IT

A collection of my favorite software/tools:
NOTE: check this site when looking for alternative software: http://alternativeto.net/software/

Development

• ASP.NET related (Visual Web Developer; etc.);
• MS SQL Server (download; configuration; install sample databases)
• NetBeans;
• Web Development Tools, APIs and Frameworks (Firebug; Web Developer, etc.);
• Wordoff.org: strip css/style and useless meta-data from your html to attain raw HTML only.
  Problems: if you have tables with empty cells (<td></td>) they will be removed causing alignment/display problems;

Image:

• GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. A freeware photo retouching, image composition and image authoring;
• FastStone Image Viewer 4.1:Unlike the name suggest FastStone Image Viewer, is not only a viewer but a full transformation tool. Its my favourite image tool to convert and edit multiple images at once. Free for personal use. [see my tutorial]
• Paint.NET is a free image and photo editing software for Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

Internet (desktop applications that use the web):

• FileZilla is a free open source FTP client and server;
• Free Download Manageris a powerful, easy-to-use, absolutely free and open-source download accelerator. Main features include: splitting files into sections and downloading them simultaneously resulting in incresased download speed; resume of broken downloads avoiding to start downloading from the beginning after casual interruption; download video from video sites (such as Youtube or Google Video) and save them in native .flv format or converted to one of more popular video formats;
• Miro - a great freeware podcast client. Subscribe, watch and organize audio/video feeds when offline or traveling, find TV programs on sites like Hulu, and download from sites like YouTube.
• PuTTY is a (good old) free and open source terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw TCP computing protocols;
• TeamViewer is a remote desktop software. Supports NO-Install. See this comparison of remote desktop software on wikipedia for other alternatives;
• Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. A great (and free) alternative to Microsoft Outlook; 
• Windows Live Writter is a Microsoft freeware software that can help you publish blog post from your computer to almost any blog service provider (Blogger; Windows Live Spaces; WordPress; TypePad; etc.). Other free alternatives can be found on the article: 3 Free Alternatives to BlogJet;
• WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. Focus on safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer. A portable solution (no installation required) is also available for download;

Online (not installed on your machine):

• Delicious is a social bookmarking tool. With Delicious your bookmarks will be available everywhere you access the web. Advantages: don't lose information anymore (data is saved online); the flexible tag system allows you to easily find your bookmarks later; Delicious can also be a good alternative to Google when searching tech articles: the articles were bookmarked by real people so chances are they are good and relevant;
• DropBox: Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. 
• Google Reader is an online RSS Reader. Read and save your favorite news papers/magazines/etc. RSS feeds in a centralized app (Google Reader overview on youtube);
• Picasa manage, save and share photos online (another google app). Note: if you are a blogger user, you already have a picasa account (it was created automatically for you). Blogger uses Picasa to save uploaded images. To access your account just log in at your google account and then visit Picasa web site to manage your account;
• Simulador de salário liquido;
• Wordoff.org: strip css/style and useless meta-data from your html to attain raw HTML only.
Problems: if you have tables with empty cells (<td></td>) they will be removed causing alignment/display problems;

System administration:

• Auslogics Disk Defrag: Optimizes file system; Consolidates free space; Can defrag automatically; Provides flexible scheduler; Can defrag a single file or folder; Supports multi-terabyte volumes
• CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run);
• CPU-Z  (see also HWiNFO - seems to ger better results) is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system: CPU (Name and number; Core stepping and process; Package; Core voltage; Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier; Supported instructions sets; Cache information); Mainboard (Vendor, model and revision; BIOS model and date; Chipset; Graphic interface); Memory (Frequency and timings; Module(s) specification using SPD); System (Windows and DirectX version);
• EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition: like the old, and now extinct, Partition Magic (RIP) is a freeware and very easy to use program for hard disk drive partitioning;
  REMINDER: "logical partitions" are used to store data while "primary partitions" allow Operating Systems to boot from them;
• EASEUS Todo Backup Free 2.5: (01.July.2011 - free for home & business users) is a great piece of software for disk clone/backup. Between other functionality it offers:
     - Disk clone (Clone or transfer all the data on a hard disk to another to upgrade your hard drive without reinstalling operating systems and applications);
     - The creation of disk images (for backup) that can also be browsed directly with windows explorer;
     - The creation of an emergency bootable disk (based on usb or CD/DVD);
     - Incremental disk and file backup;
     - Support Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7;
  See my EASEUS Todo Backup tutorial;
• HWiNFO and HWiNFO32 (always download the latest version) are freeware professional hardware information and diagnostic tools supporting latest components, industry technologies and standards. Both tools are designed to collect and present the maximum amount of information possible about computer's hardware which makes them suitable for users searching for driver updates, computer manufacturers, system integrators and technical experts as well. Retrieved information is presented in a logical and easily understandable form and can be exported into various types of reports.
• Glary Utilities is a powerful and all-in-one freeware utility. It offers numerous powerful and easy-to-use system tools and utilities to fix, speed up, maintain and protect your PC;
• Starter is a freeware startup manager for Microsoft Windows: View and manage all the programs starting automatically whenever operating system is loading; enumerates all the hidden registry entries, startup folders' items and some of the initialization files, so that the user could choose to temporarily disable selected entries, edit them, create new, or delete them permanently; List all the running processes with possibility to view extended process' information (such as used DLLs, memory usage, thread count, priorities etc.), and to terminate selected process (even a Windows NT service, having enough access rights); Windows' services (and drivers) manager with some advanced features; Basically this is a mix  and enhanced version of Windows Services manager (services.msc) plus task manager; 
• SyncBack is a freeware file backup & synchronization program. You can install it or use a NO-INSTALL version (very usefull with removable flash drives). It can be used with hard drives, rewritable CD’s & DVD’s (formatted with UDF), removable media (e.g. Compact Flash), FTP servers, ZIP archives, and network shares.
  SyncBackSE and SyncBackPro are extended versions of the free SyncBack.
  SyncBack is great to keep two exact copies of the same data (sync) but you can also easily define your own rules for backup (ex. keep all files on the backup even though they have already been deleted from the source).
  For backups operations allowing version control compressing and encryption a possible good alternative could be FBackup. Other alternative sync and backup software can be found at CNET Downloads category: Windows Software -> Utilities & Operating Systems -> Backup Software;
• System Requirements Lab: an online tool to check if you can run known software before you buy/install it;
• VirtualBox (free for personal use) is a x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Its an feature rich, high performance product freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). As of January 2010, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD. VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on.

System protection:

• Free antivirus:
  - Avast (my favorite);
  - Avira;
  - AVG Free Edition;
  - Security Essentials(free antivirus from Microsoft - haven't tried this one yet);
  
  
• Malware protection tools:
  - Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a surprisingly effective freeware antimalware tool (there is a paid-for version, too);
  - Spybot Search and Destroy checks for and removes malware;
  - Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (free from Microsoft) scans your Windows PC for malware and removes it;

Sound/Music:

• Audacity is a free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.
• CDex is an open source digital audio CD extractor. It can extract the data directly (digital) from an Audio CD, which is generally called a CD Ripper or a CDDA utility. The resulting audio file can be a plain WAV file (useful for making compilation audio CDs) or the ripped audio data can be compressed using an audio encoder (like MP3 or WMA). In addition, WAV files on the hard drive can be converted to a Compressed Audio File (and visa versa). CDex also supports many audio file tag formats like the ID3V1 and ID3V2 tags, which can be automatically inserted (downloaded from the internet) as part of the ripping process.
• GoldWave is a highly rated, professional digital audio editor. It's fully loaded to do everything from the simplest recording and editing to the most sophisticated audio processing, restoration, enhancements, and conversions.
• MP3Tag is a freeware powerful and yet easy-to-use tool to edit metadata of common audio formats where it supports ID3v1, ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4, iTunes MP4, WMA, Vorbis Comments and APE Tags. It can rename files based on the tag information, replace characters or words in tags and filenames, import/export tag information, create playlists and more. Mp3tag supports online database lookups from, e.g., Amazon, discogs, or freedb, allowing you to automatically gather proper tags and cover art for your music library;
• Sonic Foundry Acid Music is a loop-based music creation tool first and foremost, but, aware of both increasing competition and new developments in computer audio (such as an increased interest in surround mixing), Sonic Foundry are continuing to develop the program further. I've been using the Pro 4th version since 2003 (who's review can be found on Sound on Sound music recording magazine), but the software envolved since then being currently on its 7th version. The program comes in many flavours from limited freeware (ACID Express) to complete comercial solutions. Not knowing the latest version, its 4th version wasn't as powerfull as Cubase, Logic or Sonar, but it was, by far, much easyer to use for quick music creation, and there was enough MIDI functionality to avoid having to sync up a full-blown MIDI sequencer;

Utility:

• CDBurnerXP is a freeware application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free.
• Cool Timer  is a freeware timer utility with a customizable interface. Can be used like an oven timer, alarm clock, or stopwatch;
• CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is a freeware PDF creation tool. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a "printer subsystem". This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents - with just a push of a button. Its free for commercial and non-commercial use, with no watermarks or popup Web ads;
• Daemon Tools Lite: free for personal use, it enables you to convert your physical CD/DVD discs into "virtual discs" so called "images". It also emulated up to 4 virtual CD/DVD drives, so you can mount (insert) and unmount (eject) images. An alternative, also freeware, could be MagicDisk (see also MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD-ROM) is a freeware utility designed for creating and managing virtual CD drives and CD/DVD discs;
• Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several programming languages. Among other features it supports: Syntax Highlighting and Auto-completion for many programming languages (like C, C++, Java, C#, XML, HTML, PHP CSS, etc.); If you have a colour printer, print your source code (or whatever you want) in colour; User Defined Syntax Highlighting; Multi-Document (edit several documents at the same time); Dynamic position of Views (set the position of the views dynamically); Regular Expression Search/Replace (search and replace one string in the document using regular expressions);
• WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.

Video:

• Aura Free Video Converter is one of the most renowned free video converters for converting video files between various formats, with fast converting speed and excellent video quality. Free Video Converter supports these input formats: * MPG, 3GP, VOB, QT, DAT, AMV, 3g2, ASF, AVS, DivX, OGM, AVI, RM, MOV, M2TS, MPV, WMV, RMVB, M4V, M1V, VRO, MP4, FLV, DVR-MS, M2V and MPE. Free Video Converter supports these output formats: AVI, WMV, MP4, SWF, FLV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPG, MKV, MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, WAV and M4A. (Other converters can be found on CNET Downloads category: Windows Software -> Video Software -> Video Converters -> Aura Free Video Converter).
• Free Screen Video Capture is a basic free screen capture & screen recording tool to record screen activities and sounds into AVI video files. It only allows for AVI output files but lets you choose the audio and video codecs to use (like DivX, Xvid, etc.). A more advanced alternative could be Jing and other alternatives can be found at CNET Downloads category: Windows Software -> Video Software -> Video Capture Software;
  
• K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of DirectShow filters, VFW/ACM codecs, and tools (like DirectVobSub to display subtitles on movie playback). It is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all the popular audio and video formats and even several less common formats. There are several different variants of the K-Lite Codec Pack, ranging from a very small bundle that contains only the most essential decoders to a large and more comprehensive bundle. A comparation table of their differences can be found here. These codec-pack provides some major advantages: updated frequently; Works with Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center (but also with all other DirectShow players, such as Media Player Classic, BS.Player, ZoomPlayer, and others); fully customizable installation; Uninstallation removes everything that was installed by the pack (registry keys included); avoid potential conflicts with other installed codecs; the installer detects broken codecs and filters and removes them; huge user base, meaning quickly resolved problems;
• Subtitle Workshop is a complete, efficient and convenient freeware subtitle editing tool. It makes subtitle creating/editing/converting tasks almost a pleasure, the amicable and intuitive interface mixes easy to access menus & must have features, reducing subtitle editing time.
• VLC media player is a  highly portable, cross-platform, free and open-source media player capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac ...) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks. Overall, VLC Media Player is a must-have application for its ability to open just about any type of video file you throw at it.