Last Updated: March 22, 2022

While mainly for my own records (I re-install my OS frequently), I am including this here as a list of software I find useful or interesting. As many of these are independent projects, if you choose to use any of these, use them at your own risk.

May, 2022: I have switched back to Linux. I can't take Windows anymore. Page will be updated in the coming months.


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Amateur Radio

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Astronomy, Weather, and Geography

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Audio

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Cryptocurrency

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Emulation and Virtualization

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Gaming

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Imaging

Editors / Viewers / Utilities

  • Greenshot - Outstanding screenshot tool for Windows. Indispensible.
  • AmScope - for AmScope microscope digital camera
  • GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program. Everyone complains, but it covers my needs just fine.
  • IrfanView - Image viewer
  • VisiPics - Duplicate Image analyzer / finder
  • GifCam - Records portion of screen and makes an animated GIF from it
  • Romeolight GIFmicro - GIF optimizer

Generative

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Miscellaneous

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Network

Cloud

  • Dropbox - I still prefer this for cloud storage although its plans are terrible - their lowest tier is inadequate and the next tier is more than I need and priced too high. Still, Dropbox's offline availability is appreciated for now. I am looking for a better cross-platform solution.
  • Apple iCloud - Apple's cloud service. Used with my iOS devices.
  • iDrive - Automated cloud backup and storage
  • Cryptomator - Encrypts data before sending to cloud.
  • MEGASync - Client for Mega cloud synchronization to MEGA service
  • OneNote - Microsoft's digital notebook

Darknet

  • Tor Browser - The planet's most popular darknet, Tor promises a lot more than it delivers.. That said, there are occasionally interesting experiments and I support it as a censorship-proof, anonymity-protecting medium. To what extent it is robust against state actors is unclear. There is almost nothing on tor that interests me that couldn't appear on the surface web. The Internet's "wretched hive of scum and villainy."
  • OnionShare - Share files anonymously over tor

Messaging

  • Google Hangouts App - Chrome needs to be running for the Windows app to work; I would prefer not to run this but have friends who insist on it. I would like to dispense with Chrome entirely.
  • Discord - Modern many-to-many chat replacement for IRC (it also does multimedia, which I'm never going to use.) Proprietary and, as such, an accident waiting to happen should the company fold and take countless online communities with it. Forced to use this because others do.
  • Signal - End-to-end encrypted messaging. This the application I wish everyone would use but getting people on to a single secure messaging platform is probably a pipe dream. What I want is for Signal to handle both encrypted Signal-to-Signal messaging as well as unencrypted SMS/MMS messaging by syncing with my phone, but this functionality is unlikely ever to be included.
  • WhatsApp - Forced to use this because someone else does.
  • HexChat - IRC client. The for-pay Windows 10 app is just a way for them to make donations easy. The free installer is the Windows 7 + 64bit installer.
  • QuickSilver Lite - Mixmaster anonymous remailer client
  • Element - Matrix-based secure chat. Server can be run by individuals or organizations. I wish people who use Discord would use this instead.
  • Zoom - Because we must. I guess. *sigh*

Miscellaneous

  • Angry IP Scanner - Fast Windows-based IP scanner
  • Npcap - Packet driver for Windows (required by simh and others for network capability)
  • SyncTerm - Terminal Emulator (to dial/telnet to bulletin board systems)
  • Qodem - Reimplementation of DOS-era Qmodem terminal emulator (includes SSH and Telnet for modern BBSes)
  • NetRunner - Modern terminal emulator for bulletin board systems. Telnet only, but clean, fast, and simple
  • Open Visual Traceroute - Shows traceroute paths via geolocation on a 3-D globe
  • Wireguard - VPN client

Email

  • Mozilla Thunderbird - One of the few remaining desktop email clients, this works well especially with the Enigmail plugin on the rare occasions I need to use PGP. Mozilla's lack of enthusiasm for further developing this application is alarming, and I am trying to reduce and consolidate my many Internet accounts as a result. Email is, of course, broken as an Internet technology (security-wise in particular), but we are stuck with it in its current form for the time being.

Remote Control

  • VNC Connect by RealVNC - Currently uninstalled. I don't like the cloud's involvement ("cloud connections") with this as I only ever need it on my local network. This works very well to control my Windows desktop with a cell phone or tablet, but I am looking for a free alternative.
  • Unified Remote - Turns mobile device into a remote keyboard and touchpad. Excellent application.

Usenet

  • Xnews - Still my preferred newsreader for Usenet. Lightning-fast. Usenet text groups are mostly moribund, but free access to them (just the text ones; no binaries) is still available via Eternal September to anyone who still has interest in them. Of all of the old Internet technologies, abandonment of Usenet makes me the saddest. As a distributed, non-proprietary, censorship-resistant medium, it is still quite usable for messaging.

World Wide Web

  • Chrome - A fast and efficient browser, it is yet one more thing pulling folks into the Google ecosystem. Google has far too much power over the Web as it is and I am trying to move away from its products. That said, Google is ubiquitous and used for development and testing, and I rely on it to run the Hangouts application in my notification area. I have few firm reasons to object to Chrome on a privacy basis now, though I predict if privacy is eventually shredded and users are tracked and profiled on the client side, it will be through this browser, especially if and when Adsense and other Google technologies fall below a usage threshold based on adblocking.
  • Mozilla Firefox - My default browser. Firefox actually works better for me for streaming video and the Javascript applications used on the Internet Archive.

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Productivity

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Security and Privacy

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Video

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Windows Utilities

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