There are activities which a regular user of a Windows XP machine (and of a Vista or Win 7 machine) is required to carry out from time to time. Often people torture themselves by trying to use a software with which they are uncomfortable. Other times they struggle since the utility is difficult to use or simply too ‘advanced’ for normal, everyday use or buggy or has security holes.
On enquiry it comes out that the user installed the utility just because
Standard caution applies : If you fry your PC by following these, it is your own responsibility. Don’t blame me or the utilities - And read the ‘Note’ at the end.
These 24 Essential Utilities for Windows have been function-wise divided into tools for:
So, go ahead and enjoy these tools for free and with ease.
On enquiry it comes out that the user installed the utility just because
- it came with the PC, or
- ‘someone’ recommended it, or
- it is supposed to be popular, or
- they have shelled out hard earned cash for them, or
- the other extreme - ‘pirated’ software
Standard caution applies : If you fry your PC by following these, it is your own responsibility. Don’t blame me or the utilities - And read the ‘Note’ at the end.
These 24 Essential Utilities for Windows have been function-wise divided into tools for:
- system security,
- system cleaning,
- accessing internet, &
- others
1. Belarc Advisor: Belarc Advisor is a Computer Security Auditor - Audits Hardware, Software and OS patches.System cleaning
2. Colony West DigestIT2004: DigestIT2004 is an Easy to use Windows Checksum calculator and verifier.
3. CCleaner & CCEnhancer: CCleaner is the premier system optimizer, cleaner and privacy tool and CCEnhancer is the tool to add support for additional (400) programs to CCleaner. Tip: Get the CCleaner Slim version.Accessing internet
4. Cleanup!: Cleanup! is ‘The’ temporary files cleaner and privacy enhancer.
5. Digeus Registry Cleaner or Wise Registry Cleaner Free: Digeus Registry Cleaner is ‘the’ best Registry Cleaner I have ever used. As of Jan 2011 there is also an offer of free registration codes for reviews. Alternately use Wise Registry Cleaner Free to clean majority of errors, before using Digeus Registry Cleaner.
6. Revo Uninstaller Free: Revo Uninstaller Free is the best Uninstaller for Windows - a faster and more powerful alternate to ‘Windows Add Remove Programs’.
7. JavaRa: JavaRa is a removal tool for old and redundant JRE files, removing possible slowdown or version conflicts.
8. AcroPDF PDF Speedup: PDF Speedup is a tweak tool to speed up performance of Adobe Reader by disabling (or re-enabling) almost all Adobe Reader plug-ins.
9. YourWare Solutions FreeRamXP Pro: FreeRam XP Pro frees and optimizes PC’s RAM, increasing system performance can be configured to tweak in auto or manual modes.
10. Firefox / Google Chrome: If you’re still with Internet Explorer, you should read 5 reasons to dump IE. Worse, if you are still using IE 6, you must a complete idiot. Become smart and move to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome (always get the stable versions). BTW here is a report that Chrome users get better rates shopping online - one more good reason to dump IE.Others
11. Sylpheed & FreePOPs: Sylpheed is a simple, lightweight but fully-featured, easy-to-use and highly secure email client. FreePOPs is a POP3 access manager, mainly used to download mails from (almost) all webmail for offline use.
12. Skype or Yahoo Messenger: Use one or another. If your needs are professional (meaning business standard), use Skype - it has better quality. But if you have slower internet connection and are going to use for fun and need the many in-built features - use Yahoo Messenger.
13. FreeDownload Manager: A download manager that supports resumable downloads and multiple simultaneous downloads. BTW if you Hostsman as per 12 Security tools for Windows, you might need to edit or disable it, as it blocks this site.
14. SpeedGuide TCP Optimizer: TCP Optimizer is a tool for tuning and optimizing your Internet connection
15. Paint.NET: Paint.NET is the free image and photo editor, featuring intuitive and interactive interface supporting layers, unlimited undo, special effects. The extensive plugins being actively developed is a definite plus.Note: I have absolutely no connection with any of the software writers or companies listed above, except for Digeus who had offered a free registration code for a review as explained here and here. All software listed above are copyright of respective owners.
16. Picasa: Although Picasa can edit photos and images, it is actually more of a photo organiser and sharing utility.
17. Audacity: Audacity is an Audio editor for recording, slicing, and mixing audio. While it is certainly not SONY Sound Forge, it should be enough for ‘normal’ audio editing needs. BTW get the free LAME encoder to enable Audacity to export to MP3 format.
18. NCH VideoPad: VideoPad is a fully featured Video editor for slicing and splicing video. While it is certainly not Adobe Premiere, it should be enough for ‘normal’ video editing needs.
19. VLC Media Player: VLC media player is ‘the’ media player with almost all codecs built in, so no more irritation with ‘format not supported’ dialogues.
20. ImgBurn: ImgBurn is a fully featured, lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application. The only Con is there is no ‘copy disc’ feature.
21. Code Sector TeraCopy: TeraCopy is a utility to copy and move files faster with pause-resume ability and error check and recovery.
22. Notepad++: Notepad++ is a Notepad replacement and source code editor with tabs, syntax highlighting and advanced search and replace functions.
23. doPDF: doPDF is a virtual printer driver to ‘print’ any printable documents - word, excel, powerpoint or webpage - as a pdf file. It is the also the smallest and lightest of such virtual printer driver.
24. 7-Zip: 7-Zip is the must have file archive (compression) utility for almost any type of archive formats with the highest compression ratio. The only other utility which beats 7-Zip is IZArc, which allows conversion between CD image file formats like (NRG to ISO).
So, go ahead and enjoy these tools for free and with ease.
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