Free usefull programs

[Guest]

[pandlouk]

Just a quick mention.....This is great Pandlouk, instead of looking for my .exe files , or searching for a program, I just come here and find my favorites as well as try others, this may branch into Comodo download site, lol. 

 Cheers,

 Paul

Paul I like this idea.
It sure can help to find our favorite programs links

[sukarof]

I can recommend a nice free virtualizating program: SVS or Software Vitualization Solution.
If you want to test new software and want to get rid of the any hassle if the program is not to your liking or it is incompatible with your system.

http://juice.altiris.com/svs

You install the software you like to try in a virtual environment.
You have to "activate" the program, once it is installed, via an icon in the window of SVS. It triggers the virtual enviroment to start with the program.
As long as the program is not activated it is like it wasnt installed in the first place. When activated the files appear in your file system. Nothing is written to the registry itself, it is written in the virtual environment but windows thinks it is installed.
If you dont like the software you try? Just delet the icon in SVS window and all traces of that program is gone.

You can export the program to another computer that has SVS installed.
Here are som free exported programs: http://www.svsdownloads.com/
All you have to do is to import the .vsa file into SVS and activate it.

They dont recommend it for malware testing. It propably will work against most of the malware, but Altiris (the developers) have not built this program (or tested) for that purpouse.
I use it alot to test software (I do test alot of software ) and I never have to worry that it wont uninstall properly, ie leaving traces in registry, leaving files behind or that they simply doesnt uninstall because of a porly written uninstaller.

[pandlouk]

I have updated the collection. A big thanks to BullHorn,DoomScythe,comicfan2000,panic,kail,KingKull and sukarof for contributing them.

ps. if you have any ideas on how to categorize them just add it here

[sukarof]

As for SVS I think the "utilities" section is fine

I have another gem that I use that you can put in utilities section:

Locate32 fast file search.
From the authors web site:
"This program saves names of all files in your hard drives to file database. After that you can locate files. Very fast. This program works like updatedb and locate in Unix systems. Win32 based locating program also included. Program works with Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP (and with Windows 95 if Internet Explorer 3 is installed). "

A bit like Agent Ransack, but since it works with a database of the files it is much faster. The downside is that it takes 2.5 minutes to update the database (329Gb of files in my machine) you can schedule the update of the database although it doesnt take much resources while updating.

Once the database is updated file search is lightning fast.
http://www.uku.fi/~jmhuttun/english/softwares.shtml

[kail]

Free Launch Bar, I just adore this little freebee. For me it replaces the start button. It's so good that I actually forgot about it, although I use it extensively. Here's the description from the web site..

Free Launch Bar is a Free replacement for the standard Quick Launch bar. All functions presented in Quick Launch are also in Free Launch Bar. However, the Free Launch Bar is fully compatible with Quick Launch because it uses the same folder for shortcuts. But there is one huge difference. Free Launch Bar allows you to combine your shortcuts into groups. This feature looks like popup menus. This vastly improves the management of your shortcuts and save working space on your desktop. By using Free Launch Bar, you speed up the launching of your applications like never before.

[Soy Joy]

-. PowerOff (http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html)
Author's note: Poweroff is a small program for Win95/98/NT/W2K/XP to schedule a shutdown/reboot/logoff/poweroff/Standby/Hibernate/Lock/Wake-On-LAN at a certain time. It also support command line options that allows poweroff to be used in batch scripts. It has a built-in scheduler, it allows you to run a program before doing the action, you can give a warning message to the user, wait for a process to finish before doing the action and full remote control is supported.
*. You can kill, restart or startup a remote server (over internet) with this.

-. VidRes (http://www.jddesign.f2s.com/vidres.htm)
Author's note: VidRes is an easy to use utility that allows you to change most display settings interactively, or via shortcuts.
*. Very usefull when you shared pc with another user and demand for a diferent screen resolution.

-. LSrunas (http://www.moernaut.com/default.aspx?item=lsrunas)
Author's note: LSrunas can be used to run a command using another user account and passing the password as a parameter. This is a big improvement over the standard runas tool which is not able to accept a password. LSrunas can be used in scripts.
*. Nice tool for an added security. You can run any applications from a limited user account with Administrator's right along with it's password (encrypted).

-. Foxit Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php)
Author's note: Foxit Reader is a free reader for PDF (Portable Document Format) documents. You can view and print PDF documents with it.
*. Blazing FAST! No installation needed. Adobe Acrobat Killer!

-. Daemon Tools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc)
Author's note: DAEMON Tools is an advanced application for multiprotection emulation. It is further development of Generic Safedisc emulator and incorporates all its features. This program allows running Backup Copies of SafeDisc (C-Dilla), Securom, Laserlock, CDCOPS, StarForce and Protect CD (and many others) protected games. Also included is a Virtual DVDROM drive (Generic DVD-ROM) enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD! DAEMON Tools works under Windows9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with all types of CD/DVDROM drives (IDE/SCSI) and supports nearly any CD protection.
*. God send tools for gamers around the globe.

-. ISO Producer (http://www.aldostools.com/isoproducer.html)
Author's note: ISO Producer is an small tool created by JNS (http://www.emucheater.com) that creates ISO images in a fast, reliable and easy way using PSEmu Pro compatible CDR plugins.
*. Another gaming God send tools for gamers and multimedia lovers.

-. TaskSwitchXP (http://www.ntwind.com/software/taskswitchxp.html?)
Author's note: TaskSwitchXP is an advanced task management utility that picks up where the standard Windows Alt+Tab switcher leaves off. It provides the same functionality, and adds visual styles to the dialog and also enhances it by displaying thumbnail preview of the application that will be switched to.
*. Ever get annoyed by CPF's "stuck-in-the-middle" pop-up? Use this!

-. MyPhoneExplorer (http://www.fjsoft.at/en/)
Author's note: Simply explore your SonyEricsson phone! Connect your phone via cable, bluetooth or infrared and you'll be surprised how easy and efficient you can manage your phone with this compact software.
*. The best SonyEricsson's utility.

-. hMailServer (http://www.hmailserver.com/)
Author's note: hMailServer is a free, open source e-mail server for Microsoft Windows. It supports all the common e-mail protocols (IMAP, SMTP and POP3) and comes with an easy-to-use COM library that can be used for integration with other software. It also has supports for virtual domains, distribution lists, antivirus, antispam, aliases, distributed domains and much more. E-mail data is stored in a database server, MySQL or MS SQL, depending on your choice.
*. Nice and FREE!

-. VertrigoServ (http://vertrigo.sourceforge.net/)
Author's note: VertrigoServ was developed to make available a highly professional and easily installable package of Apache (HTTP web server), PHP (reflective programming language), MySQL (multithreaded, multi-user, SQL Database Management System), SQLite (ACID-compliant relational database management system), SQLiteManager (multilingual web based tool to manage SQLite database), PhpMyAdmin (tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL) and Zend Optimizer (which increases runtime performance up to 40%) for Windows platform.
*. All in one package for a quick www+database server setup.

[MadJack]

Password Safe.  Stores all of my passwords in an encrypted file using twofish file encryption.  Between work and home, I have over 100 passwords.  Now I only need to remember 1 to unlock the program.

http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
 

[DoomScythe]

I have updated the collection. A big thanks to BullHorn,DoomScythe,comicfan2000,panic,kail,KingKull and sukarof for contributing them.

ps. if you have any ideas on how to categorize them just add it here

No prob, pandlouk. Just glad to contribute. 

Yours truly,
DoomScythe

[pandlouk]

A big thanks to wisanggeni and MadJack too.

Keep sending them guys

[AOwL]

A friend of mine asked me if i knew an easy program for waking him up in the mornings... like an alarmclock or something.

[pandlouk]

A friend of mine asked me if i knew an easy program for waking him up in the mornings... like an alarmclock or something.

There is one from microsoft for media center edition 2004 but works on 2005 too. Which version of xp he uses?

edit it does not work on XP home,pro,etc

[AOwL]

He use XP pro...

[pandlouk]

He use XP pro...

I have xp pro too and it doesn't work on it.
But I'm sure we'll find something

Edit: you will find it under the utilities section 

[Júštiñ™]

I have xp pro too and it doesn't work on it.
But I'm sure we'll find something

Edit: you will find it under the utilities section 

Just wondering whats the difference between media center 2004, and 2005, besides the year...

[rgreene501]

Just wondering whats the difference between media center 2004, and 2005, besides the year...

Revenue stream?

The main differences that I've seen revolve around DRM.  Beyond that, they fill no niche.  Can't use em in a domain structure and the bundled utilities are of little value.  With MCE, I spent a good bit of time disabling functionality and finding workarounds for things that were broken by MS in the name of DRM.

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