Favorite free Windows toys…

Though I’m a Linux bigot, I work generally on a Windows laptop. Below is a list of my favorite free toys/tools that I use regularly. I’ve had good luck with all of them:

• Unlocker Assistant – for unlocking pesky locked Windows files or drives.
• I8kFanGUI – for controlling your laptop fans
• TrueCrypt – for creating a mountable encrypted drive from a file or external media
• CCleaner – cleans up your registry and other crap.
• Cygwin – Unix emulation with complete Unix command set and environment for Windows
• Malwarebytes – finds malware that most major AVs don’t.
• TweakUI – free Microsoft tool (“PowerToy”) to tweak your system
• Process Explorer – free system monitoring tool
• Putty/WinSCP – great SSH tools (does telnet and FTP too)<
• RealVNC – VNC remote desktop sessions
• SolarWinds TFTP – standalone TFTP server useful for upgrading the IOS on a Cisco router
• TeraTerm Pro – a much better replacement for serial Hyperterm (see UTF-8 version here for one with Windows installer). NOTE: The latest Putty now supports serial, so for basic uses that may be all you need.
• WindDirStat – find where all your disk space is going.
• Wireshark/WinPcap – for snooping networks
• MBSA – Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer to find your big security holes
• Windows Installer CleanUp Utility – Microsoft tool to remove unremovable/uninstallable program entries
• PowerBooster 2k – Hitachi laptop disk performance tool
• Google Earth – just a cool way to look at the world
• MediaMonkey – one of the best MP3 player/burner/managers I’ve seen.
• Fat32Format – format FAT32 drives of any size
• HDD Health – monitor SMART drive output (may also want to see SpeedFan).
• UltraISO – great for unpacking/manipulating CD ISO images
• FastStone Image Viewer – very quick JPEG/GIF/TIFF/RAW viewer and editor (good for single images).
• Picasa – Very nice and fast image organizer and editor (good for directories of images)
• SyncToy – Microsoft disk-to-disk, directory-to-directory synchronizer (faster than backups). Personally I actually use the for-pay ViceVersa PRO but…

Enjoy!