The Great Software List.

WORD PROCESSING
OpenOffice Writer (F)
The Open Source powerhouse (Writer) with a universal file format and great usability.
TextMaker
The best word processor you've never heard of. Now you have. Get this; be productive.
Zoho Writer (F)
Zoho brings never-seen-before tools to the word processor. I love this.
Google Docs (F)
Fast, responsive, and doesn't let you make a mistake. No footnotes yet, though!
LaTeX (F)
A typesetting program for technical and scientific documentation.




TEXT EDITING
EmEditor Pro
Well-designed for power, dazzling speed, and ease of use. Get this.
UltraEdit
Standard setting in almost every way, and great for writers, not just coders.
E Text Editor
Exciting, unique, powerful, and customizable. Wow.
PSPad (F)
The favorite freeware alternative that packs a full, advanced feature set.




OUTLINING, PIM, CALENDAR
Microsoft OneNote
The best outliner to date. More people should discover this gem.
Calendarscope
Broad options and print abilities define this app.
Google Calendar (F)
An online calendar that goes where you go.




OFFICE TOOLS
Algebrus Calculator
A sophisticated scientific calculator for both general and science work.
MoffSoft Calculator
Simple, powerful, flexible, customizable. Does every damn thing.
Karen's Time Cop (F)
General countdown/count up timer for every use.
Master Converter
Now I know that kbps is a measure of bandwidth!
Visual Thesaurus
Oh god, this app will make you a word smackfu master.




SPREADSHEET, MATH, DB
OpenOffice Calc
The spreadsheet with the best file format. It's so good it knocked MS Excel off the list.
ASAP Utilities
Makes you an expert with Excel and accesses its database features.
Power Utility Pak
Adds functionality to Excel that Microsoft forgot.
statistiXL
Forget all the rest, this is the best statistical app you'll find for college or grad school.
Math911
Are you math-stupid? Math911 will cure that right fast.




SYSTEM TOOLS
Autoruns (F)
Lets you control what programs run during system boot.
Chameleon Startup Manager
Fully controls startup by selecting the programs to be launched.
Process Explorer (F)
Shows you info about which handles and DLLs processes are opened or loaded.
VMWare Workstation
Virtualization app that allows you to evaluate software safely or use when needed.
Total Uninstall
Bulletproof uninstaller to keep your system safe and clean from crappy installers.
Your Uninstaller Pro
Combine this with Total Uninstall and you're in great shape.
Everest Diagnostic Utility
Incredible system diagnostics and benchmarking app.
TuneUp Utilities
Corrects problems and optimizes your system.
BartPE (F)
Helps you build a bootable Window CD or DVD.
nLite (F)
For permanent Windows component removal and pre-install Windows setup.
HDD Temperature
Protects your hard drive from melting.
Karen's Registry Pruner (F)
Removes ghosted and orphaned entries in your Registry.
Find and Run Robot (F)
Rapidly find programs or documents with one key press.
UltraMon
Software for running two or three monitors on one system.
ShellExView (F)
Removes those damn useless and unwanted context or right-click menu items.
ClearTweak (F)
Improves text display with ClearType and font smoothing.
TreeCopy (F)
Copies your folder structure, but not the files, to another location. Very handy.
BGInfo (F)
Quickly displays system info on any computer at a glance.
Quick Access Infobar (F)
Provides definitions of the processes running on your system.
BootIt NG
Powerful partition and boot manager, including managing multi-boot OSes.
CopyWipe
Securely overwrite data when retiring a HD or prevent data from being recovered.
Eraser (F)
Wipes clean all the free space on your computer, truly erasing all deleted files.
TreeSize Pro
Returns deep and detailed reports on the size and space of your system drives.
JDiskReport (F)
Somewhat similar to TreeSize Pro, only a light, free version.




PRINTING, FONTS, PDF
FinePrint
Virtual printing utility that saves you a ton of paper every year.
PDF Factory Pro
Damn fine and highly accurate PDF printer utility. You'll love it.
Nitro PDF
If you need standard scale PDF creation and management, then Nitro is it.
Cfont Pro Font Manager
Super flexible and well-designed font manager loaded with features.
Foxit PDF Reader (F)
Small, clean, fast, and free, Foxit renders PDF files with great speed.
MainType Font Manager
A well-coded advanced font manager with full Unicode support.
X-Fonter Font Manager
A traditional powerhouse font manager that can hang with anyone.




IMAGE VIEWERS/EDITORS
ACDSee 9, ACDSee Pro
The best photo viewer, graphic converter, and image management tool. Period.
XnView (F)
Freeware viewer and editor that holds its own against anyone.
FastStone MaxView (F)
Fantastic little app for opening photos for a customizable quick views.
PicaJet FX
An image management and organization tool that is similar to ACDSee.
IrfanView (F)
A perennial crowd favorite for good reason — it works very well with any format.
VuePrint (F)
Versatile viewer with some editing capabilities. Great for sifting through collections.
FastStone Image Viewer (F)
A strong browsing and editing features have quickly made FastStone a leader.




GRAPHICS, IMAGE TOOLS
PhotoFiltre Studio
Solid image editor that can do most of the tasks you'll need every day.
Noiseware
Makes digital photos better by filling in grain or smoothing out rough spots.
Screenshot Captor (F)
Incredible donationware screen capture utility that will instantly impress you.
SnagIt Screen Capture
Sets the standard for all other screen capture utilities. Takes some setup.
Multiple Image Resizer (F)
Easy, fast, accurate — that's what I like!
AutoStitch
Allows you to stitch together many photos in wide angle to create a panorama.
Pixeur (F)
Finds and displays the RGB, Hex, and Long value of any color you select.




MULTIMEDIA, VIDEO
VirtualDub (F)
Extremely efficient video capture and processing program.
ConvertXtoDVD
Converts any video file format (DivX, AVI, WMV, etc.) to a DVD-compliant video.
TMPGEnc (F)
MPEG-1,2 encoder that can convert and compress your video file in high quality.
GSpot Codec Info App (F)
Allows you to see what codecs you need installed to watch a video.
ProShow Gold
Allows you to create stunning and professional slide shows.
GOM Media Player (F)
Media player to die for. Highly customizable.
Media Player Classic (F)
You can't go wrong with this one; it plays every damn thing out there.
Video Edit Magic
Video editing tool that includes advanced features, but is easy to use.
AudioGrabber (F)
Useful tool for CD-ripping and producing MP3s.
Exact Audio Copy (F)
Advanced tool for CD-ripping and producing MP3s.
Audacity audio editor (F)
Solid audio editor that makes editing easy.
Nero Burning ROM
Highly reliable CD/DVD burning utility. I love it because it works every time.
DVD Shrink (F)
Tool for fitting a DVD-Video disc on a single DVD.
AnyDVD
Allows you to decrypt CSS-encrypted DVDs and remove their region codes on the fly.
ImgBurn (F)
Enables you to burn CD/DVD images with ease.
IsoBuster Pro
Powerful utility that can extract, create, edit, and convert CD/DVD image files.
UltraISO
Powerful utility that can extract, create, edit, and convert CD/DVD image files.
MagicScore Maestro
Music notation software for musicians. Great for collegers.




HOTKEYS, SCRIPTING
AutoHotkey (F)
Scripting utility to create your own macros and hotkeys. Get this. Learn this.
HotKeyz (F)
Excellent utility for creating Windows-wide hotkeys, expanding your keyboard.




ONLINE-ONLY APPS
Colour Contrast Check (F)
Helps determine the whether colors for your website are correctly contrasted.
Color Coordinator (F)
Helps determine the right color scheme for your website.
MetaLink Creator (F)
Allows users to connect to different download sources for your programs.
Lorem Ipsum generator (F)
A site that generates greek text in various fonts. You'll see it's use.
Google Calendar (F)
Simple but highly useful online calendar.




WEB-DEV: CSS, RSS, FTP
KompoZer (F)
An excellent HTML/CSS editor built on the NVU architecture.
Style Master CSS editor
Updated frequently and following the latest W3C standards, this is the one.
Microsoft Expression Web
Much better than its given credit for being, and damn easy to use.
Feed Editor
Build any RSS feed using this well-designed tool.
Opera browser (F)
The most accurate CSS browser ever built, to a fault, and my personal favorite.
Mozilla Firefox (F)
Wildly popular browser that is extensible, customizable, and updated frequently.
GreatNews RSS Reader (F)
Simple, elegant RSS reader that does no wrong.
Website-Watcher
Allows you to monitor changes in any website, while doubling as an RSS reader.
EmFTP Pro
Small, tight, well-designed FTP client.
FTPRush
Great FTP client that has set a new standard for all.
AI RoboForm Pro
A password utility and automatic form filler for your browser. Get this.
PADGen (F)
Creates perfect PAD files (Portable Application Descriptions) for your programs.
AM-DeadLink (F)
Detects dead links in your browser's bookmarks or favorites folders.
REL Link Checker Lite (F)
Detects dead links in your website's external links.
Xenu's Link Sleuth (F)
Also detects dead links in your website's external links.
XSite link extractor (F)
Load and parse any webpage into a simple structured view, seeing every link.
Search Engine Buddy (F)
Creates the best meta tag combinations for search engines to find your site.




USENET, P2P/FILE SHARING TOOLS Some of these apps are also listed in other categories
NewsLeecher
Top-of-the-line newsreader that downloads anything via Usenet.
Giganews
The proven best Usenet server you'll find. Get the Unlimited account, too.
WinRAR
The master of all archive tools, WinRAR can do almost everything.
QuickPAR (F)
Utility for creating, checking, and extracting Parity Volumes (PAR files).
NetLimiter Pro
Limits your download/upload bandwidth speed during peak times per app.
PowerPost-A&A (F)
An app for consistently and intelligently posting files to Usenet.
FastStone MaxView (F)
Fantastic little app for opening photos for a customizable quick views.
ArtCine NFO Creator (F)
The best NFO creation app available, hands down.
SFV Checker
Tool that ensures your multi-volume file archives are complete and accurate.
QuickSFV (F)
A tool for SFV (simple file verification) checking and creation. Just wonderful.
File Splitter and Joiner (F)
Allows you to quickly split and rejoin large text or binary files.
Miranda IM client (F)
A flexible, modular open-source multi-protocol instant messenger.
ImgBurn (F)
Enables you to burn CD/DVD images with ease.
HFS, HTTP File Server (F)
Fantastic file-sharing software which allows you to send and receive files.
ìTorrent (F)
Efficient, feature-rich BitTorrent client.




FILE MANAGERS
XYplorer File Manager
Best all-around customizable file manager with a Lifetime license.
Directory Opus
Advanced and highly customizable file manager that can do virtually anything.




FILE UTILITIES; RENAMERS; DUPLICATE FINDERS
Locate File Search Utility (F)
Saves the names of all files in your hard drives to a small file database.
FileLocator Pro
Excellent tool for searching your documents in numerous ways.
Advanced Find and Replace
Make global changes across many files and folders to any file.
Directory Lister (F)
Generates listings of files from user-selected folder in HTML, TXT or CSV format.
Beyond Compare
Essential utility for comparing text files, folders, archives, and FTP sites.
Bulk Rename Utility (F)
A well-designed fast, easy renamer with all its functions on one screen.
Flash Renamer
Flexible tool for renaming any file or folder.
CloneSpy Duplicate Finder (F)
I've tried and used many, but CloneSpy is my favorite.
Unlocker (F)
Tool to help delete locked files and folders.
KillBox (F)
A tool to delete in-use files or processes that won't close.
Copy It Anyway (F)
Tool that allows you to copy locked files and folders.




ARCHIVE, SYNCHING, DOWNLOAD TOOLS
Super Flexible File Sync.
Advanced, full of high-end features, and is the class of the category.
DirSync
A highly accurate synching and backup tool. You can rely on DirSync.
SyncBackSE
Allows you to backup or synchronize your files and directories.
WinRAR
The master of all archive tools, WinRAR can do almost everything.
7-Zip (F)
Nifty little archiver that lets you move to 7z format if you choose.
Squeez archiver
The most feature-rich archiver available.
Image for Windows
Backup and restore entire partitions/volumes for any hard drive.
UltraISO
Image utility for creating, editing, and converting CDs/DVDs.
File Splitter and Joiner (F)
Allows you to quickly split and rejoin large text or binary files.
Teleport Pro
High-end, easy-to-use tool for getting (leeching) data or entire websites.
Star Downloader Pro
Accelerates your downloads by splitting the files into several parts.
Free Download Manager (F)
Download files and whole web sites from any remote server.
NewsLeecher
Premier newsreader to download anything posted on Usenet.
NeoDownloader
Download photos, music, movies, and walk away.




SECURITY, PRIVACY TOOLS
TrueCrypt disk encryption (F)
Keeps your secrets secret and tell snoops to bugger off.
CCleaner (F)
Removes unused and temporary files from your system.
Spybot Search & Destroy (F)
Remove spyware and adware from your computer



The Great Software List is an advocate of great software along with notable Open Source software. It is composed of high quality programs that share most or all of the following features:

(1) Ease of use based on a well-designed user interface;
(2) A generous array of keyboard shortcuts (preferably customizable) ;
(3) Customizability where applicable; and
(4) Affordability.