Some suggested software that does a great job.

mike-cow

Vista Pro
Hello, I've been lurking on these forums for a while, and decided to finally register and add a few of my thoughts on software here. There are some excellent threads on good software around this part of the forum, but as always I have some favorites of my own.

Here's my list of useful (free) things; It's not a COMPLETE list, see the stickies for that.. Some of the things I'll list here are alternatives to suggested software in other threads, I'll try to give a brief comment on why I prefer one over another.

NKProds nCleaner - While ccleaner does a good job, it has messed things up for me a number of times. nCleaner hasn't caused any problems at all for me (yet). It does a wonderful job of cleaning up (both disk and registry), and also includes some basic tweaking. The UI is a huge improvement over the really unintuitive ccleaner, and is definetely a better choice for inexperienced users (I recommend it for everyone though, regardless of level of expertise).

PeaZip - It looks better than 7-zip, unpacks TONS of formats and has a native x64 binary... Nothing else to say.

HotSwap! - Safely remove eSATA drives (and other stuff if you choose).... Yes, it needs to be done.

Serious Samurize - Widgets on steroids, there's nothing more customizable. It's not made to be simple though, so expect to fiddle about ALOT if you want something unique.

There goes... Just my few cents. :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X2 6000+
    Motherboard
    ASRock ALiveXfire-eSATA2
    Memory
    2x2GiB DDR2 PC2-6400
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeCube ATI Radeon HD3870 512MiB GDDR4
    Sound Card
    Built in HD Audio, digital output
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 206BW, SyncMaster 940B
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050 + 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    WDC 250GB SATA + lots of externals. :)
    PSU
    Antec Earthwatts 500W
    Case
    Antec Sonata III
    Cooling
    Air
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (1st edition w blue lightning)
    Mouse
    Logitech G9
    Internet Speed
    DL/UL: 50/10Mbit
FWIW, 7Zip also has native 64bit binaries as well....

But I do like Pea, almost as much as I still love me WinRAR.... :p
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics Card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
    Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Radeon HD (Embedded)
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
Thanks mike-cow, nice list.

I think I still prefer WinRAR to PeaZip, but it is definitely better than most unzippers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Dual Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.0 GHz
    Motherboard
    ACPI x86
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia GeForce 8800 GT
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    SyncMaster 2493HM Digital 24" Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Dual Western Digital 500GB Disk Drives
    Keyboard
    Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse
    Internet Speed
    6k KB/s DL, 700 KB/s UP
WinRAR is great, it just has an (arguably) annoying thing about it, it's not free... :)

And while I'm at it; Here's another little tidbit I seem to have forgotten:

Startup Delayer - Make nonessential software wait before they launch at startup. It cut a good 30 seconds off my boot time, so it's DEFINETELY useful. :)

And I forgot my all time favorite audioplayer...

Foobar2000 - It supports Windows Audio Session API exclusive mode output support through WASAPI plugin (Vista SP1 only!) for unparallelled soundquality. Imho there's nothing that sounds better, and with the right tweaks it can even look better. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X2 6000+
    Motherboard
    ASRock ALiveXfire-eSATA2
    Memory
    2x2GiB DDR2 PC2-6400
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeCube ATI Radeon HD3870 512MiB GDDR4
    Sound Card
    Built in HD Audio, digital output
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung SyncMaster 206BW, SyncMaster 940B
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050 + 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    WDC 250GB SATA + lots of externals. :)
    PSU
    Antec Earthwatts 500W
    Case
    Antec Sonata III
    Cooling
    Air
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (1st edition w blue lightning)
    Mouse
    Logitech G9
    Internet Speed
    DL/UL: 50/10Mbit
Haha, WinRAR doesn't do a very good job at keeping free users out though. After the trial time runs out it still works.

That Startup Delayer looks handy.... I'm gonna give that a try.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 420
    CPU
    Dual Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.0 GHz
    Motherboard
    ACPI x86
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVidia GeForce 8800 GT
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    SyncMaster 2493HM Digital 24" Widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Dual Western Digital 500GB Disk Drives
    Keyboard
    Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse
    Internet Speed
    6k KB/s DL, 700 KB/s UP
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