Shadowex3

We've got a F/OSS thread, unorganized though it may be, but there are a whole world of things that don't fall quite under that umbrella that are genuinely useful in some way. Plus... that thread's basically dead at this point, and a mess. Maybe if this thread takes off I'll spend a few hours one day cannibalizing the other to create a single coherently organized megathread...

Regardless I'd like to follow the F/OSS thread's example of organization minus the easily broken advanced formatting to keep the thread easy to search by Ctrl+F, especially since I plan on keeping this post updated as a main list as the thread grows. To that end I'd appreciate the help if posts list a general category an item fits into if there isn't one already, and obviously a description of what it does or why it's better or a good alternative to something already listed.

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Reformatting and Reinstallation aids
Includes: Backups

Ninite
A website based utility where you create a "fire and forget" custom installer from a collection of programs, utilities, and even runtimes. You are then given an installer and a permalink to that particular combination if you want to use it later. When run the installer will automatically download and install everything you selected to the default paths without requiring any action on your part once the process is started. Offers a for-pay "pro" version which functions offline and is allowed for commercial use.


Research, Homework, and Reference
Includes: Special search engines, calculators, bibliography and citations

Quickmath
A collection of symbolic algebra capable calculators that can solve simple algebra, quadratics, matrices, and even differentiate and integrate. You must select the specific calculator for what you need, and then input the problem as a single line of simple ASCII characters. If you're familiar with a Ti-83 or other graphing calculator the format is similar.

Wolfram Alpha
If Quickmath, Google, and Wikipedia had children. Wolfram Alpha is a search engine combined with a calculator that specialises in either calculations or finding and displaying empirical knowledge of some kind.

Chemspider
Similar to Wolfram Alpha but specialising in Chemistry. Chemspider searches and displays information regarding chemical compounds and structures.

Bibme
A bibliography producing website. You search for whatever you're citing, add it to a collection, and at the end you can download it in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian style. Also has a traditional manual-entry mode in case it can't automatically find and fill out a given item for you.


Troubleshooting, Diagnostics, and Repair
Includes: Antivirus, Antispyware, file extensions,

Down for everyone or just me
A website that tells you exactly that about other websites. Input a URL and it will tell you whether the website is genuinely down, or down for just you.


Business, Productivity, and Office work
Includes: Word processors, accounting, and business utilities

Zoho
Effectively a fully functional office software suite online, even capable of integrating directly with Microsoft Office at times. Fully compatible with OpenOffice and MS Office filetypes according to their FAQ.

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