Software that I use (2016)

Introduction

I use software. You use software too! You’re using one right now to read this (unless, for some unknown reason, you decided to print this page). I’ve decided to write down what I use on a regular basis for two main reasons: people might discover something they could use themselves, or people might recommend better alternatives to what I’m using (don’t mention Linux-based distributions).

So, let’s go!

General

Operating System: Windows 10 - by choice! I know, right? It works, it’s fast, it has Cortana.

Browser: Opera - I keep looking for a better browser. Chrome is becoming the new Internet Exploder. Firefox is laggy in random areas and (at least on my machine) has a really awkward memory leak when watching YouTube videos. Opera just works. Opera

Mailing: Outlook 365 - I think I’ve used most big names (Thunderbird, Mailbird, Opera Mail, Zimbra and RoundCube), but I keep coming back to Outlook. It just works really well. For those wondering: I can’t go online-only due to having 3 primary mail accounts and I really don’t want to have email forwarded to a single box.

Image Viewer: IrfanView - Lightweight, fully featured, works. I want to see images and I want them now. And IrfanView delivers. IrfanView. I also use the built-in Windows 10 Photos app. The photo list is nice.

Video Player: VLC - Plays all video formats I throw at it. Supports Twitch.tv streams through Livestreamer. VLC Media Player

Cloud Storage: OneDrive - Mostly because it interacts positively with my Windows Phone and because I have a ton of storage thanks to my Office 365 subscription.

Torrent Client: Tixati - I used to be a uTorrent person, but ads ruined the software for me. Tixati does everything uTorrent does, but without the annoying “DOWNLOAD THIS VERY GOOD MUSIC TOO” signs everywhere. Tixati

Text Editor: Sublime Text - I gave Atom a try and it’s really good. But Sublime is just faster and has a cleaner interface (fits in better with the rest of the OS). The plugin support is amazing as well. Sublime Text (Costs money to disable “BUY ME” popup. Was worth.)

PDF Viewer: Sumatra PDF - It does its job and it does it lightning fast. Sumatra PDF

Voice Chat: Discord - For gaming, Discord is a nice combination of Skype and TeamSpeak. Lightweight, random bot support, clean interface. For family, Skype is still the go-to. Discord

Helper Software

TeraCopy - Greatly improves Windows’ copy / move speeds by automatically batching files for transfer. It does have some issues when copying to admin-restricted folders, but other than that performance is brilliant. A nice thing about it is the fact it can automatically replace the default Windows copy-paste behaviour if you tell it to during install. TeraCopy

Synergy - Do you have 2 or more computers lying around? Regardless if they’re Windows, Linux or Mac, Synergy lets you share a keyboard and mouse between all of them. It can also allow you to drag and drop files between desktops. Synergy

SpeedFan - I use it to monitor CPU temperature and fan speeds. You can have it show a tray icon with the current value. Convenient! SpeedFan

CCleaner - Cleans up your hard drive of files that can be safely deleted, or of registry entries that no longer should be there. Use it once per month and your PC should last you a lot longer. CCleaner

Development Stuff

IDE: Visual Studio 2015 - A lot faster than older iterations. Really stable. Can support a lot of languages (thanks to a lot of community developers). A ton of libraries and out-of-the-box scaffolds available. Just outright pretty with great tools for development (distraction free) and presentations (higher font-size, hiding irrelevant panels, etc). Profiling tools are life savers as well. Highly recommended.

FTP Client: WinSCP - Connects to most protocols beyond FTP, maintains the connection well, allows for folder synchronisation, decent UI. Also allows you to use other tools (such as PuTTY) on the server you’re connected to, if supported. WinSCP

PHP / HTML Editor: Sublime Text - See above.

Command Prompt Enhancement: ConEmu - Tabbed console support for various command prompts (basic Windows cmd, Powershell, Cygwin, etc). Also supports global keyboard shortcuts to make it show up out of nowhere, as well as a beautiful and useful “Quake-style” drop-down mode. Also lets you copy text easily from the command prompt and other nice features. ConEmu

Git client: SourceTree - Was a fan of the GitHub for Windows client, but they failed to improve on its speed and reliability. The in-built version control in Visual Studio is great, but requires you to start the whole IDE for it. SourceTree is fully featured, fast and reliable. A bit daunting at first, but it’s great in the long run. SourceTree