Thread: Freeware Utilities and Addons

check out the rainy's stuff (http://ipi.fi/~rainy/index.php)

Rainlender: lightweight desktop calanderprogram, with events (includeing 'alarm'), task list, ect.
Rainmeter: system monitor for CPU load, memory utilization, disk space, network traffic, time, weather, ect.


Both these have many skins and are very customizable

Thanks so much for the links. I had heard the name before, and wondered why I didn't know what it was. Saw on the site that they can be plugings for litestep. *lightbulb goes off*

Well, I did not know that they were available for just standard explorer shell. I'll add them right away.

Thanks.

Know any good widgets?

I have found that a nifty little tool is Easy Cleaner. It can search your registry for invalid entries and clean it up, and check the programs that start with startup to see if they work right. It can delete your cookies, history, MRU list, and temporary files with the click of a button. Its got several other cool little things as well. Here's the link:
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm

*comes back after several months*

*checks out the new site layouts, sees the awsome improvements*

*looks at this thread*

*SHOCKED*

*SEES THAT UBCD ISN'T HERE!*

hopefully you know what i'm talking about....
UBCD - ultimate boot cd!

A very useful thread! Here are a few of my favorites (but keep in mind I'm a bit of a nerd). No spyware or adware.

A very flexible file renamer. Takes a few minutes to get used having all these options on one screen, but it's pretty logical:
http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

Tree Size freeware is nice and simple. I use it to find directories to delete/burn to free space:
http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

An easy, no-frills way to mirror a drive/directory to another drive/directory if you don't want to bother with complicated backup software:
http://www.ice-graphics.com/ICEMirror/IndexE.html

Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5 (and NOT the newer versions) is still my favourite software firewall. Not the easiest to use, doesn't have many bells and whistles, but it doesn't hide anything from you.

The swiss army knife of graphics utilities:
http://www.irfanview.com/

Creates PDF files from your documents. Just print using PDFCreator as your printer.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

Antivirus- NOD32 and Bitdefender. Both are really great antivirus, on the AV Comparatives tests they both ranked highest in every area. They are both free or pay, but Bitdefender free is only scanner, no real time protection. It's still good though www.nod32.com and www.bitdefender.com

Firewalls- Look'n'Stop with custom ruleset, it's the best firewall in my opinion because it uses so little memory and it offers great protection. http://www.looknstop.com/En/index2.htm I know I am bragging but I have always achieved maximum ratings on every single leaktest/security test/stealth test with Look'n'stop.

Spyware Guard and Spyware Blaster- Protect from spyware and protect against browser/process hijack. Great prevention. http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

jv16 Powertools- A great utility that cleans up just about everything, registry, files, duplicate files, etc. etc. www.macecraft.com

CCleaner- The CRAP Cleaner for all the crap you know you have on your computer like temp files and also files for various programs you might have, like even Azureus and MSN. Comes with Registry Cleaner. www.ccleaner.com'

Unlocker- This is one of my favorite. It solves problems like...

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 allows you to delete/modify/rename these files, or unlock the process that is using the file/folder. I sometimes use it when a file or whatever I want is just acting weird. http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Microsoft Bootvis- You can use it to optimize how fast your computer starts up and the performance of your drive. There are a lot of download sites, you can just google it.

This is all I can think of right now, if I can find some more I'll just re edit.

Here add this to the list to.
http://shellcity.net/ (for shell replacements)
And for shells.. there are few more useful ones that I know. Xoblite, bblean, bb4win, and alot other that are listed in shellcity list.

http://xoblite.net/
http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/
http://www.bb4win.org/

dont forget PE Builder
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/