Seeing as there is a decent IT/programmer population here, I'm curious to what software utilities you keep handy to help make your computing experience more enjoyable.
Here are some of the programs I use as an IT Helpdesk Analyst/Network Admin:
-f.lux (automatic monitor brightness control)
-ArsClip (clipboard manager)
-Hiren's Boot CD (bootable CD that contains various recovery utilities)
-Angry IP Scanner (network scanner)
-TreeSize (disk space manager)
I recently discovered ArsClip, which is essentially what prompted this thread. How could I have done IT for this long without a clipboard manager?! :confused:
How about you? What software do you use to make your job easier, or your overall computing experience more enjoyable?
ninite. Makes imaging go ridiculously fast.
Notepad++
7zip
Bulk Rename Utility
TXTCollector
clover : http://ejie.me/
UBCD (for diagnostics)
Clonezilla (for Linux imaging)
Windows PE's (Win8.1 PE w/Ghost for Windows imaging)
Teamviewer/join.me (for remote support when GoTo Assist isn't installed)
Just to name a few I've used recently...
On a more corporate level, we use PDQ Inventory/Deploy for general device inventory and software deployment.
Oh, and Spiceworks for our Helpdesk.
I discovered it very recently, but haven't come across any bugs yet. May be more stabler than OG windows explorer ^^clover : http://ejie.me/
Cool! Definitely going to be checking that out! Just curious, have you come across any bugs with this software, or is it rather stable overall?
Also, is there any reason you don't use Clonezilla for imaging Windows-based workstations? Just curious.
keepass2
IntelliJ IDEA - best IDE ever.i feel so much patriotism that it lightens my house!
I really disliked f.lux, I just think the screen looks so weird when it changes colour, especially when I used to do the majority of my gaming at night when the whites went all yellow.I'm in the same boat as you. It looks horrible. Very horrible.
I like WhatPulse, Display Fusion, and WinDirStat
I really disliked f.lux, I just think the screen looks so weird when it changes colour, especially when I used to do the majority of my gaming at night when the whites went all yellow.
I like WhatPulse, Display Fusion, and WinDirStat
IntelliJ IDEA - best IDE ever.i feel so much patriotism that it lightens my house!
NOT Thunderbird.
I really disliked f.lux, I just think the screen looks so weird when it changes colour, especially when I used to do the majority of my gaming at night when the whites went all yellow.
I like WhatPulse, Display Fusion, and WinDirStat
I find Double Commander enormously useful on a Windows machine...
http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/
Greenshot
- last.fm scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download) - Scrobbles music plays
- last.fm scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download) - Scrobbles music plays
TIL what a scrobbler is. Foobar ftw.
- last.fm scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download) - Scrobbles music plays
TIL what a scrobbler is. Foobar ftw.
Here's me (http://www.last.fm/user/HoffmanMyster). ;)
And foobar is spectacular. Especially the portable mode that allows me to keep my entire library/settings backed up in my Dropbox so I can just take my external drive with all my music and plug it into any computer I have and use it as I would normally (no old versions of the library to worry about, old skin settings, etc.). :thumb: Oh and it makes re-imaging my computer easier. And it makes me not freak out about the possibility of losing my theme that I spent days working on. :eek:
I'm going to have to pick your brain about foobar sometime... I haven't figured out how to set it up yet but I keep hearing about all these cool features it has :-\
- last.fm scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download) - Scrobbles music plays
TIL what a scrobbler is. Foobar ftw.
Here's me (http://www.last.fm/user/HoffmanMyster). ;)
And foobar is spectacular. Especially the portable mode that allows me to keep my entire library/settings backed up in my Dropbox so I can just take my external drive with all my music and plug it into any computer I have and use it as I would normally (no old versions of the library to worry about, old skin settings, etc.). :thumb: Oh and it makes re-imaging my computer easier. And it makes me not freak out about the possibility of losing my theme that I spent days working on. :eek:
I'm on linux, but here are some of my preferred pieces of software.
WM: herbstluftwm
Bar: dzen2 or bar
Terminal: urxvt
Browser: Luakit
File Manager: Ranger
Mount: Bashmount
Shell: zsh (with fish syntax highlighting)
Image: termage (https://github.com/Vibex/termage) This is a script I wrote up/modified a bit back. Was gonna rewrite it in python, but meh. I'm super lazy.
Media Player: DSAS (this is a program I'm still working on, so until I'm finished I would recommend mpd)
I'm going to have to pick your brain about foobar sometime... I haven't figured out how to set it up yet but I keep hearing about all these cool features it has :-\
- last.fm scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download) - Scrobbles music plays
TIL what a scrobbler is. Foobar ftw.
Here's me (http://www.last.fm/user/HoffmanMyster). ;)
And foobar is spectacular. Especially the portable mode that allows me to keep my entire library/settings backed up in my Dropbox so I can just take my external drive with all my music and plug it into any computer I have and use it as I would normally (no old versions of the library to worry about, old skin settings, etc.). :thumb: Oh and it makes re-imaging my computer easier. And it makes me not freak out about the possibility of losing my theme that I spent days working on. :eek:
I'm going to have to pick your brain about foobar sometime... I haven't figured out how to set it up yet but I keep hearing about all these cool features it has :-\
- last.fm scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download) - Scrobbles music plays
TIL what a scrobbler is. Foobar ftw.
Here's me (http://www.last.fm/user/HoffmanMyster). ;)
And foobar is spectacular. Especially the portable mode that allows me to keep my entire library/settings backed up in my Dropbox so I can just take my external drive with all my music and plug it into any computer I have and use it as I would normally (no old versions of the library to worry about, old skin settings, etc.). :thumb: Oh and it makes re-imaging my computer easier. And it makes me not freak out about the possibility of losing my theme that I spent days working on. :eek:
Sure thing! Two comments though ( :P )
1) I am not an expert and don't claim to be
2) I did all of my modifications three years ago, so there could be a) things I don't remember, and b) updates/changes I am unaware of
All that said, I'm happy to help in any way I can. :) Here's a screenshot of my setup below. ;) The hardest and most time consuming part of my modifications were changing the portion in the main window that has the album information ("Porcupine Tree - [2009] The Incident [Disc 1]"). The default for that was to display something else and I wanted it to give me the info I wanted, which required changing some code in the module. :confused: I honestly don't remember what I did, but I remember it being difficult for me. :P Not to scare you, I'm just saying. ^-^Show Image(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8674/16444641431_10f716f9fd_o.png)
foobar2000 (https://flic.kr/p/r4a5Yx) by HoffmanMyster (https://www.flickr.com/people/99522542@N03/), on Flickr
Alright, let's talk Foobar components. What does everybody use?
I think at the moment the only ones I have running that didn't come default are
- iPod manager
- Playlist Tools beta
- foo_stopaftercuralbum
Alright, let's talk Foobar components. What does everybody use?
I think at the moment the only ones I have running that didn't come default are
- iPod manager
- Playlist Tools beta
- foo_stopaftercuralbum
I'm on linux, but here are some of my preferred pieces of software.WM: Cinnamon
WM: herbstluftwm
Bar: dzen2 or bar
Terminal: urxvt
Browser: Luakit
File Manager: Ranger
Mount: Bashmount
Shell: zsh (with fish syntax highlighting)
Image: termage (https://github.com/Vibex/termage) This is a script I wrote up/modified a bit back. Was gonna rewrite it in python, but meh. I'm super lazy.
Media Player: DSAS (this is a program I'm still working on, so until I'm finished I would recommend mpd)
Haha, I just spend to much time tinkering with my linux setup. I like every thing to be perfect.I'm on linux, but here are some of my preferred pieces of software.WM: Cinnamon
WM: herbstluftwm
Bar: dzen2 or bar
Terminal: urxvt
Browser: Luakit
File Manager: Ranger
Mount: Bashmount
Shell: zsh (with fish syntax highlighting)
Image: termage (https://github.com/Vibex/termage) This is a script I wrote up/modified a bit back. Was gonna rewrite it in python, but meh. I'm super lazy.
Media Player: DSAS (this is a program I'm still working on, so until I'm finished I would recommend mpd)
Bar: Cinnamon default
Terminal: Cinnamon default
Browser: Chromium
File Manager: Cinnamon default
Mount: Cinnamon default
Shell: bash
Image: GIMP (hate it with passion)
Media Player: smplayer
i feel so casual compared to you :(
I'm on linux, but here are some of my preferred pieces of software.WM: Cinnamon
WM: herbstluftwm
Bar: dzen2 or bar
Terminal: urxvt
Browser: Luakit
File Manager: Ranger
Mount: Bashmount
Shell: zsh (with fish syntax highlighting)
Image: termage (https://github.com/Vibex/termage) This is a script I wrote up/modified a bit back. Was gonna rewrite it in python, but meh. I'm super lazy.
Media Player: DSAS (this is a program I'm still working on, so until I'm finished I would recommend mpd)
Bar: Cinnamon default
Terminal: Cinnamon default
Browser: Chromium
File Manager: Cinnamon default
Mount: Cinnamon default
Shell: bash
Image: GIMP (hate it with passion)
Media Player: smplayer
i feel so casual compared to you :(
Not sure if this will be a bit of "scope-creep", but here are my favourite audio-manipulation programs:
- last.fm scrobbler (http://www.last.fm/download) - Scrobbles music plays
foobar and last.fm are really well known, but I wanted to have the list be complete. :P
Yea I know... I use the same things as you, except for the media player (VLC for all videos), and I don't hate GIMP with a passion. I've been meaning to do a brand new install, go Arch, and really pimp out like awesomewm or something, but haven't had the time :-\. The only default I stick by is bash and, IMO, if you're gonna use anything else it should be fish. To me, zsh is both too similar and just different enough from bash for me to not use it. Not everything I do in bash can be ported to zsh and vice versa and the gains zsh has over bash aren't that intense (everyone cites ohmyzsh and the autocomplete, the latter of which I hate), couple that with needing to do a decent deal of SSH'ing into servers and doing DevOps things and I find bash as my default shell to be pretty solid. I understand bash now and it will always be available (though understanding bash can take some effort).I still need to try fish. I like zsh for the auto completion and syntax highlighting. I couldn't care less about ohmyzsh though.
fish, on the other hand, seems to have much more gains (like a sane syntax) than zsh, so I have been meaning to try fish.
i'd use zsh (with oh-my-zsh) instead of fish because of fish not being posix compliant.
also i'd switch to arch in a blink of an eye if it hadn't systemd :(
I still need to try fish. I like zsh for the auto completion and syntax highlighting. I couldn't care less about ohmyzsh though.
EDIT: Also, arch is a ton of fun. If you need any advice on it let me know.
I forget how I installed and configured all of this so I'm afraid to reformat my laptop to partition things better :( halp
salt '*' state.highstateOS: ArchJust backup your /home folder. Thats what I do, cause I reformat my computers on a regular basis.
WM: i3 or gnome, may try herbsluftwm
Music: don't really have music files, kind of just stream from sub.fm
Browser: Chromium or Firefox, I honestly don't really care anymore
File Manager: Thunar
Terminal: URXVT
Text Editor: vi
I forget how I installed and configured all of this so I'm afraid to reformat my laptop to partition things better :( halp
That is true about the autocomplete. I don't use that method, it just seems bulky. I usually just do the fill in as much as I can method.I still need to try fish. I like zsh for the auto completion and syntax highlighting. I couldn't care less about ohmyzsh though.
EDIT: Also, arch is a ton of fun. If you need any advice on it let me know.
I don't like zsh's "select and tab through the entries" style autocomplete. I prefer bash's "fill in as much of the word as possible and stop" approach, but that can be disabled in zsh (I do believe).
Noted on the arch help, I might be needing it :)). I hear such interesting things about arch, some people despise pacman and think it's the devil, others think it's the best package manager ever. This is why I need to run arch myself to form an opinion :D.
OS: ArchJust backup your /home folder. Thats what I do, cause I reformat my computers on a regular basis.
WM: i3 or gnome, may try herbsluftwm
Music: don't really have music files, kind of just stream from sub.fm
Browser: Chromium or Firefox, I honestly don't really care anymore
File Manager: Thunar
Terminal: URXVT
Text Editor: vi
I forget how I installed and configured all of this so I'm afraid to reformat my laptop to partition things better :( halp
We are all new at some point. ;) My first go at linux was Gentoo, so I learned pretty quickly. Pretty much everything important is kept in /home. Just remember what stuff you had installed, and reformatting becomes a breeze.OS: ArchJust backup your /home folder. Thats what I do, cause I reformat my computers on a regular basis.
WM: i3 or gnome, may try herbsluftwm
Music: don't really have music files, kind of just stream from sub.fm
Browser: Chromium or Firefox, I honestly don't really care anymore
File Manager: Thunar
Terminal: URXVT
Text Editor: vi
I forget how I installed and configured all of this so I'm afraid to reformat my laptop to partition things better :( halp
I didn't really think about that; I'm kind of new to linux (managed to install arch somehow), so i thought it didn't work that way.
We are all new at some point. ;) My first go at linux was Gentoo, so I learned pretty quickly. Pretty much everything important is kept in /home. Just remember what stuff you had installed, and reformatting becomes a breeze.OS: ArchJust backup your /home folder. Thats what I do, cause I reformat my computers on a regular basis.
WM: i3 or gnome, may try herbsluftwm
Music: don't really have music files, kind of just stream from sub.fm
Browser: Chromium or Firefox, I honestly don't really care anymore
File Manager: Thunar
Terminal: URXVT
Text Editor: vi
I forget how I installed and configured all of this so I'm afraid to reformat my laptop to partition things better :( halp
I didn't really think about that; I'm kind of new to linux (managed to install arch somehow), so i thought it didn't work that way.
:)), I've heard some special things about Gentoo (like kernel compiling!), but some people love it.I have actually never compiled my kernel from scratch. Thats a step I'm not prepared to take yet. But Gentoo (well Funtoo specifically) is a really good learning tool in my mind. You just need to be determined. Before Funtoo I had installed ubuntu, mint, and crunchbang, but I never found them interesting. I always thought why not just use windows. But then I tried funtoo, and everything became fascinating. Everyone interested in computers should do it at some point.
Another tip to make migrations easier: install anything that can't be installed via your package manager (e.g., IntelliJ) into one directory. I put them all in /opt. Makes it a lot easier to keep track of the programs I have installed that aren't managed by apt.
Your musicplayer is remarkably similar to my musicbee defaults. It more or less comes this way, I just moved some things around and hid some elements I don't find useful at all. Don't need to really install anything additional and spend a lot of time configuring.
(Attachment Link)
...
TrueCrypt - because Im paranoid
Also, is there any reason you don't use Clonezilla for imaging Windows-based workstations? Just curious.
Well, it's mainly because Ghost doesn't like imaging Linux drives for some reason, not to mention that my current project requires dealing with obsolete technology (refurbishing a bunch of old Pentium 4's to be used as terminals) which aren't capable of booting our Win8.1 PE flash drive (they boot to Win7 PE just fine, but Ghost isn't a part of that WIN image).
And because I'm too lazy to get Clonezilla working on a USB drive, that would have enough space to store the images...keepass2
Almost forgot that one... it's such a great password manager.
Also, is there any reason you don't use Clonezilla for imaging Windows-based workstations? Just curious.
Well, it's mainly because Ghost doesn't like imaging Linux drives for some reason, not to mention that my current project requires dealing with obsolete technology (refurbishing a bunch of old Pentium 4's to be used as terminals) which aren't capable of booting our Win8.1 PE flash drive (they boot to Win7 PE just fine, but Ghost isn't a part of that WIN image).
And because I'm too lazy to get Clonezilla working on a USB drive, that would have enough space to store the images...keepass2
Almost forgot that one... it's such a great password manager.
Clonezilla is on UBCD.
UBCD is really great. I've used it for over 10 years on several hundred PCs and it's definitely a "Swiss Army Knife" on a flash drive. Couple that with a power supply tester and you have everything you need for comprehensive hardware diagnostics.
R-Studio is some great data recovery software that is cross platform and works well with RAID.
Nmap is essential for network auditing/diagnostics.
DD (or variants) for most cloning.
Unetbootin for creating bootable flash drives from regular ISOs in Linux
VMware Workstation and ESXi
Rsync for backups
cdf() { # cd's to frontmost window of Finder
cd "`osascript -e 'tell application "Finder"' \
-e 'set myname to POSIX path of (target of window 1 as alias)' \
-e 'end tell' 2>/dev/null`"
}
export code=/the/really/long/path/that/you/type/often
alias hist='history | grep'
$ hist cat
140 cat README.md
416 cat .git/config
527 cat ~/.bash_profile
528 hist cat