Source Forge Open Source Software Source
System Internals - Freeware
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My Primary Several Source Forge Open Source Software Source System Internals - Freeware |
Utility Software Page(click here to see the framed version)In my searches for utility software this is the starting page I'd like to have found. There's are a lot of sites out there with much more extensive lists - some of them are listed below. This site lists utility software (mostly freeware) that I've tried and like. I use most of them regularly. It also lists some quality sites of others that recommend utility software. I scoured for these pretty well, and I'm sure that no 3 other sites combined include all of the software utilities listed below. this frame only framed version send links or comments to exceptional utilites. |
Sources of Utility SoftwareSource Forge Open Source Software Source System Internals - Freeware UtilityGeek.com MajorGeeks.com The Free Country |
Others' Utility Software
James A. Eshelman also
check these |
Exceptional Free
Window's Secrets |
System Utilities |
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| Process Explorer or FaberToys |
I've used Faber Toys as a Task Manager substitute for years, but have recently discovered Process Manager from System Internals. It's a faster and more versatile program. |
| PowerToys for XP | by Microsoft - I really like the Alt-Tab replacement |
| RegEditX | some simple & useful RegEdit Extensions |
| Aida32 | is an extremely thorough system information utility. The author now makes a similar product available here |
| aSquared HiJackFree | Very good control of ALL autostart programs, processes, and services. Other features include contol of Explorer add-ons, open ports, and more. To me the outstanding startup control is the selling point of this software. |
| ERUNT & NTREGOPT | Backup Registry of NT, 2000, & XP, plus optimize the registry |
| X-Setup Pro | Over 1700 hidden functions are well explained and easily adjusted and unadjusted with this program |
| PageDefrag | Windows NT, 2000, and XP cannot defragment the Pagefile or the registry files. After a long period of time, this can become a cause of noticeable performance degradation. This program overcomes that limitation! To learn more about the PageFile, check here then cut & paste this (http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=143&var2=0) into the address bar |
| RegSeeker | I've used RegCleaner by Jouni Vuoiro for years. He seems to have taken it off the market for now. This program offers similar functionality, but the interface isn't nearly as nice. |
| DocMemory | Free physical RAM diagnostic utility used by Micron, Samsung, Hyundai, and more. Microsoft also provides a memory diagnostic tool here |
| WinDrivers Backup (personal edition) | This could also be catagorized as a security utility. It identifies and backs up all your hardware drivers, which can then be burned onto a CD for added protection. |
| Desktop Search Programs | This is the most extensive listing of desktop search programs I've run across. I haven't yet settled on one, so until I do, here's the big list, |
Operational Utilities |
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| 1st QuickRes | Remember when in Windows 95 & 98 you could have an icon in the tray to right click to rapidly and easily adjust screen resolution? Microsoft took that away (I guess it made those adjustments too easy). Anyway, this software brings it back so you can have it in W2000, and W XP |
| ShortKeys Lite | a utility that allows you to set up replacement text or paragraphs for any given number of user defined keystrokes. For example, you could have Phx expand to Phoenix whenever you enter that abbreviation. |
| Winkey | Make the Windows key useful. Allows you to use combinations of the Windows key with other keys to perform tasks like opening programs, opening Windows Help, etc. |
| Hotkeys | This little program by SheAr software does it all as a keyboard macro program. You can assign keys (such as Ctrl-J or Alt-Q to open programs or Control Panel Applets or to send keystrokes whenever pressed. Unfortunately, they've quit supporting and distributing it, and you'll have to find it somewhere else. Two places it is currently available are here, and here |
| AtomicTime or Clock Align |
These are two programs that can keep your computer aligned within less than 1 second of actual time. Note that most personal computer clocks drift at least 2 seconds daily. Read this for ClockAlign |
File Management |
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| LupasFile Renamer | Rename many or all files in a directory (optionally in all subdirectories as well) This is very useful for mass renaming of digital camera files! Flash Renamer is an excellent shareware renamer for $15. You can try it for free forever, with increasing obnoxiousness the more you use it. Obnoxiousness disappears after payment. I'd say it is slightly better than Lupas. Flexible Renamer, a Japanese program, has the ability to use file tags (eg mp3 tags) to rename files. It's a very good file renamer, but a little slower than some. |
| Replacem | replace all occurrences of one or more strings in some or all files in a folder and optionally subfolders |
| Agent Ransack | a much nicer (and faster) search utility than comes with Windows. It embeds into Explorer context menu. Filters use Regular Expressions or wild cards (chose on options tab). |
| Search & Replace | by InfoRapid. search is similar to Agent Ransack. Replace works for many file formats. - Way better than Windows Find or Search utilities! |
| FolderBox | create a 2nd window in Windows Explorer & have various folders tabbed within it |
| Delete Doctor | for deleting hard to delete files |
| Treesize | shows distribution of disk usage among folders & more — goes in Windows Explorer Context Menu |
| Karen's Directory Printer | sPrint a listing of all files in a directory (or hard drive) with your choice of file attributes |
| PC Inspector - File Recovery | recovers lost files and partitions |
| IZArc | Compression Utility. This utility compresses & uncompresses more file formats than any other compression utility. The interface is clean and easy to work with. Quickzip is another very powerful, efficient, and easy to use freeware compression utility. Winzip has been the standard zipping utility for Windows, but they started making their unregistered version user-unfriendly after ver 8.0. As a result, alternatives have become worth seeking and it turns out that some of these utilities are easier to use and more powerful than WinZip The unzipping utility that comes with Windows XP is functional, but less functional than almost any other compression utility. This seems to be the norm for the utilities that Microsoft provides with XP. |
| WinPatrol | This is a multifunctional program and can replace the functions of several others. For example it keeps track of running services, active tasks and cookies. It also has a delete on startup feature for those hard to remove programs. None of these features are quite as feature rich as the others listed in this section. The reason I have it is because I wasn't able to find anything else that could keep everything realplayer or quicktime (and some others) from restarting on my computer. I don't think that any company that makes it so hard to keep its software from running on your computer when you don't want to run can be trusted, but WinPatrol comes to the rescue. You can keep programs or services from starting automatically, and if they try to start anyway, WinPatrol will shut them down right then, automatically. Of course, be careful. It also has some easy to use cookie control features that I haven't seen elsewhere as well. It's a program that is always running on my computer. |
Security |
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| SpinRite | Best utility for checking & recovering hard disk ($89) |
| Steve Gibson Freeware |
SSteve Gibson is one of the early pioneers of PC Security, damaged hard drive recovery and file recovery of the PC era. Others, such as Peter Norton or Paul Mace have sold their companies to corporate interests, but Gibson has remained independent and interested. |
| UnPlug n' Pray | |
| DCOMbobulator | |
| Shoot the Messenger | |
| LeakTest | |
| SocketToMe and SocketLock | |
| SafeXP | various easily set (and unset) security settings for 2000 & XP |
| AdAware | for removing spyware |
| SpyBot Search & destroy | removes spyware based on a constantly updated list of known spyware |
| Spyware Blaster | Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted pests. Blocks spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox. Restricts the actions of potentially dangerous sites in Internet Explorer. |
| SpywareGuard | SpywareGuard provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great addition to SpywareBlaster's protection method. SpywareGuard scans files for spyware before you open them and prevents spyware from being installed. SpywareGuard also features Download Protection and Browser Hijacking Protection! |
| WinPatrol | This was the first program I discovered that effectively prevented RealPlayer and Quicktime from installing themselves at Windows startup, but have discovered other useful feaures as well. It's a good spyware and adware program, it controls unwanted IE add-ons, It prevents undesired file association changes, and automatically filters unwanted cookies, so you don't have to remove cookies such as doubleclick, for example, which are continually reinfecting your computer.WinPatrol also prevents start page hijacking for those still using Inenet Explorer, it detects HOSTS file changes, and has a few additional tricks up its sleeve as well |
| Avast anti virus | There are 2 other excellent freeware anti virus packages: AntiVir and AVG Antivirus, but I like Avast the best for me. |
| Mizo XP netstats bar | detailed reports on open ports |
| Bootdisk.com | Operating System Boot Disks for downloading |
| Sygate Online | They want to sell you their software, and provide some basic tests of your computer's security. All the tests take almost an hour, and you should test at least very close to perfect. This link is here so you can run the tests! |
| 12 Ghosts Wash | This is one of two free utilities for cleaning such things as internet cache, program run history, recently opened documents, etc. that works with Mozilla. These programs are designed to clear the traceability of what you've been doing on your computer, and on the internet. 12 Ghosts also works with internet explorer. The site makes it look like shareware, but read the license agreement as you install, and you'll see it's freeware for home use. |
| CleanMOCache | This is the other package that works with Mozilla. It's one of the very few that works with Opera as well. It has a few more options than 12 Ghosts Wash, but requires Micosoft's (free) .NET framework to be installed. They have internet explorer cleanup put into a different program (CleanCache instead of CleanMOCache). These programs are powerful, so be careful not to remove things you don't want removed. |
| Eraser | This program erases programs from your computer as completely as they can possibly be erased. No program does better and few do as well. It installs into the context menu of windows explorer or can be run stand-alone. The developer also has a shareware "anonymous web browser" called NoTrax, if you're looking for even more on-line anonymity. |
| KeePass or Oubliette |
KeePass stores your passwords in the most secure encrypted format known (AES and Twofish). Read
about it, it can store by category, and is the most secure method of storing information available to anyone.
Oubliette also can store by category in a similar manner, and looks pretty much the same. Oubliette uses your
choice of either the Blowfish or Idea encryption method. They both allow you to either "cut and paste" or
"drag and drop" the login name and password
from the program to the browser. Oubliette allows you to use shortcut keys (eg Ctrl Alt F6) to auto put the data into the
browser, while KeePass seems more focused on keeping you informed just how secure passwords are. For example, as you enter a
password, with each new character, it lets you know how high a level of encryption it can use. I didn't know that a 20 character password
could use only 67 bit encryption, More characters, higher level of encryption. There are more options allowing you to remove security (and
thereby make the program a little friendlier) in Oubliette than in KeePass These are each very secure password storage programs. I'd say
Oubliette is a little more finished, with better help, and a little cleaner interface, while security is more strongly emphasized in KeePass.
Either is an excellent choice SH 8/30/04 |
| GUIDClean | GUIDClean is a program to detect, display and modify the Global Unique Identifiers (GUID) that some MS Office
products (Word and Excel) place in documents. An argument can be made that these GUID strings are a breach of users'
privacy and may be used to track documents and bind them to particular users or particular machines. |
Internet Related |
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| MailWasher | Spam control |
| Mozilla FireFox web browser | This browser has never had a security hole that was exploited before it was patched.
It is a much more secure browser that Internet Explorer, and much more functional. It is editors
choice by Brian Livingston (Windows Secrets newsletter, PC Magazine, Forbes
magazine, CNet, Laptop Magazine, and many others. It has become the dominant browser among
expert computer users.
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| Mozilla Thunderbird email | Powerful email client with self learning (Beysian) filters for learning to recognize junk, powerful search features, IMAP/POP support, strong security features, handles unlimited email accounts, built in RSS filter, strong filtering capabilities, unlimited address biooks, imports email and address book(s) from other email programs, lots of extensions to extend built-in capabilities |
| Mozilla Suite | Browser, email, composer |
| Mozilla Calendar | can be integrated into Mozilla by clicking the appropriate link from within Mozilla website. Make sure under Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced that Javascript is enabled and Software installation is enabled or the install won't work |
| ZoneAlarm | Firewall |
| WS_FTP Lite | Best freeware FTP client - newest version may be crippled. |
| 3D TraceRoute | A nifty traceroute utility with some extra features. With this you no longer need to run traceroute from a DOS window |
| HoverIP | This nifty little tool has a ping (with optional routing table), ipconfig, port scanning, traceroute, and Nslookup |
| DrTCP | This little program provides a graphic interface to change setting(s) which allow you to dramatically improve the speed you can download files. Even useful for broadband internet connections. There's no help file,but by reading the FAQ, you'll learn all you need to know on how to use the software, and why you're doing it. |
| CheckURL | I've looked at about a half dozen link testers. So far I like this the best. |
| Color Coder | A nice little program for getting the hexadecimal color code for internet colors (useful for web design or even custom emails) |
| 1st Page web page editor | This is the code level editor I've used for years, but it's been 4 years since there's been an upgrade and it's beginning to need one. There's lots of editors out there, but unfortunately, so far I haven't found one I really like better than 1st Page. I have looked. I've worked with Alleycode, which is pretty good and has some excellent unique features, but not quite as finished as 1st Page. There's a good chance I'll switch to it after the next upgrade (current ver is 2.14.1). Two others you might consider are Max's HTML Beauty 2004, from Yugoslavia doesn't have a help system built in, but it does have a pretty good link checker. HTML Builder XP is pretty good, and shares some development roots with 1st Page.. Avoid the HTML Builder beta products, they're really rough. |
| Type 3 | Instead of an HTML editor, this is a fairly high end web content management system (CMS) I haven't tried this, but the idea seems excellent for sites with no page building expertise |
| AP Laws | This is a programming independent web content management system (CMS) developed by
the British government for use by local governments in the British Isle for maintaining their
web sites. It was released as open source, is OS independent and available for everyone.
Latest release was July 2004. I haven't tried this, but if I were to move to his approach I would
evaluate this, and Type 3 above very closely. |
Graphics and Sound Software |
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| IrfanView | The best graphics viewer. I only use this for graphics files, but if you follow the instructions it does well for video too. (and probably audio, but I haven't tried that) Be sure to get the plugins |
| Shell extension for IrfanView | Puts Irfanview options into the Explorer context menu when a graphic is right clicked |
| Winamp | Most popular independent media player. More flexible than Microsoft's Media Player. |
| Audacity | Sound file capturing and editing software - plugins & tutorials & user groups available. used this to get old songs and lectures off cassette tapes so I could save them to my computer and record them to CD's. I've enhanced poorly recorded tapes to make them much more hearable. If mp3's are saved to a 1 CD at CD quality, up to 12 hours can be saved for listening. That CD might be a weekend seminar. |
| QuickTime Alternative | If you're bothered by the persistence of QuickTime on your system (it's difficult to keep it from running in memory once it's been installed), or its tracking and sending of information about your computer use, there is an alternative. I've replaced QuckTime with QuickTime Alternative on all my computers. I can now play Quicktime movies (.mov) with none of invasiveness of Quicktime itself. Everything is released from memory when I close the program (checked with Process Manager), and everything works great. The same site also offers Real Alternative which solves many of the same problems for RealPlayer. The site is hosted on a free hosting site, so I'm not sure how long they'll be there, but they're certainly worth visiting. Their main function is to make a collection of audio and video codecs available for free. These packages use the freeware MediaPlayer Classic with the codecs for QuickTime or RealMedia. |
| HoverSnap! | A very nifty screen capture utility, better than the one I paid for. I've looked at several free and several pay for ones. I like this the best. |
| PrintNow | This utility from PC Magazine prints the screen to the printer when the PrtScr button is pressed. Very handy for error messages, among other things! There is a pretty thorough article about it at this site, and the download link is in a table on the right of the page. |
| Eyedropper | This program serves one basic function. Click any pixel on the screen and this program will tell you what color it is in hex (html likes this), RGB and CMYK. If you want to duplicate a color, it's now easy. When going to their web page, be sure to click "English version" on the right, unless you're fluent in Slovak. Also click online help and read the 10 or so lines on how to use the program. |
| Media Tagger | Best freeware program I've found for controlling and editing ID3 tags
on MP3 files. Also works well on VQF, WMA, OGG, APE, MPC, AAC and FLAC files
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Hardware Information |
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| Everest | Very thorough hardware information and more |
| Hard Disk Tune | Lots of har drive information and some maintenance feaures |
Font Related |
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| Font Renamer | Changes the name of the font file to the font name. For example instead of ti___n.ttf, it might be renamed to Tiffany_normal.ttf — problem is it works a directory (as opposed to a file) at a time, but it's still valuable. |
| The Font Thing | a font viewer and installer. Similar to Bitstream's Font Navigator software. At time of listing this pre v1.0 version is a little buggy |
Misc |
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| ESBCalc | Excellent replacement for the calculator that comes with Windows. It's kind of a general math calculator with trig and log functions built in. Two other very good calculators are Calc 98 which can be set up as a scientific, financial or statistical calculator and GraphCalc, which has very sophisticated graphing built in, handles variables and has a good unit conversion feature (eg yards to fathoms or horsepower to watts) |
| EditPad lite | This is the freeware text editor (NotePad replacement) that I like. EditPad Pro ($39) is possibly the best out there. MetaPad is another popular freeware text editor |
| Free PDF creators | There are a couple packages that will do a good job of converting your documents to pdf format. These are CutePDF Writer and PrimoPDF. Check them out if you need simple conversion of your documnets, spreadsheets, etc to pdf format. They each offer more feature rich products, and assume as you grow to like their product and your pdf needs become more sophisticated, that you'll purchase additional add-ons or upgrades from them. PDFCreator is an open source freeware pdf creation package. Be sure to look at the Docs before dowloading |
| CD Burner Pro | Outstanding freeware CD & DVD burner. It is similar to Nero Burner or EZ CD Creator, and in some ways better than either. If all you have is the RecordNow software that comes with Windows XP, get this to get around some of the limitations included with that software. |
| PC Inspector Clone Maxx | high speed hard drive cloning. I use the commercial Acronis True Image software for this. |
| TimeCalendar Lite | a simple but reasonably functional calendar (keep in mind that I'm used to the calendars on case management software) |
| Versaverter | A unit conversion utility that pretty much converts from any 2 units that can be converted one to the other. cc to gallons etc. (Gallons to ºFehrenheit cannot be converted) |
| MoonTool | Puts an icon showing the moon phase in the system tray. Also has lots of current information about the moon, if you click on the icon |
| Sky Charts | Best skywatching software that exists (free or pay). Download the complete package with any additonal catalogs, indexes or tools you may like, and download the documentation |
Untested Software that looks Interesting |
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| Ultr@VNC | Easy remote control over the internet of any 2 computers Check here for cross platform remote control software |
| AutoIt | a simple & powerful scripting language for Windows |
| Digital Camera Memory Card Photo Recovery | by PC Inspector |
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| FDisk substitutes | The function of this type of program has generally been taken over by partitioning programs such as Partition Magic, but 3 replacements (enhancements) for the old FDisk program are Freeware FDisk, XFDisk, and AEFDisk |
| Disk Partitioning Software | Three programs that can be used instead of Partition Magic are Freeware - Diskman, Ranish partition manager, and Master Booter, but I don't think any are quite as good. |
| FreeDOS | Freeware version of MS DOS that is still being maintained and updated |