FREE Great Programs for Windows 7

[DarkPhoenix]

Windows Explorer Replacement

I have been looking at Windows Explorer replacements and I noticed you didn't have any on your list.

The trick was finding a good free one that looks nice and works well - and has features the regular Explorer does not. I think I have found one.

It's called Explorer + + .

Explorer++ - A small and fast file manager for Windows

I like it because it has tabbed browsing. Tabs in explorer helps make navigating through lots of windows much easier and smoother.

Info:

" Explorer++ is a free multi-tab file manager for Windows. Available on Windows XP and above, it features the same familiar interface as Windows Explorer, while introducing several enhancements and improvements for a much richer file browsing experience.

Features:

• With the option to save to the registry or a configuration file, Explorer++ is completely portable.
• Tabbed browsing for easy management of multiple folders.
• Display window shows previews of files as they are selected.
• Easy-to-remember keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation.
• Customizable user interface.
• Full drag-and-drop support with other applications, including Windows Explorer.
• Advanced file operations such as merging and splitting supported. "

It comes in a 32 bit and 64 bit version.

This program is now Open Source so you can expect it to be around a while with good community support.

This program is a standalone application - no install needed.

This app does not replace your existing Explorer or make changes to windows. There may be a way to integrate this into Windows so you can use it as your default Explorer. I am looking into it.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Dark Phoenix. They are both added.

 

[chrishellmax]

DVd dycryptor if it isnt on the list. Works well, Opera 10 as well, and wintvr.

 

[joseph10444]

i have this program on win x64 although it's normally for x86 and it rocks.
if u have a lot of icons like me you can put them into 1 icon and if u cilck it, a list pops up from the 7 taskbar and it's raelly useful, cool and like Mac

it's called 7stack

 

[Brink]

Hello Joseph,

Thank you, but we do have 7stacks listed already.

 

[joseph10444]

oLOL!
ok

 

[Brink]

LOL, no problem.

 

[MilesAhead]

Here's another one of mine. It's just a hotkey handler called Half Shell for 64 bit Windows Seven and Vista. Select folders in the 64 bit Explorer and hit Shift-Enter to open the folders in the 32 bit Explorer. This way many 32 bit Windows Shell Extensions will work. It's freeware. It got a nice write-up here:

Open 32-Bit Windows Explorer Folder In Windows 7 64-Bit

You can always download the latest version from my site on this page:
Hotkeys

Just scroll about half way down and you'll see the link for Half Shell

View attachment 50645

btw, I've just found out Microsoft has changed the behavior of Windows 7 64 bit since the beta in a way that kills this work-around. From what I can gather, when you launch the 32 bit shell in SysWow64, it immediately launches a 64 bit shell, then quits. Huh? Don't ask me why. But I've gotten reports Half Shell does not work in Windows Seven 64 bit retail. I've changed the documentation to label it as a Vista64 only utility.

It's a shame because it was an easy work-around that allowed many 32 bit shell extensions to work in 64 bit Windows 7.

Anyway, all I can tell you is it works on my Vista64 SP1 still.

yet another edit: I've asked a few people with Windows7 64 bit retail to try Half Shell. Some say it works perfectly, others not at all. I suspect it may be the build or some update or fix that changes if the shell launched is 32 bit or 64 bit. I guess I'll have to leave it as Vista64, may or may not work on your particular edition of Windows Seven 64 bit. Try it and see is all I know so far.

 

[Mr Smiley]

Hi Shawn my dear friend!

Would you like to add the three following free programs to the evergrowing list:

1. "Express Burn" by NCH Software

Express Burn - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Express Burn you create and record MP3/WAV formats to CD in Windows for free. With Express Burn you can record a CD quickly and easily by dragging the files you want onto the Express Burn icon and clicking 'Burn'. The software then does the rest, including converting the files to .cda. Audio is recorded with direct digital recording (so perfect audio quality is maintained). Audio CD burning supports wav, mp3, wma, au, aiff, ra, ogg, flac, aac and a number of other audio file formats. Can burn audio CDs in seamlessly mode (with no pause between tracks). Normalize audio volume of tracks. Supports multi session recording to Audio CD. Records CD Recordable (CDR) and CD Re-recordable (CDRW) discs. Features a trial of Paid functionality - Video DVD Authoring and Data DVD Recording.

2. "Express Rip" by NCH Software

Express Rip - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Express Rip lets you extract digital-audio tracks directly from audio CDs to either WAV or MP3 files free on your hard drive. Extract audio from CDs to WAV or MP3 for free. Save track information or 'tags' (including title, artist, album and more) to MP3 files or create custom information. Save tags to wave files using the CART and BWF methods. This is one of the few CD rippers that can do this. Automatically link to an online database to obtain track and album name information. Complete control over MP3 encoding, including constant and variable modes at selectable bit rates. The program can be run from the command line for integration with other applications (Plus version).

3. "Accord CD Ripper Free" by Accmeware

Accord CD Ripper Free - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Rip audio CD tracks to WAV, MP3. Incredibly fast CD ripping. Fully optimized for SSE/Hyper thread technology and get extra speed boost on multiprocessor systems. Retrieve album info from remote and local CDDB (Compact Disc Database) servers. CDDB info can be edited/revised/saved. On-the-fly ripping, no temporary file generated. Elegant and intuitive user interface, very easy to use. Write metadata of the output audio files and create M3U playlist file. Build-in latest Lame MP3 encoder which is generally believed as the the best MP3 encoder in the world. Plain audio CD Player.

Hope you and your family are all keeping well mate.

Warmest Regards

Neil

 

[steve-pressman]

Here are some great little programs Brink Thanks to Laura for finding them

System utilities, password recovery and network tools, miscellaneous software with source code

 

[MilesAhead]

Toggle

Here's another one of mine called Toggle. You can download from this page:
Hotkeys

It's the one that just says Toggle, not to be confused with TopMost Toggle that's lower down on the page.

Usage: Toggle [% width] [% height] Title

e.g. Toggle 75 90 Opera

It sits in the tray. When you press Alt-F11 or double click the icon, it looks for a window with title Title, saves its current size and position, then centers it and sizes it the specified %width and %height of the desktop.

If you only specify one number that will be used for both. If you specify no number, just the Title, 50 will be used for both. Also if you don't specify any params it will assume Firefox at the size I like. If you don't like that size, specify something.

Why? Because I hate maximizing apps. When maximized they block RocketDock and other stuff. This way I can hit the hotkey and toggle between big(but not maximized) and original size and position. (btw if the associated window is maximized, the command will do nothing in order not to mess up the stored window state used by Windows.)

Once launched it only toggles window with Title. You can launch more than one with different params to toggle different windows, but only the 1st can capture the hotkey. But you can just Double Click the Tray Icon to toggle. The tooltip tells you which window that instance toggles. (It matches substring Title in the window caption. If more than one window comes up a match, it should pick the one most recently active.)

If the associated window is not found, it pops up an error dialog for 2 seconds. I try to save the active window and restore around the error dialog to avoid it stealing the focus, but that only works with the hotkey. Naturally if you double click a Tray Icon, no application window has the focus anyway.

It should work with Windows XP and later. It's only for the main monitor.
I don't have multiple monitors to test multi-monitor stuff.

You are welcome to use it at your own risk.

(Yes I know there are a zillion desktop window size control thingies out there. But I only want to toggle a specific window. If you are using one of those, you should probably do everything with that utility to avoid conflicts.)

There's an included Readme.txt with probably less detail than I've already posted, but it may have something I missed here.

 

[Barman58]

Found a link to this in my in-box today and thought it may be of use to anyone with SMART hard drives.

CrystalDiskInfo – Repair Tool of the Week | Technibble

The great thing is that It reads SMART info from USB attached drives which many programs will not

Please read the note on language selection

 

[MilesAhead]

I also like their benchmark, CrystalDiskMark. You can click to run an individual benchmark, or the whole group. There's a native 64 bit version. Nice freebie.

 

[tylerorr95]

Another great one I didn't see on the list is TVersity. TVersity - Home

 

[MilesAhead]

Here's another one of mine called Toggle. You can download from this page:
Hotkeys

It's the one that just says Toggle, not to be confused with TopMost Toggle that's lower down on the page.

I've changed the design on this to make it a utility dedicated to one window. For instance if you want to be able to toggle your browser between 2 non-maximized sizes and positions(that's what I wrote it for.) This way it's simple to save settings in an .ini file. I really did write this for myself. That's why it's not so general-purpose. But I thought a few people might like to try it. Every time you hit the hotkey, the current size and position of the associated window is saved, and the window is moved to the alternate size and position. This way there's no "start state" so to speak. Just a "green" and a "red" toggle state. (The Tray Icon changes color to reflect the current state. Also the ) You can keep on moving the window and toggling to jump between the last 2 sizes/positions.

This is a much better approach I think than centering the window. I usually run Firefox in the lower right hand corner of the screen above RocketDock. If I want to just have it a bit taller and a bit wider without being centered, like to watch a video or whatever, I can drag with the mouse. Also because it just saves window position and moves to it, it could possibly be more friendly toward multiple-monitor.. but I don't have a way of testing.

Anyway, if you like to mess around with little utilities, the latest version is up on my site now. Have fun.

edit: just fixed another minor bug. Now the Tray Icon Tooltip updates when you change the associated window title. Latest version is 1.2 and is available for download:

http://www.favessoft.com/hotkeys.html

edit2: btw if you want to set it to work with the active window, use WinTitle of [ACTIVE] (with the brackets just as typed.) Play around with it and see how it works.

 

[idoru]

Thanks for the this application list.

To be thorough you could add about sysinternal process explorer (now microsoft) that selecting 'Replace Task Manager' in the options menu, will integrate it in windows, thus making it non stand alone any more.

 

[MilesAhead]

Toggle

Hotkeys

edit2: btw if you want to set it to work with the active window, use WinTitle of [ACTIVE] (with the brackets just as typed.) Play around with it and see how it works.

btw I updated it to v. 1.3. Now [ACTIVE] is the default WinTitle. Only thing is, when using [ACTIVE] you need to use the Alt-F11 hotkey to Toggle instead of double-clicking on the Tray Icon. If you double-click on the Tray Icon the icon will be the active window. Not what you want. I put in some checking when [ACTIVE] is active, to do nothing when the window caption is blank, as you get with tray icons. In that case the function returns with no action, just like it does if the window is maximized.

Anyway, I'm having some fun with it.

 

[HankAZ]

I've been using Total Commander (website) for years. Technically, it's shareware, but aside from the initial screen, it is nag-free, and a wonderful replacement for Windows file manager system, search tool, multi-rename tool, built in FTP client, built-in support for creating and using archives (ZIP, ARJ, LZH, RAR, UC2, TAR, GZ, CAB, ACE), etc... a great little program that I recommend highly!

 

[Cocopara]

I may include ad-aware from lavasys or so is not recommended, rather add malwarebytes.

I cannot confirm this with evidence but I have a severe trojan after downloading a file, my antivirus "MSE" found it and half way neutralized it, after a 30 min scan or so with ad-aware it was not detected, malware bytes is very active and found 10 trojans, all of which I googled and was not "fabricated" by the program

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:51 PM ----------

Hi all,

You can add Comodo Internet Security Version 3.5.54375.427 (current on Comodo Site) to the list of windows 7 Compatible software (I only run the firewall but AV should work also)

only caveat is to set the installer to compatibility mode for Vista RTM otherwise install will fail.

you can add Thunderbird and OpenOffice 3 to the list of compatibles

Thank you Nigel. These have been added.

Dont add Comodo, it is total shit, they make an excellent firewall but everything else is bad, adding it would make security off others worse. Suggest adding.

Suggest adding Eset Smart Security or Nod 32, can get a 60 day trial and it is one off the best antivirus on the market (Eset smart security is nod32 with a firewall)

also add Zone alarm internet security, It is the complete pack off the zone alarms protection, it features Anti Virus, anti malwares/spybot, Firewall. May I include that it is running on the sophisticated Kaspersky engine and its firewall is one off the best firewalls up to date?, better then the Windows crap.

 

[Win7User512]

I would recommend Malwarebytes over anything Lavasoft. Lavasoft stuff is crap.