TechoCrunch

Thanks man! Really good list…. keep up the good work.

Hmmm, I’ve found that PDFCreator works much better than CutePDF. Additionally, you can “stack” pages to a PDF in order to combine them into one document.

“Launchy is a free windows utility that lets you launch your favorite applications or any, just by pressing shortcuts.”

Ha! Ha!…. already got one of those. It comes with…. wait for it….. your operating system. Its called a Graphical User Interface. Why do people bother making frivolous junk like this

pretty good list, saw one new usefull program

Good stuff – I use most of these things on my computer at work, which runs WinXP. Couple of suggestions for more:

Irfanview – necessary for anyone who works with images in any way. The “new improved” Microsoft image viewer is a weak, failed clone of this remarkable tool.

Lupas Rename – necessary for anyone who works with digital photos (or large numbers of any kind of files), enables you to rename files in bulk with numerous options for “fixing” messed up file names, working with sequence numbers, etc.

Mozilla Thunderbird should be on a list of freeware that improves productivity because it is easy to use, has numerous powerful extensions available, and its built in spam filter is fast, simple, and over 90% accurate once trained. (Not to mention that it removes the risk of days of downtime due to mail-borne botnet worms.)

Privoxy, the de facto default ad filtering program for any web browser, increases productivity two ways: It makes web pages load faster (no more bandwidth wasted on advertising), and makes web pages easier to read (no professionally made-to-distract images dancing around).

AVG Antivirus improves productivity by allowing the whole computer to run faster, compared to the performance hit from any “pre-installed” antivirus software. Same thing could be said for Sunbelt-Kerio personal firewall. (Both are free for noncommercial use,
and less than 1/2 the price of the junk they replace for business use.) The overall increase in speed for both applications and networking is well worth the effort.

And of course I have to mention Linux. For typical office work, any “modern desktop distribution” offers major productivity benefits over any DOS-based operating system: Linux is the clear winner on system performance (speed, reliability, security), and provides a 15% to 700% increase in real network speed depending on the network environment. Whether Linux is a better option for any given user is a large question and the answer depends on many factors – but it is certainly a question worth asking.

That description of Launchy is pretty crappy and misleading.

It’s actually a Windows equivalent for Quicksilver, which lets you type the name (or partially-matched name) of any application and press enter to launch it. Way more convenient than clicking on shortcuts.

Regards CutePDF there is another free PDF “printer driver” called PDFCreator. Having never used CutePDF I cannot compare the two; however, PDFCreator does a credible job. And it is completely free for all uses. Whenever possible I try to use completely OpenSource alternatives.

Oh, and forget ye not, if you are using Open Office you can create PDF out of any document an office suite can normally print. One button. Form creation supported. )

http://www.sisense.com
Amazing dynamic reports builder application. Powerful and easy to use query and data segmentation tools, huge visual widgets selection, and all this with stat-of-the-art slick ui.

I’d also add StrokeIt to the list. You can add mouse gestures to any of your commonly used programs. Good stuff.

http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/

For all online backup, file sharing and storage related info, I recommend this website:

http://www.BackupReview.info

I had both Free Download Manager and IZarc and had no problem with them, but switch to wxDownloadfast and PeaZip because they do everything the others do on all Operating Systems and are open source.

Now that people love list, here is another:

http://www.runpcrun.com/freesupportengineerstoolkit

Nelson:

I currently use PDFCreate and find it invaluable, but it is not free. I has a 30 day free trial period, after which it is $7.95/month (or $30/year).

The program is easy to use and will pretty much convert any file into a PDF file, which you can then add to the end (or beginning) of another PDF file. Unfortunately GIMP (a free Photoshop) was the exception, but other graphics software worked fine with it.

just thought i’d let you know, the mediafire link seems to be broken.

Also, there’s a free cd/dvd burning software that you might like to check out & add to the list. It’s DeepBurner, i;ve used it for years and it’s excellent.

http://www.floors4u.net/

@steve

lupas rename is GREAT

If you are going to be dealing with graphics much, Faststone Image Resizer is mighty handy, as is Faststone Image Viewer. Both are basicially single purpose programs that do a narrow spread of jobs, but do them well and quickly.
Although I am a registered, card-carrying Microsoft loather, LiveWriter makes short work of blog entries. The only thing missing that I would like is the ability to post the same entry to multiple blogs simultaneously. That’s a small handicap for an infrequent urge. It does a very capable job of inserting graphics and fires up from within Firefox (with the appropriate plugin).

Floors4u is right about DeepBurner. But you knew that, right?

Great list. Many useful application and best of all, they’re free.

and to get rid of all other unwanted programs you can try Revo Uninstaller

Marc, thanks!