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4 (Maybe more) Absolute top go-to programs

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40hz:
Back when I was still mostly using Windows (I've since moved over to the universe next door)  they were:


* WriteMonkey - the quintessential "no distraction" text editor
* XYplorer - excellent tabbed file manager. I bought the Pro edition to support the product even though I didn’t really need or want the relatively small number of additional features it provided over the free edition. This developer has been most generous with his freebie releases.
* Outline 4D - the sui generis outliner for Windows. Fairly expensive, but well worth it if you have use for this sort of app. Fellow DCer dr_andus did an article on it which can be found on his blog here. (Most excellent blog too! Be sure to check it out!)
* Tomahawk Gold - powerful and inexpensive fully featured "old style" wordprocessor for people who really loved the look and feel of Word 2000. A "Platinum Edition" had been announced back in 2012. But it seems development has stalled since then.
* Microsoft Excel - if you need a powerful spreadsheet, this is the one everybody else uses - and you probably should too.
* CintaNotes Pro- your basic junk drawer quick note taker/half-assed organizer. An inexpensive ($25) "Pro" version with some very useful extra features is also available. (I used the pro version.)
* Sage - FF extension. IMHO the only RSS/Atom reader worth considering. Light on its feet - and even lighter on features - which I consider its biggest selling point. Most RSS readers are bloated with features you'll never use. If you just want to efficiently stay on top of your newsfeeds, this is the reader to try first.
* ScrapBook - FF extension. Simple (some would say "primitive") web page grabber. If you need more features than ScrapBook, bite the bullet and shell out $79 for Surfulater.
* FileZilla - got access to FTP servers? Get FileZilla.
* gPodder - multiplatform (always a big plus) podcast catcher. If you subscribe to several podcasts like I do, this app will handle everything for you.
* KeePass - (note spelling - not the same thing as KeyPass) - handy no-frill local drive password vault. Support included for use with remote storage providers such as DropBox.
* PuTTY - a (very!) basic SSH/TTY client. If you use SSH you'll definitely want a client. PuTTY is one. There are now many newer and more feature-rich alternatives which are well worth considering. I mostly stuck to PuTTY out of force of habit. And because I knew it inside out. If I were looking for an SSH client today, I'd consider one of PuTTY's more modern successors. List of alternatives here.
Note: some of these programs are available in "no install" or "portable" versions that can be run from a USB key. FWIW, I will always use a portable version of an app if one is available. But that's me.
 8)

Jibz:
Four I tend to use much and would have a hard time without:

Total Commander - my muscle memory from NC makes this the fastest for me
"A good text editor", which has been Sublime Text for the past year, though currently replaced by Vim
SourceTree (and by extension, Mercurial and Git)
Listary - mainly for the find as you type and disk search

(I've left out things like browsers, e-mail client, and compilers here).

And four from the second tier:

CrashPlan - luckily not actively "using" it much, but it quietly keeps my files backed up
Evernote - mainly for website clipping, I use Google Keep quick notes
KeePass, though also increasingly LastPass for websites
f.lux - you don't really notice it much until you try turning it off at night

Honorable mention to Ad Muncher and WinPatrol.

myarmor:
Mine would be:
Directory Opus 11 -  Advanced filemanager that can be scripted using Active Scripting engines (VBScript, JScript and more).
EditPad Pro - The best syntax editor I know about to date. The downside is that it doesn't have scripting (although it can record/play macros).
PowerGrep - Advanced textmanipulation tool using regexes.
RegexBuddy - Creating and testing regexes.

K-Lite Codec Pack mega
PFrank - Free multi-regex renamer. Can also use predefined commands, assorted tags etc.

TaoPhoenix:
Great lists gang!

Dirhael:
Directory Opus (no other file manager even comes close, and I've got licenses for several others I've tried over the years).
Sublime Text (best text editor on *any* platform! Easily worth the asking price).
JRiver Media Center (I've got this running pretty much 24/7 on a secondary monitor. Deals with large media libraries better than most).
Firefox (my go-to browser used to be Opera, but then they went and made that Chrome-shell-thing, so yeah..).
Mailbird (pretty email programs doesn't not live exclusively on OSX any longer).
Steam (what use are my twin Titans without something to do 8)).
PuTTY (manage servers).

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