In the music players section MusicBee is king, no room for argument there, but what about other areas?
I would be interested what software everyone uses everyday, be it freeware or not and maybe reason for their choice. I always was, and still I'm, a software junkie and love uncovering those not so well known gems. It's been some time now since I settled on a carefully selected few that I find indispensable but I'm keeping my options open
So here's my list
Indispensable software:
* MusicBee - best music player hands down free or paid
* PotPlayer - best video player hands down free or paid (imo). Very frequently updated. English version found here:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/PotPlayer where you can set up an update email notification as well. EDIT 28/04/2016 - I have been playing around with MPC-BE recently. MPC-BE/HC have come a long way and I'd say is up to you what you use. Especially on older hardware they have the upper hand.
*
Launchy - Very good, open-source, program launcher, no need for a start menu (especially now with the horrendous Win 8 start screen), desktop icons, quick launch bar... You'll instantly become more productive. Note that it uses indexing, if you don't like that try Find and Run Robot which is even more flexible and tweak-friendly.EDIT 28/04/2016 - Replaced with KeyPirinha. This is the launcher we have been all waiting for since the demise of launchy (still perfectly fine but development has stopped since a few years). If you don't mind fidling around with text files for the settings (ala Sublime Text) this launcher is already one of the best at what it does in spite its young age. One to watch, definitely!
* Everything Search - extremely lightweight free search utility and more importantly gets results instantly. Once you start using it you will wonder how you manged before that . Found at
www.voidtools.com * Listary - type-to-locate done right, free but pro version available. Gets better and better with every release. It may replace everything search for me in the future but for now searching is not what I use it for.
*
ArsClip - best clipboard manager IMO, free, how can anyone live without one is beyond me EDIT 28/04/2016- Replaced by Ditto. Both are feature complete, as far as functionality goes they are at the top in this category. What made me switch was Ditto's easy to access search function plus better performance/responsiveness (in my experience).
*
Opera browser - still loyal... The new Opera is based on Chromium (basically uses the same engine used by Chrome). It feels like a lighter more snappy version of Chrome with some additional features in some areas while missing some elsewhere. Developer stream/beta versions can be found here (that's what I use): http://blogs.opera.com/desktop/ (the last few builds look very promising for things to come)EDIT 28/04/2016 - Replaced by Vivaldi. Old Opera (< v.12) spirit lives on.
Secondary List:
* Process Hacker - powerful open-source task manager
* Uninstall Tool - unfortunately not free but its the most straightforward and well designed uninstall manager I found. Home page:
www.crystalidea.com* Tixati - most tweak-happy torrent client available, open-source. Don't expect anything fancy but functionality-wise its second to none
* AMPWinOFF - advanced timed shutdown utility, free
* ShareX
PicPick - one of the two best free screen capture utilities, the other one is Screenshot Captor. I was searching for a utility that could automate the process of uploading images right after capture. Luckily I stumbled upon ShareX, an open source utility that not only is feature complete its flexibility is immense. I'm in love with this program especially because it makes uploading screenshots on the forums a breeze. For example, with a single key press the program allows me to capture a region, save the image to disk, upload the image to imgur, copy the image url to clipboard as bbcode and copy the image to clipboard as well. And this is just a very basic example.
* Autohotkey - Really powerful automation and macro-creation tool.
*
DeskPins - simple utility to make any window stay-on-top, free EDIT 28/04/2016 - Now use an AutoHotkey command instead bound to keyboard key combination.
* BandiZip - the only freeware archiver that does everything I wish (after making the move from WinRar), their other programs are decent as well.
*
Fastone Image Viewer - free image viewer/manager, quick, stylish, feature rich. All you could ask for EDIT 28/04/2016- Replaced by HoneyView (from the makers of BandiZip. Much more straightforward, simpler and mainly snappier for my simple needs.
* Freemake Video Converter - I think the interface is geared mostly towards novice users but still, its easily one of the better free video converters
* Jing - free and basic but all you will ever need for quick video captures of your screen. Made by the same guys behind Camtasia and SnagIt
* Sublime Text - extremely fast, productive and feature rich programmer's notepad. Steep price but can be used freely as nagware. It's class leading in terms of productivity. These video tutorials should give you a better idea why I say that:
http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/news/perfect-workflow-in-sublime-text-free-course/* CCleaner - Everyone is already using this probably, and for a good reason. Cleans unnecessary files with a single click.
Now let me hear your choices