Useful programs for Windows users

Useful freewares, carewares, cardwares or donationwares. The ones I use (display the whole list).
(updated on February 2, 2011)

New additions

Rename-It!: renames files from context menu (many options including regular expressions).

HTML and CSS

Notepad++: file editor (html, css, js, php, asp etc.)

Color copier: multi-purpose color picker for web designers and programmers.

Tools: HTML validation, checking or troubleshooting.

Protecting a Website Email: fight against SPAM

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PHP

EasyPHP: environment allowing you to test php pages. You must set your browser to "online" or untick "work offline" not to read the pages of the cache and, if you don't use the default path (in order to use HTTP_REFERER or robots.txt), add <Directory "your local site path"> in the section #alias of the configuration file of Apache. Shut down your firewall (or allow activity for Apache and MySQL).
With Windows 2000 or XP, you can also use WampServer PHP 5 (and with add-on: PHP 4, Apache 2, PERL...).
For Windows 98, 2000, XP, Linux or Mac OS, you can try XAMPP (+PERL, Python...), for Mac OS X MAMP, with Linux...

WinHTTrack: can also check local or remote Web sites for broken links and syntax problems.

The Regex Coach: lets you experiment or study (Perl-compatible) regular expressions interactively if you need them in PHP or MySQL requests.

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Images / Flash

IrfanView: image viewer, almost any type even Flash files (swf) with plugins. Also allows most changes...

The GIMP: image creation, edition, optimization...

PNGcrush or PNGout or OptiPNG: command line utilities to optimize png (Windows and Linux).

PngOptimizer: command line and Windows GUI to optimize png and convert bmp and gif to png.

swf2html: extracts links and text from SWF files (shockwave format). Also available for Linux.

SWFRIP: extracts ressources from SWF files (shockwave format). Allows uncompression of SWF files.

CamStudio: records all screen and audio activity in an AVI file and can convert the AVI to Streaming Flash videos

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Internet

Mozilla Firefox: very fast browser, RSS reader, tab interface, smart popup filter etc.
FAQ and extensions to remove ads or block Flash, java (JRE 6.0), offline browsing (weak point), plug-ins, active extensions, updates... You can use the extension prefbuttons to quickly modify many settings, block the referrer ("HTTP_REFERER"), Tabbrowser extensions to customize tab browsing and manage redirections(META Refresh), Tab Clicking Options to customize tab browsing, User Agent Switcher, AdBlock Plus, NoScript, ScrapBook, Web Developer, RSS Editor (creation of RSS feeds), Sage (RSS/Atom news reader, aggregator), HTML validator, IE Tab, Dust-me selectors, Firebug, Sxipper, CacheViewer...
* some options may have unpredictable results.

SeaMonkey / Mozilla: complete web browser, toolkit, mail and news client. Very fast and with a lot of features. Many extensions.
FAQ and extensions for blocking ads or Flash, java (JRE 6.0), plug-ins, updates...
The extension MultiZilla can help you customize tab browsing, stop redirects (META Refresh), manage the referrer, switch User Agent, quickly modify many settings, remove privacy data, read RSS feeds...
* some options may have unpredictable results.

Opera: light and very fast browser, RSS aggregator, easy setting of many options (blocking the "referrer", animations, popups, javascript, java..., changing "User Agent", clearing of caches...).

Safari for Windows: allows you to test the WebKit engine on Windows.

Google Chrome: allows you to test the WebKit engine on Windows and debug the layout. You may want to remove the Google Chrome user id, use Iron, ChromePlus or the portable version.

MozillaCacheView: utility that reads the cache folder of Firefox and SeaMonkey and allows you to extract them.

WebVideoCap: utility that allows you to capture .flv (Flash Video) files and RTSP/MMS video streams.

Privoxy: Privoxy analyses HTTP requests and filters Internet junk sent to a browser set to use the proxy 127.0.0.1 port 8118.

Filezilla: fast FTP client, site manager, file transfer...

Web Site Publisher: FTP client, site manager that will only upload the files that have changed.

If you want to use Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar: Microsoft's developer toolbar for MSIE 5, 6 and 7 similar to Web Developer Toolbar for Mozilla or Firefox (manual examination of a web page, CSS development...).

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Dictionaries

Wordweb: dictionary.

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Video

VLC Media Player: cross-platform multimedia player that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.

Avidemux: video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding.

WinFF: GUI for the command line video converter / encoder, FFMPEG.

Free video Dub: editing and cutting video files without re-encoding.

Stream Transport: let you browse and download FLV video clips from video hosting websites of HTTP, RTMP, RTMPT, RTMPE, RTMPTE protocol.

Subtitle Edit: video subtitle editor, maker. Can also import subtitles.

FlashGot: Add-on for Firefox. Downloads FLV video clips (HTTP protocol).

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PDF converters

GSview: graphical interface for Ghostscript under MS-Windows. Once a postscript color printer (for example Apple Color LW 12/660 PS on Windows CD or extendedPDF-Printer) has been installed, it uses the interpreter Ghostscript to view Postscript files and convert them to PDF, allows text extraction, page extraction, conversion to bitmaps, PS or PDF viewing (even with Firefox, Mozilla or MSIE)...
* Allows the conversion to PDF of any document printed with a Postscript printer driver.

LibreOffice: multi-platform office productivity suite - Open Source version of OpenOffice. Conversion to PDF (html, doc, xls, rtf, text... with hyperlinks).
The extension PDF Import allows LibreOffice 3 to open and modify an existing PDF file.

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Registry / System

StartUpMonitor: notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents useless applications from registering themselves behind your back.

Startup Control Panel: control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts.

Page Defrag: defragments your paging files or Registry hives.

Power Defragmenter: fast defragmentation tool for Windows 2000 and XP.

Easy Cleaner 2.0: uninstalls software, removes leftover registry entries, cleans the registry, cleans the hard drive, startup menu etc...

Registrar Lite: registry editor.

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Security

avast! 4 Home Edition: Antivirus system.

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Programming

UPX: compresses executables (to use UPX from Windows: UPX Shell - Graphical GUI - download and use UPX last version/ or Advanced Shell for UPX v.1.25).

IconEdit32: icon editor.

ICEOWS: file compression.

7-Zip: file compression.

IZArc: file compression.

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Files / Disk

Rename-It!: renames files from context menu (many options including regular expressions).

Tree Size: shows you the size of any folder, including its subfolders.

NTFS: NTFS project. FAQ about NTFS, conversion, Linux drivers...

NTFS Ratio: Gives information on NTFS ratios.

Ext2 IFS: Installable File System Driver (IFS) allowing you full access to Linux Ext2 partitions (read and write) from Windows NT, 2000 and XP.

Attribute Changer: allows you to change all the attributes and dates of files and folders (FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS).

REST2514: restores files deleted from the recycle bin or deleted while holding down the Shift key by mistake (FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS). Eraser too.

WinMerge: compares files / folders, useful for determing what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.

Unlocker: shows the processes locking files (Windows 2000 and XP) and allows you to unlock them so that they can be renamed or deleted.

Explorer++: multi-tab file manager for Windows.

DropBox: Online storage (2 GB free, more if you invite friends). Allows you to sync your files in the DropBox folder online and across your computers automatically.

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Desktop

Traybar: application launcher from the tray bar for all Windows OS systems.

ATnotes: allows you to store and manage notes.

Here is a small utility compressed with UPX and written in Delphi as I couldn't find any freeware doing the same.

173k AchVte

Trade cruncher and broker-on-line costs comparator. French version.

Other freewares

With javascript