Alobonts Guide to Kewl Programs Ver. 1.4Follow

So after trolling around these forums for the past few weeks, Ive noticed there isn't a post about useful or helpful programs for tweaking, testing, or just using on your computer. Now because the internet is vast I dont know them all so do feel free to add, and I will update the main. Try and keep them free if you can.

Testing

Core Temp: This program gives a very accurate reading of your processor temperatures. It uses the already built in methods of track temperatures to monitor it. It will give you temps for each core in your processor and has a handy feature where it can run in your task bar showing your temp on demand.

CPU-Z: This is a really handy feature for looking at temperatures and other information about your computer. It will tell you your current processor speed, type, and etc. It also break down how fast your ram and other things are running. It is very handy for learning about your computer and monitoring certain aspects.

Prime95: This tool is very useful for a lot of things. It works as a nice burn in applications for those new builds, or as a benchmark test, or as a stress test for your ram or processor or both. The website looks a bit shady but I promise its not. The program looks for a certain type of prime number.

Final Fanatasy 11 Benchmark 3: This little gem is very good for giving you a feel on how well your computer will handle games. Yes it is for FFXI but its a good benchmark program. This will show you how well you system can handle graphics and multiple things on screen at once doing different things. It is free, it is not a game, it is just a decent benchmark.

Can you run it?: Good for seeing if you have min specs for running a game.
Wordaen

SpeedFan: An alternative program to read temperatures on your computer.
Smasharoo

Orthos: An alternative program to Prime95.
Smasharoo

Riva Tuner: A graphics card tweaker for Nvidia and ATI Radeon.
Smasharoo

nLite: Allows you to remove built in components of windows during install.
Smasharoo

GPU-Z: Like CPU-Z but for your graphics card.
Smasharoo

3DMark: A graphics card benchmark.
Smasharoo

SiSoftware Sandra:Benchmark utility. Sandra Lite is the trial version.
Raolan

Belarc Advisor: basically scans your computer and gives you a detailed run down of programs/ missing hot fixes and all kinds of different information.

Glary Utilities: Has a bunch of reg tweaks and the likes to make your stuff run faster.

Miscellaneous Programs

DVDflick: This is an extremely powerful CD/DVD burning program. It can recognize all file formats(pretty much) and convert the to DVD format. It allows menu creation and chapter settings, quality control, and just about every option you could want. I have used this several times to make DVDs and it is far superior to anything I've used. It also has a nice guide with screen shots and stuff to walk you through it the first time. It is open source so it is always being updated.

Open Office: This is an open source version of Microsoft Office. It is compatible with normal Microsoft Office programs. It takes a bit of getting use to but it has some nice features and is good in a pinch if you need a writing, program and don't have office laying around.

Winamp: This is a free media player. It is totally customizable with different skins and is generally considered one of the best media players around.

LAIM This is a light version of AIM. It has zero ads and none of that stupid welcome page crap. It isn't updated very often but it is a nice light client for aim.

Ultra VNC: A nice remote access program to get into your computer from far far away. Once configured correctly it becomes your best friend.

Print Key: This is a nice program for taking screen shots of your computer. It can either function like a normal print screen key, or you can use the built in crop tool to get just what you want.

Winzip: Not exactly free, but you can get a trial version. This program is used for zipping or unzipping programs.

WinRAR: Allows you to open zip files and RAR files and all that jazz.
Aarkovi

Cute PDF:Creates PDFs.

Daemon Tools: Good for optical media emulation. Its a virtual disk mounter.

Freerip: Useful for ripping CDs/converting files to different formats.

Blender: Free 3d Modeling program. Not the best but useful if your tinkering around or what not.

GIMP: Alternative to Photoshop. Some people like it better, some like it worse. Its generally almost as powerful as photoshop once you relearn everything.

G Spot: A codec analyzer applications. Tell you what videos are encoded in.

Core FTP: FTP client that is pretty easy to use.

Game Cam: An alternative to FRAPS. not sure how good it is, but a few friends of mine like it.


Computer Safety

AVG: Free anti-virus software. Is considered to be one of the better anti-virus software's out there.

Spy Bot Search & Destroy: One of the more useful spy and ad-ware removers out there. It has some nice features. I recommend running this in conjunction with Ad-aware.

Ad-Aware: A very useful tool in removing spy and ad-ware. Recommended to run in conjunction with Spybot.

Hijack This: An excellent tool for locating hard to remove viruses, spyware, or ad-ware. Most tech support forums require a Hijack this log when dealing with said problems.

Avast: Another virus scanner program. Some people like it over AVG.

Fire Fox: Considered to be the best browser in the world. Has many customizable features and security options. Most popular security options are Ad-Block Plus and Noscript.

KeePass: Password safe.

Rogue Scanner: Simple program that allows you to monitor you network.

File Shredder: Useful for completely wiping files from your hard drive.

Helpful Websites

Speed Test: A helpful website on seeing how fast you are connecting. Its not an exact determination of your speed but you can get a guess.
Raolan

Download.com: Good website for finding freeshare ware and stuff like that.
Raolan

Hard Forum: An extremely helpful forum for learning about anything dealing with computers. They do a lot of nice tests on things.

Toms: Useful for reviews and general tech knowledge. They do lots of extreme tests on things.

Purchasing Websites

Newegg: One stop shop for most computer parts.

Tiger Direct: Another website similar to Newegg. Useful for comparing or finding things Newegg may not have.

Club IT: Similar website to Tiger and Newegg. Occasionally find better deals here.

Frozen CPU: All about cooling your computer down and making it look "kewl".

Sidewinder: Another all about cooling site. Has lots of extreme cooling fans and such. Also great tech support.

Edited, Jul 21st 2008 4:44pm by Alobont

Should include WinRAR. It's free, and allows you to open/make .zip files, as well as .rar files.

Sucks compared to the full version of Office but that's quite expensive so OO gets my vote.

Sucks compared to the full version of Office but that's quite expensive so OO gets my vote.

I was unclear. OOO sucks because it tries, and fails, to be too much like MS Office. It's big and bloated and cumbersome to use and buggy. AbiWord is much better, lighter, word processor that's also FOSS. Base is useless given the FOSS database tools out there. Gnumeric is a better spreadsheet, etc, etc,

OOO is to MS Office what Wine is to Windows, a pale copy that only exists for people accustomed to using the original.

Updated to 1.3!