Free Software List for Vista

Brink · May 27, 2007

FREE Great Programs for Vista

Information

These are completely FREE programs for both the 32 bit and 64 bit Vista versions. I have tested all of these programs below without any problems. The list is in alphabetical order using the program's name.

I will add more as I run across them, so be sure to check the list every so often.

Here's the Ever Growing List:

AbiWord -

AbiWord is a free multi-platform word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.

Active ISO Burner -

Active ISO Burner is a application that will allow you to burn an ISO image file to CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, CD-RW, DVD-RW, DL DVD+RW, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

abcAVI Tag Editor -

abcAVI Tag Editor is little stand alone utility for viewing/editing tags in AVI files. In short it allows you to get information on movie from Internet Movie Database or type it by yourself and save that info inside AVI file. Supports RIFF INFO tags, MovieID tags, IDivX tags. Allows editing more than 40 tags, not only "Title", "Subject" and "Copyright". Support of RIFF INFO tags ensures backward compatibility with standard Windows players like MS Media Player.

Absolute Uninstaller -

Absolute Uninstaller is similar to standard Windows Add/Remove program but more powerful. The standard Add/Remove program can't uninstall applications completely which often leaves broken registry keys, unnecessary files on the hard disk. The more junk files your computer have, the slower it runs. Uninstall Manager can wipe off all the junk files clearly in seconds. It offers a more user-friendly way to remove unneeded applications and to improve your computer efficiency.

Ad-Aware Free -

A great adware and spyware removal program.

Adobe Flash Player -

NOTE: See also: how to remove Flash Evercookies and regain control of your webcam in Linux and Windows | Programming Web Site DataBases

A browser add-on that allows you to watch videos online in your web browser.

Adobe Reader -

A PDF file viewer that also installs a add-on for your web browser.

Adobe Shockwave Player -

NOTE: For more information on this, see the FAQ's page.

The Shockwave Player is a web browser add-on that allows you to view interactive web content like games, business presentations, entertainment, and advertisements from your web browser.

Advanced Renamer -

Advanced Renamer is a free batch rename program for renaming multiple files and folders at once. By configuring renaming methods the names can be manipulated in various ways.

Agent Ransack -

Agent Ransack is a free tool for finding files and information on your hard drive fast and efficiently. When searching the contents of files Agent Ransack displays the text found so you can quickly browse the results without having to separately open each file.

alltoavi -

This is a tool to convert especially ogm and mkv files to avi, with subtitle and audio track selection, video resizing, bitrate selection and codec selection. It is centered around mencoder, with a commandline tool as well as a GUI for Windows.

AM-DeadLink -

AM-DeadLink detects dead links and duplicates in IE/FF/Opera/Chrome browsers bookmarks and text files. If a bookmark has become unavailable you can verify and delete it permanently. Additionally you can download FavIcons for all your Favorites and Bookmarks.

AnVir Task Manager Free -

A replacement for the Windows 7 Task Manager that provides more detailed information about the processes running on your PC with an advanced startup manager.

Any Video Converter Free -

Any Video Converter Free is an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It allows you to effortlessly convert video files between every format! This free version supports DVD NTSC, DVD PAL, MPEG-I, MPEG-II, MPEG-4 and Flash FLV video profiles.

AOMEI Backupper -

AOMEI free backup software provides basic and advanced features to ensure the safety of your system and data.

System Backup: One-click back up all data of system drive, including system files and installed applications, without interrupting work.
Disk Backup: Backup your hard disk drives, including MBR disk, GPT disk, external hard drive, USB disk and other storage devices that can be recognized by Windows.
Partition Backup: If you just want to backup a partition or dynamic volume, not the entire disk, the feature will be your best choice. With it, you can backup one or multiple partitions/dynamic volumes (including dynamic system volume) to an image file.
Schedule Backup: Set up a schedule to automatically backup your system and data, especially for users who want to create backups at a lesser frequency or have multiple backup schedules (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly).

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard -

Disk & partition manager to control your hard drives and partitions. The OS migration wizard empowers you to migrate OS to another hard disk including SSD and HDD without reinstalling OS and applications. Creating bootable CD allows you to manage your hard disk even the Windows OS is out of reach or system is unable to boot.

A-Patch -

To customize all versions of Windows Live Messenger. 71+ features.

A-Squared Free -

This program helps to remove infections of Trojans, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Keyloggers, Rootkits, Dialers and other malicious programs.

ASTRA32 -

NOTE: You have your choice of just a stand alone or installing program.

ASTRA32 (Advanced Sysinf Tool & Reporting Assistant) performs computer configuration analysis and provides detailed information on your computer hardware and its working modes. This is an alternative to Vista's System Information.

Atomic Alarm Clock -

Atomic Alarm Clock is also an atomic-time synchrosnizer and advanced replacement for Windows tray clock. See the time, seconds, day, date, countdowns, percent of memory in use and system UpTime in different skins. Displays the time for any of the time zones. Over 130 skins are included in the distribution.This program includes multilingual interface support. This computer alarm clock is built into your personal PC and completely customizable.

Attack Surface Analyzer -

Attack Surface Analyzer takes a snapshot of your system state before and after the installation of product(s) and displays the changes to a number of key elements of the Windows attack surface.

Attribute Changer -

Attribute Changer is a power user tool to change all kind of file and folder attributes, date, time and even NTFS compression. Exif date and time information stored in digital images are easily altered with Attribute Changer. Basic features include changing file and folder attributes within en masse. More advanced features include relative and partial date/time stamp modifications. Realtime monitoring and reporting is also available. File and folder filters are available to include/exclude filesystem objects based on various criteria.

Audacity -

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder. You can use Audacity to:

Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more! See the complete list of features

Auslogics Disk Defrag -

Defrags your hard drive. It has a progress graph so you can see what is going on. Also gives you a full detail report with a percentage of performace increase.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner -

WARNING: As with all registry cleaning programs, you should verify the scan results before just simply deleting them.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner will scan your computer for registry errors and problems, and fix the Registry, increasing PC performance and stability.

AutoRuns -

NOTE: You will need to right click on the autoruns.exe file and click Run as administrator for the program to run properly.

This utility shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys. You can configure Autoruns to show other locations, including Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, and much more. Autoruns goes way beyond MSConfig.

AutoSizer -

AutoSizer automatically resizes programs for you, keeping them at a specific size or keeping them maximized. One popular use is to keep Internet Explorer maximized when you go on the web. It works with most software programs, and supports maximizing to specific monitors on multi-monitor computers. Use the handy Always On Top system tray menu to quickly position specific programs above all others.

Avast Free Antivirus -

NOTE: You must register this program even though it's free. The registration will be good for a year. After that, you must re-register. It is still completely free though.

A great antivirus program that auto updates the definitions and optionally the program itself. Has a VRDB (Virus Recovery Database) that you set to help in recovering from a virus if infected. It also includes anti-spyware and anti-rootkit protections. Full of other features.

AVG Antivirus -

NOTE: Do a custom install and do not install the email scanning option. Otherwise it can corrupt Windows Mail.

Another great antivirus program that auto updates.

AxCrypt -

A free open source file encryption program.

Batchrun -

Batchrun is a nice little software to help making batch files easier.

Belarc Advisor -

Builds a very detailed profile of your hardware and software with serial numbers and product key numbers. Very informative.

BgInfo -

If you like informative wallpaper, BGInfo's the program for you. It replaces the normal wallpaper on the system with a complete summary of the computer's hardware, memory, operating system, network, and drives.

BIMP Lite -

BIMP Lite is a small and simple batch processor for image files, that allows you to perform various functions on multiple images. It can be used to create thumbnail images from your pictures, add a prefix/postfix (with meta variables), rename using a sequential number, change the case of filenames, replace/remove spaces & underscores, flip or rotate images and also apply anti-aliasing, inverse, greyscale and bevel effects. The thumbnail resizing allows you to force a specified width or height and keep the proportions, or define fixed image dimensions. Images can have text overlayed on them at any corner or side, as well as the center of the image. This text can include meta variables such as image height, width, number of colours etc. In addition, the program can also convert the file format to GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, MIFF, TIFF, PCX or TGA. All of the actions can be performed individually, or combined. BIMP now also includes an FTP client, so you can automatically output images to a remote server via the File Transfer Protocol.

BitKinex -

BitKinex is a handy network client supporting multiple transfer protocols (FTP, FTP(S), SFTP, HTTP(S) and WebDAV). In contrast to other clients BitKinex uses multiple connections not only for file transfers but for browsing remote directories as well.

BitPim -

BitPim is a program that allows you to view and manipulate data on many CDMA (Code division multiple access) phones from LG, Samsung, Sanyo and other manufacturers. This includes the PhoneBook, Calendar, WallPapers, RingTones (functionality varies by phone) and the Filesystem for most Qualcomm CDMA chipset based phones. To see when phones will be supported, which ones are already supported and which features are supported, see online help.

BitTorrent -

BitTorrent is a free torrent client program used for file sharing.

Blender -

Blender is a free open source 3D content creation suite.

BootSkin -

NOTE: See the tutorial on this also. The free version will not let you create your own bootskin, but instead only let you use a downloaded bootskin to use as your boot screen.

Stardock BootSkin Vista is a program that allows users to change their Windows Vista boot screens.

BlueScreenView -

BlueScreenView scans all your minidump files created during 'blue screen of death' crashes, and displays the information about all crashes in one table. For each crash, BlueScreenView displays the minidump filename, the date/time of the crash, the basic crash information displayed in the blue screen (Bug Check Code and 4 parameters), and the details of the driver or module that possibly caused the crash (filename, product name, file description, and file version). For each crash displayed in the upper pane, you can view the details of the device drivers loaded during the crash in the lower pane. BlueScreenView also mark the drivers that their addresses found in the crash stack, so you can easily locate the suspected drivers that possibly caused the crash.

Bulk Rename Utility -

NOTE: Be sure to download the correct 32 bit or 64 bit version for your version of Vista. To see all the features, see: Features - Bulk Rename Utility

Bulk Rename Utility is a simple utility which allows you to rename multiple files and folders, based upon flexible criteria. For example, you can add a prefix or suffix to a file, or you can change three letters with four other letters in a filename. There are lots of ways to manipulate file and folder names.

Carroll -

You can use the program Carroll to set a different screen resolution for every user on the computer. After logon the screen resolution will be changed to the stored setting.

CCEnhancer -

CCEnhancer is a small tool which adds support for over 270 new programs into the popular program CCleaner. The tool uses the WinApp2.ini system built into CCleaner to easily add new rules and definitions for programs.

CCleaner -

Cleans junk and temp files for Vista and most other programs. It is also a registry cleaner, cookie manager, program uninstall manager, and a startup program manager. A all in one utility program basically.

ClipMagic -

ClipMagic is an information manager which provides extended clipboard capabilities to save all clips for later use. A major shortfall in Vista is that the clipboard can only store one item at a time, each new item deleting the last. This free clipboard program stores clips in a convenient categorized format with information; about the window the clip came from, the URL if it came from a web page and the time and type of clip.

Cobian Backup -

Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload).
Cobian Backup exists in two different versions: application and service. The program uses very few resources and can be running on the background on your system, checking your backup schedule and executing your backups when necessary. Cobian Backup is not an usual backup application: it only copies your files and folders in original or compressed mode to other destination, creating a security copy as a result. So Cobian Backup can be better described as a "Scheduler for security copies".
Cobian Backup supports several methods of compression and strong encryption.

Comodo Firewall -

Comodo Firewall is one of the best free ones that you can use.

Easily understood and informative alerts
No complex configuration issues—perfect for amateur users
Lots of configuration options let techies configure things just as they like
DDP-based security keeps you informed and PCs safe
Quickly learns user behavior to deliver personalized protection
User-friendly, attractive graphical interface

Comodo Registry Cleaner -

A registry cleaner program that helps you repair and optimize the registry.

Core Temp -

Core Temp is a compact, no fuss, small footprint program to monitor CPU temperature. It shows the temperature of each individual core in each processor in your system. You can see in real time how the CPU temperature varies when you load your CPU. It's also completely motherboard independent.

CPU Speed -

CPU Speed measures the REAL speed of your Intel or AMD central processing unit (CPU).

CPU-Z -

NOTE: Click on the version number towards the bottom to download. This is a standalone EXE program.

CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers and displays information for you on some of the main devices of your system. EX: CPU, Mainboard, Memory, and System. See the link for full details on what is does.

Darik's Boot and Nuke -

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

DAZ Studio 3 Free -

DAZ Studio is a free, feature rich 3D figure design and 3D animation tool that enables anyone to create stunning digital imagery. This is the perfect tool to design unique digital art and animation using virtual people, animals, props, vehicles, accessories, environments and more. Simply select your subject and/or setting, arrange accessories, setup lighting, and begin creating beautiful artwork.

D-Color XP -

NOTE: This program was made for XP, but I have not experienced any problems with it yet.

D-Color allows you to change the appearance of the desktop icon text foreground and background colors. It also allows you to change the view of your desktop icons from Large, Small, and Tile view icons.

Default Programs Editor -

Default Programs Editor is a powerful file association utility for Windows. It is a context menu editor, an autoplay editor, and default programs association editor; essentially, the settings in the "Default Programs" Control Panel page. It's a replacement for the "File Types" dialog in Windows XP, and brings some key features of TweakUI to Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Defraggler -

Piriform, the makers of CCleaner, Defraggler differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to only process the whole drive unless you want to. Simply run it, select the file defragment in seconds. You can also set Defraggler to run on a schedule.

DeskPins -

DeskPins can be used to make any application topmost, that is, to keep it above all other windows. Just grab a pin from the DeskPins icon in the system notification area (a.k.a. taskbar tray) and click on any window. This functionality is identical to the "Always on Top" setting found in some programs. With DeskPins you can add this feature to any program!

DeskSave -

In Windows, when screen resolution changes, the order of the desktop icons very often gets mixed up. With DeskSave you can easily recover a previously saved icon layout either manually or automatically.

DeskScapes -

NOTE: See this tutorial: How to Enhance Windows Vista DreamScene with Stardock DeskScapes

Stardock DeskScapes extends Windows DreamScene with the ability to run .Dream animated wallpapers. .Dream files can be looped video, or dynamically generated in 3D, or change based on a set of triggers. DeskScapes turns Windows DreamScene into something more. DeskScapes can only be used with Vista Ultimate.

DesktopINIFix -

Desktop.ini a text file that allows you to specify how a file system folder will be viewed (ex: icon). DesktopINIFix is a small utility that fixes the desktop.ini file for various shell folders in Windows Vista.

DesktopOK -

Save and restore the positions of icons for each screen resolution. Each user can then have their own arrangement.

Desktops -

Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops. Read email on one, browse the web on the second, and do work in your productivity software on the third, without the clutter of the windows you’re not using. After you configure hotkeys for switching desktops, you can create and switch desktops either by clicking on the tray icon to open a desktop preview and switching window, or by using the hotkeys.

Digsby -

Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list.

DiskDigger -

DiskDigger can recover files from any type of media that your computer can read. This includes USB flash drives, memory cards (SD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, etc), and of course your hard drive. The types of files that it recovers include photos, videos, music, documents, and many other formats. DiskDigger can even scan reformatted or badly formatted disks (disks to which Windows can’t assign a drive letter), and even disks with bad sectors. It bypasses the Windows file system drivers and scans your disk directly. It has its own built-in support for the following file systems: FAT12 (floppy disks), FAT16 (older memory cards), FAT32 (newer memory cards and hard disks), NTFS (newer hard disks), and exFAT (Microsoft’s new successor to FAT32).

Disk2vhd -

Disk2vhd is a "Windows Sysinternals" utility program that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).

DisplayFusion -

DisplayFusion will make your dual monitor (or triple monitor or more) experience smooth and painless advanced multi-monitor wallpaper support, Flickr integration for image searching, and fully customizable window management hotkeys are just a sample of the many things DisplayFusion can do.

Ditto -

Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats, .....

DNS Benchmark -

DNS (Domain Name Speed) Benchmark is a utility to determine the exact performance of local and remote DNS nameservers.

DreamMaker -

Stardock DreamMaker allows you to create your own animated .dream wallpapers for DreamScapes. DreamMaker is a free utility for Windows Vista Ultimate only.

Drive Backup Express -

This simple easy to use software backs up your hard drive when and where you tell it, and recovers whenever you need to.

DriverView -

DriverView utility displays the list of all device drivers currently loaded on your system. For each driver in the list, additional useful information is displayed: load address of the driver, description, version, product name, company that created the driver, and more.

Duplicate Picture Finder -

Duplicate Picture Finder scans any given set of folders and attempts to locate duplicate images for you. But what makes this tool different from all the others out there, is that it does exactly what you would do - it uses visual comparison to determine whether images are the same, enabling it to locate images that different sizes but are visually identical.

DVD Flick -

DVD Flick is a multithreaded free GPL open-source DVD Authoring tool for making dvd's from avi, mpg, mkv etc. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation.

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition -

NOTE: Only free for the 32-bit Vista.

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition is a FREE disk partitioning utility for extending system partition, better disk space management, settling low disk space problem.

EasyBCD -

NOTE: Only the "Older Versions" of EasyBCD on the right side are still free.

EasyBCD, by NeoSmart Technologies, is used to tweak the Windows Vista bootloader. You can use it to setup and configure Windows boot entries, and to quickly boot right into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Windows Vista bootloader. You can also add an entry to your old XP partition or create a duplicate for testing purposes, debug the Windows Kernel, or setup multi-booting to have mulitple operating systems.

Easy File Locker -

Easy File Locker is a light-weight and easy-to-use file lock software product for Windows. You can hide your private files and folders, to make them completely invisible to users and programs. Once you set a password, no one can launch the application or uninstall the software without the correct password. The locked files/folders are protected from accessing, users can not open, read, modify, move, delete, copy, rename the protected files/folders. Files and sub-folders in a locked folder are also protected.

Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET)

The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) is designed to help prevent hackers from gaining access to your system.

Software vulnerabilities and exploits have become an everyday part of life. Virtually every product has to deal with them and consequently, users are faced with a stream of security updates. For users who get attacked before the latest updates have been applied or who get attacked before an update is even available, the results can be devastating: malware, loss of PII, etc.

Security mitigation technologies are designed to make it more difficult for an attacker to exploit vulnerabilities in a given piece of software. EMET allows users to manage these technologies on their system and provides several unique benefits:

1. No source code needed: Until now, several of the available mitigations (such as Data Execution Prevention) have required for an application to be manually opted in and recompiled. EMET changes this by allowing a user to opt in applications without recompilation. This is especially handy for deploying mitigations on software that was written before the mitigations were available and when source code is not available.

2. Highly configurable: EMET provides a higher degree of granularity by allowing mitigations to be individually applied on a per process basis. There is no need to enable an entire product or suite of applications. This is helpful in situations where a process is not compatible with a particular mitigation technology. When that happens, a user can simply turn that mitigation off for that process.

3. Helps harden legacy applications: It’s not uncommon to have a hard dependency on old legacy software that cannot easily be rewritten and needs to be phased out slowly. Unfortunately, this can easily pose a security risk as legacy software is notorious for having security vulnerabilities. While the real solution to this is migrating away from the legacy software, EMET can help manage the risk while this is occurring by making it harder to hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the legacy software.

4. Ease of use: The policy for system wide mitigations can be seen and configured with EMET's graphical user interface. There is no need to locate up and decipher registry keys or run platform dependent utilities. With EMET you can adjust setting with a single consistent interface regardless of the underlying platform.

5. Ongoing improvement: EMET is a living tool designed to be updated as new mitigation technologies become available. This provides a chance for users to try out and benefit from cutting edge mitigations. The release cycle for EMET is also not tied to any product. EMET updates can be made dynamically as soon as new mitigations are ready

The toolkit includes several pseudo mitigation technologies aimed at disrupting current exploit techniques. These pseudo mitigations are not robust enough to stop future exploit techniques, but can help prevent users from being compromised by many of the exploits currently in use. The mitigations are also designed so that they can be easily updated as attackers start using new exploit techniques.

Eraser -

Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.

Everything -

Everything is a search engine program used to locate files and folders by name instantly on your computer.

EvJO Wallpaper Changer -

"EvJO Wallpaper Changer" is a wallpaper manager that can change your background images at every startup, once a day or at regular time intervals. It features JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP support. This program consists of several options, including an ability to change your images in random order.

Executor -

This is a multi purpose launcher and a more advanced and customizable version of Windows run.

Explorer++ -

Explorer++ is a free multi-tab file manager for Windows. It features the same familiar interface as Windows Explorer, while introducing several enhancements and improvements for a much richer file browsing experience.

With the option to save to the registry or a configuration file, Explorer++ is completely portable.
Tabbed browsing for easy management of multiple folders.
Display window shows previews of files as they are selected.
Easy-to-remember keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation.
Customizable user interface.
Full drag-and-drop support with other applications, including Windows Explorer.
Advanced file operations such as merging and splitting supported.

Extension Manager -

NOTE: This program was written by one of our members Mr.Thunderbird.

This tool makes it very easy to manage extensions' icons, and even descriptions with a few clicks. It also has functions like changing drive icons, changing OEM logo and info, and registration information.

ExtractNow -

ExtractNow is a simple utility that allows you to extract multiple archives quickly and easily. ExtractNow is not a complete archival solution. It's main purpose it to allow the user to extract multiple archives easily.

Fast Explorer -

This handy utility allows you to manage context menus items of file objects displayed in a file manager like Windows Explorer or any other application that deals with shell's application programming interface. It's a very simple way to make your often used file actions quickly accessible.

FastStone Capture -

FastStone Capture allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle regions, freehand-selected regions and scrolling windows/web-pages. It has features such as floating Capture Panel, hotkeys, text annotation, resizing, printing, cropping, emailing and many more.

FavIconizer -

FavIconizer will scan all links you have in your C:\Users\(user name)\Favorites folder and check if the website has a FavIcon. If it has one, FavIconizer will download that icon and adjust the link in the Favorites folder to use that Favicon.
After FavIconizer is finished, you have all the FavIcons back in your favorites instead of the standard web "e" icon.

FileASSASSIN -

Malwarebytes FileASSASSIN can eradicate any type of locked files from your computer. If you use a computer, you’ve probably come across at least one of the following messages:

Cannot delete file: Access is denied.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.

FileBox eXtender -

FileBox enhances Windows by adding several advanced functions to the standard Open File and Save File dialog boxes. (Note that if a program uses its own "private" dialog boxes for these functions, you won't see the FileBox buttons.)

FileMenu Tools -

This program by LopeSoft lets you customize the right click context menu of Windows Explorer. It configures the following aspects:

Add some build-in utilities in order to do operations over files and folders.
Add customized commands which let run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder or delete specific file types.
Configure the "Send to..." submenu.
Enable/disable the commands which are added by other applications to the context menu.

FileNote -

FileNote is a little shell extension that will allow you to add textual descriptions to your files. It adds one command to the shell context menu of a file object. This command lets you easily edit or create a text file that has the same name as the initial file, but with the extension TXT.

FileTypesMan -

NOTE: This is a standalone EXE file, and does not install. Be sure to download the correct version for your 32 bit or 64 bit Vista.

FileTypesMan is an alternative to the File Types tab in the Folder Options of Windows XP. It displays the list of all file extensions and types registered on your computer. For each file type, the following information is displayed: Type Name, Description, MIME Type, Perceived Type, In New Menu, Excluded, Flags, Browser Flags, Default Icon, and more. FileTypesMan also allows you to easily edit the properties and flags of each file type, as well as it allows you to add, edit, and remove actions in a file type.

FileZilla -

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

Firefox -

This is an alternative web browser other than Internet Explorer.

FlashGet -

FlashGet is a download manager that uses a MHT (Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols and has document management features.

Flash Movie Player -

Flash Movie Player is a free stand-alone player for ShockWave Flash (SWF) animations, based on the Macromedia Flash Player plugin. In addition to all Macromedia Flash Player abilities, it has some extended features, such as animation rewinding, advanced full screen mode, playlists, browser cache integration and exe projectors support.

f.lux -

f.lux makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

Folder2ISO -

Folder2Iso just creates an iso from any kind of folder (with the subfolders).

Folder Axe -

Folder Axe helps you split up your folders into multiple smaller ones.

Folder Size -

Folder Size will analyze your hard drives and display the file and folder sizes so that you can easily check the distribution of your disk space. The application will display the sizes of the folders and files and also the percentage of the total disk size that they occupy. The neat report can be sorted in order to identify the largest folders and the largest files. You can easily figure out which files or folders have filled up your drive space as Folder Size will also scan the sizes of all the subfolders. The application can scan your entire hard drive in minutes due to its optimized scan algorithms. The progressive scan will let you continue the scan from the point of interruption. Besides scanning an entire hard drive Folder Size can also scan a single folder in order to save time.

Format Factory -

Format Factory is a multifunctional media converter.
Provides functions below:
All to MP4/3GP/MPG/AVI/WMV/FLV/SWF.
All to MP3/WMA/AMR/OGG/AAC/WAV.
All to JPG/BMP/PNG/TIF/ICO/GIF/TGA.
Rip DVD to video file , Rip Music CD to audio file.
MP4 files support iPod/iPhone/PSP/BlackBerry format.
Supports RMVB,Watermark, AV Mux.

Foxit Reader -

A PDF file viewer and browser add-on like Adobe Reader.

Free Audio Editor (FAE) -

Edit audio files visually; Record audio from a microphone or any other available input device; Apply various effects; Burn audio CDs from MP3, WMA, WAV, and OGG; All in one program, simple and intuitive - FAE (free audio editor).

Free Disk Analyzer -

Disk Usage Analyzer helps you organize your files and manage disk space by locating the largest files on your disk. You can quickly find where are your largest files, such as videos, photos and archives, and move them elsewhere, possibly to a backup drive. You may also decide to simply delete unneeded files. Disk Analyzer is fast and easy to use, summarizing your disk usage in a friendly format with visual graphs. Disk Analyzer is integrated with Windows so that you can view, open or delete files in the same way as in Windows Explorer.

Free Registry Defrag -

This is a program used to compact and defragment your registry by removing gaps and wasted space, to help improve the whole system performance.

Brink · Dec 28, 2007

GanttProject -

GanttProject is a free and easy to use Gantt chart based project scheduling and management tool. Features include.

Task hierarchy and dependencies
Gantt chart
Resource load chart
Generation of PERT chart
PDF and HTML reports
MS Project import/export
WebDAV based groupwork

GFI Backup -

GFI Backup is an easy-to-use backup and recovery software solution that allows users to backup all their important files and, whenneeded, recover the data within minutes using the product’s wizard-driven interface. GFI Backup does not use a proprietary format; all data is saved to common ZIP files. This makes it easy to restore data to a computer that may not have GFI Backup installed on it.

GIMP -

GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package program. This page should help you get a taste of what GIMP is capable of.

Gizmo Central -

NOTE: It comes in 2 flavours, "free" and "donor edition" and the only difference is that the donor edition gets the updates way before the free version.

This app allows multiple toolbars that you can customize in dozens of different ways, and much more.

Glary Undelete -

Glary Undelete is a easy to use yet powerful file undelete solution for FAT and NTFS file systems. It will bring back files emptied from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down. It will even recover files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

Glary Utilities -

Glary Utilities is a freeware with registry and disk cleaning, privacy protection, performance accelerator and amazing multifunctional tools. It can fix dogged registry errors, wipe off clutters, optimize internet speed, safeguard confidential files and maintain maximum performance.

gMote -

gMote is a customisable tool that provides fast access to frequently used actions via mouse gestures.

GOM Media Player -

A media player program that has a lot of features.

Google Chrome -

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

GParted -

The GParted application is the GNOME partition editor for creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions.The GParted application enables you to change the partition organization on a disk device while preserving the contents of the partitions. With GParted you can accomplish the following tasks:

Create a partition table on a disk device.
Enable and disable partition flags such as boot and hidden.
Perform actions with partitions such as:
- create or delete
- resize or move
- check
- label
- copy and paste

GPU-Z -

NOTE: No installation required, this is a standalone EXE program.

GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).

Grabtxt -

As most developers, while testing a program you may get runtime errors displayed as windows error message boxes and would have to type these error messages in a search engine to find more about these errors and how to fix them. This tool will make this task very easy.

Half Shell -

WARNING: This will only work with the 64-bit Vista.

Half Shell allows you to open selected folders in the 32 bit shell by pressing Shift-Enter. This enables you to use most 32 bit shell extensions.

HandBrake -

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder.

HashCheck -

The HashCheck Shell Extension makes it easy for anyone to calculate and verify checksums and hashed from Windows Explorer. In addition to integrating file checksumming functionality into Windows, HashCheck can also create and verify SFV files (and other forms of checksum files, such as .md5 files).

HashTab -

HashTab is a Windows shell extension which adds a tab called "File Hashes" to the Windows Explorer file properties. The tab contains the MD5, SHA1 and CRC-32 file hashes. These are common hashes that are used to verify the integrity and authenticity of files. Many download sites list the MD5 hash along with the download link. The HashTab makes it very simple for Windows users to check these hashes on any file on the system without using external tools.

HDGraph -

HDGraph is a tool allowing to graphically display the hard disk space usage. It shows all the directories and subdirectories of the hard drive on a single graph, allowing to see the largest directories at a glance. It is compatible with all storage visible in the Windows explorer : folder of hard disk drive, USB key, network folder, CD, DVD, etc...

HD Tune -

HD Tune is a Hard Disk utility which has the following functions:

NOTE: Only the HD Tune for personal use is the free version.

Benchmark: measures the performance
Info: shows detailed information
Health: checks the health status by using SMART
Error Scan: scans the surface for errors
Temperature display

HijackThis -

Trend Micro™ HijackThis™ is a free utility that generates an in depth report of registry and file settings from your computer. HijackThis makes no separation between safe and unsafe settings in its scan results giving you the ability to selectively remove items from your machine. In addition to this scan and remove capability HijackThis comes with several tools useful in manually removing malware from a computer.

HJSplit -

HJSplit is a freeware program to split and recombine files. The program is available on Windows, Linux, and a variety of other platforms. All HJSplit editions are compatible with each other and allow you to exchange files between different operating systems. E.g. a file split on Linux can be joined on Windows 7 and vice versa.

HostsMan -

HostsMan is a freeware application that lets you manage your Hosts file with ease.

Hotkey CD Eject -

Hotkey CD Eject is a small and simple utility that allows you to eject your CD tray with your keyboard or from a tray icon. You can specify the CD drive (if you have more than one) and the program can auto-start with Windows.

HWiNFO(32) -

A professional hardware information and diagnostic tool supporting the latest components, industry technologies and standards. This tool is designed to collect and present the maximum amount of information possible about the computer's hardware which makes them suitable for users searching for driver updates, computer manufacturers, system integrators and technical experts as well. Retrieved information is presented in a logical and easily understandable form and can be exported into various types of reports.

HWM BlackBox (Hardwaremania BlackBox) -

HWM BlackBox is a utility designed to deliver precise details on the core components of your computer to the maximum. As well as providing you with you with in-depth information about hardware such as the processor, memory modules, mainboard, hard drives and video card, it also offers the opportunity to assess critical parameters such as clock speeds and temperatures.

HWMonitor -

CPUID Hardware Monitor is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed. The program handles the most common sensor chips, like ITE® IT87 series, most Winbond® ICs, and others. In addition, it can read modern CPUs on-die core thermal sensors, as well has hard drives temperature via S.M.A.R.T, and video card GPU temperature. Special hardware monitors such as abit® uGuru and Gigabyte® ODIN™ power supplies serie are supported too.

HTML Explorer Thumbnails -

NOTE: Click on the image to download the ZIP file, and be sure to extract the correct 32 bit or 64 bit version from the ZIP download. Read the "readme" file for important instructions.

In Vista, Windows Explorer no longer shows thumbnails of HTML files. This functionality has simply been removed. This little addon for Windows Explorer will show thumbnails for HTML, MHTL and URL files.

Iconoid -

Save and Restore Icon positions for each (or every) screen resolution
Transparent icon backgrounds or use any color
Select any color for icon text
Automatically hide icons when you don't need them and show them when you do
Automatically or manually select the best color for the text background
Quickly minimize all windows so that you can see your desktop wallpaper.

IconRemover -

NOTE: You may want to create a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut to use instead though.

A freeware tool for geting rid of 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon.

IconViewer -

IconViewer is a Windows Explorer extension that lets you easily view, copy, and save icon (ICO) and PNG files contained within .EXE programs and .DLL libraries. Open a file's Properties box, select the "Icons" tab, and view the icons contained in the file. This program is real handy to have for getting these ICO and PNG files.

IE PassView -

IE PassView is a small utility that reveals the passwords stored by the Internet Explorer browser per website.

ImageUSB -

ImageUSB is a utility which lets you write an image concurrently to multiple USB Flash Drives. Capable of creating exact bit-level copies of USB Flash Drive (UFDs), ImageUSB is an extremely effective tool for the mass duplication of UFDs. ImageUSB also supports writing of an ISO file byte by byte directly to an USB drive. ImageUSB can also be used to install OSFClone to a USB Drive for use with PassMark OSForensics.Unlike other USB duplication tools, ImageUSB can preserve all unused and slack space during the cloning process, including the Master Boot Record (MBR). ImageUSB can perform flawless mass duplications of all UFD images, including bootable UFDs.

InfraRecorder -

InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows much like Nere. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

Input Director -

Input Director is a Windows application that lets you control multiple Windows systems using the keyboard/mouse attached to one computer. It is designed for folks who have two (or more) computers set up at home and find themselves regularly sliding from one system to the other. With Input Director, you can share a single keyboard/mouse across a set of systems. You switch which system receives the input either by hotkey or by moving the cursor so that it transitions from one screen to the other (in a very similar fashion to a multi-monitor setup). The idea being that you can position the monitors from two or more systems in a row and use a shared keyboard/mouse to control all of them. Input Director also supports a "shared" clipboard, in which you can copy data onto the clipboard on one system, transition across to another and paste.

InstalledCodec -

NOTE: This is a stand-alone exe file that does not install on your computer.

InstalledCodec is a small utility that displays the list of all Codec drivers and DirectShow filters currently installed on your system. For each component the following information is displayed: Display Name, Type, Disabled Status, Installed/Modified Time, File Description, File Version, Company Name, Product Name, Filename, File Size, CLSID, Driver Key, and Filter Merit. It allows you to easily disable or enable any Codec or DirectShow component, or export the list into a text, xml, or html file.

iReboot -

iReboot is NeoSmart Technologies' simple yet effective reboot helper tool. iReboot sits in your taskbar at startup (only taking up 400KB of memory!) and lets you choose which operating system you want to reboot into. Instead of pressing restart, waiting for Windows to shut down, waiting for your BIOS to post, then selecting the operating system you want to boot into (within the bootloader time-limit!); you just select that entry from iReboot and let it do the rest!

IrFanView -

A great graphic viewer and editor like Paint, but a whole lot better. It has a ton of options and is fully customizable with plug-ins and skins. You can use transparency to for thumbnails, etc...

ISODisk -

ISODisk is a ISO disk image file tool, allows you to create virtual CD/DVD drives up to 20 drives, mount an .ISO disk image and access the files on it as if it were burned to CD or DVD. This free program can quickly create ISO image file from CD/DVD-ROM, with ISODisk, you don't need to install any other virtual drive software. Once you map the archive to a virtual drive, you are able to view the contents in Windows Explorer.

ISO Recorder -

This program will allow you to record and burn ISO images to a CD/DVD, copy disks, make images of the existing data CDs and DVDs, and create ISO images from a content of a disk folder.

IZArc -

IZArc is is a archive utility supporting many archive formats like:7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. With a modern easy-to-use interface, IZArc provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools.It allows you to drag and drop files from and to Windows Explorer, create and extract archives directly in Windows Explorer, create multiple archives spanning disks, creating self-extracting archives, repair damaged zip archives, converting from one archive type to another, view and write comments and many more. IZArc has also build-in multilanguage support.

Jing -

The always-ready program that allows you to instantly capture images and record video on your computer—then share them with anyone. Jing is a great tool for adding basic visual elements to all of your online conversations.

JkDefrag -

JkDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer. It is completely automatic and very easy to use, fast, low overhead, with several optimization strategies, and can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a Windows version, a commandline version (for scheduling by the task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts), a screensaver version, a DLL library (for use from programming languages), versions for Windows X64, and the complete sources.

KeePass -

A Password manager that helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. You can also use the Portable version to allow you to store your passwords securely on your USB thumb drive.

KeyScrambler Personal -

A browser add-on, protects all your inputs against known and unknown keyloggers in IE, Firefox, and Flock: your login credentials, credit card numbers, passwords, search terms, Java, Flash, PDF Forms, web email, and more.

Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 -

Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 is an office suite that offers a number of features for creating, viewing and editing personal and business documents. Kingsoft Office 2012 includes Kingsoft Writer, Kingsoft Presentation and Kingsoft Spreadsheet. These three reliable and versatile programs are perfect for both personal use at home and for professional businesses. They offer outstanding value at their listed cost compared to competing office programs. Kingsoft Office 2012 is compatible with all of the latest Microsoft Office file formats. It will easily open, read and write documents created with Microsoft Office as well as a wide variety of other formats. Microsoft Office can also open Kingsoft files without having Kingsoft Office installed on the same computer.

KLS Mail Backup -

KLS Mail Backup is an easy to use backup program that allows you to back up and restore your Windows Mail, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Firefox profile files.

KMPlayer -

KMPlayer is a video and audio media player which can play a large amount of formats such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, and QuickTime among others. It handles subtitles and allows you to capture screenshots. You can set audio and video effects, slow down or increase playback speed, select parts of a video as favorites, and many more. KMPlayer is completely customizable with a wide selection of skins and color schemes, and the configuration options are extensive.

Launchy -

Launchy is a free windows and linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.
Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

LiberKey -

LiberKey groups a lot of free software. True "swiss army knife", it offers local and/or portable use.

Local use (directly installed in a hard disk directory)
Portable use (installed on USB key, external hard drive, music player such as iPod, ...)

LicenseCrawler -

If you want to setup your computer system again you need to have the licenses and serial numbers at hand for all the software programs that you have purchased and registered. This does include the Windows product key, but also other serial numbers for applications. LicenseCrawler scans the Windows Registry for Windows product keys and other serial numbers and licenses.

Link Shell Extension -

Link Shell Extension (LSE) provides for the creation of Hardlinks, Junctions, Volume Mountpoints, and Windows7's Symbolic Links, (herein referred to collectively as Links) a folder cloning process that utilises Hardlinks or Symbolic Links and a copy process taking care of Junctions, Symbolic Links, and Hardlinks. LSE, as its name implies is implemented as a Shell extension and is accessed from Windows Explorer, or similar file/folder managers. The extension allows the user to select one or many files or folders, then using the mouse, complete the creation of the required Links - Hardlinks, Junctions or Symbolic Links or in the case of folders to create Clones consisting of Hard or Symbolic Links.

LockHunter -

LockHunter is a free tool similar to Unlocker to delete files blocked by someone you do not know. LockHunter is useful for fighting against malware, and other programs that blocks files without a reason. Unlike other similar tools it deletes files into recycle bin so you may restore them if deleted by mistake. Supports 32-bit and 64-bit Vista.

LogonStudio -

NOTE: See this tutorial: How to Change the Logon Screen in Vista

Stardock LogonStudio will allow you to change the logon screen to whatever you want. You can download from a ton of already created logon screens or create your own from any .jpg, .png, or .bmp file.

LookInMyPC -

LookInMyPC generates a complete, comprehensive system profile that includes information on all installed hardware and software. Additionally it provides system diagnostic information such as details on running processes, installed services, startup programs, Windows updates and hot fixes, active network and Internet connections, TCP/IP port usage, event log detail, and much more. All this is provided in an easy to read, formatted report that you can view and print using your web browser.

Macrium Reflect (Free Edition)-

Macrium Reflect Free Edition will let you to easily make an accurate and reliable image of your HDD or individual partitions. Using this image you can restore the entire disk, partition or individual files and folders in the event of a partial or complete system loss.

Macrorit Disk Scanner -

Macrorit Disk Scanner it a smart disk bad sectors scan free software, It can help you quickly test the disk and mark the location of bad sectors, you can choose the following ways rapid detection of disk.

Madotate -

NOTE: Download and extract the files, then run (merge) the reg file to install. Next move the other EXE files to where you like (ex: C:\Program Files) so you can create shortcuts from them to use.

Madotate is a 3D desktop management program that helps organizing your work a lot. It lets you view any open window in 3D, rotate it in any position, and zoom the window in and out.

Magic Folder Icon -

Magic Folder Icon allows you to change an icon for all your folders on your computer, making every folder different. The simple interface makes it easy to change the look of an individual folder. You can change icons of all your folders quickly and freely. Also you can extract an icon from any type of resource files like .exe files.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free -

This is anti-malware program that scans your computer to help keep your computer from becoming infected with viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits, dialers, spyware, and malware.

Marxio File Checksum Verifier -

Portable file checksum verifier that allows you to calculate many file checksums (hashes) and compare them with original one. Thanks to its simplicity and portability, it aims to be a portable, versatile and "must have" tool for dealing with single files and their checksums - to calculate, compare and verify them.

Maxthon Browser -

A nice web browser that shares Internet Explorer's rendering engine and a few other things like internet options. It can also save your Favorites online. It has many other features as well.

MediaMonkey Free -

MediaMonkey is a music manager and player with a lot of features.

Memtest86 -

Memtest86 is a comprehensive stand-alone memory diagnostic program that you boot from at startup to test your RAM. You can download a ISO file to burn to DVD to boot with, or a floppy disk package installable from Windows to a USB flash drive or floppy disk to boot with.

Microsoft Security Esentials -

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Miranda IM -

Miranda IM is the smaller, faster, easier instant messenger with support for multiple protocols. Designed from the ground-up to be resource efficient while still providing a rich feature set, Miranda includes support for AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu and more.

MozBackup -

MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite and Netscape profiles. It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, cache etc.

MRO -

NOTE: Description page at - Most Recently Opened Folder

MRO (Most Recently Opened Folder Utility) is a Task Tray icon/background process combination for reopening the most recently opened folders you opened with Explorer.

Mp3tag -

Edit MP3 tags, find album tags and cover online, rename files faster.

MultiMonitorTool -

MultiMonitorTool is a small tool that allows you to do some actions related to working with multiple monitors. With MultiMonitorTool, you can disable/enable monitors, set the primary monitor, save and load the configuration of all monitors, and move windows from one monitor to another. You can do these actions from the user interface or from command-line, without displaying user interface. MultiMonitorTool also provides a preview window, which allows you to watch a preview of every monitor on your system.

MyDefrag -

MyDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer (a maintenance utility to make your harddisk faster) for Windows. Fast, low overhead, with many optimization strategies, can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a set of easy to use scripts for endusers, a scripting engine for demanding users, a screensaver, and a combined Windows plus commandline version that can be scheduled by the Windows task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts.

My Lockbox -

My Lockbox is a security software enabling you to password protect any folder on your computer. The protected folder (lockbox) is hidden from any user and application of your system, including Administrator and System itself. It is impossible to access the lockbox not only from the local computer, but also from the net. The program is extremely easy to use. You can set the lockbox location and the password during the setup procedure. After the setup is done, lockbox will be hidden and locked until you enter the valid password. My Lockbox Control Panel allows you easily change basic lockbox parameters: lockbox location, protection status, password. In addition, skinned user interface lets you choose from different skins to select the most comfortable look and feel of the software.

NetSpeedMonitor -

NetSpeedMonitor is a lightweight Network Monitoring Toolbar for your Windows Taskbar. With NetSpeedMonitor you can monitor the current speed (up- and downstream) of your Network Interfaces and the amount of data transferred. In addition to the Connection Table with all TCP/UDP endpoints and the Toolbar Tooltip with a quick and short traffic overview, you can also see detailed daily and monthly Traffic Statistics.

Network Monitor -

Microsoft Network Monitor is a protocol analyzer. It allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it.

NetWorx -

You can use NetWorx to collect bandwidth usage data and measure the speed of your Internet or any other network connection. NetWorx can help you identify possible sources of network problems, ensure that you do not exceed the bandwidth limits specified by your ISP, or track down suspicious network activity characteristic of Trojan horses and hacker attacks. The program allows you to monitor all your network connections or a specific network connection (such as Ethernet or PPP) only. The software also features customizable visual and sound alerts. You can set it up to alert you when the network connection is down or when some suspicious activity, such as unusually heavy data flow, occurs. It can also automatically disconnect all dialup connections and shut down the system. The incoming and outgoing traffic is represented on a line chart and logged to a file, so that you can always view statistics about your daily, weekly and monthly bandwidth usage and dialup duration. The reports can be exported to a variety of formats, such as HTML, MS Word and Excel, for further analysis.

Nexus -

Nexus is a multi-level dock system. Nexus provides fast access to your most frequently used applications, with flexible options allowing it to dock or float anywhere on the screen, providing a myriad of "On Demand" possibilities.

Norton UAC Tool -

The Norton User Account Control tool will replace parts of the Windows Vista UAC system, and allow you have a "Remember Me" exception list for UAC to suppress future prompts from the same action.

Notepad++ -

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. From HTML to Java and over 40 other languages, Notepad++ makes parsing code easy with clear syntax highlighting and auto-completion intelligence.

Notepad2 -

Notepad2 is a free, open-source text editor. It has features such as auto-indent, brace matching, syntax highlighting, and code folding.

Office Accounting Express 2009 -

NOTE: To read about all of the features, see: Easy to use accounting software from Microsoft

Microsoft Office Accounting Express is an easy to use accounting package that works with other Office applications you already know.

OpenOffice -

OpenOffice is a open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages.

OpenWithAdd -

NOTE: See this tutorial: How to Add a Program to Open With in Vista

When you right-click a file and choose Open With, and click the Choose Program... option, the list of registered applications are displayed in the Open With dialog. Programs that are not already listed in the Open With dialog can be added manually using the Browse... option. OpenWithAdd tool can be helpful in circumstances where, when you browse to locate an application, it does not get added to the Open With dialog.

OpenWithView -

OpenWithView is a small utility that displays the list of all available applications in the 'Open With' dialog-box of Windows, and allows you to easily disable or enable the applications in the list. When an application is disabled, it won't be displayed in the 'Other Programs' section of the 'Open With' dialog-box. This utility can be useful if your 'Open With' window displays too many applications, or you want to remove the applications that you don't use frequently.

Outpost Firewall Free -

Agnitum's Outpost Firewall Free gives you firewall protection with standard packet and application filtering to safeguard your data against unauthorized third parties. Plus, you get advanced protection against illegal program activity that will help stymie unknown threats.

Paint.NET -

NOTE: This runs in both the 32 bit and 64 bit Vista, but in 64 bit Vista it runs as a full native 64-bit program.

Paint.NET is a image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition -

A great backup and recovery program full of features.

Partition Assistant Home Edition -

AOMEI Partition Assistant Home Edition is the latest and completely free hard disk partition manager software. It carries out magic hard disk and partitions management, advanced system optimization, and easy copy wizard to keep your computer running smoothly and faster.

Partition Wizard -

Partition Wizard Home Edition is a free partition manager designed by MT Solution Ltd. Home users can perform complicated partition operations by using this powerful but free partition manager to manage their hard disk partition such as Resizing partitions, Copying partitions, Create partition, Delete partition, Format partition, Convert partition, Explore partition, Hide partition, Change drive letter, Set active partition and Partition Recovery.

PCalc -

AnalogX PCalc allows you to enter any equation in the EXACT same format as C/C++, and it will process it with the same precedence, giving you the results in a variety of formats! PCalc also supports the use of user-defined variables, and also has most of the common constants used already defined.

PC Decrapifier -

NOTE: This runs from a standalone exe file that does not install on your computer.

The PC Decrapifier is a program designed to remove or uninstall a specific list of unwanted software in an unattended fashion. It can be used to clean off most of the annoying software that is typically shipped with newer PCs.

PC Tools Firewall Plus -

PC Tools Firewall Plus is a free personal firewall for Windows that protects your computer by preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Internet or a network. By monitoring applications that connect to the network Firewall Plus can stop Trojans, backdoors, keyloggers and other malware from damaging your computer and stealing your private information

PC Wizard -

PC WIZARD is also an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, Cache performance, RAM performance, Hard Disk performance, CD/DVD-ROM performance, Removable/FLASH Media performance, Video performance, MP3 compression performance.

PDFCool -

Free PDF viewer and editor for Windows that bundles a variety of PDF-related tools in the package

PDFCreator -

PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.

PDF-XChange Viewer -

A PDF file reader that is an alternative to Adobe Reader.

Phrase Express -

Organize frequently used text snippets. Expand abbreviations as you type. Launch programs with text shortcuts. Auto-Complete repetitive phrases. Quick Access to the Windows Clipboard History. Correct Spelling mistakes in any application.

PhotoFiltre -

PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve. The toolbar, giving you access to the standard filters with just a few clicks, gives PhotoFiltre a robust look.

PhotoRec -

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

Photoscape -

Photoscape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos. Key Features:

Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a slideshow
Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos
Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo
Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo
Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo
Print: Print portrait shots, carte de visites(CDV), passport photos
Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces
Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color
Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper
Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet

Picture-Shark -

NOTE: You will need to right click on the installation program and click on Run as administrator for this to install.

This is a program that will allow you to add a watermark to any image. The watermark's transparency can be fully adjusted to what you want.

Pidgin -

Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once.

PopMan -

PopMan is a POP3 and IMAP4 manager. It can be used to list all e-mails received on your incoming mail server, without having to load these mails completely. Unwanted e-mails can be deleted directly from the server. You can use PopMan to check your e-mail accounts in the background. When new e-mails arrive, you will be notified.

POP Peeper -

POP Peeper is an email notifier that runs in your Windows task bar and alerts you when you have new email on your POP3, IMAP (with IDLE support), Hotmail\MSN\LiveMail, Yahoo, GMail, Mail.com, MyWay, Excite, iWon, Lycos.com, RediffMail, Juno and NetZero accounts. IMAP supports allows you to access AOL, AIM, Netscape and other services. Send mail directly from POP Peeper and use the address book to email your frequently used contacts. POP Peeper allows you to view messages using HTML or you can choose to safely view all messages in rich or plain text. Several options are available that will decrease or eliminate the risks of reading your email (viruses, javascript, webbugs, etc). POP Peeper can be run from a portable device and can be password protected. Many notification options are availble to indicate when new mail has arrived, such as sound alerts (configurable for each account), flashing scroll lock, skinnable popup notifier, customized screensaver and more.

PowerMenu -

This program will add Always On Top, Transparency, and Minimize To Tray menu items to the title bar right click menu of open windows

Privatefirewall -

Privatefirewall is a multi-layered endpoint security software that protects Windows desktops and servers from malware and unauthorized use. Personal firewall, packet inspection, URL filtering, process monitor, and application/system behavior modeling and anomaly detection components stop hackers, spyware, viruses and other forms of malware before they can cause damage.

Process Explorer -

NOTE: This program does not install. It is a stand alone EXE file with a help file.

Process Explorer is an advanced process management utility that picks up where Task Manager leaves off. It will show you detailed information about a process including its icon, command-line, full image path, memory statistics, user account, security attributes, and more. When you zoom in on a particular process you can list the DLLs it has loaded or the operating system resource handles it has open. A search capability enables you to track down a process that has a resource opened, such as a file, directory or Registry key, or to view the list of processes that have a DLL loaded.

Process Monitor -

NOTE: This program does not install. It is a stand alone EXE file with a help file.

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry, and process/thread activity. It is way more advanced than the Resource Monitor that comes with Vista.

ProduKey -

NOTE: Be sure to download the correct 32 bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64) version of Produkey for your version of Vista.

ProduKey is a small utility that displays the ProductID and the CD-Key of MS-Office, Windows, Exchange Server, and SQL Server installed on your computer. You can view this information for your current running operating system, or for another operating system/computer - by using command-line options. This utility can be useful if you lost the product key of your Windows/Office, and you want to reinstall it on your computer.

Programmer's Notepad-

A free open-source text editor packed with useful features, including tabbed documents, explorer browser, extensive syntax highlighting, powerful search/replace features and lots more cool stuff.

Brink · Dec 29, 2007

Rainbow Folders -

Rainbow Folders allows you to change the color of any folder.

Rainmeter -

Rainmeter is a Windows customization application. Empower your desktop with an expandable library of useful tools – handy notes and application launchers, weather and feeds from the web, system status and more. Then, rearrange and modify them to suit your personal style.

RAMMap -

RAMMap is an advanced physical memory usage analysis utility for Windows. You can use RAMMap to gain understanding of the way Windows manages memory, to analyze application memory usage, or to answer specific questions about how RAM is being allocated. RAMMap’s refresh feature enables you to update the display and it includes support for saving and loading memory snapshots.

ReadyBoost Monitor -

A program that monitors ReadyBoost peaks, cache size, graph, read and write speed.

Real Desktop Standard -

NOTE: You may need to rename the downloaded file so that it will have an .exe file extension on it before it will install for you.

Real Desktop gives your ordinary desktop new life and turns it into a 3D Real Desktop. Enjoy the fascinating dynamics with revolutionary graphic rendition on your desktop. Get any designs from their website or create your own personal style.

Real Temp -

Real Temp is a temperature monitoring program designed for all Intel single Core, Dual Core, Quad Core and Core i7 processors.

Recuva -

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

RegScanner -

RegScanner is a small utility that allows you to scan the Registry, find the desired Registry values that match to the specified search criteria, and display them in one list. After finding the Registry values, you can easily jump to the right value in RegEdit, simply by double-clicking the desired Registry item. You can also export the found Registry values into a .reg file that can be used in RegEdit.

Rescue Kit Express -

Rescue Kit professionally fixes boot problems as well as retrieves your data when your system fails to boot. It even rescues deleted partitions.

Revo Uninstaller -

Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from the Vista Programs and Features control panel applet.

RivaTuner -

RivaTuner is a complete powerful tweaking environment, providing you everything you may need to tune NVIDIA GPU based display adapters. The widest driver-level Direct3D / OpenGL and system tuning options, flexible profiling system allowing to make custom settings on per-application basis, both driver-level and low-level hardware access modes, unique diagnostic and realtime hardware monitoring features and exclusive power user oriented tools like built-in registry editor and patch script engine make RivaTuner's feature set absolutely unmatched.
RivaTuner supports all NVIDIA display adapters starting from Riva TNT family up to the latest GeForce 7 series and widest range of NVIDIA drivers starting from the oldest Detonator 2.08 up to the newest ForceWare drivers family.

RocketDock -

RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher dock station for your desktop. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. Now with added Taskbar support your minimized windows can appear as icons on the dock.

Rufus -

Rufus is a small utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc. It can be especially useful for cases where:

you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, EFI, etc.)
you need to work on a system that doesn't have an OS installed
you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS
you want to run a low-level utility

RunAlyzer -

From the makers of Spyboy Search & Destroy, RunAlyzer is a autostart & configuration manager that allows you to view and edit all the spots where Windows Vista looks for programs or services to start. It's a combination of a standard configuration manager and an advanced tool to locate and remove places where hijackers, spyware, and other malware hide.

7capture -

7capture is a screen capture program that automatically handles complicated transparency problems such as rounded corners and Aero semi-transparent windows backgrounds. No matter what Windows version you are using, 7capture will do its magic: clean rounded corners on Windows XP, alpha transparency in Windows Vista and Windows 7. 7capture will even capture your theme's color for even better looking screenshots.

Samurize -

Samurize is an advanced system monitoring and desktop enhancement engine for Windows. IT professionals, overclockers, gamers and desktop modders alike can use Samurize for system information, weather reports, news headlines and much much more.

Sandra Lite -

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Screenpresso -

Screenpresso captures your desktop (screenshots and HD videos) for your training documents, collaborative design work, IT bug reports, and more... Light-weight Windows screen grab tool with built-in image editor, user guide generator and sharing options.

SearchMyFiles -

SearchMyFiles is an alternative to the standard "Search For Files And Folders" module of Windows + duplicates search. It allows you to easily search files in your system by wildcard, by last modified/created/last accessed time, by file attributes, by file content (text or binary search), and by the file size. SearchMyFiles allows you to make a very accurate search that cannot be done with Windows search. After you made a search, you can select one or more files, and save the list into text/html/csv/xml file, or copy the list to the clipboard. SearchMyFiles is portable, and you can use it from a USB flash drive without leaving traces in the Registry of the scanned computer.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) -

The Secunia PSI is a free security tool designed with the sole purpose of helping you secure your computer against vulnerabilities in programs by checking your PC for insecure programs exposing you to security threats.

Send To Toys -

Send To Toys is an enhancement of the "Send To" context menu.

Sigcheck -

Sigcheck is an "old-school" (command-line) utility designed to sniff out file and digital signature information for programs and drivers. If you're having problems with particular programs or hardware, use Sigcheck to find out if you have outdated versions or unsigned drivers.

7stacks -

7stacks lets Windows 7 (and Vista and XP) users have "stacks" of icons in their Taskbar (in 7) or QuickLaunch Toolbar (in Vista and XP). By using stacks, users can reduce icon clutter, and combine a group of related icons into a single icon

7-Zip -

NOTE: After installing, use compatibility mode to set this program to run as administrator. You will then need to go into Tools and the Options menu to select the file associations you want 7-Zip to be able to use.

A Zip utility program used to open 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS files. Fully customizable for which file type you want associated to 7-Zip.

ShadowExplorer -

NOTE: Previous Version tutorial: How to Restore Previous Versions of a File and Folder in Vista
ShadowExplorer is an alternative program for all editions of Vista for the Previous Versions feature that is only available for the Vista

Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions. If you do not have one of these versions, then this is a great alternative.

SharpKeys -

SharpKeys is a keyboard key remapping program that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock often, you could use this utility to map Caps Lock as a Shift key instead or even turn it off completely.

ShellExView -

NOTE: Be sure to right click this program and click Run as administrator. Be sure to also download the 32 bit or 64 bit version for your version of Vista.

This is an excellent tool to view and manage all installed shell extensions. If available, it displays the description, as well as version details, company information, location, file name and more. You can optionally disable or enable any item. This can be very useful to disable an extension that you do not need or that has been left behind in your right click context menu from a previous software install.

SlimComputer -

If you've ever gotten a new PC and it came loaded with promotional programs, toolbars, links to advertising or trial offers, then you know how frustrating these things can be. Community-powered feedback is the key to SlimComputer's state-of-the-art cleaning. In real time, SlimComputer assesses your new PC to identify programs, toolbars, and startup entries that users vote "optional". You can then use this data to decide what you want to keep on your computer.

Shotty -

Shotty is an application to take screenshots of your computer's screen or of one application only. Unlike other applications that does this Shotty provides various other features that are useful to modify the taken screenshot. Shotty takes a screenshot including aero glass frame transparency and shadow (only if running on Windows Vista or above). It also can change your Aero Glass color automatically during screenshot, for example to get consistent screenshots that does not dependent on your system settings. Shotty takes real screenshots. There are no other tasks required to let the screenshot looks like the original (redraw the shadow for example) like many other application does.

SIW -

SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner. The system information is divided into a few major categories:

Software: Operating System, Installed Software and Hotfixes, Processes, Services, Users, Open Files, System Uptime, Installed Codecs, Software Licenses (Product Keys / Serial Numbers / CD Key), Secrets (Password Recovery).
Hardware: Motherboard, Sensors, BIOS, CPU, chipset, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP Devices, Memory, Video Card, Monitor, Disk Drives, CD/DVD Devices, SCSI Devices, S.M.A.R.T., Ports, Printers.
Network: Network Cards, Network Shares, currently active Network Connections, Open Ports.
Tools: Eureka! (Reveal lost passwords hidden behind asterisks), MAC Address Changer, Monitor Test, Shutdown / Restart.
Real-time monitors: CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic.

Smart Defrag -

A good hard disk defragmenter by Iobit.

SourceSnap -

NOTE: You will see it listed towards the bottom.

Small utility for programmers to snap up selected source code or text to a file via hotkey. There are 2 save methods. A save to a new file, and an append to the snap file(add snippet.) In addition, you will have the possibility to customize the hotkeys according to your preferences.

SpaceSniffer -

SpaceSniffer is a portable disk scanning tool application that lets you understand how folders and files are structured on your disks. By using a Treemap visualization layout, you have immediate perception of where big folders and files are placed on your devices.

Speccy -

Speccy by Piriform (CCleaner) is an advanced System Information tool for your PC.

SpecialFoldersView -

Windows operating system have dozens of special shell folders that are used for storing application settings and files, storing Internet files, saving temporary files, storing shortcuts to other files, and so on. This utility displays the list of all special shell folders in your system, and allows you to easily jump to the right folder simply by double-clicking the folder item. You can also save the list of all folder paths into text/html/xml file.

SpeedFan -

SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with hardware monitor chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported. SpeedFan supports SCSI disks too. SpeedFan can even change the FSB on some hardware.

Spybot Search & Destroy -

NOTE: Select your language and click on Download in the upper right corner. Spybot S&D takes a bit to open after you click on the shortcut.

This is a great spyware protection program. You can use this program along with Windows Defender and other anti-spyware/adware programs for added protection.

SpywareBlaster -

SpywareBlaster, by Javacool Software, helps prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software.

Spyware Terminator -

This is another great spyware and adware removal program. It comes with an optional free Web Security Guard web browser toolbar to help protect your computer while you browse the web.

StandaloneStack -

Allows you to create a toolbar that displays the shortcuts inside as stacked icons when you open the toolbar.

Start++ -

Start++ is an enhancement that adds new functionality to the Windows Vista start menu and command line.

STDU Explorer -

STDU Explorer is a piece of software that offers you the opportunity to work with image files (support psd, bmp, png, gif, jpeg, wmf formats) and e-books in DjVu and PDF formats. This application helps you quickly view and find books or image files. It supports standard operations such as moving, copying, pasting, renamming, deleting, etc. But its possibilities are much wider.

Extended representation of files list, with adjustable thumbnails size.
Fast preview any page of multipage documents.
Fast access to a tree of bookmarks in PDF or DjVu files.

STDU Viewer -

STDU Viewer is a document viewer for multiple file formats. The goal of this software is to replace the multiple document viewers with a single simple application. STDU Viewer supports TXT, TIFF, PDF, DjVu, Comic Book Archive (CBR or CBZ), XPS documents format.

StExBar -

NOTE: Be sure to download the correct 32 bit or 64 bit version for your version of Vista.

The StExBar adds a new toolbar in Windows Explorer that provides many useful commands for your everyday use like Rename, New Folder, Console, Show system files, etc. You can also add as many custom commands as you like to.

Stickies -

Stickies is a sticky note application to post notes on your desktop. Features include:

Once on screen, stickies will remain where placed until closed, even through reboots
Stickies appearance can be customised; fonts, colours and buttons may be changed, and styles saved. Stickies can be resized.
Stickies can snap to each other and to the sides of the screen to keep them neatly lined up
Stickies can be attached to a web site, document or folder so they only show when it's on screen
Stickies can be transferred from one machine to another either over a TCP/IP network connection, or by using an SMTP mail server or MAPI client:
- Hierarchical friends list, which may be automatically transferred from other friends
- Play a sound file on receive
- Signature for transmitted or emailed stickies
- Favourite friends, and custom lists can be made
Stickies can be hidden for a certain period, until a specified date and time, or to wake every day, week or month, to act as reminders.
Stickies can have alarms set to ensure you notice them at a point you choose
Stickies can be transferred to and from your Palm or PPC PDA.
International language and RTL text support
Stickies works with Windows Vista
Stickies is small and simple, it writes to a single text file, and does not alter the registry
AD network administrators can use Group Policy to control settings
API to allow integration with other applications

StickyPad -

StickyPad is an easy-to-use tool that lets you place sticky notes on your desktop. Your notes can be printed, pasted into other applications, or emailed. You can use shortcut keys with your notes, make notes transparent, etc.... When you log off, StickyPad remembers all of your notes, and when you log back on, your notes are still there.

Subtitle Workshop -

Subtitle Workshop is the most complete, efficient and convenient freeware subtitle editing tool. It supports all the subtitle formats you need and has all the features you would want from a subtitle editing program.

Sumatra PDF -

Sumatra PDF is a slim, free, open-source PDF viewer for Windows.

SUPERAntiSpyware -

This is another great spyware protection program. You can use this program along with Windows Defender and other anti-spyware/adware programs for added protection.

SuperCopier -

SuperCopier replaces Windows explorer file copy and adds many features:

Transfer resuming
Copy speed control
No bugs if You copy more than 2GB at once
Copy speed computation
Better copy progress display
A little faster
Copy list editable while copying
Error log
Copy list saving/loading
etc.....

Super Finder XT -

Powerful replacement for Windows built-in search.
Search files, folders and other data efficiently and easily

Supersonic Download Accelerator -

Supersonic Download Accelerator is a simple and reliable download manager with excellent features like, segmented downloads for acceleration, simultaneous downloads and many others. Supersonic increase your download speed by finding multiple sources and allows you to preview downloads. For download you can even use links stored in you clipboard, moreover, both protocols HTTP and FTP are supported.

SweetIM -

A Messenger add-on that adds more emoticons, winks, audibles, sound FX, Display Pictures, and Nudges. It can also add a optional IE7 browser toolbar that allows you to add favorite icons and emoticons to any web based application including web based email such as Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Gmail, Web Forums, Blogs and more.

Switch Off -

Switch Off is a lightweight easy-to-use tray-based system utility that could automatically shutdown, suspend or hibernate your system. It can also disconnect dial-up and VPN connections.

SysInspector -

ESET SysInspector is a diagnostic tool for Windows systems. It peers into your operating system and captures details such as running processes, registry content, startup items and network connections. Once a snapshot of the system is made, ESET SysInspector applies heuristics to assign a risk level for each object logged. Its intuitive graphical user interface enables the user to easily slice through the large volume of data using a slider to select objects of a particular color coded risk level for closer examination.

Sysinternals Suite -

The Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities have been rolled up into a single Suite of tools.

System Information Viewer (SIV) -

'System Information Viewer' is a general Windows utility for displaying lots of useful Windows, Network and hardware info - CPU info, PCI info, PCMCIA info, USB info SMBus info, SPD info, ACPI methods, Machine info, Hardware Sensors, Networked computers, Operating System Information and more.

System Restore Explorer -

System Restore Explorer is a tool which allows you to browse system restore points on your computer and select individual ones for deletion should you wish to free up some disk space. It also allows you to mount the contents of a restore point into a folder so that you can browse and copy individual files, without the need to perform a full system restore.

System Silencer -

System Silencer will help you control what can be seen and heard from your computer when you're away / idle. Run System Silencer and when you're away your computer's monitor can turn itself off, the sound will be muted and you can even choose to hide your taskbar and desktop icons! Of course, you can skip all the hiding and just configure System Silencer to lock your computer while you're away. Additional options allow you to kill a process and run a program or file, if you have anything specific you'd like to hide or show while you're "afk".

T3Desk -

NOTE: After you install this program, right click on a opened windows's minimize bar to use this program with it.

T3Desk lets you manage your applications more easily in a 3D desktop adding the third dimension to your Windows screen. 3D minimized windows will appear in three dimensions and transparent on your screen and have the ability to be flipped, zoomed, moved, swiveled in almost anyway you want. T3Desk is lightweight on your resources, unlike most applications of its kind. T3Desk lets you set the options regarding display, zooming, hot keys and sounds. You can configure your 3D window animation, transparency effect, the 3D initial angle and distance, the transition effects and more.

TeamViewer -

TeamViewer establishes connections to any PC or server all around the world within just a few seconds. You can remote control your partner's PC as if you were sitting right in front of it.

TeraCopy -

TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user a lot of features:

Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.
Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer.
Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files.
Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual.
Full Unicode support.
Windows 7 x64 support.

TextMaker Viewer -

This program by SoftMaker lets you open, view, and print documents from Microsoft Word, TextMaker, OpenOffice.org, OpenDocument, as well as other common office file formats. See link for supported file types.

The Sage -

TheSage's English Dictionary and Thesaurus is a professional software package that integrates a complete dictionary and multifaceted thesaurus of the English language into a single and powerful language reference system. TheSage can look up words directly from almost any program (IE, Word, Firefox, Outlook, Thunderbird,... ) and is 100% portable.

The Windows Vista Flip 3D Activator -

The Windows Vista Flip 3D Activator is a tiny utility for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that greatly enhances the Flip 3D feature by allowing you to control it with your mouse. It allows you to choose one or more corners ("Hotspots") of your desktop, any mouse button, or both, to activate Windows Flip 3D. Once activated, you can use the mouse to select a window.

Thumbnail Sizer -

NOTE: You will need to have the "Windows Aero" color scheme running. Click on the image to download the ZIP file, and be sure to extract the correct 32 bit or 64 bit version from the ZIP download.

Ave's Thumbnail Sizer allows the user to change the size of Vista's Window thumbnails that show when one hovers over the taskbar button with the mouse pointer for the opened window.

Thunderbird -

Mozilla Thunderbird is an alternative email client program other than Windows Mail.

TinyWall -

TinyWall is a free software to harden and control the advanced firewall built into Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Trader's Little Helper -

Traders of lossless compressed audio files (e.g. ape, flac, mkw, or shn files) have to handle a lot of different applications to decode, encode, create/verify checksums, fix sector boundary errors, or create torrent files. Moreover most of the tools used are command-line programs requiring a deeper knowledge of how to use various parameters. Trader's Little Helper bundles the most important features of those applications in one single easy-to-use frontend.

Tray -

NOTE: For a direct download, see: http://www.favessoft.com/TraySetup.zip

Tray was written by one of our very own members MilesAhead. It is a program that give you a shortcut to allow you to open and close your DVD or optical drive tray.

ThreatFire -

PC Tools ThreatFire is a signature based anti-spyware program that alerts you to what it thinks is acting suspicious. It includes a rootkit scanner and much much more.

TreeSize Free -

TreeSize Free tells you where precious space has gone to. TreeSize Free can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders. You can expand this folder in Explorer-like style and you will see the size of every subfolder. Scanning is done in a thread, so you can already see results while TreeSize Free is working. The space, which is wasted by the file system, can be displayed and the results can be printed in a report.

TweakVI -

This is a program designed to tweak and optimize Vista. Only the Basic edition is free, but it includes desktop tweaks, Start Menu tweaks, IE & Firefox tweaks, Hardware tweaks, System info, Virtual Desktops, System folder tweaks, Mouse tweaks, Outlook tweaks, and Shutdown tweaks.

Types -

NOTE: Types runs from standalone .exe file and does not install onto your computer.

Types is a lightweight configuration utility for Windows that allows you to edit program associations, icons, context menus and other properties of various file types displayed in the Explorer.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker -

Ultimate Windows Tweaker v 2.0 is a freeware Tweak UI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows 7 & Windows Vista, 32-bit & 64-bit. It can simply be downloaded and used as a portable application to customize your Windows to meet your requirements. With judicious tweaking, it can make your system faster, more stable, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. The tweaker detects whether you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista installed and accordingly offers you the relevant tweaks only.

UltraSearch -

UltraSearch searches files and folders on local NTFS drives and provides the results within just a few seconds. UltraSearch does not maintain an index which is stored on your harddisk, it achieves its speed by working directly on the Master File Table (MFT) of the NTFS partitions. You can enter a file name or a pattern like *.exe and will see the results already while typing. Additional information like file size and last change date will be shown for the listed files and the Explorer context menu is available inside UltraSearch. The freeware lets you exclude folders, files or file types by providing an exclude filter. The search results can also be printed or exported as text, RTF, HTML, CSV and Excel file. UltraSearch is available from within the context menu of your Windows Explorer. Use it to start a search with UltraSearch in the selected directory.

Unlocker -

Unlocker is a utility program used to help you delete a file that you get one of these errror messages on:

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.

UK's Kalender -

This program helps you organizing your dates and tasks and reminds you of upcoming events.

USB Image Tool -

USB Image Tool can create images of USB memory sticks and MP3 players, that are mounted as USB drives. It allows you switch between images with different music styles on your MP3 Player or to make an exact backup image of your USB Stick. USB Image Tool works with any device, that implements the USB Mass Storage protocol. This includes flash drives, card readers and a lot of other devices, like digicams, cell phones and mobile music players. USB Image Tool supports the globull secure mobile work environment.

Virtual Box -

VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualization for x86 (32-bit) hardware that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software.

Virtual CloneDrive -

Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive.

Virtual PC -

NOTE: This is only supported on Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate versions, but it will run on Vista Home Premium to.

Virtual PC 2007 is a powerful software virtualization solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation, providing a safety net to maintain compatibility with legacy applications while you migrate to a new operating system.

VirtuaWin -

VirtuaWin is a virtual desktop manager for the Windows operating system. A virtual desktop manager lets you organize applications over several virtual desktops (workspaces).

VistaGlazz -

Normally in Windows Vista, the transparency only lasts until you maximize a window. VistaGlazz ensures transparency, even when your windows are maximized. Creative minds on sites like DeviantArt create cursors, icons, wallpapers and themes. After using VistaGlazz you can now use custom styles as well.

Vista Battery Saver -

This program will help save up to 70% of your laptop battery by disabling those nice, but greedy Vista features. Running in the taskbar with private workset of 5.5M and 0% CPU, it will do all of the work for you by enabling and disabling customizable features when the power source changes or battery power fall under a certain percent.

Vista Firewall Control -

You can use the free version of this program by Sphinx to make using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security a lot easier to use.

Vista Folder Background -

NOTE: Click on the image to download the ZIP file, and be sure to extract the correct 32 bit or 64 bit version from the ZIP download. Read the "readme" file for important instructions.

In Vista, the ability to have custom backgrounds in explorer folders is gone. Ave's Vista Folder Background application makes folder backgrounds possible again.

Vista Forums SysInfo Tool -

This tool can help you by displaying information about your Computer Info, UAC Status, Installed Apps, Services, Codecs, Hot Fixes, Event Log, WEI Score, Users, Memory (RAM), Video Card, Drives, CD/DVD Rom, IDE/SATA drives, Network, System Restore, and Running Processes. You can also save this displayed information to a txt file, copy it to the Clipboard, or print it out.

Vista Shortcut Manager - (Method Two)

Frameworkx Vista Shortcut Manager allows you to either remove the shortcut overlay arrow or to customize it to what you want. It will also allow you to add or remove the Shortcut name extension for shortcuts.

Vista Start Menu -

NOTE: You can just exit the program using the notification area icon to return to your default Windows 7 Start Menu at anytime. Just run the program again to use the program's Start Menu again.

Vista Start Menu is a very nice replacement for the default Start Menu that came with Vista. It is full of customizable features. See the link for more details about this program.

ViStart -

Enhance your windows start menu with Vistart. With cool custom start menu skins, start menu buttons and lot's of extra features. The ultimate start menu tool for Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

VistaSwitcher -

VistaSwitcher is a task management utility for Windows OS. Once installed, it replaces the default Windows Alt-Tab dialog with a nice box that shows a list of all running tasks with their names and preview snapshots and enables the user to take actions on them using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts. With just one click, you can switch to a task, minimize, maximize, restore the main window or close the process.

Vista Visual Master -

Vista Visual Master will help you to customize your Windows Vista easily. With a simple interface it brings you an All-in-One set of classified tools, settings and tweaks. You can change the look of the windows and buttons, change the system icons and hundreds of file icons, reconfigure the boot and logon screen, patch and apply your new themes, and you can customize Windows Vista according to your wishes.

Visual BCD Editor -

Visual BCD Editor is an advanced GUI version of Windows bcdedit utility. The tool gives a structured view of Windows BCD store with an explorer like interface.

VLC Media Player -

VideoLAN VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. It doesn't need any external codec or program to work.

WaveShop -

WaveShop is a free, open-source audio editor for Windows XP/Vista/7. WaveShop is fast, lightweight, and bit-perfect, meaning samples aren't altered unless they need to be. Editing a portion of an audio file only affects that portion; the rest of the file is untouched. Blocks of audio can be cut and pasted without changing their contents at all. This is especially useful for patching a finished master without corrupting its dither. This is especially useful for patching a finished master without corrupting its dither. Waveshop's features include peak, RMS and spectral analysis, normalizing, fading, sample rate conversion, audio generation, and more, all with unlimited undo and comprehensive help.

Weather Watcher -

A weather monitoring program that sits running minimized to a tray icon in the notification area. Get all your weather needs met here with a built in weather alert alarm feature that you can put your own sound for. Fully customizable.

WinAlarm -

WinAlarm is a freeware reminder and alarm program. You can use it to remind you of specific forthcoming events, or of events that recur on a regular basis. It provides a customizable pop-up color-coded window bearing whatever text you enter, plus a customizable sound (if you want one). It can also provide advance warnings, and after-the-event reminder warnings.

Winamp -

MP3, Multimedia, and Music Player.

WinAudit -

WinAudit is easy to use, no special knowledge is required to use the programm. It is a self-contained single file that needs no installation or configuration. It can be run from a floppy disk or USB stick. It gives you a PC audit and inventory of software, licenses, security configuration, hardware, network settings...

WinDirStat -

WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows.

Windows Live Mail -

NOTE: Contacts will have to be manually imported from within WLM. (Tools, Contacts, File, Import, Address book for current Windows User.) To see the Menu bar, press ALT+M and check "Show all menus".

A replacement for Windows Mail that also supports website based email like Hotmail. It supports Pop3, IMAP, HTTP website (EX: Hotmail) email, and is a lot more stable. Plus, WLM will minimize to a tray bar icon and has a separate Inbox for each email account. WLM will automatically import Windows Mail messages, accounts, and settings into it.

Windows Product Key Viewer -

NOTE: See this tutorial also: How to See The Product Key in Vista

Windows Product Key Viewer is a free utility that will display the installed Windows Product Key (cd key) and other important Windows system information.

Windows Sidebar Styler -

NOTE: See this tutorial also: How to Change the Windows Sidebar Theme in Vista

This program will allow you to customize the appearance of Windows Sidebar by changing it's theme to what you want.

Windows SteadyState -

Windows SteadyState makes it easy to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them.

WinPatrol -

NOTE: WinPatrol Plus is not the free one.

WinPatrol is a anti spyware/adware program that uses a heuristic behavioral approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Traditional security programs scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes snapshot of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge.

WiNToBootic -

WiNToBootic allows you an easy creation of bootable Windows USB hard or flash disk from an ISO image, CD/DVD or Folder. This product is focused on creation of boot disks based on Microsoft Windows NT 6.x OS family (Vista, 7, 8, Server 2008, Server 2012).

Wireless Migrator -

Handy small program, that knows to backup and restore all wireless networks setting from your computer. For some reason, there is no way to do it by using regular Windows Vista tools.
This feature is extremely useful, when you have to reinstall your computer or use the same settings of wireless networks for different machines.

Wise Disk Cleaner Free -

A very thorough junk and temp file cleaner. Has the option to delete to the Recycle Bin for restoring purposes.

Wise Registry Cleaner Free -

WARNING: As with all registry cleaning programs, you should verify the scan results before just simply deleting them.

A very thorough registry cleaner. Can be helpful in finding errors in the registry to fix. Has a backup feature to restore registry changes if needed.

World Viewer -

With Microsoft Word Viewer and the Compatibility Pack, you can view, print, and copy Microsoft Word document contents to another program. However, you cannot edit an open document, save a document, or create a new document.

XdN Tweaker -

This is a program designed to tweak and optimize Vista. XdN can tweak things like disabling Windows Mail's splash screen, disabling user account control, better save folder views, remove or replace IE7's search box, disable the "send to" option, and much more. Has a installing and stand-alone exe version.

X-Mouse Button Control -

X-Mouse Button Control is a windows application to remap your mouse buttons.

XnView -

XnView is a program used to view and convert graphic files that is really simple to use. It supports more than 400 different graphics formats.

XRECODE -

XRECODE is a parallel audio converter with full Unicode support that can extract audio from video files, convert multiple files in parallel by taking full advantage of multi-core CPU, and much more. This program supports a wide range of file types.

ZoomIt -

ZoomIt is screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image. ZoomIt works on all versions of Windows and you can use pen input for ZoomIt drawing on tablet PCs.

Wild · Dec 29, 2007

Sean, think of this program as an extension that allows easy accessibility to the buried advanced options in the firewall, not only are the program controls readily accessible through the icon in the tray, you also get activity notification through pop ups.
Try it and you will say that windows firewall should have been built with this feature.

DeXtmL · Jan 6, 2008

And, if u listed CPU-Z, don't forget the GPU-Z!

techPowerUp! :: Downloads

Carandiru · Jan 6, 2008

µAmp
All Common Music Formats (.mp3,.wma,.ogg,.wav)
Native x64 Codec www.fmod.org
Themes - Open Theme Editor Available on Download Page
Intuitive Interface, Simple Design made to be Easy to Use
Low CPU Usage and Memory Usage (Better than Winamp)
available @
Tommorowland

priji · Jan 9, 2008

great list.

Brink · Jan 9, 2008

Thank you Priji. I'm glad you like it.

Shawn

DeXtmL · Jan 11, 2008

Hi,
there's another GPU oriented free stuff named "GPU Caps Viewer". don't get stuck, it is surely NOT a pure caps detector, just check it out:

oZone3D.Net - GPU Caps Viewer - Graphics Card Information Utility - GPU Core Temperature - OpenGL Extensions - GPU Stress Test

(I have no idea whether most ppl need it, but it's indeed free and mention-worth)

MrBiggz · Jan 14, 2008

It's a stupid little program. It makes animated backgrounds. You have control of a number of aspects into the animations and you can control the colors/multi-gradients into it as well.

I believe the last time I used it that you can save in AVI format. Surely with a little bit of work, a little that is, you can put these into Dreamscape format. I played with it at one time a few year ago and you can make the background any size you want.

Check it out .. hopefully it'll be good enough for the list!

Reptile v2.0

Enjoy! :D

Brink · Jan 14, 2008

MrBiggz,

It seems that Reptile v2.0 may not be free anymore. The download link for any version only opens to a blank page.

Note that there is a new version of Reptile with added functionality and features, however it is no longer freeware.

Shawn

Caledo · Jan 14, 2008

Sweet list. I have a few of those already (AVG, Spybot, CCleaner) but I love the GPU-Z.

It tells me I have only 64 MB graphics memory when I paid for 128... *fumes*

Moondog · Jan 14, 2008

Thanks for the great list AND thanks for the advise in fixing the .exe association issue. My daughter was crying about my failing to fix the issue immediately! Happpiness in computing once again...until the next Vista problem!

Brink · Jan 14, 2008

Your welcome Moondog.

Glad to hear it is back up and running smooth again.

MrBiggz · Jan 14, 2008

Why those dirty little so-and-so's at sausage. JERKS! UGH!

ok .. that makes me mad ..

I didn't see Virtual Box in the list. That should be right below or above Virtual PC.

and ...

There is MP3Tag .. it does quite a few sound formats and not just MP3.

Hope that makes up for the bummer I listed.

GSi-R · Jan 19, 2008

Some great apps there! Got many of them installed now, and working perfectly.!

Killerchronic · Jan 22, 2008

Great list, thanks. Nice to see alot of mainstream software is running under 64bit nicely. I was a bit concerned when i first took the plunge but i've not had a show stopping problem yet :D

Philly · Jan 22, 2008

For anyone that wants to learn to program, or make small programs heres visual studio 2008 express:

Main site: Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions

Download: Downloads

SoftwareTools · Feb 6, 2008

Brink said:
30. Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/
NOTE: Select your language and click Download in the upper right corner. Spybot S&D takes a bit to open after you click on the shortcut.
WARNING: Do not use the Immunize feature. It can cause delays in IE7 and Windows Mail.
This is a great spyware protection program. You can use this program along with Windows Defender for added protection.

I'm not sure where the warning advice arose, but Spybot is now at release 1.52 and there are no issues arising from using Immunization function in Vista x86 or x64!

Brink · Feb 6, 2008

Hi SoftwareTools,

Thank you for the update and confirming that Spybot no longer has this issue with it's Immunization feature.

The problem originally started with Windows Mail and sometimes IE7 being slow with these two installed: KB931768 Windows update and Spybot with Immunization turned on. You can see more on this in TWO here:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72674-windows-mail-slow.html

Shawn

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