Now that we’ve done the major software needs, we’ll focus on the niche stuff that a good portion of you will still need. The format here will be a little different, because we’ll be dealing with more specific needs.
File Archiving
By now most people have seen a zip file. Windows has had integrated support for the ZIP format since Windows XP, and it’s visibility is relatively minimal. You can generally just open a zipped archive like a standard folder, and drag and drop the files you need into a standard (uncompressed) folder. Easy. But ZIP is not the only compression standard in wide use. We have RAR, ACE, ZIP, and a few others on top of that, including the venerable ARC. You could download a filetype specific archive program when you run across a new archive standard, or you could be prepared for them. 7-zip is versatile and robust, and opens almost everything, and adds a context option for simple archiving.
BitTorrent Client
Peer to peer is the way to transfer massive demand files. Torrents have revolutionized sharing and made downloading large files convenient, and in some cases much faster. Instead of downloading a single large file, a torrent works by downloading small pieces of the file from multiple people who already have the file, or pieces of it that you don’t. The torrent client reads the instructions for the pieces it needs and how to assemble them from the torrent file, and puts them together into a full copy of the original file. µTorrent (pronounced Micro-torrent, though people will know what you mean if you call it You Torrent) is full featured, but so efficient the whole program is less than a half of one megabyte in size. That’s smaller than most image files.
Uninstaller
Anyone who’s had their computer for longer than a month has replaced one or two programs. Anyone who bought the computer ‘off the shelf’ (Meaning you bought a ready built computer from a manufacturer like Dell or HP) had a bunch of demo and trial software on it. Most people will do one of two things, leave it on there and ignore it (bad idea), or use the Add/Remove programs feature of Windows to remove it. I recommend against this. While it will get rid of a majority of the software, it’s not foolproof. It can leave massive amounts of registry files that you don’t need, and in some cases the software simply won’t vacate the premises. I recommend an outside solution. Revo Uninstaller comes in a free and a paid version. The free one does an adequate job in my experience, of finding all the traces that are normally left over with the standard uninstall programs.
If you have a brand new PC, but know you don’t want any of the trial crap they’ve given you, download PC Decrapifier and run it. It’s a self contained scripted application that will run a wizard to remove most of the unwanted crud on your PC. It can make your antivirus nervous. Don’t worry, it won’t harm your computer. If your AV software reacts it’s due to the way this software is written, very much like a typical data destruction virus can be. This only deletes what you tell it to do though.
Secure Deletion
Some people have very sensitive data on their computers. There are various programs around that offer data deletion with rewrite and so forth. I’ve found that File Shredder does the job, at the fantastic price of free. It essentially deletes the file, notes that spot on the hard drive, marks over it, and repeats that 3 times. After a day or two of normal computer use, the file is gone. After a week, the NSA wouldn’t be able to find it, much less the skeevy dude at the coffee shop who wants your credit card number.
File Recovery
OK, you finished typing up your thesis, saved it, and go and delete all the unnecessary files on your thumb drive, only to realize you accidentally deleted the file you needed to turn in. Provided you aren’t just telling that story to your professor to cover for not doing it, you can run Recuva to restore that deleted file. This won’t work on files you deleted with File Shredder. This doesn’t mean Recuva isn’t working, just means File Shredder did what it was supposed to.
DVD Authoring
There are lots of DVD authoring programs that have a more robust feature list than DVD Flick, but it offers ease of use, a wide range of supported formats and codecs, and they offer it at no charge, which makes it right in everyone’s price range.
Audio Editing and Recording
Audacity is fantastic. Whether you’re a nerd in a basement making podcasts for 4 other people online, or a fledgling indie band mixing tracks for a demo, or a professional studio (I think) Audacity seems to do it all. I’m no audio expert, but I’ve made a lot of use out of it, it had a lot of reverb and cleanup options, and tons more things to do that I didn’t understand. I did a couple recordings for gamer podcasts and I have a few friends in bands that gave me the thumbs up on this one. The price is right to try it out for yourself though. Yeah, free.
If you have suggestions for software for me to test, let me know in comments or by email. More of these PC Essential posts are likely to follow.