10 must-have tools to improve Windows
7) FFDshow
Windows Media Player has some useful features but it’s more of an iTunes-wannabe than a really great audio-video player. So a group of dedicated enthusiasts have taken the old version 6.4 of WMP and turned it into Media Player Classic, a small (about 400KB) player that plays just about any video and audio file you care to throw at it from AVIs to VOB files to MP4. The real secret though is to throw in the FFDshow codec package. FFDshow is a collection of codecs (encoders-decoders) that are fast and lean, faster than many of the originals it replaces but combined with Media Player Classic, it comes close to the ultimate audio-video player.
8 ) IrfanView
It’s not until Windows Vista that Microsoft has really taken photos seriously and although it will give you somewhat of a slideshow effect in Windows Explorer, it’s hardly adequate. That’s why IrfanView has become the hottest slideshow and image view there is.
But the real beauty of IrfanView is its ability to view RAW images. RAW images are basically uncompressed image files usually taken with digital SLR cameras but the problem is that every camera vendor implements their own version of RAW. IrfanView comes closest to any image viewer on the internet at being able to open up all the various RAW formats and with its plug-ins, there’s hardly an image format it can’t open.
9) FileZilla
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was never a strong suit of Windows’. While you can transfer files using FTP with Windows Explorer, it’s about the most clunky way you can do it. A far more elegant solution is FileZilla. With its ability to remember websites, password and logins, even change the CHMOD settings on FTP sites you have access to, FileZilla is one of the ultimate webmaster’s tools. What’s more, it works on every version of Windows, including Vista.
There are a few free FTP clients but few have the features or power of FileZilla.
10) CDBurner XP Pro
There’s hardly be a PC these days that doesn’t have an optical disc burner of some kind and while most burners come with burning software, these days, it’s typically a feature-limited version of Nero that just handles the basics and little more. One thing it doesn’t handle well is creating bootable discs.
There are plenty of applications for bootable discs from creating your own self-playing movie discs to creating BIOS update discs for your PC’s motherboard. CDBurner XP Pro can create those bootable CDs and DVDs to Windows’ El Torito format and works with virtually any CD or DVD burner.
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Tags: audacity, avg_free, CDBurner_XP_Pro, FileZilla, Firefox, IrfanView, media_player_classic, Software, thunderbird, Windows, windows xp, zone alarm
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10 must-have tools to improve Windows | Tech Tips on 19 Jul 2007 at 5:35 am #
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