Programs you should be using

[Shawn]

Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/): I think anyone who's going to switch already has, but I couldn't leave this off the list. Frankly, if you're still using IE, you're just asking for a slew of viruses, trojans, popups and a million other things. I recommend getting the latest adblock extension (http://adblock.mozdev.org/dev.html), which can block virtually anything from being displayed in a page.

Trillian (http://www.trillian.cc/): Once again, a staple. Even if you don't use its multiple messenger capabilities, its minimalist interface, lack of advetising, skinning capabilities and more make it a great alternative to stock AIM.

Zoom Player (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml): Everyone has their favorite media players, but I'm absolutely in love with Zoom Player. I have it set up on my computer so that it can literally play any media file in existence - avi, mkv, ogm, mov, rm, swf, wmv, asf, even DVDs and SVCDS... they all play just fine in Zoom Player with a bit of tweaking. Plus, you can manually force an aspect ratio for a movie as well easily switch between multiple audio and subtitle streams.

Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/): There are many BitTorrent clients and I can't honestly say Azureus is the best - some clients work better for different people. But I like Azureus's one-window interface and configurability.

AVG Antivirus (http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php): Not the best antivirus software available, but it's pretty good and it's free. Update it at least once a week and run it and it'll help keep your PC happy.

Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html): SS&D searches your computer for trojans, spyware and other malicious software that an antivirus won't catch. You should probably use this, as well.

DefilerPak (http://hellninjacommando.com/defilerpak/): Uninstall any other codec packs you already have and install this one. It'll let you play pretty much any media files you can get. If DefilerPak can't play it, it's probably not worth watching. Be sure to check the page occasionally for updates.

Winrar (http://www.rarlab.com/): Why aren't you using this yet?

Advanced Administrative Tools (http://www.glocksoft.com/aatools.htm): This is not freeware. I believe it costs nearly $50. They do, however, have a free trial. I recommend downloading their trial and running the registry cleaner at least once.

[Morgan Evanar]

Videolan Media Player: (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) I haven't found anything besides Quicktime/Real that it won't play.

GAIM: (http://gaim.sf.net) Some people like it better than trillain. Also, free, open source, and updated often.

Apache HTTPD: (http://httpd.apache.org/)If you do web developement, you should be running Apache. PHP and MySQL optional.

Winamp 5: (http://winamp.com) 2+3 = 5. Take 2's stablility and speed, take 3's cool skins and awesome media library, and you get winamp 5. It is my prefered audio player.

Filezilla (http://filezilla.sf.net) Filezilla is an excellent open source FTP client. The same group has made an easy to use FTP server.

[Tear]

Awesome thread. Maybe theres a chance for it to get stickied? Would be great for others who might be interested

[ReaperFett]

Originally posted by Shawn
Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/): There are many BitTorrent clients and I can't honestly say Azureus is the best - some clients work better for different people. But I like Azureus's one-window interface and configurability.

I use ABC, that has a nice one window system too.

[Morgan Evanar]

I used to use ABC, but developement has slowed, and Azureus has much nicer features.

[Shawn]

Originally posted by ReaperFett
I use ABC, that has a nice one window system too. Like I said, Azureus is just a personal preference that I thought I'd provide a link for. I switched from ABC to Azureus when development on ABC halted, and I have no idea about its current state.

[Shawn]

Shawn's Guide to Making Your Movies Play Right

First and most importantly: Remove any and all codecs or codec packs you have installed.

Some of the more common packs are the K-lite codec pack and the Nimo codec pack, both of which are garbage. Also, if you have the individual codecs for XviD or DivX, you don't need them unless you plan to do video encoding (in which case, you probably don't need this guide).

As I mentioned above, Zoom Player is my media player of choice. Click this link (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml), scroll down to the bottom of the page to where it says "Zoom Player Standard" to get the regular version. Install it to an easy to remember directory, such as C:\Program Files\Zoom Player\

Now, go here (http://hellninjacommando.com/defilerpak/) to download the latest DefilerPak. The download link is at the top of the page. Run the installer. When prompted, make sure that every single item on the list of components to install is checked, including "Matroska A/V container format".

Now you're pretty much ready to go. If you have a movie file that's already associated with Windows Media Player (such as an AVI file), simply Right-Click on it, select "Open With...", select "Choose Program", press the "Browse..." button and browse to the location of zplayer.exe in C:\Program Files\Zoom Player\. Make sure the checkbox for "Always use the selected program for this type of file" is selected and hit OK.

Both .OGM and .MKV are movie files, similar to .AVI. You can open them in pretty much the same way.

Troubleshooting

This is a slightly more advanced step. Unless you're still having difficulty playing movie files, you can safely ignore this.

Open up Zoom Player by attempting to open a movie file, or by simply running zplayer.exe. Right-Click on the black area and select "Player Options from the list.

http://img121.exs.cx/img121/8568/zplayer017zq.png

You should be greeted by a screen that looks like this:

http://img121.exs.cx/img121/6406/zplayer021la.png

Click the button for advanced mode, then select "Filter Control" from the list on the left side:

http://img121.exs.cx/img121/6500/zplayer034nb.png

Click the "Management" tab on the right panel. You should see a list of available filters and codecs:

http://img45.exs.cx/img45/8479/zplayer041tp.png

One by one, select the following items from the list and press the "Register" button:

AC3 for AVI
AC3Filter
CoreVorbis
DirectVobSub
DirectVobSub (New)
FFDShow
Matroska
OGG

Each time, Zoom Player should perform a brief search for the requested codecs and give you a success or failure message. If you're still having trouble, try registering the DivX and XviD codecs as well (You shouldn't need to, as FFDShow covers them and more).

Click the "Manual Save" at the very bottom right, then click "Close" and you should be ready to go.

[Grev Drasen]

I just converted from VLC player to Zoom Player and haven't looked back. Thanks for the shill.