Best Recommended software for Win 7

[sycogrim]

So I decided to compile a list of the best software I would recommend when it comes to Windows 7 32 and 64bit versions.

From Stardock my first recommendations would have to be:

Windows Blinds

Allowing you to make fully customisable themes to the way you would like your OS to look, etc...

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/



Fences

This program allows one to group all their icons on their desktop in order to make your desktop look neater.

http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/?ref=

Teracopy

Allowing you to increase the performance on all your copying needs.

http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php




Digital Codecs

My Personal choices would have to be of the following 3 :

VLC Media Player

K-Lite Megacodec

Winamp

Performance Enhancement

You do not need software for this, just a common understanding of your machine and the hardware that sits inside. Clean up unwanted or unused programs, scan regularly for viruses/spyware/malware/adware etc... Increase your ram. Physically pull your machine apart and clean inside and build it again. Those dust bunnies won't clean themselves.


Add your best programs for Windows here, those are just a few of mine that I like to use.

[Avatar]

I can't make my post as pretty as yours, since I'm at work, but:

RocketDock: Best dock software I've found for windows. Easy to set up and does exactly what it says on the box.
CopyHandler: Does a job very similar to TeraCopy, but I prefer CH over it.
Rainmeter: I don't use it anymore, since it chows too much of my resources to my liking, but it's the go to software for easy widget creation and desktop enhancements.

+1 for Fences and VLC!

[shadowfox]

Nice idea here Syco - I'll be honest though - I'm not a huge fan of K-Lite - I prefer using CCCP:

http://www.cccp-project.net/

I've had fewer stability issues with this one.

(And you didn't post the link for Windows Blinds )

[sycogrim]

Thanks Shadow I didn't see that .

[Crzwaco]

Agree with ShadowFox on the K-Lite on Windows 7 way too many stability issues.

Have not tried CCCPm but I find KMPlayer to my taste very stable so far only a few problems when it comes to handeling corrupt files but thats why vlc is there for backup.

Also used to use Teracopy but it seems to have problem copy/moving large amount of files 250gig+ so I went back to the default windows one.

I use Foobar2000 for my music needs.

[shadowfox]

Agree with ShadowFox on the K-Lite on Windows 7 way too many stability issues.

Have not tried CCCPm but I find KMPlayer to my taste very stable so far only a few problems when it comes to handeling corrupt files but thats why vlc is there for backup.

VLC is my backup of choice as well KMPlayer is also not to bad, but CCCP bundles MPC and that handles most of my playback for me.

CCCP basically just integrates with Windows very well for me - not only for video playback, but when I use programs like Adobe's Premier Pro and AfterEffects as well - with KLite I had issues importing video files to the applications.

Since I'm here I may as well add in one or two more:

If you have DVD playback issues due to Region restrictions (VLC takes care of it sometimes, but not always) handy little app called DVD43 sorted me there - decrypts DVDs on the fly, and it basically just sits in the background until you pop a DVD in the drive:

http://www.dvd43.com/

OpenOffice - my productivity suite of choice if you don't have MS Office - it's completely free, and OO3 is a significant step up from version 2. You can pretty much do anything with it you can do in the MS Office Suite

www.openoffice.org/

Any-Video-Converter and Any-Audio-Converter - some lightweight, but pretty robust tools for converting video and audio files between various formats. The Video converter will download Youtube files for you as well.

[Avatar]

Now that I'm home, I can add more, all the ones I use, in fact:

WinRAR: My archiving software of choice.
Dropbox: Automatic backup in the cloud. Use my Referral link, we'll both get more space!
Google Talk: Takes GMail's chat feature out of the chat window.
Skype: For phoning home for free!
FlashGet: Download manager.
Inkskape: Vector graphics drawing program, useful for the odd diagram or doodle.
AShampoo: My preferred burning software.
PowerISO: For easy use of image files.
LastFM: Keeps track of my listening habits.
VLC: Least hassles with codecs ever.
Winamp: I still haven't found a simple replacement that just works.
Calibre: Library app to keep track of the gf's billions of ebooks.
Sumatra: PDF reader to replace Adobe's reader.
ESET Smart Security: The only av & firewall I trust.
Peerblock: Keeps out unscrupulous IP's.

[Ichigo]

What I use are:

Comodo Internet Security: My Antivirus, Firewall and Internet Security
Spybot Search & Destroy: My spyware destroyer
Adaware: My spyware destroyer
Bittorent: For downloading movies and series
Download Accelerator Plus: So I can resume downloads if it happens to bomb out
Smart Defrag: For defragging my hardrive
Windows Movie Maker: So I can edit my movies before uploading it to Youtube.
Windows Media Player: I use this to play my movies
MP4 Player: So I can play MP4 videos
Winamp: Use to play my music when I am practising on my guitar
Speedfan: To check my laptops CPU and GPU Temperatures
WinRAR: So I can unzip my files
Skype: So I can speak to my family

[DarthMol]

Some interesting programs I think I might try out.

I've been using these so far:
Fences
VLC
Teracopy
Winamp
Flashget
Winrar
Teamspeak 2 & 3
and to add to the list:
MyDefrag (previously JKDefrag) really basic yet very effective defrag program.

[shadowfox]

I figure a bit of a recommendation I can make for all the guys using WinRAR - try using 7zip. Does the same thing, and it's freeware.

Not that I'm implying anything, mind you

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