What's your favourite productive app/program to install

My favorite Text editor - PSPad

Really great programs Thanks to all - I have to leave my mark so i easy can find this thread in my postings

neves said:

Double Commander - when i have work involving with multiple partitions (moving files or simply browsing/using files from multiple partitions). Tho, most seem to use it - as a file manager and replacement for Windows Explorer. Started with Total Commander (long ago) - switched to Free Commander along the years - till i found Double Commander - which proved to be the best option (free too).

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Now that you can open multiple tabs in File Explorer, what is the advantage of DC?

kelper said:

Now that you can open multiple tabs in File Explorer, what is the advantage of DC?

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It goes WAY beyond what File Explorer can offer.

z3r010 said:

Notepad++
Fireworks CS5

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It is funny how one can easily tell, by looking at their apps lists, what people do with their computers mainly. In your case these 2 apps make 100% sense.

Here's everything I use... and all are free, except Bitdefender.


uTorrent
7-Zip
AIDA64 Extreme
AnyBurn
Audacity
Autoruns
Avidemux
Bitdefender Internet Security
CCleaner
CPU-Z
EaseUS Partition Master
EMCO UnLock IT
Foobar2000
GPU-Z
Karen's Directory Printer
Karen's Replicator
Macrium Reflect
Minitool Partition Wizard
Mozilla Firefox
Paint Shop Pro 7.04
Revo Uninstaller
SumatraPDF
VLC Media Player
WAU Manager
Winaero Tweaker
XnView

Hazel123 said:

I'm curious about this "Everything" thing. Is it free?

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Yes, as is the equivalent that I use.
NirSoft SearchMyFiles.
My latest SearchMyFiles ditties - posts #11, 13 - TenForums


All the best,
Denis

hdmi said:

Everything can be found by Googling it. Literally!

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Thanks. Yes I did google after posting that. But it helps to get a real world description and the text on their site was tiny!

MariaDB,Photoshop, HediSQL, EXCEL (I know discounting OFFICE but I use EXCEL for lots of web queries and fetching data from "MySQL" type databases and SAP HANA), VLC, Filezilla (SFTP file / directory send and receive) and probably a few more that Ive forgotten about. I also like dBpoweramp for cd ripping etc with the artwork (gets cd covers and sleeve notes from the internet) and on an XP VM I use an agfa 35 mm negative / transparency film scanner to digitize prints to devcent hi-rez and a studio application which records to Vinyl and minidiscs.

Cheers
jimbo

Hazel123 said:

I guess I meant a program or app or two you couldn't live without that helps you be more productive and makes life easier basically

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Oh !

In that case, the following are very handy:

Zoom
KiCad
WordPad
LibreOffice
File Explorer
MS Paint
MS Photos
Snipping Tool
Edge
Vivaldi

Here for example are just 2 programs I find so useful for getting data from almost any sort of remote "MySQL" type database with zero coding required

e,g 1) Hedisql





2) pulling data from remote DB into an EXCEL spreadsheet





I've seen I.T pros doing all sorts of really convoluted code to retrieve this stuff and taking days over it -- using all sorts of rubbish tools, terrible ACCESS databases, and goodness knows what other horrors -- whereas a simple EXCEL QUERY just gets the whole thing (with headers and correct formats too) without any fuss in a matter of minutes -- be careful though or that nice 3 month gig you signed up for because a load of this stuff was required - might be cut to 1 week if they knew you could do this that easily. !!!!

This type of thing is really good also for creating music databases, financial stuff etc etc.

works also "In reverse" -- to load up into a mysql DB simply save as a .sql file then mysql -u <user> -p < <filename.sql>

enter password when prompted
then your data gets loaded into the db. "Seemples".

Cheers
jimbo

I will add mine to the mix. These are what I consider essential:

Free:

7Zip - best zip program out there IMHO
Notepad++ - awesome text editor
Winmerge - compare files
CPU-Z - keep an eye on your system
Libre Hardware Monitor - check out temperatures, loads etc. on your system
Paint.net - an alternative to Photoshop - easier to use than Gimp
Greenfish Icon Editor - making icons
Blender - 3d Graphics rendering
Bullzip - make PDFs with ease
CD BurnerXP - burning CDs, but difficult to install without getting malware (it is possible)
Inkscape - vector graphics program
DaVinci Resolve - good for making movies and videos
Macrium Reflect - backup, backup, backup
MobaXterm - a great terminal program for communicating with devices
MP3 Gain - adjust the gain of all of your MP3 files
Super Antispyware - decent anti-virus
Firefox - best browser IMO
Thunderbird - email client
Microchip MPLAB X IDE - development environment for microcontrollers
VMWare Workstation - virtual machine


Not Free:

Visual Studio 2022 - for writing software - coding extraordinaire
Malware bytes - antivirus
Ableton Live - sound recording studio software
Lightburn - laser control software for my laser engraver
OrCAD - electronic circuit design software
MS Office - The next 4 are obvious
Visio
MS Project
MS SQL Server

I hope you find something useful in this list @Hazel123

Interesting topic with good ideas. Since I watch a lot of Youtube videos for me it would have to be uBlock Origin(w/Firefox) for obvious reasons. Also since I use an email client for email that too is important to me. I have a ton of other tools I use but most of the time nothing really stands out.

Notepad ++
Revo Uninstaller Pro

Bluebeam Revu PDF Software (as Tina used to sing - simply the best).

Pity it is far to expensive for home use .
I use it on work pc all the time and nothing else comes close.

kelper said:

Now that you can open multiple tabs in File Explorer, what is the advantage of DC?

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Apples and Oranges. Both can be used as file managers/explorers - but not in the same way. Double Commander is simply more practical (in more ways than just one - since there's dozens of extra settings and different ways of doing things - which one may find more practical). It helps and it's more practical (especially if you're used to it) - to have 2x Windows Split in 2 (it's also a visual advantage over Windows Explorer's way of doing things - even while taking Task View into account). Not to mention - the New Tab feature is also present in Double Commander (there's even extra settings for the way you can use New Tabs). Double Commander - was meant to be used with keyboard alone, tho - one can also use a mouse (but... it's less practical this way). Windows Explorer (including the New Tab feature) - was meant to be used with a Mouse, tho - one can use keyboard as well (but... it's less practical this way).

That being said, and as the subject of this topic goes - if i want to improve productivity (faster and more practical way of doing things) - i switch to Double Commander. Yet, for general use - Windows Explorer with or without Tabs is usually good enough. If i'm interest in just 1 file/folder - pressing Windows + E and accessing that folder with the mouse is usually fast enough (i guess). Won't start Double Commander just for that. Another way to put it... if i want to resize a Photo - IrfanView is usually good enough. On the other hand - if i want to edit a photo (fine tune it and make some changes) - i switch to Gimp.

jimbo45 said:

Here for example are just 2 programs I find so useful for getting data from almost any sort of remote "MySQL" type database with zero coding required

e,g 1) Hedisql


View attachment 91798


2) pulling data from remote DB into an EXCEL spreadsheet


View attachment 91799


I've seen I.T pros doing all sorts of really convoluted code to retrieve this stuff and taking days over it -- using all sorts of rubbish tools, terrible ACCESS databases, and goodness knows what other horrors -- whereas a simple EXCEL QUERY just gets the whole thing (with headers and correct formats too) without any fuss in a matter of minutes -- be careful though or that nice 3 month gig you signed up for because a load of this stuff was required - might be cut to 1 week if they knew you could do this that easily. !!!!

This type of thing is really good also for creating music databases, financial stuff etc etc.

works also "In reverse" -- to load up into a mysql DB simply save as a .sql file then mysql -u <user> -p < <filename.sql>

enter password when prompted
then your data gets loaded into the db. "Seemples".

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

I'm going to look into this.

BamaInArk said:

Interesting topic with good ideas. Since I watch a lot of Youtube videos for me it would have to be uBlock Origin(w/Firefox) for obvious reasons. Also since I use an email client for email that too is important to me. I have a ton of other tools I use but most of the time nothing really stands out.

Click to expand...

Thanks Yes some I know of/have used. Some I'm googling. I've heard of Inkscape but wasn't exactly sure what that was for compared to other graphics programs. And another Paint.net user (I use that a lot).

Am I the only one that uses Panda USB vaccine?