List of Great Software for Microsoft Windows

This page lists great software for Windows that i personally use. Most are also available for Mac and Linux.

Anti-Virus Software

See: Windows: Best Anti-virus Software.

Image

Image Viewer

• GraphicConverter
• Irfanview
• Linux: feh. see: Linux: Best Image Viewer for Random Slideshow of Subdirectories.

Photo Collection

Picasa Pains: Using Picasa Web as Backup; Sync All Folders

Image Editor

• Gimp

Vector Graphics Drawing

• Inkscape. ♥

Video

Video Player

• VLC media player
• Windows ＆ Mac: QuickTime. Not as a player, but you'll need this when playing videos from Apple.

Video Capture

Screen Video Capture, Screencasting, Softwares

DVD-ripper. HandBrake. Can't really rip encripted DVD. But good for converting DVD format to some video format as a file.

Video Editing

I haven't done any video editing. But here's what i heard that works fine.

• Windows Live Movie Maker
• VirtualDub

For linux:

• PiTiVi
• Kdenlive
• OpenShot Video Editor

Audio ＆ Music

Music player. Windows ＆ Mac: iTunes

See: Audio Recorder, Synthesizers, MIDI Software.

Office (WordProcessor, Spread Sheet, …)

• OpenOffice.org

Mail

Gmail, Yahoo Mail, HotMail

Windows ＆ Mac ＆ Linux: Mozilla Thunderbird

Windows: Windows Live Mail. 〔☛ Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Confusion Ball〕

{Voice, Video} Chat

• Skype. 〔☛ Skype Chat Encryption and Screen Sharing〕
• Google+ features “hangout”, which is voice and video chat for 2 or more people. 〔☛ What is Google Plus and Google+ Songs〕

Text Chat, IRC

all-in-one chats software for your Yahoo/AIM/MSN. But these usually only support text chat, no video or voice.

• Mac: Adium
• Mac: Colloquy (IRC client)
• Windows: Pidgin (sucks major.)

These days, just use twitter

ebook file Reader

• Calibre (software) 「calibre」 {.epub}
• FBReader fbreader {.epub, .chm}

Microsoft Help File (.chm)

• XCHM xchm {.chm}

File Sharing, BitTorrent

• Transmission (BitTorrent client) (Mac ＆ Linux)
• Deluge (software) (Windows ＆ Mac ＆ Linux)
• Vuze (Windows ＆ Mac). Requires Java. I do not recommend.
• Windows: μTorrent

Text Editor

Emacs. See: Which Emacs to Download for Windows and Mac?

Very occasionally, i also use:

• Mac: TextWrangler
• Windows: Notepad++

Keyboard Macros ＆ Launchers

• Windows Keyboard Tools
• Mac OS X Keyboard Tools
• Linux Keyboard Tools

File Secure Deletion

See: How to Secure Delete Files, Shred Files, Wipe Drive.

Math

see: Great Math Programs

3D Modeling Software

List of 3D Modeling Software.

Unix utils

Mac: build-in. But to install extra, use Fink or MacPorts.

Windows: Cygwin. 〔☛ Installing Cygwin Tutorial〕

VirtualBox. Best tool for running linux on Windows. 〔☛ Guide to Install Linux on VirtualBox for Programers and Sys Admins〕

For text terminal, you can use ssh in cygwin (install openssh within cygwin). Also, in cygwin, use MinTTY. Or, you can download PuTTY.

Windows Tools for Programer, Sys Admin

PowerShell. Great command line shell: 〔☛ PowerShell Tutorial〕

• Process Explorer @ technet.microsoft.com…
• FTP client. FileZilla
• FTP client, Firefox add-on: FireFTP.
• 7-zip (zip, unzip, gzip, extracting installer exe etc.)

• Microsoft Log Parser 2.2. Source www.microsoft.com
• Cacls Command line tool to view or set file permissions.

• Wireshark (a packet sniffer)
• Peer gardian (IP blocker)
• ZoneAlarm (full featured firewall)

For monitoring network, see also: tool for monitoring network traffic on Windows 7 Home @ superuser.com…

Inno Setup. (create installers)

This isn't exhaustive list of install software. Though, it contains all apps i use daily.

• Daily: emacs, cygwin, Google Chrome, Firefox, IrfanView, Safari, Opera, Skype.
• Weekly: GIMP, iTunes, Mathematica, VirtualBox, Firestorm/Phoenix (Second Life), Inkscape, Google Earth, Picasa, Thunderbird. (Mathematica should be there)

Just noticed a Walmart Photo Center there. lol. That's one of those bundled bloatware which somehow escaped my notice. It's going to trash now. Also, note that ComboFix.exe. It is supposed to be a rootkit detector or remover, but i haven't researched enough to be sure it's good. It is there temporarily.

For tools i use on linux, see: Xah Linux Setup.