Jeff’s Favorite Software
It has been a crazy couple of days, but in the middle of work and many, many, many Christmas parties, I’ve managed to creep along in re-installing all of my favorite applications after baselining my PC last weekend. It is amazing how many little applications I installed over the course of last year that I now find invaluable.
I thought it would do me some good to list the programs I really like here, and perhaps you’d find them useful too.
* Mozilla Firefox - This is a must-have application in my book. Others have reviewed it better than I could hope to ever do, but in short, I don’t even need Internet Explorer anymore — Firefox is that good.
* Startup Control Panel - High on the list of the applications I cannot live without. Startup CPL simply shows you what programs are trying to start when you startup Windows. You can uncheck any of them to disable them. So sweet.
* Whisper32 - I discovered this little password keeping program several years ago, and still find it incredibly useful. It is simple, lightweight, and just does what it is supposed to do — keep my passwords for me.
* AntiVir - I got tired of Norton AntiVirus taking more and more memory to run — I think the executable I was running was taking around 8 Mb in TaskManager. AntiVir meets my requirements — autoupdates, catches the viruses, and has a footprint of only 4.4 Mb when running.
* Notepad2 - I love this little replacement for the Windows Notepad. It is a small program, but adds just enough - code coloring and brace/parenthesis matching. I don’t need a lot from a notepad replacement, but this one offers just enough. I’ve also used Metapad with great results.
* Microsoft Office XP - I have a hard time living without the Office suite, and though I’ve tried the OpenOffice alternative, it just isn’t as crisp. I use Office XP, however, because Office 2003 seems way too bloated. If I had to choose between Office 2003 and OpenOffice, the decision would have been much harder.
* Visio 2000 - My favorite diagraming software. I use this when writing software design documents primarily, but also to create illustrations for various presentations. I’ve been using Visio since before it was bought by Microsoft. Microsoft made it better through Visio 2000. Then they made it worse. Again, the bloat is crippling in the later versions.
* Quicken 2003 - I have used Quicken to manage my personal finances since version 5. I think that means I’ve been using it for about seven or eight years. You know how everyone got version happy and changed things to years when Windows 95 came out, so I’m guessing Quicken 1996 came out after version 5. Anyway. I’m on the upgrade every two years cycle. So Quicken 2005 will be my next upgrade.
* PDF Creator - I used to use Adobe Acrobat, and in fact still have the license for it, but have found this free alternative to render some more complex documents more accurately. Surprisingly, Acrobat chokes on some of my Visio diagrams, while PDF Creator whips them out with ease.
* Spybot Search & Destroy - Spybot is a great little tool to clean up the various spyware that may hitch a ride as I surf the net. With Firefox as my default browser, I’m curious to see how much spyware I attract in the coming months.
* SpywareBlaster - This app blocks known bad ActiveX spyware, which is important if you insist on using Internet Explorer. I don’t, but from time to time I still need IE — like when updating Windows — so I protect IE with this bad boy.
* CloneCD - Just about the fastest way to duplicate a CD. I’m a big fan of their simple, task oriented interface, without adding endless features I’ll never use.
* Nero - When I need to create a more complex CD, whether bootable, or a compilation, I use Nero. Hands down my favorite CD burning software.
* Dreamweaver MX - I’ve always enjoyed tinkering with web pages — Dreamweaver is the tool for experienced tinkerers. I can code in Notepad, but when Dreamweaver does just as good of a job, and reduces my workload, why would I?
* VisualStudio.NET 2003 - My development environment of choice. I went to school where they tried to teach me to be a Unix programmer — and found that I enjoyed programming so much more when I used VS. Right now, programming is just a hobby for me. Perhaps some day I’ll become a real programmer and get paid for it.
* AIM/Gaim - I’m trying out Gaim, but have used AIM for years. The verdict is still out on this one.
* TreeSize - I found this little application a few years ago. It is wonderful for seeing how much data you’ve managed to pack-rat away in various folders. Also great for seeing if a folder could be backed up to CD. It adds a “Treesize” option to the right-click menu of folders, and shows you the file tree with calculated file sizes.