I am using 2.97 and stopped upgrading after that since 3 took much longer to load and used up a lot more system resources. Did they ever fix that stuff?
Anyway, most of the things I use have already been stated, but here are a few others:
HTML Help WorkshopThis allows one to create chm files; these are essentially HTML websites combined into a single file with some compression and are used to make most helpfiles these days. I find it handy when I need to send math stuff through email, since I don't have Acrobat and sending fifty html and gif files is rather clumsy.
ModPlug PlayerThere are some mod-based audio files that Winamp cannot load correctly/at all (it, s3m, umx, etc.), which I use this program to open. Has all the usual extras such as the playlist, equalizer, custom UI skins, and so on.
Turbo Navigator
Although it has some quirks, this is the best free file manager utility I have come across. I really liked the old File Manager's basic interface, which but it is buggy and lacks key features, while Windows Explorer's interface is piece of junk but it has extras; this combines the best of both. The main website has been down for some time, but if you do a search on google several links come up.
I think I saw Continuum in here somewhere, so I guess games are also allowed.
LaserTankAn excellent freeware puzzle game. Although the basic premise is hardly original, this is the best game of its type I have seen. Includes over 2000 levels and a level editor.
MegaPlexThis is a Windows version of the old 1990 arcade/puzzle hybrid Supaplex (which also spawned a Mac port called Infotron a few years later). I spent many hundreds of hours back then with the mac version. It runs on the same tileset as Supaplex so it is rather lacking in terms of graphics, but is very addictive nonetheless.
Outbound
The developer's website went down a long time ago, but this still remains a nice overhead arcade shooter. Has interesting missions and solid terrain graphics. This can probably be found through Google.
SoldatThis is a fairly popular one; sort of like a standard FPS played out in a 2D world. Has a fun offline mode with lots of options and good bots, but the multiplayer mode is the best part of this.
Beneath a Steel Sky
This was a retail SCUMM-based adventure game released around 1995 but is now legally freeware. It is available on the
ScummVM website and the ScummVM program allows it to work with full sound even if you don't have working SB16 emulation. The ending is rather rushed, but this is a great game nonetheless.
And it's never crashed in my computer. Unlike Wordpad, Word, Excel, Publisher... In fact, just about every other program I know of.
That's one of the best things about Notepad; its simplicity and lack of frills also make it very fast and stable.
