HEXUS.freeware list

[cptwhite_uk]

Links to free software - for any purpose.

* Post replies to this thread giving your suggestions and I will keep updating this sticky so that we end up with a fully comprehensive list of apps and software that everyone can make use of.
* All apps will be categorised - Operating Systems, Anti-virus, Image Editing, Games, Media Players etc.

Obviously this is for freeware, general public license (GPL) software only. NO WAREZ

The original list of programs. Includes some more specialised apps not listed here - but may be useful to some. Thanks to Moby-Dick for these!!!


WINDOWS APPS


Operating Systems / OS Emulator Software:
Virtual Box - Nice VM program that will allow you to run Linux/Others on your Windows setup, and vice versa


Antivirus / Firewall:
Avast - Free anti-virus
AVG Free Edition 8.0 - Free anti-virus
Comodo - Software firewall


Malware Removal / System Cleanup:
Ad-aware - Removal tool for all kinds of nasties
Spybot Search & Destroy - Removal tool for all kinds of nasties
Spyware Blaster - Removal tool for all kinds of nasties
Crap Cleaner (CCleaner) - Registry clean up
Malwarebytes Anti-malware - Removal tool for all kinds of nasties
Super Antispyware
Dr Web - Cure It - Re-download to update
F Secure Easy Clean
AVP Tool (Kaspersky) - Re-download to update
Mwav - Malware tool, uses Kaspersky engine. Built in auto-updater.


PC Building / Windows XP Customise:
Driver Cleaner - Removes old drivers
DriverGuide Toolkit - Backs up all drivers into one file
nLite - Can be used to take ISO (image) of your XP disk and edit it. Features can be removed, drivers can be pre-installed and the XP setup can be made unattended
HijackThis - Lets you simply remove things from your start up, great for keeping windows junk free and removal of malware.



Overclocking / Hardware Tools / Stability Testing:
CPU-Z - Identifies all your hardware components, revision numbers and speed settings
GPU-Z - Basically the same as CPU-Z, except for your video card: a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU. Logs temps, can save GPU Bios.
CoreTemp - Monitor the temperatures of your CPU(s). Can create logs.
Furmark - Stress for graphics card, for stability testing
HD Tune - Benchmark your hard drives to find out access time, and read speeds
Prime 95 - Stress your CPU and/or RAM to ensure stability after an overclock, or when you've just purchased a new PC/CPU
Super Pi Mod - Quick stress testing utility. Will through up error on systems which would quickly become unstable. Good for a quick stability check. Good benchmark for PC speed.
Orthos - Long timespan CPU stressing app. People tend to run this for 24 hours to test for complete stability of a system.
Speedfan - Monitor system temperatures, perform SMART tests and other features
MemTest - Test your RAM is error free
RivaTuner - Advanced graphics card control - fan speeds, overclocking, and much much more. Highly recommended app. for overclockers.
ATI Tool - Another graphics card control app. - fan speeds, overclocking, and much much more. Highly recommended app. for overclockers. Used use this instead of Catalyst Control Centre.



Word Processing / Spreadsheets / General Office Applications:
Open Office - Free alternative to Microsoft Office
OpenProJ - Open source alternative to Microsoft Project




Internet Browsers / Downloading Tools:
Firefox - The king of internet browsers
Google Chrome - Webkit based browser from google. Inc. "porn" mode
Opera - An alternative to Firefox with much the same features such as: tabbed browsing, in built download manager
Opera portable - Speaking of Opera awesomeness - how about a portable version?
Free Download Manager - Resume broken downloads / Speed maximiser
uTorrent - The best torrent downloader, bar none.


Instant Messenging:
Windows Live Essentials - Live Essentials in my opinion is arguably the best collection of free software out there. Not only is there an excellent IM client included but a multitude of other decent applications. One installer which sorts out the downloading and installing of all the apps
Trillian - Multi protocol supporting IM software, no need for multiple clients any more
Pidgin (formerly Gaim) - All instant messaging apps combined into one
SkypeMake phone calls over the internet for free
Messenger Plus+ - Add-on for Windows Live Messenger that adds tons of features. Make sure you untick the bundled software during install


Image Editing:
Pixlr - Free browser based Photoshop style image editing app. - my personal favourite.
Splash Up - Very similar to Pixlr but it also hooks up via the Flickr, Facebook, etc APIs so you can access your remote images if you have an account
Paint.net - Free Photoshop style image editing app.
Gimp - Free pixel/rastor image editing app.
Inkscape - Free vector based graphics editor - think Corel Draw / Illustrator. Tons of tutorials online, and basics are thoroughly covered in the Help > Tutorials menu. Very easy to pick up.
Picasa - Manage / organise / share / tweak your photos
Sumo Tool Online image editor - like an online freeware version of a stripped down Photoshop
Infranview - Image viewer / converter / batch rename / supports vast array of file types. Small compact app.
Color Cop - Universal 'eye-dropper' tool to select and match any colour on your screen
Bright (inc. readme instructions for use) - Command Line Professional colour reducing tool - reduce 16M colour to 256 with minimal loss of quality - much better results than photoshop/paint shop pro. Batch processing ability. Good for reducing file size / Web graphics. Typical command line to 256 colours, override files of the same name, convert all files that start with 'filename' (i.e filename001, filename002 etc.) Saves as .pcx format (then convert back to GIF/PNG).



Free Desktop Images:
InterfaceLIFT - Categoried, all resolutions available
Mandolux - Large selection of high quality wallpapers including multiple monitor setups


Video / Sound Editing Tools (Editers/Encoders/Decoders/Recorders):
Autorun.inf Maker - If you dont know what it does, you don't need it
Audacity - Nice audio editor and recorder
Handbrake - Awesome DVD ripping app. Alledgedly! *
Project X - Use ProjectX for demultiplexing .ts files from your PVR *
Cuttermaran - Digital video editor *
ImagoMPEG - To bring the images and sound back together ImagoMPEG-Muxer is also a great little app. *
Media Coder - Batch transcoder/converter program. Great for converting your videos for your devices
CD Ex - Rip CDs / Encode / Decode
VirtualDub - Excellent video encoding software
Avidemux - Another excellent video encoding app.

* = Great for video editing when used together for ripping from source (Handbrake/Project X), Editing (Cuttermaran) and bring video and audio back together (ImagoMPEG) - Thanks to forum user 'Time Bandit'


Media Players / Organisers
Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (apparently better than VLC and CCP according to SiM )
KM Player - The media player of choice for 'magneticman' and 'Aez' "better than MPC-HC they claim!
CCCP - It's got MPC HC and VLC you choose whichever you want to install, and it also installs all the other codecs needed to play all other media files
VLC Media Player
AIMP2 - Feature rich, and light resource footprint. Winamp alternative - definitely worth a look.
Winamp Media Player
Spotify - Stream music from the internet, from the crator of uTorrent, very simple interface (audio ad supported, legal)
Media Portal - Media Center / HTPC App
My Movies - Movie organiser
Last FM "Keep your Last.fm profile updated with what you’ve been listening to on your computer or iPod. Get personalised music and videos, find out about gigs, listen to your own personal radio stations, and much much more."
XM Play - Small music player with plugins to play alot of other formats
Zoom Player - Media player with dvd support and a seperate codec downloader keeping codecs up to date in one click
ORB - Media streaming software which allows playback of media across not only your local network but the web and also the transfer of files to and from your pc remotely all through a web browser. Supports steaming to xbox 360 + ps3!
Music Brainz Picard - Tag your music properly with information from MusicBrainz massive online database
Songbird - Excellent iTunes alternative. Basically a library for your music
Foobar2000 - Audio player/manager. Bit of a learning curve but if you're willing to put in a bit of effort it will reward you in spades, especially if you have a very large music library which needs licking into shape.
mp3tag - Mp3 tagger. Doh!


Codecs:
FFDShow - Codec pack for multiple file types inc. Xvid/Divx and many many more.
MKV Codec - Codec for the increasingly popular mkv (Matroska) codec usually found with HD content
Windows Vista Codec Pack - Free codec pack for Vista (based on ffdshow) - a 64-bit pack is also included on the website
G-Spot - Analyze a video or audio file to check what codecs and settings it's using

[cptwhite_uk]

CD/DVD Burning/Virtual Drives:
CD Burner XP - CD burning utility featuring Blu-Ray and HD-DVD burning support along with image burning
Burn At Once - Free CD/DVD Burning Software
Infra Recorder - Burning Software
Iso Recorder - Lets you burn isos by right click in windows
ImgBurn - Makes/Burns DVD/CD images (use in conjunction with avi2dvd v.0.4.5)
Daemon Tools - Virtual DVD Drive for running CD/DVD image files without burning to CD/DVD
Virtual Clone CD - Virtual DVD Drive for running CD/DVD image files without burning to CD/DVD


Programming / Website Development:
EasyPHP - Great PHP/MySQL webserver for doing a bit of coding or testing your own website
DevC++ - Simple easy to use C++ Editor
wxDev-C++ - Same as DevC++ but includes drag and drop buttons, dialogs and other GUI tools without the need of .NET framework
XAMPP – Portable web server supporting MySQL, PHP and Perl (supposedly better than EasyPHP)


Server Tools / Network Management / LAN Networking Tools / Data Security / File Management:
Virtual PC - Free virtualisation software
Hamachi Virtual LAN network over the internet - no faffing with settings, it just works!
PuTTY - Connect to SSH servers - tunnels can be created and other advanced options are included
TrueCrpyt - Encrypt your files into an extremely secure container with password protection
UltraVNC - Once set up this program will allow you to remote access into a PC running the UltraVNC server with ease
Unstopable Copier - This is an excellent program for copying large amounts of data. It seems like a GUI front end for RoboCopy
WinDirStat - Find out which folders and files on your computer are using the most space. Analyses the size of all the folders on your computer
TreeSize - See where all your hard drive space is being taken up. Similar app. to WinDirStat I suspect.
Eraser - Fully deletes files from the right click menu
Free Undelete - Recover deleted files, as long as you didn't use Eraser
Unlocker - Unlock files which are locked by an application to allow deletion, moving or renaming
Sync Toy Mirror files on 2 or more computers (like RAID1 over a network I assume?)
Universal Extractor - Useful for extracting MSI/EXE installers and other packages. (cab, xpi etc)
Kill Disk (free edition) – Allows you to ‘zero’ a hard drive to ensure a high level of security that data can never be recovered


Other Utilities:
Various useful apps are available from software995. Most can be used with ad support (gives a single pop up window every time you use one of the apps - very minimal really). I really like PDF995 and FTP995. PDF995 creates really nice PDF files from any program, works like a virtual printer. Will convert in high quality vector format where possible and is the best best of a number of apps I've tried. Doesn't leave a watermark (from memory) either. FTP995 is much like filezilla, but worked when filezilla didn't, behind work's proxy settings, thus it gets my recommendation.
Filezilla Free FTP App.
WinSCP - WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer.
Convert - Free mini app - convert any type of unit measurement into something else - lb to Kg, miles to cm etc.
What Pulse Tracks how many keystrokes and mouse clicks you do. See how much you type, keys you press the most etc. Hexus group
NetStat Network speed analysis tool
Time Synchroniser - Great little tool to have on your flash drive to sync Windows after an OS install or loss of time etc.
Bandwidth Monitor
Notepad++ - Great alternative and advanced notepad program. You can use regex in searches too.
Notepad 2 - Another advanced notepad program.
Autoruns - MSconfig replacement. used to control autostart entires,drivers,services etc. I reccomend going to the options, tick hide microsoft and windows entires. I also reccomend ticking verify code signitures.
Process Explorer - Windows task manager replacement. i reccomend going to options,tray icons and enabling cou history and Physical memory. i also reccomend going to options to enabling hide when minimized. can replace task manager if you want it to. i dont use the last option i noted.
Auto Hotkey - Use it for setting up a Ctrl+Alt+ or Winkey+ hotkey for pretty much anything
Enso Launcher - Enso Launcher is designed to give you instant access to your applications and windows. With a few easily remembered keystrokes, you can launch an application, switch to a window by name, and control the state of your windows.



Linux Apps / Others Key posts in this thread:
Free programs - the ultimate guide (aidanjt - Post #72)




Will update this first post regularly with new suggestions you add.
Many thanks to all the contributors!
Currently 126 links and counting

[cptwhite_uk]

Thread place reserved for future expansion.

[TAKTAK]

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Media fire have deleted....

edit: unforeseen issues have prevented this being updated, it will be updated to a newer version ASAP...

[cptwhite_uk]

Great work taktak!

[OilSheikh]

JetAudio, Cole2k, Microsoft Express software ??

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by cptwhite_uk

* Post replies to this thread giving your suggestions and I will keep updating this sticky so that we end up with a fully comprehensive list of apps and software that everyone can make use of.

....

Originally Posted by how1

Good info. Cheers

Originally Posted by OilSheikh

JetAudio, Cole2k, Microsoft Express software ??

[Splash]

Great idea TakTak. How long do MediaFire keep uploads for? If it's not long might I suggest a torrent? I'd have no problem with seeding it long-term.

[cptwhite_uk]

Well I've had some wedding photos in a zip file hosted there for 6 months and counting, do this sites normally have a time limit?

[Splash]

Some of them do, yeah, but it sounds like MediaFire might be fine for what it's being used as.

[PeteSmith]

Maintaining the ISO with current versions of each of these apps is no mean feat - i question how worthwhile it may be - perhaps easier to let peeps download directly from the application publisher. Good idea however.

[Raz316]

http://www.crossloop.com/ - Remote control software. I need to quickly look at a remote users machine and used CrossLoop to connect in a VNC like fashion. It's really simple to do (kinda like a bluetooth accept code) and I didn't need the remote user to mess around with their router. The actual process of controlling was responsive.

[CrazyMonkey]

May i suggest - Antivir Free - http://www.free-av.com/

Currently beating all other solutions, and the free version is very good.

And Online Armour Free - http://www.tallemu.com/free-firewall...-software.html

This is an incredible Firewall and it's HIPS system is fantastic.

[cptwhite_uk]

Keep suggesting them chaps. Cheers for the A/V suggestion Tom.

[watercooled]

I'd recommend SumatraPDF reader - about 1MB and does everything I think a PDF reader does and it's sooo much faster than Adobe!