News - QOTW: which lesser-known Windows apps should everyone know about?

[TaintedShirt]

A lot of good progs/ apps mentioned here 7zip, CCleaner, Thunderbird, Evernote. Love these. I really love OneNote but seeing as MS haven't given us an Android version then I'll stick with Evernote.

An app I had never heard of till a day of two ago is PC Monitor. Found it mentioned on Lifehacker. Install it on your pc (Windows and Linux) and your android phone/ iphone then you can monitor your pc from your phone. CPU Temp, CPU Usage, Memory Availability, Running Processes, Event Log, Command Prompt, Windows Update, Lock, Logoff, restart, Shut down your pc all from your droid. No gfx card temps yet but they say they are coming.

So neat and free. Windows Software from here http://www.mobilepcmonitor.com/

Android App here https://market.android.com/details?i...obilepcmonitor

Sorry don't have an iphone so don't have a link for the app but the QR code is one the pc monitor site.

I am loving this app. It just works and is simple to use.

ps I am in now way affiliated with any company/ software mentioned above.

[midiman]

I use windows based PCs for music production so on that note i will recommend...

Audacity : great for encoding mp3 and slicing wav files to be used as samples in my samplers and my drum machine. its free too

Reason 6 is my favorite music software and i would reccomend it to a hobbyist musician too. its got everything you need to make music. prodigys last album was made entirely in reason (version 4 at the time) cost:£300

I also recommend cubase6 for pro level users who have midi hardware instruments and can afford a stack of good vst instruments. Its the best alternative to logic (which is only avalable on mac, unfortunatley). It runs like a dream on my overclocked core i7 2600k/ Z68-UD7 based music computer. cubase 6: starts from £170 depending on what features your after..cubase comes in lite, medium and pro packages depending on your needs.

I just wanted to point that out to anybody interested in making music.

I will vouch this for both reason and cubase. An overclocked windows based PC is great for making music.

[DDY]

Foobar 2000; an advanced audio player with endless capabilities and customisation options.

[Ciber]

A lot of good progs/ apps mentioned here 7zip, CCleaner, Thunderbird, Evernote. Love these. I really love OneNote but seeing as MS haven't given us an Android version then I'll stick with Evernote.

An app I had never heard of till a day of two ago is PC Monitor. Found it mentioned on Lifehacker. Install it on your pc (Windows and Linux) and your android phone/ iphone then you can monitor your pc from your phone. CPU Temp, CPU Usage, Memory Availability, Running Processes, Event Log, Command Prompt, Windows Update, Lock, Logoff, restart, Shut down your pc all from your droid. No gfx card temps yet but they say they are coming.

So neat and free. Windows Software from here http://www.mobilepcmonitor.com/

Android App here https://market.android.com/details?i...obilepcmonitor

Sorry don't have an iphone so don't have a link for the app but the QR code is one the pc monitor site.

I am loving this app. It just works and is simple to use.

ps I am in now way affiliated with any company/ software mentioned above.

Sounds useful, but it would be effectively giving full control of my PC(s) to this software company I've never heard of before. What if they get hacked?

[TaintedShirt]

A good point Ciber. Not sure if I know the answer tbh. I would love if this was something I just ran on my pc and on my phone and nowhere else.

From reading their site and forums, they store hashes of passwords and their servers never directly contact our pc's. More info here as someone else asked them about this.

As far as I can make out if someone was taking control of your pc then merely turning off the net would stop pc monitor accessing your pc, rebooting in to safe mode an deleting the app would clear the app.

I have been thinking about what would happen if I got hacked. The main problem for me would be the nuisance of it. I store very little personal data unencrypted on my pc. Most stuff is backed up externally. So apart from the time to wipe, restore and reinstall games then there's not much of a problem. Don't get me wrong, it would still annoy the hell outta me as I try to keep my pc as secure as possible.

On the other hand Sony getting hacked could potentially have been bigger problem for me, if I had ever supplied them with credit card details (thankfully I never did) altho they do have my name, address and D.O.B.

The one thing that annoys me about the app is that there is no on/ off button. You install it and it runs as a service. It sets itself to run on each start up via the registry rather than the startup folder so once you have installed this, it is entirely possible to forget about it. I would like some easy way to stop it without having to resort to the 3 fingered salute.

[Ciber]

The one thing that annoys me about the app is that there is no on/ off button. You install it and it runs as a service. It sets itself to run on each start up via the registry rather than the startup folder so once you have installed this, it is entirely possible to forget about it. I would like some easy way to stop it without having to resort to the 3 fingered salute.

Kind of like a trojan.

[TaintedShirt]

Kind of like a trojan.

lol, yup just like a trojan, that's right or maybe like many of the other services installed on your pc right now.

So have you found any thing that the app does that is in any way outside of what they claim? This I would like to know as I have the app installed. I don't want to seem dismissive, I agree people should be cautious but if you want to make a point please back it up with something even a wikipedia page.

[Ciber]

No idea what it does or might do in the background and that's my issue with it. It would be better if it just worked on wifi without sending everything back to their servers.

[TaintedShirt]

Totally agree with you. I'd definitely prefer that too.