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| Note: The following programs are free of spyware and advertising to the best of our knowledge. Some were featured at club meetings. Others have been recommended by members, computer mags or Tech TV. Explore, enjoy, and check back frequently as we are continually updating this list. Advanced Windows Care Personal IOBIT's offering is CNET's number one download for handy system utilities. This app is touted to find and repair system errors thus optimizing performance. Agent
Ransack This tiny download can decipher passwords in dialogue boxes displayed as asterisks. This is handy when you have saved the password in your dialer so long ago you have forgotten what the password is. It will also decode passwords on web pages. (277 KB) This tiny freebie by Chaos Software pings an atomic clock for an accurate time check and resets your PC clock. You can set it to run automatically or check the time manually.
A Microsoft utility for Windows XP that traces the boot process and allows you to speed up your boot time with a one-click optimization tool. (329 KB) Moffsoft Free Calc is a great replacement for the Windows calculator if you miss being able to print a tape or wish you could make the calculator stay on top of your work area. CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization tool that removes unused and temporary files from your system, allowing it to run faster, more efficiently, and giving you more hard disk space. It also cleans the registry.
Clipomatic is a clipboard cache program—it remembers what was copied to the clipboard, even after new data is copied, and allows you to retrieve the old data. While there are many programs that do the same thing, none seem quite as convenient, simple to use, or efficient as Clipomatic. (96 KB) CPU-Z
v.1.4 This handy utility gives you detailed info about your processor, motherboard and memory which you may need if something goes awry with your system. Run it and record the information for future reference. Disable/Remove Windows Messenger This utility will allow you to disable Windows Messenger on per-user basis, or on a machine wide basis. Download the ZIP file and extract MessengerDisable.exe to your hard drive. You can either double click the EXE file, or create a shortcut to it, as you prefer. You can, optionally, use this utility to remove Windows Messenger from your machine. (7 KB zip) Finds duplicate files on your computer and moves them to another folder for review or marks them for deletion (392 kb)
Download Express is recommended by the folks at Tech TV's Screensavers to effectively double download speeds, even broadband. Uses multiple streams for speedier downloads, resumes interrupted sessions where permitted
Create thumbnails for web pages or desktop use with this handy utility. It can scale images up or down with high quality results. (1.167 MB) Quick shut down, closes all unprotected applications An expanded version of Notepad. An easy to use freeware RSS feed recommended by Smart Computing Magazine. It supports the latest RSS/ATOM formats. This is a great alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader for .pdf files. It's small, fast and full featured making it perfect for laptops and desktops alike. Offered by Siber Systems, this is a 2 MB download with lots of options. It synchronizes files by bidirectional copying between folders. You set up profiles, renaming Job1, Job2, etc., to make a meaningful named operation. It will work over a network, PC to/from flash memory (my first use), and other media. Free to non-commercial users, the Pro version requires licensing. Note, the free versions has a restriction of no more than 20,000 files in a 30 day period. This handy utility will save and restore your desktop icon arrangement for every screen resolution and a whole lot more. Ever wish you had an on-screen ruler? Check this one out! This is especially useful when you need to measure anything on your screen. Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger... or not even to install them with Windows ? nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows setup. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you will be able to slipstream a Windows installation cd which doesn't include unwanted components, but does contain service packs and updates. Recover files you thought were lost such as.jpg images with corrupted headers This is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware and benchmarking performance. This tool is updated about once per month in order to provide most accurate results. It can analyze and benchmark CPU performance, Cache performance, RAM performance, Hard Disk performance, CD/DVD-ROM performance, Removable/FLASH Media performance, Video performance, MP3 compression performance and more. Usethis handy app like a printer to create PDF files. This was recommended by one of our members who uses it to save web pages as .pdf files.
This incredible suite of free apps is designed to be loaded on a flash drive for personal computer power you can take anywhere you have access to the use of a computer. Email, browser, Office suite...even antivirus...for computing on the go.
Powerdesk by Vcomm is a file manager on steroids. It's a fast and easy way to manage and organize your files. (1.6 MB) At last, there's an easy way to print directories. Print Directory by Widget Technologies works with XP, too. (1 MB)
Print Screen by Gadwin Technologies allows you to save or print any screen. It's a full featured screen capture program that simplifies the process. 960 KB) Process ExplorerTask Manager on Steroids! Ever wonder which program has a particular file or directory open? This little utility shows you which handles and DLL processes have opened or loaded. It also has a powerful search capability. This handy toolbar is a must add-on for the Windows Task Manager. It allows you instant access to UniBlue's online Process Library where you can obtain information on more than 900 processes. It's a tremendous time saver when ferreting out malware and system hogs. It gives you the information necessary to decide whether a process should stay running or be terminated. Restore files that are deleted from the recycle bin or by using Shift-DEL by mistake. You can also use this utility to delete files completely. Runs from a floppy. Can restore files on flash cards. (193 kb) Sysinternals has created a free utility that unmasks the hidden files placed on our systems by rootkits such as the one by Sony-BMG music. It runs on NT-4 and higher. A new way to look at yourdirectory structure using squarified treemaps and a GREAT way to see what is taking up all the space on your hard drive. Turn your scanner and printer into a handy photocopy machine with this feature-rich French program. This is especially useful if XP doesn’t like the software that came with your scanner. Be sure to change your copy size from the default French setting to paper or legal. (4.2 MB) Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin is an easy to use control panel applet that allows you to configure which programs run when your computer starts. For best control, also use Start Up Monitor. (58 KB) Manage your start-up applications StartupMonitor is a small utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents those utterly useless tray applications from registering themselves behind your back, and it acts as a security tool against trojans like BackOrifice or Netbus. (60 KB zip) This
file syncing utility is for Windows XP machines and is a free
Power Toy from Microsoft. It helps you copy, move, rename, and
delete files between folders and computers. TClockEx enhances the standard Windows taskbar clock, adding the ability to display the date, time and other information in any format you like. TClockEx is highly customizable, from the format to the font and color. USBDeview will detail what is plugged in to your USB ports as well as a history and detailed information on the devices Backup all your Windows drivers with two mouse clicks. Compatible with all versions of Windows. Q: OK, I've saved all my drivers. Now how do I restore them? A : The operating system will either prompt you to install a driver it needs or you will find you need to re-install a driver. In either case the operating system will provide you the option to locate the driver yourself. Select this option and then browse to the location where you backed up the drivers. Once you indicate to the operating system where the driver files are located it will then install the driver files from that backed up location. (2.5 MB) This utility will remove the backups of XP hotfixes consuming space on your harddrives and their entries from Add/Remove programs. Only use this if your system is stable and you know you will not have to uninstall a hotfix. It removes them globally, so if you want to remove selected backups that you no longer need, you must buy a licensed copy for $5.
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Links
to miscellaneous free utilities