IfranView is decent but I actually find Image Analyzer quicker to use, though it has less functions. Depends what you use it for. Of course, for free graphics editing software, nothing beats the power of the Gimp.
Ad-Aware and Spybot are great. I'm not sure what use Partition Magic is for Windows since you can now easily create and manage new partitions in WinXP itself.
Winamp is cool, especially if you like skins and a media library. I use Foobar2000 for its superior configurability, file format support, and resource efficiency. I use the Database Search component as my media library.
Does Startup Cop do anything Run -> msconfig doesn't?
DBAN looks useful, especially as the tech aide for my library.
Lol, me again. 7zip is great. And I wish the .7z format was more widely compatible as it's far better compressed than .zip. Audacity is good, but I still use Goldwave just because it's what I discovered first and I haven't bothered to make the switch. Belarc, Norton Ghost, and MP3Gain do what they're supposed to. I still use CDex for ripping because it works fine for me but I've heard others are less of a resource hog. In particular, Freerip. Final Draft is the only software you should be using to write screenplays. It's now industry standard - execs commonly ask for drafts IN final draft format.
I'm surprised I hadn't heard of paint.net. It looks like a far more useable Photoshop alternative than the bewildering GIMP. But, those who have Photoshop don't need an alternative. Wink also looks cool, I'll have to try it.
A few recommended tools:
Unstoppable Copier. I use this whenever I get that "cyclic redundancy error" when copying from a CD. It ALWAYS recovers the file, though sometimes it can take a while to rip all the bits off the CD, one by one.
MP3tag. The easiest, most flexible tag editor I've found, with support for tagging 13 common file types (including the two I use: mp3 and flac). Indispensible.
PowerPro is king. It is by far the most useful, and most-used, app on my machine. It's a Windows shell extension add-on. The discussion group is here, the scant homepage is here, and extras are here. It can be tricky to set up, but I found the discussion group very helpful. You can use PowerPro to do damn near anything imagineable in any way that is convenient and easy for you. Personally, I use it to replace the start menu and quick launch bar. I have three icons next to my start menu. If I left-click on one of them, a certain menu pops up with shortcuts to, say, office programs. Or internet apps. Or games and misc. software. Or a list of the last 50 text clipboard items (I use that alot). Or commonly-accessed drives and folders. I also use it to give more power to my windows. I can right click on a minimize button to send a program to the tray, toggle "stay on top" (I use this a lot when moving text back and forth between two programs, or reading from one while typing to another, when I don't want to take the time to resize the windows side-by-side). It can do macros, virtual desktops, performance monitors, send commands to programs, global hotkeys, left-edge bump icons, notes, and so much more. And of course everything is skinnable. Seriously, I don't like using other computers because PowerPro isn't there to boost my efficiency 1,000%.
Wink was extremely easy to learn and very good for making efficient tutorials in flash, HTML, or PDF. However, it needs some feature enhancement. For example, text bubbles: you can't add formatting to individual parts of a text bubble. If you hit bold, ALL the text in the bubble turns bold, and that's the only way to do it. Also, putting more than one textbox in a frame is clumsily accomplished.
However, ALL those problems are set to be fixed by version 2.0, along with the introduction of sound, "starbursts" for mouse clicks, and much more.
IfranView is decent but I actually find Image Analyzer quicker to use, though it has less functions. Depends what you use it for. Of course, for free graphics editing software, nothing beats the power of the Gimp.
Ad-Aware and Spybot are great. I'm not sure what use Partition Magic is for Windows since you can now easily create and manage new partitions in WinXP itself.
Winamp is cool, especially if you like skins and a media library. I use Foobar2000 for its superior configurability, file format support, and resource efficiency. I use the Database Search component as my media library.
Does Startup Cop do anything Run -> msconfig doesn't?
DBAN looks useful, especially as the tech aide for my library.
I found Streamripper to be crap. hiDownload is awesome.
Lol, me again. 7zip is great. And I wish the .7z format was more widely compatible as it's far better compressed than .zip. Audacity is good, but I still use Goldwave just because it's what I discovered first and I haven't bothered to make the switch. Belarc, Norton Ghost, and MP3Gain do what they're supposed to. I still use CDex for ripping because it works fine for me but I've heard others are less of a resource hog. In particular, Freerip. Final Draft is the only software you should be using to write screenplays. It's now industry standard - execs commonly ask for drafts IN final draft format.
I'm surprised I hadn't heard of paint.net. It looks like a far more useable Photoshop alternative than the bewildering GIMP. But, those who have Photoshop don't need an alternative. Wink also looks cool, I'll have to try it.
A few recommended tools:
Unstoppable Copier. I use this whenever I get that "cyclic redundancy error" when copying from a CD. It ALWAYS recovers the file, though sometimes it can take a while to rip all the bits off the CD, one by one.
MP3tag. The easiest, most flexible tag editor I've found, with support for tagging 13 common file types (including the two I use: mp3 and flac). Indispensible.
PowerPro is king. It is by far the most useful, and most-used, app on my machine. It's a Windows shell extension add-on. The discussion group is here, the scant homepage is here, and extras are here. It can be tricky to set up, but I found the discussion group very helpful. You can use PowerPro to do damn near anything imagineable in any way that is convenient and easy for you. Personally, I use it to replace the start menu and quick launch bar. I have three icons next to my start menu. If I left-click on one of them, a certain menu pops up with shortcuts to, say, office programs. Or internet apps. Or games and misc. software. Or a list of the last 50 text clipboard items (I use that alot). Or commonly-accessed drives and folders. I also use it to give more power to my windows. I can right click on a minimize button to send a program to the tray, toggle "stay on top" (I use this a lot when moving text back and forth between two programs, or reading from one while typing to another, when I don't want to take the time to resize the windows side-by-side). It can do macros, virtual desktops, performance monitors, send commands to programs, global hotkeys, left-edge bump icons, notes, and so much more. And of course everything is skinnable. Seriously, I don't like using other computers because PowerPro isn't there to boost my efficiency 1,000%.
Wink was extremely easy to learn and very good for making efficient tutorials in flash, HTML, or PDF. However, it needs some feature enhancement. For example, text bubbles: you can't add formatting to individual parts of a text bubble. If you hit bold, ALL the text in the bubble turns bold, and that's the only way to do it. Also, putting more than one textbox in a frame is clumsily accomplished.
However, ALL those problems are set to be fixed by version 2.0, along with the introduction of sound, "starbursts" for mouse clicks, and much more.