Essential app / util

[PearlJam]

I'm trying to put a list / disc together for myself of essential applications / utilities which is mainly free. Stuff that every pc must have.

I have so far the following:

AVG
ZoneAlarm
Spybot S&D
Ad-aware

Winrar
Acrobat reader
Firefox
Thunderbird

DVD Shrink
DVD Decrypter

Any other suggestions?

 

[squirrel]

FoxitReader is WAY better then Acrobat Reader for PDF's

 

[Gunny]

Opera
Outpost Firewall
Thunderbird

 

[spiderz]

7Zip is better than winzip & Winrar.
NetMeter
OpenOffice
Free Download manager
Any Password

 

[DAE_JA_VOO]

Here's MY list of essential apps:

Audacity
DivX
MediaMonkey
powerDVD
SpeedFan
Acronis True Image (not free though - $49)
Firefox
GoogleTalk
Skype

That's the essentials. There are others that i have mentioned, either because they have been mentioned already, or because they're not free.

I did, however, mention Acronis because it's absolutely ESSENTIAL.

 

[diabolus]

Here's some of mine

Free Download Manager
Total Commander [which includes all the RAR/ACE/ZIP plugins + My ViewPad + Notepad2 Editor]
Winamp
Gaim
Nero & Alcohol
Firefox & Thunderbird
K-Lite Codec Pack [including Media Player Classic]
PDF Creator [Free PDF printer/distiller]
AVG Antivirus
CC Cleaner [great registry/system clean up/fixer]

 

[Toxin]

From a DVD ripping/writing side:

DVD Shrink (already on your list)
DVD Fab (for those DVDs that DVD shrink can't rip)
DVD43 (for watching/ripping DVDs from other regions)

 

[PearlJam]

Thanks guys. This is really helpful. There is a few that i saw here which i never knew existed which would come in handy.

 

[Darth Garth]

DVD Shrink (already on your list)

It is useless now as it cannot handle the new Sony ARCOSS or Disney protection schemes.

 

[thewanted_]

It is useless now as it cannot handle the new Sony ARCOSS or Disney protection schemes.

Any idea which apps can?

 

[sdd]

oh please someone .... answer the above question ... please ... please ... please ....

I have tried so many things but cannot get zone 2 dvd copied ... always get read error.....

regards

sdd

 

[lord_spaceman]

All the apps here are 100% free :

fooBar (way better than the resource hog that Winamp5 is)
K Lite Mega Codec Pack Full (all the codecs you will ever need)
CCleaner (get rid of all that junk and fix registry issues)
AVG (the Antivirus than Norton could never be)
Firefox (no explanation needed here)
Daemon Tools (the best image mounting application)
Media Coder (excellent transcoding application)
WordWeb (excellent free little dictionary)
Winzip/Winrar (although not free, essential)
OpenOffice (say goodbye to MS Office)
Spybot Search & Destroy (an extremely important/good anti-spyware tool)
AutoPatcher XP (for all those lazy dumbasses that don't apply security/service patches)
VirtualDub (excellent video editing tool)
DVD Shrink (compress those large DVDs to 4.38GB and keep the quality/menu structure)
DVD Decryptor (decrypt those hard to get/encrypted DVDs)

 

[PearlJam]

Any idea which apps can?

This might be the answer

DVD Fab (for those DVDs that DVD shrink can't rip)

 

[sdd]

dvd fab

This might be the answer

tried it ... no luck ...

 

[stoke]

For when you somehow manage to still get nailed by spyware:
From www.sysinternals.com :
- Autoruns : Tells you what is going to be auto-started and allows you to disable/remove them. Every auto start aspect is examined and presented, from the startup program group, to the system registry, to Explorer plugins.
- ProcessExplorer : Shows the processes currently running, what launched them and where they're running from [file location], and allows you to kill them. TIP : Trojans and worms usually re-appear after they are killed.
- TCPView : Shows you what running programs are using the TCP network. Allows you to kill them too.

Otherwise ... this is a great post ... thanks for all the stuffs peeps and PerlJam.

 

[Toxin]

tried it ... no luck ...

I normally use DVD Fab to rip the DVD then use DVD Shrink to compress it to a normal disk. I haven't had any problems so far but I haven't used it on any "new" discs. Maybe give DVD decrypter a try? If that doesn't help I'm stumped.

 

[Dudikoff]

VideoLan Media Player, plays anything!

 

[Rkootknir]

tried it ... no luck ...

RipIt4Me has worked well for me...

 

[PearlJam]

www.sysinternals.com

Very nice site

 

[Toxin]

RipIt4Me has worked well for me...

You see? This is why you should have threads like these.

Thanks Rkootknir.

*EDIT*

Just make sure to read the User Guide before doing anything. It gives you a nice description of what other programs you'll need and how to use the program itself.