Software I use when running Windows

This is a list of software I find useful when running Windows. Some of it is free (as in beer), some of it is free (as in speech and some of it costs money)

Office / Production

AbiWord — Great word processor that I use when I don’t need all the features of Microsoft Office or Openoffice. [http://abisource.com]
Microsoft Office — Use this for compatibility reasons.
OpenOffice — Use this when compatability with my college is not required. [http://openoffice.org]
FoxIt Reader — PDF Reader / Alternative to Adobe PDF Reader. [http://foxitsoftware.com]
The Gimp — The GNU Image Manipulation Program, an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. [http://www.gimp.org]
Adobe Photoshop — Sometimes it’s just needed.
Paint.NET — Most of the time I don’t need the extensive features of Adobe Photoshop or The Gimp. [http://getpaint.net]

Net

Halite — A small, lightweight bittorrent client and a replacement to uTorrent. [https://web.archive.org/web/20190114184503/http://www.binarynotions.com:80/halite-bittorrent-client/]
Pidgin — A nice opensource instant messaging client with support for multiple platforms and protocols. [http://pidgin.im]
Mozilla Firefox — Great open source browser. [http://firefox.com]
Opera — Used for when I’m testing stuff. [http://opera.com]
FileZilla — A great FTP/SFTP client. Opensource. [http://filezilla.org/]
xfire — Instant messaging client that you can use while in almost all games. [http://xfire.com]
mIRC — IRC Client. [http://mirc.com]
Metasploit — Find vulnerabilities in the software you run on your network. [http://metasploit.com]
nMap — Probe your network for open ports. [http://nmap.org]
Putty — Useful when working with SSH. [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html]
WireShark — Capture packets. [http://wireshark.org]

Media

Handbrake — Ripping DVD’s. [http://handbrake.fr/]
VLC — A great player which can play many formats. [http://videolan.org]
Audacity — Useful for working with audio. [http://audacity.sourceforge.net]
Windows Media Player — I’d prefer amaroK but it does the job.

Development

Code::blocks — The main IDE I use for C++ development. [http://codeblocks.org]
Dev-C++ — Rarely use this anymore. [http://bloodshed.net/devcpp.html]
Py2Exe — Useful for when the target system does not have python. [http://py2exe.org]
Python — An interpreted programming language that is awesome. [http://python.org]
SPE [Stani’s Python Editor] – A great Python editor/IDE. [http://pythonide.stani.be]
Game Maker — Rarely use this anymore but has it’s uses. [http://yoyogames.com]
Java BlueJ — Java editor. [http://bluej.org]
FarPy GUIe — A graphical editor for generating wxPython code. [http://farpy.holev.com]
Microsoft Visual Studio Express — Microsoft’s series of IDE’s for C++, C# and VB.NET.

Tools

7-Zip — Use this for decompressing/compressing various formats (ZIP/RAR/7ZIP/TAR/GZ) [http://7-zip.org]
Ccleaner — Great for cleaning crap from the system [http://ccleaner.com]
ClamWin (ClamAV Win32) — A no fuss virus scanner. [http://clamwin.com]
Eraser — Use this for secure deletion of files. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/]
MagicDisk — Great for mounting images to virtual disks, etc.. [http://magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm]
SiSoftware Sandra — Great for finding information about the system. [http://sisoftware.co.uk]
Truecrypt — Encryption tool, can create encrypted volumes, etc.. [http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/]
WinDirStat — A ‘file visualiser’ as it were. Creates a graphical representation of a drive. [http://windirstat.info]
CDBurnerXP — Useful for burning files and images to CD’s. [http://cdburnerxp.se]
XMing — I use this for connecting to machines that are running XDMCP. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming]
Qemu — This can simulate a real computer. Great for testing stuff. [http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu]
Cygwin — A unix environment in Windows. [http://cygwin.com]

Other tools also include CPU-Z, Steganos Locknote, Notepad2 and Process Explorer (SysInternals).