Today’s Software

• openAviToGif ^[1]: convert moving videos into moving pictures. That is, GIFs.
• LameXP ^[2]: change the codecs of your audio so you can use all your media everywhere
• Ninite ^[3]: install many programs all at once without using many installers

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About Windows Software of the Day

Windows has hundreds of thousands of programs. Because of this great volume and lack of a central store, software discovery (aka finding new and useful programs) is extremely difficult. With our Windows Software of the Day ^[6] initiative, dotTech aims to change that. Everyday we post three programs, allowing our readers to discover new software, daily. Enjoy! [Subscribe to our Windows section to never miss an article: RSS Feed ^[4] | E-mail ^[5]]

Developers: Click here ^[7] to get your apps featured here!

dotTechies: Want to see an app on here? Send us a tip ^[8]!

Software for May 30, 2012

openAviToGif

^[9]What are GIFs? They’re those small little animated pictures that people often have on their websites. They’re short little repetative things and can be anything from how a spring is made ^[10] to catchy clips from a TV show ^[11]. Finding ones on the internet is cool, however, but what if you want to make your own? That’s what openAviToGif can be used for.

openAviToGif is a simple program. You tell it what file(s) to convert into GIFs, a resolution you want the GIFs to be, and you’re pretty much done. It’s not the fastest of programs; converting a 210MB video to a xxMB GIF took approximately an hour. However, this video was pretty long, and you really can’t blame the program: I’ve got a terrible machine and GIFs are notoriously large and difficult.

If you’re in the mood for sharing your favorite video clips with the world in tiny, repeating form, openAviToGif is the program for you.

Note: to use openAviToGif, download and extract its separate codec pack ^[12] to the same folder as the EXE. 

Price: Free!

Version discovered: v0.3

Supported OS: Windows unknown

Download size: 628KB

VirusTotal malware scan results: exectuable 0/42 ^[13] | codecs 0/42 ^[14]

Portability: no installation required!

openAviToGif homepage ^[15]

LameXP

^[16]Need to get your lossless audio files onto your iPod? Want to listen to your music on your open-source only phone? You’ll need to change codecs to do that. Luckily, LameXP can do that for you. It supports a multitude of both input and output codecs, so if you’re looking to convert just about any audio file to some other format, it’ll do the job.

Once you start using LameXP, you’ll notice it has goofy sound effects enabled. I kind of liked them, so I didn’t disable them, but you can easily do that from the Tools menu. You can encode your media into MP3s, Ogg, FLAC, Aften A/52, DCA Enc, Wave, and if you have the correct programs installed, AAC. You can input even more files than that, so it’s useful for getting odd formats into usable formats.

It’s useful especially fo r batch processing. By default, it’ll preserve all media information like Album, Title, art, etc; but if you need to edit it, you can do that too. LameXP is a nice tool for converting your media, especially as it allows you to keep this information.

Price: Free!

Version discovered: v4.04

Supported OS: Windows XP+

Download size: 17.2-17.5MB

VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/39 ^[17]

Portability: No installation required!

LameXP homepage ^[18]

Ninite

^[19]

Want to install a large number of programs at once? Need to find the various programs you had before you reformatted your computer? Ha! Good luck. Each application will be a different site, a different installer, a different number of clicks to deselect adware. Unless you use Ninite, a free web service that lets you download an easy-to-use installer that automatically downloads and installs the selected programs.

Ninite offers web browsers, messaging applications, media programs, runtimes such as Flash and Silverlight, image editing software, document editing software, security software, file sharing software, miscellaneous software, utilities, compression software, and development tools–almost 90 programs in total.

Price: Free with $20/month Pro version

Version discovered: executables show 0.10.496

Supported OS: Windows all

Download size: depends on selection

VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/42 for my test ^[20]

Portability: it’s an installer

Ninite homepage ^[21]

dotTechies: We have tested all the software listed above. However, Windows Software of the Day articles are not intended as “reviews” but rather as “heads-up” to help you discover new programs. Always use your best judgement when downloading programs, such as trying trial/free versions before purchasing shareware programs, if applicable.