Highly recommended essential software for making your (virtual) life easier

[Caleo Global Moderator]

I'll start by saying some of these might not seem essential, but these programs are the product of years of seeking the "Best of the best" software for various purposes on my computer. Some are free, some aren't, all are worthwhile if you can make use of them.

I basically take these awesome programs for granted, but today I realised that having the right software could make people's lives easier. So, I share with you...

Easeus Partition Manager - FREE

FREE partition manager with a slick & friendly UI. There may be 'better' (non-free) alternatives, but why bother when free software is just this good?

- Resize/move, copy, convert, check, defragment, create, destroy partitions, etc

Notepad++ - FREE

Great Notepad alternative. I wish I could say I use it more but I'm quite unproductive most of the time. Supports tabbed browsing, a ridiculous amount of customization/settings, plugins, macro recording support & plenty more.

- Code syntax highlighting (as seen above)

- Themes (as seen above)

- A "Find in files" search function which can search for strings of texts within files, this is *very* handy

Auslogics Boostspeed - Free to try, $49.95

A lot of these types of software seem gimmicky, but I've found Boostspeed does a pretty good job.

- Junk file/registry cleaning

- Good defrag tool

- System tweak suggestions

- File recovery / secure erase

- Plenty more including startup item control, duplicate finder, internet optimizer..

SyncToy - FREE

Handy software for syncing folders across PCs, has multiple sync options that allow you to pair folders to sync changes on both sides, 'contribute' to have one-way syncing. Can be scheduled for automatic syncing. Only needs to be installed on one computer (other computer needs to have a shared folder).

MP3Tag - FREE

Comprehensive ID3 tagging software capable of mass-editing id3 tags and streamlining cleanup of mp3 files.

- Convert id3 tags to filenames and vice versa

- Get (and append) album art & id3 tags from the internet

Truecrypt - FREE

Virtual encryption software for *cough* ... nefarious intent. Perhaps you've got plans to destroy the world, highly sensitive information, or maybe you just want to hide your porn from prying eyes. Truecrypt is, simply put, software that hides your secrets. Primarily used to create passworded virtual drives (similar to mounting an ISO file, but with read/write access), it's a very secure way of hiding/protecting data within the aforementioned volume. Mount when access is needed (using the password), dismount when finished.

- Multiple encryption schemes; AES, Twofish & Serpent, including cascading ciphers (AES+Twofish & so on) for complete and utter security overkill

- Several modes, not only can it make a virtual-drive type volume, you can also encrypt entire disks with it.

- Ability to use keyfiles (self explanatory but in case it's not, basically you can have it require a certain 'access' file in addition to your password) for extra protection

Ultramon - $39.95

The above isn't a very telling Ultramon screenshot, fact is, it's not really possible to post a screenshot that offers an ideal representation of what Ultramon does.

A must-have for those with multiple monitors, Ultramon is software which improves the multiple-monitor experience in Windows.

- A second taskbar can be added to the second screen which works exactly as it should.

- Set up hotkeys & buttons to instantly maximize to all monitors, flip windows between monitors, disable/enable secondary monitor(s), etc

- Monitor profiles for keeping your windows as you like them when your secondary monitor is enabled or disabled

- Wallpaper manager for setting up images for each monitor

- Scripting support to allow for extra functionality (such as flip through wallpaper profiles with a hotkey)

X-Chat WDK - FREE

X-Chat is a great open source irc client. However, the official windows build isn't free (who blames them for wanting to make SOME money?). This is where X-Chat WDK comes in, it's a third party compilation of X-Chat's sourcecode with some added features (but generally the same program overall). X-Chat does pretty much everything essential to irc usage (autoconnect, autojoin channels, auto-authenticate with nickserver, etc) without needing additional scripts. Plus, it looks pretty damn slick.

XnView - FREE

A VERY comprehensive image viewer, somewhat akin to Adobe Bridge (but as a much lighter variant), it can do just about anything you can imagine dealing with images aside from photoshop-caliber editing/retouching. I sought this software out as a replacement for Windows Photo Viewer as I was tired of having a viewer which didn't support GIF animation. Viewing is great, you can set up alternative programs to open it up with (by default F4 is open in editor which means F4 = image opens directly in photoshop for editing). I can't stress how much I love this software, at least once I got it configured to my liking.

- Seemingly endless options for configuration, set pretty much anything the way you want it to be (remove parts of the UI for a cleaner look while viewing, change keys/mouse actions, redefine buttons, themes, etc, the list could go on for miles)

- A very good replacement for Windows Photo Viewer - the browser (seen above) can pretty much be completely ignored if you just want to use it for viewing purposes

- TONS of features, slideshow, tag editing, rating, batch renaming, batch conversion, create webpage galleries, all sorts of layout options... again, the list goes on

One more image for good measure, this shows how 'minimal' the image viewer itself can be (actually, you can reduce it down to even less than this, functionality is retained by mouse clicks & hotkeys):

That about does it, this post ended up being a lot bigger (and taking a lot longer) than I expected. Thanks for reading & I hope you get some use out of this superb software.

[medium_pimpin]

I would include 7-zip, ImgBurn, Irfranview, and GParted.

[M_Lyons10]

Nice list. I would include IZArc... Best zip utility I've found and it does just about everything.

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

There are some good choices in that list, but I don't think Auslogics Boostspeed deserves to be on this list. Registry cleaners are highly controversial these days, and all of the features you listed can be found in freeware utilities, including a few all-in-ones.

[moloko]

Notepad++ is my best notepad.

[joe_banana]

Let me add PNotes for sticky desktop notes for my to do list.

Also Evernote for note taking

They make my life a whole lot better. :)

[+Warwagon MVC]

SyncbackSE