Super is a very powerful video converter/encoder that rivals and in many cases outperforms paid for alternatives. It even comes with a powerful player that will in many cases play those files that no other player will. It's speed is similar to that of other converters but it does have a fairly user friendly interface compared to some. It also supports the recording of internet streams, and while it's a feature I have tested yet, it seems useful to have.
About the only thing I can find to complain about is the official website is somewhat confusing (having to click several things that look like download links before actually getting to the page to download it from) so here is an alternative download link.
Sunday 13 June 2010
Saturday 12 June 2010
Giveaway of the Day (and news)
The first thing I want to mention is an awesome site that gives away a free piece of software every day (software you'd normally have to pay for), Giveaway of the Day. You do have to install the program on the day of the offer (so no reinstalling, etc.) and you generally aren't eligible for updates, so it is fairly limited. However it's certainly an awesome idea.
Also my list of free Windows software is growing and I've added some more Firefox add-ons too. I'm of course open to suggestions on both lists, but I'll only add software/add-ons after I've personally tested them and consider them up to standard.
Also my list of free Windows software is growing and I've added some more Firefox add-ons too. I'm of course open to suggestions on both lists, but I'll only add software/add-ons after I've personally tested them and consider them up to standard.
FileHippo.com Update Checker
FileHippo.com Update Checker is a tiny light weight program that runs in seconds and checks for the latest versions of programs you have installed. It then links you to a convenient page with links to download the latest versions.
It supports a massive amount of programs and is easy to configure to either run at start-up or to be run manually, as well as easily allowing you to ignore updates for certain programs.
It either works effectively as a one stop solution to updating or as a tool for those who think they already do a good job of keeping updated (as an occasional check).
It supports a massive amount of programs and is easy to configure to either run at start-up or to be run manually, as well as easily allowing you to ignore updates for certain programs.
It either works effectively as a one stop solution to updating or as a tool for those who think they already do a good job of keeping updated (as an occasional check).
Wednesday 9 June 2010
Audacity
Audacity is an open source sound recorder and editor. It is great for recording sounds from a microphone or for converting records or tapes into a digital format. It supports up to 16 channels at once and makes converting into different formats simple.
It also has a host of editing features and effects, to either clean up poor quality sound files or to completely remix sound files into something new.
It doesn't have quite the same number of features as some more expensive sound editors have (ie. ones that aren't free) but it's easy to use interface still makes it a good solid choice.
It also has a host of editing features and effects, to either clean up poor quality sound files or to completely remix sound files into something new.
It doesn't have quite the same number of features as some more expensive sound editors have (ie. ones that aren't free) but it's easy to use interface still makes it a good solid choice.
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Pidgin
Pidgin is a universal chat client that supports a massive amount of protocols;
Pidgin can keep track of multiple accounts and allows you to configure them to either automatically or manually login. It easily becomes a one stop shop for all your online communication needs.
- AIM
- Bonjour
- Gadu-Gadu
- Google Talk
- Groupwise
- ICQ
- IRC
- MSN
- MXit
- MySpaceIM
- SILC
- SIMPLE
- Sametime
- XMPP
- Yahoo!
- Zephyr
Pidgin can keep track of multiple accounts and allows you to configure them to either automatically or manually login. It easily becomes a one stop shop for all your online communication needs.
PuTTY
PuTTY is a telnet and SSH client for Windows along with an xterm emulator. It has a massive amount of customisation available, numerous types of encryption, an incredibly small file size and requires no installation. It really is the only option when you want an SSH client on a Windows machine.
VLC
While I prefer SMPlayer/MPlayer for Windows for most video watching I still have VLC installed on all of my computers. This is because without a doubt it is the easiest player to make a video "play", it may not do it with the prettiest subs, the best performance, etc. but it will almost certainly make it watchable.
All of its codecs are completely self contained, so it will neither cause or suffer from conflicts from other media players or codecs you have installed. It has support for DVDs and even creating a video stream over a network.
All of its codecs are completely self contained, so it will neither cause or suffer from conflicts from other media players or codecs you have installed. It has support for DVDs and even creating a video stream over a network.
Monday 7 June 2010
Real Temp / Core Temp
There are a whole load of programs that will monitor the temperature sensors in your computer for you (and some that provide a whole load of tweaking, from over-clocking to greater control over fans).
The only program like this I currently use is Real Temp, it allows me to display the temperature of my cores in the system as well as set alerts for when they get to warm in the summer. It isn't incredibly light on system resources and seems to give accurate readings. Unfortunately it only claims to support Intel chips (which isn't a problem for me).
For AMD chips I recommend Core Temp, it supports most chips and is equally light weight.
The only program like this I currently use is Real Temp, it allows me to display the temperature of my cores in the system as well as set alerts for when they get to warm in the summer. It isn't incredibly light on system resources and seems to give accurate readings. Unfortunately it only claims to support Intel chips (which isn't a problem for me).
For AMD chips I recommend Core Temp, it supports most chips and is equally light weight.
Foxit Reader
Foxit Reader is a free PDF viewer which is faster and lighter than Adobe Reader. It also (like Adobe Reader) easily integrates with Firefox (and probably other browsers) to allow easy viewing of PDFs while browsing.
Some of it's more advanced features such and annotation and drawing add evaluation marks unless you get the paid version (this is still better than some PDF viewers). As a general PDF viewer (which is what most people want) Foxit Reader is a good choice due to it's speed, which is what most people care about when trying to read a document.
Some of it's more advanced features such and annotation and drawing add evaluation marks unless you get the paid version (this is still better than some PDF viewers). As a general PDF viewer (which is what most people want) Foxit Reader is a good choice due to it's speed, which is what most people care about when trying to read a document.
Text Editors
There are a number of options for when you want a better text editor. Fort hose who feel more comfortable with Linux there are Windows versions of VIM and EMACS. However most people will probably want something a little closer to the familiar notepad.
Notepad++ and Notepad2 come with fairly similar features; tag highlighting for multiple languages, brace matching, auto-indent, and plenty of features you'll probably never even need. Both applications are quick and a perfect replacement for the standard notepad.
The main noticeable difference is the addition of tabs and split screen in Notepad++, but in general it is very much a choice as preference as all 4 text editors mentioned here are amazing pieces of free software and well worth the small learning curve (or potentially large if you are going for VIM or EMACS and aren't familiar with them).
Notepad++ and Notepad2 come with fairly similar features; tag highlighting for multiple languages, brace matching, auto-indent, and plenty of features you'll probably never even need. Both applications are quick and a perfect replacement for the standard notepad.
The main noticeable difference is the addition of tabs and split screen in Notepad++, but in general it is very much a choice as preference as all 4 text editors mentioned here are amazing pieces of free software and well worth the small learning curve (or potentially large if you are going for VIM or EMACS and aren't familiar with them).
Sunday 6 June 2010
Cygwin
Cygwin is a Linux like environment for Windows, it has massive possibilities (such as setting up a remote GUI for a linux machine using X11-tunnelling and a X-server). When you install it there are a massive amount of packages to choose from, you can choose to install everything but this will take some time (it will have ever avoid any problem of dependencies or missing a feature you want later on), you can alternatively re-run the installer at any time to change your configuration.
Cygwins install.exe package manager and it listing it's base packages [above].
Cygwins install.exe package manager and it listing it's base packages [above].
Adblock Plus/FlashBlock (Firefox Add-ons)
Here are two options to stop the constant annoyance of flash ads.
Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is amazingly powerful and customisable, it can be used as a tool to block a large portion of advertising online or to specifically target sites associated with malware to help keep you safe.
It rarely interferes with my browsing, and it is very easy to forget you're even using it. So much so that it's quite disconcerting when you use someone else's computer and that lovely clean website you are used to visiting is now covered in ads.
It is also quick and easy to enable/disable as required and seems to have no noticeable performance hit on Firefox. It is even likely to result in a speed up due to the large number of flash banners you are able to filter out.
FlashBlock
For those really annoyed by flash ads, FlashBlock serves as the ultimate solution. It blocks all flash content and leaves a placeholder for it instead, allowing you to just see the flash content you want. This solution will make your browsing experience less seamless, but does put an end to flash ads. completely.
Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is amazingly powerful and customisable, it can be used as a tool to block a large portion of advertising online or to specifically target sites associated with malware to help keep you safe.
It rarely interferes with my browsing, and it is very easy to forget you're even using it. So much so that it's quite disconcerting when you use someone else's computer and that lovely clean website you are used to visiting is now covered in ads.
It is also quick and easy to enable/disable as required and seems to have no noticeable performance hit on Firefox. It is even likely to result in a speed up due to the large number of flash banners you are able to filter out.
FlashBlock
For those really annoyed by flash ads, FlashBlock serves as the ultimate solution. It blocks all flash content and leaves a placeholder for it instead, allowing you to just see the flash content you want. This solution will make your browsing experience less seamless, but does put an end to flash ads. completely.
7-Zip
There are a good number of free file archivers for packing/unpacking, however a fair few you are only getting a freeware version of the full product (sometimes one that occasionally nags you to get the full version). However 7-Zip is open source and has all the features you could want.It supports:
- Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
- Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z.
Perl on Windows
Perl is a high level interpreted programming language, it is commonly used for server side web-scripting (like PHP) but is also very powerful for more general uses. It's particularly notable for its regex engine which allows for some impressive results (largely due to the ability to nest blocks of code within them).
On Windows we have two main options if you want to use Perl. Neither is quite perfect (the majority of problems I have found have been around network protocol components) but they probably fulfil most users requirements.
These choices are:Some of the differences are discussed on this page, it also provides a bunch more information about Perl on Windows.
Anki
Anki is a fantastic free piece of software (which it seems far few people know about) used for aiding memory. I’ve found it massively useful for learning Japanese vocabulary, but it is great for learning any large amount of data.
It’s available for windows, Mac, linux, a bunch of different mobile phone, Nintendo DS, etc. It also allows syncing via their website so you can easily revise from several different devices.
Portable Apps.
portableapps.com is an amazing website providing specially configured software for use on external media (like USB sticks), with all config files being stored within the directory of the program. Everything they offer is free and many of the applications they offer are things I use normally (albeit in there non-portable form).
For anyone who even goes near computers that aren't their own (ie. at school, work, etc.) it is well worth having a set of programs on a USB stick configured in the way you want. It gives you the freedom to use any computer with almost the same speed and efficiency you do on yuor home computer.
For anyone who even goes near computers that aren't their own (ie. at school, work, etc.) it is well worth having a set of programs on a USB stick configured in the way you want. It gives you the freedom to use any computer with almost the same speed and efficiency you do on yuor home computer.
Foobar 2000
There are numerous music players that in general mostly do the same things. My music player of choice is foobar 2000. It feels very light weight and fast but has numerous features (like a music library, tabbed playlists and a very customizable interface), there are also a large number of plugins available, so there is very little this player can't do.
MPlayer for Windows (SMPlayer)
If you use linux you’ll probably already use mplayer but for when I’m playing video on a windows machine my favourite media player by far (particularly for playing soft-subbed files, such as a lot of fansubs of anime are released with) is mplayer for windows with the SMPlayer gui. It seems this isn’t particularly well known about, and it runs just as well on windows as it does on linux. It’s available on the official mplayer website download page.
It is solely self contained (like VLC) but has full support for ASS styled subs, and I’ve I’ve had far better results with playback on slower machines (when configured properly). The GUI also makes it friendly for those who don’t want to rely on the command line, and makes it easy to configure by simply looking through the options available.
My main piece of advice I’d suggest is to (if using the GUI) change the process priority of mplayer to normal rather than high (this is just an option under the config for mplayer), otherwise when playing demanding video the GUI will lag and make the player almost unusable without using keyboard shortcuts.
As all its codecs are self contained it won’t interfere with any other media players you use, so better than me telling you about how wonderful it is, I suggest you download it and give it a try, as this player is greatly underused (mainly I believe though a lack of knowledge of its existence).
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