Posted by: kurtsh | March 5, 2008

INFO: My Top 20 Favorite Windows Apps & Utilities (more or less)

I really adore the applications on this list.  These are the applications that immediately get loaded onto any new laptop refresh I get.  In no particular order:

My Top 10 (or so) Favorite Commercial Software Utilities & Apps

  • Perfect Disk – A really good defragmenter that does execution ordering as well as offline defrag
  • DUMeter – A fantastic Windows Vista gadget that tells you what kind of bandwidth you’re using
  • Replay Media Catcher/Converter – The easiest way to capture/convert Flash Video to Windows Media
  • SlingPlayer – Wanna watch your home TV signal on your laptop or your Windows Mobile device?
  • Zune Player – A great (and only) means of organizing & downloading music/podcasts for your Zune
  • Pinnacle Studio 11 – The most popular consumer Video Editing software for Windows
  • Mappoint 2006 – Windows Live Maps are nice, but Office products are better for documenting maps
  • WinZip 11 – Can’t live without AES-256 ZIP encryption.
  • DVD to Pocket PC 5.0 – Wanna convert all those DVDs you bought into .WMV files for your Zune?
  • MSN Client 9 – No email client I’ve used, including Outlook 2007, does a better job at filtering SPAM.
  • AnyDVD – It’ll not only copy any DVD/Blu-ray, it’ll allow you to ff through the previews, ads, etc.

My Top 10 (or so) Favorite Free Tools & Apps

  • Windows Live Writer – The only blog posting tool that I use, period.
  • CCleaner – A great tool for clearing out temp files & other turds left on your system
  • LogMeIn – How to remotely control computers behind NAT-routers from your Windows Mobile device
  • FolderShare – Keeping file directories on multiple PCs in sync across firewalls
  • Windows Live Messenger – Text, Audio, Video, VOIP phone calls, AOL/Yahoo/MSN interop
  • ZoomIt – A great presentation tool for making sure people can see what you’re pointing at
  • Process Explorer 11 – A great shell replacement for the Task Explorer/Manager.
  • Quicktime Alternative, Real Alternative – Because no one should ever have to install Real or QT
  • Teracopy – The best file copying tool for people doing large drive-to-drive copies
  • Cropper – A free screen capture product that can create not just snapshots but also Animated GIFs
  • SpaceMonger – The nicest way of understanding how you’re using up your hard drive
    (Technically, this last product is available in two flavors, an old free version and a new pay-for version.  I have the pay for one but the old free one still works well, albeit a lot slower.)

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