In Pictures: 20 Must-Download Utilities For Windows 7

[oldscotch]

Am I the only one who uses KMPlayer? I mean, nothing wrong with VLC or MPC-HC, but KMPlayer has a whole different level of flexibility.

I have 7-zip, but it seems finicky with a lot of the rars I've gone through, swearing there are CRC errors when WinRAR extracts them no problem. Granted WinRAR isn't free, but still, it worked in many cases where 7-zip didn't.

Good article and good comments, there are a few things here I haven't tried yet.

 

[dEAne]

I want it all. thanks a lot.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Without bashing Microsoft, I think that they are close to the worst choice for an antivirus solution. Almost all of the virus vulnerabilities are in Microsoft code; it just makes sense (to me) to ask some other company to write the code to protect those vulnerabilities.
Just like I wouldn't have a developer do the QA testing on his/her own code.

 

[BluntObjection]

I find that Windows Media Player + Combined Community Codex is a better option than VLC in a lot of cases.

In fact i'm surprised CCC wasn't on this list, very nifty for videophiles out there.

 

[davewolfgang]

OpenOffice is the best application you can have "if" you can't afford MSOffice. It provides more than everything you need for normal home use. If you are doing work from those though, get your company to provide you with Office for your home PC.

The REAL Spybot Search & Destroy is part of my standard install package when I build, fix, wipe and restore, etc. any and all computers I work on. And it's still FREE!!!! I teach my customers on how to use and update it, and to use it weekly if they are avid surfers.

 

[outsider46]

how often does microsoft update their security essentials?

 

[soo-nah-mee]

[citation][nom]outsider46[/nom]how often does microsoft update their security essentials?[/citation]Daily.

 

[exodite]

With Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12 there's really no reason to use third party players or codec anymore. The UI is a lot less intrusive and better organised and it plays pretty much anything out of the box, with DXVA hardware decoding out of the box.

You'll need Haali's Media Splitter to get it to recognize Matroska-contained files but that's about it.

As for the rest I wonder why you'd mention a desktop publishing program yet fail to bring up MiKTeX and Texmaker, an excellent combination for professional writing.

 

[ntrceptr]

Anyone notice the picture of SysMetric (last pic). I don't know where that picture came from but the processor is overheating!

 

[iqvl]

[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]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.[/citation]
Try .rm or .rmvb file with VLC/MPC-HC and you will see what I meant. They are fine for avi/mkv but extremely terrible for rm/rmvb files.

 

[rfox911]

I love ccleaner but the fact that it trys to install yahoo toolbar pisses me off. Altogether great list of tools thanks!

 

[hangfirew8]

[citation][nom]jacobdrj[/nom]AVG is garbage since Intel bought it.[/citation]

AVG runs on XP while MSE doesn't. While the anti-virus portion does not remove everything, the AVG Internet Suite is very good at preventing infections in the first place.

[citation]
MSE finds things that nothing else does, and is very light on system resources.[/citation]

I agree fully here.

I haven't used AVAST lately, so I have no comment there.

 

[Guest]

Steam? sorry, no not Steam. Horrible and it`s led onto other devs now trying `online forver even when playing a singleplayer game` etc, until they`ll charge you for the privelege. I just hope NON-Steam will continue because only they get my cash. However, the rest of the utilties are good.

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]hangfirew8[/nom]AVG runs on XP while MSE doesn't. While the anti-virus portion does not remove everything, the AVG Internet Suite is very good at preventing infections in the first place.[citation]MSE finds things that nothing else does, and is very light on system resources.[/citation]I agree fully here.I haven't used AVAST lately, so I have no comment there.[/citation]
MSE runs just fine on Windows XP. I install it on all my client's computers. MSE will run on computers as old as Pentium III without bogging down the system.

 

[fredgiblet]

[citation][nom]bluntobjection[/nom]very nifty for videophiles out there.[/citation]

Most people aren't, and for those people it's overcomplicated overkill, like suggesting that someone grab the GIMP when all they're asking to do is resize a pic. Videophiles most likely already have CCCP or something similar.

[citation][nom]iqvl[/nom]Try .rm or .rmvb file with VLC/MPC-HC and you will see what I meant. They are fine for avi/mkv but extremely terrible for rm/rmvb files.[/citation]

...There are people who still use .rm? WHY?

[citation][nom]Darkv1[/nom]Recommending 7-zip over WinRAR? For Shame![/citation]

The only advantages that WinRAR has is compressing to .rar (and since .7z is better that's not much of an advantage) and uncompressing .ace, I for one can't remember the last time I got a .ace file. In the meantime 7-zip is free, has better compression at default settings and even better compression using LZMA

 

[Guest]

Re AV stuff--Avira is and has been my choice for some time now; it's at least as effective as AVG or Avast. As to Ad-Aware type programs, I still run the original (Ad-Aware) as well as MalwareBytes and SpyBot S&D--and I always recommend using at least two of that type program.

7-Zip, aside from doing better compression than WinRAR, etc, does it faster.

Agree that the GIMP is invaluable; also agree that IrfanView should have been on the list. But then, I think Super NoteTab should be, also. Still as good a plain-ascii editor as you can find, with a lot of nice HTML tools built-in.

 

[iqvl]

[citation][nom]fredgiblet[/nom]There are people who still use .rm? WHY?[/citation]
Small and many movies from "Asian"-sub groups still have .rm version which are much "clearer" than the twice as large avi/mkv ones from "White"-sub groups.

 

[gokulpanchal]

You Forgot Irfan View, WinRar, Revo Uninstaller (which removes all the crap left after uninstalling a program), K-Lite media Codecs, Nexus Radio (To freely download music and record radio Stations), The list goes on, but overall good article.

The thing i love about windows is there are so many apps available at your disposal, The only think I m concerned about is that developers should make the look and feel of the softwares which is very much of a Windows, they should not try to imitate the look of OSX.

7 Stacks and Switcher looks and behaves almost like the Mac OSX, Expose and stacks. So I believe Windows experience should be made unique. And developers should also focus on making the softwares look beautiful.

 

[tethoma]

Malwarebytes is way better than Spybot. Spybot has gone down the drain and no longer finds the newest trojans. Adaware sucks now too.

 

[JacFlasche]

Wow I have serious doubts about the mind that includes Steam and doesn't mention TruCrypt or Eraser. Steam does everything Microsofts old Zone used to do but not as good and with ad after ad. Used to be that people would boycott a game if it used Steam, how times have changed.

 

[cranium]

Muy interesante. I'm a recent Macintosh convert so Switcher and 7Stacks are nice to see. Though I didn't really realize they were missing until now. Windows 7 really handles things well

 

[Guest]

A couple of useless applications in there. Very surprised Foxit Reader was not mentioned. Its far better than that bloated crap known as Adobe reader.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]cashews[/nom]I find features like these, "go to 20 different pages to read one article", to be quite annoying and irritating. I take it you guys need to do this to get page impressions for your ads or something.[/citation]
Of course, if we had all 20 apps and their associated blurb all on one page then scrolling all the way to the bottom to leave a complaint would just be too tiresome for some people.
We dont have people complaining when there is a 28 page article benchmarking a new graphics card so just deal with it.

By the way, seeing as the new Windows Live Messenger has a mahoosive new window, people may jump to Trillian so they can keep their ID and have a small client window.

I love switcher BTW, Really good for my home security system so I can have all 4 IP cams running on an easy to look at desktop.

 

[Guest]

Spybot is totally outdated... Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is far, far better.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]cashews[/nom]I find features like these, "go to 20 different pages to read one article", to be quite annoying and irritating. I take it you guys need to do this to get page impressions for your ads or something.[/citation]

I have to agree here, having to click through 20 pages is simply ridiculous and far too tiresome.
If you insist on continuing this format, at least give us an index so that we can choose which pages to read, most of this apps here I'm already well aware of, so its just wasting my time having to click page after page in the hope of finding something useful.
I've given up after page 10 BTW, its just sucking up too much time.