My top 25 must-have free Windows apps

I’ve been using a combination of operating systems for years now, including Windows, Mac OSX and various distros of Linux. It is no secret that I prefer Mac OSX but I recently had the need to switch back to a PC. While I won’t go into the reasons why this happened in this post, I would like to share the software I find absolutely necessary in order to make life on a Windows machine bearable. So without further ado, here we go.

1. Launchy – I’m a big fan of Quicksilver for the Mac, so one of the first things I wanted was a hotkey launcher which would work on my Windows 7 machine. Launchy is exactly that, and makes it extremely easy to launch applications quickly. I like to keep my desktop clean and uncluttered, so instead of clicking icons or going to the start bar, I just bring up Launchy, type in the name of the program, and hit enter. Done.

2. Steam – I must say that I didn’t play a lot of games on my Mac for obvious reasons, so I’ve been using Steam for quite some time. I even stick my non Steam games in my Steam interface so I have a nice list of games I can access from one central location.

3. iTunes – I’m not huge on music these days, but I do have all of mine located in my iTunes library. What I use iTunes most for is podcast subscriptions and trying out new podcasts which sound interesting.

4. Chrome – I’ve used Safari and Firefox extensively, but recently decided to go with something quicker and lighter. I love the light feel of Google’s Chrome browser and it is lightning fast. While it doesn’t have the robust addon system of Firefox and I do miss the Ubiquity addon as well as the more intuitive Awesome bar, the consolidated search/address bar of Chrome as well as its helpful New Tab view really makes up for most of that.

5. Digsby – While I do think the IM apps on Windows are a bit lacking compared to the brilliant Adium on Mac OSX, Digsby is pretty good. With support for Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, a nice popup notification and update system (with inline text input for messages) which reminds me of Growl on the Mac, and a pretty decent customization system, Digsby is coming a long way toward the high bar set by Adium.

6. Skype – Everyone knows about the voice over IP client Skype, but I must admit the Windows client is better than the Mac version. As I live in the UK while all of my family lives in the US, this becomes quite an important application for me.

7. XBMC – XBMC is similar to Plex or other similar systems. It is essentially a home entertainment program for your computer. You can specify a source for movies, music or TV shows as well as popular sites and the software searches for updates and keeps records in the database. It’s a full screen app which is built for sitting back and watching your favorite TV and film. It’s definitely a must for digital age video junkies like myself.

8. VLC Media Player – VLC is not as beautiful as XBMC, but it is quicker and runs most video and audio formats. If you need to play something quickly and without any fuss, this is your app.

9. Evernote – Evernote is like a notebook for your life. You can create notes, clip webpages, take photos, and shove it all in. You can tag your entries and even photographs have text recognition. The idea here is the brain dump. Shove it all in and search for it later so you don’t have to waste energy trying to remember. With clients for phones as well, it becomes quite a helpful tool.

10. Dropbox – Dropbox is what the name says. It just appears as a local folder on your machine, but it synchronizes whatever you shove in it up to a server and then back down to whichever machine you log into with your dropbox account. So if I want to have the same file on all of my machines, I just save it in my dropbox and every time I edit it, the changes are replicated across all machines via the server. There is limited space with a free account, but still well worth the download.

11. 7Stacks – This is basically a copy of stacks for the Mac. If you’re a fan of the Mac feature, then you’ll like this. I especially like using it to quickly access my documents and my Dropbox folder from the Taskbar.

12. Fences – This one is probably a bit controversial, because you could claim that it makes your desktop a bit ugly. It all depends on how organized you are. Essentially, Fences is a system which groups and labels icons or folders on your desktop. At the best of times, I don’t need it because I’m too organized. At the worst of times, it enables me to organize myself quickly so that I can get some work done until I have time to sort things out properly.

13. µTorrent – A tiny torrent client, for when you want one but don’t necessarily need tons of features and a flashy interface.

14. Picasa – Without iPhoto or Aperture, I needed a way to organize my photos. Picasa fills that gap petty well.

15. OpenOffice – While I much prefer using Google Docs these days for maximum access to my work from any location, it is always good to have a solution which doesn’t require an internet connection. As it is free and works well with multiple formats, OpenOffice is really the way to go.

16. AVG Free – AVG Free is just a good Antivirus program for Windows. While not as full featured as some options for purchase, it has generally worked for my needs without any problems.

17. CCleaner – After a while, Windows machines often get bogged down with excess registry entries, etc. This is a way of cleaning up the registry.

18. Defraggler – Made by the same people who made CCleaner, Defraggler is an excellent solution for disk fragmentation. It offers a pleasing visual interface and can be scheduled to run.

19. SyncToy – SyncToy is a backup solution which offers various levels of synchronization from one disk to another, cloning changes across drives. It minimizes the need for long backups, only copying files which have changed.

20. GIMP – I don’t do a lot of drawing or photo editing, but I know that there will invariably be a need at some point. Rather than spending loads of money on something like Photoshop, you can do just as much for free with the GIMP. With a robust set of tools equal to any commercial package, with a bit of time you can find yourself just as adept at using GIMP as you ever have been with popular commercial packages.

21. FreeVPN – This is mainly a way for me to view videos on sites like Hulu from the UK. I’ve got to have access to US stuff one way or another, people. It’s an extremely easy to use piece of software. A couple of clicks and Hulu has no idea I’m viewing from the UK.

22. Filezilla – I’m a big fan of Cyberduck on the Mac but Filezilla is probably the best alternative to it on Windows. It’s just another ftp client, but it is easy to use, it works and it is free, which counts for a lot.

23. Notepad2 – Notepad2 is a robust text editor which is meant to replace Notepad on Windows. It is small, fast, and it has syntax highlighting, for anyone who occasionally works with code.

24. 7-Zip – 7-zip is something I use as an alternative to something like WinRAR, which gives me annoying prompts due to it being Shareware. 7-zip is a file archiver which supports multiple file formats and uses high compression. With options for strong encryption, shell integration and a version for use in the command line, it is a pretty nice piece of free software which will definitely come in handy sooner or later.

25. Handbrake – Handbrake is for those times when you get a video in a strange format and want to convert it. Whether you’re doing this because your media player won’t play it or because you want to stick it on a mobile device to watch on the go doesn’t really matter. Handbrake can handle it.

Make Gmail Your Productivity Center – Part 4

This is the final part of my multi-part post detailing various features you can use to improve your productivity by using Gmail. If you haven’t read the previous parts, you may want to start at the beginning.

So in the previous parts of this series, I’ve talked about using filters and labels to organize mail, using canned responses to automate repetitive emails, using GMail as a central hub for all of your various email accounts, a little bit about keyboard shortcuts and I told you to enable a whole lot of options in the Labs section which will enhance the Gmail experience.

Since I left you with a lot of functionality but not a whole lot about how to use that functionality, that’s what I’m going to cover next. Let me preface this with something, though. I’m one of those guys who likes to use the keyboard as much as possible. I’m pretty handy with the mouse but if I’m doing to use a system a lot over a long period of time I like to learn how to use it efficiently with the keyboard. One reason I do this is because it makes me feel cool, like I’m sort of awesome hacker or something. You may not have that fantasy, but I do. Anyway, the other reason is that I find it really helps minimize neck and back pain due to reaching and moving too much with the mouse. That being said, maybe you don’t want to use the keyboard. I personally find it faster, but if that’s not a priority for you or you find you manage ok with the mouse, all of your tools are there at your disposal. I don’t really need to tell you how to use them. If you want to know more about the keyboard thing, though, this section is for you.

Gmail was designed with the keyboard user in mind, and you can do almost everything that way. There are a lot of shortcuts available and you’ll have a special tab which lists them if you enabled the custom keyboard shortcuts in Labs. if you didn’t, you can still find them here. So yeah, you can just look there or I’ve stuck them down below in a more ordered format.

Help:
? to bring up shortcut help window, which provides a command list. This is the most important thing you can learn.

Search:
/ to move focus to the search box

Email:
c to compose a new email
o to open a conversation
u to go back to thread list
k for newer conversation
j for older conversation
x to select a conversation
s to star a conversation
m to ignore a conversation
! to report as spam
# to send to trash
p for previous message
n for next message
r for reply
a for reply to all
f to forward
g + i to go to the inbox
g + s to go to starred conversations
g + t to go to sent messages
g + d to go to drafts
g + a to go to all mail
g + c to go to contacts
* + a to select all conversations
* + n to deselect all conversations
* + r to select read conversations
* + u to select unread conversations
* + s to select starred conversations
* + t to select unstarred conversations
Shift + n to update conversation
z to undo last action
. to open more actions menu
Shift + i to mark as read
Shift + u to mark as unread
e to archive
v to open move to menu

Labels:
g + l to bring up label navigation window
l to open labels as menu
y to remove a label
] to remove label and go to previous conversation
[ to remove label and go to next conversation

Tasks:
Shift + t while viewing an email/conversation to add the conversation as a task
g + k to bring up the Tasks window

Google Docs:
g + w to create a blank Google document – I can’t seem to find a way to open a document from the contents of an email without clicking the button on the right

So yeah, there you are. Those are your keyboard shortcuts. What I did to learn this stuff is just made frequent use of the help overlay bye typing ‘?’ and forced myself to do everything with the keyboard until I had it down. Yes, it takes up some time. All of this stuff does, but once you’ve got it all set up in the way you want it, your system is running smoothly and your skills are sharp, it will really enable you to get a lot more done in much less time. Remember to make frequent use of labels, because these really help you find things. I like to keep my inbox as empty as possible by archiving the vast majority of my mail but applying stars and labels in order to find things when I need them again. It really does work better than having to wade through a massive inbox. It’s a great feeling to be able to open up a clean and ordered workspace rather than one that’s cluttered and disorganized and doesn’t really work for your needs.

This is the last post in this series, so please let me know if you’ve found it helpful. This probably isn’t my last time writing about Gmail, as I use it do often. I’m also planning some posts around Google Docs, some of Google’s other tools, and various browsers and extensions which help me get things done quickly. Stick around mindreap if you’d like to see what’s coming. Why not just subscribe now?