• @deviantART
• @Spurl
• RSS Feed
• Site Map

microUgly.com

• You are here:
  • Home
    • Recommended Software

• Home
  • Blogs
  • a Quick Guide to Inkscape
  • Opera Tips & Tricks
  • AutoHotkey Scripts
  • Recommended Software
  • Art Gallery
  • Beer List

Recommended Software

Audio

Exact Audio Copy

EAC is the best application for ensuring an error free rip of your Audio CD's. In many cases it will even accurately rip copy-protected CD's. It's configuration can be tricky and it doesn't come with an MP3 encoder but it will work with LAME.

ID3-TagIT

This is a feature packed MP3 tag editor. Unlike most tag editors, ID3-TagIT supports all the obscure v2.x ID3 tags that exist. It's also very easy to use and has all the features you expect from a tag editor.

MP3Gain

If you have a portable MP3 player then you'll want this application. MP3Gain will normalise your MP3's so they are all the same volume. Unlike other normalisers, it's normalisation is based on how your music will sound to the human ear. It's method of normalisation is non-destructive and easily reversable. It can also normalise an entire album so the relative volume of each track remains the same.

Code Editors

Notepad++

A free source code editor based on Scintilla edit component. For a long time I used SciTE but I think Notepad++ is easier to use and includes some super features.

WinMerge

This is a must have tool for coders. It allows you see the differences between two text files and merge them if you wish. I'm always reusing code on different sites (PHP or CSS) and this really helps me keep track of which need updating.

Desktop Enhancements

Launchy

Launchy indexes your Start menu so you can easily find and launch application by typing the name. Much quicker than hunting for the shortcut.

RocketDock

My choice of OSX-like docks. The animation seems smoother than Y'z Dock and the icon-rendering seems crisper. It's also compatiable with skins for other docks and is designed with multiple-monitors in mind. But most importantly, RocketDocks development is active with good support for bugs you might find.

Taskbar Shuffle

Re-order your applications on the Windows Taskbar by dragging and dropping them, just like re-order tabs in Opera or Firefox.

TaskSwitchXP

TaskSwitchXP provides the same functionality as the existing application switching mechanism in Windows XP today. In addition to displaying an icon list, however, the application will also show a thumbnail preview of the window that will be switched to.

Visual Task Tips

Visual Task Tips provides thumbnail preview image for each task in the Windows Taskbar, as seen in the upcoming Microsoft Windows Vista. Handy for identifying which of the ten instance of Internet Explorer you want to switch to.

File Management

Copernic Desktop Search

Google Desktop was my first experience with a desktop search engine. It was an application I tried purely because of the hype around it. At first I thought it was kewl but didn't use it much, if ever. Then I heard of Copernic Desktop Search. It's better than GDS in every way and as a result I use it all the time. And it's free.

Directory Opus

If you spend any amount of time working with and managing files you need Directory Opus. It's a Windows Explorer replacement that has an overwhelming number of features — all extremely useful and most you want be able to live without once you discover them. Directory Opus is not free but is well worth the money.

JDiskReport

If you've ever ran out of space on your harddrive and you didn't know where the space went, JDiskReport is your friend. It analyses your disk and presents graphs and tables on where your disk space is being used — extremely useful. Oh, and it's free.

ZipGenius

Directory Opus handles both ZIP files and RAR files seamlessly (but can't create RAR files) so I resented having to install Zip utility for the few times idiots choose to use some bizzarre compressed archive format because it it get's an extra 1% compression. ZipGenius is clean, simple, light and supports every compressed archive format I know of.

Graphics

Inkscape

Inkscape is an opensource vector graphics editor like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw.  It uses the non-proprietary SVG file as its filetype so it's very open and friendly.  But since SVG is a format primarily developed for web use, Inkscape is not really suitable for commercial print work.  It is, however, fantastic for non-print work and I would argue that it's far easier to use than Illustrator and contains features Illustrator users have only ever dreamed of.

Colorpad

Colorpad is a very simple, light-weight, almost widget-like, application to quickly identify the colour of pixels displayed on your screen.  Simply drag your cursor anywhere on the screen to see it's Red/Green/Blue value and it's hexadecimal value.  Very hand for web developers when you need to identify a colour in a web page without viewing the CSS source, or dumping a screenshot into Photoshop.

Screenshot Captor

Donation-ware from DonationCoder.com that not only take screenshots with a variety of very useful options, such as grabbing a specific sized area of the screen, but can also autoscroll a windows so it can take a screenshot of something larger than your screen.  Quite useful for getting a screenshot of webpages.  You might also like to check out WinSnap which can't autoscroll a window, but does handle windows that are skinned with some transparency. 

Internet Applications

Opera

My browser of choice. It recently became a totally free application so there is no excuse for not trying it. I even used Opera's built in mail client M2 for a long time because of the benefits it has over other clients thanks to it's database backend. Unforunately it lacks a couple of essential features all other mail clients have so I abandoned it. Obviously the runner up would be Firefox but Opera is better suited to my preferences. Also, Opera.com has a great community that offers blogging and photo gallery hosting.

Azureus

Azureus is my prefered BitTorrent Client. I haven't tried many clients but Azureus is so good I don't feel a need to look to competing applications.

Office Applications

EverNote

This is a great little free application for storing notes. It uses a database backend making it very easy to find old notes. It also supports custom templates. Runner up goes to KeyNote but development of this application seems to have stopped a couple of years ago.

System Tools

Vembu Storegrid

Storegrid is an easy to use backup application for if you need to backup one PC or multiple PC's in a client/server configuration. It's free version is more than suitable for personal use.

Filed In:

• software

Comments