Review is probably a bit of a stretch for what's here. This is more of a list of software I like (or may like in the future) with some quick comments about each one. I keep this list because good software is hard to find and when I move to a new machine or need to reinstall I like to know what I usually install on that machine.
Note that this is software that I find useful, you may not care for any of this. If you're slightly OCD, enjoy programming, play role playing games and a bit of a gadget freak this list may have some things on it you'd like.
Applications are free or donation-ware unless otherwise noted. Please see the Disclaimer.
Windows Software
I don't use Windows machines for day-to-day stuff except at work so this list is shorter than the Mac OS X list.
Using
Software that has survived daily use for a week or more. These are applications that I prefer to have installed on my machine.
- ActivePerl - Perl for windows. Can't live without perl.
- Ad-Aware Personal - Anti-ad/spyware. I also use Spybot, below.
- ClamWin - Antivirus just in case.
- DivX - DivX playback
- DoubleKiller - This has been a life saver when sorting out old files, searches for duplicate files.
- ffDshow - XviD playback & others
- Firefox - One of the two browsers I use on Windows (it's the main one).
- Google Earth - Just because it's fun to play with.
- Haali Media Splitter - Matroska playback, useful with Anime.
- Media Player Classic - Media player for when I just want a plain media player with no frills.
- OpenOffice - Office suite for when I don't have Office (which is all the time at home).
- Paint.NET - Excellent paint program, supports just enough so that I don't need photoshop.
- PowerToys - Misc. tools from Microsoft, come in handy once in a while.
- Programmer's Notepad - Aside from Visual Studio for development, I use this as my standard text editor.
- Python - Python for windows. Can't live without python.
- QuickTime - Media player for all things quick and time.
- Remote Desktop Connection - For when I need to access a Windows machine.
- RkUnhooker - Rootkit detection and removal, I hate the interface but it does the job.
- Safari - I use Safari on Mac so it's familiar but it's also beta so I don't use it on Windows all of the time.
- Spybot-S&D - Anti-ad/spyware. I also use Ad-Aware, above.
- Subversion - Version Control System, a must for any developer.
- uTorrent - BitTorrent client, I used to use this all of the time before I found Xtorrent for Mac. If I had to use a Windows client, this would be it.
- VLC - Media player. Why do I have three media players for windows? I wish I knew.
- WinDirStat - Windows directory statistics to help you find out why you have no hard drive space.
Possibilities
Software that isn't installed right now, but I plan on trying out.
- ImgBurn - "The Ultimate Image Burner"
- Power Defragmenter - Hard drive defrag utility that is very fast, or so I hear.
- Spinrite - Hard drive recovery program. I plan on buying this not because I need it, but because I want to support GRC and hopefully never need it. $89
- Texter - A text substitution application. I love TextExpander on the Mac, I hope this is just as good.