TheVille

I will further emphasize upgrading from Norton or McAfee.. both are garbage, especially the former.

But I'd recommend switching to VIPRE (from the guys who did CounterSpy) or BitDefender. Both are lightweight and top-notch as far as antiviruses and antispyware go.

No xfire?
I'm disappointed...

www.xfire.com

[quote="neon";p="164932"]I will further emphasize upgrading from Norton or McAfee.. both are garbage, especially the former.

But I'd recommend switching to VIPRE (from the guys who did CounterSpy) or BitDefender. Both are lightweight and top-notch as far as antiviruses and antispyware go.[/quote]

Whatever you do, get rid of Norton.

updated with more free stuff

Couple of quick suggestions I have:

ControlPad
http://sector-seven.net/software/controlpad

Free software that allows you to launch applications via the numberpad (Or regular numbers on a laptop)

Dropbox
https://www.getdropbox.com/

A service that allows you to sync files between computers. I use to to keep important work documents with me when I need them at home (Telephone/online commands, important computer IPs, etc)

For those of you wanting to back up DVDs and also the best media watcher out there.

Video Play back:

XBMC
http://xbmc.org/
This is far and away they best media player I have ever seen, and it's free

Based on the same but specifically for Mac
Plex
www.plexapp.com/

DVD Back up:

DVDfab
http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm

Now this looks like a demo, it is and it isn't. How to use the free functionality is as follows:

Instert DVD> Open DVDfab> Under "DVD to DVD" select Full Disc> Where is says "Target" click the icon on the far right, looks like a file with a DVD over it> Then a dialogue saying "Choose ISO Image File" Appears> Click th three dots "..." and choose your location> Down towards the bottom left you will see a drop down with a choice of "DVD5" or "DVD9" pick which ever is appropriate for the quality you want> Click "Start" and it will then decode your DVD into a full size .iso image.

If you try and do anything else but create an .iso with this software it will start the demo and try to get you to purchase but if you use above method it will always be freeware. The exact method also works if you select "Blu-ray to Blu-ray" Full Disc.

Now you can use a Program like Nero to burn a backup disc. Or....

Use Handbrake
http://handbrake.fr/

A wonderful piece of free video encoding software.

Please feel free to PM/email/steam chat at me if you have questions.

My lack of participation in the thread is terrible.
So here is my participation:










Well, that was it. I think everything else was covered

If you want some free photoshop, I would only reccomend getting gimp if your desperate. It comes with a bunch of crap like the weather channel desktop and free virus scan.

Microsoft Anti-Virus: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

Paint.net >>>>>>>>> Gimp

There are lots of great tutorials out there on GIMP, its a poor mans Photoshop, theres even skins and such for it to make it look like photoshop.


A package for ripping .iso images from CDs and DVDs or burning .iso images to discs is called imgburn. It serves pretty much all my burning/copying needs and I would gladly recommend it.

http://www.imgburn.com/




Most of these open source packages are great and do clean installs but you need to pay attention to what your doing as I find several like to install toolbars, change your browser home page, change your search engine and stuff like that if you give it permission to.



Oh, another package I am fond of is called SIW or System Information for Windows.

http://www.gtopala.com/

I download the stand alone version and its great for gathering information from a PC that is having issues and likely needs rebuilding.

It gets me all the software serial #s or keys to make reinstallation much much easier, it does much more too, check it out.


JD

Audacity: Fast, easy to use audio editor.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

What a great little piece of software. It's a great balance of simplicity and power.

If you do any web stuff and you need to browser test (internet explorer 5, 6, 7) I suggest IE Tester. It runs any version of IE in one program.

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

For image management I am a big fan of XnView.
I also like Pictomio (dead according to the forums...oops).
www.xnview.com
www.pictomio.com

For file management, I really like Free Commander.
www.freecommander.com

Anybody with a thing for Portable/USB thumb drives should checkout the Portable Apps site.
portableapps.com

Are there any programs that would give off some warning fifteen minutes before the battery dies? Something that let's you customize the amount of power the computer uses would be nice because my hard drive is always going full speed and a whole bunch of excess heat comes from my laptop for no reason no matter what I'm doing and it overheats if I use it for about 1 and a half hours.