Cool Applications List... (Mac, Windows & Linux)

[Stephen@VWvortex]

This thread will work very similar to the DIY\FAQ threads in some of the other forums. When you find a cool application simply start a new thread about it that contains the following information...

Name of the application

An example or description of what it does

What type of application it is (system tool, graphics utility, background, etc...)

Most importantly, a link where to download it

Then contact a moderator using the 'Alert Moderator" function. This will automatically supply a link to the thread. You just need to let them know you would like it added to the "Cool Applications" thread.

Alert Moderator - How To Report A Post To A Moderator

This thread was inspired by Chuck101's thread... Ars' "Neat Application" Forum.

You may also want to visit the VWVortex Cool Flash Games List

[Stephen@VWvortex]

- - ----==== Macintosh Applications ====---- - -

System Utilities
Desktop Manager - is one of the coolest virtual desktop pagers I've seen. If you have a Quartz Extreme capable video card, it'll do cool transitions while switching between desktops. And it's Freeware! - jerk

CodeTek Virtual Desktop - Excellent multiple-desktop utility for OS X. I don't know if I could live without multiple desktops anymore. - tulmad

Fruitmenu - Brings back the old, modifiable Apple Menu to OS X. - tulmad

FuzzyClock - New clock for the menu bar that tells time in "fuzzy" terms like "half past 5" or "10 till 3". - tulmad

Konfabulator - Desktop utility that allows you to park "widgets" all over your desktop. - VW Lou

LaunchBar - "It provides instant access to thousands of documents, folders, bookmarks and email addresses, applications and preference panes just by entering short abbreviations of the searched item's name." - ChrisMD

MacJanitor - Runs the system's 3 maintenance scripts (a must, unless you leave your comp on 24/7 without sleep mode, etc). - ilovethecure

MenuMeters - Resource meters for RAM, CPU, network, and Disk that sit in the menu bar. - tulmad

USB Overdrive - The USB driver for every mouse/gamepad/joystick. Has far more options that the standard Mouse control panel, or most manufacturer drivers for that matter. - tulmad

LittleSnitch
Extremely cool application that allows you to control connections out of your computer. Good for the extremely paranoid who like to know exactly what applications send data back home. - tulmad

Carbon Copy Cloner
Great app for saving your whole OS including home folder and settings, etc. Absolutley wonderful if you just got a new computer and want to have your exact old computer on it. I also use it as a backup, it can make a nice handy disk image. - Andrman

Fink
Bring the beauty of UNIX open source to your Mac with Darwin! Kind of confusing at first, if anyone needs help ask me because theres lots of cool free software to be had. It keeps everything in it's own folder on your disk so you can clean it all out at once if you want. I started out very confused but think it's really great now. Pair it with FinkCommander, below. Has put Terminal and X11 in my dock, if that says anything - Andrman

Ucontrol - Allows you to map keys differntly, and also allows your trackpad to scroll when you press a key (of your choice). Now supported in 10.3 Panther - Andrman

SynergyKM - Very nice simple to use GUI front end for Synergy. Allows you to control multiple systems with one keyboard and mouse. - Oliver@triplezoom

Web Apps
Transmit - Excellent FTP utility for those who don't like the command line. - CanuckPal

PithHelmet - Safari browser plugin, "PithHelmet adds some some basic but powerful content filtering to Apple's Safari browser. The basic purpose is to block ad images, but there are other potential uses as well (blocking Flash, Shockwave or horrible midi loops).". - ChrisMD

Smultron - I have been looking for a good HTML Editor for my iBook for a long time - I've used BBEdit, and I know how great it is, but I was convinced I could find something cheaper (or free) that met most of my needs. I tried nearly all of them, looking through my Apps folder: PageSpinner, SEEdit, skEdit, Taco HTML Edit, Tag, TextWrangler. Then today while looking at yet another on SourceForge (which I ended up not downloading), I found Smultron. It's awesome - if you've just been using TextEdit or one of the others I listed, then you need to try it out. - paskal

Graphic Tools
GraphicConverter - I'd be REALLY hard-pressed to find a graphics format that this program won't open/convert/edit/etc. With batch converts, slideshows, and lots of other cool features, this is one of those tools that everyone should have. - tulmad

Screen Savers
Fluid - Extremely cool liquid-like screensaver for OS X. - tulmad

Misc. Applications
Adium - Chat Client for OS X - B(C)orrado

Audio Hijack - Sweet program that will record sound from any application. Useful for lots of stuff, like ripping sound from mp3 streams. - tulmad

BBEdit - The ultimate text editor for MacOS (9 or X), if not really pricey ($179). - tulmad

Fire - Trillian-like IM client but doesn't allow multiple connections to same service. - ChrisMD

iPhoto Buddy - launches and creates multiple iphoto libraries. Slicker than SNOT! - Bixmen

Irssi - Console-based IRC client. Not really OS X specific, but the best IRC client I've ever used. Supports multiple windows/channels/servers, ssl, plugin support... - tulmad

MacPAR Deluxe - Finally a program that can actually handle PAR files from newsgroups well, unlike Stuffit that just chokes on them. - tulmad

Open Office - An open-source freely-downloadable Office equivalent for Mac, Windows, and Linux - Trikes

Proteus - An easy to configure all-in-one chat client. Allows you to connect to AIM, Yahoo, IRC, etc. simultaneously. It also allows multiple connections of each, in the event you have multiple screen-names for each service. - passatrcr, update by egecko

Salling Clicker - Must-have utility for your bluetooth toys (PDA/cell phone). Supports quite a few models and it's cheap! - jerk

TweakWaves - This is a real time wave generator. - sennaf1 Thread

VLC Media Player - This is a great app for playing .avi and .wmv files. - maXor

CiphSafe
Password storage app, it encrypts the file so you don't have to worry. It's either free or donationware, but I prefer Web Confidential b/c there is a Palm verion for that too, so you can sync. - Andrman

Clutter
Simply cool app that makes virtual CDs for iTunes. You can place the CDs on your desktop and just double click them to play in iTunes. Makes you anal about getting the album art for all your songs though - Andrman

MPlayer OS X 2
Plays DIVX AVIs, Windows Media Files, pretty much everything. I only use it for what QT player doesn't like. - Andrman

Web Confidential - 30 Day Trial -
The best password storage app I've found so far. Simple as that Is keychain-savvy, so I have it import from my keychain every once in a while (it won't duplicate old entries, it just adds new ones). Once my 30 day trial is up I'm totally buying it. - Andrman

VideoLAN - Free Software and Open Source video streaming solution for every OS! DVD play back without decoder card. - Ryuujin

Phone Agent - Manage your phonebook, create/edit/receive SMS messages, create/edit MMS messages, exchange files, manage WAP bookmarks, write notes, and create/edit themes. - VW Lou

Delicious Library - by Delicious Monster for OS X. this app rocks. It catalogs your DVD, game, CD, and book library for you. you can use a DV Camera (iSight, camcorder, etc) to scan the bar codes in and the program will try to lookup all the info on amazon. It gets the cover art, synopsis, director/author, etc. Also keeps track of who has your stuff with a "checkout" card system. You can import contact info from AddressBook. Very cool program. $40 for the full version, but totally worth it. - JediCorrado

iTunes Publisher - iTunes Publisher 4 exports playlists from iTunes into the following formats: HTML, Tabbed-Text, Quicktime Streaming Server and M3U. - phishingls

Abyss - Abyss Web Server is a free personal web server for Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. Despite its tiny footprint (the executable file size is less than 112 KB); it supports HTTP/1.1, dynamic content generation through CGI/1.1 scripts, SSI, custom error pages, and access control. It features also a remote web management interface that makes its configuration as easy as browsing a web site. - youngvw

Quicksilver (OS X) - Application launcher. For example to launch safari I type command+space and then 's' and it comes up with safari. Has many more uses as well. And its FREE. - gtivr4

Photo Desktop (OS X) - Allows you to put individual 'poloroids' of any image and lay it out in any pattern acrross your screen.

SizzlingKeys - Handy control panel that allows you to map function keys and other key strokes to iTunes commands. - Oliver@triplezoom

Gas Widget - Press F12, and you'll find the cheapest gas in town.. - Kar98

MAMP - One click installation of Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Gives you choice of PHP 4 or 5. - Oliver@triplezoom

[Stephen@VWvortex]

- - ----==== Windows Applications ====---- - -

Active @ UNDELETE
Restores files form damaged drives and possibly those you have deleted $29 - Srexy

Ad-Aware
Spyware Removal Tool, rids your system of invasive programs that track and report your internet activity to target advertising. - Passater

Aida32
AIDA32 is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program including network audit and audit statistics, remote system information and network management. -- Chuck101

Batch Rename
Super Convenient Batch rename tool. -Lunitixx

BGinfo
Desktop Displayed System monitor software. -Hostile

BootDisk
You can build some highly flexible boot disks, and CDs - Digitalcandy

Burn to the Brim
Burn to the Brim is an open-source freeware program designed to make selection of files to optimally fill a CD a breeze. -Lunitixx

CoolMon
Desktop Displayed System monitor software-Lunitixx

Daemon Tools
Lets you mount ISO's as virtual Drives. Nice if you're a gamer and are tired of putting the CD in the drive. -Lunitixx

EditPlus
EditPlus is an Internet-ready 32-bit text editor, HTML editor and programmers editor for Windows. - 1.8TWolfsberg

The File Splitter
It will split any file into any number of smaller pieces. You point it to the file, tell it what size to make the pieces and it will caclulate how many pieces you will have. When it's done splitting it creates an exe file that will put them all back together. Great app! - Hostile

Listmaker
Creates a text list of all the files in a folder such as mp3/AVI/Jpeg -Lunitixx

Powermenu
Gives you minimize to tray and transparency options on every window. -Lunitixx

SnadBoys Revelation
Reveals the actual text of ****** Password boxes in case you cant remember your stored outlook password.-Lunitixx

SpyBot Search and Destroy
Same type of program as Ad-Aware but each program catches things that the other might miss. Best to download and run both. - Passater

StatBar
A program that has many different monitors that runs at the bottom / top of screen like a startbar. - landrumdh

TurboNote
A sticky note program for your computer. - landrumdh

Ultramon
Taskbar on secondary monitors, as well as other cool multi-monitor features (wallpaper, screensavers, etc) It's pretty inexpensive for what it does.. well worth the money if you have multiple monitors! - Jaw

WinBar
Puts a skinny bar on the desktop that displays system status, news tickers, up/download rates, etc. - CanuckPal

TrayIt
Allows you to minimize any window to the system tray with 1 click. - landrumdh

Tweak UI
Allows you to tweak Windows to your liking. Lets you do stuff like getting rid of balloon tips, choose mouse hover sensitivity, and hide control panel extensions. - silverzee

AVG Antivirus
Free antivirus program that is regularly updated, sometimes 3 times in one day! No fancy options, but it's better than nothing. - silverzee

ZipGenius 5
Get this if you don't like how Windows XP handles compressed files or need it for a previous version of Windows. Can extract several types of compressed files and create zip files. - silverzee

SmartFTP
FTP software that has a nice, easy to use interface. Has other features that make it more than a pretty face, but I've never used them. - silverzee

Process Explorer
It shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded (description taken from the website). It helped me to delete a file that another program was using and wouldn't let go of. Doesn't need to be installed to run. - silverzee

OpenOffice.org
Free office suite that has a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing software. Great for people who can't afford the hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office. File size is 63.5 MB. - silverzee

Mozilla Suite and Firefox
Mozilla Suite has a browser, mail, composer, and chat programs. It includes tabbed browsing, spam filtering, and popup blocking. Firefox is a browser only that is small and fast. Best part is that both browsers can be easily tweaked with the user.js and userchrome.css files. You can adjust page rendering speed, block javascript on certain sites, and change the color of your browser for example. - silverzee

F Lock Key Flip
Makes the F keys on your Microsoft Keyboard work like a normal one. No more hitting the F Lock button after restarts. - silverzee

synergy2
I've been using it all day at work on my two XP machines and so far it's awesome. Basically you install it on any machine you want to connect to, setup one as the server and one as the client. One of the coolest features is that it also shares the clipboard between the computers. This is a great alternative to hardware-based KVMs. - Hostile

Web Apps
AM Deadlink
Searches and verifies all the bookmarks you have. -Lunitixx

Download Pictures Toolbar
Automatically download all the full size photos from a thumbnails page. -Lunitixx

DynDNS
This is for hosting your own pics from your house, hosting your own e-mail, creating a Domain name for many services, etc... RDC, FTP, VPN, VNC, the list goes on and on. - slvrathlon

FileXT.com
This is for figuring out what applications use a file with any given extension. - Hostile

HTML Kit
HTML and other web editor... very very nice. - VwG60Kid

LeechFTP
FTP program that supports multiple threads and minimizes to system tray -- landrumdh

Iespell
The best IE spellchecker made. Right click spell check on any internet text box entry. - Lunitixx

MailWasher
View your email before you download it to your PC. Features include spam filters and the ability to "bounce" back unwanted messages to the sender, telling them that your email address does not exist - chris98GTI

PostCast Server
Free SMTP server software. Very useful, high capacity, highly configurable. - Passater

Proxomitron
Ad and popup blocker - rossi46

PuTTY
An SSH / Telnet client -- landrumdh

RasPPPoE
Program to replace ISP specific PPPoE programs on pre-windows XP Operating Systems. -- landrumdh

Trillian
A single program that supports AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Y!, Jarba as well as a load of other plugins. -- landrumdh

WinSCP
SCP file transfer tool... for when you need to transfer files over ssh. - VwG60Kid

Graphic Tools
Cpicker
The best free color picker ever. -Lunitixx

Imagizer2
lightweight multi-threaded C# application to convert a folder full of images from one file format to another - PhReE

IrfanView
small, free, fast, Graphics viewer. - VwG60Kid

Open Canvas 1.1
Freeware (for this version) natural media paint program... great for people with tablets.. not so useful for those without... Has an awesome network feature in this version as well that is great to have 2-4 people draw together on the same canvas. - VwG60Kid

PDF Creator
PDFCreator is the easy way of creating PDFs out of common software Like Word, StarCalc oder every other Windows Application that uses the Windows Printers. - chuck101

Screen Savers
Matrix Screen Saver
A screen saver that looks similar to the Matrix move. - landrumdh

Z Matrix
A program that can b e used as a background or a screensaver that looks like the matrix - Black Lightning

Misc.
Windows XP processes explained
The most concise list of what these processes are and do. - TBT-PassatG60

VideoLAN - Free Software and Open Source video streaming solution for every OS! DVD play back without decoder card. - Ryuujin

Convert.exe - Convert.exe, no installation .exe file that converts hundreds of measurements, conversion tool. - Digitalcandy

Abyss - Abyss Web Server is a free personal web server for Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. Despite its tiny footprint (the executable file size is less than 112 KB); it supports HTTP/1.1, dynamic content generation through CGI/1.1 scripts, SSI, custom error pages, and access control. It features also a remote web management interface that makes its configuration as easy as browsing a web site. - youngvw

WinPlosion - Exposé for Windows - ChrisMD

Qm - The Quick Mailer - Qm is an extremely small, fast program for sending E-mail. Its size and flexibility make it ideal for those times you want to quickly send messages or files without starting a large E-mail suite. You can download it for free. - ThunderGolf

Modified by rich! at 9:27 AM 11-14-2009

[Stephen@VWvortex]

- - ----==== Linux Applications ====---- - -

System Utilities
Conky is a free, light-weight system monitor for X, that displays any information on your desktop. Conky is licensed under the GPL and runs on Linux and BSD

Web Apps

Graphic Tools
GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

Screen Savers

Misc. Applications

Gnome-Do - It is an application launcher (and more) influenced by Quicksilver (Mac). hollec

VideoLAN - Free Software and Open Source video streaming solution for every OS! DVD play back without decoder card. - Ryuujin

Abyss - Abyss Web Server is a free personal web server for Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. Despite its tiny footprint (the executable file size is less than 112 KB); it supports HTTP/1.1, dynamic content generation through CGI/1.1 scripts, SSI, custom error pages, and access control. It features also a remote web management interface that makes its configuration as easy as browsing a web site. - youngvw

Modified by Oliver@triplezoom at 11:11 PM 6-9-2008


Modified by rich! at 8:15 PM 8-3-2008