Software utilities -- notes on software utilities from Road Intranet

See also

Copyright (c) 2005-2010, C.B. Barber
  • SourceForge -- large collection of open source software
  • Hanselman -- Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
  • CNET's Download.com -- Major download site with CNET ratings and user ratings
  • Planet Mirror -- Asia Pacific's largest online software repository [cpatti]
  • Zdnet shareware -- complete listing with evaluations
  • Cetus Links -- A remarkable list of lists - languages, object technologies, methodologies, infrastructure, you name it. [cpatti]
  • CPAN and search-- Perl modules and source
  • Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel -- Mount an iso image as a disk drive [doc, Microsoft support]
  • SystemRescueCD -- Boot Linux on a crashed system with full access to network drives.
  • DiskAction -- Monitor disk activity. Same information as SysInternals procexp, but easier to use. Add it to your StartUp folder.
  • dd, nc, wipe -- Garner's efficient disk duplicator, netpipe, and disk wipe programs. [spinellis]
  • Drive backup personal -- Disk backup
  • IsoBuster -- CD and DVD data recovery, especially scratched or damaged disks. Shows all tracks, sessions, and file systems. [PC Magazine, 5/25/2005, p. 82]
  • Virtual CloneDrive -- iso reader
  • Daemon-tools -- Mount multiple CD images as disk drives. [metacosm] isorecorder -- Burn CDs.
  • restorer2000 -- Recover data from disks [bartonn]
  • Undisker -- Extract ISO images to the disk [bsearles]
  • ISOMagic -- CD and DVD ISO image utility [fsmietana]
  • SpeedFan -- monitor and adjust computer temperature, fan speed, and SMART disks [spinellis]
  • SpinRite -- in-place disk formating and data recovery
  • Eraser -- securely erase data from a disk. PINs securely erases files and folders.
  • WinImage -- Create and explore images of disks, CDs, floppies, etc. [metacosm]
  • Nero -- Burn CDs and DVDs. [metacosm]
  • blat -- command-line mailer for Windows.
  • Trillian -- connect to everyone [jwang, matt]
  • X1 search -- Search email and files.
  • Netscape e-mailer -- installed by IT. Good search.
  • Outlook Express -- "It's way less buggy and otherwise quite similar." [jimf]. Try QuoteFix mlandau]
  • Eudora Pro 5.0 -- Good UI and search. Stores each email folder as one text file. Stores attachments in a download directory [bradb]. The sponsored version is free and not overly intrusive [cpatti, bradb]. Stores mail as text files. See
  • TheBat (wikipedia) -- well-regarded email client [metacosm]
  • Use 'scp' or 'sftp' instead of FTP (e.g., cygwin w/ OPENSSH). These programs are more secure than FTP, especially when used in public key mode with a passphrase.
  • WinSCP - scp client (secure copy), Launch the winscp executable. Enter in the host name and your network username and password. Now double click on your public_html folder. From here you will need to select files or folders in windows explorer and drag them to the winscp gui. Easy as that. [bartonn]
  • ws_ftp -- good reputation
  • CuteFTP -- easy to use with plenty of features [bradb]
  • Graphviz (GPL) -- versatile 2-d graph package
  • Ifranview -- Great freeware gif/jpg/whatever viewer and manipulator [cpatti].
  • SmartDraw -- good alternative to Visio, inexpensive [cpatti]
  • PfaEdit -- font editor.
  • UniPad -- free Unicode editor
  • Analog -- website log analysis,
  • 1st Page 2000 -- free HTML editor [fkim]
  • Macromedia's Homesite is an excellent html editor [cherylm]. It does not rewrite your html codes (most of the time). For help: EZwebdesign, and WebMonkey [cherylm]
  • Office HTML Filter -- an MS Word add-on that generates simpler HTML than Save as HTML.[cherylm]. HomeSite includes CodeSweeper and HtmlTidy with lots of customization.
  • TableMaker -- create html tables. See also HomeSite's table wizard [cherylm].
  • HTML Tidy, TidyGUI -- HTML syntax checker [fkim]
  • DoxYgen (GPL) -- Documentation generator for C++/Java/etc.. Qt application reading Qt and Javadoc markup.
  • Java Homepage -- download Java here.
  • Eclipse -- Full-featured Java IDE, with lots of useful plug-ins [sdrye]
  • FindBugs -- identify potential bugs in Java source via source code and flow analysis. [sdrye]
  • Optibench -- detailed performance analysis [ruthm]
  • Websphere Studio Application Developer (900 Megs) -- It is Eclipse based, but fills in some nice holes. [Blake Crawford]
    1. it automatically publishes applications to WAS and keeps a WAS instance running in the background
    2. automatically verifies, compiles, updates, and reloads application changes on WAS
    3. has a JSP editor that, while lacking the detailed code-completion of other IDEs, does have source, preview, and visual design modes for editing
    4. has a really nice interface for working with deployment descriptors.
  • JPad Pro from modelworks.com -- like UltraEdit with good Java support [jscott]
  • jEdit will not only color code jsp correctly, but it will figure out when you've escaped into Java code and use java formatting correctly in that section. It also does JHTML and RelationalViews formatting. [wsargent]
  • -- file and directory comparison with lots of features. New licenses are $13 or less in quantity.
  • Kdiff3 -- Diff and merge from Sourceforge. Handles Unicode. Easy integration with ClearCase.
  • Guiffy Merge -- multiplatform diff and 3-way merge (Java-based)
  • Araxis Merge -- Windows diff and 3-way merge [tleblanc]. How to install in Perforce.
  • Perforce -- 3-way merge and diff from Perforce with list of other merge tools. The new p4merge works well with large files.
 Windows and Unix
  • dig -- a better nslookup for investigating DNS.
Windows
  • NetStumbler -- monitor the wireless network [nboyd]
  • Wireshark (Ethereal) -- network protocol analysis
  • windump -- tcpdump for windows. Install winpcap then place windump.exe in a util directory.
Unix
  • host -- Reverse DNS lookup
  • tcpdump -- record TCP activity. View dump files with Wireshark.
  • traceroute -- TCP routing
  • gsview -- GhostScript for viewing .ps files on Windows.
  • Open Office -- office suite for all major platforms with XML file format and excellent html export. "In terms of offering the features I need without getting in my way, OpenOffice has been the clear winner in all my recent projects." [cpatti]
  • MikTeX -- TeX for Windows
  • PDF Converter, PDF Create -- convert Word docs to pdf files for the web.
  • XML Spy -- IDE for XML and XSLT [ruthm]
  • Memtest86+ -- Up-to-date hardware memory test.
  • AutoHotKey -- Combines scripting, text macros, and hotkeys.
  • Developer Playground -- show run-time DLL dependencies of running processes [kpitman]
  • CLRSpy -- Debugging COM/.NET interop, etc [kpitman] (GotDotNet was disbanded)
  • Reflector -- Disassemble .NET assemblies as C# or VB.NET [kpitman]
  • ContextEdit -- edit your context menu by file type ZDNet search "ContextEdit"
  • Freedom of Association -- manage file type associations. ZDNet search "Freedom Association"
  • Msched -- macro scheduler with hot keys and scripting language. 5 stars from ZDnet. "I use Macro Scheduler (available as shareware at www.mjtnet.com) which has some small limitations, but generally rocks." [timm]
  • CPU-Z -- Determines type of hardware memory. Laptops use DDR in 144- or 200-pin SODIMM or DDR2 in 200-pin SODIMM. Two slots is faster than using all four slots. [L. Case, June 08]
  • How to switch Ctl and CapsLock [Ashish, be careful].
  • Quickeys -- keyboard macros, text macros, screen capture. GUI interface. See www.cesoft.com [bradb]
  • TaskArrange -- rearrange the task bar. Taskbar Shuffle is easier to use.
  • Taskbar Shuffle -- Drag-n-drop taskbar buttons.
  • tweakui -- remove "shortcut to" and other improvements. Unpack in a directory. Right click on tweakui.inf and select install. Either reboot or click on WinNT\tweakui.cpl.
  • Command prompt here -- access the DOS box from Explorer. Execute the installer. Right click on DOSHERE.INF and select install.
  • Desktop Menu -- access your desktop from the Taskbar. Execute the installer. Move DESKMENU.EXE to your start directory. Execute to use it without rebooting.
  • SendTo -- do more with the send to menu. Execute the installer. Right click on SENDTOX.INF and select install.
  • ButtonBoogie -- move buttons on your taskbar ZDNet search "ButtonBoogie"
  • Startup Cop -- manage your start up programs. ZDNet search "Startup Cop"
  • TrayIcon -- launch program by clicking icon on system tray. ZDNet search: TrayIcon
  • See Java software below.
  • XEmacs for Windows NT. Emacs - The Next Generation. Using XEmacs nifty 'EFS' functionality, you can specify a path like: /cpatti@nibbler:/work/releng/DCS/5.0/Makefile and XEmacs will automatically use FTP to get/put the file. Cons: xemacs over the network is slower than emacs inside CRT or telnet. Also the control keys in emacs are hard on the wrist.
  • GNU Emacs -- part of cygwin
  • Textpad -- full-featured replacement for Notepad. Recommended [tleblanc, jlang, bradb]. See Plasma #8629 for Dynamo syntax and clip libraries [tobrien].
  • EditPadPro -- full-featured text editor.
  • UniPad -- free text editor with full Unicode support [lizanne]
  • Visual C++ -- excellent editor with multifile search, keyboard macros, and navigation bar [bradb]. 'Help:keyboard map' includes useful keys. For example F4 goes to the next search result.
  • UltraEdit -- includes tabbed interface to open files [wredmond]. See Plasma #8356 for Dynamo and Java syntax files [billon].
  • GreatNews -- free and very nice RSS reader [kshu]
  • Gui4CLI -- freeware, event-driven language (Windows only)
  • zsh (wiki) -- better than bash/tcsh [cpatti]
  • ActivePython -- installers for Python on Win NT, Solaris, and Linux. The Cygwin package includes python for NT. See py2exe for stand-alone executables [rollin].
  • Manual:Security -- MediaWiki's notes on securing PHP and MySql.
  • AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition -- efficient anti-virus.
  • SpyCatcher Express (free)-- detects and disable spy ware
  • Comodo Firewall (free) -- Well regarded firewall protection.
  • ShieldsUp -- test your firewall.
  • PINs -- free password vault
  • ntpasswd -- Reset administrative password [bartonn]
  • WinSCP - scp client (secure copy), Launch the winscp executable. Enter in the host name and your network username and password. Now double click on your public_html folder. From here you will need to select files or folders in windows explorer and drag them to the winscp gui. Easy as that. [bartonn]
  • WWW Security FAQ.
  • OpenSSH Key Management
  • VPN -- Logon is faster if you change 'Dial up networking', Properties:ServerTypes, and unclick Log on to network, NetBEUI, IPX/SPX Compatible [bradb].
  • Terminator -- Terminal emulator modeled on Mac OS Terminal.
  • PuTTY - a great, free, SSH/telnet client for Win32 [cpatti]
  • Tight VNC -- remote access to NT servers and other hosts.
  • CRT -- telnet and terminal emulator. Use SecureCRT for SSH. Cygwin's ssh works almost as well.
  • TeraTerm Pro -- on shareware.com [LaMantia, Baron]
  • eXceed -- X window server.
  • Procomm Plus -- solid VT100 emulation. Tries to do too much. [bradb]
  • netcat -- The swiss army knife of networking tools. You can create everything from a simple network pipe to a simple server with a single command line invocation. Also good for diagnosing network problems. [cpatti]
  • Planet Mirror -- Asia Pacific's largest online software repository [cpatti]
  • Guiffy Merge, a Java-based merge tool with intra-line diffs. [Andrew Jacobs]
  • Solaris freeware -- Freeware packaged for Solaris [Matt Rice].
  • ActivePython -- installers for Python on Win NT, Solaris, and Linux. The Cygwin package includes python for NT.
  • Netscape 7 -- based on the Mozilla browser -- works with Bugzilla, performance bug on very, long pages.
    • LiveHTTPHeaders -- Mozilla addon for viewing HTTP headers and cookies [fkim]
  • Opera -- fast, works with Bugzilla, breaks on IE sites.
  • Internet Explorer -- what else
  • Tiny URL -- create short, URL aliases for any link