[SakSquash]

Since my Avast post has garnered a bit of interest, I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread where you share some sort of free (or non-free) programs that you can get on the net. Please give information on the program and where to get it.

I use a ton of programs, but there are two in particular that have been very helpful.

First one is CCleaner. This free program, when you run it, will delete all unnecessary files from your computer, and will free up a lot of room on your HD. It gets rid of temp files that you accumulate off of the internet and a lot more. You can find out more about it and get it here.

The next one is Killbox. Ever get a file on your computer that you can't seem to get rid of? It might say "file is being used by a blah blah please close out of blah blah," and you're thinking to yourself "I don't have any programs running!" Well, Killbox will get rid of that file whether your computer likes it or not! It's a helpful program because a lot of those files that refuse to be removed are usually spyware or worse, a virus. You can get that program here.

Now, i'd like to find out about more great stuff that's out there. Any suggestions?

[squarejawhero]

Don't you mean... CRAPCLEANER? Great utility.

I clean out my old g-card drivers when updating by using Drivercleaner -
http://www.drivercleaner.net/

Other than those I've just got the Usual Suspects - Spybot, Adaware etc.

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by squarejawhero

Don't you mean... CRAPCLEANER? Great utility.

I clean out my old g-card drivers when updating by using Drivercleaner -
http://www.drivercleaner.net/

Other than those I've just got the Usual Suspects - Spybot, Adaware etc.

Hahah wow, I never realized that's what the C stood for.

[Aj_]

Free

Spybot Search and Destroy
I used to use Ad-Aware, but this has a much more functional interface, it's fast and has some nice features, Immunize being one.

eMule
P2P app, conencts to eDonkey and Kademlia networks, very clean and pretty interface, the core is great, and the stats are fantastic.

abc
Bit Torrent app, uses Bittornado (like any BT app worth a damn) as its core. Azureus was using way too much resources for my liking.

Opera
I don't really understand all the firefox love, Opera is fast, it is ahead of the curve, and has all you need without installing extensions. Free version has text adverts, but they aren't intrusive.

Samurize
Desktop Widgets for all, it uses very little resources, has great support, great downloads, and a simple but not great editor for creating your own. It's great if you know VB, and want some scripts behind your GUI.

I got about 10-20 more, I'll post them later.

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by Aj_

Free

Spybot Search and Destroy
I used to use Ad-Aware, but this has a much more functional interface, it's fast and has some nice features, Immunize being one.

eMule
P2P app, conencts to eDonkey and Kademlia networks, very clean and pretty interface, the core is great, and the stats are fantastic.

abc
Bit Torrent app, uses Bittornado (like any BT app worth a damn) as its core. Azureus was using way too much resources for my liking.

Opera
I don't relaly understand all the firefox love, Opera is fast, it is ahead of the curve, and has all you need without installing extensions. Free version has text adverts, but they aren't intrusive.

Samurize
Desktop Widgets for all, it uses very little resources, has great support, great downloads, and a simple but not great editor for creating your own. It's great if you know VB, and want some scripts behind your GUI.

I got about 10-20 more, I'll post them later.

You use abc eh? I tried it out but I wasn't getting very good speeds. I use Burst! instead.

[Aj_]

You use abc eh? I tried it out but I wasn't getting very good speeds. I use Burst! instead.

I can max out my connection, probably your ports, limits, or the tracker was the problem. Burst is a very good Console app but I wasn't impressed with the front end. I think Bittornado is the best core, I haven't seen anything different that is as good.

[RLacey]

OpenOffice.org
You want to buy an office program?

Trillian
Beats using five separate IM clients.

Xfire
If you play multiplayer games, use this. Simple.

DOSBox
I can't believe that some people still haven't heard of this magical program.

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by RLacey

DOSBox
I can't believe that some people still haven't heard of this magical program.

I hear it's not very user friendly, which is why I have an old computer I use just for playing old games.

[Ninja Dodo]

PlasticAnimationPaper - traditional animation on your desktop

... shareware though, not freeware.

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

PlasticAnimationPaper - traditional animation on your desktop

Do you need to know how to draw to use this?

[Ninja Dodo]

Not really.

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

Not really.

I can't even draw that well

If I get ambitious, maybe i'll give it a shot

[insane_cobra]

There are two handy little programs I use to sniff out any processes that shouldn't be running (dialers, trojans etc), but somehow manage to squeeze past my antivirus, Ad-Aware and Spybot. Descriptions are from Sysinternals website.

Autoruns
See what programs are configured to startup automatically when your system boots and you login. Autoruns also shows you the full list of Registry and file locations where applications can configure auto-start settings.

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.

There are really zounds of useful freeware utilities on Sysinternals website so check them out.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

I hear it's not very user friendly, which is why I have an old computer I use just for playing old games.

Grab the D-Fend plugin from the same site. Makes DOSBox much, much easier to use.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Grab the D-Fend plugin from the same site. Makes DOSBox much, much easier to use.

Also, DosBox isn't user friendly at first, but a very short reading of the Readme.txt gives one all he needs to use it.
And you can make shortcuts for your games, which takes 5 minutes, and will enable you to launch them on fullscreen from the desktop like any recent XP games.

[SakSquash]

But I also hear it's not compatible with all games.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

But I also hear it's not compatible with all games.

There's a compatibility list on the website - check it for the individual games .

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

But I also hear it's not compatible with all games.

It's not.
But it's compatible with most of what you can't run on XP or with VDMSound or with ScummVM.
Which makes me think: VDMSound is awesome. A simple install, and then you only have to right click on a DOS game to try to emulate it. It works more often that not.

[SakSquash]

See, this all sounds too complicated to me.

Going to see Dark Water?

[Wormsie]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

See, this all sounds too complicated to me.

How old are you...?