://www.codeplex.com/sqlnexus
- LogParser
- Log parser is a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows® operating system such as the Event Log, the Registry, the file system, and Active Directory
- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=890cd06b-abf8-4c25-91b2-f8d975cf8c07&displaylang=en
- Forum: http://forums.iis.net/default.aspx?GroupID=51
- Forensic Log parsing: http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1712
- Log Parser scripts: http://blogs.iis.net/rakkimk/archive/2008/11/18/logparser-useful-logparser-scripts.aspx
- Log Parser scripts: http://blogs.msdn.com/carloc/archive/2008/02/06/logparser-scripts-for-various-occasions.aspx
- Log Parser scripts: http://blogs.technet.com/clinth/archive/2010/01/07/w3c-iis-log-analysis-using-log-parser.aspx
- Visual LogParser tools: http://www.codeplex.com/visuallogparser
- Indihiang
- Based on LogParser
- Great tool to analyze IIS logs
- Generate great charts
- User interface easy to interact
- Downside: slower than running regular LogParser scripts
- http://indihiang.codeplex.com/
- PowerShell
- Why do you need to learn another scripting language?
- Less code than JScript and VBScript to accomplish the same task.
- Total integration with .NET Framework.
- Great for administrators and developers.
- In PFE we use PowerShell as the preferred programming language used to create
- Alternative to LogParser tool.
- PowerShell is part of Windows 7 and newer versions.
- For other Windows versions you can download from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c913aeab-d7b4-4bb1-a958-ee6d7fe307bc&DisplayLang=en
- PowerShell blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/
- WinDbg
- Free and powerful Microsoft debugger.
- More powerful than Visual Studio.
- Enables user mode debugging and kernel debugging.
- Post-Mortem debugging (dump analysis) and live debugging.
- Downside: More difficult to use than Visual Studio but worth learning.
- http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
- Psscor2.dll – debugger extension: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c068e9f-ebfe-48a5-8b2f-0ad6ab454ad4&displayLang=en
- Sosex.dll – debugger extension: http://www.stevestechspot.com/
- WinDbg Scripts
- Scripts are used to automate the debugging session.
- WinDbg Scripts are created with the WinDbg script language which is similar to C.
- WinDbg Scripts are great for small scripts.
- http://blogs.msdn.com/debuggingtoolbox/
- Netmon
- Use it when you suspect the bottleneck is network related.
- Collects logs from network activity.
- Easy way to visualize HTTP, TCP/IP and other types of network communication.
- http://blogs.technet.com/netmon/
- Parsers: http://nmparsers.codeplex.com/
- Fiddler
- Fiddler is a Web Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the Internet. If you think the network might be the bottleneck for the poor performance of your web application you can use Fiddler or Netmon.
- http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/
- Instructional videos: http://www.fiddler2.com/Fiddler/help
- Process Explorer
- Checksum
- Microsoft File Checksum Integrity Verifier
- HashTab
Printing
- Photos
- MPix
RSS
- Tiny Tiny RSS
- How to Build Your Own Syncing RSS Reader with Tiny Tiny RSS
CAD
- Floor Plans
- Sweet Home 3D
- Has a download version and a browser version using Java
- http://www.sweethome3d.com/SweetHome3DOnline.jsp
- FloorPlanner
- Runs as Flash in browser
- http://floorplanner.com/
- Sweet Home 3D
To Check Out
- HFS ~ Http File Server
- send and receive files via html
- http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/
- NirSoft
- Large collection of system tools
- http://www.nirsoft.net/
- List of large file editors
- Terminals
- Tabbed RDP client, plus many other protocols
- http://terminals.codeplex.com/
- T-Clock
- Replacement taskbar clock
- http://www.stoicjoker.com/TClock/
- Ditto
- Clipboard Manager
- http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/
- List of defrag programs
- Best free disk defrag program — Auslogics vs IObit vs Defraggler vs Puran vs MyDefrag (July 2013)
- 15 Free Defrag Software Tools (June 2016)
Game Emulators
- List of emulators:
- NES
- SNES
- SNES9X
- N64
- Project 64 (need to create account to download)
- GameCube
- Dolphin Emulator
- Wii
- Dolphin Emulator (does both GameCube and Wii)
- Raspberry Pi
To Read
- Scott Hanselman's 2014 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows