In Pictures: 20 Must-Download Utilities For Windows 7

[house70]

7-zip is very good, but it can not handle the occasional ACE format.
I find Pea-Zip with it's add-on un-ace very useful and I use it almost exclusively now.

 

[TheOnlyPenguin]

you should of added win7zilla to the list, it is an amazing utility for tweaking preferences, and defeating crafty virus when necessary

 

[fredgiblet]

[citation][nom]jimishtar[/nom]CCCP should definitely be on that list.[/citation]

Why? 99% of people don't need most of what's in CCCP. VLC will work just fine for almost everyone.

 

[fredgiblet]

[citation][nom]dennisburke[/nom]It's nice to see free programs that will burn DVD's, but are there any free programs worth mentioning that will rip DVD's?[/citation]

DVD Decrypter, it hasn't been supported for a long time but it still works perfectly. Also Handbrake will convert from DVD's if you have AnyDVD installed, you just have to leave the disk in for a couple hours, not always the best solution. Also AnyDVD has a ripper, I haven't used it and AnyDVD costs money though.

[citation][nom]gm0n3y[/nom]I've been using Daemon Tools for a long time now, but I used to use Alcohol 120%. Is that still around?[/citation]

Yes.

[citation][nom]bourgeoisdude[/nom]Yep, but it costs $$$.[/citation]

Only for 120%, 52% doesn't. The big difference is that 52% doesn't burn CDs.

 

[WheelsOfConfusion]

[citation][nom]singhisoumya[/nom]I am surprised I do not see...[/citation]
Second page. It's all there.

 

[Guest]

Not noted in this list. But I would highly recommend Total Commander (Regardless of which windows version you use). It's the only file manager you'll ever need.

 

[notanakin]

Might not make it into the overall top 20 must haves, but foobar2000 should be considered by anyone who is serious about listening to music.

 

[jacobdrj]

Power Plan Assistant 7 should be noted. It gives you back the ease of power plan switching that you lost going from Vista to Windows 7 and then some. Only problem is that they force you to update every week without a 10 dollar donation. It was worth it for me. I wish MS would put the power plans back the way they were in SP1, but if they don't, there is always this: http://www.powerplan7.com/

 

[Guest]

I'd change VLC to MPC-HC and Trillian to Pidgin

 

[Thunderfox]

I would add Taskbar Tweaker, which allows you to disable the forced grouping that makes movable taskbar buttons a completely worthless feature in W7. It can also change some other things involving the taskbar behavior.

http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker

 

[mosu]

K-Lite codec pack with MPC-HC on laptops uses half the energy used with VLC player, even better with new laptop chipsets with video decoding capabilities.Irfanview is good as well and flexible with a lot of plug-ins

 

[jimishtar]

[citation][nom]fredgiblet[/nom]Why? 99% of people don't need most of what's in CCCP. VLC will work just fine for almost everyone.[/citation]

you dont need VLC if u install cccp, right? its has more and better codecs plus it uses better player. and those 99% that "dont need cccp" dont even read this tipe of threads anyway.

 

[WheelsOfConfusion]

My essential Windows 7 addon is Power Menu. Moving back to Windows from Ubuntu, I missed the ability to set text managers or chat clients to be "Always on top," even when working in another window. More convenient for me than using Aero "Snap."
I also use Avast! instead of MSE. Last time AV Comparatives had a showdown, Avast was better at detection and dealing with problems and almost as light on resources. MSE is evolving pretty quickly though; we'll see what happens in the fall when their next round of tests comes out.
I could use Pidgin as my IRC client, but instead I use the silverex build of X-Chat 2 for Windows. It blows mIRC out of the water in looks and features. Unlike the "official" X-Chat build, it's totally free instead of trialware.

 

[wavetrex]

Instant messenger / E-mail & RSS viewer: DIGSBY
Digsby > Pidgin > Trillian

How did you forget about Irfanview ?? Really, is there another way to quick-view those zillions of vacations JPGs ? I don't think so.

I also would recommend MyDefrag, however since we're moving on to SSD's, defragmenters are a dieing breed. So, off the list.

Ah... and the cherry on top, missing from your list: Total Commander !

 

[Guest]

Nice for the introduction, its work well

 

[rohitbaran]

I use Ccleaner and Daemon Tools. Great utilities.

 

[rohitbaran]

Both apps generally serve the same purpose, but provide a similar end result

Doesn't make sense. It should probably be
Both apps generally serve the same purpose and provide a similar end result

 

[Darkv1]

Recommending 7-zip over WinRAR? For Shame!

 

[danimal_the_animal]

Why would you recommend Micro$oft antivirus crap over AVG?

And why did you not mention that tool-bars are EVIL!

 

[jacobdrj]

AVG is garbage since Intel bought it.
MSE finds things that nothing else does, and is very light on system resources.
AVAST is the only other free AV software I'd recommend right now, because it finds what MSE misses (but it still misses what MSE catches, and is a bigger resource HOG).

 

[jacobdrj]

Why is SpyBot S&D still listed? It is garbage now.

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]Darkv1[/nom]Recommending 7-zip over WinRAR? For Shame![/citation]
Does 7-Zip do RAR or ACE files?

 

[luciddre4m]

You guys should have also mentioned this site:
http://ninite.com/

Basically bundles a bunch of really useful programs and utilities across multiple websites into a single package. Its extremely useful for setting up new machines.

 

[iqvl]

I have just tried VLC and MPC-HC. They are not as good as many others stated. IMO, "MPC Star" are far better at least for avi and rmvb.

 

[eddieroolz]

Not sure why people keep going on about apps the author didn't include. What works well for that person might not work well for everyone else.

VLC works fine for me, but I won't go about saying VLC>CCCP and things like that.