If you are using these plugins in something other than Photoshop, please let me know since I have people ask me at times if they'll work in this-or-that. Also, if you've had to do some tweaking to get them to work, I'd like to know that, too. What I'll do is compile a list here so others can benefit from it. Thanks for your input.
GIMP, which is a GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. To make them work, the user just has to be sure to set the "photoshop plugin settings" option under "Xtns", and to convert the plugins with plugin commander.
IrfanVIew - an extremely popular, and free program
You have to select File>Preferences>Long Menus, then work with files using the "On Your Own" button. Plug-in filters are available, not on the easy-to-reach PhotoDeluxe Modify > Effects tab, but on the harder-to-select Effects menu along the very top. Also, installing a demo copy of Photoshop full version has been shown to help.
The filters all work provided the Adobe plugin.dll and/or MSVCRT10.DLL files are present.
Will accept Filter Factory plugins.
Most plugins will work, although it does seem that versions before 7.0 no plugins will work. For version 7, it has been said you need both MSVCRT10.DLL and MSVCRT.DLL loaded in both the Windows and Windows/System directories.
Will accept filter factory plugins but in the Xtras menu. Freehand comes with 30 or so Xtras plus with a stack of additional Xtras and Options plus it accepts all Adobe plugins.
Most plugins will work.
All you have to do is copy the .8bf file to the Xtras directory. Then choose a cast member and go to the Xtras menu and hit Filter Bitmap. A list of all the installed PS plugins will show up.
Since there is a large number of Plug-Ins available here, Painter 4.0 seems to load as many as it can depending on the amount of RAM available.