[Ninth]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

See, this all sounds too complicated to me.

Going to see Dark Water?

If DosBox sounds too complicated and if at one point you have to play a game on XP, then I'd still recommend VDMSound, which couldn't be any easier to use.
Of course, since you're lucky enough to own an old computer, all this information is completely useless.

On a side note, I find it completely awesome that almost any game will run on XP if properly emulated. I remember living through nightmares trying to run games ont he very system they were designed for, but these days it all seems really easy...

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Trillian
Beats using five separate IM clients.

Or the more resource light-weight Miranda. I got it after Trillian slowed my computer down with it's skin mania. I'd still be using Trillian if you could use the damn thing without skins!

[Aj_]

*switches to miranda*

Hmmmm it is more resource friendly. I never really noticed Trillian slowing down, only uses 5-10MB of memory. A few versions ago I stopped using it because the skins were awful, non-functional and ugly, and the old skins had become uncompatible. The latest version has a nice GUI that can't take that much resources.

One of my problems with Trillian is, it doesn't have the functionality of a dedicated client. Miranda seems even less functional. I recommend individual apps, even if keeping them all of them open is anoying, unless you actually do need to connect to 5 or over networks, that would be crazy.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Aj_

unless you actually do need to connect to 5 or over networks, that would be crazy.

[Talas]

Rainlendar
It's a neet little desktop calendar app.

SyncBack
Is a feature-rich file synchronization program. I use it to sync my MP3 player with a mirror of its contents on my drive, so I can make changes quickly and still use it as a mass storage device.

Skype
VoIP for the masses. Also IM. You know, for good measure. Who wants to try it? Come on, I want to listen to people with funny accents.

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by Aj_

One of my problems with Trillian is, it doesn't have the functionality of a dedicated client. Miranda seems even less functional.

Miranda is there to give the basic functions of chatting, and a few protocols. There's a multitude of plugins availible for Miranda - and I wouldn't use Miranda without plug-ins. Seriously - try browsing their plug-in section. ^_^

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by pinkgothic

There's a multitude of plugins availible for Miranda - and I wouldn't use Miranda without plug-ins.

Yeah, like whoÃ*sreadingyourawaymessage. It's too cool 2b true.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Talas

Skype
VoIP for the masses. Also IM. You know, for good measure. Who wants to try it? Come on, I want to listen to people with funny accents.

I have this installed, but none of my contacts are ever online. I, too, find the accents hugely amusing...

[Aj_]

There's a multitude of plugins availible for Miranda - and I wouldn't use Miranda without plug-ins. Seriously - try browsing their plug-in section. ^_^

I use opera not firefox

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by Aj_

I use opera not firefox

*confused?* *is an IE user, as much as that's "out" * What's that got to do with it?

[smashing]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

Process Explorer
Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open, which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns each process.

I'm using Process Explorer a lot to fish for trojans whenever I'm free. Had the horrible experience of my system being plagued with trojan (yujixit.exe) which bypasses all type of anti-virus programme (believe me, I'd tried at least 4 programmes, which include PC-cillin, Noton 2005 and Avant! 4). Process explorer doesn't remove anything though. It could give you an idea if your system isn't working like it is though, that is, if you're vigilant enough...

[Aj_]

*confused?* *is an IE user, as much as that's "out" * What's that got to do with it?

Opera and Firefox are very similiar, I think they have the same base (gecko), they are about the same speed, and they have the same functionality.

Firefox doesn't have the functionality out of the box, you have to download extensions that are like plugins, and opera has a lot of functionality as default. Opera supports something like extensions for when you need to add some functionality, but for the most part everything is already there.

[pinkgothic]

@Aj_: Oh right! Silly me. Didn't catch the connection. *g*

[Aj_]

Free Continued...

GSpot
Great little app, reads the headers of media files and tells you what the codecs are for the audio and video, also can test render the file to see if it works and of if not, what is wrong with it.

Audacity
Great audio editing and recording software. You wont find many free ones that are this good.

CDex
Rips audio from CDs, also encodes the raw files to compressed formats.

FRAPS
Take screenshots, video and display fps in games.

[Aj_]

Free Continued...

Shareaza
The new beta 2.1.2.0 is great, because I wasn't impressed with 2.1.0.0, some bugs seem to make it incredibly slow I had to stop using it. A P2P client that connects eD2k, G2, G1, and BT, has an excellent media player, stats/graphs, clean gui, and so much more.

VirtualDub
Great video editing/capture app.

The GIMP
Photoshop is better, but Photoshop costs money, this is pretty close though.

iPodder
I use this to subscribe and download my podcasts, it's good at what it does.

[Aj_]

Free Continued...

Windows Media Classic
Light-weight, functional, needed for Real Alternative.

Foobar2000
Best media player for audio files, FLAC, ogg, mp3, aac and all the formats wortha damn. Great, customizable interface, lots of community support, great plugins and support with other applications, and light-weight and clean.

Mozilla Thunderbird
It's fast, clean, supports RSS, and has a spam filter. It isn't susceptable to exploits and has frequent updates.

VCDgear
Indispensable VCD utility, rip, burn, encode, repair.

[scabb]

VLC Media Player - Very handy media player, comes with a lot of codecs so if you can't play something with your favoruite media player, VLC might be able to do it.

MusicBrainz Tagger - Comes in very handy if you have a bunch of "01-Untitled.mp3" files, although it's not idea. If anyone could recommend any mp3-related organisation-type tag-file-renaming-esque prograams, that would be super.

Google Earth - Just for kicks ;

Picasa - Another funky little app that Google nicked.

TweakUI - Totally necessary for anyone with XP who isn't completely afraid of computers.


Is Shareaza free of evil, an alternative to the now dead Kazaa Lite if you like? Or are you going to tell me off for being too lazy to read up on it?

[Hammerite]

where in the world...

[Aj_]

Is Shareaza free of evil, an alternative to the now dead Kazaa Lite if you like? Or are you going to tell me off for being too lazy to read up on it?

Look at the link dude, it's on sourceforge.net G2 is better than the Kazaa network, but it hasn't got hardly any users, but Shareaza does connect Bittorrent (faster than Kazaa), and eD2k (more users than Kazaa).

Since you brought up Video LAN might aswell add:

avipreview
Can play uncompelte AVI files.

eDwatch
Uses avipreview and VLC to preview media files for eD2k clients.