If you're like me, you're always on the lookout for cool new software that might be useful
to you.
So as usual, I've got a new list of awesome programs that you should REALLY know about
if you don't already.
And of course, these are all free, and will all work on windows.
Though many will also be compatible with mac as well.
And at the end of the video if you're interested, I'll have links to other lists I've made of
free programs, chrome extensions, that kinda stuff.
But enough rambling, let's go.
Starting off, a very useful program that I hope most of you have already, called 7-zip.
It's an extremely popular program for compressing files, and extracting them from all sorts
of file containers.
It's very similar to the infamous WinRar, except free, and supports more file types.
So if you've ever come across a weird file container you've never seen before, this will
handle whatever you throw at it.
Anything from zip files, to rar files, even "tar.gz" typically seen on linux.
It also has it's own proprietary file container, the 7z format, which they claim to have better
compression ratios.
After you install the program, you'll get a new option in the context menu, where you
can for example add files to an archive.
And as you can see, you get a ton of different options, most of which you don't need to change
or even know about, but they're there if you want them.
These include compression level, so you can have it try and compress it as much as possible
or not, at the cost of time.
You can also encrypt the container and add a password in case you don't want anyone snooping.
And of course you can open file containers as well the same way, see what's inside them
and extract them wherever you want.
Overall, it's a pretty simple but extremely useful program.
Next up is also very useful, and actually kind fun too in a way.
It's called "WinDirStat", and what it does is quickly scans either your whole hard drive
or just a certain directory, and visually show you what files are taking up a lot of
space.
As you can see when you first run it, you select what you want it to scan, then just
show the progress with a basic chart of what it found so far.
But that's not the interesting part, which comes after it's done.
Now we can really take a look at what's going on.
The blocks are arranged by file location, so files in the same directory will be next
to each other.
Also, file types are color coded, so it's easier to see if a lot of space is taken up
by a lot of smaller files of the same kind.
When you hover over a block, at the bottom it will tell you what file it is.
And if you click on it, it will show it in the directory table above, so you can see
more details like exactly how big it is.
And if it's something you don't care about, you can delete it right from there by right
clicking.
I bet I don't have to tell you how useful this program can be, and I bet you'll file
at least a couple huge files that you didn't even know were there.
Just be careful of where you're deleting it from, you don't want to delete any system
files.
Alright, number 3 is "media player classic" or MPC for short.
Now I know most people know about VLC, but MPC is arguably even better and more lightweight,
especially considering VLC has gotten pretty bloated over the years.
For example, MPC doesn't do that thing that VLC does, where you close the program, and
it keeps playing for some reason.
This doesn't do that.
Also, interestingly enough, Media Player Classic will make videos look better.
This is because from some reason, VLC seems to use a different gamma value that tends
to make videos look washed out and low contrast, especially with black levels.
Really, watch the same video with both and see the difference.
So yea, if you're still using VLC, pfft that's so last year.
Moving on, number 4 is a program called "Everything", for searching for files on your computer.
You may be wondering, why do I need that if Windows already has a built in search?
But if you've ever actually searched for a file, you realize that it takes FOREVER.
But with Everything, well, it's pretty much instant.
It will show you all the files in whatever directory you start in, so you can just search
there, or you can just search your whole computer.
Then you do have other options like displaying thumbnails, searching only certain file types,
that sort of thing.
Once you start using it, you'll wonder how you ever survived before.
Next number 5, is "Handbrake", a free and open source video transcoder, or video converter
if you will.
And if you've ever searched for a "video converter", you know there are a ton of random ones out
there that you have to pay for, and aren't even that good.
This on the other hand, is both simple and powerful, with lots of advanced settings if
you need them.
For output formats, it doesn't have too many options, mainly just MP4, but you can select
from several codecs to use.
As for input though, it will handle almost everything.
Anything from MP4, to MOV, FLV, WebM, AVI, ProRes and a bunch of others that you've probably
never even heard of.
One of the cooler features is that it has a bunch of presets for different devices or
programs if you're not sure what settings to use.
Just a couple of advanced features are things like, de-interlacing, support for subtitles,
rotating the video, a bunch of stuff.
So if you ever come across a weird video format that might play on your computer but nothing
else, you can probably use Handbrake to convert it to MP4, which is basically universal.
Alright, the next thing on the list isn't exactly a program itself, but I'll still include
it.
It's actually a website called Ninite, that lets you install several popular programs
all at once, without having to go searching for the site, downloading them, and installing
them individually.
This is SO useful if you get a new computer, and have nothing installed yet.
You just go to the site, pick what programs you want, and it will generate an installer
specifically with what you picked.
Then it just runs through all the installations.
You might still have to choose some settings for some of them, but it's still easy.
You can see some of the examples here, they have Chrome, Skype, 7-zip, iTunes, Dropbox,
Steam, and way more.
And, it's always checking for new versions of all the programs, so you don't have to
worry about getting an old version.
Ok finally, we have Plex, a program that is great for anyone who download a lot of TV
shows and movies to your computer.
It's pretty popular so you may have even heard of it before, but it basically creates a media
server on your computer that lets you stream your media files to all your other devices.
There are other basic programs out there that do this, but I don't think any have as many
features, or have such a nice interface.
It almost reminds me of netflix, where it will show you cover art for the shows and
episodes, and tell you which ones you still have to watch.
And here's the coolest thing, it goes out and collects that info about the media automatically.
Based on the title of the video file and how you organize the folders, it should be able
to figure out what show or movie it is.
Then it will download all the cover art, metadata, and even descriptions for everything.
It does take a bit of work to get Plex configured, since you have to choose a file path for where
your library will be, and then make sure all the episodes and things are organized in folders.
But once it's set up, it's easy.
And what's especially great is pretty much every device has a Plex app you can use to
stream it.
Obviously on your phone, but there's also one for Xbox, Playstation, LG TVs, Samsung
TVs, Roku, Apple TV, and others.
They do have a paid version which adds some features like straming from the cloud, but
the free version has pretty much anything you'll need.
Now you what, I think I'll throw in another program as a bonus.
It's not something you'll need a lot, but you mighat at some point.
So this one is "Audacity", which is simply a free audio editor.
It's been around forever, and I think you could probably use it for a few things.
For example, if you want to record your voice for something, you can do that, or add a simple
effect to a sound file like noise reduction, or even just trim an audio file.
Maybe you have a song you listen to, but there's a long space of silence at the end, you can
just edit that out.
So yea, you might never need it, but at least now you'll remember it if you do.
So that is it, a collection of free programs you guys hopefully will find useful.
If you know of any others that you think I should talk about in a future video, feel
free to comment or tweet at me, on Twitter I'm just "ThioJoe", you can follow me too
if you want.
If you want to subscribe, I usually make videos Tuesday Thursday Saturday, and like I said
before, I have a couple other videos you might like such as even more free programs, or chrome
extensions.
You can just click those right here.
Anyway, thanks again for watching, I'm looking forward to hearing from you, I'll see you
next time, have a good one.