OK, so now that Apple has launched Boot Camp Public Beta, and anyone with an Intel iMac or Mac Book Pro can run Microsoft Windows XP, I was wondering, what’s out there that is worth running?
I’ve been a Mac user and fan for over 15 years, and frankly, haven’t needed to use Windows. Now that I can, easily, I’d like to know what are the best examples of elegant, easy-to-use, useful Windows software.
What Windows software do you love, do you rave about...that you would use to evangelize Windows to a new user.
This isn't about starting a flame war over what platform has the coolest software. I'm hoping this discussion can generate a useful one-stop list of best-in-class.
To help moderate the flow, submit your suggestions by e-mail for the best Windows software in these categories:
• Productivity (spreadsheet)
• Graphics
• Utilities (spam, anti-virus, FTP etc)
• Games
• Online enhancements (e.g. toolbars etc)
• Other
I'll update the sidebar as your suggestions flow in.
Let the games begin!
Many people NEED to be able to run Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft Access. These tools are used by Fortune 1000 companies to create many custom applications. Add Microsoft Outlook to complete the the suite of corporate compatibility MUST-HAVES.
"Better" is not an issue with these.
Posted by: Javier | April 08, 2006 at 11:57 AM
I don't know of anything better. However, there are some things I have to use on windows. My company makes an application which I support so I need windows to demonstrate that to customers. Also, I have to use SAP (uglies piece of xxxx I ever saw) and it has to be setup by our IT guys on windows. Along with that they setup a VPN connection. I don't need Outlook. I use Safari and the webmail connection to my email account. I also went in and setup a rule to forward all my mail to a POP account I read with OS X Mail.
Posted by: JohnK | April 08, 2006 at 07:26 PM
besides itunes, pshop, and the regulars, I use this alot:
reply-radio.com
Posted by: Rochard | April 11, 2006 at 11:34 PM
sorry, that's replay-radio.com
Posted by: Rochard | April 11, 2006 at 11:35 PM
5 Clicks. Best screen-grab utility out there.
Posted by: . | April 11, 2006 at 11:37 PM
The SAP software is also avaible for Mac, just have your IT guys get the mac version of the software, but I don't think anyone who has to use the frontend of SAP really likes it, now the reports and such i'm sure are great
Posted by: Qua | April 11, 2006 at 11:40 PM
You need VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ - It'll play just about any media on a Windows machine.
Posted by: Another slashdotter | April 11, 2006 at 11:40 PM
1) iTunes
2) World of Warcraft
D'oh.
Seriously tho, games are probably the only reason most people would want to dual boot with Windows.
Posted by: Trent | April 11, 2006 at 11:42 PM
SpaceMonger ("http://www.werkema.com/software/spacemonger.html") always struck me as nice system utility. The program will display the contents of a drive with files and directories represented as multi-colored boxes. The size of each box is relative to the size of the file or the contents of the directory. I.e., a 1GB file will be half the size of a 2GB file.
Posted by: David Ludwig | April 11, 2006 at 11:48 PM
Although many of the apps I use are the same on both platforms (Adobe everything including former Macromedia stuff), there are only a few PC-only accessories I use.
The main would be Trillian for IMing. It supports a bunch of IM protocols, but the real reason I use it is because the Aikon2LCD skin has a compact mode that reduces the list window to the absolute bare minimum. No fancy irritating buttons or useless features. Meh..most everything else I don't feel strongly about, so, I dunno, Alcohol 120 for image mounting, BitSpirit for BitTorrent...
Posted by: daleth | April 11, 2006 at 11:48 PM
Oh! I almost forgot. Regarding the /.er that mentioned VLC, I actually prefer Media Player Classic. Speaking for myself, I consider that an absolute requirement. And maybe one of the codec packs out there, nemo or k-lite?
Posted by: daleth | April 11, 2006 at 11:50 PM
hahahah you are a tard
switching from one crap os to another, way to be
Posted by: jebus | April 11, 2006 at 11:50 PM
OK, sorry, one other thing: Your de facto windows mp3 player is Winamp.
I personally despise iTunes, but it's just a different methodology of music sorting and access.
Posted by: daleth | April 11, 2006 at 11:54 PM
AviSynth - http://www.avisynth.org/ - Frameserver, scriptable non-linear video editing.
VirtualDub - http://www.virtualdub.org/ VirtualDubMod - http://virtualdubmod.sourceforge.net/ - Video capture, linear processing. Use in conjunction with AviSynth.
Isobuster - http://www.isobuster.com/ - CD/DVD data recovery
ExactAudioCopy - http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ - CD ripping even from badly scratched CDs.
Posted by: Hob Gadling | April 12, 2006 at 12:00 AM
http://shsc.info/UsefulWindowsSoftware
some generic recommendations:
- foobar > winamp > everything else
- rainlender
- Firefox
- AOL instant messenger with deadAIM(the old free version can be found at oldversion.com)
Posted by: anon | April 12, 2006 at 12:01 AM
Skype
3D Studio Max for graphics
Notepad++ for simple editing and programming
AccessData Forensic Toolkit for forensics
Norton Internet Security (specifically to filter advertisements out of HTML.)
Dreamweaver, the best WYSIWYG HTML editor.
Outlook for email.
Real Rhapsody for my music subscription service. (no need to pay a $1 for one song when I can pay $120/yr for every song on the planet)
Steam & Counter-strike: Source (PC Game)
Chessbase Playchess client for internet chess using the Fritz 8 gui.
Posted by: jon | April 12, 2006 at 12:02 AM
As a 99% mac user, here is the one thing i miss about windows: Excel is so much more useable on windows than on the mac. Anyone who has to deal with large spreadsheets knows that the keyboard shortcuts are important for speed. On the mac, most of them are missing.
I spent a long time setting up macros to get many things working on the mac, but i still can't work as fast on the mac as on the pc.
For all the people that are going to flame me about not knowing the mac well enough, don't bother. I would consider myself a power user on osx, its just that microsoft has done a really crappy job with Excel for mac.
Posted by: josh | April 12, 2006 at 12:06 AM
Umm the only thing you need a PC for is graphics (Photoshop), games, and Microsoft Office. Thats BS, Microsoft Visual Basic being used by
a Fortune 1000 company? Your dealer must be selling you some damn good shit dude... VB is so fucking retarded, no self-respecting IT dept. would use it.
Posted by: Andrew | April 12, 2006 at 12:07 AM
Here are some programs I love that as far as I know are not on OS X
Graphics: 3DS Max, how I make my living
Utilities: Directory Opus (*excellent* file management, FTP, etc. I could never go back to explorer or finder again)
Nero Burning ROM for CD/DVD writing
Virtual Daemon CD Emulator
Media Player Classic, my favorite media player on any platform
Winamp + Milkdrop, excellent music player and visualizations
Games:
All of em :)
Online:
Miranda IM, nice no frills client for all IM
mIRC, classic IRC client
Other:
One of the coolest things about Windows to me is shell replacements. BlackBox4Win/bbLean let's you have a blackbox type desktop, and both Litestep and DesktopX let you design your own desktops
Posted by: Nothin | April 12, 2006 at 12:12 AM
Really windows is used for gaming. I have found that the products made by Microsoft work better on windows and vice versa. Don't use Itunes for windows, use winamp. Use office on windows. One person said notepad++, but I prefer programmer's notepad. For antivirus, use symantec. For Ftp, any free ftp is fine. Don't use toolbars as they have a tendency to install unnecessary components such as weatherbug and so on.
Posted by: Mike | April 12, 2006 at 12:20 AM
Most of these are "power-user" tools, but they are the first tools I load on a new Windows desktop.
Windows PowerPro - ultimate keyboard macro/toolbar/automation utility. Also has a postit note feature, virtual desktops. Amazing how much such a small tool can do.
AutoHotKey - penultimate utility, second only to PowerPro above. DonationCoder.com has a ton of one-off tools written using this utility.
FindAndRunRobot - nice keyboard launcher for apps. The donationcoder.com site has lots of useful stuff, but this one is my favorite.
PasswordSafe - secure user/pass with URL launching and auto-fill - another must have. There's a Linux version too - not sure about OS/X.
ObjectDock - free version is good, but I can't live without the folder menus on the full version.
PSPad - text editor... there are probably more text editors for windows than any other category of app. This one does everything I need, for both basic text editing, and code editing. Not quite a full IDE, I'd go with Eclipse for that. But this loads fast, where Eclipse does anything but.
Lastly, Maxthon - IE wrapper. I have to use IE on my work laptop, and Maxthon give me tabs, proxy switching, ad blocking, and more, while retaining full IE compatibility. I use Firefox too, but when it has to be IE, Maxthon is better than the real thing.
Posted by: Jim | April 12, 2006 at 12:21 AM
Softimage XSI, Side Effects Houdini, Digital Fusion are all great apps only for PC.
Posted by: Seth | April 12, 2006 at 12:26 AM
Coming to PC, you NEED anti-virus. I use a symantec corporate client, but its hard to get ahold of. Also, anti-spyware, SpyBot is the best hands down (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html)
I use VLC for all media files except when I am using my iTunes. Azureus for torrents (although you should have been using it on Mac). Steam + CS:Source, dbPoweramp for converting music files, gaim for AIM, audacity for editing audio, DVD Decrypter for copying DVDs to your computer, (and then gordian knot to xvid them), deamontools for ISO mounting, nero for burning, and thats all I cant think of right now.
Posted by: Alexander | April 12, 2006 at 12:26 AM
Free:
• Productivity - OpenOffice
• Graphics - Paint.NET
• Utilities - MS Anti-spyware
• Online - google toolbar
• Can't do with out free - Samurize
Non Free:
• Productivity - Office 2003
• Graphics - Photoshop
• Utilities - ZoneAlarm with AV
• Game - too may but start with Oblivion
• Can't do with out - Nero
Posted by: Craig | April 12, 2006 at 12:27 AM
I have a couple. In some categories, the number of solid choices is so broad as to preclude a recommendation. FTP software for example.
Other areas demand more attention.
Productivity:
Open Office and AbiWord are solid. If I didn't already have MS Office, I'd give them a serious look.
ieSpell. Spellchecker for IE forms. Tremendously useful if you do a lot of forum posting. May not be cross-browser compatible.
Ad Muncher. This is the best web filtering software for Windows. It's why I can continue to use IE; no advertisements, text or otherwise. No nastiness. Just works. It's programmed by a single guy; if you email tech support, you talk to him.
ABC bittorrent. Simple, functional client.
VLC Player and BS Player. VLC is a media player that personifies 'accept anything, output strict' programming. If you want to view a movie in RAR file without even bothering to unzip it, this is your program. BS Player is more polished, slightly less capable, but easily the best all-purpose player out there. The stock skin sucks, however.
EAC. Excellent CD ripper.
DVD Shrink. Excellent DVD ripper.
Maxthon. Tabbed browsing on top of IE. Better than the stock version of Firefox if you don't mind that it's IE-based.
Topdesk. This is almost a carbon copy of Expose. Solid stuff to replace Alt-Tab. MS is including a version in Vista.
I could list more, but it would start getting into specific uses.
• Graphics
Photoshop and RAWShooter Essentials, if you're a camera geek. I'm sure there other graphics programs, but I haven't bothered to find them.
• Utilities
Bulletproof FTP is my preference, but there are dozens worth trying.
F-Protect is the only AV program I have, but it could suck for all it matters, I never use it. Ad Muncher keeps everything off this system.
Best of luck,
John
Posted by: John | April 12, 2006 at 12:28 AM