Absolutely Free Software -
Best Useful Windows Utilities
No shareware, no nagware, no adware. Reviewed constantly. Categorized conveniently.
This page is updated regularly. Last update: October 3, 2005.
Free Utilities - Useful
In addition to the essential Windows utilities, there are gobs and gobs of useful ones. These are designed to make your computing experience easier, more convenient, less arcane. Not all are for everyone, but everyone can use something. All custom-picked to weed out the junk.
Free Advanced Task Switcher
TaskSwitchXP Pro
new! added 10/3
Anybody that's used Windows for more than a month is familiar with the fourth most common hotkey combination of all: Alt-Tab (after Ctrl-C, X and V). TaskSwitchXP adds some much-needed functionality, mainly by displaying a thumbnail preview of your running apps. It also has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Process and window management and the ability to minimize / maximize windows or groups.
note! Windows XP / 2003 only
http://www.ntwind.com/taskswitchxp/
Free File Undelete Tool
Restoration
new! added September 14, 2005
A long, long time ago in an operating system far, far away there was a DOS command called "undelete". Now that we have the Recycle Bin, Microsoft has decided that we no longer need to undelete files, but they are sadly mistaken.
If you inadvertantly clear out your recycle bin or permanently delete a file by accident, Restoration will come to the rescue. It's small, requires no installation, and will list all the recoverable files on your Windows NTFS or FAT system. I even recovered a song from my iPod.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.htmlFree Quick Launch Enhancer
Free Launch Bar
new! added September 8, 2005
Who says there's no such thing as a free launch?
This is a very handy little utility that replaces Windows standard quick launch bar. It allows you to combine your shortcuts into groups, and to assign hotkeys to each group. Very handy. thanks, Jonas!
http://www.freelaunchbar.com/
Free Desktop Widgets
Konfabulator
Updated August 26, 2005
Okay, what the heck are desktop widgets?
They are tiny programs that can do a variety of things like a clock, a weather report, a stock ticker, a radio. You name it, they can do it. Konfabulator is a runtime engine that makes these little wonders possible. Select from a huge library of pre-existing widgets or even make your own.
http://www.konfabulator.com/download
Free Software Un-Installer
MyUninstaller
Updated August 16, 2005
A nice alternative to the native Windows Add/Remove program. It gives you a lot more information about your installed programs and runs significantly faster. It will tell you the product name, company, version, uninstall string, installation folder and more.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html
Free Disk Usage Statistics Viewer
WinDirStat
new! added 10/3
Very handy tool to get an overview of how much disk space is used, how much is left, and where the files are. WinDirStat has three views to display its information, a directory list, a treemap, and an extension list which shows information about file types.
It's difficult to explain how handy this can be unless you try it out. You can uncover all kinds of information. Remember that partially downloaded ISO that you never completely got? This tool is perfect for revealing that kind of forgotten disk usage.
http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/
Free Tray Minimizer / Application Hider
4T Tray Minimizer
Updated August 16, 2005
Minimize any running application to the system tray or hide it completely. Very handy for things that you want running all the time but want to get out of your face or to clean up the taskbar. (or even hide from your boss)
http://www.4t-niagara.com
Free Screen Capture / Window Capture
Gadwin PrintScreen
Updated August 16, 2005
Capture a window with or without the title bar, the entire screen or a rectangle you draw to a variety of file formats or the clipboard. If you need more than this, well, I wonder about you.
http://www.Gadwin.com
Free Screensavers
Really Slick Screensavers
Updated August 16, 2005
Awesome OpenGL 3D screensavers. Totally.
http://www.reallyslick.com/
Free Clipboard Manager
Ditto
HovText
New! Updated October 5, 2005
HovText is a much simpler tool than Ditto, but it does one thing that Ditto doesn't do, it "removes any formatting from the clipboard. Any text in the clipboard will be pasted as raw text without any HTML code, font size, color or layout etc." If this is something you need, well, you just have to have it. It also remembers the last 10 things copied to your clipboard.
Ditto is quite a bit more advanced. "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, ..... "
So, take your pick. One of these tools will suit your needs.
http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/
http://hovklan.com/hovtext/
Free Virtual Desktop Manager
Virtual Dimension
Updated August 29, 2005
Organize your applications over "virtual" desktops. In other words, you can have several different workspaces set up on you machine that you can switch between without closing applications or moving anything around. Many can't live without this feature. Thank goodness there is freeware.
I used to recommend VirtuaWin in this category, and it is still a fine program that has been around for many years. I recently found out about Virtual Dimension which has quite a few advantages over VirtuaWin including: unlimited number of desktops, optional preview window, and more efficient hotkeys. thanks, Shawn!
http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/
Free Open Cmd Prompt in Folder
Clickie
Updated August 16, 2005
I install this immediately on any Windows box that I get. It's amazing how much I use it.
"Clickie is a user friendly Windows tool which adds some actions in the right click of the Windows explorer.
The two new possible actions are:
- to copy the name of the file and its whole path in the clipboard,
- to open a MS Dos window [ note: actually cmd.exe prompt-nw ](available only on folders)."
http://www.defoortsoftware.com/clickie/
Free DVD Image Creator / CD Image Creator
LC ISO Creator
Updated August 18, 2005
Extract your CD or DVDs to ISO image files. Perfect to use in conjunction with Daemon Tools. Requires no installation. Runs perfectly.
note: If you wish to extract audio CDs to individual files, use CDex.
http://www.lucersoft.com/freeware.php
Free CDROM Emulation / DVDROM Emulation
Daemon Tools
Updated August 16, 2005
Run any CD or DVD image on your hard drive as if it was an actual CD. There are a few reasons you would want to do this. It will run much faster than a real CD. You don't have to find your CD underneath your pile of stuff. No scratches. Download images from the net and use them without burning CDs. A very handy tool very nicely executed.
Handles cue/bin, iso, ccd (CloneCD), bwt (Blindwrite), mds (Media Descriptor File), cdi (Discjuggler), nrg (Nero) . pdi (Instant CD/DVD), b5t (BlindWrite 5)
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/
Free Windows Key Recovery
Windows Keyfinder
Updated August 22, 2005
Lost your Windows installation CDs? Find out your registration number with this clean utility.
Looks like their main site is down. You can get it from SoftPedia, though. thanks, Yann!
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Decrypting-Decoding/WinKeyFinder.shtml
Free Unit Converter
Convert
new! Updated September 6, 2005
Want to know how many barleycorns are in a furlong? Or hides in an acre? Find out with this handy calculator. Formerly, I listed Unit Conversion Utility, which is still a fine program, but Convert has a slightly slicker interface and more, different kinds of units.
http://www.joshmadison.com/software
Free Advanced File Manager
xplorer² lite
Folder Size
Updated August 23, 2005
Truth is, I've never been a big fan of 3rd party file managers, but a lot of people are. (I'm an old DOS-head and will fire up a command prompt to do a lot of things.) Oh, I've tried them, but I never wind up using them consistently.
An extended file manager is basically Windows Explorer on steroids. It will support dual-pane windows, will often preview files, will allow filtering by whatever you want to filter by, will mass-rename, etc.
I have to say that the best of the (free) lot is xplorer² lite. It has a lot of bells and whistles, is fairly intuitive to use, and does pretty much anything you would want a file manager to do. You can't go wrong here.
new! Folder Size isn't a file manager, but it does add one very useful feature to Windows Explorer. It adds another category to the detail view showing how big a folder's contents are. A one-trick-pony with a very nice trick. Don't know how I've lived without it.
http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm
http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/
Free Hard Drive Partitioning Software
Ranish Partition Manager
Updated August 29, 2005
Run Windows XP, Linux and Windows 95 all on one computer. There are several non-free hard drive partitioning tools, but only one that is excellent free software. Ranish Partition Manager allows you to create up to 30 primary partitions on a single drive and includes a boot manager as well.
http://www.ranish.com/part/
