Software
Here is some free software, with a high nift factor:
Supernifty
Audio Tuner - for tuning your guitar, ukulele, violin or other musical instrument using your PC.
Audio Tuner Mobile - for tuning your guitar, ukulele, violin or other musical instrument on your Windows Mobile device.
Crossword Puzzle Solver - solve all kinds of word puzzles with this free software, and you get a fast, convenient offline dictionary.
The following are highly recommended, but don’t have anything to do with Supernifty.
General
Thunderbird (e-mail client) - Thunderbird is great. It’s easy to backup and has many add-ons available for it. There’s also a portable version for sticking on your USB key.
Firefox (web browser) - Firefox is great. There are many nifty add-ons.
As a developer, both these products are easy to extend. In comparison, extending Outlook or IE can be nightmarish.
TrueCrypt (file encryption software) - TrueCrypt is great. It keeps an encrypted file which can be mounted as a filesystem. Backup your sensitive data securely by backing up the file.
7-Zip (compression software) - this freebie handles all the main formats and you don’t have to put up with WinZip always asking you to register.
AVG (anti-virus) - seems the other main contender for free virus checking is Avast. I find AVG less intrusive and irritating.
Locate (file locater) - I find windows search to be awful. And Google’s too. This one is great for finding files.
Paint.net (image editor) - This is a great free image editor. Infinitely better than Windows Paint, very easy to use. Impressive.
Inkscape (vector graphics editor) - Excellent free vector graphics editor. If you need resizable graphics for printing, logos, diagrams, etc, then this is a fine option.
Publishing
CamStudio - Excellent free screencasting software. Generate AVI or SWF and publish your demos or tutorials.
Windows Movie Maker - This movie editor comes pre-installed with Windows and is hidden under accessories. Intuitive and easy to use if you just need to add titles, credits, and clip a few bits here and there.
Development
vi (text editor) - So this may not suit everyone. But I love it. It’s the fastest, most powerful text editor and I always install it. These days vim comes with syntax highlighting, spell checking and all the other mod cons.
Eclipse (IDE) - What a great IDE. I’d used various IDEs before this, which should give them an advantage, but Eclipse is undoubtedly the best. Its integration with version control is excellent, along with the refactoring tools. In contrast, Microsoft Visual Studio is an absolute dog. It is truly awful. How do they get away with such crud? I don’t want to get started on the pain it has caused but…Intellisense? That has got to be a joke.
SVN - SVN is an excellent CVS replacement. And the tortoise client integrates seamlessly into Windows Explorer. It is great.
VirtualBox - Here’s an opportunity to keep a whole operating system in a window, available to be paused, backed up and copied as required. Performance is good, it’s stable, a bit fiddly to do some things, but overall, fantastic … and free.
Network Tools
putty (telnet replacement) - this is the essential SSH client for secure communications. The tunnelling capabilities mean you can secure most intrinsically insecure services.
nmap - impressive network analysis tool. Great for figuring out what the crap is going on with firewalls and ports.
wireshark - another great network analysis tool. This one has a graphical interface and is top for looking at data going through your network.
