Software I love and recommend
* Note: This list is 10+ years old at this point. I’m not really maintaining it anymore.
Almost all of the tools I use are free or Open-Source. Here’s my list:
Browsers:
Google Chrome
Firefox Browser Developer Edition
Brave
KiTTY
OpenSource SSH client for communicating with a Linux server. Forked from the original PuTTY code, and enhanced with great new features. Best of all is drag-n-drop uploading of files to the server.
PuTTY Session Manager
Display PuTTY sessions in a list. Organise your sessions into folder. Export Sessions to registry file. Support for launching Pageant with a list of SSH keys. Support for launching FileZilla and WinSCP session from the tree.
WinSplit Revolution
Great for working on multiple PuTTY windows at the same time. Combine this with my PuTTY Keystroke Sender for serious terminal mastery!
WinSSHTerm
Open-Source Windows-based groupped/tabbed terminal viewer (choose between PuTTY or KiTTY) with split-window support, file upload/download support via WinSCP, and much more!
WinSCP
Open-Source Windows-based SCP explorer-like client with configurable macros.
FileZilla
OpenSource FTP/SFTP client.
Tail for Win32
Open-Source implementation of Tail for Win32 with many more features. Now you can tail the log files on a windows server.
KeePass
Store your passwords in an encrypted database. Allows folders to organize logins by category. Allows hotkey auto-login to websites or programs.
MultiMon
Adds additional taskbar to the secondary monitor showing only applications from that monitor and hiding it from the original. Adds a Move to Monitor button to windows applications. Includes a text clipboard history selector.
Launchy
Quick launcher to your programs via a hotkey.
7-Zip
Open-Source Windows application that can open most common compressed file formats. It’s fast and lightweight.
XMind Pro
Freeware multi-platform mind mapping tool. Organize ideas into logical structures. Great for brainstorming and many things!
EditPlus
The best lightweight text editor! Visit the EditPlus wiki for customizing tips. Worth purchasing!
Process Explorer
TaskManager replacement with many features.
FastStone Capture
Powerful, flexible and intuitive screen-capture utility. It allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle regions, freehand-selected regions and scrolling windows/web pages. Download the last freeware portable version here.
Jing Project
Screenshot and video capture utility.
PDFCreator
Open-Source PDF Printer. Allows you to create a PDF file of anything you can print. Able to join multiple print jobs into a single pdf.
Ubuntu for Windows 10
Officially called “Windows Subsystem for Linux”, you can install a real Ubuntu OS in Windows 10!
Xplorer² lite
Windows Explorer replacement w/ split directory window and tabbed browsing. Many shortcuts and features such as directory size counts in detailed mode.
IOBit Unlocker
Overcomes the following annoying messages from Windows:
* Cannot delete file: Access is denied
* There has been a sharing violation.
* The source or destination file may be in use.
* The file is in use by another program or user.
* Make sure the disk is not full or
* write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
FoxIt PDF Reader
The fastest PDF Reader.
AutoHotkey
Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder.
EZ Thumbnails
Free batch image resizer. Has very good quality.
FinePrint
Powerful printing tools for printing 2 to 8 pages per page. Get print previews in all your applications.
SpaceMonger 1.4.0
Visually shows the free space on your computer. Allows you to quickly see what files/folders are taking up the most space and allows you to delete them.
PureText
Use WIN+v to paste only the text to any application without any formatting.
VirtualBox
VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and allows virtualization of a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD. These run in a virtual window inside of your main Operating System.
For example, you can run Linux inside of Windows without Dual-booting. Or you can install Linux on the box and run a Virtual Windows inside of a window. Get free Windows virtual images from Microsoft.
winMD5sum
A simple open source Windows MD5 checker. It can calculate the MD5 checksum of a file. This is helpful when downloading large files and you need to confirm it was downloaded correctly. Many sites give you the MD5 hash of the file which you can compare with.
CDBurnerXP Pro
Freeware CD/DVD Burning Tool. Great interface, similar to Nero.
FTP Drive
Map many FTP servers to directories on a drive letters in Windows.
SyncBack
Sync/Backup directories to local or remote servers as a scheduled task.
Locate32
A file finder which indexes all the files on your computer and provides almost instant search results. Does not run as a service, but can be scheduled to run.
XAMPP
Provides a portable WAMP development environment on Windows. Includes:
PHP 5 & 7 w/ PEAR, Apache, MariaDB, phpMyAdmin, XAMPP Control Panel.
Paint.net
If you need a image editing application superior to Microsoft Paint, but not as complicated as Gimp, give Paint.net a try.