Software I cannot do without

Here is a short list of some really useful software (for Windows - I have used these under Win 98, NT, 2K, XP, Vista, Win7, 8.1, and (for most) 10).
The top ones I use every day (2020 and counting!), and have done for about 25 years or more.

   JPSoft

   The Semware Editor (Who needs a word processor?)
(And to spell check your documents, try MicroSpell - there is no spellchecker nearly as efficient IMHO.)

   T_EX (Type processing the way it's meant to be. Word-processors are stupid and inefficient)  [LaTeX is pretty cool.]

   TeraTerm (A really smart ssh/telnet program.)   PuTTY is also excellent

   Opera (The fastest, best web browser available - beats Internet Explorer.)
   If you're nostalgic for Netscape, give Mozilla or FireFox a try - or if Google's your friend, try Chrome.
(There are now oodles of fast/small/flexible/what-you-want browsers available - and the list grows regularly. Google for more options!)

   Info-Zip (Zip and Unzip for all "platforms" - used so often you tend to forget you have it after a while!)

   IrfanView32 (General purpose graphics utility - one of the best, and it's free.)

   VLC (General media player - better than WiMP!)

   MailWasher (A powerful email checker with effective spam elimination.)

   Core FTP (lite) (A simple convenient way to ftp files.)
For fellow command-line fans: Currently I use PuTTY psftp; in the past I've used NcFTP - they are excellent (though an sftp client, like the PuTTY one, is best these days).

   KeyText (Keyboard macro program to automate Windows tasks.)

Some older programs (I don't use them under later versions of Windows):

   Proxomitron (Kill those annoying ads when you are browsing the web.)

   Leech FTP - no longer supported by its author, but still an excellent program. Another oldie: Free WS_FTP (the current version is no longer free, but this older version is.)

   XNews (A free but excellent news reader.)

   World Time (Keep track of time in different time zones, alarms, stopwatch, ... - if it is about time, this is your program.) [Get the current "stable" version here!]
Post Windows8 I've used the free versions of Qlock, or NTP time zone clock, or ClocX
(For a while I used a "lighter" program, ClockRack, that does less, but still gives you different timezones; the "current version" is 2.1, I think, but I've not tried it.)

   UCalc (A small scientific calculator and graph plotting program - fast and useful.)
 

The following are now obsolete:

   Magellan Explorer (A file manager that illustrates what "My Computer" really should be!)

   PaneKiller (A replacement for the Start menu on the Windows taskbar.)

   Desktop Manager (Give yourself 4 or more desktops, each with its own display settings.)
No longer exists!

   DialUp Networking Monitor (See your dialup stats and monitor your connection.) (Can anyone remember using dialup?!)
No longer exists!

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