Best Free Software for Windows

Piriform or w/e the makers name need to learn how to spell. They spelled analyzing wrong. I'm not trying it until its out of beta.

 

Hey Calvin,

I was reading an article about Microsoft's FolderShare program, a program that allows users to sych two or more computers, and it was pretty interesting. Its also free and there is no installation required, and I was wondering why it isn't some mention of it in this thread. Have you ever tried it out? Does anyone else have experience with the program? Is it not mentioned because there are better file-synchronizing programs available (I ask since most Microsoft products seem to be deficient in some way)?

 

None whatsoever.

It's amazing that this is a free program. It's feature packed, highly secure, and very polished. You can't go wrong with it, just be sure and read through the tutorial, and you'll understand the whole process, it's really simple and effective.

 

Thanks again, Scooberdoober. I appreciate you taking the time to share the information with me.

 

Glad to help!

 

Actually, "analysing" is the British way of saying "analyzing".

I haven't heard or tried it out but it's still in beta so I'd just stick with VNC.

 

Calvin, have you looked at ERUNT/NTREGOPT, see post 484?

 

No, as i don't intend to trouble anything related to the registry at all. Too many people were complaining of problems with some registry software i had up so i decided to never add them again.

 

Calvin, is there anything that one can do to clean the registry without running into problems? Is it really even that big a deal to even clean the registry if one is doing all of the other tweaks and keeping the system relatively clutter-free?

 

It seems registry problems vary from computer to computer so I'm not entirely sure on that matter. Until i am, it's something i won't be troubling.

 

Thanks. I don't blame you for wanting to steer clear of the topic.

 

I'd like to remind everyone that even if they don't see any software of that kind on the list, you can ask me for alternatives to any software you might want to switch out, either permanently or just for fun.

 

VMware Server Virtualization software(filehippo says its freeware).

 

I hear you, been there done that. That being said ERUNT is for backing up and restoring the registry and has saved my a$$ on more than 1 occasion. NTREGOPT is a registry defrag program and I've used both of these for many years w/out a problem. I've only had positive experience w/ these and recommend them highly.

 

Do they consolidate the NTUSER.dat files made my auslogics in your user folder?

 

Online Armor detected a keylogger on JkDefrag. Anything to be worried about?

 

It might just be some malware that got onto your computer and attached itself to that file. I have NOD32 and Comodo pro firewall so nothing gets onto my system. I'll download it again and check with NOD32 to see if it finds it fishy. Also, was it JKDefrag or JKDefrag GUI?

 

The file is clean, i even ran it so it could download all of it's components and it's still clean. I also didn't see anything in Google about this being a false positive so i think you should do a thorough system cleaning.

 

Pinnacle Video Spin- Video Editor.
Vmware Server- See my last post.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into them.

 

OK, thanks....

 

What about Visuals

Uxtheme patcher/VistaGlazz
Styler

Docks
etc?

 

There mentioned. already in the article, I believe...

 

Actually Styler and Uxtheme patcher are missng

 

It would help if you followed the contribution guidelines and provided a safe download link and a description. As Thomas stated, half of what you suggested is already on the list which is another guidelines rule.

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/UXTheme-MultiPatcher.shtml

uxtheme patcher for xp to allow visual styles, probably one of my favorite files ever.

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.551-styler-1-401.html

styler , great for visual styles to change the back forward up buttons

 

You need to add Karen's Replicator as a back-up tool.

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

PS you also forgot to add XnView.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into them.

 

late to the game Calvin, but for "mac look" fanatics like me
http://landvermesser.tripod.com/MacSearch.html (can be configured to search certain categories)

stable little tool

cheers ...

 

Also Icon Tweaker. It is like Icon Packager but Free, more stable and more features. for XP

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.83-icontweaker.html

True transparency is a program that lets XP have transparency along its borders to make it more Vista
http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.5139-truetransparency-lefreut-explorer-tools.htm

Visual Tooltip is so if you like you can have the Visual tooltip from vista where if you hover over the window on the taskbar you get an image of the window

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.197-visual-tooltip-chsalmon-explorer-tools.htm

 

I've been using this for a while now.......

 

You may want to check out Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'll look into them.

 

JCreator

http://www.jcreator.com/download.htm

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into it.

 

You should take a look at RT Scan tool, it is good for direct seaches of the registry.

http://www.registrytweaker.net/

And another Registry/File cleaner/tool.

Baku

http://www.download.com/Baku/3000-2094_4-10632555.html?tag=lst-0-1

 

no registry tools son

 

I don't include registry software on my list for various reasons and complications but thanks for the suggestions anyway.

 

Actually, I came across RT Scan tool when one of the other free utilities from here [can't remember which, sorry] asked to update upon install. I kept it because it had a keyword seach. So, say you were to uninstall System Mechanic 7... then you could manually remove things found under systemmechanic7, sysmech7, sm7, iolo, etc. But since RT is purely a registry cleaner and you don't want to include those, I can understand that.

As for Baku, it is really no more than CCleaner. CCleaner has separate sections for Cleaning files and has a Registry section as well. Baku just has both these sections as well. As for it's reliability in registy... I tweaked Vista to under 30 processes and removed a whole bunch of programs. I had Baku look at the registry and it removed 2.5Mb from the registry with no crash on the restart. So Baku is a very thurough registry cleaner, but it is also a file cleaner. I think if CCleaner is on your list, then so too should Baku be on that list.

 

RT is still in development. As for baku...it looks decent. but scared to try it out. someone try it and report back ;]

 

Oh... grow a pair!

And if you need someone else to try it out, then I have one question for you.:


Why don't I count as a "someone"?


You know what you should do? You should DL it yourself and just see what it finds. You can hit cancel afterwards and it won't delete anything and you'll get to see just what it is built to do. The same for RT Scan for that matter. I'm sure you remember a few programs or games you've uninstalled. Just search the name of the game/program or who made it with RT and see if you find some remnants, cause I'm 99.99% sure you will.

Edit: Of course, with RT Scan, you still have to use your brain. If you look up "gothic", you will find Gothic 3, but you will also find the font's [Gothic is a font too] registry items. You definitely need to think a little when choosing which registry items to delete. That goes for RT, Baku, CCleaner or any other such program as well.

 

It's nothing against you, but registry tools can't be allowed on the list, and as for CCleaner, it's only allowed for its other functions, not just the registry cleaner. I used to have registry cleaners on the list but too many people complained about major problems so I've decided to keep any and all registry tools off of the list to keep everyone else out of major problem. Remember, if it works for you, it may not necessarily work for everyone else. Thanks for the suggestions though.

 

That's what I mean, baku has other functions. It too cleans files.

*Thanks for being hospitable to my being slightly overbearing with my push for Baku. I have no personal stake in the program's success or failure, I just liked it. It's your list, I do understand that you should have only what you wish to have on it. I just thought each of it's features in themselves were good enough to warrant a look and not have it dismissed as just a program that can only be used for the registry as that would be an unfair assessment of it*

 

I'll have a look into baku if it's as good as you say, thanks for the suggestion.

 

calvin, u try baku yet?

 

Yes, and it was pretty much like CCleaner. Although i ran it sand boxed and didn't touch the registry.

 

when u scanned registry did it catch a lot of stuff that ccleaner didnt?
whats 'sandboxed' mean? u didnt let it scan that

 

I didn't touch the registry, as i said before. Sand Box wiki for your other question.

 

I am not really sure why no one posted this yet.

Windows Media Encoder-http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

This a good software that will convert video files to WMV. he reason why I use it because I have A PDA. It has the BEST conversion Quality of WMV format for windows mobile series.

It also has 2 versions: 32 bit and 64 bit.

Realplayer Basic edition-http://www.realplayer.com.au/freerp11.html?src=rp_au&rsrc=rp_au

I use this software for watching DVD movies and Its capabilty to download videos from youtube just by hovering the mouse button on the vudeo clip.

This software is also for people with slow internet connection or people who follow series like Bleach, Naruto and One Piece. Why?? since RMVB format is used for small sized videos by the said series.( This will not be useful for users of K-lite codec pack) )I do not know if CCCP has RM codecs since the last time I played it without Realplayer it would not even play.

 

Handbrake is good for portable conversion. As for Realplayer, read this. Thanks for the suggestions though.