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Useful Software Megathread

On 8/24/2018 at 12:37 AM, Crunchy Dragon said:

Welcome to the useful software megathread!

 

This thread covers a broad list of different software and utilities, how they’re used, and what to use them for. I have also provided links to said programs for quick and easy downloads for you all.

 

I may split these into different categories in the future. I've clearly done that to an extent, but I may give titles to the different areas later.

Feel free to suggest other edits. :)

 

EDIT: after reading through all of these, I decided it might be a good idea to not manually edit in other recommendations, but rather let them just be posted in this thread.

Cheers!

 

 


Cinebench -- https://www.maxon.net/en/products/cinebench/

More of a benchmark than stress test, this lets you test your CPU’s multicore speed by using your CPU to render an image. I see Cinebench commonly used to get an idea of thermal performance, as well as multithreaded performance in general. Usually if a system isn’t performing as normal, it can be recommended that a user runs Cinebench to get an idea of how their CPU is performing compared to how it should be performing, since Cinebench scores are easy to find online.

 

Unigine Benchmarks -- https://unigine.com/en/products/benchmarks

 

There are a few Unigine programs used for benchmarking, I personally recommend Unigine Heaven and Superposition. These are used usually to test GPU performance and overclocks. I’ve used Unigine programs combined with Cinebench to identify bottlenecks in systems in the past, as well as my personal GPU overclock.

 

Aida64 and Prime95 -- https://www.aida64.com/ https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/prime95-download.html

These are in the same boat, as they are programs designed for extended stress testing of your CPU. The workloads they put a CPU under are usually not close to real world stress levels. These are usually used to measure temperatures at full load over time since they run longer than Cinebench, as well as to test overclock stability over time.

 

Prime95 may experience problems when using it on Haswell and newer Intel CPUs with automatic voltage settings. It should also be noted that with these stress tests that you either need proper cooling or to set voltages to manual to prevent any overheating issues while testing.

 

Aida64 is also useful for its ability to show temperatures per core while running, as well as thermal throttling.

 

 

Furmark -- https://geeks3d.com/furmark/

Furmark is a extended stress test for your GPU. The workloads your GPU is under are definitely higher than pretty much anything you’ll likely use it for. Furmark is commonly used to test overclock stability over time.

BE WARNED: Furmark has been known to kill Nvidia Kepler(GTX 6xx-7xx)series and lower GPUs. Maxwell(GTX 9xx) and higher GPUs are not known to be killed by Furmark, and I’ve personally never heard of it happening.

 


 

Adobe Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas Pro -- https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-pro/

https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html

Commonly used video editing suites. I’ve personally used Premiere Pro and quite like it. Tutorials are easy to come by for both since they are basically the most popular editing suites. They do cost a pretty penny, so be prepared for that. Premiere Pro does have a 5 day trial period. I cannot speak for Vegas Pro.

 

Open Broadcaster Software --https://obsproject.com/

Lightweight easy to use recording and streaming software. Highly recommended for lower end systems. I’ve used this a lot in the past. It is free, but you can choose to pay in order to support it. It’s also open source. Commonly known as OBS.

 

XSplit Gamecaster and Broadcaster -- https://www.xsplit.com/

More taxing recording and streaming software. Not recommended for a lower end system. There are both free and paid options available. More commonly referred to as XSplit.


 

 

Discord -- https://discordapp.com/

Discord is a somewhat lightweight chat application offering audio, video, and text communication. Quality is good, and the interface is pleasant as well. One can also create servers that are maintained free of charge. There is also a wide list of bots one can add to a server.

 

Teamspeak -- https://teamspeak.com/en/

Teamspeak is similar to Discord. Teamspeak servers will have to be hosted manually and will cost money, however. I have heard reports of it being less secure and users being able to grab IPs from servers, but I’m not sure if that issue was fixed in the last update or not. Cannot speak for quality(perhaps someone else can).

 

Skype -- https://www.skype.com/en/home/

Mostly phased out by Discord, basically the same thing. There are no servers in Skype, however. Audio and video quality is decent.

 

Mumble -- https://www.mumble.com/

Phased out by Skype, Discord, and Teamspeak. Offers audio and text communication. Servers are manually hosted. Quality is decent.

 


 

CPU-Z and GPU-Z -- https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/cpu-z-download.html

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/gpu-z-download-techpowerup.html

Very useful system utilities for finding information about your CPU and GPU. GPU-Z is particularly useful for spotting scam cards, although it is possible to fool GPU-Z.

 

Windirstat -- https://windirstat.net/

A quick and easy way to see what takes up space on a drive.

 

ShareX -- https://getsharex.com/

Quick and easy way to capture screenshots and share files. Also offers quick and easy uploading to image hosting sites.

 

VoidTools -- https://www.voidtools.com/

Fast way to search a drive. Only works on NTFS formatted drives, unfortunately.

 

Advanced IP Scanner -- http://www.advanced-ip-scanner.com/

Reliable and free network scanner to analyse LAN. The program shows all network devices, gives you access to shared folders, provides remote control of computers (via RDP and Radmin), and can even remotely switch computers off. Easy to use and runs as a portable edition.

 

CrystalDiskInfo -- https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

Gives you a complete readout of all your computer's SMART information, as well as a current temperature and health status. From its dashboard, you can quickly see a long list of up-to-date system data, so you know when things are going well, and if it seems like something is going wrong.  Displays basic HDD information, monitors S.M.A.R.T. values, and disk temperature.

 

Snappy Driver Installer -- https://sdi-tool.org/

Useful tool for finding and installing drivers automatically. Useful for when you install an operating system and don't want to look for every driver individually.

 

Ultimate Boot CD -- http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Extremely useful

tool for troubleshooting & diagnosing a PC that either won't boot or otherwise is playing silly buggers.

Great for pretty much anything. Has tools like: Allows you to change forgotten passwords (Local accounts only). Incredibly useful for helping family members. A whole bunch of disk diagnosis, recovery, cloning, wiping, and management tools. Memory testing tools (including Memtest86 and Memtest86+).

 

 

 

MSI Afterburner and EVGA Precision XOC -- https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner

https://www.evga.com/precisionxoc/

Both of these are GPU overclocking tools. They are very similar in both features and interface, I personally prefer Afterburner. They will allow you to change clock speeds, fan curves, and(on some cards) voltages.

 

AMD Ryzen Master -- https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/ryzen-master
Software-based overclocking tool for AMD Ryzen processors. Not as reliable as BIOS overclocking, and will need to be re-enabled after a system restart. Useful tool for users new to overclocking that want to avoid the BIOS. Also reports temperatures.

 

HWMonitor -- https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Commonly used tool for finding hardware information and provides monitoring.

 

MemTest86 -- https://www.memtest86.com/

The best memory test out there since trying every slot and DIMM.

 

 

 

Nvidia GeForce Experience -- https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/geforce-experience/

Automatic driver downloads and updates. ShadowPlay clips(on GTX 6xx and higher cards). Recording and streaming capabilities. If you’re into that sort of thing, I personally like it.

 

Display Driver Uninstaller -- https://www.wagnardsoft.com/

Very useful program that will uninstall and completely wipe your GPU drivers and anything related to them. Recommended to run when switching GPU brands or experiencing driver issues.

 

ShutUp10 -- https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/oo_shutup10.html

Quick, easy, and intuitive way to control and view what data Windows 10 is sending.

 

Gimp -- https://www.gimp.org/

Free image editing tool, similar to Adobe Photoshop.

 

Blender -- https://www.blender.org/

Free open-source 3D modelling program. Very extensive program, with even plugin support. Program itself is free, some plugins are paid. Somewhat higher learning curve if you have never used a 3D modeler. May be very taxing on lower end systems.

 

Lightshot -- https://app.prntscr.com/en/

Faster, easier way to take screenshots in Windows. Allows for easier cropping, sharing, and editing.

 

Foxit Readerhttps://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf-reader/

My choice of PDF reader for years. It's been more reliable than Adobe Acrobat Reader which tends to crash frequently (like every other Adobe Product) and fail to recovery your files when it does crash. The UI for Foxit Reader is based on the Ribbon of Microsoft Office so you should feel right at home.

 

pdfbinder https://code.google.com/archive/p/pdfbinder/

Um... it binds PDFs. That's about it. Simple, free, and lightweight application that just works 100% of the time. Not much else to say.

 

Mp3taghttps://www.mp3tag.de/en/

Easy to use application to edit the tags of your audio files. Supports all the formats you'll ever want including mp3, flac, m4a, etc.

wouldn't mind adding Audacity

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  • 3 weeks later...

For Linux users:

 

Autokey.  Basically the Linux equivalent of AutoHotKey, with one distinct advantage:  It uses good old Python as a scripting language, not it's own proprietary silliness.  So if you've been around Linux for long, you already know how to use it.

 

Shutter.   Does everything I ever asked SnagIt to do.

 

LibreOffice.  I usually use a plain text editor for most of my documents, but if I need a proper office suite, I beeline to LibreOffice for one simple reason:  The --convert-to method. 

 

+1s for Audacity and VLC; I refuse to not have those installed.

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X-Mouse Button Control. Is extremely useful for me: I replace all shortcuts, combined or not with mouse and pen buttons/wheel, and even really complex combinations. This way, I have all applications using the shortcuts, mouse wheel, zoom, pan, etc, just the way I want. Free tool.

It is not something I'd qualify as "just good to have", as with one application, it literally allows me its use for my work, and it is a quite main application in my workflow :

https://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/XMouseButtonControl.htm

 

My best area of expertise, the stuff I know better is digital painting, and drawing (comics, realistic, everything), so I am maybe able to expand it here for you all. Digital paint tools, quite affordable, too, in personal order of preference :

Clip Studio Paint . The pro version, 49 $, is way enough. I'll buy the EX in the next 60% discount (around twice a year), though. This is an absolute MUST for any comic artist. I am even using it to make digital painting, covers. GUI very good, familiar to most :

https://www.clipstudio.net/en

 

Rebelle 3  (more expensive of the bunch, yet dirty cheap (89 $), and the best watercolor simulation ON EARTH ) This is mostly for pure digital painting, in a very natural, traditional way. Outstanding simulation of several types of media.  :
https://www.escapemotions.com/products/rebelle/index.php


Art Rage, 79$ ( An absolute jewel, a great digital painting tool able for many traditional painting media simulation, and you can configure also with a photoshop-like interface)

https://www.artrage.com

 

Paintstorm Studio ( I only set it the last because I hate licensing per machine, linked to the hardware needing a mail back and force if change the machine, etc, and also, as text tool is not strong, and too GPU focused, the canvas can't be as big as the print resolution I need for my larger works) :  
https://www.paintstormstudio.com/es/index.html   (19 US $ !!! :o  still, very, very good application. )

 

 

In what is video editing, Davinci Resolve was mentioned, for a Premiere / After Effects alternative, but I believe was not linked : https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

 

Wings 3D for a free efficient modeler (not a full 3D package like Blender. For Blender, I recommend strongly to start with the 2.8 beta: Much better and easier.  ). http://wings3d.com

 

EDIT: LOL... how could I forget... and was not added by anyone, surprisingly... Serif's Affinity, all apps are available in Windows, Mac and iOS ( iPad Pro). But am only referring the price for Windows desktops :

 

- Affinity Photo :  A tool that can be used, till an extent as a Photoshop. But no subscription, and extremely affordable, somewhere around 50 $ or euros (is long ago since I purchased these). https://affinity.serif.com/es/photo/

 

- Affinity Designer.  A tool you can use to use instead of Illustrator. I truly love it, like I like Photo a lot as well. Same price, 50. Same deal (only purchase, no subscription)  https://affinity.serif.com/es/designer/

 

- Affinity Publisher.  Is a tool in the line of functionality of InDesign / Quark Xpress. Not adding the link, as is only yet in free beta stage. You can download it to get a taste of it. But will be much better once fully released.  Same price.All idem in the purchasing side of it.  or well, why not... just don't make any commercial use yet... as it's lacking final functionality + stability :  https://affinity.serif.com/es/publisher/

 

And from another company, Photoline, 59 euros, a tool very efficient for image editing, not my fav in GUI, but still, with functionality no other tool has, in certain details :    https://www.pl32.com/

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On 2/19/2019 at 8:23 PM, PixelPol said:

X-Mouse Button Control. Is extremely useful for me: I replace all shortcuts, combined or not with mouse and pen buttons/wheel, and even really complex combinations. This way, I have all applications using the shortcuts, mouse wheel, zoom, pan, etc, just the way I want. Free tool.

It is not something I'd qualify as "just good to have", as with one application, it literally allows me its use for my work, and it is a quite main application in my workflow :

https://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/XMouseButtonControl.htm

 

Ooh Perfect, i was just looking for something like this. Thanks!

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You're welcome ! The other day it helped me solve a critical issue with an application than has some sort of bug.... As using a different combo, I could overcome the problem... and the issue has been there for a year or more, being also an app that is critical for my workflow (my freelance work)... I just hadn't realized -despite the many months of use- that I could use it too to solve this, with this free utility.  I mean, it is indeed more useful than I thought, even while I was already very familiar with it. Is like good films, good books or good meals... several layers of flavors...  ;)  

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i have a few macOS specific apps. 

 

  • Spectacle: an app that enables proper window snapping on macOS. link
  • NightOwl: an app that enables you to turn Mojave's dark mode on and off easily, and even on a schedule. link
  • Mactracker: an app that displays the specifications of all Mac's and iDevices. link
  • Helium: an app that enables a floating browser window. link

She/Her

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Can we build a similar list for Personal Linux systems as well for Linux Servers?

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6 hours ago, Jabali said:

Can we build a similar list for Personal Linux systems as well for Linux Servers?

What he said.

Jeannie

 

As long as anyone is oppressed, no one will be safe and free.

One has to be proactive, not reactive, to ensure the safety of one's data so backup your data! And RAID is NOT a backup!

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/18/2018 at 7:36 AM, Crunchy Dragon said:

I like Blender personally, but I haven't messed around with a lot of 3D Modelling software.

Blender 2.8 is going to be released.

Another one go with blender: filmic blender download from the github, as well as blam

 

Also there is another software free download suppose to download many software like 3D studio max, Maya, Agisoft 3D photscanned, Unity the site called getintopc, i looked at a how to download it say to download switch your Internet and antvirous off to download.

 

I don't know about that well i download unreal engine 4.21 free download as well as download twinmotion free download i didn't have to turn off my Internet and antvirous, well twinmotion went join forces with EPIC and offered a deal all Unreal engine 4 users until November this year get to download a $1,900 twinmotion software to keep, im getting anywhere up to about 240 FPS and as low as 160 fps.

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i am starting to use Blender 2.8 and very new to it, i havent descovered the button to cut out a hole i dont think it realy exist, sculpturing is increadibly slow as it will take 100 centuries and got it set on the most fears settings.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well i didnt know the reasons behind the sculpting didnt work in Blender 2.8 Beta is i think as it is going to be officialy realesed in July this year.  Then i try again.

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  • 2 months later...

A useful program and a question:

First, another great way to analyze HDD/SSD space is the program 

SpaceSniffer

 

Next, a question: In videos where LTT is looking at individual core temperatures, how.are they doing that? Is it a feature of Cinebench or a separate program?

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  • 1 month later...

So I was listening to the WAN show on youtube when Linus mentions how bad the windows search is and mentions how they could probably make a tool that just lists all filenames, perhaps filter by executable, etc...

 

Sounds like this tool I've been using for over a decade now, called "Everything":

 

https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

 

Has a bunch of filters, bookmarks, etc...

 

Not sure if it has all the functionality one would want, but it goes a long way.

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greenshot - screenshot and editor getgreenshot.org

 

ultraedit (suite) - code editor, code comparison, code find, a really powerful suite ultraedit.com

 

filmora scrn - screen recorder and lite video editor, great for tutorials wondershare.com

 

snipboard.io - ever been in support chat and the other side "doesnt have email or file upload"? , drop images on snipboard.io and copy the link to chat.

 

traystatus - simply see in tray what your numlock status etc is, no ads or nags. I HATE logitech Options and also my keyboard didnt have a numlock indicator light. uninstalled Options, snipped the cable in my m720 for the lower thumbswitch and installed traystatus, no more steam crashes or win10 failing to reboot due to Options crashing. traystatus.com

 

one i would like to find a replacement for: 

linkexaminer - finds errors in a site and generates a concise report. last updated in 2009 and doesnt support https urls. analogx.com

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gave a quick look over the thread and i didn't see one of my go to tools

https://windows-repair-toolbox.com/

heres what it dose Bla bla bla

Features:
– Download and run “on-the-fly” the best free software when it comes to diagnose and solve several kinds of Windows problems. With two exceptions, all the programs included in the toolbox are portable. The tools are categorized by their function, and the program will automatically download the correct version for the Windows edition in which you’re working. Additionally, it will also help you keeping those tools updated. Important note: some of the tools may trigger false positive alerts from your AV (e.g: the Nirsoft tools).

 

– Ability to download all the tools at once (and also to keep them updated) with 1-click so that you can use the toolbox in offline computers, or simply to have all the tools already downloaded in advance.

– Ability to select several tools to run successively in unattended mode, in order to perform malware removal, system cleaning and repair. A email letting you know that the process is complete, and containing the logs, can be sent to you.

– Displays relevant information about the computer to be repaired: CPU temperature, name and % time; amount of RAM installed on the system and % of use; Disk model, capacity, basic health check; amount of free space left in the system partition; Windows edition and install date; System boot time; and more.

– Contains a functionality – “AVLeftovers” – that helps to identify what antivirus have been previously installed in a machine, so that you can run the respective manual uninstaller(s) before installing other antivirus of your choice, or simply when trying to solve some problem potentially caused by the incomplete uninstall of a security solution.

– Allows you to add your own favorite tools to the program;

– Allows you to perform quality assurance tests after the repair is complete;

– Allows you to save notes about the repair process;

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Would be nice to have a list of stand alone executable programs that you can throw on a USB Drive.

Like a USB Toolkit for friends and family.

(I guess somethings like Malwarebytes would have to been installed)

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On 3/5/2019 at 1:51 PM, Jabali said:

Can we build a similar list for Personal Linux systems as well for Linux Servers?

 

On 3/5/2019 at 8:29 PM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

What he said.

vifm - terminal based file manager

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58 minutes ago, OlympicAssEater said:

@Crunchy Dragon Please add Aomei free backup and Macrium Reflect free for free home solution backup. 

Feel free to post the links to those if you want.

Quote or tag me( @Crunchy Dragon) if you want me to see your reply

If a post solved your problem/answered your question, please consider marking it as "solved"

Community Standards // Join Floatplane!

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Aomei free backupper: Good free home solution backup

https://www.aomeitech.com/ab/standard-edition.html?ref=en.nav.backup-software

 

Macrium Reflect 7 free home: Another good and reliable free home solution backup

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

Shotcut: One of the best free open source video editing. No watermark and a lot of features for free!

https://www.shotcut.org/

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