Pat's Freeware Selection 
System
Defragmentation
Other storage tools
System information
Fonts and Tools
Password
Registry and File Cleaners, Registry Tools
Context menu handling
Startup handling
Process Management and Tools
Drivers and Tools
Codecs and tools
Installation, Configuration and Tweaking
Uninstallers
Benchmark
Fix and repair
Live BootCD
CPU, GPU and Memory tools
Keyboard and Mouse tools
Desktop and display tools
Java
Program Starters
Miscellaneous tools
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Code: ' P ' indicates software that is Portable or can be manipulated to be used as portable (see Portable freeware section).
Defragmentation
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Contig | YES | YES | Contig is a single-file defragmenter that attempts to make files contiguous on disk. Its perfect for quickly optimizing files that are continuously becoming fragmented. On Vista, run with elevated CMD prompt. |
| JkDefrag (P) | YES | YES | Completely automatic, easy to use, fast, with optimization strategies, and can handle floppies and USB disks/sticks besides fixed disks. The best free defragger for the moment, that does NOT choke on big files! Comes with a screensaver version as well. Plugins for a BartPE bootCD exist also. Not compatible with the Vista Shadow Copy service...or vica versa if you will. |
| JkDefrag GUI (P) | YES | YES | This is a GUI for JKDefrag. While JKDefrag runs automaticaly and the behaviour has to be controlled by command parameters, this GUI offers you a nice, easy interface. Fetches JKDefrag (and updates) automatically and of course updates for the GUI itself. |
| Pagedefrag (P) | YES | NO | Pagedefrag shows you how fragmented your paging files and Registry hives are, and can defragment them. In addition, it defragments event log files and Windows 2000/XP hibernation files. |
| WinContig (P) | YES | YES | Its purpose is to quick defrag files without the need to defrag the whole disk. Its defragmentation and analysis engine is based on the standard Microsoft defragmentation API. WinContig allows you to group files into profiles, and also accepts a number of optional command-line switches. |
Other storage tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| CheckDisk (P) | YES | CheckDisk is a tool for searching and repairing disk errors. It is quite similar to the ScanDisk tool or chkdsk.exe in Windows. You can select either standard or full tests. The full test additionally performs a sector check. It is capable of finding bad sectors on your disk and marking them as such. The program works both with hard disks (including SCSI and RAID) and removable media. For error correction i suggest integrating this tool on a BartPE BootCD. Needs Admin rights on Vista. | |
| Disk Investigator (P) | YES | Disk Investigator bypasses the operating system and displays the true drive contents by reading directly the raw drive sectors. You can view and search raw directories, files, clusters, and system sectors. Useful for verifying the effectiveness of file and disk wiping programs, and undelete previously deleted files. | |
| DriveImage XML (P) | NO | YES | DriveImage XML lets you backup any logical drive or partition to an image file. Image creation uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use. You can browse an image file, view/extract files from it, or restore the image to the same or different drive. There is also a function to help you clone one hard disk to another. |
| Fujitsu Hard Drive Utilities | YES | Fujitsu provides his customers with a bunch of software utilities for diagnosing, erasing Fujitsu hard drives. Some are useful tools for every one and some that should only be used with expert advice because they can be harmful and should only be used to correct a specific issue with full knowledge of the consequences. | |
| HDD Health (P) | NO | Sitting in the system tray, it monitors hard disks and alerts you to impending failure. The program uses Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) built into all new hard disks, and can predict failures on your hard drives. | |
| HDDScan (P) | YES | HDDScan is a tool for low-level HDD diagnostics. HDDScan supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards. The program can scan the surface, view SMART attributes, adjust AAM, APM (Power Management), etc. | |
| HDHacker (P) | YES | YES | HDHacker is a tool that saves, visualizes, and restores the MBR (from a physical drive), the BootSector (from a logical drive) or any specified sector from any disk (even removable disks). HDHacker can be used, for example, to save and restore a particular boot manager (such as LILO, for example) before a new Windows setup (which, obviously, overwrites it). It can also be used to backup the MBR or boot sector to be restored later if corrupted. |
| Hitachi Hard Drive Utilities | YES | Hitachi (has taken over the IBM DeskStar/TravelStar line) provides his customers with a bunch of software utilities. | |
| Seagate Discwizard (Maxblast) | YES | YES | Seagate DiscWizard is a FREE OEM version of Acronis True Image, the popular hard-drive cloning/backup utility (101MB download). The program lets you clone an entire hard drive, create a backup image of the whole drive or a partition , and build boot media you can use in the event your system becomes unbootable. You may use this on Seagate or Maxtor hard drives. It should only work on Seagate or Maxtor drives anyways. At least one of the drives has to be a Seagate or Maxtor. MAXBLAST 5 is in fact the same product as Discwizard. |
| SeaTools for Dos | YES | SeaTools for DOS has replaced SeaTools Desktop and PowerMax. SeaTools for DOS can test Seagate or Maxtor Parallel ATA (PATA and IDE) and Serial ATA (SATA) interface disc drives. Because the software boots to its own operating system you can test your drive regardless of the OS installed on it. You can even test a new or completely blank drive. SeaTools for DOS will instruct the drive to run its built in Drive Self Test (DST) and give either a pass or fail status. If you are troubleshooting your disc drive and the DST passes, then you have a good drive! Choice between a Dos boot disk or an ISO for a bootable CD. Look in the download section for downloading it from the Seagate website. | |
| SeaTools for Windows | YES | SeaTools for Windows has replaced SeaTools Online and PowerMax. SeaTools for Windows is a comprehensive diagnostic tool that helps you quickly determine the condition of the disc drive in your external hard drive, desktop or notebook computer. It includes several tests that will examine the physical media on your Seagate or Maxtor disc drive and any other non-Seagate disc drive. SeaTools for Windows tests USB, 1394, ATA (PATA/IDE), SATA and SCSI drives. It install onto your system. SeaTools for Windows is completely data safe. Requires .net Framework v2.0. Look in the download section for downloading it from the Seagate website. | |
| Smart | YES | It’s a simple command line utility to read back the SMART attributes from a HDD while in service. It’s a single 31kb executable which can be carried with you on a floppy disk, giving you a quick indication of the health of any disk drive without the burden of installing a sizeable application. | |
| Testdisk (P) | YES | YES | TestDisk is a powerful data recovery software! It was designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting your Partition Table). Comes bundled with PHOTOREC, a File Recovery program. |
| Unstoppable copier (P) | YES | YES | Recovers files from disks with physical damage: scratched CD's or defective floppy/hard disks. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data. The program will attempt to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together. Using this method most types of files can be made useable even if some parts were not recoverable in the end. |
| USB Memory Stick Tester (P) | YES | USB Memory Stick Tester is a small app designed to help testing removable storage media (such as USB memory sticks) for defects. The current version is only able to test the unused space from the disk. To test the whole disk you would have to erase or format it upfront. | |
| Visual Subst (P) | YES | Visual Subst is a small app that allows you to associate the most accessed directories with virtual drives. It uses the same API similar to the console 'subst' utility, but makes it easier to create and remove virtual drives via a GUI. | |
| Western Digital software Utilities | YES | Western Digital has a variety of tools for his customers. |
System information
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Belarc Advisor | NO | YES | System info tool: Reports include Security Audits, Software Licenses, Windows Server 2003 and XP upgrades, Change History, Health Status, Trend Logs and more... |
| Core Temp | YES | YES | Core Temp is a compact, small footprint program to monitor CPU temperatures. It shows the temperature of each individual core in each processor on your system. You can see in real time how the CPU temperature varies when you load your CPU. This is a handy overclock tool. |
| CPU-Z (P) | YES | YES | CPU-Z gathers and displays information on some of the main devices of your machine, including CPU, motherboard, memory and operating system. This is a handy overclock tool. |
| CurrPorts (P) | YES | YES | CurrPorts displays the list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports on your local computer. For each port in the list, information about the process that opened the port is displayed, including the process name, full path of the process, version information of the process, the time that the process was created, and the user that created it. In addition, CurrPorts lets you close unwanted TCP connections, kill the process that opened the ports, and save the TCP/UDP ports information to a HTML , XML, or TSV text file. CurrPorts automatically marks suspicious TCP/UDP ports owned by unidentified applications (Applications without version information and icons) with pink color. |
| Dependency Walker | YES | YES | Dependency Walker scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module, and which of those functions are actually being called by other modules. Another view displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file. It detects many common application problems such as missing modules, invalid modules, etc. |
| GPU-Z | YES | YES | GPU-Z is a small utility that gives you all information about your video card and GPU. Supports NVIDIA and ATI cards; displays adapter, GPU and display information; displays overclock, default clocks and 3D clocks (if available). No installation required. Still béta for the moment! |
| Iknow Process Scanner | YES | It is a process lister that will show you all the processes running in your system. | |
| Pc Wizard (P) | YES | YES | It is 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. |
| SIW (P) | NO | YES | SIW (System Information for Windows) performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics. Creates report files in CSV, HTML, TXT or XML about motherboard, BIOS, CPU, devices, memory, video, drivers, ports, printers etc. It is also a real-time monitor for CPU, Memory, Page File usage and Network Traffic. |
| Speedfan | YES | YES | A tool that can change your computer's fan speeds, read the temperatures of your motherboard and your hard disk, read voltages and fan speeds and check the status of your hard disk using S.M.A.R.T. or SCSI attributes. Can be used as an overclock tool. |
| System Spec (P) | YES | With System Spec you can see, save and print a complete spec of your PC. This no-install, system information utility can also perform various Windows functions. Additional info includes CPU, drives, applications, display, memory, networking, internet, CD / DVD drives and more. | |
| WinAudit (P) | YES | YES | The program reports almost every aspect of computer inventory and configuration: installed software, license information, security configuration, hardware inventory, network settings etc. Results are displayed in web-page format, categorised for ease of viewing and text searching. Reports can be saved in various formats (text, PDF, HTMl etc.), sent via email, or exported to a database via ODBC. |
Fonts and Tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Font Frenzy | YES | YES | Every font that gets installed on your PC slows down the boot-up time and slows down your normal operational speed. Font Frenzy is a free font manager that helps you to view, install, and uninstall your fonts. Font Frenzy allows you to strip away all your excess fonts and restores your system to only the fonts that are essential to Windows with one button, make a snapshot of your installed fonts, restore a snapshot... |
| Fontlist | YES | With FontList, you can create a HTML file that will show all the fonts installed on your computer. With your browser, you can pick the right font in no time. You can change the predefined sample text, exclude seldom used fonts from the list and change the path for the HTML file. In your browser, you can change the style of a font and zoom in on a font. You can also view the character map of a font and create a print out of all your fonts. | |
| FontsOnCD (P) | YES | With FontsOnCD You can simultaneous view and compare all font faces in selected folder, view the family and subfamily name of font, view sample text (changable) in bold, italic, underline and outline form. | |
| FontView (P) | YES | The package consists of two programs: FontView can show all installed fonts in one window. It makes it possible to see which fonts look the same and could be erased. (All fonts in Windows take up memory and disk space) CharMap can show all characters in a font and copy characters to the clipboard with the ability to increase the size of the characters displayed, something which the native Windows CharMap utility cannot do. | |
| Handwriting fonts | YES | YES | Handwriting and Symbolic TrueType Fonts. |
Password
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Offline NT Password | YES | YES | This is a utility to (re)set the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your NT/WINXP system. |
| Protected Storage Password (P) | YES(FAQ) | Protected Storage PassView is a small utility that reveals the passwords stored on your computer by Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and MSN Explorer. The passwords are revealed by reading the information from the Protected Storage. ( Some antivirus software react on this tool because it's capabilities-”riskware”). | |
| RockXP (P) | YES | RockXP allows you to retrieve and change your XP product key that you used when you installed Windows XP. This can come very handy if you need to reinstall but have misplaced or lost the CD cover with the serial sticker. |
Registry and File Cleaners, Registry Tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| ATF Cleaner | YES | YES | A simple and small tool for cleaning temporary files on your system |
| Auslogics Registry Defrag | YES | YES | Auslogics Registry Defrag is a useful program to keep your registry as compact as possible. It's good, but takes more space on your hard drive then NTREGOPT. |
| CCleaner (P) | YES | YES | A multi functional system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system. Has a registry cleaner on board. |
| EasyCleaner (P) | YES | A multi functional system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system. Has a registry cleaner on board. | |
| Erunt (P) | YES | YES | ERUNT creates a backup of the Windows registry to a folder of your choice, and allows you to easily restore the registry from a backup when required. Needs admin rights. Be aware: Erunt saves only registry files which are in use by the system. For example those of other users of the computer, cannot be saved by Erunt. This app is useful when testing out software. |
| NTREGOPT (P) | YES | YES | Ntregopt compacts the Windows registry by recreating each registry hive "from scratch", removing any slack space that's been left behind from previously modified or deleted keys. Admin rights needed. |
| RDilly (P) | YES | YES | RDilly makes a backup copy of the registry. It's very similar to System Restore found in WinME and WinXP. You get a point-in-time copy of the registry labeled with the date it was made. You also are able to restore the registry to this point-in-time copy. Be aware: RDilly saves only registry files which are in use by the system. For example those of other users of the computer, cannot be saved by Rdilly. This app is useful when testing out software. |
| Registry Clean Expert (P) | YES | YES | During the normal operation of a Windows system, registry data is frequently being written to and removed from the registry. Over time this data becomes scattered within the registry file and when information is deleted from the registry holes are left which fragment the data within the registry. Registry compacting optimizes your registry by removing gaps and wasted space. Admin rights needed. You will be required to reboot after the registry is compacted. This kind of program is often subject to debate. Benefits are probably more theoretically then measurable, while operations on the registry are not without risk! |
| Registry Tweaker (P) | YES | Registry Tweaker is a tool, for applying registry tweaks on Windows 2000/XP/2003. Gives You easy access to many registry tweaks. It provides a description for each tweak, helping understand what each one does. It supports profiles, which allow You to apply a predefined set of tweaks automatically. | |
| RegSeeker (P) | NO | YES | RegSeeker includes a registry cleaner and can display various informations like your startup entries, several histories (even index.dat files), installed applications etc. With RegSeeker you can search for any item inside your registry, export/delete the results, open them in the registry. RegSeeker also includes a tweaks panel to optimize your OS ! RegSeeker includes a file tool to search for duplicate files, bad shortcuts and more ! |
Context menu handling
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Context Menu Editor (P) | YES | Context Menu Editor can view and delete links to programs on your context menus. It does not delete the programs, it just removes them from your menus. Menu deletions cannot be undone! | |
| Fast Explorer (P) | YES | YES | This 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. You can create new menu items, submenus, dividers etc. or specify menu bitmaps and hint text. You can also manage existing menu items added by other programs, or detect/fix orphaned entries in the Windows registry. |
| ShellExView (P) | YES | YES | Shell Extensions extend the abilities of Windows operating system. Most shell extensions are automatically installed by the operating system, but there are also many other applications that install additional shell extension components. The ShellExView utility displays the details of shell extensions installed on your computer, and allows you to easily disable and enable each shell extension. ShellExView can be used for solving context-menu problems in the Explorer environment. |
Startup handling
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| AutoRuns for Windows (P) | YES | YES | 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 the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP. |
| EasyBCD | YES | YES | EasyBCD's GUI makes it relatively easy to modify the Windows Vista bootloader, allowing you to add and remove entries to it for dual booting with other versions of Windows and other operating systems. Depending on your system configuration, creating a multi-boot system can be as simple as clicking a few buttons (but it may also require copying and editing of system files). The program can backup and restore your current boot settings, and undo any changes if you run into problems. |
| Starter (CodeStuff) (P) | YES | Starter allows one to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever the operating system is loading. It shows all the hidden registry entries, startup folders' items and some of the initialization files, so that the user could choose to temporarily disable selected entries, edit them, create new, or delete them permanently. Secondary purpose is to list all the running processes with possibility to view extended process' information (such as used DLLs, memory usage, thread count, priorities etc.), and to terminate selected process (even a Windows NT service, having enough access rights). | |
| Startup Control Panel (P) | YES | Startup Control Panel is a control panel applet that allows You to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts and allows You to disable or remove them if necessary. | |
| StartupMonitor | YES | StartupMonitor is a small utility that runs transparently and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. |
Process Management and Tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| a-squared HiJackFree (P) | NO | YES | a-squared HiJackFree is een gedetaileerd systeem analyse tool welke ervaren gebruikers helpt alle types van HiJackers, Spyware, Adware, Trojans en Wormen te detecteren en verwijderen. Beheer alle types van “Autoruns” op je systeem, controlleer alle Explorer en Browser plugins (BHOs, Toolbars, enz.), bekijk open poorten en de geassocieerde luisterende processen, enz. |
| Advanced Process Termination (P) | YES | Advanced Process Termination (APT) is a simple but powerful utility that provides nine (9) different process termination techniques - all at the click of a button. APT also allows you to Suspend and Resume processes, and serves as a useful process list utility. | |
| DTaskManager (P) | YES | YES | DtaskManager is a Task-Manager with additional functionalities that the Windows bundled TaskManager does not have: Three different ways to close a process, suspend and reactivate a process, select more than one process at a time, and terminate all of them "simultaneously". |
| Process Explorer for Windows (P) | YES | YES | Process Explorer is an advanced task manager. It shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Very useful for killing tasks that refuse to be killed, or to find out which processes are still holding on to a particular file or DLL so it refuses to be deleted. |
| Process Monitor (P) | YES | YES | Process Monitor combines the features of FileMon and RegMon. It's an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. Process Monitor is a core utility in a system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit. |
Drivers and Tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Driver Magician Lite (P) | YES | YES | Driver Magician Lite identifies all the hardware in the system, extracts their associated drivers from the hard disk and backs them up to a location of your choice. Then, when you format and reinstall/upgrade your operating system, you can restore all the "saved" drivers just as if you had the original driver diskettes in your hands. |
| DriverBackup! (P) | YES | YES | A simple tool to backup hardware drivers' files. |
| DriverGrabber (P) | YES | YES | DriverGrabber will grab all 3rd party drivers from your system and stick them into a "Drivers" directory in the same directory as the exe. Comes in handy if you need to reinstall Windows and have misplaced the original driver discs. |
| Drivermax | YES | YES | Drivermax does a great job with both backing up and restoring drivers. All it needs after restoration is a single restart of the computer. No more hassle, no more restarts after each driver installation. Driver download is not supported yet. You're required to get a free registration code after the 30 day evaluation periode. No personal information is being asked, just a valid email address. |
| Guru3D - Driver Sweeper | YES | YES | It's a tool to remove driver leftovers from your system. It's very important to remove your drivers on a proper way, because driver leftovers can cause problems like stability and startup problems. You can use it if you want to update/remove drivers from your system. The current supported drivers are NVIDIA (Display and Chipset), ATI (Display), Creative (Sound) Realtek (Sound), Ageia (PhysX) and Microsoft (Mouse). |
| Opendrivers | YES | YES | Open Drivers - Free Download Device Drivers. |
| Softwarepatch Driver Updates | YES | YES | Windows driver updates |
| Unknown Device Identifier | YES | YES | Enables you to identify unknown devices in the Device Manager, and also seek drivers or backup your drivers. (Standalone) |
Codecs and tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Vista Codec Package | YES | YES | Vista Codec Package is a codec pack for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows NT. The codec pack combines all the best and popular codecs available. The author tracks down the latest updates to the codecs used in the pack, and tests their functionality before been updated and included in the package, plus resolve all possible conflicts. Vista Codec Pack does not contain a media player and does not associates filetypes of the supported media files. With this package installed you will be able to use any media player (limited by the players capabilities) to play DVD’s, movies and video clips such as quicktime, realmedia, avi, mpeg, Flv, swf, wmv, etc. |
Installation, Configuration and Tweaking
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| ABK SecureSys (P) | YES | An application to tweak and customize various system-related settings to make it more secure. | |
| Folder Marker Free | NO | Lets you mark any folders with color-coded icons to find them easy on sight. This free edition of Folder Marker is an older version then the newest edition and contains basic functions: Support of 32-bits icons, assign an icon to a folder from: ICO, ICL, EXE, DLL, CPL or BMP file, change folder color, ...If you extract it with Universal Extractor, it works standalone. | |
| FolderIco (P) | NO | A program like Folder Marker. Folderico allows you to change the default icon of any folder. And even if you plugged the hard drive into another computer, the icons will remain as you made them. | |
| Glary Utilities | NO | YES | Glary Utilities bundles utilities that increase your PC performance and maintain your system. Clean your PC from junk files, remove Internet traces, find invalid registry entries, manage startup programs, optimize system memory and more. The program also includes a disk space inspector to locate large folders and files, as well as a Context Menu Manager, that enables you to disabled unused right-click options for files and folders. Other features include and Internet Explorer Assistant, a Privacy Shredder for secure file deletion and an encryption tool, and more. 100% free...Yeah, but only for private use. |
| InstalledCodec (NirSoft) | YES | YES | This is the successor of MMCompView. InstalledCodec is a small utility that displays the list of all Codec drivers and DirectShow filters currently installed on your system. It allows you to disable or enable any Codec/DirectShow component or export the list into a text/xml/html file. |
| Logon Screen Saver Changer | YES | YES | Logon Screen Saver Changer is a tool that you can use to change the logon screen saver (the one that pops up when no user is logged on) avoiding changing it manually with regedit in the registry. You can also use it to adjust the logon screensaver settings (such as the timeout period). No installation required. Small file. |
| Regshot (P) | YES | YES | Regshot is a small,free and open-sourced registry compare utility that allows you to quickly take a snapshot of your registry and then compare it with a second one - done after doing system changes or installing a new software product. The changes report can be produced in text or HTML format and contains a list of all modifications that have taken place between snapshot1 and snapshot2. In addition, you can also specify folders (with sub folders) to be scanned for changes as well. |
| SafeXP (P) | YES | Safe XP allows users to quickly tweak various security and privacy related settings in XP. The options include Media Player settings, Services settings (error reporting, time synch, etc.), as well as and option to remove items from the Start menu, network security settings and more. | |
| Security & Privacy Complete (P) | YES | An application to tweak and customize various system-related settings to make it more secure. Nearly 100 functions to secure Windows XP, Media Player, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox..., full control over Windows Update: only enable and run it on monthly patch-day, integrated trace-deleter erases traces of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Flash Player, the DNS Cache, and some other entries from the registry. | |
| ShellMenuView (P) | YES | ShellMenuView is a small utility that display the list of static menu items that appeared in the context menu when you right-click a file/folder on Windows Explorer, and allows you to easily disable unwanted menu items. ShellMenuView works properly on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. | |
| Tweak UI (P) | YES | This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. | |
| TweakUAC | YES | YES | With TweakUAC you can quickly turn UAC (User Account Control of Windows Vista) on or off, or make UAC operate in the quiet mode. No installation needed. In the quiet mode, UAC does not display the elevation prompts for the administrators. In quiet mode you keep all the positive effects of UAC, such as Internet Explorer operating in the protected mode, applications starting without the administrative privileges by default, etc. Far more secure then turning UAC off completely! The quiet mode in TweakUAC is basicaly a registry tweak at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ System\ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin. The default DWORD value is 2 for on, the value 0 (zero) is for off. |
| Ultimate Windows Tweaker (P) | YES | YES | Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a Tweak UI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows Vista or higher. Standalone, no installation required. |
| Vispa | YES | YES | Vispa lets you easily tweak Windows Vista for better privacy and security, even system performance. Do a few clicks rather than finding the write registry keys or program settings. Not every setting is desired in every environment. Vispa is no tool for beginners, just a more convenient way of tweaking your operating system. |
| WinBubble (P) | YES | YES | In just a few clicks, WinBubble will help you to customize and tweak your Windows Vista easily. WinBubble's many features cover Security, Optimization and Customization. No installation needed. Possibility to hook your own tools on some free buttons in Winbubble. |
Uninstallers
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Free Uninstaller (P) | YES | YES | A replacement for the Add/Remove module in Windows with additional features. The main task of the program is removing applications installed with Windows system and removing invalid entries from uninstall list. <br>Instructions:<br> Download the ZIP, extract to a folder and start fun.exe. |
| MyUninstaller (P) | YES | YES | MyUninstaller is an alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all installed applications, and allows you to uninstall an application, delete an uninstall entry, and save the list of all installed applications into a text file or HTML file. MyUninstaller also provides additional information for most installed applications that the standard Add/Remove applet doesn't display: product name, company, version, uninstall string, installation folder and more. Admin rights required. |
| Revo Uninstaller (P) | YES | YES | A replacement for the Add/Remove module in Windows with 10 additional features. |
| Safarp (P) | YES | Safarp is an alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all installed applications, and allows you to uninstall an application, remove orphaned/obsolete entries, export the program list to a variety of report formats. As an advantage it loads much faster and it allows you to quickly locate installed programs by typing the first letter of its name. | |
| ZSoft Uninstaller | NO | YES | ZSoft Uninstaller can be used as a Add/Remove applet replacement, but it can much more: it enables you to keep track of any changes that are made during installation of new software, and later reverse those changes and completely uninstall the newly added program. This program is still being developed and is a good alternative to Total Uninstall which is no longer being developed |
Benchmark
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| HDTune (P) | NO | YES | HD Tune is a Hard Disk utility which has the following functions: Benchmark,Info,Health,Error Scan,Temperature display. HD Tune may also work with other storage devices such as memory cards, USB sticks, iPods, etc. |
| Pc Wizard (P) | YES | YES | It is 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. |
Fix and repair
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Autofix | YES | The Microsoft AutoPlay Repair Wizard scans your computer devices to find defective AutoPlay settings, and attempts to fix those it finds. | |
| Dial-a-fix (DAF) (P) | YES | Dial-a-fix is an advanced utility for 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows that repairs various Windows problems, such as: Windows Update errors and problems with Automatic Updates; SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification) issues; COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries,etc. DAF is a collection of known fixes gleaned from Microsoft Knowledgebase articles, Microsoft MVPs, and other important support forums, that will assist you in repairing problems with your system. This tool is meant for power users, technicians, and administrators, but it is quite safe to use even without technical guidance. Simply choose the solutions you wish to apply via checkmarks, and click GO. DAF's primary philosophy is to fix problems by setting various things back to their original Microsoft defaults. DAF currently does not interface with or repair any third party programs (and there are no plans to do so). | |
| IEFIX | YES | Repair tool for Internet Explorer. | |
| Taskbar Repair Tool | YES | This application allows you to Repair and Customize the Quick Launch, Taskbar and Notification Area in Windows XP. Some options are only available in the lisenced version. | |
| XPFix | YES | This installaton program will reinstall the missing or corrupt Windows XP system files command.com, autoexec.nt and config.nt. The absence or corruption of one or more of these files causes a "16 Bit Subsystem" error. |
Live BootCD
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| BartPE Builder | YES | Bart's PE Builder helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks. | |
| Darik's Boot and Nuke | YES | Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy 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. Use it if you give away or sell your computer to someone else! | |
| Bootdisks | YES | Here you can get bootdisks; pick your choice. | |
| UBCD4WIN | YES | UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair/restore/diagnostic almost any computer problem. All software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. UBCD4Win is based on Bart's PE©. Bart's PE© builds a Windows® "pre-install" environment CD, basically Windows® booted from CD. |
CPU, GPU and Memory tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| ATITool | YES | ATITool is an overclocking utility designed for ATI and NVIDIA video cards. The artifact scanning mode to test for GPU stability is a handy overclock feature (after tweaking with Rivatuner as an axample)! Use the latest beta's for Vista 32 bit support. | |
| Memtest (P) | YES | YES | MemTest is a RAM reliability tester that evaluates the ability of your computer's memory to store and retrieve data accurately. By running MemTest you can ensure that your computer's RAM is correctly functioning. It is wise to test this when you buy a new computer, install new RAM, overclock your machine or encounter errors that could be related to memory problems. |
| Memtest86+ | YES | YES | Memtest86+ is a port, Based on the well-known original memtest86 . (It's more up-to-date) |
| Prime95 or Prime95 | YES | YES | Prime95 is a program designed to be used to find Mersenne Prime numbers. It is a great, popular application for stress testing CPU and memory. This is a handy overclock tool. |
| Rivatuner | YES | YES | RivaTuner is a complete powerful tweaking environment, providing you everything you may need to tune NVIDIA GPU based display adapters, including fan speed. In addition to complete NVIDIA hardware support, RivaTuner also provides limited support for display adapters based upon ATI RADEON 8500 and newer ATI graphics processors. This is a handy GPU overclocking tool. |
| SP2004 Orthos Edition | NO | YES | SP2004 Orthos Edition is a GUI around Prime95 to make things easier. This is a handy overclock tool. |
Keyboard and Mouse tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| AllChars (P) | YES | AllChars provides a quick, easy-to-remember way of inserting special characters in most Windows programs. AllChars sits in the system tray and emulates the Unix "Compose" key under Windows. It supports macros i.e. replacing a short string with a longer piece of text. | |
| AutoHotkey (P) | YES | Three keywords: Automation, Hotkeys, Scripting. With AutoHotkey You can create hotkeys for keyboard, joystick, and mouse; expand abbreviations as you type them; remap keys and buttons on your keyboard, joystick, and mouse; Run existing AutoIt v2 scripts and enhance them with new capabilities, etc. A macro record is included, as well as a script compiler that converts a script to an EXE. | |
| HotKeyz (P) | YES | HotKeyz is a keyboard utility with hotkey control for executing other files, folders or RUN commands. Launch applications in a Normal, Minimized or Maximized State. The Parameter option gives you parameter control when launching another application like Internet Explorer and surfing to a specific site as parameter. Define memo type text and with a hotkey paste your text into your e-mails, documents etc. You can also paste special characters or the current date and time. Open and close your CD-Rom(s). Power off, shutdown, logoff or reboot your PC with a hotkey press etc. | |
| WinMacro (P) | YES | WinMacro is a simple Macro recorder/player for Windows that records whatever you do at your Windows Desktop, and can replay them exactly. It doesn't record video, instead it uses windows hooking mechanisms to monitor your mouse and keyboard events, and plays them back. Therefore the recorded file is much smaller than what would be if you recorded live video, typically in the range of kilobytes. WinMacro can be used to automate everyday tasks that you need to perform repetitively or use it to give a practical demonstration as part of a tutorial. |
Desktop and display tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| ClearTweak (P) | YES | ClearTweak allows you to change the contrast setting of the ClearType setting for WinXP. ClearType is designed to enhance LCD displays. It may appear slightly blurry on standard desktop monitors. It does not hurt to try ClearTweak on a CRT monitor. Even though ClearType is designed for LCD's, some people see an improvement on CRT's. | |
| DesktopZoom (P) | YES | YES (*) | DesktopZoom is a zoom/magnify program for zooming an area around the mouse, a fixed window, or the entire desktop. You can use the mouse inside the zoomed window, use the mouse wheel or arrow keys to adjust the magnification strength, etc. Win2K / WinXP. (*) Works on Vista is you disable Aero. |
| Dexpot | NO | YES | Dexpot is a virtual desktop manager to organize applications over several (maximum 20) virtual desktops. It lets you open windows simultaneously to work far more efficiently and comfortably. |
| FxVisor | YES | YES | FxVisor, former Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover now called Vista Shortcut Manager allows you to remove the shortcut overlay arrow on shorcuts or to customize it to a light arrow or custom arrow. This is for VISTA only, NOT winxp! The best working alternative is a registry tweak with the “Shell Icons Method”. Instructions here. |
| Iconoid | YES | YES | Iconoid is a Windows desktop icon manager that runs as a system tray icon, or completely hidden. Features: select any color for icon backgrounds or make the backgrounds transparent, Save and Restore Icon positions for each screen resolution, Dynamically hide icons when you mouse cursor is not on the desktop, minimize all windows. |
| Icontext | YES | Desktop icon background can be made transparent. You can also alter the icon text color. | |
| MultiRes (P) | NO | MultiRes works like a 32-bit version of the venerable Microsoft QuickRes 16-bit applet for Windows 95, with administrative scripting facilities and extended capabilities to handle ClearType, refresh rates and multiple monitors. Supported resolution and refresh rates are accessible from the command-line or from a simple menu that pops up from the system tray. Changes you make can be reversed safely. | |
| Virtuawin (P) | YES | YES | VirtuaWin is an open source virtual desktop manager to organize applications over several (maximum 8) virtual desktops ("workspaces"). |
| Visual Tooltip (P) | YES | YES | Visual Tooltip shows a thumbnail of a window from a running application by placing the mouse cursor over a button of the taskbar. The thumbnails can be moved anywhere on the desktop, added in a "dock bar" , can have various rotations ( from 0 to 80 degree ). This is a new feature in Windows Vista, but now You can have this feature on Windows XP as well. (Works only on WinXP and Vista!) |
| WinExit screensaver | YES | Windows Exit Screen Saver - WinExit is a screen saver that logs the current user off after the specified time has elapsed. | |
| ZoomIt | YES | YES | ZoomIt is an ideal screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs 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. |
| ZZOOM (P) | YES | ZZoom is an all-in-one screen zoomer, color picker and image grabber. 1x - 15x zoom, crosshair toggle, zoom level accessible via menu, copy color to clipboard, copy image to clipboard, etc. |
Java
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| JavaRa | YES | YES | Update the SUN Java JRE and remove old versions of the JRE at the click of a button. Vista without UAC! |
| Sun java Or Java JRE | YES | YES | Sun Java: download +test your java installation. |
Program Starters
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| Launchy (P) | YES | Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes! When you run Launchy, it is completely hidden. You activate it by pressing [Alt-Space], and dismiss it by pressing [Esc]. Enter the first few letters of a file or program, and Launchy automatically displays the rest of the name. You simply press [Enter] to open or launch it. | |
| SmartStartMenu | YES | YES | SmartStartMenu is a program launcher that turns the task of opening any program, document, folder, or website into a two or three key-stroke effort! It scans your start menu and other locations on your hard drive to locate items . Scanning can be done anytime you want... even during system startup. Once scanning is completed you simply type a few letters and SmartStartMenu will use type-ahead technology to generate an alphabetized list of items that match the criteria for you to select from...." |
Miscellaneous tools
| (short)Name & Link | Commercial Use? | VISTA ? | Short Description |
| AutoIt (P) | YES | YES | AutoIt v3 is a BASIC-like scripting language designed for automating the Windows GUI and general scripting. It uses a combination of simulated keystrokes, mouse movement and window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks. It's small and standalone with no external .dll files or registry entries. Scripts can be compiled into stand-alone executables with Aut2Exe. AutoIt is popular in the system administration field as a tool for automating administrative tasks. But you can use AutoIt to automate anything in a Windows environment. It allows you to create complex Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). |
| Autostreamer (P) | YES | Slipstream servicepacks with windows. | |
| c't Projekte - Offline-Update | YES | YES | Alternative for the “Autopatcher”, wich is no longer available. Lets you install Windows updates without an internet connection. The offline script collection downloads the entire body of updates for Windows 2000, XP or Server 2003, Vista and MSOffice from Microsoft's servers and then uses them to create patch packages on CD, DVD or USB stick. Those in turn allow you to update as many PCs as desired. If you install Windows fresh from the original CD and then head over to the update website, the website recommends you to download a big number of updates. And don't forget: that number keeps growing with each Patch Tuesday. This project is a solution to update one or more computers offline with only one update package. |
| Crossloop | YES | YES | CrossLoop is a FREE secure screen sharing utility designed for people of all technical skill levels. CrossLoop extends the boundaries of VNC’s traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It only takes a few minutes to setup and no signup is required. It's a shell around VNC. A CrossLoop session can only begin on your computer by explicitly inviting some one to begin a session. All data sent over the CrossLoop network is encrypted at the endpoints using a 128-bit Blowfish encryption. Just click on download and install the software. Click on the CrossLoop Icon and you are ready to connect with anyone securely. |
| Dir2html | YES | DIR2HTML creates an HTML index from a file system directory. This is useful for building file lists, cataloging contents of CD-ROMS, etc. The program can index either a single directory or multiple directories at once recursively. | |
| DLL-files | YES | Download missing DLL's from there. | |
| Event Log Explorer | NO | YES | Event Log Explorer is a free software for viewing, monitoring and analyzing events recorded in Security, System, Application and another logs of Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 operating systems. It extends starndard Event Viewer monitoring functionality and brings new features. |
| Gavotte Ramdisk | YES | YES | Ramdisk creates a virtual hard drive treating a segment of random access memory (RAM) as secondary storage which is similar to hard disks, except with advantage that ramdisk is a lot faster and has better access times. Ramdisk has one downside: contents in Ramdisk is stored in computer RAM, which will be lost when the power of computer is switched off. It's free, it's stable, doesn’t have size limitations, supports FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS filesystems. |
| Lads | YES | YES | This program lists all alternate data streams (ADS) of an NTFS directory. |
| Layout.DLL | YES | Icon restore: restore your desktop layout easy after changing screen resolutions. Mirror downloaded: Layout.zip . Instructions here. | |
| Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 | YES | YES (E,B,U) | Use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same physical computer, to try out new software or to run an application that doesn't get along with Vista as an example. Switch between virtual machines with the click of a button. It doesn't have all the features of the higher-end virtualization utilities, but it has almost everything the casual user will need—for free! Runs on: Win XP TABLET, XP PRO, Server 2003, Vista E/B/U. |
| nLite | NO | NO | nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows setup. With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn't include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components. Needs .net framework! |
| Poweroff (P) | YES | Poweroff is a small program for Win95/98/NT/W2K/XP to schedule a shutdown/reboot/logoff/poweroff/Standby/Hibernate/Lock/Wake-On-LAN at a certain time. | |
| Powertoys Microsoft | YES | NO | Some free tools from Microsoft for WinXP. |
| PrintFolder | YES | Handy utility to print or save a list of files located in any folder. Right-click any folder in Windows Explorer and select "PrintFolder" in the popup menu. | |
| PyKeylogger | YES | It is primarily designed for personal backup purposes, rather than stealth keylogging. Thus, it does not make explicit attempts to hide its presence from the operating system or the user. That said, the only way it is visible is that the process name shows up in the task list, so it is not immediately apparent that there is a keylogger on the system. | |
| RealVNC Free Edition | YES | NO | VNC (Virtual Network Computing) software makes it possible to view and fully-interact with one computer from any other computer or mobile device anywhere on the Internet. VNC software is cross-platform, allowing remote control between different types of computer. For ultimate simplicity, there is even a Java viewer, so that any desktop can be controlled remotely from within a browser without having to install software. |
| Shutter (P) | NO | YES | Shutter is a multifunctional shutdown utility that supports many different Events and Actions. Events: Countdown, On Time, Winamp Stops, Low CPU Usage, User Inactive, Battery Low, Window Closes, Process Stops, Ping Stops, File Size Limit; Actions: Shutdown, Reboot, LogOff, Lock Workstation, Sleep, Hibernate, Monitor Turn Off, Mute/UnMute Master Volume, Hang Up, Alarm; It can play a custom sound and/or run a program of your choice, in addition to the simple shutdown message. Shell Links can be created to immediately execute any of the supported actions from the desktop. Web Interface - allows Remote Execution of any Action, it also displays some run-time information about the computer: Logged In User, Up Time, List of Processes, Screenshot of a Desktop, plus Command Line Execution. |
| StreamShellExtensions | YES | Shell extension to discover ADS streams on your system (NTFS) | |
| Sysinternals | YES | YES/NO | Some free NTFS utillities. |
| ThightVNC | YES | TightVNC is a free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer. | |
| vLite | NO | YES | vLite is the same as nLite, but for Vista. |
| WhyReboot (P) | YES | WhyReboot is a small (~100KB) Windows application that helps you decide whether to reboot your computer after running an installer or uninstaller. It does this by displaying a list of "pending file operations" (rename, delete, etc) that will occur after rebooting your computer. | |
| Windows SteadyState | YES | YES | Whether you manage computers in a school computer lab or an Internet cafe, a library, or even in your home, Windows SteadyState, formerly known as Microsoft® Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP, helps make it easy for you to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them. Features: Windows Disk Protection, User Restrictions and Settings, User Account Manager, Computer Restrictions. Supported OS: Windows XP Home and Pro Edition ; Windows XP Service Pack 2; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. In short: it restricts access on the computer, wipes away any changes a user makes to your computer and removes any files they leave behind. Even if something defeats this profile security, Windows Disk Protection wipes away all changes made to the hard drive at each reboot. |
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