Software
What I present has been useful over time and I still use when needed. With few exceptions, most is free and/or open source. There are plenty of solutions that you should buy, but why spend money when someone is willing to do all the work for free. Then again, you need to consider "why" they do it for free. Also look closely at their site and if you like their product and there is a nifty "Donate" button, toss them a few bucks so they can continue to give you free stuff.
| Software | Description | Category | Type | Installed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual CloneDrive | Works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. | Utility | Free Eval | Desktop Laptop |
| Hiren's BootCD | All in One Bootable CD which has all sorts of repair utilities | Repair | Freeware | CD only |
| GoogleTalk Video | Plug-in for browser-based video chat | Communicate | Freeware | Desktop Netbook Laptop |
| Disktective | Freeware disk-space reporting tool for Windows | Utility | Freeware | |
| Mp3tag | Powerful and yet easy-to-use tool to edit metadata of common audio formats | Audio | Freeware | Desktop Netbook |
| Defraggler | Defragment your files! | Utility | Freeware | |
| MyDefrag | Defragment your files! | Utility | Freeware | |
| UBCD4Win | A bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem | Repair | Freeware | CD only |
| Recuva | Undelete, Unerase, File Recovery | Utility | Freeware | |
| BigDump | Staggered import of large and very large MySQL Dumps | Development | Freeware | |
| Teracopy | Copy and move files at the maximum possible speed | Utility | Freeware | Desktop |
| GoogleTalk | Chat/transfer client from Google | Communicate | Freeware | Desktop Netbook Laptop |
| VirtualBox | VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software. | Utility | Open Source | Desktop |
| Tortoisesvn | Source code control environment | Development | Open Source | |
| WampServer | Allows you to create web applications with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database | Development | Open Source | Desktop |
| PhotoFilmStrip | Creates movies out of your pictures in just 3 steps (german site) | Graphics | Open Source | |
| TouchFreeze | Utility to disable the touchpad while typing. Works on Win7 like a charm. | Utility | Open Source | Netbook |
| VLC (VideoLAN) | Multimedia player supporting most audio and video formats | Video/Audio | Open Source | Desktop Netbook Laptop |
| CamStudio | Able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer. | Video/Audio | Open Source | |
| NUnit | Unit testing solution | Development | Open Source | |
| Dual Monitor Tools | Dual Monitor Tools is a software package for Windows users with dual or multiple monitor setups. | Utility | Open Source | |
| HandBrake | Multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. | Video | Open Source | Desktop Netbook Laptop |
| Gimp | A versatile graphics manipulation package | Graphics | Open Source | Desktop |
| Calibre | e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books | eBook | Open Source | Desktop Netbook |
| Amanda | Backup and recovery | Utility | Open Source | |
| Open Pandora | An open source windows desktop application that exposes Pandora music discovery service. | Audio | Open Source | Laptop |
| FileZilla | Free FTP solution, both a client and a server. | Utility | Open Source | Desktop Netbook Laptop |
| PDANet | Tether a Google Android phone for on-the-to Internet | Utility | Purchase | Netbook |
| Heatmap Creator | Turn your spreadsheet into a map | Utility | Web | |
| OCR Service | OCR results directly to your favorite formats. | Utility | Web | |
| Adobe Kuler | Create harmonious color themes without requiring advance knowledge in color theory | Graphics | Web | |
| Stock Photos | Our monster machine brings the results of the most popular stock sites to one location. | Graphics | Web | |
| Tagxedo | Tag cloud image generation | Graphics | Web |
