General utilities: FileZ Archivers, Package Managers, Virtualization

• File Archivers. 7-Zip is an open source archive manager that can compress and decompress a wide range of formats, including 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, and WIM. It can also decompress other formats, such as, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, RAR, and much more.

PeaZip is a free WinRar and WinZip alternative. It supports a huge collection of formats. It also features secure deletion (it ensures that when you delete a file, there is no way of getting it back again), strong encryption, split and join files (“Splitting a file is cutting the data in span parts of desired size. Usually, this allows a large file to fit on multiple smaller supports or to fit in multiple email attachments”), and can verify checksum files.

• Winaero Tweaker allows you to customize the appearance and behavior of Windows in a flexible way. Rainmeter is a free and open-source desktop customization utility for Windows. It allows you to display customizable skins on your desktop, from hardware usage meters to fully functional audio visualizers.
• Ninite is one of the easiest, fastest ways to update or install software. You can update or install multiple apps at once.
• The Windows Package Manager Client (aka winget.exe) repository enables Windows’ users to discover, install, upgrade, and remove applications on Windows computers. It makes it very easy and convenient to install applications by running a single command.

1. To search for an application, open a terminal window and run winget appname, e.g., winget search LibreOffice.
2. Install applications: winget install LibreOffice.LibreOffice, winget install GIMP.GIMP, winget install ShareX.ShareX.
3. Update an application (winget upgrade brave) or all the installed applications (winget upgrade ‐‐all)
4. Uninstall applications. First, get the list of installed apps (winget list), and then uninstall the unwanted applications (winget uninstall GIMP.GIMP).

• Chocolatey is another Windows package manager. It allows you to install, update, and remove software in PowerShell quickly and safely.

1. Installation: Click on the Install Now button on its website. Start Windows PowerShell(Admin) and run the command (Step 2): Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; […]
2. Let’s install some software: choco install musicbee -y (it installs MusicBee). You can also install multiple programs all at once: choco install musicbee vlc 7zip -y
3. You can upgrade all your programs with only one command: choco upgrade all -y

• CD/DVD Burning Software: ImgBurn is “a lightweight CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!”. InfraRecorder is “a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows.” BurnAware “is a fully-fledged, easy-to-use burning software which allows users to write all types of files such as digital photos, pictures, archives, documents, music and videos to CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.”
• Virtualization: VirtualBox “extends the capabilities of your existing computer so that it can run multiple operating systems (inside multiple virtual machines) at the same time.” An alternative is VmWare Player.

How to Use VirtualBox

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1. Enable CPU Virtualization in the BIOS. Modern CPUs include hardware virtualization features that help accelerate virtual machines created in VirtualBox. BIOS, OC (Overclocking)/Processor or Chipset, Intel Virtualization Technology/Intel VT-x/Virtualization Extensions/Vanderpool and should be set to Enabled.
2. Install VirtualBox Oracle VM Virtual Extension Pack. It enables USB support. File, Preferences, Extensions, +.
3. Change Virtual Machine Folder. Virtual machines often involve really big files! File, Settings. On the General tab, Default Machine Folder.
4. Create the Virtual Machine. Memory size, you should give half of your RAM to the Virtual Machine. Create a virtual hard disk now: Dynamically allocated.
5. Mount the ISO file (install disk) into our virtual machine. Settings, Storage. CD icon in the Storage Tree box. Choose Virtual Optical Disc File.
6. Install Guest Additions (resize the VM window, enable drag and drop): Devices, Insert Guest Additions CD image…
7. Virtual Network Adapters. Settings, Network. Change the “Attached to” property from NAT to Bridged. The virtual machine will connect to your existing WiFi or Ethernet network, it allows the virtual machine to run as a member of your local network. Check the IP: ip a.
8. Share Folders and Clipboards. Settings, General. Open the Advanced tab. Shared Clipboard and Drag’n’Drop: Bidirectional. Settings, Shared Folders.
9. Take a snapshot. Machine, Take Snapshot. If there is a failure, it allows you to fall back to a working version quickly and easily.
10. Enable USB Access. Settings, USB. Enable USB Controller: USB 3.0. Click on the + sign to add a new device.

• Optimization and cleaning. CCleaner is a utility used to clean unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a computer. Tweaking.com - Windows Repair Free/Pro is an all-in-one repair tool to help fix a large majority of known Windows problems including registry errors and file permissions as well as issues with Internet Explorer, Windows Update, Windows Firewall and more.
• Gaming: Steam is a popular social gaming platform. It is one of the best ways to buy and play games over the internet. Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat app that’s used by millions of people to talk and hang out. Discord is at the center of the gaming universe.
• Others: Image Viewers (IrfanView, HoneyView, and FastStone). PowerToys is a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity (e.g. FancyZones is a window manager utility for arranging and snapping windows into efficient layouts to improve the speed of your workflow and restore layouts quickly; PowerToys Run is a quick launcher: Alt+Space).

Recuva allows you to recover your deleted files quickly and easily. balenaEtcher is an open-source software to create a bootable USB drive using ISO files safely and easily. ShareX is a free and open-source screenshot program for Microsoft Windows. WinDirStat is a free disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows. SuperF4 kills the foreground program when you press Ctrl+Alt+F4