Favourite and Essential Utilities and Applications
This is by no means a complete list of applications and utilities I use on my computer; it is more a list of the most useful (for me). Although this list is a miniature review and endorsement of each application, do your own homework before you decided to load or purchase any of them. All of them have been tested and run happily on Windows 7.
Free
- Adobe Reader - goes without saying. It allows the reading of Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Despite having the full version of Acrobat Pro, I still use Reader to quickly load files for reading and viewing.
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/10.x/10.0.0/en_US/AdbeRdr1000_en_US.msi - CCleaner - scans your system and cleans up all the detritus, such as temp files, cookies, history, cached information, etc. It can be set to various levels of deletion, up to Gutmann (35 passes) for extra security. It also does a few other useful things, such as a Registry scan and clean-up.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner - Highly recommended! - Default Program Editor - is a small, but simple, utility that allows you to easily set and customise File Type associations, autoplay and default program settings.
http://defaultprogramseditor.com - Defraggler - quick and efficient drive defragmentation utility.
http://www.piriform.com/defraggler - Dropbox - online file sync, backup and sharing utility. Once the small client app has been installed, Dropbox appears as a folder on your system. Anything you put in the Dropbox folder will be securely backed up and synchronised to your free 2Gb online storage. I use it as an automated synchronisation folder between multiple computers, my tablet and my phone. You can work on the files in the Dropbox folder while offline, but as soon as you connect to the internet, everything is synchronised. I use Dropbox to store all the local folders for Dreamweaver development. Dreamweaver sees the same files regardless of which machine I am logged into or where I am - no version conflicts. Subfolders can also be shared with others (read only or read/write for collaborative work) and you can access your store of files via a web browser, if needed. For a nominal fee, you can acquire up to 100Gb storage.
http://www.dropbox.com - Highly recommended! - Firefox and Thunderbird - much better and more customizable (and secure) browser and email client than the MS offerings. Some people may protest that Google Chrome as the "new" browser of choice; however, consider there may (highly likely) be privacy issues.
http://www.mozilla.org - Recuva - is a great utility for recovering deleted files. I recommend that you install Recuva in anticipation of any accidental deletions - NOT after you need it. Because, once you have deleted a file, the installation process could over-write the data you wish to recover.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva - CodeStuff Starter - allows you to manage all the Startups, Processes and Services on your system. It provides comprehensive information (and links to helpful lookup resources) for each entry so you can make an informed decision on what's necessary and what's not. Then you can kill off the resource-wasters, if you so desire.
http://codestuff.tripod.com/products_starter.html
Free (Online)
- Aviary - is a collection of powerful online applications for creativity. Unlike the myriad online "productivity" suits (that concentrate on office applications), Aviary is all about graphical and audio editing and production. It has both image and vector editors, screen capture and image markup as well as a music creator and more.
http://aviary.com (requires registration) - Highly recommended! - Kuler - from Adobe does just one thing and does it VERY well; it designs colour themes. Although it runs independently in a browser, if you own any of the latest Adobe creative suit applications, it integrates with them. It outputs CS compatible colour swatch files and you can share your creations within the site.
http://kuler.adobe.com (requires registration) - Highly recommended!
Commercial
- Adobe CS6 Design and Web Premium - I can't live without this. I use Dreamweaver extensively for web development, Photoshop for image editing/creation and InDesign for desktop publishing. To a lesser extent, I also use Acrobat Pro and LiveCycle Designer for electronic form design and Illustrator for vector capabilities not covered in Photoshop.
http://www.adobe.com/products - Highly recommended! - SlySoft AnyDVD - works in the background to strip out all the annoying "features" of DVD movies, like Zones and copy protection - among other things. This product even allows you to bypass forced disc features.
http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html - Highly recommended! - ClipMate - adds a LOT of functionality not available in the Windows clipboard. Multiple clips, combine, edit, re-format and print clips. It even has a spell-checker.
http://www.thornsoft.com - Directory Opus - is simply the BEST Windows Explorer replacement. I cannot express how important and useful this product is to me. It offers so many features and built in tools, that it can be a little overwhelming to start with. But once you start using it, you will never want to live without it again. Example features include; double-clicking the desktop will open your last folder, right-click the desktop and open pre-saved favourite locations, fully customisable, built in ZIP support, built in FTP client, advanced search and synchronisation, duplicate file finder, advanced rename, file view filtering and MUCH more.
http://www.gpsoft.com.au/ - VERY highly recommended! - EditPad Pro - is my chosen text editor. I know there are some free alternatives, but this is the one I use. It includes tabbed multi-file editing, code colouring and is fully customisable.
http://www.editpadpro.com - High-Logic MainType and FontCreator. Because I do my fair share of DTP and logo design, these two applications are a big help. Probably a bit of a luxury for general users, but excellent, nonetheless. Scanahand is also useful for quickly creating a font from your handwritten characters.
http://www.high-logic.com - IconWorkshop - allows me to make hi-quality icons for any OS. I generally use it to create quick icons for web sites, but it has many other useful features for customising your system icons.
http://www.axialis.com/iconworkshop - MediaMonkey (Gold) - is my chosen digital music manager. Again, there are alternatives, but this is slick, fast, intuitive and does EVERYTHING I want it to, and more.
http://www.mediamonkey.com - Highly recommended! - Microsoft Office - is a staple. I use Word, Excel and Visio extensively. However, I rarely use any of the other apps for anything but to open files created by someone else.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au - RoboForm - is one of the best password managers out there. With RoboForm, you only need to remember one master password to access any number of sites requiring authentication. It can also securely store other important information to quickly fill registration/purchasing forms. Although it has a synchronisation function, I store my RoboForm data in Dropbox (see above). That way, with multiple Roboform licenses, I can seamlessly and conveniently access the same up-to-date password list.
http://www.roboform.com - Highly recommended!