Google Desktop - great widgets RocketDock - fantastic little dock app . . . completely eliminate the need for the taskbar! Start Killer - hides the start button giving you more space . . . not available for Vista John's Background Switcher - gathers images from flickr, picasa and elsewhere so you can have a new and interesting wallpaper at whatever interval you like
Has anyone ever checked out PortableApps? They're programs small enough to fit on a USB drive. The site has the basics like Firefox and more advanced applications like DOSBox! From the site: "Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind." http://portableapps.com
You know if you think about for every name brand program for windows there is a free alternative (I dare somebody to challenge with a windows program that doesn't have a free equivalent). I have to give special recognition to the following programs that I use for web programming (some of which were already mentioned earlier in this thread): Web Graphics: Gimp (alternative to photoshop) FTP Client: Filezilla (alt to WS_FTP) Databases: MySQL or Postgres (alt to SQL Server or Oracle) Web Server: Apache (alt to IIS) Server Scripting: PHP (alt over ASP) Web Operating System: CentOS over Redhat Enterprise (when will Red Hat learn you can't charge money for free software...) Besides free programs available there are also free codecs as well. Ogg represents a free lossy alternative to MP3's, WMA's or AAC's. Flacs represent a free lossless alternative to proprietary lossless standards such as Microsoft's WMA. Theoria is a free video codec that is relatively new and has a lot of potential to compete with the name brand compression schemes. Musikcube is a good audio player for playing opensource codes (and proprietary ones) and ExactAudioCopy is a great programming for ripping CD's into Flac's or Ogg's.
In the realm of open source 3D software, you have programs like Blender. For After Effects, there is Jahshaka. And for Premiere, there are several potential alternatives: http://www.osalt.com/premiere In fact, the entire osalt.com site is devoted to pointing out open source alternatives to non-free software.
ESET (The makers of NOD32) have an online virus scanner that I've found useful. I personally think NOD32 is one of the best antimalware programs on the market, although I dont think I would recommend it for novice users as it can be a bit heavy on the technical side. www.eset.com/onlinescanner
Here's a program I use for video editing and it's quite good: http://www.softwareclub.ws/v_split.html It's called SC Video Cut and Split. Another good site for freeware apps is http://www.freewarefiles.com
If anyone os imterested in cataloging their book colelction There is a good freeware database for you called BookDB2. Its fields include Title Secondary Title Author (2 fields - and you can tick authors as being editirs) Book cost Language Fiction/non Fiction Publication details i.e publisher, year, edition, no of pages Call number Type of medium i,e paperback, hardback, references, Comic. Magazine, CD/DVD etc It also allows you to assign categories and keep track of borrowings. It has a Description and a Location field. In a later edition a Contents field will be added. My only real complaint is there is no Notes or Comdition field but I guess that could be included under description.
Will it accept HTML pages that were originally made in Macromedia Dreamweaver MX2004? Anyway, for us Windows users who are sick of just how slow (and pathetic) iTunes has become for us, I present to you a little program called SharePod. When I say 'little' I mean it's only 2.81 MB for the latest version, 3.9.0. http://www.getsharepod.com/ It won't let you re-organize the Master List of songs but, it does have tools that let you do anything else you want to do. It works with the iPod Touch as well.
Edited by moderator. This post was advertising trial software, not freeware. We do not allow commercial advertising, sorry.
Wow, great list! Well done, Gaius Baltar! I use IrfanView and Notepad++ all the time already, will investigate some of the others. Also, I've tracked dowen some music making freeware (sequencers, samplers, etc), but always looking for more!