Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

What software do you use, and would recommend others to use?

To surf the web, I use Mozilla Firefox, wich is fast, secure and customizable.

For playing music and videos, I use The KMPlayer. I have yet to come across a format that it does not support. It even supports streams, playing from cds, and showing images (odd, I know).

For chatting, I use Pidgin. It supports a lot of protocols, like msn, icq, irc and more. And it doesn't show ads or spam like Windows Messenger does.

For security, I use Spybot - Search & Destroy, wich is a fast and easy antivirus program. I also use Peerguardian, wich blocks connections to and from IP adresses know to be malicious, like spam or anti-piracy organizations.

For torrents, I use µTorrent, wich is the best and lightweightiest torrent client there is. The tracker I usually use is The Pirate Bay, since it's the easiest to use and the largest and tracker there is.

Note that all of these programs are free, too.

Yahoo! Messenger for Vista: It's not out yet, but it looks flippin' sweet.

TweakVista: Does what it says on the tin. It's a great find.

Safari for Windows: I have used it before, and it's pretty good if you don't have Internet Explorer 7 with...

IE7Pro: It's like Firefox for IE. All the great features I like from Firefox, all right there in my browser of choice!

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It's like a browser... for a browser?

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I'd have the same question, Joe. I mean, why use a browser within a browser, just to make that browser act like another browser?

Donutnoggin, the whole point of using Firefox is to help plug in some security holes that target IE. IE7Pro may make IE look like Firefox, but it doesn't make it Firefox. My suggestion: ditch IE entirely and use Firefox for reals. Also, Firefox has lots of nifty free plug-ins.

Some of my picks:

TuneXP. For those of you who (like me) still use XP, this is a great little tool for improving system performance.

RegSeeker. It's great for cleaning out obsolete registry items, doing registry searches and edits, or some minor Windows tweaks.

BootVis. I don't care what Microsoft says, this tool (originally created by them) DOES greatly improve system start-up. (My guess: they accidentally made something that actually IMPROVED system performance - CAN'T HAVE THAT, NOW CAN WE?)

WinAmp. Who needs Windows Media Player?

AVG Free. Better than Norton and McAfee. AND it doesn't cost anything!

AdAware. Great for hunting down spyware and adware in your system.

WavePad. A fairly powerful .wav editor with lots of interesting features. A bit more powerful than Audacity in my opinion. The only annoying thing is, it's not really free. But if you uninstall it and reinstall it every now and then, you can use it as if it were.

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I'm a big fan of VideoLAN.

I also really like the Mouse Gestures add-on for Firefox. I never really used the drawing portion of Mouse Gestures, but I loved the rocker gestures. You could do stuff like right clicking and then left clicking to go back a page and vice versa.

It's more like the features of Firefox, except for IE. I think you can put Greasemonkey scripts in there, and there's other, non-Firefox features that are pretty useful.

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Audacity. One of my favorite sound-editing programs.

For chatting, I use this: Miranda IM. Lots of editable plugins.

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Wouldn't it be simpler just to get Firefox?

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Firefox has given me nothing but confusion, spyware, tracking cookies, and viruses. IE is just right for me.

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Are you kidding me?

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Yeah, are you sure you didn't get those names backwards?

And if you don't like Firefox, you can try Opera instead. It should be just as good for most purposes.

- Kef

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What the crap are you doing with it?

The fact is, IE is much more vulnerable to viruses, spyware, and tracking cookies. With the right add-ons, Firefox is practically immune to them. Tracking cookies? Not with Cookie Culler, if you set it up right. Viruses and spyware? Not if you use AdAware and NoScript (unless you start clicking stuff you shouldn't... which I can't help but think you must have been doing).

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Who cares?

I'm very happy with IE 7. I like the way it looks, it displays the internet to me, I only go on 5 sites so I'm not worried about any spyware crap, and I'm not a big fan of add-ons (read: Myspace/Facebook).

Honestly, using both Firefox and IE 7, I see very little difference either way.

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*raises eyebrow*
Er, methinks you were doing something wrong. I've had firefox for quite some time (I switched earlier this year) and it hasn't crapped up my computer at all. Firefox even loads faster than IE for me.

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Frankly, the only way Firefox could possibly be the culprit here is if DonutNoggin is going to all the wrong web sites. In which case, he would have caught the same things, even if he had been using IE at the time. At least Firefox offers some ways to protect yourself just in case.

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As I read this my mom called me over because internet explorer was opening windows of itself over and over and she couldn't quit out of any of them because more popped up (totally blank pages, and she was only on Yahoo!) and we had to restart the computer.

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Wow. That gives new meaning to the term "omen".

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For future reference, you don't have to restart the computer when something like that happens. Just hold down alt+f4 (or hold alt and press F4 repeatedly) to close them.

Of course, you may accidentally close other stuff as well, but it beats rebooting.

- Kef

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Actually, when that happens, hold alt and hit F4 until they're all closed. Beats restarting.

EDIT: Crap, simulpost'd.

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CCCP
Combined Community Codec Pack.

You all need it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_C ... Codec_Pack

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Greasemonkey! I just like having the cute monkey in the firefox window.

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If you get that and you visit this forum, you'll want subtitles and a seek bar.

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Browser: Firefox
Image editing: Paint.NET
Computer Cleaner: CCleaner
Spyware cleaner: Spybot - Search and Destroy
Torrent: µTorrent
Music and video: Windows Media Player 11

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Quackordz

What exactly does it do, though?

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*facepalm*

OMG. Can you not read?

If you want the technical specifics, full-out features, and what-not: http://hrwiki.org/index.php/User:Phlip/Greasemonkey

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Full screen H*R toons, seekbar, link to that toons Wiki Page.
Those are the major features.

Do you know if it works for Vista?

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So how many pornographic websites do you go on?

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That actually shouldn't cause a problem as long as you're careful. Like never ever downloading an EXE from a porn site. Of course, the same problem exists to at least the same degree with IE.

- Kef

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The moral: you can get viruses from nude women.

that was a bad pun

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