GFPack: Recommended software for users by users.

We had something similar to this before the crash. I think it'd be nice to put it together again.

Right now let's say it's in the suggestion stage. What software do you recommend for GFF users? (Note: Must be freeware, or we can't really distribute it easily.)

Let's not just post links to software and such and not support your suggestions. Tell us why. I'll post some later. We can begin to decide what goes into the final package in a week, when we can start voting on stuff.

I'll post my suggestions in a bit.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Easy, easy, easy:
foobar2000, the best damn piece of music playing software ever coded, the playlists, feature support and everything else that makes this program so useful (for those who want to use the arguably better version 0.8.3, go here, currently, foobar2000 0.9 doesn't have mant plugins).

Exact Audio Copy, anyone who considers a perfect copy of a CD should use this program, no questions asked.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Burrrn is a program for burning audio CDs. Supporting many formats, Burrrn decodes to WAV before burning, making the burn better. (Also, it uses CDRDAO for burning.)

7-zip is a good alternative to Winzip or, even WinRAR.

I'm sure that the bigger things will be posted by someone else.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

WinAMP - I don't know what all of the fuss with foobar2000 is about. WinAMP works great. We should also include some nice skins (I've got a bunch).

Firefox - also include the Adblock and Filterset G extensions.

WinRAR - duh.

CDisplay - a nice and simple image viewer that is compatible with .cbz and .cbr compressed archives. The comic book community standard.

Media Player Classic - with Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative - one of the best video players out there.

Combined Community Codec Pack - my codec pack of choice. Ensures that you will be able to play all anime releases. I've never had a problem with any videos after installing this.

mIRC - #gfchat @ irc.xelium.net

AVG - free antivirus.

AdAware - spyware removal.

PeerGuardian 2 - block those nasty unwanted IPs from connecting with you.

Adobe Acrobat - .pdf viewing

Daemon Tools - image mounting

hkSFV - so that you can check those .sfv files that come with your torrents.

uTorrent - the best Bit Torrent client out there. It has all of the options that you want and uses almost no memory. You don't even need to install anything.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

Adobe Acrobat - .pdf viewing

Also available for this purpose is the much less bloated Foxit Reader.

Also, for IRC, a free build of X-Chat 2 for Windows is available.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

WinRAR - duh.

AdAware - spyware removal.

The rule is that it has to be freeware. WinRAR has a 40-day trial (with limitations) before it shuts down. I believe AdAware also has a trial or functionality removed...I don't know, I can't find definitively what is in the free version and what isn't.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Process Explorer
Task Manager on steroids. Also perfect for restoring windows that mysteriously disappear.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Snowknight

Burrrn is a program for burning audio CDs. Supporting many formats, Burrrn decodes to WAV before burning, making the burn better. (Also, it uses CDRDAO for burning.)

Um, all CD-burning software does this. CD Audio data is stored as Linear PCM, there is no other format for it. So any CD-burning program that supports audio CDs is doing the same thing. Making a WAV file of an MP3 and burning the WAV file is no different in terms of the resultant data. I'm also hard-pressed to think of any CD burning package that doesn't support Disc-at-once.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

The rule is that it has to be freeware. WinRAR has a 40-day trial (with limitations) before it shuts down. I believe AdAware also has a trial or functionality removed...I don't know, I can't find definitively what is in the free version and what isn't.

Actually, WinRAR will continue on working long after the 40-day trial period. It'll just keep on bothering you to register.

Adaware won't let you install plugins or something like that unregistered. The necessary functionality is still available.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Then download.com is wrong. My mistake.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Is there any significant advantage of WinRar over 7-zip? I ask because WinRar for some reason doesn't work on my laptop. It crashes every time I try to open an archive and is in general a hassle to use.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

edit: nvm, somebody already posted what I just did and I didn't see it.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by quazi

Is there any significant advantage of WinRar over 7-zip? I ask because WinRar for some reason doesn't work on my laptop. It crashes every time I try to open an archive and is in general a hassle to use.

WinRAR supports many more compression features for Zip and RAR files, like delete after compression or put each file in an archive. That and the fact the RAR format is optimized to handle pictures/video/audio/text better than 7-Zip. Otherwise, 7-Zip is superior in every other aspect.

I was speaking idiomatically.

OpenOffice.org - Does everything that MS Office does, but it's free.
DVD Shrink - For DVD ripping, re-authoring, and more.
DVD Decrytper - Breaks DVD copy protection and burns DVDs.
The GIMP - Image editing, kind of like Photoshop. It's way too advanced for me, and I don't know how to use most of it, but I think it's supposed to be pretty good.
Google Earth - Satellite imagery of most of the world. I don't know if it belongs here, but it's pretty cool.
Audacity - Free audio recording and editing.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Opera - Blazingly fast web browser.

Revconnect - A Very good DC++ client which allows for multi source downloading and is bloat free.

Unlocker - A great utility for deleting files.

VLC Media Player - Plays almost any format, bloat free.

PSP Video Express - Best PSP video converter, easy to use, has good functionality and compatible with many formats.

Everest - Even though they don't develop the free version anymore, its a great hardware utility.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Snowknight

7-zip is a good alternative to Winzip or, even WinRAR.

agreed! i was going to post this, but i was surprised to see that someone else likes 7zip. it has its issues, but overall it's pretty awesome.

i would also recommend

Originally Posted by Mucknuggle

Media Player Classic - with Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative - one of the best video players out there.

that was another unexpected one i guess, but true! mpc is much smaller than wmp, and real and quicktime alternative are so much better than the real programs.

here are some suggestions of my own:

speedfan - monitors temps of your cpu and can control speeds of the fans, as well as do some bus overclocking. i like it because it can sit in the tray and report the temperatures that way, and it's a small program.

ati tool - by far the best thing ever for ati overclockers- this can give you very detailed information about your ati card, as well as control fan speeds and clock rates (ati tray tools is good as well, but it doesn't overclock as well).

razorlame - a great frontend to the lame mp3 encoder.

virtualdub - great for video editing. this has different versions for different tasks: i use the MP2 version for dvd decoding as well as everything else.

cpu-z - another small computer utility. this reports everything about your computer to you. memory speeds, cpu speeds, voltages, core revisions, model stepping, etc

prime 95 - mainly for overclockers, it tests the stability of your system (as well as the health of your cooling).

zone alarm - the free version is a somewhat basic firewall, but program internet access control is nice, and it's better than nothing (windows firewall is close to nothing).

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by RushJet1

zone alarm - the free version is a somewhat basic firewall, but program internet access control is nice, and it's better than nothing (windows firewall is close to nothing).

I second this. It's a great little program.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

For those of you who frequent newsgroups, I find the best free tool to use is GrabIt. I'd place it second only to the commercial NewsLeecher. Of course you need some kind of Par2 recovery software, so I highly recommend QuickPar.

I'm also surprised no one mentioned the very obvious Spybot tool for protecting yourself from spyware (although admittedly, I've only had tracking cookies in all my time). It often catches things Ad-Aware misses.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

CCleaner - Great for cleaning junk off your computer.

File Renamer Basic - Really good free file renamer for renaming multiple files. (can rename folders as well)

MP3 Tag Tools - For editing all your MP3 tags.

This is all I can think of right now.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by RushJet1

agreed! i was going to post this, but i was surprised to see that someone else likes 7zip. it has its issues, but overall it's pretty awesome.

i would also recommend



that was another unexpected one i guess, but true! mpc is much smaller than wmp, and real and quicktime alternative are so much better than the real programs.

here are some suggestions of my own:

speedfan - monitors temps of your cpu and can control speeds of the fans, as well as do some bus overclocking. i like it because it can sit in the tray and report the temperatures that way, and it's a small program.

ati tool - by far the best thing ever for ati overclockers- this can give you very detailed information about your ati card, as well as control fan speeds and clock rates (ati tray tools is good as well, but it doesn't overclock as well).

razorlame - a great frontend to the lame mp3 encoder.

virtualdub - great for video editing. this has different versions for different tasks: i use the MP2 version for dvd decoding as well as everything else.

cpu-z - another small computer utility. this reports everything about your computer to you. memory speeds, cpu speeds, voltages, core revisions, model stepping, etc

prime 95 - mainly for overclockers, it tests the stability of your system (as well as the health of your cooling).

zone alarm - the free version is a somewhat basic firewall, but program internet access control is nice, and it's better than nothing (windows firewall is close to nothing).

I'd suggest VirtualDubMod over VirtualDub. It can read/convert Mpeg2 and VOB files and can save to the vastly-superior-to-AVI format MKV. It also can save multiple audio streams and subtitles.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?