Defraggler - I probably don't need it because the one built into Windows works just fine. Still, it does a couple of cool things.
Notepad++ - See previous blog entry. Is nice.
Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft releases a surprisingly good malware-killer after several years of their mediocre OneCare product.
Lita SQLite Editor - See previous blog entry. Is handy if you deal with SQLite at all.
Mappy Tilemap Editor - It's pretty outdated looking, but if I need to slap together a quick game level, it does the job. I used it for Double Twelve and Head On Collision to draw up the levels. Good for light duty. Exports ActionScript arrays directly, which saves me a step.
NSIS - Good little install builder. Lots of good samples out there so you can save installation for the last minute.
NIS Edit - It's basically Notepad that edits and compiles NSIS scripts, but since NSIS scripts aren't especially big, it does a servicable job as an NSIS IDE. It edits, calls the compiler, highlights the errors, and can call the help directly, which is all you need it to do.
ResourcesExtract - Simple little gizmo that can crawl and extract resources from an EXE. I've rarely needed this, and when I have it's more of a "I wonder how they did this", but it works if you need it.
Appcelerator Titanium (Windows and Mac) - I haven't done much with this yet, but I might in the future. It certainly looks pretty cool.
FileZilla (Windows and Mac) - Terrific FTP program. I haven't found any FTP-related task that it can't do.
DropBox - DropBox is 102% awesome. It's just what you need if you're on the road and you need to get a file to yourself at home, as you can throw something in the box and it'll automagically appear in the other DropBox machines you own. It's also got clients for iPhone and Mac. The iPhone version is especially cool in that it allows you to read PDF and MP3 files that you've put in your dropbox. It also stores your files in its own cloud if you find yourself on someone else's machine and you need to get or put a file to use later.
Hulu Desktop - This is a really nice standalone player for Hulu content with a "ten foot interface" (i.e. a user interface that you can see from your couch). It also works with those Media Center remote controls, so if you can connect your computer to a TV you can sit back and watch some internet tv for free. Last I checked, they still had "Evil Alien Conquerors" available, which is at once the most stupid/funny movie I've seen in a while.
SWFTools - This is a pile of free command-line utilities that do stuff to SWF files. I use these in my batch-mode game building script to do things like add custom brands to games. That way if someone ever wants a custom-branded game for their site, I can give 'em a couple dozen games in a hurry.
FreeRip - To be honest, I only use this gizmo for one special function. The CD-to-MP3 capabilities of Windows Media Player work just fine, except that WMP doesn't have the ability to rip an entire CD to a single big MP3. And I wanted to do this when I was ripping a "how to learn Spanish" CD that had around a hundred 30-second "chapters" on each CD. Rather than deal with a squillion little MP3's, I made one big one. And this will do that.
SFXR - This is a cute little thing with a 1980's era GUI. If you need some horrid little NES-era sound effects in your game, this will do it.
AutoGK - Converting DVD's to AVI files can be done under Windows 102% free. Only problem is that it requires a half-dozen different utilities that must be run in a certain sequence. AutoGK fixes that by slapping a friendly interface on the whole process and doing it all for you. Note that AutoGK does not rip and un-protect the (absurdly simple) encryption that DVD's use, as that's a legal gray area. If you wanted to do that, you'd need some sort of "DVD Decrypter", but I can't imagine how you'd find one of those.
Win7 Library Tool - The new Windows 7 "Libraries" feature in Windows Explorer is a feature that I've grown used to in very short order. It's like the old Explorer-favorites feature, but about ten times better. And this little gizmo makes it eleven times better, as it allows you to change your library icons and it allows you to add *any* folder to a library, as Win7 inexplicably only allows you to add indexed folders to a library. This way I can have libraries containing stuff shared on network drives.
xCalc - This isn't especially pretty but it's a small and unobtrusive RPN calculator. I love that my MS Natural Keyboard has a "Calculator" button that I can map to run this. That way I don't have to search my desk when I need to add up some numbers.
OpenOffice.org (Windows and Mac) - I have bona-fide MS Office on my main office machine, but I didn't wanna shell out for it on my little laptop, and for that this works just fine. Mind you, it has been and will remain about two versions behind MS Office in capabilities and its support for DOC and XLS files isn't perfect, but it's really nice for a freebie. Plus it has a draw program that's not bad.
uTorrent (Windows and Mac) - This has pretty-much taken over the torrent utilities market, and with good reason.
TextWrangler (Mac) - Like the aforementioned Notepad++, this is a "better than default" editor for Mac. It's supposed to be a gateway-drug for the rather expensive BBEdit editor, but this one's pretty good.
Stuffit Expander (Mac) - Macs don't come with the ability to open ZIP files out of the box and this fixes that. Again, they'll try to upsell you to the fancier version, but for just unzipping stuff this works great.
As for web-apps, I'm all about The Google. I have Google Apps For Your Domain set up with The Code Zone and every other domain I own, so if you send me an email I check it online. I depend on Google Calendar for my calendaring. I depend on Google Contacts for my phone numbers. I depend on Google Reader for blogs and podcasts. I use Google Notebook to store random bits of text. I use Google Voice for voicemail and text-messaging on my cellphone. I use Google To-Do list to store those low-priority items that I promise I'll get to someday. I even depend on Google News for my news. I love love love The Google. Heck, I'd probably move all my docs up to the Google Cloud if not for the heebie-jeebies I get from having all my eggs in one basket and the sudden inability I'd have to get work done if a backhoe cut off my fiber.
And on that note, Backupify.com is a service that'll back up all of your online content from other services. I don't care too much about backing up my Twitter content, but it does back up your Google Docs in case something happens to your account.
And Backupify's got a deal right now that if you sign up before the end of the year (i.e. tomorrow), it's free. Not sure what the pricing's gonna be after that, but sign up now just to be safe.
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