11 awesome applications you've never heard of
By Julio Franco, 02 July 2009 - 08:35 26 comments
The average PC user has a dozen or so applications which they completely swear by – and rightfully so. What gets the job done is what matters the most. There is, however, a treasure-trove of pint-sized utilities and fully blown applications just waiting to be discovered. We've scoured the Web to provide a list of 11 useful programs which you've probably never heard of.
All of the programs in this article are either absolutely free of charge or have a free alternative, so don't hesitate to give them a shot and see what you've been missing out on. We hope that by the end of this list, you'll have discovered at least one application that fills a void you didn't even knew existed.
View: 11 awesome applications you've never heard of
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Comments (26)
FoxieFoxie - 02 July 2009 - 17:08
Which of those are aweosme, seriosly? Norton commander or screen capture?
+Ricardo Gil - 02 July 2009 - 17:18
IMO only 2 awesome apps in there: MaxTo (never heard of) and Launchy (use it every day)
Se7enVII - 02 July 2009 - 23:52
MaxTo is pretty cool but such a small app like that should be free
Imran Hussain - 02 July 2009 - 17:19
Dropbox, Launchy and others which are like on almost every popular tech blog. Who the heck has never heard of them?
Doli - 02 July 2009 - 17:53
Me
kaborka - 02 July 2009 - 18:22
Is there a better free PDF writer than PDFCreator? In addition to a printer driver, it would need to create a PDF from an image on the clipboard and from direct scanner input.
Omen1393 - 02 July 2009 - 23:15
While Word 2007 isn't free, with the latest updates you can now save things as a PDF file.
mr.r9 - 02 July 2009 - 18:28
@ Kaborka
Yes there is. For a PDF printer use DoPDF and for a viewer there is PDF X-Change. Both are really the best there is out there from my experience.
Kreuger - 02 July 2009 - 18:36
I've heard of and used a few of those. In fact, I still use Unlocker on any Windows machine.
leo221 - 02 July 2009 - 18:36
no wonder ppl never heard of them...
+chadlachlanross - 02 July 2009 - 19:30
I can't run a PC without Launchy or a Mac without Quicksilver.
Only other one in this list I've used is Unlocker, but just on my work machines.
Frank Fontaine - 02 July 2009 - 20:54
Does anyone know how DVD Flick compares to Nerovision?
denne - 02 July 2009 - 22:33
It's not as good, but that is from memory of using NeroVision a few years back. DVD Flick has improved over time, and these days is quite reliable. I don't use it often, but when I do, it does the job with no fuss. Perfect price, too.
m.keeley - 02 July 2009 - 20:56
Yes I've heard of nearly all of them, no they're not awesome.
Mango - 02 July 2009 - 22:00
Wow "Windows Commander" I havent heard that uttered in years.... the memories...
Atlonite - 03 July 2009 - 11:31
i was just thinkin the same thing i had it way back then and it was great
hardgiant - 03 July 2009 - 05:13
I've heard of most of them.
ZombieFly - 03 July 2009 - 08:45
wow. if this is all they can come up with......
dangel - 03 July 2009 - 08:47
Total commander? Really? Sheesh - they've obviously never tried Directory Opus from gpsoftware - it's easily the most powerful file manager on Windows
[60 day trial too]
Innuendo - 03 July 2009 - 15:08
Directory Opus is the most powerful file manager out of the box. It's also the most expensive as well. Total Commander, on the other hand, doesn't start to really shine until one starts to customize it and start adding plugins.
One very good example of what I'm talking about is the Xbox filesystem plugin. Once installed in Total Commander it allows one to open/view/access Xbox ISO images. I have never seen any other file manager be able to do that and that's just one example. There are hundreds of plugins available that allow one to expand functionality far beyond any other file manager I have ever seen.
The only file manager that might surpass it is FAR File Manager, but if you thought Total Commander's interface looked archaic wait till you get a look at FAR's ancient DOS-like interface!
Back to my point, Total Commander and Directory Opus are the best file managers available and it has been my experience if a person learned computers in a DOS environment that person tends to prefer Total Commander nad if a person learned in a Windows Explorer-like environment that person tends to prefer Directory Opus.
I just wish Directory Opus was more affordable & the author didn't stick it to his users when it comes upgrade time. At least with Total Commander it's a one-time price with lifetime upgrades.