Fast Windows software
 

I've been on kind of a speed binge lately, searching for the fastest, most efficient programs to use on my computer. For instance, I tossed out slow-ass WinAmp 5 and replaced it with QCD, which loads in about half the time. And I use Media Player Classic instead of WMP.

Anyone have any suggestions for really fast, full-featured applications that you use often?

The only one I can think off off hand for windows is PuTTY , compared to all the other ssh clients I have used this is probably the best and smallest.

[edit]
ImageMagick is also quite handy for resizing/converting images. Its a bit of a big download (6mb) but everything can be done via the command line.

Slowass Winamp 5? You running a 486?

Now Winamp 3 was definitely slow...

i only use the older versions of winamp that they still have for you to dl i think im on 2.x which was/is the best imho so far.

and for WMP where did you find this "classic" version I am sure i could google it and find it but hey im lazy and after all this is the computer forum to ask for help in right?

Winamp 5 might feel sluggish if you're running it in the "Modern Skin" mode, because then it has a shitlode of unecessary bells and visualizations and crap like that. If you switch it over to "Classic Skin" mode, then it runs like winamp 2.x.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

The extra plugins that come with Winamp5 are what slows down the startup time.

No, man, 2.8 GHz P4 - and it still took like 8 seconds to load.

Yeah, I could probably live with the classic skin. QCD's skins are freeform, though, and they load fast. And you can sort the playlist by track number, INCREDIBLY ENOUGH, something WinAmp for all its sophistry doesn't let you do. Of course, the lack of any competent graphics plug-in is a minus.

Uh, yeah you can, actually. I do it all the time. Just click the tab above the track number in the playlist...

Using the modern skin Winamp 5 takes me about 2 seconds to load, using the classic skin its instantanious. That's with two thousand some items in my playlist... IMHO, Winamp 5 is top notch and should've been Winamp 3.

By the way, what happened to 4?

2 + 3 = 5 ;)

That's what winamp 5 really is. 2.x with some 3 goodies.

No idea what happened to 4. But they do mention it here. I too deal with the slowness of the newest version of winamp. However, it's not that big of a deal. It still has all the features I like, and the few seconds it takes to load really don't make that much of a difference in the long run.

As far as other quick windows software.

I use a number of tools from analogx.com, like their timesync program, a quick and dirty www server, as well as a few other nifty/small tools. There is a lot to choose from, it's all free, and they do the job without ever knowing they're there.

Becuase QCD is so awesome, all winamp plugins work with QCD. Nifty. Btw, I can't help with other "quick" windows apps. Sorry.

if you don't want to get media player classic (which is awesome btw), you can just type mplayer2 in Run on hte start menu and it will load an older version of wmp. i assume it's faster than the default wmp that comes with xp.

Foobar is a great music player, although it is not nearly as pretty as winamp.

Mediaplayer classic (search for it at betanews.com) will load your videos much faster than WMP9. In fact, anything will, really.