Software I Can't Live Without

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Below is a list of the software I tend to use in my day to day life. There are some standard applications such as Word and Outlook, but also some lesser known programs that perhaps don't have such a wide user base. There is no particular order to what is listed.

NoteTab Pro (Commercial, also free version)

The best text/HTML/script/everything editor ever made. Period. I have used it since the late '90s, and it is in fact what the majority of this site has been built on.

plugin which adds powerful content based filtering. Properly configured, SpamPal will catch nearly all spam without too many false positives.

SmartFTP (Freeware)

A full featured FTP client that mimics the Windows Explorer interface. Includes many advanced features such as batched and queued transfers and is always being updated and improved.

VNC (Freeware)

VNC stands for "Virtual Network Computing", and is basically a remote control application for PCs in the spirit of PC Anywhere. Very small and fast, and it will run as a service under NT/2000/XP.

Call Soft (Commercial)

Call Soft is a full featured answering machine and telephone application that can be used on any machine with a voice modem. I mainly use it for answering machine functionality as it has the ability to email me my messages (complete with caller ID information) in MP3 format.

Outlook 98 (Commercial)

Many people malign Outlook, but I don't know why. It is able to manage the 10,000+ email messages I push through it every month, with rarely a problem save for the occasional crash (after all, it is written by Microsoft). Through some registry hacking, I am able to share the same OUTLOOK.PST file on my server across every machine I have, so no matter where I am I always have access to my email, contacts, etc. Easy to customize and absolutely dripping with features, I have no idea why people still mess around with Outloook Express, Eudora or other inferior mail/PIM application.

Microsoft Internet Explorer (Dominationware)

The only good browser. I stopped using Netscape in 1998 due to the fact that it seriously sucked. New Netscape/Mozilla releases have done nothing to impress, and have been consistently less versatile and much slower then Internet Explorer. It may be full of security holes and from the evil empire, but it works and works well.

Microsoft Word, Microsoft Access (Commercial)

These are pretty ubiquitous. Word is about everything you want in a word processor, and Access is great for small to medium sized databases. Access is also the most widely used DB in Visual Basic, so most of the database applications I write make use of it.

Visual Basic 6 (Commercial)

My choice for programming Windows applications. Allows rapid development and deployment. Many people don't consider Visual Basic to be "real" programming, but those people seem to have issues and enjoy spending three times as long doing something to achieve the same result a VB programmer would.

Microsoft Windows (Commercial)

Not much more to say here. It's Windows. *shrug* Includes all versions from 3.0 to XP.

Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition (Commercial)

Basically the grown up version of Norton Antivirus, Corporate Edition is centrally managed and pretty much completely automatic. It consists of a server and clients. The server manages all virus definition updates, as well as program settings and policies. The clients talk to the server. I have found it to be very effective, and since it is completely automatic, it is impossible to forget to update or make the wrong choice when a virus warning comes up. However, it is not cheap.

Xitami Webserver (Freeware)

I have been using Xitami since late 1997, and have found it to be one of the best (if not the best) webservers out there. Fast, stable and small. Also has a simple built in FTP server.

Shareaza (Freeware, open source)

Shareaza is an open source Peer To Peer client that runs on the Gnutella and eDonkey networks. Also supporting BitTorrent, Shareaza is stable and spyware free.

Paint Shop Pro (Commercial)

I've been using Paint Shop Pro since version 4. It's a full featured photo editing application that supports nearly every image format imaginable as well as layers and other advanced editing features.

IrFanView (Freeware)

IrFanView is a simple and powerful image viewer that supports every image format available and most video and animation formats. I primarily use it's powerful batch conversion features to convert images from one type to another while resizing and renaming them. IrFanView also supports hundreds of plugins for expanded capability.

WebLog Expert (Both commercial and free versions)

WebLog Expert is a website log analyzer that gives information about nearly every aspect of your website. It supports all major log file formats and outputs an easy to understand report in HTML format. WebLog Expert will tell you how each visitor navigated the site, how they got there and how long they stayed. It also provides total statistics for bandwidth, search engine referrals and basically anything else you would ever need to know. I use the free version since it has all the functionality I require.

ShortKeys (Both commercial and free versions)

ShortKeys is a text replacement macro application. It is designed to automate long repetitive typing tasks by replacing a short set of keystrokes that you define with replacement text that you have set up. For example, I could type "ReadFAQMessage" and it would be replaced automatically with a long paragraph explaining the FAQs and providing links to them. For someone like me who spends a lot of time posting on forums and answering email, this program is a must have. The free version works fine for me, but keep in mind that it is technically ad-ware. Ads are shown in the main window while it is open (generally this is not a big deal because 99% of the time ShortKeys lives in the system tray and the main window is only open when adding, editing or deleting macros) to advertise other products available from the publisher.

Microsoft Virtual PC (Freeware)

Virtual PC is Windows based virtualization software which allows you to create many virtual computers on a single machine running Windows XP (or later). Virtual computers are great for trying new operating systems and configurations without the hassle of having to repartition and reload a physical computer. Using Virtual PC I run a Windows 98 environment, Windows NT4 environment and at least one flavor of Linux on my Windows XP tablet. A must have for anyone who needs to experiment with different software configurations while keeping their computer stable.