Thread: Free software that make you go "WOW !!!"

i use Windows xp
so here s some very useful (for me) free software i use
Everything - instant local file search with optimal indexing and minimal database
JDownloader - for downloading stuff
Filemenu tools - integrates with windows explorer's context menu and has many options like advanced renamer and command line from here + you can set your own menus ex:send to "folder you specify"
Tunatic - what the name of that tune?
Pidgin - chat software - you can use multiple accounts in one window (yahoo,msn,aim,gtalk and many more) so bye-bye yahoo messenger and Msn :)
- works on linux too
- you have various plugins that make pidgin great
- the downsides are that theres no Voip and video yet
Ditto - clipboard
- you can share notes from ditto with friends
- has clipboard history so you can see what you copied or pasted a moth ago :)
Coffee - File association software -pretty handy sometimes
Gimp - for advanced picture editing - i kinda dont use it too often but its really handy when needed
Notepad ++ - free text editor with sintax highlighting and folding
FormatFactory - converts media files almost anything to anything
FlV player - for my .flv files

I've told you mine so tell me yours.
Please mention what OS works on (windows/mac/linux) and what briefly it does - like i did.I dont apreciate spam.

Here are a few of mine:

Audacity - Basic free open-source audio editor. Does pretty much what I need most of the time. Works on most OSes.
Avisynth - A basic addon that works wonders with video encoders. I'm not too sure how it works, but encoders that reject certain formats will usually accept AVS scripts that link to rejected files. Not sure about requirements.
CCleaner - Great cleaning utility for freeing space and removing useless temporary data and dead registry files. I think this is Windows only.
CCCP (with MediaPlayerClassic and ZoomPlayer) - Probably THE best video and audio codec pack for Windows. Comes with MPC (used to have ZP too). It's Matroska's official codec pack and plays all except Real and Quicktime files, but those are added using free alternatives. Windows only because it is ffdShow based.
foobar2000 - A great completely customizable media player that can play anything with the appropriate plugins. Also has a CD ripping feature as well as advanced tagging and conversion. I think it's Windows only at the moment. Works with LAME and FLAC.
mIRC w/ NNScript - Windows only IRC client. With NNScript, you get lots of advance features available in other clients added to the popular mIRC.
NotePad++ - See the post above :P
Paint.NET - Basic yet powerful graphics editor. Probably not as advanced as Photoshop but it does pretty much everything you will need regularly (image editing, resizing, censoring, etc.). Windows only.
TortoiseSVN - A simple SVN client that integrates into Windows Explorer and makes SVN so much easier. This is Windows only too, I think.

I may add more some other time.

I'm using 7 x64 but these all work on XP/Vista as well.

ImgBurn - great, lightweight tool for burning CD/DVDs
Miranda - All in one instant messenger
Ventrilo - Voice chat, you have to setup a server which unfortunately has a user limit of 8 unless you rent a server from a host.
MyDefrag - Very good defrag utility
VirtualDub - Video editing, very advanced but I only use it to cut .AVIs
Handbrake - Easy to use x.264 video encoding tool
GParted - partitioning tool
DBaN - securely wipes data from hard drives (use it before you sell a PC/HDD)

I think thats about all that I don't see already listed.

VLC is my most used free app

DVDFlick is a great one for encoding and burning DVDs.

I also like VLC media player. Way better than Windows.

And don't forget everyone's favorite browser Firefox.

Spybot S&D - I mostly just use this as my prevention tool, using it to immune my system as soon as I clean install my OS, well Windows...

Paint.Net - Even though I do not use it that much, I was pretty impressed by it when I first installed it. It is clean, a WHOLE lot better than paint, and it is simple. I mean, it is no photoshop, it is lightweight though.

OpenOffice - I am not a huge fan of OpenOffice, since I need to use MSOffice for school, and I just stick with it. It is a great piece of software for the opensource community and all those anti-ms people, and anyone else on a low budget and needs an office suite.

Foobar2000 - It is an extremely great audio player, extendable as hell and can play pretty much anything you throw at it. Besides, the UI looks great and you can customize it!. I prefer VLC over it though just for the fact that my speakers on my laptop are low unless I turn the sound to 200% and Foobar2000 only goes to 100% and I don't know how to change ti.

Firefox - I love Firefox <3

That is pretty much all the free tools that I have really messed around with that are worth the wow factor. That I can remember at least.

Utorrent- I wonder if there is anything more netter
Firefox -Awesome
foobar2000-Nice
trillian
MeGUI
MPC

We should have a list for OS X users as well!

Adding to my list:

Aegisub - Great subtitle editing program. Does timing and basic typesetting and karaoke. Used a lot for fansubbing, but not much for anything else. Windows.
DVD Flick - Powerful DVD authoring software that's open sourced but for Windows.
EAC - Lossless and useful CD ripping tool. Windows.
Filezilla - An FTP client. What else is there to say? It's useful and does what it needs to do. Windows.
Firefox - Self explanatory :)
Handbrake - Windows only video encoder with lots of built in settings.
HashCheck Shell Extension - A simple Windows explorer integration that calculates stuff like CRC32, MD5 and various other checksums.
megui - Advanced media encoder that handles more file formats (and more settings) than Handbrake.
MKVToolNix - MKV editing tool provided by Matroska. Very useful and handy.
pspvc - Probably THE best PSP video conversion tool around. Windows only as it uses CCCP.
sTabLauncher - Ever heard of the Dell Dock or the Stardock? Well, this is like that but with tabs (and free!)
Team Viewer - Useful tool for remote accessing your computer. Windows.
TweetDeck - Multiplatform tool for tweetwhores like me. lol.