Most Popular Downloads of 2007

Toward the end of every year I like to do a rundown of what's been popular over the previous 12 months. This particular list consists of the 15 most downloaded apps from Top Drawer Downloads over the past 12 months. What's interesting is that most of these apps have been in the top 20 every month since the beginning of the year. 13 of the 15 are free. The 2 apps that aren't free, Mixcraft and RM Converter, don't really have a competitive free alternative.

1) RadLight Ogg Media DirectShow Filters enables playback of OGG and OGM video files in Windows Media Player 9, Windows Media Player 10, and Windows Media Player 11. This one became popular thanks to a large number of people from Asia sharing files in the OGM format. [Price: Freeware]

2) MCE Video Encoder streams DivX files to Windows Media Center Extenders by converting the DivX AVI files to WMV on-the-fly. This one will likely be less popular in 2007 thanks to DivX support on the Xbox 360 by way of Media Connect support in Windows Media Player 11. [Price: Freeware]

3) Unlocker overrides the cannot delete file or folder error messages that frequently frustrate Windows users everywhere. If you have a locked file you want to delete, Unlocker can help you delete locked files. [Price: Freeware]

4) RAD Video Tools is one of the easiest ways to convert MOV files to AVI. Since many digital cameras record video in MOV format, this is a useful tool for converting MOV to AVI for editing in apps like Windows Movie Maker. [Price: Freeware]

5) BootSkin is a safe and easy way to change the startup screen in Windows XP. It supports many additional skins from places like WinCustomize.com. [Price: Freeware]

6) VLC Player is among the most useful free media players on the planet. It doesn't play every file, but it plays enough of them that you're less likely to be frustrated with video and audio if you have VLC installed. It's also a convenient tool for extracting video clips from DVDs. [Price: Freeware]

7) Mixcraft is the closest thing Windows users have to Apple's GarageBand. Once version 4 comes out in January, feature parity will be even closer with the addition of MIDI instruments. Mixcraft isn't free, but it's worth every penny. [Price: $49.95]

8) STOIK Video Converter is another great way to convert MOV files to AVI as well as being a utility knife of video conversions for various other reasons. [Price: Freeware]

9) iTube is an easy tool for Windows users to download YouTube videos and convert them for iPod playback. With YouTube remaining the most popular video site on the Web, it makes sense iTube would be among the most popular apps of 2007. [Price: Freeware]

10) Xilisoft RM Converter is among the easiest tools for converting RealMedia RM and RMVB files to any other format. While I wrote about a free solution for converting RMVB sometime ago, Xilisoft RM Converter is a handy tool that simplifies the process and eliminates the frustrating guesswork. [Price: $29.00]

11) GSpot helps find missing codecs when you have trouble playing AVI video files. I personally use MediaInfo more often these days because it has found some file types GSpot could not. [Price: Freeware]

12) VirtualDubMod is a must have video editing tool for working with editing audio files of many types. Based on VirtualDub, this version supports some integration I frequently reference in tutorials. [Price: Freeware]

13) RealAlternative is the most popular alternative to RealPlayer. While I personally find the newest version of RealPlayer to be one of the most useful apps currently available, many people still prefer to avoid anything from Real and sue RealAlternative instead. [Price: Freeware]

14) WinFF is my favorite video conversion app, particularly because of its batch processing support. You'll see it referenced almost anytime I get a question about how to convert one video format to another format. [Price: Freeware]

15) AVISynth is a programming language for video editors that works well in conjunction with VirtualDub and VirtualDubMod. I reference it for things like playing your video clips backward and other tweaks not directly supported in video editing tools like Windows Movie Maker. [Price: Freeware]