Post your Favorite Freeware

leofox · Post by **leofox** » Tue 28 Nov, 2006 7:59 pm

kv83 wrote:As good as freeware is... I often find commercial software far better... (PhotoShop >>> GIMP, MS OFFICE >>> Open Office)

I'd rather have my office program do what i want please. I hate how MSword changes everything because it thinks i want it that way.
There are a lot of small annoyances like that in MSoffice, that made me switch to OOffice. The only reason i could prefer MSoffice over OO is because everyone uses it. Conformity for the win, my Open Office doc files often show up weird on peoples Mscrappywordprocessor, and vice versa.

Arcane WIzard · Post by **Arcane WIzard** » Tue 28 Nov, 2006 8:09 pm

Oh, and tweak-ui for x-mouse setting. ctrl+tab or clicking = lolnothx
Also disable windows stealing focus. (what? activex action not allowed? firefox has crashed again? I dont need a popup blocking everything every time that happens..)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... ySetup.exe

Regmon to see what changes when you mess with settings in Windows programs. (usefull for scripting the changes)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysint ... egmon.mspx
moar, similar, utils.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysint ... index.mspx

Electric Sheep

(click for huge)
Best screensaver ever.
Your computer and thousands others are collectively generating "sheep" to count while they rest.
http://www.electricsheep.org/

Ã‚ÂµTorrent
Best bittorent client period.
http://www.utorrent.com/

Putty
Standalone, single file, minimalist, ssh client.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Daemon Tools
ISO mounter
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php

Filezilla
Another FTP client.
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

Hamachi
Virtual LAN. (lol @ port-forwarding to play games. no longer needed. except in 1% of all cases to get a fast connection for hamachi itself through the firewall instead of a slow connection) CHAN: LAN OF DEATH; PASS: HEIL for occasional Soldat/Raven Shield/ Ghost Recon/Dawn of War/Defcon/whatever else you want to host games
http://www.hamachi.cc/

Irfanview
Image viewer. Bash processing, supports virtually ALL image formats you could possibly imagine. Just get this.
http://www.irfanview.com/

RAD video tool
video -> image conversion, bash processing, etc.
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

Ventrilo
Voice over IP / teamspeak.
http://www.ventrilo.com/

Soldat

(click for huge)
2D multiplayer sidescroller shooter. Guns. Jetpacks. Gore. Get it.
http://www.soldat.pl/main.php

Open Office doc files often show up weird on peoples Mscrappywordprocessor, and vice versa.

.rtf for the win? ~_~
Creating a template file in MS Office, then pasting the document into that seems to prevent most styles problems.
Design tables and objects/groups etc in OO, screenshot, paste over it prevents all table/object layout problems (you know, which also excist in MS Office itself when it's using it's own crappy doc format).

Oh well, xml/pdf > all.

crzyrbl · Post by **crzyrbl** » Tue 28 Nov, 2006 8:41 pm

Great idea for a topic!
Cave Story, great freeware game, easier with a usb controller.
http://www.gameflaws.com/cavestory/

Post by **benryves** » Wed 29 Nov, 2006 12:00 pm

XnView is another image viewer/batch processor/converter. Fear the format list.

ScummVM can run various old adventure games (chiefly SCUMM-powered ones) under multiple operating systems.

Windows PowerShell is a useful command-line shell for Windows, and is fully scriptable and .NET-powered (so you can use any of the existing .NET classes on the command-line).

Process Explorer is a replacement for the standard task manager, allowing you to view more details (including the ever-useful ability to view which services are being hosted in a particular svchost.exe instance).

Visual Studio Express - free, unrestricted versions of VC#, VC++, VJ#, VB.NET and Visual Web Developer. Combine with the now-free MSDN Library for best effect.

ImgBurn is rock-solid image burning software for CD/DVD drives.

CDBurnerXP Pro is relatively decent CD/DVD burning software.

KermMartian · Post by **KermMartian** » Wed 29 Nov, 2006 2:04 pm

It has probably already been mentioned, but:

Notepad++
Excellent freeware editor with syntax highlighting, tabbed editing, optional autocompletion, and tons of features.
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net

Homestar · Post by **Homestar** » Wed 29 Nov, 2006 3:24 pm

hey kerm, Notepad++ looks awesome, but is there a simple button for download? I saw a bunch of different 'packages', which one would you recommend?

------

@ Beryves: I downloaded paint.net... This program is awesome! Is it capiable of making transparent pixels? if so, how?
Are there any little tricks that you find especially helpful when using it?

Post by **benryves** » Wed 29 Nov, 2006 4:15 pm

Homestar wrote:Is it capiable of making transparent pixels? if so, how?
Are there any little tricks that you find especially helpful when using it?

By default, the new image contains a single background layer, all white. Create a new layer (click the New icon in the layers window), then select the background layer and delete it. Now you have one layer with a transparent background to work with. Photoshop works in a similar manner.

threefingeredguy · Post by **threefingeredguy** » Wed 29 Nov, 2006 5:06 pm

Omega Drivers so I can boost performance.
http://www.omegadrivers.net/

Dev-C++

Arcane WIzard · Post by **Arcane WIzard** » Wed 29 Nov, 2006 5:57 pm

Homestar wrote:hey kerm, Notepad++ looks awesome, but is there a simple button for download? I saw a bunch of different 'packages', which one would you recommend?

Windows: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/notepa ... g_mirror=0

By default, the new image contains a single background layer, all white. Create a new layer (click the New icon in the layers window), then select the background layer and delete it. Now you have one layer with a transparent background to work with. Photoshop works in a similar manner.

Can't you select the backgroudn to be transparent when you create the file/image?

Post by **benryves** » Wed 29 Nov, 2006 6:10 pm

Arcane WIzard wrote:Can't you select the backgroudn to be transparent when you create the file/image?

Not as far as I can see, though I might have missed it somewhere.

thecheat · Post by **thecheat** » Tue 05 Dec, 2006 1:58 am

Here's a great program-cone-layout

It allows you to put in dimensions (which it simulates in a little screen, a 3D cone) and also shows what the print out will look like, with directions for cutting and such. If the cone is bigger than one sheet? prints on mulituple with directions to piece them together. invaluable tool for projects...

PS: I got the trial, exausted all the days, and it still works...

never registered though!

KermMartian · Post by **KermMartian** » Tue 05 Dec, 2006 1:40 pm

Homestar wrote:hey kerm, Notepad++ looks awesome, but is there a simple button for download? I saw a bunch of different 'packages', which one would you recommend?...

Assuming you have a Windows box:
http://sourceforge.net/project/download ... e&86416545

Edit: oops, someone beat me to it. >.<