Free Programs That Do Cool Things

Yes, I'm being helpful. Imagine that.
This topic will document that programs that I (or others) have vetted as:
1.) Free
2.) Functional
All programs will meet both these criteria, if you have issue with a program not fitting said criteria, you may PM me. (For some programs which the advantage may not be immediately apparent, I will mention its benefit.)

As of current, the primary platform for these programs will be Windows. Cross-platform programs are a big plus.

If a moderator wants to sticky this, that would be super cool. *wink wink*
SUPER COOL.

Archiving Programs:
7zip
IZArc

CD/DVD Burning:
Astroburn
CDBurnerXP
ImgBurn

Codec Packs:
Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP)
K-Lite Codec Pack

IDEs:
Code::Blocks
Dev C++
Eclipse
NetBeans

Image Manipulation/Editing:
GIMP

Image Viewing:
Irfanview
DomDomSoft Manga Reader (Manga Reader)

Multi-Protocol Messaging Programs:
Digsby (Watch out for some adware that is installed by default, simply uncheck the option.)
Miranda IM
Pidgin

Music Player:
foobar2000 (Refer to Gibbous' post for addons.)
Winamp

Music Editing:
Audacity

PDF Reader:
Foxit Reader (Loads faster than Adobe Acrobat/Reader)

Registry Cleaner:
CCleaner (Also does general cleanup, program removal.)

Text Editor:
Notepad++

Video Editing:
[url=www.free-codecs.com/download/AviDemux.htm]Avidemux[/url]

VPN (Virtual Private Network):
Hamachi

~List ongoing

Indonesian's Best Antivirus :
Smadav
:D

Video Editor :
Avidemux

Java IDE :
NetBeans

Video Player :
K-Lite Codec Pack

PDF Reader :
Adobe Reader (Some PDF files cannot be opened by Foxit :()

~list ongoing :D

Comic/doujin reader of awesomeness:
CDisplay
I fucking love this program. you can set it up to view 2 pages at the same time, do japanese mode, scroll wheel changes pages, double clicking minimizes, holding left button zooms, full screen view, and other features. It reads zip and rar archives and sorts the pages accordingly.

example 2page view, japanese view, while zooming in at full screen:


Best torrent program on the internet:
uTorrent

File hash checker:
Hashtab
You know that anime you downloaded with all the weird numbers at the end of the filename? If the CRC32 hash matches up with those numbers then you correctly downloaded the file. Good to use in case your having problems to make sure the file doesn't have an error.

Open-source alternative to Microsoft Office:
Open Office

thanx for the topic I'll have to dl some of these

Note I'll be updating the main list with you guys' contributions.

I won't accept, however, country-specific programs, programs that I have debunked, and I couldn't stand Open Office.

I'll look into the other programs later.

Just like to add CCCP, an all-in-one codec pack that I've been using for a while that does the job for movies:

CCCP


Also winrar, for .RAR files:

winrar

Not free.

Isn't it free. It says please purchase it but you don't have to. So its like considered free.

Awesome programs i noticed netbeans in the list for anyones programming pleasure eclipse is pretty good too. I use it for all my programming needs.

Here is the site eclipse

You can add a lot to the list with anti spy-ware or virus programs like Advast

On a more fun note, emulators like ZSNES let you relive the old early 90s super nintendo days. I like it because it works on PSPs as well as computers.

Another good VPN is called Leaf, I've used it quite a few times and it seems to work pretty well..



I approve of this, I love Notepad++ multiline de/tabbing, line numbers, colored syntax, directory searching, autocomplete, you name it, it does it.

I think that's not free...

Personally, I prefer 7zip as my compression type...
it has the highest rate of compression so far...
plus it doesn't need high specs requirements... :D

7zip

You need a decent free word-processor, but don't have word? Look no further than AbiWord.

I'd be surprised if anyone didn't have winAMP the media player.

As for me, I prefer OpenOffice.org and iTunes.
:D

iTunes

OpenOffice.org

I have never used notepad ++ is it better than programmers notepad? Found here Programmers notepad

Mass Music Tagging:
mp3tag

Audio Playback ...and just about everything else:
foobar2k

Recommended Add-ons:
modded plisk (IT SOOTHENS THE EYE)
FFX4-4WA (WA DXchain plugin - great for running Ozone on-the-fly)
foo_dsp_winamp (WA DSP bridge)
foo_dsp_vst (VST host)
Compressor & Wider (simple sound enhancement, requires the dsp bridge listed above)

Image Browsing:
XnView

Media Playback ...and more:
KMPlayer

More Text Editing:
SciTE - less thorough than notepad++ (or the unbeatable UE32), but also lighter.

DOES THE COOLEST THINGS:
R

Shareware != freeware


I might add IDEs into the list. Still considering.


I'm not listing any antivirus programs because the 3 free popular ones (AVG, Avast, Avira) I've heard mixed reviews all over the board.


Already listed.


I didn't list media players because just about any of the well-known ones out there are pretty good. Ie. Winamp and Foobar2000


Nooooo. Also, I might mention that this list is primarily for Windows users.


The rest: I'll look into those programs and update the master list.

I second that.
:D

I think it is better than programmer notepad.

and I'll update my recommended free programs...

Web Server Package
XAMPP

Microsoft IDE Suite
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions
note : free but limited. I dunno much bout express edition since I use Visual Studio 2008 Team System. But my friends said it is more than enough to be used by a programmer that doesn't really need Microsoft support in making a program.

I can't believe we forget good ol' VLC player. It isn't the best player (IMO because moving the progress bar makes the screen go fuzzy for a short moment), but it's very versatile and even has realmedia playback with added codecs - free as well.

I also support CCCP, which comes with ZoomPlayer that I play my music files with.

It doesn't have the whole project explorer going for it, (but I never use those anyway) If you ask me though, yes it's far better, you can give it a trial run :P