My Favourite Software

There is loads and loads of really great, free software out there. This page is a collection of the ones I have come to live with, usually because they are excellent in terms of functionality, usability and stability. The list is comprehensive but not necessarily complete.

Before I go on, it is probably worth mentioning that the Open Source Alternatives web site is a great place to start but it is by no means exhaustive. As ever, google is your friend; try searches like "best free digital collander".

Right. On to my favourites. I've roughly broken them down into sections of similar software types.
Oh, and, yes, this is Windows stuff - although a few mentioned are also available for other platforms.

Graphics

Art Rage 2 (Starter Edition)
Real world painting application - be sure to get the starter edition; but if you like it the full edition is only $25 (£12.50). It's got a nice simple interface and works well.
[ http://www.artrage.com/ ]

Artweaver
Another digital painter.
[ http://www.artweaver.de/ ]

GIMP
I've spent the last couple of months trying to transition from Paint Shop Pro to GIMP. Now I'm getting used to it I find I rarely open PSP any longer. Excellent piece of kit - if only they'd implement an MDI container interface...
[ http://www.gimp.org/ ]

IcoFX
Excellent Windows icon editor.
[ http://icofx.ro/ ]

Inkscape
Inkscape is a free vector drawing package and I absolutely love it. Not only is it fun to draw with, it's perfect for doing all those web graphic widgets and buttons and the like.
[ http://www.inkscape.org/ ]

Paint.NET
Photo/Image editing. To be honest, I have Paint Shop Pro X courtesy of work, so I've not got deeply into it but it does seem very capable.
[ http://www.getpaint.net/ ]

Project Dogwaffle
Another "natural art" type painting program. Sometimes quirky user interface. Excellect effects possible and like Art Rage, the Pro version will only set you back £39, unlike Corel Painter at £270.
[ http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free/ ]

3D Modelling

NOTE: I am an engineer and I use 3D CAD software. This means precise measurements and operations. I have yet to get to grips with artistic 3D modelling and as such have tried my hand a quite a few different bits of software. I've listed a few here but have barely scratched the surface with any of them.

Blender
3D modelling and animation.
[ http://www.blender.org/ ]

Caligari trueSpace
Caligari have made version 7.6 of their mainstream 3D modeller available for free. There's also lots of excellent tutorials available on their website.
[ http://www.caligari.com/ ]

DAZ Studio
3D Compositor - seems to be aimed at arranging and rendering 3D content created elsewhere.
[ http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/studio?_m=d ]

Audio

Audacity
Excellent sound editor. Can record from all the usual sources and has plenty of effects built in.
[ http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ]

BonkEnc Audio Encoder
Rips CDs. Converts between may different audio formats. I know Windows Media Player can do this too but there's a lot to be said for having a dedicated tool.
[ http://www.bonkenc.org/ ]

Buzz Tracker
Music creation software. It's quirky and can be hard to get into but it's free and can make some amazing sounds.
[ http://www.buzzmachines.com/getbuzz.php ]

ID3-TagIT
Sort of audio related: MP3 tag editor - slightly niche but has many options for extracting from filenames, renaming files, etc.
[ http://www.id3-tagit.de/ ]

KVR Audio
While we're on music, there's a mountain of free VSTi Intruments and Effects. These are used in conjuction with other Audio software (like Reaper, below) to give you various effects and sounds. KVR Audio is a good place to look for them as they keep a massive database and you can choose to query only for free ones.
[ http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php ]

PowerTAB
For the guitarists. A tablature editor with playback capabilities. It is the absolute business.
[ http://www.power-tab.net/guitar.php ]

Reaper (unlimited evaluation/very cheap)
A proper Digital Audio Workbench to rival the likes of Cakewalk Sonar and Propellerhead Reason. Although it's not free, the downloadable "trial" version is completely unrestricted (not by time or functionality). And if you chose to buy it, £25 is a fraction of the cost of the other two which could potentially run in to hundreds.
[ http://www.reaper.fm/ ]

WinAmp
Still my favourite audio player.
[ http://www.winamp.com/ ]

Video

CamStudio
Screen recorder - make videos of what you're doing on your PC.
[ http://camstudio.org/ ]

DVD Decrypter/DVDShrink/RipIt4Me
Don't want to start the whole copyright debate, but if you live in a household populated by kids who think the best place to put the last DVD they pulled out of the player is in the sandpit then these are the best solution I've found for making backups or disposable working copies. And what about getting your collection on to that spanky new HD wireless streaming media server, eh?
[ http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/ ]
[ http://www.softpedia.com/get/.../DVD-Shrink.shtml ]
[ http://www.softpedia.com/get/.../RipIt4Me.shtml ]

MediaCoder
Multi-format audio/video transcoder. I was using it to convert mobile phone MP4s into AVIs. It can also be used for DVD ripping. Not for the faint-hearted.
[ http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/ ]

Internet

Firefox
My personal choice for functionality and usability. Other web browsers are available.
[ http://www.getfirefox.com/ ]

FlashGet
Download manager - now completely free; no annoying ad. banners. See also the FlashGot Firefox plug-in.
[ http://www.flashget.com/ ]

Skype
Internet (Voice Over IP) Phone.
[ http://www.skype.com/ ]

Thunderbird
My email client of choice.
[ http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ ]

uTorrent
Because not all BitTorrents are illegal.
[ http://www.utorrent.com/ ]

PDF

BullZip PDF
PDF Printer driver - create PDFs from any software that can print. Also free for commercial use.
[ http://www.bullzip.com/ ]

Foxit Reader
Smaller and way faster than Adobe Reader.
[ http://foxitsoftware.com/ ]

PrimoPDF
Another free PDF creator of the Printer Driver variety.
[ http://www.primopdf.com/ ]

Utilities

7zip
File compression utility. Reads ZIP, RAR, CAB, TAR and many other compressed file formats. Put an end to WinZip and WinRAR nag screens.
[ http://7-zip.org/ ]

AusLogics Disk Defrag
Quicker and more efficient than the built-in Windows Disk Defrag.
[ http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag ]

Console
A geeky one this - front end for the Command Prompt with better copy/paste usability.
[ http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/ ]

Cygwin/Cygwin-X
Another techie choice - unix command utilities and an X Server for the PC.
[ http://www.cygwin.com/ ]

Easy Cleaner
Cleans up a whole bunch of stuff on your PC - temporary files, IE histories and such. The Registry Cleaner also seems to work quite well.
[ http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm ]

Infra Recorder
Straightforward CD/DVD burning.
[ http://infrarecorder.org/ ]

Microsoft PowerToys for XP
A collection of utilities provided for free. Of particular note are TweakUI which allows you to change quite a few of the standard behaviours of XP, and SyncToy which lets you set up file synchronisation between two folders.
[ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx ]

Notepad++
Turbo-charged text editor with syntax highlighting.
[ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm ]

PuTTY
Terminal emulator/telnet client. Includes SSH.
[ http://www.putty.org/ ]

RegSeeker
An excellent utility for exploring the Windows Registry. WARNING: Your computer is at risk if you monkey around in your registry with hob-nailed boots on! RegSeeker's Registry Cleaner has also been known to cause problems - avoid. (HoverDesk also have a couple of other cool, free utilities)
[ http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm ]

Taskbar Shuffle
Allows you to drag and drop items in the Windows Task Bar so that they're in the order you want them. Sounds peculiar but I found it was something I wanted to do a lot. I also like the "middle-click to close" functionality.
[ http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.htm ]

TeraCopy
Completely excellent utility that overrides Windows file copying routines. Provides more options/flexibility: you know when you multi-select a bunch of files (or a directory) and windows starts copy it, then has a problem with one of the files and just packs in half way through the job? Well TeraCopy will just skip that file and tell you what failed when it's finished. For this reason alone it is worth installing.
[ http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php ]

Toggler
Allows you to control the delay before various 'Lock' keys work, to stop you from accidentally activating them - the most obvious being the CAPS LOCK.
[ http://members.execulink.com/~pjones/toggler/ ]

Undelete Plus
File undelete utility - for when you didn't really mean it. I've had mixed results (from, "what a relief!" to, "well that's that gone forever then".)
[ http://undelete-plus.com/ ]

VirtualBox
Virtual machine software, similar to VMWare (also free BTW, but VirtualBox seems leaner and more flexible in some respects) - create many virtual computers with different OSes on your PC - you'll still need OS licenses where appropriate though.
[ http://www.virtualbox.org/ ]

Wallpaper Cycler Lite
Automatically changes your Windows Desktop Wallpaper. Trivial but fun and even the Free (Lite) version has plenty of options.
[ http://www.nuonsoft.com/wallpapercycler/ ]