This is the second part of the post 10 Must Have Programs/Applications on your Windows PC. Read the first part here.
5. Dropbox
These days you just can’t go on talking about anything tech wise without mentioning “the cloud”. Yes everything is nowadays hosted in the cloud. This is where Dropbox comes in. I know many have Dropbox accounts and occasionally use them. However have you ever taken your time to install the Dropbox app on your computer? Once installed, it allows easy syncing of all the files in your machine (the ones you have in your Dropbox folder) to the cloud for easy anywhere access. You don’t need to upload anything. Just make sure Dropbox is running when you are connected to the internet and it will do the rest. Sign up for Dropbox here.
Dropbox has recently been facing fierce competition from other applications and cloud solutions but trust me, it still is the best as far as ease of use and dependability is concerned. Soon Microsoft will get SkyDrive on our throats since it is a major app in its upcoming OS, Windows 8 but Dropbox is the darling you will find when you one day switch to any Linux distro. [I looked at various cloud apps and solutions earlier on here ].
6. Vuze
If you have watched the hit series Game of Thrones then you can bet with me that the seasons (er… there are just two as far as I know) were downloaded in the form of torrents. I have tried the famous BitTorrent client and several others like UTorrent but I just have a strong liking for Vuze. It is simple, fast and has an interface that won’t confuse you with several options you surely don’t need. Everyone torrents files, so should you!
7. Freemake Video Converter
I have been a longtime user of Total Video Converter (TVC) and would always recommend it. That was until I met Mr Freemake. Freemake Video Converter is just the best. It has a better interface when compared to the hazy Windows XP look of TVC and converts at lightning speed. I always bundle over 100 .flv files for conversion to MP3/MP4 that my Droid can play and they are normally ready in a few minutes without any errors.
8. Ava Find
Most of us have so many files on their computers. Of course we all know how bad the file search utility is on Windows hence the need for third party apps. Ava Find does just fine here. It will search and index files in the background; in fact it does this much faster than any other utility I have come across more so when you add a voluminous drive like a 500 Gb external hard disk drive. With the Pro version of Ava Find, your context sensitive menu (left mouse click) becomes useful once again and you can cut, send to, copy and do all sorts of things that the basic version does not allow you to.
9. Notepad++
Notepad vs. Notepad++. Notice the difference.
Not everyone is a coder but for those who do, we know the saying that a true coder does not over-rely on IDEs when you don’t need extra options or an additional coding/programming environment. Before you use an IDE or a compiler, if the task simply requires use of Notepad then use Notepad++. It is many times better than the normal Notepad utility that ships with Windows.
10. SuperCopier
SuperCopier at work
I know you’ll remind me of Tera Copy, Ultra Copy, Extreme Copy and the like but unlike the rest which require a Pro version (bought at a couple of $$ if you don’t do cracked stuff), SuperCopier works without any limitations out of the box. The interface may not be that great but hey, it does what it is supposed to. Want to know what I’m saying? Give it a try.
NB:
- The listing does not in any way reflect the order of their importance; it is random. All of them are equally essential.
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