Utilities
- Microsoft & Windows ...
- Uninstallers - Uninstall programs
- Help = Support... (Technical support)
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- The five best emergency toolkit apps to have in the field | TechRepublic
- Data Recovery Tools
- MakeUseOf.com - Cool Websites, Software and Internet Tips
- The Gearhead's top 10 Windows tools | Microsoft Windows - InfoWorld#slideshowTop#slideshowTop - 2011-04-30
- PingPlotter
- GoodSync: File Synchronization Software, File Backup, File Sync - $30
- Now available in both 32- and 64-bit versions for Windows and OS X as well as for USB flash drives, GoodSync can synchronize and or backup files on local drives, CIFS shares, FTP servers, WebDAV servers, Secure FTP (SFTP) servers, and Amazon S3 as well as Windows Mobile and Pocket PC devices (does anyone still use Pocket PC?). It can also copy locked files, encrypt files using the Windows Encrypting File System, handle symbolic links by either copying them or "drilling down" so the actual file is copied, copy NTFS Access Control List attributes, and perform line-by-line file comparisons using an external DIFF-like utility (such as WinDIFF ). GoodSync, priced at $29.95, still gets a rating of 5 out of 5.
- RoboForm Password Manager | Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Management - $10
- What RoboForm does is manage your passwords. It integrates with IE and Firefox adding another toolbar from which you can invoke "One-Click" loading and automatic login of Web sites, fill and save Web forms and passwords, and generate real, serious custom passwords.
- Process Explorer - $0
- Process Explorer changed that for the expert users and provides a list of currently active processes and their owning accounts, handles that a selected process has opened; DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded, a process search features that will show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded, process killing, examination, resource usage analysis, system shutdown, replaces the Windows Task Manager, and much more.
- VMware Workstation: Run Multiple OS Including Linux & Windows7, on Virtual Machines
- Making it possible to run, in parallel, pretty much any x86-based operating system in a virtual machine on top of the host operating system. Tons of RAM is a great idea as is having as fast a processor as you can get your sweaty hands on.
- 15 free, must-have Windows downloads - 2010-12-03
- LastPass - Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Management
- VideoLAN - VLC: Free streaming and multimedia solutions for all OS! - simple, Spartan controls, built-in codecs for almost every file type imaginable, and a large and vocal online support community
- Jaangle - tagging and library support
- Process Explorer
- PicPick Support Center - screen capture tool, intuitive image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair and even whiteboard
- Caps Lock annoyance - How to kill CapsLock on your keyboard.
- ProcessLibrary.com - The online resource for process information! - Uniblue's free and comprehensive online Process Library resource is for anyone who immediately wants to know the exact nature and purpose of any and every single process that is - or should not be - running on your PC.
- Answers that Work ($35/yr) The Task List is free and used to draw prospective customers to the paid parts of the site.
- AIDA32 - Sysinfo Tool - See inside your system without opening the box. - Recommended by TechTV - 2003-0327
- Backups ...
- Belarc Advisor - -Free Personal PC Audit
- BillP Studios: WinPatrol
- Boot Disk, Windows/DOS -(thanks to Jameson)
- BootVis.exe Tool - Track Your Boot Process
- Calendars
- Data Recovery
- Decrapifier - The PC Decrapifier - $0
- Download it and run it. No installation necessary.
- Very easy to understand and use.
- Defrag = Defragment your hard disk
- Desktop Engineers Junk Drawer - Handy Odds N Ends for Windows 98, NT & 2000
- Devcon
- DirectX
- DiskState - by Geekcorp
- DLL Library - uniblue.com - ProcessLibrary.com - The online resource for process information!!
- Drive Name Changer for Windows Explorer (NO USER INPUT)
- Drivers
- Duplicates
- Erase ALL Data
- ERUNT - $0 - Registry Backup and Restore for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista
- Using the export feature in regedit is NOT a good way to backup the registry. It's okay for saving a key before you edit, but for the whole registry, it's not the way to go.
- NTREGOPT - $0 - Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista
- File Extension Search Engine
- File Managers - Windows Explorer Replacement - see Disk Utilities
- Format your hard disk using DOS
- Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. ($0)
- getmac.exe /v - To display the physical media access control (MAC) address assigned to a network interface card (NIC) in a local or remote computer.
- IE Booster by Paessler - (US$30)
- Software to extend the context menu of MSIE. Show all forms and applets, page source, hyperlinks, images, style sheets, image information, current frame, resize browser window and more. Free 30 day trial.
- IE Booster 1.5 (old, out of date, free)
- MSIE-9 - IEB will copy Title as (<A href="">Title</a>) but will not copy Title as (<A href="URL">Title</a>). This is a big disappointment. IEB is not being updated at all.
- Possible substitues don't work, for example:
- JAM Software - Windows Freeware - TreeSize
- Karen's Computer Profiler
- LangaList
- LogMeIn
- Mailto ...
- Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic - $14
- Mike Lin's Home Page
- Microsoft
- vlite - for installing a smaller Windows Vista
- Microsoft TechNet: Windows Sysinternals
- MSN Tech & Gadgets - Downloads
- MSConfig -
- Windows XP does have MSCONFIG
- There is no MSCONFIG in Windows 2000? Jim from Snellville, Georgia uses both Win98 and Win2k. How can you control what services startup automatically in Win2K. (There's no MSCONFIG you can run from the command line.) You need to find a small program called Services; there's usually a link to it in the Administrative Tools folder. To disable a service, all you have to do is right-click on it. It'll take a minute or two, but it shouldn't be too hard to set up services to start automatically, manually, or not at all. Have fun!
- ping
- tracert
- pathping
- NewSID - (Computer Security Identifier ) - If a system is cloned the cloned machines will all have identical computer SIDs. It first generates a random SID for the computer, and proceeds to update instances of the existing computer SID it finds in the Registry and in file security descriptors, replacing occurrences with the new SID. NewSID requires administrative privileges to run. It has two functions: changing the SID, and changing the computer name. (= Rename your computer)
- OfficeRecovery Home Page (GOT AN IMPORTANT OFFICE FILE... CORRUPTED? State of the art data recovery software for Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Exchange files! FREE demos.)
- One Click App Killer (Windows), from Stylet Software - Free Downloads on ZDNet
- With this very small utility you can kill your frozen programs with one click. For example when you double-click on a program's icon, the target-like cursor will show-up. Then, on the next program you click, it will be terminated.
- Stylet software
- The PC Decrapifier
- PC Hell: Computer Hints and Tips to bring you back from the edge
- PC Magazine - Utility Downloads
- PC Pitstop Tune-up your PC with this free Internet utility
- PC World - Downloads, Freeware & Trialware; Utilities, Spyware, Antivirus & Pricing From PC World
- PDF
- PowerToys for Windows XP- Microsoft
- Process Explorer v11.03 - Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
- ProcessLibrary.com - The online resource for process information! - Uniblue's free and comprehensive online Process Library resource is for anyone who immediately wants to know the exact nature and purpose of any and every single process that is - or should not be - running on your PC.
- RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys that are stored in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that contain erroneous values, and after recording those entries in an Undo.reg file, it removes them from the Windows Registry.
- reger24.de - This is the XP System Configuration Utility, which displays the identity of each and every bit of software running in the background and permits one to click a check box to switch any of them on or off. These are snippets of code that range from printer drivers to movie players that get loaded into memory in ever-increasing numbers as more and more software is added to a computer. Reger's site includes lists of just about every process under the sun, and each is clickable to find detailed explanations that help one decide whether to keep it running or click it into oblivion.
- Remote Control Software
- Rename - Bulk Rename Utility
- Search your drives
- Locate32 - $0 = Freeware - to find files from your harddrives and other locations. - Incredibly fast!!!
- To locate content *in* files, I use Google Desktop, though there are other solutions for that as well.
- Windows Search - SearchIndexer.exe and WindowsSearch.exe - These programs take up a lot of the CPU time and Memory. They will regularly cause your system to seem to freeze while updating their search databases. Windows really REALLY slows down. Uninstall these programs and try the free program Locate32.
- SiSoftware Zone - SANDRA = System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant ($0)
- SHELL EXTENSION CITY - more than 2,000 ways to customize Windows- One thing to note: Shell Extension City doesn't test every program. Make sure you understand what you're getting yourself into before you do any hacking.
- SpeedUpMyPc - see UniBlue
- Startup
- SyncToy: a free powertoy download for file synchronization
- Sysinternals - Microsoft TechNet: Windows Sysinternals
- System Explorer (Windows) - Free Downloads on ZDNet
- Great! Highly Recommended!!!
- This full-featured system analyzing tool lets you take a peek at everything that's going on in your system.
- SystemExplorer Homepage
- Task List Programs - AnswersThatWork's famous Database of Processes, Startups & Services
- TreeSize - details
- TreeSize Professional - US$40 - Trial 21 days - Will also scan network drives.
- Troubleshooters - for W2k, by MS
- TweakNow PowerPack 2009 1.4.2000 (Windows), from Tweak Now - Free Downloads on ZDNet | Shareware, Trialware, Evaluation Software
- The registry is a special file in your hard disk that hold most of Windows settings data. Wish to improve your Internet speed or display message at Windows log-on? No problem, those tasks can easily be done by simply editing the registry value. Unfortunately, registry is not a friendly place for most people. Changing a wrong value in the registry may cause an unpredictable problem to your Windows. This is why novice users should not edit registry value directly using a registry editor by them self. In TweakNow WinSecret, we have gathered the most popular Windows XP/Vista registry settings and provide them for you in an easy and safe user interface.
- Tweak UI PowerToy is on your Windows 98 installation CD, in the tools\reskit\powertoy folder. To install it, right-click tweakui.inf and select Install. To open Tweak UI, double-click its icon inside the Control Panel. Later editions of Windows 98 did not include the utility.
- Do you wish that Windows' focus would follow your mouse pointer so that, for example, moving your mouse over a window automatically placed the focus on that window? Open Tweak UI and, on the Mouse tab, select Activation Follows Mouse (X-Mouse). Click Apply or OK, then move your mouse pointer around the screen.
- Tip: If you want your mouse pointer to select the window it's over AND move it to the top of the open window pile, select Tweak UI's General tab and select Auto-Raise under Effects.)
- http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe
- Tweak MCE PowerToy
- Uniblue > Software Utilities Made Easy`Uniblue > Software Utilities Made Easy
- Uninstall programs / Remove programs
- MyUninstaller: Alternative to the standard Windows Add / Remove module - $0
- Take an inventory of what's installed so you'll know what to reinstall when you have your Windows 7 machine up and running. A quick way to do this is with NirSoft's MyUninstaller, a freeware utility which lets you dump out a complete list of all formally installed applications to a text, XML or HTML file. This gives you a manifest to follow when you want to reinstall what's needed. If you can't remember product keys for Office and the like, the same fellow's also written a tool to dump product keys for many common MS applications.
- The MyUninstaller utility is a standalone executable. It doesn't require any installation process or additional DLL's. Just copy the executable file to any folder you want, and run it.
After your run it, MyUninstaller loads the list of the installed applications from the Registry, and gathers information about each installation item. The loading and analyzing process might take between 5 and 15 seconds and even more, depending on your hardware, operating system, and the quantity of the installed application on your computer.
- After the analyzing process is finished, MyUninstaller displays the details of all installed applications on your computer. Be aware that some columns, like version, product name, company and others, are displayed for most installed applications, but not for all of them. In rare cases, It's also possible that wrong information about an installed application will be displayed.
- Aurelitec, Inc. - Uninstall Programs in Windows - $
- Windows FAQ ...
- Symantec/Norton products ...
- Spyware ...
- Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Uninstall, Remove Programs, Solve uninstalling problems
- Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download - Uninstall software, remove programs, solve uninstall problems
- Security ...
- Delete Files
Annoying Error Messages
- Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
- After you have done a fresh install of Windows Vista or Windows 7, you might encounter the “you don’t currently have permission to access this folder” warning, meaning you’ve lost your folder access privileges. Most frequently, this happens when you try to access a folder on a partition other than the current Windows partition, and that folder retained the permissions/user privileges from the previous Windows install.
- Solutions
- Problem caused by Unlocker
- "Not enough server storage is available to process this command"
- On the computer you are attempting to connect to, Set the IRPStackSize
back to the default (15). Perform the following steps:
- 1. Start regedit.
2. Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\lanmanserver\parameters.
3. Double-click IRPStackSize (or if this registry setting doesn't
exist, create it with type DWORD and ensure the case is correct).
4. Change the base to decimal, set the value to 15, and click OK.
5. Reboot the computer
- vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool
- IT Business - Free tool compresses Windows Vista from 15GB to 1.5GB
- WCPUID - is a program that displays detailed information about your CPU. it shows Frequency, Multiplier, Chipset Info, Cache information, System info and a lot more. it also includes several tweaks (if available for your chip) like disabling the Intel processor serial Number, Cache latency, AMD Athlon Level 2 cache speed settings and others. In addition, WCPUID includes a real-time CPU speed clocking gauge. H.Oda!'s Home Page
- Webtree.ca
- Western Digital
- Software Library
What's the easiest way to transfer data from his old drive and make the new drive the primary drive?
Western Digital has a utility called Data Lifeguard Tools that you can download for the company's website, http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp. Install the utility on a floppy, and then install the second hard drive as a slave on your IDE chain. Boot from the floppy, and then you can use the utility to copy your data, as well as other hard drive management functions, such as partitioning, formatting, and diagnostics.
- WinBatch: Macro Scripting Total Windows Automation of System, Networking, and Software Applications. (US$105)
- Windows Explorer
- Replace Windows Explorer - Disk Utilities
- Folder Size column in Windows Explorer
- Folder Size for Windows Explorer - $0 - Very good for XP-32, XP-64, but will not work with Vista or Windows-7 - However, I can recommend it for XP.
- MC FolderSize Download - $0 - Highly recommended by C-net sourceforge - but will not work with Vista - I can't recommend it.
- I can't find a good way to get the "Folder Size" column in Windows Explorer for Vista 64-bit.
- Directory Opus - $$
- WinDrivers.com (printer drivers, cdrom drivers, modem drivers, sound drivers, mouse drivers, monitor drivers, etc.)
- WinPatrol - $0 - Recommended by PCWorld
- WinPatrol Non-PLUS Info Page - $0
- WinPatrol : Compare Versions- $30 - Recommended by PCWorld
- NO Additional Licenses required - You become the PLUS member, not your computer. You're welcome and encouraged to install WinPatrol and activate PLUS on any machine you or your immediate family use. We think it's criminal when software companies make us purchase licenses for both your desktop machine and your laptop.
- WinUtilities - see YL Software - 30-day trial or purchase $40
- Wipe your disk
- Wise Registry Cleaner (Windows), from WiseCleaner - Free Downloads on ZDNet
- Xteq Systems (free) ZDTV highly recommends (20000727) X-Setup. ZDTV says it is better than MS's TweakUI.
- YL Software
- ZDNet: Reviews
- ZIP
- 7-Zip - ZIP file archives - $0