Freeware that I use

My main PC, which was running Windows 8, failed.  Rather than repair the Windows 8 OS, I reverted back to Windows 7—and the desktop experience is much better.

Just in case another fresh install is ever needed, below are the free software applications I install and recommend:

  • VLC media player – VideoLAN is the best freeware video player I’ve ever used.
  • Handbrake – A great open source video transcoder.
  • 7-Zip – An open source Zip/7z/Tar/GZip/LZH/more manager.
  • Virtual Clone Drive – Best way to mount ISO images as a drive letter.
  • Cure PDF Writer – A printer driver allow anything to “print” to a .pdf file
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader – The original (yet now bloated) tool to view .pdf files
  • Defraggler – An improved way to defragment your hard drive.
  • Kindle for PC – Read Amazon books on the computer.
  • KeePass – Store the .kdb file in dropbox and have an awesome secure password manager.
  • Dropbox – Well known, simple, file sharing software for all devices.
  • CamStudio – Open source desktop screen recording software ala Camtasia.
  • Skype – Originally in Delphi, the leader in peer-to-peer voice calling.
  • FileZilla – An FTP Client and Server released under GNU General Public License.
  • iTunes – Clumsy Windows application with the largest selection of music and podcasts.
  • Zune – A better player than iTunes, but music selection is limited.
  • Chrome – Google built a better browser using KISS.
  • Firefox – A good backup browser for web debugging but lacks duplicate tab (as of v21.0).
  • Firebug – Excellent plug-in for debugging and profiling HTML/JavaScript.
  • Opera – The alternative web browser that Presto-chango is moving to WebKit.
  • Fiddler – A must have web http debugging proxy—it’s essential for AJAX development.
  • WireShark – When needing to go deeper into the bits on the network below HTTP, WireShark is THE answer.
  • XAMPP for Windows – A Windows-friendly way to install an open source web development stack (include Apache, MySQL, PHP, and more).
  • FireBird SQL Server – A stable robust full-featured SQL Server that’s always been superior to MySQL.
  • MySQL – The world’s most populate open source database (while not the best open source database).
  • MongoDB – A C++ open-source document database that’s a breeze to use.  My favorite “NoSQL” option.
  • HeidiSQL – A Delphi open-source application to work with MySQL and MSSQL databases quickly and easily.
  • Notepad++ – An excellent notepad replacement with multiple programming languages keyword highlighting.
  • Paint.Net – Proof that a good .Net program can be written, an outstanding image editing application.
  • Pencil – Amazing open source wireframe/storyboarding tool.
  • Tortoise SVN – The best way to work with Subversion on Windows.
  • Tortoise GIT – Almost makes GIT friendly.
  • Tortoise HG – Makes Mercurial friendly.
  • Free Pascal – The cross platform open source complier alternative to C/C++.
  • Lazarus – An amazing Delphi-like IDE for OSX/Windows/Linux.
  • Swiff Player – A stand-alone Flash (SWF) moving player.
  • WinDowse – An advance windows window analyzer.
  • Windows Live Essentials – Solely for Live Writer–which I’m using right now for this post.
  • Flash Player – How the web does video (and plays games).
  • Silverlight – How Netflix does/did video—a deprecated technology abandoned by Microsoft in favor of HTML5 and JavaScript for Windows 8 (an OS which I just abandoned).

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