Author Topic: Software beyond MusicBee  (Read 78805 times)

AnonGuyy

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One of the little programs I use are "Unlocker".  This nifty little one will find what processes are "using" empty folders, etc. and give you the option to kill them and then rename, delete, etc. the folder (or file).  True that's it's only purpose, but it's a hellovalot easier trying to figure out what process is using "This folder cannot be deleted because it is being used *insert no information ever here*".  :P
http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/

For documenting, I use LibreOffice.  At first I was loyal to OpenOffice, but then I read up somewhere that they've had problems and a "history".  Whatever that may have meant, I just didn't really trust it anymore.  That and the fact that it added another process to the windows start up list, in which helped OpenOffice open "faster".  Btw, from what I feel, LibreOffice opens faster and it doesn't even use that kind of process.  :P
https://www.libreoffice.org/

For making my taskbar look neat-o, I use AreoBlend.  This application has a few settings to be had, but I use the option that uses the average colour of the desktop to apply it to my windows theme.  It's little thing, but I like it a lot.  [:  It's really nice when you have a bunch of wallpapers that rotate.  Now your taskbar and unthemed windows will match your wallpaper.  [:
http://www.carthagosoft.net/AeroBlend.php

Types...  This being the hardest damned piece of software to find if you don't back it up or remember the url is, nonetheless, pretty great.  I use this application to edit file type associations (and sometimes remove completely  because 'No windows, I didn't want to use notepad as the default to open .flac files', but thanks for having that check box automatically checked'.  Also, I hate it when you change the association and Windows goes full lazy and displays the logo as that bent piece of paper with the programs .ico on it.  So I use Types to change that too.  :P
http://izt.name/apps/types/

WinDirStat is a pretty cool utility.  Have you ever wanted to see how big a file is or how big a folder is compared to the rest of your drive?  Well than you'll like this utility.  Although it has no tools to optimize, clean, sort anything it's nice to just put into a visual representation of how big something is.  After seeing that, you can decide yourself whether or not "do I really need this file?"  :P
http://windirstat.info/

And of course, last but not least, MusicBee!  What can I say?  MusicBee is the only music player I have ever liked and enjoyed using.  (:  So yeah, if you don't have that yet, get it!  (:
http://getmusicbee.com/

And here's a list that might come in handy for all of you who like to keep their music under control and clean.  :P
- Bulk Rename Utility | This could be used for more than just renaming music files, but I haven't found that purpose yet.  I also don't use it anymore because of the next program on the list (that and it was a bit advanced and confusing to learn how to use).
- mp3Tag | I have to say..  I LOVE this application.  I use this now to re-name my files because it's just faster and more convenient!  You can edit all the tags, get the tags from Amazon music, MusicBrainz, etc.  Add/remove album art and on and on.  It's a really nice tool!
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
- mp3Gain | I use this because I hate it when I have one song that's kinda quiet so turn it up up just a little..  And then the next song is VERY VERY LOUD OMFG GAH EAR EXPLOSION DEAD.  You get the point..  xP  But yeah, this software allows you to change the dB of .mp3 files (I don't know if others are supported).
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

And here's a list of other softwares:
PDF view/creator: FoxIt | http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/
Antivirus: Avast! | http://www.avast.com/en-us/index | Although recently it's been pissing me off, thinking about trying Avira and if not that, just going back to MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials).

And that's all.  Sorry for the super long post or if any of these were up elsewhere, I only skimmed through everything.  :P

MichaelJ

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My brother is constantly trying to make me switch to Linux but there are some programs that stop me ;)

Tag&Rename - A fantastic program that I could not live without. It is payware but ONCE you get free upgrades for life!!
I bought 1.1 and today I got 3.8 :) I have 10 TB so it's userdefined renaming and the ability to check the files against FreeDB is reallyfantastic. Try it!!
There is a 30 day version at softpointer.com

Adobe Lightroom - Everything that you need to optimize your pictures (if you are not into faking things) and you can play around to your hearts content without destroying your picture. You can always go back to ANY point because the program does not alter the file it just adds a script to the file sothere is no need to "save as" because you don't save ;) You export the file to be printed as a JPEG but the original RAW is still there!!

Agent - For email. I got it ca 1995 when it was still beta (I'm an old geezer ;D) and would almost die if someone took it away from me. It is really safe because you have to open HTML manually if you have not told the program it's a trusted sender so there is no risk of accidentaly getting a trojan or something like that.

And of course MB!!! The only program that can handle the amount of files that I send it :-*

There is no match for those in any other operating system (you can get Lightroom for Mac) so my brother will hope in wain for my transfer to Linux ;)

ma_t14

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Just changed my screenshot capture program of choice from PicPick to ShareX. I added a description to the original post. I am really impressed with the capabilities and flexibility this programs offers, everything is just on point. The last time I felt about a program like that was when I discoverd MusicBee. Highly recommended to anyone who uploads screenshots frequently as it makes the whole process extremely straightforward.
Last Edit: July 14, 2014, 01:58:47 AM by ma_t14

Sigma

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MicroBin - This places a small recycle bin in the system tray, so that you no longer need the desktop icon. Right-click it and you get a menu where you can open or empty the bin or just double-click it to empty it. It's free and there's another free version called MiniBin that has more options.

Driver Booster - This scans your PC then tells you if your drivers are up to date. If not, you can update any outdated ones with a single click. It has various options, such as the option to only install drivers that have passed WHQL testing. There's free and paid for versions, with the latter having more options.

LICEcap - This basically gives you a resizeable frame that allows you to capture an area of your screen directly to an animated GIF. You can move the frame around while you're recording. It's free.

Icaros - By default Windows will only show thumbnails for certain audio/video files if property handlers are present for those file types. Icaros adds in the ability for Windows to generate thumbnails for other files types, such as MKV, FLV and FLAC. You can customise which file types you want to show thumbnails for and you can select how far through video files that thumbnails are generated using a slider. It's free.

WizTree - This is a handy tool that allows you to see how much space files and folders are taking up on your drives. It will also give you a list of the top 1,000 largest files on your system. It's really fast and it's handy if you've suddenly lost a bunch of drive space and can't figure out why. It's free.

ShellNewHandler - This is a free tool that allows you to clean up the "New" right-click context menu in Windows. It often gets cluttered up with stuff that you don't need. It uses a checkbox system, so you simply uncheck the boxes next to the items you want to remove from the menu and if you later change your mind you just go back in and re-check them.

Sumatra PDF - This is a free, fast and very lightweight PDF reader. It's only got a basic feature set, but if all you want is to read, search and save PDFs - including in your web browser - then this is great. It can read a few other file types too, such as ePub and CBR/CBZ comic book files.

Mp3Tag - A powerful and free tag editor. What I love about this is the ability to create actions, so, for example, in 1 click I can tag an album based on the folder and file names, embed album art, set all of the words to the correct case, remove underscores etc. and it also supports pulling in metadata from several different services.

DriveSort - This sorts files on a drive based on their name. It's handy if you have a car stereo that you can plug a USB stick into, as typically, the car stereo will scroll through the list of files based on the date they were added to the stick, so you're not browsing in alphabetical order. This is a free way to fix that so you can browse alphabetically.

Last Edit: July 20, 2014, 05:37:32 AM by Sigma

Storris

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I've just been pointed to here - http://samplerateconverter.com/content/how-work-sigma-delta-modulation-audio - in another forum.

The article is a brief description of a software developer's work to convert various audio files.  At the bottom of the article is a download for a trial version of the software he created.  It converts all files, including mp3, dsf and 384kHz PCM.  The paid versions range from $30 - $200, and the free version is limited, .dsf conversions are limited to 3 minute tracks, but as a batch converter for more standard files I've found that it works very well.

I can't guarantee the quality or security, but it appears to use FFmpeg where possible as well as proprietary code for the higher-res files.

psychoadept

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If anybody's looking for a good wallpaper manager for multiple monitors, I found this after trying several things that didn't work nearly as well:

http://windowbox.me/multiwall/
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ThY

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If anybody's looking for a good wallpaper manager for multiple monitors, I found this after trying several things that didn't work nearly as well:

http://windowbox.me/multiwall/

When it's about wallpapers and multi-screens, i've never found a better software than Wall Switch, it's free and can handle tons of thousands of pictures all the way, with profils and shortcuts.

I tried a real lot of softwares for this purpose, still updated and still the best for me.

http://wallswitch.codeplex.com/

psychoadept

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Cool, I'll give that a try.  The problem I ran into that caused me to go looking for something in the first place was that a lot of these programs, including Windows itself, don't deal well with monitors of different sizes.
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ThY

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Cool, I'll give that a try.  The problem I ran into that caused me to go looking for something in the first place was that a lot of these programs, including Windows itself, don't deal well with monitors of different sizes.

I'm running on a tri-screens display, 1920 x 1200, 2560 x 1440 and 1920 x 1080, Wall Switch manages it perfectly.
I chose to have different pictures on each monitor, no problem with that. You can also have a smooth transition between pictures changing.

In my personnal case, the problem i had with the other softwares, was that no one was able to manage huge collection of pictures in "random / shuffle" mode.

psychoadept

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I'm running on a tri-screens display, 1920 x 1200, 2560 x 1440 and 1920 x 1080, Wall Switch manages it perfectly.
I chose to have different pictures on each monitor, no problem with that. You can also have a smooth transition between pictures changing.

Hmm.  I'm not getting it to do different images or different sizes effectively.  I have it set to Full Screen, Random, Fill, and Separate Image for Each Monitor is selected, but I get the image from the first monitor tiled on the second monitor.  Any ideas?

The developer seems responsive, so I will ask there as well.
Last Edit: December 01, 2014, 03:48:46 AM by psychoadept
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ThY

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I'm running on a tri-screens display, 1920 x 1200, 2560 x 1440 and 1920 x 1080, Wall Switch manages it perfectly.
I chose to have different pictures on each monitor, no problem with that. You can also have a smooth transition between pictures changing.

Hmm.  I'm not getting it to do different images or different sizes effectively.  I have it set to Full Screen, Random, Fill, and Separate Image for Each Monitor is selected, but I get the image from the first monitor tiled on the second monitor.  Any ideas?

The developer seems responsive, so I will ask there as well.

That's wierd, i tried with those settings, even with "fit" rather than "fill", each picture remain on its own monitor without spanning.
I have never seen any pictures overflow from one screen to an other, whatever the display mode is.
Are you "randomizing" through several pictures ? How many ? What kind of size ?

psychoadept

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I just found this awesome screencapture program (via Lifehacker, natch):

http://www.picpick.org/en/

It has replaced my old screencap program, my color picker program, and GIMP all at once.  (I'll keep GIMP around in case I need to do something fancy, but mostly I've been using it for cropping screencaps.)

I can already tell this is going to make getting screencaps for the wiki WAY quicker.
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ma_t14

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I just found this awesome screencapture program (via Lifehacker, natch):

http://www.picpick.org/en/

It has replaced my old screencap program, my color picker program, and GIMP all at once.  (I'll keep GIMP around in case I need to do something fancy, but mostly I've been using it for cropping screencaps.)

I can already tell this is going to make getting screencaps for the wiki WAY quicker.

Actually pickpick was one of my recommendations in the origal post (i still mention it somewhere i think) but I have since moved on to ShareX as it also has features for automatically uploading this screenshots based on very flexible criteria. But picpick is excellent as well, even slighly better if you solely want to take screenshots.

I suggest you read the list again, there might be more useful programs you might have missed   ;)

psychoadept

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You may be right.  I was using ShareX, probably based on your recommendation.  But for what I need, PicPick is definitely the better choice.
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ma_t14

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You may be right.  I was using ShareX, probably based on your recommendation.  But for what I need, PicPick is definitely the better choice.

Out of curiosity, what do you like better about PicPick?