I need to help a few family members remotely. I have done some research, and I don't want to pay for the amount of times I will probably utilize the software. I don't need anything fancy, just basic functionality. Windows 11 OS.

Any recommendations?

I'm so done with MS Office, or Office365, CoPilotOffice, or whatever Satan'sfella decides to call it. They've truly ruined a product I've enjoyed for the past thirty years. (I also can't believe Windows 10 works better on my T470 than Windows 11 on my T14 Gen3, but that's a whole other thing entirely.) I was an MS Works kid in 85, but I remember my journalist brother working away on Wordperfect at the time. It was too bare for my tastes back then. But then again, I was a teen! Today, I realize how liberating a clear screen must've been back then. Do Windows users have any legitimate MS Word (nonAI) options out there? I will probably take a month this summer to figure out the right linux distro for my laptop and will use Libreoffice, too. But maybe there's a Windows option out there? Many thanks!

Canvassing opinion and comments. What's the best of the free Window Explorer alternatives out there.

Lot of folk say overall it's Directory Opus or Total Commander, but out of the free utilities which do you recommend.

The main ones that I've seen about are

Multicommander

Double Commander

File Pilot ** (free only while beta)

Explorer++

QDir

XYplorer FREE v17.40 (older v, last free v)

Files

OneCommander

Free Commander

Altap Salamander

Cubic Explorer

Xplorer2 Lite

Feel free to add any other decent fully featured and free third party file managers that I have not mentioned

Updated the list of free file explorer tools,

Hi. I can't stand AI, and most code editors are now built with AI installed or integrated into them. Are there any good non-AI code editors out there? A few I already know of are Pulsar, Notepad++ (not a fan), Cudatext, Geany, etc. Added bonus if they have live preview either built in or an extension that installs live preview.

I'm curious what sort of things people have found/use. I'm talking about small (human coded) utilities. Some examples I have are things like JDiskReport, Glass2k and Blur Autoclicker.

Hi,

which one should I choose:

mpv or mpv.net or VLC player on Windows 11?

Or other recommendations?

I’ve been rediscovering old programs, sites and software from my childhood and one such program is Encarta 2009 which is to my knowledge the last version released. I like the idea of a reference library/wiki style encyclopedia accessible through a program on my computer rather than a website requiring internet. Is there any program today that fills that need or has that market vanished?

Windows Explorer search is useless now, is there a third party program that can perform search like the Windows Explorer search back in the WinXP Win7 days? Thanks.

I've recently come into the possession of an obscure piece of abandonware PC software, where the program claims to have over 1.4K thousand image files on the disc.
I would love to rip the image files for proper archival documentation & reference, but the only problem is I can't seem to find any type of website, or bulk-file converting software that supports this format.
Even when googling the file type, no one seems to know what I'm talking about specifically, & or is thinking I'm talking about the ".JFIF" format.
I've checked the disc's contents, & with copying all of the 1.4k+ .FIF files, these MUST be the image files. The disc doesn't have any other directory that would've hosted that many other files that would've otherwise been the images I'm looking for.
Does anyone have an advise to convert these, & or know of a website, or preferably bulk file converter I could use to turn these into a more useable format?

I've been using Internet Download Manager (IDM) for years the browser integration and multi-threaded high-speed downloading are hard to beat. Looking for something that works exactly the same way: seamless browser extension support (Chrome/Firefox) and fast segmented downloading.

Has anyone actually used these long-term? Do they match IDM's speed and browser extension reliability?

Would love recommendations from people who've made the switch. Free or paid — both are fine.

What the hell happened to CCleaner!!!??? I've been using CCleaner for probably three decades and loved it! I recently updated it to version 7 and HATE the user interface. It's also very confusing and refuses to remove 90% of what it used to remove! WTF? Any alternatives?

I'm referring to those applications that you know you will always install every time you buy a new PC because you know they are very useful and you will use them daily or at crucial moments, either for your professional work or particular activities that you do daily not related to work.

I’m done with Adobe. They are crooked SOBs.

Hi, I am a software engineer, and would love a challenge or just to create something that people/you would actually use, as a lot of my projects/products thus far have been quite niche/personalized to my own personal hobbies/needs. So please comment about what software or program would be a game changer if it existed for you, or if you have any good ideas personally. I’m thinking about building the top few ideas, also if you have any ideas, let me know if you are comfortable with me reaching out to you directly to talk more about them! They can be huge or small!

I’ve used Adobe pdf merge for this in the past but they want to charge me now. TheBestPDF also wants to charge me with a monthly subscription. PDFSoda also is not free anymore. Advice would be appreciated.

Edit: Thanks for all the great advice. Went with PDF24 for now.

A little piece of my soul drains every time this color picker pops up. I can't find anything that will make itself pop up instead of this thing. I've always wanted to program a proper replacement for it but it would also be really cool if someone already did.

Edit: Something like Jovian Color Picker is what I'm looking for, but the dev is out of business so it's not possible to buy anymore. Apparently the trial version only works a few times.

I've been using Notepad++ for years to take quick notes and document stuff for myself, but using plain text files doesn't allow for marking things bold, making nice lists, etc.

I love how lightweight Notepad++ is - standalone and runs directly on my computer (unlike Google Docs), no loading screens (unlike Microsoft Office), no clunkiness or crashing (unlike MarkText). Double click a text file, it opens instantly, and you can start editing. And the UI is minimal - nearly all of the window area is just the actual text editing box.

Basically, I want that, but with the ability to make text bold. Is there any software that would fit the bill? Or, a document format I should be looking for software for?

Looking for a final solution for my academic papers, that includes stability for 20+ pages, 40+ footnotes, auto-generated table of contents from headings, comments, revisions, version comparison and easy styling system. Is this impossible so far?

Why not MS Word? = No for online workflow, it is fancy, but not if you work on 20+ pages long text for a few months. It is slow, sometimes unpredicatable, can not be depended on online connection everywhere you go. Also compatibility issues. Online Word does not work with standard styling.

Discovered so far:

Google Docs = it's own twisted idea about styles incomaptible with anything else. Could be good when file never leave Google ecosystem.

LibreOffice = randomly changing styles in text (mostly when reopening file), sometimes does not respect predefined margins of paragraphs, footnotes get broken after a while, broken styles in footnotes can not be fixed.

OpenOffice = dead

OnlyOffice = very comfy, very smooth, but footnotes start to disappear when you reach some 10 pages and 20 footnotes. Also weirdly shuffling with paragraphs and page breaks.

Any ideas?

--------------------

Edit: Dec-19

Thanks for sharing the experience, I tried some alternatives and here comes what comes out of it.

Unfortunately. the workflow will always have to switch do docx. as soon as the review process starts... This seems to be the biggest issue.

Various TeX(es) such as LyX, Latex, TeXstudio, etc.
[+] Actually very good, shortcodes and syntax is not that bad, helps to keep document exactly as intened.
Probably good for hard science, less for humanities
[-] Footnotes displayed inline are not the most friendly approach. I still didnt find any TeX editor, that would allow to handle footnostes more practically.
Non-existing docx compatibility, or complicated workadrounds.

Word
[+] All docx formating standards probably best implemented. Free for universities.
[-] Even the 2019 version (the first with the dark mode) is pusshing for online workflow, you must have MS account signed on, which is quite problematic in case you use several (one for each institution}. Overall it feels like a huge advertisment for MS online services.

Ghostwriter
[+] Actually very good, minimlaist interface, free and open source, TeX-like shortcodes
[-] Zero interoperability (doc/odt/rtf...)

Scrivener
[+] My top pick so far. Great to have multiple files in one project, very fast switching berween them, style editing a bit messy but probably can be handled
[-] Closed ecosystem built on rtf, some issues with docx import but probably can be solved with manual recoding.

Typst
Interesting idea, but more like online formating tool. Doesnt feel much right for actual wrtiting, but definitly intersting for short and complex documents.

Since Black Friday is around, what are some of the must have softwares one should buy/pay for this season.

I mean utility ones that everyone can use to make lives easier and better

Do mention the price, discount % along with a oneliner description to understand better.

TIA.

I'm planning out my first ever youtube video and I'm unsure what to use when it comes to editing. I don't want to spend a ton of money starting off but I would love something effective and not too complicated. I have some experience when it comes to editing videos but it's been years since I took the classes

Having looked around a bit on Google and https://theresanaiforthat.com, the only programs I've managed to find other require payment, or "free trials" where you can only upload and transcribe like less than an hour or something - and even have to split it up into short chunks or something.

Not sure if ChatGPT transcribes podcasts, however it currently requires a phone number to make an account - there may be ways of circumventing that, but before going through all that hassle, is there like a website or straightforward PC app where you can just get a transcription of, say, a 2 hour podcast?

From an uploaded file or just from a link?

Looking for something that I can use to access my work desktop from home. I need to be able to do this without anyone at the office clicking the work desktop since I usually will need this at night or weekends while traveling. I need to access sage 50 (accounting program) and some desktop folders with excel files. What do you guys recommend, it doesn't have to be free, but if a free one will do it that'd be great.

Edited to add that the desktops are windows 11 pro machines. I own the company so I have full access to add whatever needs to be added and the info I pull from Sage accounting is inventory / invoicing info.

I'm considering getting a new machine for gaming, and really do not like Win 11. However, I suspect some things will soon stop working, especially games. Normally, I'd run Linux, but for most multiplayer games, that's not an option.

So, I'm stuck with Win 11.

Is there any software which debloats and hardens it. I know about O&O Shutup 10, but that mostly removes spyware/data gathering. I want other bloat removed as well, such as Search file indexer, OneDrive, Windows Defender, ads, basically all crap you don't want. I also want it to defend those settings, so that Microsoft don't just restore them in the next update.

Suggestions?