[Anatoliy's home page]

Why I compiled this list when there are a lot of online software catalogs? The reason why I made this list is simple - I'm an independent developer and I know how difficult it is to promote a really worthy product nowdays. Many software catalogs, download.com being the most popular of them, belong to huge commercial organizations like CNET or ZDNET. They are not just good souls willing to help you select best software. Their task is more utilitarian - to make money for themselves! All their "highly recommended", "top-rated" and other captions of the kind mostly has nothing to do with the software quality: the developer of a product just pays them a fee to be promoted during a week, month, year and so on. So if you see a few highlited software headers at the top of the list, it doesn't mean that these items are really better than other ones, it only means that the software representatives took a decision to pay some money to the catalog owners to be promoted. How does this affect us, users, you wonder? It's simple - we are foisted mediocre yet expensive software while really outstanding and sometimes free programs are shown on the 50th or 100th position of the catalog, so you may never find them to download and try. Is is unfair? I think, it is. There are a lot of good freeware programs that can really compete with shareware in terms of quality, and of course, their developers will never pay to be promoted in Internet. There are also good shareware projects developed by independent programmers who just cannot compete with huge corporations in this game. This list is quite fair: the software developers didn't pay me anything to be listed here, this is only my choice based on my own experience. I used this soft and I liked it, so I can tell you it's worth trying. I will expand this list when I find other useful and outstanding programs, but don't ask me to add this or that program - I just won't do it - it's not an ordinary software promotion catalog, this list is intended to help beginners find good software for everyday use. So, let's begin. Note: if a certain version is mentioned, it means that further versions became less handy and too hulk and complicated, so it's not worth to install the latest versions (unfortunately, it's often the case when the programmer has no new ideas to improve the product but has to add something new to release a new version and increase sales).

SYSTEM

Diskeeper [Executive Software]

This program seems to be a great defragmeter. As you work with large files, they become fragmented and it takes more time to access them. Diskeeper defragments all files thus making your computer work faster. The distinguishing feature of the program is that it can defragment your disk while you work - Diskeeper works as a background task with low priority, so it doesn't bother you much. As you know, standard Windows Defrag is too slow and doesn't allow users to work during defragmentation. Because of the fact that Diskeeper can work as a background task, it also includes a schedule ("Set it and forget it" feature). There are several methods of defragmentation, some of them are really very fast, some ensure higher perfomance.

FinePrint [FinePrint Software]

This is a very useful tool if your printer driver doesn't have such advanced features as 'print several pages on one sheet of paper' or 'double-sided printing'. Besides, this driver allows to preview results before printing, no matter what program was used to print documents. There is one more cool feature: you can save printer output as JPG or TIF files to edit them later. Some programs like Camedia Master don't allow to save work but allow only to print it, so such a driver seems to be the only solution to save your work to a JPG/TIF file to edit it later in other software.

Nero Burning ROM [Ahead]

This is a well-known solution to write CD and DVD compilations.

PowerStrip [EnTech Taiwan]

Your LCD monitor is too bright? Brighter/Darker controls work very slow? This program solves your problem. It allows you to create several brightness/contrast/gamma presets and apply them using defined key combinations, for example, ctrl-alt-f12 - very bright, ctrl-alt-f11 - normal, ctrl-alt-f10 - dark, ctrl-alt-f10 - night mode. It also allows to quickly change the brightness gradually, for example, by pressing ctrl-alt-+ and crtl-alt--. No need to stretch yourself to monitor controls at all. Generally speaking, this program was intended to quickly change all parameters of your video card, including resolution, refresh rate, color depth as well as overclocking parameters like engine clock and memory clock.

RegCleaner [Jouni Vuorio]

Do you want to know what programs start when you load Windows? Do you want to delete them? Of course you do, it will increase computer performance! Of course, you should delete only those programs that are surly useless. You can spoil your system if you delete a useful program. The program also allows to clean old registry entries left by uninstalled programs. Besides, it has a powerful auto-cleaning system that scans the whole registry and removes useless records.

Switch Off [Yaroslav Pomazkov]

This program allows you to turn off/hibernate/suspend/reboot your computer at desired time (or using a count-down). The program has internal web server that allows to turn off or reboot your computer from another computer connected to Internet. I believe the program can be useful if you have to leave the place and need to turn off the computer but it is still busy with an important task. Or maybe you like to fall asleep while listening to MP3s - the program will turn off the computer in 1,2,3.. hours of playback.

FILES/DOCUMENTS

BK ReplaceEm [Bill Klein]

I found this program a few month ago but it already gained my confidence. It allows you to change a certain text in multiple files. There are really many options to specify what you want to find and replace. Of course, you can find an ordinary text string, but you can also find blocks of undefined size if you know their beginning and ending markers. This is a "must have" program if you want to redesign numerous html pages of your website.

Far Manager [Eugene Roshal]

This is the best console-style file manager for Windows. The best choice for those who got used to Norton Commander in DOS times. Besides standard NC features there are a lot of new features and plugin support (FTP, network, digital cameras, etc). Many useful plugins were developed by independent programmers.

FineReader [ABBYY]

A good solution for scanner and digital camera owners to convert their paper documents to text or MS-Word format. The distinguishing feature is stability of recognition of bad sources, multilingual recognition (for example, both English and Russian text on one page).

Hiew [Eugene Suslikov]

Hacker's View, a console HEX editor for EXE, DLL and other files. Supports files of any size. There is also a powerful analog for Windows - WinHEX. They both make a good suite for low-level work.

One-click BackUp for WinRAR (OCB) [Anatoliy Kovalenko]

This is a good file backup solution if you work with important documents and cannot affrod to damage or lose them. The program will quickly create duplicates of all your documents and copy them in packed form to a HDD/FLASH/LAN/CD/FTP/SMPT location. This program is strongly recommended to users who often change their work and want to be able to step back and undo undesired changes in case you spoil something. Programmers, web-developers, database-owners, students - everyone works with important documents; OCB has internal backup sheduler that can invisibly make copies of them every several minutes/hours/days, you won't even notice it, but when you really need to get an old copy of your document, you will be able to do it easily.

Sophisticated Rename [Anatoliy Kovalenko]

As you have already guessed, the program renames multiple files using sophisticated templates. This solution can be recommended only for advanced file manipulations. If you need a simple renaming like file001, file002... you'd better find another tool. It really takes time to master this program, but when you understand how it works, you won't need any other software to manipulate your files. In contrast to other renaming software, this program can use dinamically built templates, i.e. templates that can change during the renaming process according to certain rules. You can even automatically sort out thousands of files to certain folders using a certain distinguishing feature in file names or contents. The program has internal EXIF and ID3 viewers/editors to simplify your work with multimedia JPG/TIF and MP3 files. Many additional plugins are supported.

WinRAR [RarLab, Eugene Roshal]

This archiver is considered the most powerful nowdays. Perfect compression ratio and safety of information makes it the best choice if you want to back up your documents to a floppy disk or a CD or need to send some files via Internet.

INTERNET

DreamWeaver 4 [Macromedia]

This program will help you create and edit HTML pages both in 'Code' and 'What You See Is What You Get' modes. Very friendly interface and lots of useful tools certainly make this program one of the best HTML editors. I'd like to note that my recommendation concerns only version 4: the latest releases lost the simplicity of work, introduced a lot of useless stuff and became hulk and slow, nevertheless their price will make you lose all your hair when you see it :-)

FireFox [Mozilla]

It is a well-known fact that Internet Explorer is a very slow and unsecure program to browse in Internet. Here is a good replacement. There ain't as many options and settings as in Opera, for example, but it only makes a good thing for most of us who don't care about hundreds of checkboxes and want just to install the program and begin to browse Internet at once. FireFox is secure and fast enough, that's why it is recommended by many respected computer magazines.

htm2chm [Yaroslav Kirillov]

This tool is recommended for developers who want to compile a CHM help file from several HTML pages. CHM (Cabinet HTML) is a file containing several html pages and images in compressed form. Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003 has native support of this format, so you will be able to read it in almost any computer, including Pocket PC computers.

ReGet [ReGet Software]

This software is used to download huge files from internet. While native download system in IE just stops when the connection with server is aborted, and you have to start the download from the beginning, ReGet automatically reistablishes the connection and continues the download from the position where it was aborted. Reget can also automatically find mirrors and download different parts of a file from different servers, thus increasing overall speed. I know, there are a lot of programs of the kind, but I found that ReGet is a really more handy than other analogs.

The Bat! [RitLabs]

This is an E-mail client. A lot of users find it more attractive than Outlook Express. I like it because there is no need to import/export databases when you reinstall The Bat! after Windows crashes - all you have to do is install The Bat! and select the folder with your account files, and all your messages and account settings become active again - there is no need to reconfigure accounts at all. I also like good transport management (send and receive messages) and the possibility to preview and kill messages without downloading them (this is quite a good feature when a spammer sends you aa 2MB file and you have to download it 20 minutes with your 56k modem!).

GRAPH/PHOTOS

ACDSee 5 [ACD Systems]

The program allows you to view images and movies. Good quality of rendering and good speed makes it the best choice. There are also such tools as Batch Format Convert, Batch Rotate, Batch Rename, etc. The authors included a kind of cataloging support but I don't like it so I'm going to write my own program with ACDSee support soon. Versions after 5.x became hulk less handy so I see no need to install them.

Cam4you [Hans-David Alkenius]

This is a great gift for Canon digital cameras owners. The program looks very unprofessional in comparison with analogs, but when it comes to the process, it is really the best! I value much my photos so I tried a lot of image downloaders and this one seems to be the best at loseless rotation and automatic conversion of movies (For example, you can convert standard MJPEG to DivX if needed). The program can work directly with a Canon camera as well as with card readers.

Exif2htm [Anatoliy Kovalenko]

This tool lets you generate a customizable list of images with such data as file name, photo date and time, image dimensions, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and all the rest information accessible in the EXIF metadata of photos.

EXIFutils [Hugh Maxwell Thomas]

A pack of great console programs allowing you to view and modify EXIF metadata of photos. The program has no window interface so it can be only recommended to advanced users.

GIF Animator [Ulead]

This software can be recommended to website developers to create and optimize animated GIF images.

Neat Image [ABSoft]

I think, it's the best software to remove noice from images. Since I've bought a Canon A80 camera I don't really need it anymore but when I was an unlucky owner of an Olympus C220Z camera, this program was the only thing that could transform my photos to something worthy to look at. I should also mention "Descreen" plugin for Adobe Photoshop that could sometimes show even better results (the plugin was originally created to descreen magazine and newspaper scans).

Photo-Paint [Corel]

It's really difficult to say what is better: Adobe Photoshop or Corel Photo-Paint. For me, Photoshop is more handy so I use it in most cases, but when it comes to advanced color correction and working with texts, I get better results in Photo-Paint which interface is unfortunately less intuitive than that of Photoshop.

PhotoMix [fCoder Group International]

Cool program if you need to combine several images into one, for example, you can make a 3x3 image containing 9 source images. It can also place a small image in the corner of the main image. The program automatically resizes all images to obtain the desired size. There are a few predefined templates.

PhotoShop [Adobe]

See "Photo-Paint".

PhotoZoom Pro [Shortcut]

One of the best image resizers (possibly the best). It's really difficult to overestimate the quality of the resulting images after PhotoZoom Pro resizes them. For example, you have a 4 megapixel digital camera. You want to print an image (2272x1704 pixels) on a sheet of A4 paper. You know that the printing mashine uses the resolution of 320 dpi, it means that you will need an image with the resolution of 3741x2646 pixels to enjoy the maximum quality of the paper print. But your image has much less resolution! Simple resize in Photoshop won't give any new details to your image, that's why it's recommended to use more smart solutions. PhotoZoom Pro "guesses" what can be in the place of "lost" pixels, how the initial image could look like and adds artificial details. For example, after resizing a circle using simple algorythms, you will see that the enlarged circle is made of smaller squares. PhotoZoom will most likely understand that the initial figure was a circle and will create the enlarge circle more accurately. Anyway, it takes long to describe, just try it and you will see that the results are really outstanding. Please note that the program is designed mostly to prepare paper prints, so the results may seem too sharp on the screen while they look perfect on the paper.

VIDEO

BSPlayer [Webteh]

This is a very fast video player that writes data directly to video memory. It's a good solution to work with AVI movies, although not very convenient for DVD playback.

DivX [DivXNetworks]

DivX format encoder/decoder. Required to watch most AVI files downloaded from Internet.

Morgan MJPEG codec [Morgan Multimedia]

MJPG decoder and the best encoder (I compared the results of several encoders, this one is the best). MJPG codec is needed to view most AVI files created by digital cameras.

PocketDivXEncoder [divx.ppcool.com]

An Easy-to-use program to resize and convert movies to make it possible to wach them on Pocket PCs. The program can decrease the size of a standard 700MB movie to 200 or even 100 megabytes!

PowerDVD [CyberLink]

This is a well-known program to watch DVD movies. I'm not sure if it's the best one because there are a lot of analogs, but I've checked 3 or 4 DVD players and this one turned out to be the most conenient.

Premiere [Adobe]

Adobe Premiere is the most powerful program to work with movie stuff. For example, you may join several movies into one, cut useless parts, add visual effects between two clips, remove the sound track or combine several sound tracks. In a word, Premiere for movie-makers is the same as Photoshop for photographers. Works with AVI, QuickTime MOV and other popular video formats.

QuickTime [Apple Computer, Inc]

This player is required to watch MOV files. They were created by most old digital cameras produced at the beginning of this century. You can also find short MOV movies on promo and presentation CDs. Some sothisticated websites can also use it to play sounds or music.

VirtualDub [Avery Lee]

The most popular program to work with AVI files (any kind of editing). Works really fast.

MUSIC

CDex [Albert L Faber]

This program allows you to grab music from audio CDs, saves the tracks either to WAV or MP3 format (MP3 Lame encoder is included). A great feature of the program is the possibility to re-encode already existed MP3 files. For example, if you have MP3 files converted with 192kbps, you can convert them with 128kbps to decrease the size of files (This is important if you have not much space on a SD/CF card to use it with a pocket pc - you can stuff almost twice as much music!).

Sound Forge [Sonic Foundry, now supported by Sony]

One of the most powerful sound editors. It works with WAV, MP3 and other sound formats.

Winamp 2.xx [Nullsoft]

I think everyone knows about WinAmp. It's a high quality MP3 player that can also understand MOD, IT, MID and many other formats. WinAmp3 becomes slow, hulk and unhandy, so I advise you yo use 2.xx versions.

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