Great thread. :)

I second AnyDVD; it's a must for dvd ripping. I used to use DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter but have switched to CloneDVD2 for all ripping & burning needs as it hasn't ever crashed on me like the other 2 apps.

i'd like to add: Miranda IM (combines AIM / ICQ / Jabber / MSN / Yahoo / GaduGadu / IRC), Skype, Entunnel, Foobar 2000, WinSCP, PuTTY, and TightVNC (but only used over SSH tunnels)

I'd use Pidgin or M-IM, much cleaner and lighter than that bloatetd WLM. Only con is they don't support webcams. I'd be using one of them otherwise.

I don't know how anyone can stand pidgin; it still looks like shitty GTK gfx!

:)
It has 2 pros over MIM that i've seen.

1) You are ready to go after install. MIM is like a delish sandwich. But you are only given the bread, you have to fill it yourself.

2) Because of gay WLMs popularity lots of people use the Plus addon with pointless coloured names. In MIM you just see a code. Pidgin you don't. edit: not entirely true!

But MIM default is super light!

Thirded and seconded. Never had any problems with either program.

Regclean

Y.A.S.U
CDRom/DVD Hide

YZ Dock
Simplest Dock Utility Around

Just discovered Samurize

Only played with it for a few mins, too tired.

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9572/sampj4.th.jpg

Quite nifty.

windows:
editpad pro
energyXT
adobe audition
putty

loonix:
bitlbee (for msn and other IM stuff)
irssi

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/1743/utilitylo5.png
Second monitor cut off because it's blank at the moment

PSPad because notepad isn't enough, and Notepad++ doesn't play well with some programs/is bad. For notepad replacements i've literally tried them all, and this is the best one (and it's free)

Console2 because I always need a command prompt at my fingers, and it gives me an interesting looking wallpaper

xplorer² The least ghetto explorer replacement, so many things that explorer should have, without some of the annoyances. Again, the least ghetto file manager i've found.

Foobar2000 even though you can't tell from the screenshot, I can easily sort and customize multiple playlists quickly and easily through a searchable database.

Sandboxie is a sandbox for your computer, lets you analyze a virus, or just protect yourself from one if you suspect a file might be infected.

Link sitting in my mailbox to download as soon as I get home.

Something ADR showed me, more fun than anything:

Binary Toys

Fuck I use so much shit .. I'll just start listing them

• WinScp
  Putty
  fileZilla
  Firefox
  Pidgin
  DeskTask
  RealVNC
  Avira
  VLC
  Daemon Tools
  Moo0 RightClick
  Moo0 SystemMonitor
  IrfanView
  NetStat
  SftpDrive
  wireshark
  pfSense
  Look@Lan
  Look@Host
  Notepad++
  Komode IDE
  Eclipse
  SQLYog
  cpuz
  testdisk
  spybot
  CCCleaner
  DVD Decrypter
  DVD shrink
  Mz Ultimate Tweaker
  TrueCrypt
  WinRAR
  SpeedFan

Thats just off the top of my head. And mostly free/open source shit.

Synergy is fun because I can remotely use my fast computer from my slow laptop and versa

STEAM LOL

As soon as I can edit the colors this is SO part of my 'Crysisafy" desktop

TCP Optimizer
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Here is some of my favorites :

BBClean- Explorer windows shell replacement, makes windows like Black box/ Fluxbox in linux....Lets me have a volume control in my context menu's and lots of cool looking desktop widgets to choose from.
http://www.lostinthebox.com/viewtopic.php?t=2286

there are a bunch more Black box windows mods out there, I know of 8... you can find out more about them here:
http://www.bb4win.org/news.php

they make your desktop look like this:
http://browse.deviantart.com/customi...hemes/fluxbox/

They style files are cross platform, and compatible with blackbox, or fluxbox in linux.

SOme of the cool features:

Windows "shade" and roll up

Windows have an "always on top" feature, so other windows do not cover it... great for calculator, or notpad.

Multiple desktops, somewhat like TweakUI's virtual desktops but much faster

thousands of styles to choose from.

Loads from login almost instantly... no waiting for services to start.

Lots of plugins, so you can make your desktop as minimal, or as comlpex as you want...

anyways, have fun! the linux style of windows manager, is really much more advanced than windows or mac OSX. It definately is much more productive for me :)