windows-software 6

Every few years, I review the software I use. Here are some of my earlier lists. Right now, among browsers, Chrome is my primary browser. What’s interesting is that IE 11 has overtaken Firefox in terms of usage. That’s partly because we’re working with Microsoft a lot, but also because Firefox has a number of weird bugs like IE6 used to have, and is slowly lagging in the race. Next to browsers, I spend most of my time on the command prompt. I use Console2 for tabbed console windows. Given the number of command prompts I open, this is often necessary. I use bash in Cygwin as the default shell. Haven’t had the need for PowerShell. ...

Why I don’t use a registry cleaner

Folder Size lets you see the size of folders in Windows Explorer. Useful to find out where all the junk is hidden.

Capturing movies on the fly. Comments Sumit Dhar 30 Nov 2005 1:28 am: SnapZ is a Mac only application? For Windows, I use VirtualDub. Not very intuitive or easy to use, but does the job. S Anand 30 Nov 2005 11:07 am: So do I! It’s pretty effective. I do my video compression on VirtualDub as well.

I end up changing my office laptops every year or so, and hence reinstall lots of software. Here’s my inventory. I most certainly will install the following. ActivePerl. I still program. I know Perl. I love Perl. Acrobat Reader BitLord DivX player Dave’s quicksearch deskbar Microsoft Office 2003. Has some really good improvements over Office 2000. NoteTab Light. Multiple tabs notepad. But is there anything better? Nero Express Picasa 2 WinAmp (with Media Library import/export) WinRar WinZip I most likely will install the following, but not necessarily. Adobe Photoshop. Almost vital, but I can live with Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Goldwave. I often record interviews, or give commentary for home-made movies. Google Earth (with Fraps). To browse the world and make movies out of them. Google Toolbar Mozilla Firefox. For multi-tabbed browsing, mainly. Otherwise, IE is fine. MSN Messenger. Just for the interface. Somehow, it feels “smoother” than Yahoo. RealPlayer. Don’t listen to RealAudio that much. Still… UnixUtils. I use “grep” and “less” more often than “dir” VirtualDub. For the occasional movie editing that Microsoft Movie Maker can’t handle. WinHtTrack. To browse offline. Google Desktop Search. Helps remember my browsing history. ...

Several cool Linux programs available on Windows via The Open CD project Celestia looked particularly interesting.