Tools
A selection of code references you might find usefull
DISCLAIMER: Please research and check each tool yourself fully before using. This list is for guidance and does not indicate any promotion by me of any software or devices.
Design, Graphics, Video, and Audio
| Name | Function | Where used | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| GIMP | Image Editor | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Usefull cross platform image editor |
| IrfanView | Graphic Viewer | Windows | Great for adjusting image properties |
| Audacity | Multi-track recording and editing | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Interface is dated. That said it has been around a long time and it still is usefull. |
| VSDC | Video Editor | Windows | See also related video convertor |
| MediaInfo | Video and Audio file details | Windows, MacOS, Linux | A convenient unified display of the most relevant technical and tag data for video and audio files. |
| Inkscape | SVG Editor | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Edit Scaled Vector Graphics |
| Icons | Icons source | Coding webs and apps. | Includes most types of image formats including SVG. |
| Check site | Checks sites for suitability partially sighted people | Coding webs and apps. | Great as part of your accessibility checking |
| Storyboard | Powerpoint storyboard template | Use with Power point storyboard feature to create web or app layouts for customer review. | Not fully up to date but good enough for preview designs. |
| Zamzar | Convert file formats | Browser | Zamzar supports over 1200 different conversions - Video Converter, Audio Converter, Music Converter, eBook Converter, Image Converter, CAD Converter |
| Sketchup | 3D Modelling | Windows, MacOS | Cut down version of full product. |
| PicPick | Screen Grab | Windows | A full-featured screen capture tool, Intuitive image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel-ruler, protractor, crosshair, whiteboard and more. User friendly and full of features for creating your image, Suitable for software developers, graphic designers and home users. |
| Pencil2D | Animation | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Uses a bitmap/vector drawing interface to produce simple 2D graphics and drawings as well as animation. |
| Photopea | Image editor | On line | Open and edit PSD, XCF, Sketch (Photoshop, Gimp and Sketch) or any other image files. |
| RawTherapee | Image editor | Linux, macOS, Windows | All the standard features you would expect from a raw developer and much more. |
| Wings 3D | 3D Modelling | Linux, macOS, Windows | Wings 3D offers a wide range of modeling tools, a customizable interface, support for lights and materials, and a built-in AutoUV mapping facility. |
| Game Builder | 3D Game Builder | Windows | A bit old but still useful introduction. |
| QR Code generator | QR Codes | Windows | Scan and generate QR codes on your PC. |
| WCAG Guidance | Website accessibility | Browser | This checklist uses The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a reference point. |
| View HEIC files on Windows | Image Convertor | Windows | View/Convert IOS images on Windows to JPG format. |
| Handbrake | Video Convertor | Windows | HandBrake is a tool for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs. |
Network And Comms
| Name | Function | Where used | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| WireShark | Network protocol analyzer | Windows, MacOS | Complex but very powerful |
| NMap | Network discovery | Windows, Linux | Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source utility for network discovery and security auditing. GUI version called Zenmap |
| OpenVpn | VPN | Windows, MacOS, Android, IOS | Usefull for open source environments |
| Mumble | Communication application | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Client and server open source secure VOIP |
| Smoothwall Express | Firewall | Custom Linux | Often built on an older PC for basic firewall and site-to-site VPN. |
| Nagios | IT Infrastructure Monitoring | Linux | Free for low end use. |
| Sigul | Intrusion Detection Monitoring | Linux with Snort | A little out of date but useful. |
| Sigul | Intrusion Detection Monitoring | Linux with Snort | A little out of date but useful. |
| WifiInfoView | WIFI Scanner | Windows | Scans the wireless networks in your area and displays extensive information about them. |
| Fing | Network checker and IDS with Fingbox | IOS and Android | Security app and appliance for protecting and troubleshooting your home network. |
| Kali | Penetration Testing | Linux | Suit of Penetration Testing tools on Linux Distro. |
| Packet tracer | Network Training | Windows, Linux | Free Cisco Training |
| DNS Leak Test | VPN DNS check | Browser | Check DNS routing for your VPN connection |
| Visual GPS View | GPS data view | Windows | Very useful for checking different GPS data streams |
| OPNsense | Hardened BSD based firewall and routing platform | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Includes most of the features available in expensive commercial firewalls, and more in many cases |
Admin And Support
| Name | Function | Where used | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCLeaner | Clean device storage | Windows, MacOS, Android | Keeps your main storage tidy |
| Sysinternals | Mutiple tools | Windows | A must for all Windows Tech staff |
| Veracrypt | Storage Encryption | Windows, MAcOS, Linux | Open Source storage Encryption tool. Great for USB sticks. |
| OffCat | Office Install Checker | Windows | Keeps your MS office install in tune. Note- being replaced soon by SARA tool below. |
| SARA | Fix Outlook and Office 365 problems with Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365 | Windows | |
| Keepass | Password Store | Windows | Offline encrypted password store. |
| WinSCP | SFTP client, FTP client, WebDAV client and SCP | Windows | Great tool for secure file transfer |
| Putty | Command Line SSH and Telnet tool | Windows, Linux | Secure command line into open source devices |
| Notepad++ | Simple source code editor | Windows | Make sure you download the plugins |
| Printfile | Controlled print of Postscript files | Windows | Old interface but still works |
| 7-ZIP | File archiver | Windows | When the built in unzip does not work. |
| HEX Explorer | View file in hex format | Windows | View and convert files at very low level |
| MySql Workbench | MYSQL DB admin | Windows, Linux | Great tool for working with MySQL DB on remote servers securely |
| SequoiaView | Disc Layout Image | Windows | Very old but still seems to work and helps view file size layout in partition. |
| CPU-Z | Device analysis | Windows, Android | Gathers information on the main devices of your system |
| MBSA | Device Security Scan | Windows | Scan local and remote systems for missing security updates as well as common security misconfigurations. May not support latest OS versions |
| Belarc Advisor | Device Properties Scan | Windows | Great HW and SW report gets produced - note the licence terms. |
| Security Compliance Manager | Configure MS Security | Windows | For Single PC up to cloud instances. |
| Spiceworks | Helpdesk, Inventory, Network Monitor | Windows | Been around for a long time and well liked. |
| Rufus | Boot Disk Creation | Windows | Create bootable USB drives the easy way with ISO image |
| Graylog | Log file and wire data analysis | Linux | Parse and enrich logs, wire data, and event data from any data source. Graylog also provides centralized configuration management for 3rd party collectors such as beats, fluentd and nxlog |
| OO Shut Up | Anti Spy | Windows 10 | You decide how Windows 10 should respect your privacy by deciding which unwanted functions should be deactivated. |
| Classic Windows shell | Change start menu and base environment. | Windows | Allows users from older WIndows to change interface. No longer under dev since end of 2017. |
| Regshot | Registry Tool | Windows | Allows you to save the contents of your Windows registry in order to compare later. |
| Kaspersky - Portable AV on USB | Anti Virus | Windows | Kaspersky - Create USB/CD portable scanner. |
| Clamscan Portable AV on USB | Anti Virus | Windows | Clamscan - Create USB/CD portable scanner. |
| Everthing | File Recover | Windows | Everything is a search utility that locates files and folders by filename . |
| Nessus Essentials | SCAN for issues | Multiple OS + KALI | 16 IP version is free to use. Great fro checking code and install setups. |
| WizTree | Finds files and folders using the most disk space on your hard drive | Windows | WizTree is a hard drive disk space analyser similar to WinDirStat but is MUCH faster |
| AOMEI Backupper Standard Edition | PC Backup | Windows | Free Backup Software for Windows |
| Windows Configuration Designer | Create Provisioning packages | Windows 10 | Create provisioning packages to easily configure devices running Windows 10 |
| Robocopy | File Copy | Windows 10 | multi-threaded feature to speed up file copy on Windows 10, |
Coding
| Name | Function | Where used | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio | The free version of Microsoft IDE | Windows, Mac | Essential when working with Microsoft code. |
| Expresso | Creating Regular expressions | Windows | Outdated interface but very usefull. See online site that does similar. |
| PowerBI | Data Analysis | Windows | Great tool to work with data from many sources |
| Eclipse | An open source community of Tools, Projects and Collaborative Working Groups. | Windows, Linux, MacOs | Mostly for dev with Java and PHP |
| Vagrant | Development Environment Tool | Windows, Linux, MacOs | Great for DevOps |
| HTML Editor online | Online HTML editor | Browser | Great to learn HTML |
| Chrome Tools | Debugging web sites | Browser | Tricky to get used to but essential for all web coders. |
| CSS checker | Check CSS compliance | Coding web sites and apps | Helps ensure web site and app CSS compliance |
| JSLint | Check Javascript compliance | Coding web sites and apps | A bit tricky to get used to |
| Virtual Serial Ports Emulator | Create/debug/test applications that use serial ports. | Windows | With VSPE you are able to share physical serial port data for several applications, expose serial port to local network (via TCP protocol), create virtual serial port device pairs. |
| Adapt | Build responsive e-learning content. HTML/SCORM | Windows/Linux | Techie to set up but easy to use - especially if you know Wordpress. |
| Docker | Build Containerized Applications | Windows, Mac | Containerize applications on your desktop |
| Web Site Accessibility | Website accessibility | Browser | Testing a site to check it adheres to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) international standard. |
| Json test Data | Create a set of test Json data | Browser | Great for mocking up API data |
| Fiddler | Web Debugging | Windows, Mac ,Linux | Capture all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the Internet with Fiddler HTTP(S) proxy. Inspect traffic, set breakpoints, and fiddle with requests & responses |
| NASA WorldWind | Mapping | API | WorldWind allows developers to quickly and easily create interactive visualizations of 3D globe, map and geographical information. |
Readers and Viewers
| Name | Function | Where used | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Libre Office | Office Tools | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Open source similar to Microsoft office. |
| Calibre | E-Reader | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Usefull cross platform e-reader |
| GSView | View Postscript Documents | Windows, Linux | |
| SNMP Walk Tool | Open SNMP Mibs | Windows, Linux | SNMP MIB Browser is a complete tool for monitoring SNMP enabled devices and servers. You can load, view multiple MIB modules and perform GET, GETNEXT and SET SNMP operations. This tool is easy to use and allows you to view, configure and parse SNMP traps. |
| Music Desktop Player | Google Play Music Desktop Player | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Play Google Music from desktop app. |
| VLC | Multimedia Player | Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, IOS | Free and open source cross-platform multimedia player |
| Thunderbird | Email Client | Windows, MacOS, Linux | From the Firefox family - a client to read email |
| Sync Outlook Icloud | Contact sync Outlook | Windows | Usefull to sync Outlook calendars, contacts, task to ICloud for use with IOS |
| RSSOwl | RSS reader | Windows | Subscribe and read RSS feed all in one place |
| Juice | Podcasts | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Juice is the premier podcast receiver, allowing users to capture and listen to podcasts anytime, anywhere |
Services
| Name | Function | Where used | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wordpress | Web Content Delivery | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Powers 40% of all web sites |
| Drupal | Web Content Delivery | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Another CDE web system but a lot more complex |
| Subsonic | Personal media streamer | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Stream media from your own computer |
| Own Cloud | Cloud File Storage | Server - Linux/Docker Client - Windows, MacOS, Linux, IOS , Android | Create your own Cloud. |
| Moodle | E-Learning Platform | Server - Linux | Popular learning management system |
| Asterisk | Communications Platform | Custom linux image | open source framework for building communications applications. |
Other Software You Might Like
| Name | Function | Where used | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRAMPS | Genealogy Tool | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Free - to create your own family trees. |
| Freemind | Mind Mapping | Java based | Needs a bit of techie know how to use. |
| Google Earth | Mapping | Windows, Browser | I use the offline version to import GPS data and create videos of routes. |