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Recommended Software

All of the information, instructions, and recommendations on this Web site are offered on a strictly "as is" basis. Remember "Murphy's Law." Please take the proper precautions before attempting any of the tips or modifications listed here.

Contents

Communications

Mozilla Firefox

• Web Browser. Open Source.

Mozilla Firefox Plugin Check

• Check your version of Adobe Flash Player
• Download and run the executable installer for Flash Player o
  • Flash_Player_10_Plugin (All Windows browsers except IE)
  • Flash_Player_10_ActiveX (Internet Explorer for Windows only)

NoScript

• NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and other mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank), and provides the most powerful Anti-XSS protection available in a browser.

QuickProxy

• Easy one-click toggle to disable or enable proxy server settings.

Tree Style Tab

• A Firefox Add-on that provides a tree-style tab bar, like the folder tree of Windows Explorer. New tabs opened from links are automatically attached to the current tab. Try this if you often use lots of tabs.
• Position > Left side, is the setting I like.

Video DownloadHelper

• DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.
• re: Conversion: Disable the automatic conversion in DownloadHelper, since it will add a watermark/logo to the resulting video. Use FormatFactory to convert the downloaded .flv to .avi or .mp3.

Mozilla Thunderbird

• E-mail client. Open Source.

• Free Web-based e-mail with losts of on-line storage. Supports POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) so you can use Thunderbird to access your Gmail account. Using Thunderbird allows you to store your e-mail locally which allows you to backup your e-mail.
• To backup your Gmail by downloading all the mail to your your local hard drive
  • Go to: Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab > POP Download section:
    1. Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded)
    2. When messages are accessed with POP "keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox"
       
  • This setting will leave everything on-line in Gmail but you'll have a local duplicate of everything in Thunderbird that you can then backup.
• If you can't afford to loose the contents of your Gmail account, then make sure to download and backup on a regular basis.

Multimedia

VLC Media player

• VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player supporting most audio and video formats (H.264, Ogg, DivX, MKV, TS, MPEG-2, mp3, MPEG-4, aac, ...) from files, physical media (DVDs, VCD, Audio-CD), TV capture cards and many network streaming protocols.
• It can also convert media files, transcode and act as a streaming server over unicast or multicast and IPv4 or IPv6.

JetAudio Media player

• Audio/Video playback. Supports All Major File Formats, including RealAudio.

Xvid Codec

• To play XviD and DivX videos you'll need to install the XviD codec on your computer.

IrfanView

• Fast, small, compact freeware graphic viewer for Windows.

DVD Flick

• DVD Flick can take a number of video files (avi, wmv, etc) stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles, as well as a menu for easier navigation.

Audacity

• Audacity is a free audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

  • Record live audio.
  • Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
  • Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
  • Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
  • Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
  • More...
• How to Create a Clean Version of a Song

ImgBurn

• A lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application. Supports a wide range of image file formats - including BIN, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.

DAEMON Tools

• A virtual CD/DVD-ROM emulator. Let's you access an image / ISO of a CD/DVD.

BonkEnc Project

• A CD ripper, audio encoder and converter for various formats. It can produce MP3, MP4/M4A, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Bonk and FLAC files. Can convert FLAC to MP3. Free, Open source.

FormatFactory

• A multifunctional media converter. Converts all popular video, audio, and picture formats to other formats. e.g. flac to MP3, mkv to avi, flac to mp3, etc.

Mp3tag

• A tool to edit metadata (ID3, Vorbis Comments and APE) of common audio formats. It can rename files based on the tag information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, create playlists and more.

Mp3splt Project

• A utility to split mp3 and ogg files by selecting a begin and end time position, without decoding.
• By not decoding, editing, then re-encoding an MP3, you won't degrade the audio quality any further.
• Open source.

AllToAVI

• A tool to convert, especially ogm and mkv, files to avi, with subtitle and audio track selection, video resizing, bitrate selection and codec selection.

Medieval Cue Splitter

• CUE Splitter is a freeware tool that split a single big audio track, mostly an album or a compilation, into the relative individual audio tracks, using information contained in the associated "CUE" file. (MP3, APE, FLAC, OGG, WAV, WMA, etc.) See: Split CD Images To Individual Tracks

Security / Privacy

NoScript

• NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and other mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank), and provides the most powerful Anti-XSS protection available in a browser.

LastPass

• LastPass is a password manager that makes web browsing easier and more secure.
• SecurityNow! Episode #256: In-depth review and evaluation of LastPass. [ Show Notes ]

TrueCrypt

• Free open-source file and hard disc drive encryption. Can encrypt an entire hard drive partition or a device, such as USB flash drive, floppy disk, etc. AES-256, Blowfish (448-bit key), CAST5, Serpent (256-bit key), Triple DES, and Twofish (256-bit key).

Diagnostics

Process Monitor by SysInternals

• Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. Free.

SpinRite by Steve Gibson ( grc.com )

• Hard drive data recovery and maintenance
• SpinRite is worth every penny of its $89 cost.
• I recommend that you run SpinRite on:
  • all your hard drives on a regular basis.
  • new hard drives before putting them into production.
• SpinRite 6.0 may stop responding to USB keyboard input on some systems.
  • My experience is that the USB keyboard input stops working properly after SpinRite has been running for a while. This is more than enough time to select drives or partitions and the operation level.
  • Some have have said that plugging the USB keyboard in the port under the Ethernet port works. That has not been my experience.
• Beware: It's confirmed that some malware/viruses/trojans have been named SpinRite.exe. You've been warned. Purchase a legit copy.

OS Utilities

Taskbar Shuffle

• No hotkeys, no extra steps, just rearrange the buttons on your Windows taskbar by dragging and dropping them. Free.

Bulk Rename Utility

• Allows you to easily rename files and directories. Replace numbers, insert strings, convert case, add auto-numbers, process folders and subfolders, and more.

Programming / Web Development

Web Developer extension

• The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools to Mozilla Firefox.
• Lets you examine, filter, etc. the different components of a Web page, such as CSS, Forms, etc.