Favorite Files

1. 7-Zip (32-bit)
2. Acronis True Image Home
3. Adobe Reader Lite
4. AIMP
5. allSnap
6. AM-DeadLink
7. AutoHotkey
8. AutoPatcher XP
9. Autoruns
10. AVG Anti-Virus Free
11. Avira Free Antivirus
12. Belarc Advisor
13. CCleaner for Windows
14. CDBurnerXP
15. CDex
16. Comodo Firewall Pro
17. Copernic Desktop Search
18. DAEMON Tools Lite
19. Defraggler
20. Directory Opus
21. DirectX Redistributable
22. DVDFab All-In-One for Windows
23. DynDNS Updater
24. Encopy
25. EssentialPIM Pro
26. FastStone Image Viewer
27. Foxit Reader
28. GMail Drive
29. Google Chrome for Windows
30. Google Earth for Windows
31. HTTrack Website Copier for Windows
32. IE7pro
33. ImgBurn
34. Internet Explorer Collection
35. Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
36. Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE)
37. jEdit for Windows
38. K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool
39. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
40. KeePass Password Safe Classic Edition
41. Lotus Symphony for Windows
42. Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder
43. Media Player Classic for Windows 2000/XP
44. Microsoft .NET Framework (v3.0)
45. Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX (formerly Atlas)
46. Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows Vista/2008
47. Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows XP
48. Microsoft IronPython
49. Microsoft Photosynth
50. Microsoft Silverlight for Windows
51. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express
52. Microsoft SyncToy
53. Microsoft Virtual PC
54. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
55. Microsoft Windows Defender (32-bit)
56. Microsoft Windows SDK
57. Microsoft Windows Search for Windows XP / Server 2003
58. Miranda IM
59. Mozilla Firefox for Windows
60. Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition
61. NASA World Wind
62. nLite
63. Office 2000/XP/2003/2007 Slipstreamer
64. Offline Explorer Enterprise
65. Omziff
66. OpenOffice.org for Windows
67. Opera (32-bit) for Windows
68. OperaTor
69. Paint.NET
70. Password Safe
71. PDFCreator
72. PhotoFiltre
73. Picasa for Windows
74. Pidgin for Windows
75. PostgreSQL
76. Process Explorer
77. ProduKey
78. PStart
79. Recuva
80. RocketDock
81. RootkitRevealer
82. RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack
83. RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP3 Update Pack
84. Screamer Radio
85. Skype for Windows
86. STDU Viewer
87. Sylpheed
88. TaskSwitchXP
89. TortoiseSVN
90. Translate.Net
91. Transmute Standard
92. TrueCrypt
93. Tunnelier
94. Ubuntu
95. UltraVNC
96. Unlocker
97. UPX (Ultimate Packer for eXecutables) for Windows
98. VirtualBox
99. VLC (VideoLAN) for Windows (64-bit)
100. VMware Player
101. VMware Workstation
102. Winamp 5 Lite
103. Windows PowerShell
104. Windows Updates Downloader
105. Windows XP PowerPacker
106. WinMD5
107. WinMerge
108. WinRAR (32-bit)
109. XnView for Windows
110. Xplorer²
111. µTorrent for Windows

Recent Posts

1. 
   Review - DVDFab All-In-One for Windows

   8.0.6.7 (Jan 3, 2011)

   This version completely failed to copy a french film from 2002. So i can't be any new copy protection. Reverted to a version two releases previous.
   
   @PaulWilliams
   "Obscene Price and Worthless Buggy Product. Total Scam by the Chinese."
   
   And if i said
   
   "Obscene Price and Worthless Buggy Product. Total Scam by the French"
   
   or
   
   "Obscene Price and Worthless Buggy Product. Total Scam by the Americans".
   
   Doesn't that sound ridiculous? You're lumping an entire population of people with the pricing practices of a software developer.
   I can only conclude that what you said was a typo as i can't see someone making such a retarded generalization as that. If it wasn't kindly keep your racist comments out of this forum.
   
   @PaulWillaims
   "If the author was French I would have said "Total Scam by the French".
   That is grammatically incorrect.
   You clearly don't understand the English language. French implies the French people in this context. So what you are saying is "Total Scam by the French population". That is non-sense as you're referring to a bunch of software developers, not the entire French population. If you can't use the English language properly then that's fine, but then please quit slaughtering it online and then try to back it up with yet more bad English. I have no idea why you mentioned politics in your reply.
   
   The name anonymouscowturd is a reference to /. and nothing to do with any "issues" that you refer to.

2. 
   Review - Opera (32-bit) for Windows

   11.00 (Dec 17, 2010)

   This is the first Opera x.0 release that has been fully usable. A pleasant surprise.
   Major plus points for me...
   1. At last an installer that allows for a USB portable installation.
   2. Extensions! How long has everybody been moaning to Opera about this?!
   3. Even better standards support
   
   Minus points for a borked mouse gesture implementation. What the hell happened? It worked fine in previous versions, suddenly this version it's all become unresponsive and slow using gestures. Real shame.

3. 
   Review - EverNote

   4.0.0.2880 (Oct 27, 2010)

   Brilliant. This new version is so much snappier and the fonts are finally readable (due to them ditching .net and WPF apparently).
   Seeing as it's now back to C++ i'd like to see them make this portable again just like the old 2.x and 3.1.x versions.

4. 
   Review - Opera (32-bit) for Windows

   10.62 Build 3500 (Sep 9, 2010)

   Excellent, cured a few problems with 10.61. Now shuts down much quicker whereas before it could take literally minutes to shutdown and release memory.
   
   @dotnetnightmare,
   "If a website works in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, & Konqueror, should'nt it work in Opera?"
   Firstly the HTML and CSS specifications are not set in stone, so each browser vender has leeway on how they interpret the specs. Secondly just because other browsers allow borked code to run properly doesn't mean that is how browsers should behave. This attitude is why some people (mainly businesses) are still able to stick with IE6 and other older browsers, it might not render perfectly but it will still work. But that's the problem. They are simply too forgiving of crap code. If someone produces a buggy desktop application do you still expect the operating system to magically run it correctly? You don't do you. You expect it to error. HTML and JavaScript is no different. It's still code. Throw in loose HTML CSS specs and you're going to get trouble. For some reason web users like yourself expect semantically incorrect code to work when there is no reason to expect it to.
   hoogladoogla below gets it right. He has a genuine bug and therefore a genuine gripe about Opera performance. Incidentally, the Opera solution to fixing broken website with a downloable Browser.js file is excellent as it allows borked code to be fixed by users themselves even if the offending website refuses to fix their code. With other browsers you'd need and entirely new build, though for Firefox you have greasemonkey and associated addons that can do similar.

5. 
   Review - Net Transport for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista

   2.94a.560 (Jul 6, 2010)

   Brilliant. Succeeds where all others fail. E.g. saving BBC iPlayer shows.

6. Comment - More employees are using a personal laptop as primary work PC

   2.94a.560 (Dec 8, 2009 - 7:41 PM)

   Yeah, the most problems I've encountered have been with the real big companies. The small companies seem to be no problem at all. Maybe its because it's more one-on-one as opposed to being an employee number. The current mid-size company that i work at seem to still be big enough to have a real problem though. It is a tech (hardware) company through and through but trying to get authorization from the IT dept. for simple every day use software is just ridiculously hard/impossible. I asked to use 7zip as passing files around it makes a real difference to the time it takes to get stuff done. They responded with "We only allow Internet Explorer". This kind of thing is by no means untypical in my experience (unfortunately).
   The dev team have resorted to just sticking everything in VMs and working remotely or running portable applications where possible!

7. Comment - More employees are using a personal laptop as primary work PC

   2.94a.560 (Dec 8, 2009 - 3:38 PM)

   "Oh and having other applications installed? Usually if it is important for your work then most likely IT WILL install to your PC although your dept may have to pay to get the software."
   
   @dracodos,
   Not sure where you're working but in the large majority of the places I've worked, mostly big multi-nationals. the IT departments displayed absolutely no understanding of what tools are used by development teams. The responses ranged from what is that? and why do we need it? we'll think about it to NO, it's not on our list you can't have it.
   We're talking simple stuff like Firefox, Visual Studio, Cygwin, Notepad++, Java installations etc etc. Basic simple stuff required by techies. IT policies like you mentioned are all well and good for Mr average who know jack all about computers and whose daily interactions involve clicking on the blue "e" or Word. But when it comes to more technical types it just doesn't cut it.
   In my experience what tends to happen is that the geeky types like myself end up subverting the policies and measures just to get work done. ALL with the consent of managers because they know they too cannot make any progress negotiating with the bone heads in the IT department.

8. Comment - More employees are using a personal laptop as primary work PC

   2.94a.560 (Dec 8, 2009 - 10:59 AM)

   I don't thing employees are left with much choice sometimes other than to use their own laptop. The company laptop may have various pieces of spy/monitor-ware or keyloggers and will more than likely have draconian rules imposed by the IT department against installing sane software such as Firefox and other useful software that allow users to work the way they want and are most comfortable with. Instead users are forced to contort their ways of working to the least common denominator. i.e. the computer/IT illiterate. No surprise then that some will opt to use their own.

9. Comment - Survey reveals there are more women than men, including on social networks

   2.94a.560 (Dec 4, 2009 - 1:22 PM)

   "This strikes me as proof that women really are better communicators"
   What?
   So the proof of them being better communicators is that there are more of them on those social networks? Not sure where you got your science degree buddy, but more does not necessarily mean better. Not that i am saying men are better, but your proof is somewhat lacking.
   As for the quality of the communication on those social networks, from what i have seen 99% is complete and utter drivel.

10. Comment - Windows desktops and notebooks reach near price-performance parity for Holiday 2009

    2.94a.560 (Dec 1, 2009 - 9:27 AM)

    I love the flexibility of using a laptop but are they are practically impossible to upgrade beyond memory and hard drive.
    If you're happy to use an older spec machine then price wise a laptop that you keep for 5+ years is fine. But if you want to be leading/bleeding edge then doing it with laptops is impossible as you have to get a new one every time want to upgrade the processor or graphics card. A rather expensive solution!