your favorite tools?

Post by **nikos** » 2011 Jan 03, 15:12

I'm too bored to work today (still trying to digest the new year's excesses

) so I am starting a thread about programs I use all the time (except xplorer2 of course)

in no particular order
VS6
MS outlook
IE8
paint.NET
irfanview
MS virtual PC
winscp
wink
7-zip
tortoise SVN
winamp
uptime scout

what are yours? share them with us!

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2011 Jan 03, 16:31

My own favorites (i.e., most used, or always running) are:

Firefox
Thunderbird
xplorer2
MS Excel
editor2
ACD See
irfanview
MS Security Essentials
WinPatrol
Shadow Protect
7zip
MS Word
Foxit pdf reader
Google Earth

FrizzleFry · Post by **FrizzleFry** » 2011 Jan 03, 17:54

these are a few I pretty much use every day:
xplorer2
Classic Shell
Firefox
Thunderbird
XChat
Notepad++
7-Zip
WinRAR
TCC/LE
Media Player Classic Home Cinema
foobar2000
IrfanView
awxRename
Ken Rename
FileMenu Tools
CloneSpy
Cygwin
GnuWin32
TreeSize Free
HashCheck
VirtualBox
STDU Viewer (just started using this, but I like it)

several Sysinternals and NirSoft utilities
many more that I use occasionally

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Jan 03, 18:12

I thought ACD See was aiming at professional grade? What does Irfan do that ACD can't? (Not to critique, but as Irfan insanely doesn't allow zooming with the mouse, it's unusable.)

Funny, my most valuable software is usually the stuff running in the background that I don't even think about...

Classic Shell
Display Fusion (for Multiple LCD's)
FileMenuTools
WizMouse
ArsClip
Registry Workshop
Macrium Reflect (HD imaging)
Notepad++
Beyond Compare
Gimp
GoldWave (audio editing)
MediaMonkey
Commodo

...that x2 thingamabob, whatever that is...

...about half the Nirsoft catalogue at this stage...

...and more video games than a middle-aged man should have (how the heck can one silly game take up 17GB of space these days? Who designs these things?)

vserghi · Post by **vserghi** » 2011 Jan 03, 23:31

Here's my two pennth. Stuff I always install or use on a daily basis, apart from x2 of course.

Linux (at home)
VS6
Matlab/Simulink
Inca
AutoHotkey
Inno
PsPad
Notepad++
WinMerge
Iron browser
Opera (at home)
Firefox
Excel
Word
Clementine (at home)

These when I need them
7Zip
Sysinternals stuff
NirSoft stuff
CCleaner

FF is not by choice, it is a work requirement. I can't see what all the big fuss over it is.

Mr.Pleasant · Post by **Mr.Pleasant** » 2011 Jan 04, 20:11

It's getting boring, the lists are quite similar:
X2 (I might just as well put it in the startup-folder)
Notepad++
Firefox
Thunderbird
Opera (depending on mood)
FileZilla (anyone?)
Pidgin
Irfanview (Kilmatead, I don't know ACDsee, but Irfan is so fast)
Renamer
WinMerge
OpenOffice (writer, calc, base)
7-zip
AutoIt
VBSEdit
PyScripter
Freemind/Freeplane
UniPad

(apart from translation software and Adobe's designing software, which is just the job)

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Jan 04, 23:49

Mr.Pleasant wrote:(Kilmatead, I don't know ACDsee, but Irfan is so fast)

I don't know it either, I was just under an impression of its goals... I was just wondering why Fred uses two viewers. I never liked Irfan - aside from the lack of mouse-zooming (which is criminal), it just never felt right. I don't even use a viewer now, everything is done via Gimp or the command-line-only nconvert.exe (made by the bloke who wrote XNview).

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2011 Jan 05, 00:12

I use ACDsee as full screen viewer and primary photo editor; irfanview for image types not decoded by ACDsee. Otherwise x2 preview pane for low-res looks.

Post by **nikos** » 2011 Jan 05, 08:40

it's weird how many different people (work wise) use similar tools. I guess we are all statistically related using xplorer2 mainly in the first place!

Filezilla has a great name but how does it compare against winscp?

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Jan 06, 19:58

Well ...
http://social.wakoopa.com/tuxx

Nate-dts · Post by **Nate-dts** » 2011 Feb 16, 13:53

Thanks for your lists. There's a few I've never heard of that I will checking out but I use a lot of the same ones everyone mentioned. But Xplorer2 is my main one which is generally always open on any computer I have powered up. One time we had a customer at my company and I showed him Xplorer2 which he immediately took a liking to. He told me he doesn't often run across other 'tool junkies' like himself. I thought that was pretty funny. He then told me about Beyond Compare.

The only one I use a lot but don't see on anyone's list is Total Commander. I use it mostly for file renaming because it's sophisticated and easy-to-use file renaming is hard to beat. I use Xplorer2 mass renaming mostly for adding suffixes or prefixes to a bunch of files at once. I also use Total Commander for ftp connections and directory synchronizing. I'm slowly starting to use Xplorer2 more though for directory synchronizing because of the combination filters that can be used. Total Commander can only do one extension type at a time or all with *.

FrizzleFry · Post by **FrizzleFry** » 2011 Feb 16, 15:38

I have played around with TC from time to time... it's a nice file manager... I really like the way it handles custom toolbars and toolbar buttons but it uses some wacky file selection method that is nothing like any other Windows programs I have ever used... it just annoys me too much.