With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

ALTools are easy to use yet surprisingly powerful PC utilities and multimedia software. Usage is designed for beginners, while functionality is geared towards experienced computer users - everyone is invited to the ALTools party!

http://www.altools.com

Ant Renamer is a free (really free, i.e. the source code is available) program that makes easier the renaming of lots of files and folders by using specified settings. It supports Unicode names.

http://www.antp.be/software/renamer

Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startups and shutdowns. Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimization of modern hard disks. Use it together with Auslogics BoostSpeed to get the top performance out of your expensive hardware.

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag

Auto Shutdown Konradp is a very simple program, which will shutdown system after a specified amount of time (automatic shutdown).

http://www.konradp.com

CPU-Z is a freeware system profiler application for Microsoft Windows (for all versions from 95 on) that detects the central processing unit, RAM, motherboard chipset, and other hardware features of a modern personal computer, and presents the information in one window. CPU-Z is more in-depth in some areas than the features that Windows XP provides to identify various hardware components, and is thus needed to identify certain components without opening the case, especially the core revision and RAM clock rate. It has an unusual ability to directly detect hardware features, especially the ability to access, read and display the SPD data from memory modules. The ability to document clock speed makes it an important tool for motherboard overclockers, as a way of proving the CPU speeds achieved by various experiments.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

The BEST utility for viewing text files containing ASCII Art (NFO/DIZ/TXT)
DAMN NFO Viewer is an utility designed for viewing text files containing ASCII Art (e.g. nfo files), and it proved itself to be handy.

So, if you're fed up with starting some DOS-like file manager each time you need to view nfo file, or ain't too happy with the viewer you use, or (worst case) use Notepad - give this little tool a try.

It differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool!

And remember like all Piriform products, Defraggler is completely free for both corporate and individual use.

http://www.defraggler.com

Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startups and shutdowns.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimization of modern hard disks.

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag

EasyBCD is NeoSmart Technologies’ multiple award-winning answer to tweaking the new Windows Vista bootloader. With EasyBCD, almost anything is possible. Setting up and configuring Windows boot entries is simple, and there is no easier way to quickly boot right into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Windows Vista bootloader - on the fly, no expert knowledge needed!

http://neosmart.net

GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the filesystems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).

http://www.gparted.sourceforge.net

KillProcess lets you create an list of processes that should be destroyed and then perform an "batch-type" run on the list, killing of all of the processes listed.

The KillProcess application can terminate almost any application on an PC running Microsoft Windows, including Windows Services and applications being debugged (but not while at a breakpoint) in a matter of millisecond. This is more powerful than the Windows TaskManager, which also has an delay to wait for applications to "die" gracefully. KillProcess is also free from stupid questions that asks you if you are really sure that you now what you are doing (well there actually is such questions, but you can disable them). The Windows TaskManager also cannot terminate multiple processes at the same time, which is something that KillProcess is really good at! Either have the processes in your kill list, or select them in the process list and "kill" them manually.

KillProcess includes a nifty process tracker, which can prevent any process in the system from starting to execute, and thus releasing precious CPU resources to applications that should be running instead. This is great if you for some reason would like to prevent the network administrator from running a nasty virus scan application on your computer while you are making a huge animation or code compilation that consumes a lot of computer resources.

http://orangelampsoftware.com

Since 1996 PC WIZARD is among the most advanced system information programs on the market. PC WIZARD 2008 is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware, but also some more analysis. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results.

PC WIZARD 2008 can be distributed freely (ftp, archives, CD-ROMs ...).

http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

PowerStrip provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest ATI X850 and NVidia SLI solutions. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to the x64-bit edition of XP. A simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your display hardware, including sophisticated color correction tools, period level adjustments over screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls. A application profiler can detect when programs are launched and respond by activating specific display settings, gamma adjustments, performance switches and even clock speeds - returning everything to normal when the program closes.

http://www.entechtaiwan.com

The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

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

Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.

http://www.revouninstaller.com

We are pleased to launch Service Pack 2 for SiSoftware Sandra XII, the latest version of our award-winning utility, which includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, and networks.

With this service pack, not only have we increased support for new hardware and software, but we have also been looking at new ways to return value to our users. We added a killer functionality that we’re so excited about it just could not wait until the next major release: we wanted to get it out there now! We have taken Sandra to the next level, making the software aware of the "bang-per-buck" school of thought.

http://www.sisoftware.net

SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner. SIW can create a report file (CSV, HTML, TXT or XML), and is able to run in batch mode. The system information is divided into few major categories:

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

SIW is a standalone utility that does not require installation (Portable Freeware) - one less installed program on your PC as well the fact that you can run the program directly from an USB flash drive, from a floppy, from a network drive or from a domain login script.

http://www.gtopala.com

Startup Manager is a program that provides you the possibility to manage the Windows startup procedure. It offers you the possibility to control which programs automatically start up and more.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/st-m

A utility to produce a specification of your system's hardware and software.

With System Spec you can see, save and print a complete spec of your PC. This standalone, system information utility can also perform various windows functions. Additional advanced info includes CPU, drives, applications, display, memory, networking, internet, CD / DVD drives and more.

http://www.alexnolan.net/software/sysspec.htm

This update mainly corrects an error in the delete function: It could delete the file under the cursor instead of the selected files if the current directory was changed in the background while the delete confirmation was up (only when the function "Auto Refresh when the file system changes" is active). It also corrects problems with unpacking multi-volume RAR-files, AES encryption on NT4, and an access violation when starting minimized to the system tray. We recommend that you install the update as soon as possible!

http://www.ghisler.com/download.htm

TweakUAC(TM) is a free software tool that you can use to quickly turn UAC (User Account Control of Windows Vista) on or off, or to make UAC operate in the quiet mode.

Disable the annoying Vista UAC popups with TweakUAC.

http://www.tweak-uac.com

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.

Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003.

Check out other cool free stuff from PowerToys  like Alt-Tab replacement, imageresizer and Synctoy.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a freeware Tweak UI utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows Vista, 32-bit and 64-bit. It can simply be downloaded and used as a portable application to customize your Windows Vista to meet your requirements. With judicious tweaking, it can make your system faster, more stable, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. The tweaker detects whether you have IE7 or IE8 installed and accordingly offers you the relevant tweaks only.

http://www.winvistaclub.com/Ultimate_Windows_Tweaker.html

UltimateZip offers supperior ZIP format support. Here are the most important features:

•  Support for unlimited file size and unlimited number of files in ZIP archives
•  ZIP AES support (WinZip 9.0 standards supported)
•  Fast and strong compression and decompression
•  Multiple disk spanning

UltimateZip offers hundreds of features, but is still easy to use. With it's very flexible user interface, UltimateZip is easy to use for first-time users and offers many features for power users.

http://www.ultimatezip.com

Ever had such an annoying message given by Windows?

It has many other flavors:

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

Unlocker is the solution.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker

VistaBootPRO was developed to make changes to the Windows Vista Boot Configuration Data (BCD) registry quickly and easily, doing the job in a fraction of the time it would take using the alternative. The only other way to edit the BCD is to use the command prompt application "bcdedit.exe," located in the Windows\system32 folder of Windows Vista, which requires users to become familiar with the ins and outs of the bcdedit.exe switches and options, leaving many frustrated users in its path. VistaBootPRO allows users to easily and neatly organize their boot configuration entries from within all flavors of Windows.

http://www.vistabootpro.org

WinDirStat (WDS) is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows. It shows disk, file and directory sizes in a treelist as well as graphically in a treemap, much like KDirStat or SequoiaView.

http://windirstat.info

WinRAR (a.k.a. RAR) is a shareware file archiver and data compression utility developed by Eugene Roshal. It is arguably one of the two main file archive programs for Windows, along with WinZip. It is one of the few applications that is able to create RAR archives natively, as the encoding method is held to be proprietary.

http://www.rarlab.com

WinZip is a proprietary file archiver and compressor for Microsoft Windows, developed by WinZip Computing. It natively uses the PKZIP format but also has various levels of support for other archive formats. WinZip is available in standard and professional versions.

http://www.winzip.com/index.htm