Recommend PC Software/Windows Mods:

[Leslie Lee III]

Here's what I'm working with: Desktop (http://www.sts-records.com/images/advent.jpg).

I use BBlean (http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/) as a replacement windows shell. It crashes a little less than Windows Explorer, and is very customizable with lots of geeks making lots of good plugins.

I'm also have the Desktop Sidebar (http://www.desktopsidebar.com/), which will be the next cool thing Windows Longhorn will offer you...but this probably has a lot more features. Totally eradicates the need for a Start Menu or Desktop. Also rotates your Wallpapers for you, checks your gmail, delivers news and weather, controls your torrent program for your legal dls, whatever..

I also found a good Winamp Alternative called Jetaudio (http://www.jetaudio.com/). Uses about half the RAM that Winamp does (or a third of what iTunes uses if you're iPod got you into that trap). Manages playlists in a sleeker way than both.

And Zoom Player (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml) is a great all around media player. Better interface than VLC and WMPC, and definitely light years ahead of Windows Media Player. Very good at handling different formats, subtitles, and whatnot.

What you got?

[MKTerra]

What you got?*points to sig links* :)

Tried JetAudio, but it wouldn't install. For Zoom Player I'm waiting till it finalizes 4.5.

[macul]

I like to keep things vanilla. The less running the better.

[Leslie Lee III]

Alright, some more people have got to have something cool to recommend.

[JTLauder]

That Desktop Sidebar is cool, but it takes up a big chunk of the desktop. Can you make it retractable like the Windows Start bar, or adjust the width of it? It also looks like it sits on top of of the desktop--meaning, you can place your active window over it if you want a bigger work area?

JetAudio is a nice all-in-one player, but I've noticed a very discernable sound degradation in quality when you convert files.

Have you tried Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) -- it's a free, cross-platform sound editor. Be sure to get the separate LAME encoder plugin if you want to work with MP3s.

I use StreamRipper (http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/) to record online streaming music. It doesn't work perfectly--some skips and it breaks the songs in the wrong places. Anyone else know of a better free stream ripper?

If you collect fonts, The Font Thing (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html) is the best free font viewer. Most font viewers displays only installed fonts. This program lets you view fonts in any directory, although I wish it would also display fonts stored in ZIP files. You can custom how you want the fonts displayed, and print out samples.

And to recover deleted files, Restoration (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html) is a free program that works great.

You've listed only multimedia and utilities stuff, but if you're into development, I know lots of free developer goodies, such as Borland releases a free Personal/Foundation edition of JBuilder.

[Leslie Lee III]

That Desktop Sidebar is cool, but it takes up a big chunk of the desktop. Can you make it retractable like the Windows Start bar, or adjust the width of it? It also looks like it sits on top of of the desktop--meaning, you can place your active window over it if you want a bigger work area?

You can adjust the width, make it automatically retract, pin it to the desktop, let it roam free, make italways on top, whatever.

JetAudio is a nice all-in-one player, but I've noticed a very discernable sound degradation in quality when you convert files.

Have you tried Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) -- it's a free, cross-platform sound editor. Be sure to get the separate LAME encoder plugin if you want to work with MP3s.

I use Soundforge to edit, mostly for recording and sorting out my DJ sets. It's not free...legally, but Audacity is a good recommendation for those on the right side of the law or the wrong side of money. I use WinLAME (http://sourceforge.net/projects/winlame/) or DBpoweramp (http://www.dbpoweramp.com) to convert to mp3. They both use the lame codec, and are pretty popular. WinLame is completely free, poweramp charges for certain extra features (which I've never needed to use). Check them up if you ever just want to convert something. DB is especially good for ripping CDs, as it will automatically download song titles and what not.

If you collect fonts, The Font Thing (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html) is the best free font viewer. Most font viewers displays only installed fonts. This program lets you view fonts in any directory, although I wish it would also display fonts stored in ZIP files. You can custom how you want the fonts displayed, and print out samples.

I'll definitely check that out. I have a LOT of fonts and photoshop has been about the best I've done for previewing so far.

You've listed only multimedia and utilities stuff, but if you're into development, I know lots of free developer goodies, such as Borland releases a free Personal/Foundation edition of JBuilder.

No clue what any of that is, but I'm sure there are some top level geeks here who do so post away.

[BlairH]

One word:

"Linux"

[MKTerra]

What distro? :p

[Pepsigirl]

It's pretty useless, but the coolest thing I have running on my computer (this one anyways) is Browster (http://www.browster.com/). Basically, it lets you preview a result on a search engine before you click on it.

[JTLauder]

I just discovered this great all-in-one compression tool called ZipGenius and it's going on my "must-have" list.

I was looking for a new RAR decompressor cuz apparently my really old version of WinRAR wasn't opening up RAR files created by newer versions, and I didn't want to pay for the new version.

So I found ZipGenius, which is a file compression utility that reads and writes not only ZIP files, but RAR and a whole bunch of others. It doesn't create a number of the various formats, but also has an automatic format conversion to ZIP format which is handy, and all without the need for the original compression format program.

I'm staying with WinZIP for my ZIP files, but for all the other formats, I'm switching to this single program.

ZipGenius (http://www.zipgenius.it/index_eng.htm)

[Slappy san]

Here's what I'm working with: Desktop (http://www.sts-records.com/images/advent.jpg).

I use BBlean (http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/) as a replacement windows shell. It crashes a little less than Windows Explorer, and is very customizable with lots of geeks making lots of good plugins.

I'm also have the Desktop Sidebar (http://www.desktopsidebar.com/), which will be the next cool thing Windows Longhorn will offer you...but this probably has a lot more features. Totally eradicates the need for a Start Menu or Desktop. Also rotates your Wallpapers for you, checks your gmail, delivers news and weather, controls your torrent program for your legal dls, whatever..

I also found a good Winamp Alternative called Jetaudio (http://www.jetaudio.com/). Uses about half the RAM that Winamp does (or a third of what iTunes uses if you're iPod got you into that trap). Manages playlists in a sleeker way than both.

And Zoom Player (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml) is a great all around media player. Better interface than VLC and WMPC, and definitely light years ahead of Windows Media Player. Very good at handling different formats, subtitles, and whatnot.

What you got?

Agh! Too much on the desktop. :eek: