Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


#275917 16-Sep-2020 18:51
Send private message

A place to post apps / programs that you're thankful for and think other members may find useful. The idea for this thread came up when I was watching a Youtube video and activated my 'Turn off the lights' chrome extension. 

 

So here's my list to kick things off; 

 

Chrome extensions;
- Turn off the lights (for YT. Fades page to dark so you can focus more on the video. Good if you don't want to go fullscreen).
- Key socket media keys + tampermonkey (allows me to pause, play, skip music/videos playing. Used for YT and Soundcloud). 
- Notifier for Gmail (desktop and in-browser notification for all of my gmail accounts). 

 

Computer
- PatchMyPC (one program that downloads/installs updates for many of the apps I use).
- Driver Booster 7 (The one program I pay for. Keeps my drivers updated; bluetooth, monitor, gpu, network etc). 
- Youtube Music desktop app 
- Dolphin (GameCube / Nintendo Wii emulator)
- MSI Afterburner / HWiNFO64 (internal temperatures and GPU overclock).

 

Mobile
- Blokada (block ads/popups)
- KWGT (create custom widgets)
- Bleacher Report (keeps track of NBA, Rugby, NRL, NFL news in one location)
- QKSMS (text messaging, can customize) 


Create new topic
rb99
3422 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

  #2566191 16-Sep-2020 19:27
Send private message

Anything ?

 

Emby (obviously)

 

MakeMKV

 

Handbrake

 

Notepad ++

 

MediaInfo

 

NextPVR

 

BulkRenameUtility

 

Affinity Suite

 

Avidemux

 

Backblaze

 

MyMedia for Alexa

 

Everything, file finder

 

 

 

 

 

 





“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

 

rb99




Virgil
Dangerous Chocolate
206 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified
Lifetime subscriber

  #2566195 16-Sep-2020 19:38
Send private message

I have a couple of Must Installs on new (Windows) builds:

 

Drive Software's Atomic Alarm Clock for a nice large clock to replace the tiny default

 

Stardock's Start 10 to remove the default Tiles interface

 

VLC Media player that plays absolutely anything.

 

 

 

Looking forward to seeing other's suggestions.

 

 





Lurking ...


nzkc
1571 posts

Uber Geek


  #2566198 16-Sep-2020 19:46
Send private message

fMost of the things I use now are all web based apps.  But there are a few non web apps I still use...

 

My go to list of things to install on a PC (in order of I think of them...not importance):

 

  • VS Code (and a bunch of extensions - but the really cool ones are the remote editing ones)
  • Windows Terminal
  • WSL2 (for Windows)
  • Greenshot (for Windows) or Flameshot (for Linux)
  • Bitwarden (browser plugin rather than app)

Things I also install but a bit more work focused...

 

  • git (yep...even for home stuff)
  • Docker (and Docker compose)
  • Terraform
  • Ansible

Things I have installed elsewhere

 

  • Pihole
  • Plex server
  • Watchtower (docker container that updates your docker containers - its very handy)
  • OAuth2-proxy (docker container I use for authentication with google in front of insecure sites)
  • InfluxDB + Telegraf for some monitory/data collection
  • Grafana (for displaying the above)



vexxxboy
4243 posts

Uber Geek


  #2566199 16-Sep-2020 19:46
Send private message

the two i always use for my PC is the K-lite codec pack with Windows Media player classic included and Internet Download Manager which lets me download videos from You tube and other sites and speeds up Downloads, i have used them both for as long as i can remember.





Common sense is not as common as you think.


xpd

xpd
Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13765 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod
ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2566239 16-Sep-2020 21:00
Send private message

Notepad++ - great for editing code

 

GOG Galaxy - One stop shop for all your gaming clients (Steam, Uplay, Origin etc)

 

Discord - get the chat on

 

CLCL - Clipboard manager

 

ANydesk - remote away!

 

Jellyfin - Got fed up with Plex

 

 





       Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

 

                      LinkTree

 

 

 


davidcole
6029 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #2566249 16-Sep-2020 21:23
Send private message

Vs code (python, openhab and platformio extensions)
OpenHAB
Mosquitto
Evernote
Plex media center
And a later addition, docker.




Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server
Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight 


  #2566266 16-Sep-2020 22:12
Send private message

xpd:

 

Notepad++ - great for editing code

 

GOG Galaxy - One stop shop for all your gaming clients (Steam, Uplay, Origin etc)

 

Discord - get the chat on

 

CLCL - Clipboard manager

 

ANydesk - remote away!

 

Jellyfin - Got fed up with Plex

 

 

 

 

Might have to grab GOG Galaxy. All these free games got me using four different clients. 


 
 
 

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.
Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2566391 17-Sep-2020 07:11
Send private message

General Apps:

 

  • Plex
  • Notepad++
  • 7-Zip
  • Discord
  • XShell - You'll never be able to go back to Putty.
  • Hard Disk Sentinel - Simply the best HDD health tool

Browser Extensions:

 

  • Ublock Origin
  • Privacy Badger
  • HTTPS Everywhere
  • Lastpass

I used to swear by a bunch of other things like CloneSpy, FileBot, File Renamer Turbo,  VLC etc, but they are largely redundant now I'm embracing Radarr/Jackett/SickChill/etc tied into Plex

 

Stuff I'm in the market for recommendations on:

 

A decent replacement for RDC Manager. I've been using mremoteNG and just not warming to it. 





I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.


xpd

xpd
Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13765 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod
ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #2566606 17-Sep-2020 09:18
Send private message

Wakrak:

 

 

 

Might have to grab GOG Galaxy. All these free games got me using four different clients. 

 

 

 

 

You still need the individual clients installed, but Galaxy just integrates them all into one so you can see at a glance what games you have etc. Gives you various filters so you can just view those installed, or just from certain platforms etc.

 

I only have Galaxy fire up at startup, and if I hit play on a particular game, it fires up the required client and launches the game.

 

 





       Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

 

                      LinkTree

 

 

 


Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.