TN106 - Desktop PC Applications
106.1 Summary
The following are PC applications and utilities that I have found
useful.
106.2 Text Editors
The best all around text editor I have found is TextPad from Helios.
While there are many nice features, my favorite it that it will directly
edit UNIX, PC, and Mac text files.
http://www.textpad.com/
Their web site also offers many interesting add-ons to the editor.
If you prefer vi, there is a version for the PC:
http://www.vim.org/
An expensive, but powerful, GUI editor that support vi commands and
offers many other features:
http://www.slickedit.com/
106.3 Telnet/SSH
CRT from Van Dyke. A very sophisticated telnet application. The
SecureCRT version supports ssh.
http://www.vandyke.com/
Also works as terminal emulator on using the PC's serial port or modem.
Unlike the Windows build-in Hyperterm, it can send the RS-232 break
signal, which is required for Sun consoles. (Map TN-BREAK to a key.)
106.4 UNIX API/Utilities
GCC and many GNU applications are available ported to the PC from
redhat. (Formerly Cygnus before they were acquired by redhat.) These
tools provide a UNIX like API and many common UNIX utilities like, awk
(gawk), sed, grep, tar, gzip, etc.
http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/
106.5 Compression/Archive
For decompression RAR is hard to beat. It seems to offer nearly every
format including UNIX formats like .Z, tar, and gzip.
http://www.rarlab.com/
106.6 Perl
Active State provides a very good perl implementation for the PC.
http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
106.7 Moving between networks
I use a laptop and frequently move between various offices with wired
and/or secure WiFi network connections and with docking stations that
have different display resolutions. This utility saves the network
settings for each office and changes the configuration of the laptop
including the display resolution, mounted drives, default printer, etc.
http://www.mobilenetswitch.com/
106.8 Disk images
Who wants to save floppy disks anymore? For applications that must be
installed from a floppy disk, this application from Gilles Vollant will
save images of floppy disks and permit the disks to be recreated from
the image.
http://www.winimage.com/
106.9 X Windows
An X Window server for the PC.
http://www.labf.com/
106.10 Screen capture
SnagIT from Techsmith is useful to capture any image displayed on your
computer.
http://www.techsmith.com
106.11 FTP
A sophisticated FTP tool with an explorer like GUI. The best feature is
that if interrupted it will reconnect and resume the transfer.
http://www.bpftp.com/
A very light-weight ftpd. Free, no install, start when needed.
http://www.whitsoftdev.com
106.12 Launcher
A sophisticated application launcher. Similar to Microsoft office bar,
but many more features. Most notable feature is multiple desktops like
CDE.
http://powerpro.webeddie.com/
106.13 File Printer
Prints ASCII files to postscript printers with a variety of options.
http://hem1.passagen.se/ptlerup/prfile.html
106.14 NTP Client
An NTP (Network Time Protocol) client for the PC. Synchronizes the PC's
time with a timeserver.
http://www.oneguycoding.com/automachron/
106.15 RCS
The official PC port of GNU RCS is primarily distributed as
rcs57pc1.zip, rcs57pc2.zip and rcs57pc3.zip at:
ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/gnu/devtools/
ftp://ftp.cs.purdue.edu/pub/RCS/
CS-RCS, a GUI version based on the GNU RCS code. Personal (Single user)
version is free. Archives are compatible with GNU RCS 5.7, works. Works
with both UNIX and DOS format files. Integrates nicely with Windows
Explorer.
http://www.componentsoftware.com/csrcs/
106.16 GUI Diff Tools
A very nice free GUI diff tool (included with CS-RCS above):
http://www.componentsoftware.com/csdiff/dlcsdiff.htm
An expensive but amazing diff and merge tool with three-way compare,
side by side view, integrated editing, and exclusion by regular
expression:
http://www.araxis.com/merge/
106.17 Web Site Mirror Utility
Use this tool to create a mirror web site by spidering the original.
Helpful to browse sites off-line.
http://www.httrack.com/
106.18 Disk Catalog
Advanced Disk Catalog. Nice tool to browse CD's offline. Explorer like
interface shows contents of CD collection.
http://www.elcomsoft.com/
106.19 File Splitter
A shell extension to split large files into pieces and restore.
http://www.hhdsoftware.com/filesplitter.html
106.20 Hex Workshop
The last hex editor you will ever need.
http://www.hexworkshop.com/
106.21 PE Explorer
Edit and examine PE format executable files.
http://www.heaventools.com/
106.22 MulitRes
Command line utility to change video settings. Useful when moving
laptop between various monitors.
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/multires.shtm
106.23 File Tweak
Like UNIX touch for windows. Integrates to file properties dialog.
http://www.febooti.com
106.24 Startup Inspector
Shows what will run at startup.
http://www.windowsstartup.com/
106.25 Security Task Manager
Displays detailed information about all running processes.
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/
106.26 Disk Size Manager
Graphical version of UNIX 'du'
http://www.spadixbd.com/dsm/
106.27 Directory Printer
Recursively lists contents of directories to a text file.
http://www.spadixbd.com/freetools/jdirprint.htm
106.28 Process Explorer
Shows what resources are used by each process.
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html
106.29 MagicISO
Edit ISO images. Can be used to modify Windows installation CD.
http://www.magiciso.com/
106.30 Serial Port Monitor
Monitors RS-232 serial port traffic.
http://www.hhdsoftware.com/
106.31 AVS Video Converter
Convert video files between various multi-media formats.
Can be used to convert to iPod formats.
http://www.avsmedia.com/
106.32 Winamp 2.91
Last good version of Winamp. Everything after this
is bloated and full of adware.
(To keep it fast, do not install the agent or visualizer)
http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=winamp
106.33 Riva FLV encoder
Convert FLV (flash video) to WMV files.
(Change the output extension to WMV.)
http://www.rivavx.com/index.php?encoder&L=3
106.34 TypingMaster Pro
Learn touch typing.
http://www.typingmaster.com/
106.35 Firefox Extensions
Tab Mix Plus
Many improvements for tabbed browsing
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
http://tmp.garyr.net/
Adblock Plus
Blocks adds with blacklist and whitelist
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
http://adblockplus.org/
Adblock Filterset.G Updater
Blacklist and whitelist for Adblock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/
IE View
Open current page in IE
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/35/
Flashblock
Makes viewing flash optional
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/433/
http://flashblock.mozdev.org/
Views Source Chart
View HTML source
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/655/
Copy Plain Text
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/134/
DownloadHelper
Downloads embedded components (video/flash/etc)
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3006/
106.36 ProCoder Express
High-quality video format conversion. Produces much higher quality
conversions than consumer grade products I tried. In particular this
product seems to do a good job with conversions between PAL and
NTSC. "Express" is the scaled down version of the commercial Procoder
product and costs $60 verses $500. The express version is a bit
difficult to find on the canopus web site as they would rather sell you
the $500 version.
http://www.canopus.com/
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