ERPMan's Essential Downloads
Page[created by Noel Piring]
Updated: Friday
May 17, 2013
The downloads posted
here are listed in alphabetical order.
Note to WinXP
SP3 users: If you are still using Windows XP, install Service Pack
3 and Windows Installer 4.5
and their latest
updates.
Note to Win2000
SP4 users: If you are still using Windows 2000, install Service Pack
4 with the KB891861
post-SP4 Update
Rollup 1, Windows Installer 3.1 and Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 & their
latest security updates.
Essential Shareware:
(these are NOT free; please register/pay to get full benefits) Note: A little star
* indicates a must have program.
Ad-aware
Pro [removes adware, spyware & malware; requires WinXP/2003/Vista/2008/Seven]
{}
WinRAR
(file archiving-compression tool; handles *.rar & other archive files)
WinZip
(file archiving-compression tool; ver. 11 & higher needs at least Win2k
to use)
WS_FTP
Pro [Professional Edition] (FTP client; far better than the LE edition)
ZoneAlarm
Pro [firewall software] (need WinXP SP2 or better to use)
Notes: Some of
these shareware programs can act like trialware, meaning it's free to try
for a certain amount
of time. When
that time has run out, they may stop working & you will have to register
the software(s) for
continued use.
Others will have some features disabled until you register them to acces
these features.
Winzip 9.0 may require
Win98 or better to use; however Winzip 9.0 does seem to run under Win95
as long
as the appropriate
Win95 updates are installed. Winzip version 11 & higher require
Win2000, XP or Vista
and are not compatible
with Win9x/ME & NT4. Win98 & ME users should obtain Winzip
10 here
while
Win95/NT4 users
should get Winzip 9.0 at this Oldversion.com
site. Winzip 14.x & higher are compatible
with Win7.
{} - Lavasoft Ad-aware
Pro version 10.5 has been recently released, which has some crucial bug
fixes and
is fully Windows
8 compatible.
Essential Freeware:
(more coming soon) A little ~ symbol
denotes a program is freeware but also adware. A little star * indicates
a must have tool.
7-Zip
[file archiver that works with many archive formats]
Star
Downloader [another good download manager; the Pro edition is not free]
Sumatra
PDF Viewer [another lightweight PDF viewer alternative to Adobe Acrobat
Reader]
Thunderbird
[email client created by the Mozilla Foundation Group]
xplorer2
lite [improved file manager better than Windows Explorer]
Webwasher
[tool that cleans out web junk; for home & private use only]
Windows
Defender [anti-spyware tool for Windows created by Microsoft; included
in Vista/Win7]
WinPatrol
[tool to clean out spyware, cookies & other malicious programs]
Yahoo
Messenger [online chat tool; also checks for new Yahoo Mail messages]
ZoneAlarm
[firewall software; free edition] (latest version needs WinXP or better
to use)
Notes:
MetaProducts's Download Express tool now has a plugin
for those using Mozilla & Firefox browsers
(this is an updated
version of the Download Express plugin but install the Download Express
program first).
AOL Instant Messenger
[AIM] versions 6.x/7.x needs at least Win2000 to use while v5.2 requires
Win98 or
better to use.
Win95 users should get either version 4.8
or version 5.1
instead. Win95 users must answer
'No' when the AOL
Instant Messenger v5.1 setup program prompts whether to cancel the installation
so
that setup can continue
on there. AOL IM ver. 5.1 seems to work okay for most Win95 users.
<> ! RED ALERT:
Please download Shareaza at the Official
Shareaza site and NOT at the shareaza.com
site. The shareaza.com site is a "phishing" scam site that contains
ShareazaV4 which bundles
spyware. If you have already downloaded and/or installed ShareazaV4,
please remove it immediately
and download the correct version of Shareaza from the official web site. {} - Lavasoft Ad-aware
Free version 10.5 has been recently released, which has some crucial bug
fixes and
is fully Windows
8 compatible.
~ - The newly released
Spybot S&D 2.0 software requires WinXP SP2 or higher to install and
use as it will
not work under pre-XP
editions of Windows. Those using Win2000 or older should obtain Spybot
S&D 1.6.2
from this
Spybot download page.
Web Browser Software
[Common Internet Browsers] all are free:
Note: Internet
Explorer 10 requires at least Windows 7 SP1 and is already included in
Windows 8.
Internet Explorer 9.0 for either Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 and can
be obtained from
this web
page. Internet Explorer 8.0 for Windows XP and Server 2003 is
found here.
For those
Windows 98, 2000, ME or NT4 SP6a, get Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 here.
Opera web browser
versions 8.50 and higher no longer contain any advertisement banners.
The SeaMonkey browser
suite replaces the old & defunct Mozilla browser suite and contains
the most recent Gecko runtime
engine featured in the most recent Mozilla Firefox browsers. No more
new versions of the Netscape
Web Browser are being produced but existing versions of it can be downloaded
here.
The latest Seamonkey and Firefox web browsers require a minimum of an Intel
Pentium 500 Mhz
CPU system with at least 256 megabytes of RAM. Latest nightly build
of Firefox 2.0.0.22pre
for Win98/ME/NT4 can be downloaded here.
Note that Seamonkey 2.x & Firefox 3.x-12.x require
a minimum of Win2000 to use (unless Win98/ME users have latest version
of KernelEx
installed).
Firefox 13 & higher and Seamonkey 2.10.0 & higher will require
minimum of WinXP SP2 to
install & use. Firefox
12 and Seamonkey
2.9.1 are the last versions to support Win2000. The
Apple Safari web browser for Windows has been discontinued but Apple will
still provide updates
for Safari for recent Macintosh OS X operating systems.
BREAKING NEWS:
A Computing.net forum user has found a way to install Firefox 2.0 under
a Win95 OS.
Read this
computing.net forum topic on how to install and run Firefox 2 under
Win95. Also, Opera Browser
versions 10.60 and
greater no longer work under Win9x/ME/NT4 as those versions fail to load
on startup.
Last version of
Opera to reliably support Win9xME is v10.54
and for NT4 it's v9.64.
Although Win98/ME
users can try installing
Opera versions 10.60 to 10.63 on their machines with KernelEx installed.
Opera
versions 11.x/12.x
will not install under Win9x/ME/NT4 OSes, so they have officially dropped
9x/NT4 support
there. Chrome's
Print
Preview feature was fully completed and became an official feature
in Chrome 13 &
higher. Chrome 14 & higher include Print Preview for recent
Apple Macintosh OSes.
NOTE on Installing
Google Chrome: The Google Chrome setup program will normally install
the brower
files into the Application
Data or AppData folder and not in the Program
Files folder. To force the setup
program to install
the Google Chrome browser files into the \Program Files\ folder (AND assuming
you are
performing a clean
and new installation of Google Chrome), just run the chrome_installer.exe
file with
the --system-level
switch from the Run dialog box. I no longer link directly to the
recent full installers for
Google Chrome browsers
as they are now stored on random links.
Web Browser Plug-Ins
& Media Players:
Note: RealNetworks RealPlayer
16 requires at least WinXP SP3 to run. The previous version of Realplayer
(which is RealPlayer
15), can be downloaded here.
To download Realplayer 14 or older, just download
it from this
Oldversion.com page, if you are using a slower machine, Windows 2000
or older OS. Adobe
Acrobat Reader versions
from 7.x to 9.x require at least Windows 2000 to use while Adobe Reader
X (ver. 10)
& higher require
a minimum of Windows XP SP2/SP3 to use. Version
6.02 of Adobe Reader is the
last version supported
under Win98se, WinME & WinNT4 SP6. The newly released versions
of Flash Player
(version 11.7) can
be obtained from the following links > (Flash 11.7 for
IE browsers and for
non-IE browsers)
[for Flash Player
11.7 Windows Installer versions, go to these sites > (for
IE browsers) & (for
non-IE browsers)]
For users getting
Flash Player 10.3, go to these sites > (Flash 10.3 for
IE browsers and for
non-IE browsers)
[for Flash Player
10.3 Windows Installer versions, go to these sites > (for
IE browsers) & (for
non-IE browsers)]
Flash Player 11.x
requires WinXP SP2 or higher to use and can't install under Win2000 &
earlier.
Last
version of Flash
Player officially supported under Win2000 is 10.1.102.64,
however, version 10.2.159.1
can
install and work
under Win2000, even though Adobe doesn't officially support that version
on Win2k. If you
want to install
a recent version of Flash Player 10.3 under Win2k, install Unofficial
KernelEx for Win2000.
Adobe Shockwave
Player versions 11.x/12.x only support WinXP & higher (and Win2000
w/ GDI+
installed).
Win98/ME users should
get Shockwave Player v10.3.0.24
while Win95/NT4 users should obtain v8.51 here.
Older versions of
Flash Player earlier than v10.3 can be obtained here.
<> Caution: Quicktime
7.2 & higher require a minimum of WinXP and will not install under
Win2000. Last
version of Quicktime
officially supported under Win2000 is version 7.16 but is vulnerable to
recent security
problems.
Win2000 users who want to install Quicktime 7.2 should go to this
page on how to install QT 7.2.
Quicktime 7.3 and
higher will only work correctly under Windows XP and higher OSes.
Antivirus/Antimalware
Software & Updates: [free to try; register/pay to keep; updates are
free]
Note: You can
download a demo version of these popular antivirus programs. If you
want to continue using
antivirus software,
buy any one of them. Some of them are sold in computer stores. Use
the most recent
version of any antivirus
software whenever possible. Antivirus detection updates & patches
are free but
upgrades are not
free. Most of these antivirus products require WinXP SP2 or higher
to use. NOD32
versions 3.0 and
higher require Win2000 or greater to use but it could be used under WinNT4
SP6a
with Windows Installer
2.0 installed, however, some features of NOD32 v3.x, 4.x may not work under
NT4.
NOD32 is a very
good "lightweight" antivirus program that uses much less system resources
than
commercial &
more popular antivirus software but it's biggest weaknesses is that users
are unable to
manually download
and apply virus detection updates to NOD32 with NO internet connection
available
and sometimes the
ESET servers do not work when attempting to obtain NOD32 virus signature
updates.
To download NOD32
virus detection updates offline, read here.
To download the latest Clamwin setup
setup file for NT4
users, read this
Clamwin forum topic.
~ - It is recommended
that Win8 users upgrade to at least Avast 8.0.1483 (the final release of
Avast 8)
since the networking
problems have been fixed in this new version. Version 0.97.7 of the
ClamWin
Antivirus program
has been released and contains recent security fixes for the program and
seems to
be compatible with
Windows 8 & Server 2012.
^ - Only the free
version of Avira Antivirus 2013 has been certified as Windows 8 compatible
since
early April 2013
as noted here.
The newly released Avira Antivir Personal program ver. 13.0.0.3640
should be fully
Win8 compatible.
Other sites to
get Demo, Freeware & Shareware Programs [and Device Drivers]:
Allfreeware.com
(nice site to find lots of freeware & shareware)
Note: The Oldversion.com site is a nice
place to download older versions of certain software when using an older
version
of Windows like Windows 95, 98 or Windows NT4.
Some Microsoft
Addons for Windows:
Microsoft .NET
Framework Full Downloads: (32-bit versions only)
Note: The .NET
Framework 1.1 & 2.0 addons include version 5.1.3101 of the gdiplus.dll
file but will not be
installed under
WinXP SP1 & Win2003 systems as that file is already included.
MS .NET Framework v2.0
can not be installed
nor will run under WinNT4 so use version 1.1 instead. MS .NET Framework
v3.5 SP1
has been released
but requires WinXP, Server 2003 or higher to use and includes MS .NET Framework
versions 3.0 SP2
and 2.0 SP2. I only link to the full redist. packages of .NET Framework
which are large
downloads.
Windows 7 includes .NET Framework 3.5.1 while Windows 8 includes .NET Framework
4.5.
<> Caution: There
may be problems after installing .NET Framework 2.0 SP2, 3.0 SP2 &
3.5 SP1 on
Windows XP, 2003,
Vista & 2008. See MS KB article 959209
and install the updates listed there. The
.NET patches there
do not apply to Win7, Win8 & higher.
Note: Windows
Installer 2.0 is included in Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 or higher
installed, Windows XP,
and Windows Server
2003. Windows Installer 3.1 is now available as a redistributable
download for
Win2000 SP4 users,
XP SP1/SP2 & Server 2003 systems and is included in Windows Server
2003
Service Pack 2 and
Windows XP Service Pack 3. Windows Installer 3.x is not available
for Windows 95, 98,
ME & NT4 systems.
The Windows Installer 3.1 addon has been revised to fix the problem mentioned
in MS
support KB article 898628. Those using Windows Server 2003 should
install SP2 which includes the
latest fixes for
Windows Installer under Windows Server 2003 systems. Windows Installer
4.5 is now
available for Windows
XP SP2/SP3, Server 2003 SP1/SP2, Vista orig./SP1 & Server 2008.
Ver. 4.5 of MSI
is included in Windows
Vista SP2. Windows 7 includes Windows Installer 5.0.
Microsoft XML
(extended markup language) Downloads & Security Updates:
MS XML 3.0 SP12 &
6.0 SP2 KB2719985 Security Updates (32-bit editions only) <MS12-043>
Note: MS XML
3.0 & higher require at least Win98, WinNT4 with SP6, Win2000/ME or
better to use. Win95
users should install
XML 2.6 SP3 instead from MS article 823490. Microsoft XML 6.0 &
beyond cannot
be used under Win9x,
ME & NT4 and requires Win2000 SP4, XP SP1 or higher to use. XML
6.0 is included
in Windows Vista.
There is no standalone MS XML 5.0 download as XML 5.0 is part of MS Office
2003 &
Office 2007 and
updates for MSXML 5.0 will be posted on my Office
& Works Updates page - part 1.
Versions of XML
installed can be determined by reading MS article 269238.
XML 4.0 Service Pack 3 no
longer supports
Win98/ME/NT4 and requires Win2000 SP4 or better to use. Win98/ME/NT4
users can
install the latest
unofficial XML 4.0 SP2 update available.
Notes: These
motherboard chipset drivers are needed when using new kinds of motherboards
under
Win98 SE, 2000,
ME, XP, Vista or Seven or to fix bugs in older kinds of motherboards and
using any
version of Windows.
Software Wavetable
Synthesizer Downloads: (make those sound cards play MIDI files better)
You will need at least
a Pentium MMX 233Mhz CPU with 64Mb of memory to use these synthesizers
(except for Wingroove
which can also be used on some machines less than a 233 Mhz Pentium CPU
but you will need
to make some changes in order for Wingroove to work right on those slow
PCs). The
Yamaha SYG20/SYXG50/SYXG70/SYXG100
softsynths seem to work well on "single core" processors
only and may not
work well or not correctly on "multi core" (aka. dual-core, quad-core,
etc.) processors.
If the Roland VSC-88H3
software doesn't work well on your computer, then you may want to install
the
Roland VSC-88 v2.x
software instead since it puts a less of a load on your computer.
See this page
on a list of MIDI software synthesizers available. You can also check
the following sites
on other software
synths out there online:
http://www.synthzone.com/softsyn.htm http://www.midisite.com/info/synth/Soft.htm Update: I've
recently installed and tested the Edirol/Roland Virtual Sound Canvas VSC-88H3
v3.23 and
Wingroove v0.A4
beta 2 / v0.A5 software synthesizers under Windows Vista and have confirmed
them
to work. However,
you MUST run their setup programs in WinXP SP2 compatibility
mode in order for
them to install
and run successfully under Vista/Win7. Almost NONE of the following
Yamaha S-YXG soft
synths work under
Vista & Win7. The only Yamaha softsynths to work under WinVista
& Win7 are the
embedded S-YXG2006LE
synth included in version 7.x of Yamaha
MidRadio Player and S-YXG50 VSTi
Softsynth Plugin,
which can be found out there on the web. Read the vscvista.txt
file on how to setup Roland
Virtual Sound Canvas
v3.23 under Vista/Win7 and the
wg_vista.txt
file on how to install WinGroove under
Vista/Win7.
! - Warning: Wingroove
versions 0.A4 Beta 2 and earlier do NOT install correctly as a "MIDI Device
Driver"
under Win2000 SP3/SP4
when performing a "clean" installation of Wingroove. To resolve this
problem,
un-install Wingroove
0.A4 or earlier including your Wingroove registration info, reboot &
install the Japanese
edition of Wingroove
0.A5, then reboot & un-install that but without removing your Wingroove
registration info,
reboot and then
re-install Wingroove 0.A4 English under Win2k SP3/SP4. OR you can
just simply remove
all traces of your
previous version of Wingroove (including its reg info) and just install
the Japanese version
of Wingroove 0.A5.
Be sure to write down your registration info before performing a complete
removal of
Wingroove so that
you can re-enter it when installing the latest available version.
If you own a Hercules
Gamesurround MUSE XL, Gamesurround Fortissimo II, GameTheater XP, or any
Labway XWAVE sound
card that bundled S-YXG50 software AND running either Win2000 or WinXP,
you
need to install
version
4.21.07R WDM of S-YXG50. Tips on choosing between the 2Mb &
4Mb wavetable
soundset files for
S-YXG50/S-YXG100 [and a link to the rare SYXG50 v4.01.25 Legacy/WDM JP
(2002)
release] and breaking
the 128 max polyphony limit are posted on my sxgtips.txt
file. If you are using an
ASUS CUSL2 motherboard,
get the following SYXG50 v3.12.n/v3.13.n softsynths for Win9x
and NT4.
Caution: The Yamaha
S-YXG100 softsynth program is NOT compatible with NT-based editions of
Windows
(ex. WinNT, Win2k/XP
& later). The Yamaha S-YXG100+ softsynth can only be used under
Win95/98/ME
systems. There
was another edition of S-YXG100 called "S-YXG100 PVL" [aka. the PolyVL
edition] but
was only available
in Japanese language AND Yamaha never produced an NT-compatible version
of
S-YXG100.
However, to get the full benefits of the S-YXG100 PVL softsynth, you must
be using Win98 or
WinME on at least
an Intel Pentium 3 (600Mhz), AMD Athlon/K7 (700Mhz) processor.
If you have less
than an Intel Pentium 166Mhz machine, you can try out the following synthesizer
softwares:
Casio SW-10 [included
in Casio LANA Lite MIDI program] (version
1.03 for Win9x only)
Roland VSC-55
(Version 1.0
demo for Win95/98/ME only; get version 1.20 update here)
^ *
You will need at least
a Pentium 90Mhz processor with 32Mb of RAM to use these old synthesizers.
Caution: The following
softsynth programs mentioned above are NOT compatible with NT-based
editions of Windows
starting with Windows NT3.x, NT4, 2000/XP and upward.
^ these software
wavetable synthesizers have been discontinued and are no longer being updated
and no
longer
supported by their manufacturers.
~ full edition but
discontinued product
# unofficial Yamaha
XGPlayer v4 update packs now include MidToAudio converter DLL file, however,
the
MidToAudio
(aka. MIDI to Wave) converter loads in XGPlayer v4 only if the Yamaha
WDM softsynth driver
is
installed; for some odd reason, the MidToAudio converter will not show
up in XGPlayer v4.x when
SYXG50
v3.x or SYXG100 v1.x is installed
* since these Yamaha
soft synth versions are demo versions, ask
me on how to "unlock" these trial
versions
and convert them to fully functional versions as I have the registered
files for these Yamaha
soft
synths. For the Roland VSC-55 soft synth, ask me for the full, non-demo
version of this software
before
applying the v1.20 update as the v1.20 update will not work on trial versions
of VSC-55.
Important
note on S-YXG100 PVL: Please use either MS System Information Tool (msinfo32.exe)
or
DirectX
Diagnostic Tool (dxdiag.exe) or even CPU-Z
on your Win9x/ME computer to determine the CPU
type
and speed your computer is using, so I can send you the correct registered
files for S-YXG100 PVL.
$ only version 0.A5
of Wingroove has "partial" XG support for XG-based MIDI files