Programs and Sites

NOTE

You can obtain these programs at their home site, where I link you here. You can also obtain these programs from general download sites that I list on my Download page.
Now there are some shareware programs I like that don't nag you, or nag gently, like WinZip , but for now I'll just tell you about the real freeware.

Startup Manager

Startup Manager will list all programs that are started automatically. I know you can get this from MsConfig, but this is much simpler and easier to control what you want to do. There are some other good and popular programs to control startup, but I still found this to be the simplest to use.
There are multiple places that these things can be specified, and the program tells you where. You can remove the program from being started up automatically, or just disable it from starting automatically. You can also specify that other programs be added to the startup list.
Do not confuse this software with the same named software from Kissco or other sources. Some is not freeware. Also, at other sites you may find just older versions.
To find Startup Manager at this site, click on soft-ware.net download logo near bottom of page. Unfortunately, the sites where this program is located keep disappearing. I have only found 1 site left that has this program, and it is in German.

InCtrl5

InCtrl5 is the most useful programs there is if you install any programs on your system. It tracks the changes to your registry, and several important files or directories (folders). You use the program to start any install. It runs a capture before and after the install, and then an analysis in order to provide a report of the changes. The report can be an HTML file or a simple text file. It names the report files with a number. When I generate the report, I re-save it with the name of the file I installed.
It is the fifth incarnation of the program, written by PC Magazine, and is a must. The article on the program at PC Magazine doesn't say it works with XP, but it does, since I am using it there. I know others recommend programs like Total Uninstall, which is good if you want to leave it all to the computer to handle. I would like a list so that I can check out the regular uninstall. First, to see what the program has added (adware, spyware, etc), and then to verify the uninstall.
If there is an uninstall program included, rather than just using the Control Panel, you could even use InCtrl5 when you uninstall.
I then follow up the install with Syslog, that follows.
But, even with InCtrl5 new programs can change the registry or add files without you finding out. InCtrl5 gathers the information when you install the program, but programs also generate registry entries and create files the first time they run. So you still have to be diligent about that. Syslog cam help you with the files. For the registry you may have to export the registry before and after you run the program the first time. Sorry.

The usual recommendation for a function like this is a program like Total Uninstall. What I don't like about using Total Uninstall is that if some program is still running while you do the install, changes it makes will be captured by Total Uninstall. Then, when you use it to uninstall, it would also remove what some other program did.

Revo Uninstaller

I highly recommend Revo Uninstaller though as a great uninstaller. No need to run it before you install. It searches your registry and hard drive for all the files that are associated with the program you want to uninstall. After it runs the program's uninstall, then it does it's search, and shows you what needs to be cleaned up. You can have it do all, or pick what you want. The first version I tried was very slow in showing you what programs exist, so you can pick what you want to uninstall. A later version is fast. It's not perfect in finding everything all the time, as I do find some obvious entries left in the registry.

Syslog

Syslog is a program that lets you know what has changed in your Windows directory. When you install a new program, do you wonder what files have been added or changed. These are generally in the Windows directory and its sub-directories. Run syslog when you get it, and then run it after each program you install or uninstall. It keeps a log of what files have been changed, added, and deleted. Each time you run syslog you can enter information into the log identifying the program. Then you'll have a running list of what has been changed by what program.
This is great to let you know what files are actually new with a program, so you can feel safe to delete them when you uninstall the program. You'll also see if new versions of a file have been added, in case you have problems.

Key Launch      

I had been using Smart Start Menu It starts as a toolbar on the system tray, and then you can move it off of the tray and leave it on your desktop. You can adjust its size. But, recently, it sometimes disappeared because the toolbar would become unchecked, and then it would be difficult to move it off the tray. Very annoying, so I looked for another program. The purpose is to find programs to execute as an alternative to looking through the Windows Start Menu. As you enter the letters of a program name in the toolbar, you get a list of all programs in your start menu that have those letters. Also, a special key combination puts you into the toolbar's window, so you can use it at any time.
I found Launchy and Key Launch. They both allow you to list what folders you want it to check, but they default to those in the start menu. Launchy also does the bookmarks in IE and Firefox. The problem with Launchy is that it does not list all the programs as you type and you must start at beginning of program name. Also it only shows a few files at a time. For instance, as I type spreadsheet, Works Spreadsheet does not appear until I get to 'spr'. But when I looked for Money, it did not find it. I had to look for 'Microsoft Money'. For both, the toolbar is not displayed until you enter a special key combination, so it's size. With Launchy, when the cursor is outside of the toolbar, the toolbar disappears again. That's great. With Key Launch you have to hit the escape Key, which is fine. The problem was that I did not see it tell you that anywhere.
I've decided to use Key Launch because it provides a much better program list.

iColorFolder

iColorFolder lets you set your folders to different colors, to help identify them. After installation, it is found in the context menu, so just right click on a folder.

LightsOut      

I have the power options for my PC set to turn off the monitor after 20 minutes. Sometimes, it does not happen, the monitor just stays on. So I looked for a manual means to shut the monitor so that moving the mouse will turn it back on. I tried several, and it would shut the monitor and then it would come right back on. So I settled for Lights Out. I say 'settled for' because I would prefer it was on the system tray. Instead it is a box, 220 by 60 pixels (that's over 2 inches by 1/2 inch). It has a light switch that you click on to turn off the monitor. It's that big so that he can display his website's URL. Convenient, but blocks my wallpaper.

Sandboxie      

Sandboxie is a security tool. It lets you run programs locked withing a sandbox. To the program, it looks like it is using your registry, setting up the start menu, etc. But it is all done within a separate area - the sandbox. Then you can just delete everything it does just by telling Sandboxie to delete it. You can run the installer and then the program, all within the sandbox.
I use it to test new programs that I am not sure I will need. This way, if I don't like it, then I can cleanly delete it from my system. If I do like it, then I just reinstall it again, normally.

Gorilla Design Studio

I'm no longer using this, since I have broadband now, and the time for downloading ads doesn't matter. But, if you have dial-up, you still might want to consider this. If you do, then also consider the Host Toggle program. It will let you toggle between using the hosts file and not using it.
There are several programs to block ads from being read in by your browser. This page describes a method to do it without any additional programs. The concept is to use a 'Hosts' file which would be stored in your C:\Windows directory. Keep in the Hosts file a list of sites where ads come from, and your browser will be directed to omit the sites that are in the Hosts file because it does not reach them. You can add or delete sites as you wish, using Notepad or another plain text editor.
Depending on your browser, you might have a problem that your browser either stops because it cannot access the ad (Netscape) or your browser displays an error that it cannot access the ad. In the latter case, you just click the button on the error window, and it continues. If you have these problems, then get eDexter. You will find it here as well plus much more information on the Hosts file. eDexter will satisfy the desires of your browser.
You can try it just to see if it works for you. It's a simple method. If you wish to get rid of it, just delete or rename the Hosts file. Be sure to review the Hosts file before using it, in case there are sites there you actually want to visit. You can just delete those entries from the file.

Strip Mail

Are you annoyed by the '>' that appears in the first column of e-mails you receive, when you want to save it, or forward it. I am. Strip Mail is a simple program that will quickly and easily strip the '>' characters from the start of each line. It uses the clipboard, so you can strip the characters from anything, and save it anywhere. Clear instructions included.

ClipX      

There are quite a few clipboard programs for free. I looked at a few, but none got me to use it, until ClipX. It sits in the system tray and catches everything you copy. It holds the last 25 copies. I usually don't use it, but if I want to paste something from a few copies back, or I have multiple things to copy, it sure comes in handy. It uses a special key combination, that you can specify, to bring up the list for copying. Select one by it's number (if a single digit), or move cursor down list to entry you want. Hit enter key, and it is copied to where your cursor is.

Now, if you want something a bit fancier, try Ditto, but I'm sticking with ClipX, and ClipX uses a lot less memory.

HoverSnap      

There are also quite a few screen capture programs for free. I settled on Hover Snap. It also will sit in the system tray. You can either capture an active window or a custom rectangular area. You set up what type of file you want to capture it to: jpeg, gif, bitmap. or png. You specify where you want the results stored, and the filename to use. Then, when you want to capture something, use the appropriate key combination, choose the area if a custom area, and the file is saved.

Metapad

Would you like Notepad to be better? Metapad is a very small program that you can use to replace Notepad. It is much superior, with many more bells and whistles.
The way to do this is to copy Notepad.exe to another directory to save it. Then delete Notepad.exe within the \Windows directory. Rename metapad.exe to Notepad.exe and move it to the \Windows directory.
This will leave all files that are opened with Notepad to open with Metapad. Actually, it is trickier in XP or Vista. It will say Metapad in the title bar at the top of the window when you open a file using Notepad.
If you simply rename Notepad.exe, it seems that Windows will change all files that are opened with Notepad, to open with the new name. You don't want to just copy over Notepad, because you should save the original. This is why I described the above method to use Metapad.

Core FTP

There are many FTP programs out there. For awhile I actually just used the Windows FTP commands, which is like using DOS. But I then looked for a good simple program, and found FTP Surfer to fit the bill. Quick and easy to setup and use. I had tried one other popular one, but did not like it. But now I use Core FTP . I like their side-by-side windows of your online folder and the folder on your PC, easily identified as to which. You don't have to remember what is an upload and what is a download (as in FTP Surfer). You can drag and drop files from one to the other. Or send them by just clicking an arrow. If you need secure transfers, Core FTP apparently has that too. On the other hand, there is one disappointment. It can upload to the website multiple files, but it only download to my PC one at a time. But that can be a folder and all its subfolders.

FastFolder by BB

FastFolder is the way I access the main folders I go to all the time, like Windows, my download folder, Program Files, the folder I save the files I downloads in, etc. It sits in the System Tray and with a click it bring up links to a dozen folders that I've selected. It makes life a little easier.
The download is near the bottom of the page.

FileMap by BB

FileMap is a quick and easy way to be able to check on what files have been added or removed from your main system folders: \Windows, \Windows\System, and the root directory. It quickly does a comparison between any 2 points in time that you've had it take a snapshot. Syslog, which I mentioned above can show you the changed files between 2 adjacent snapshots, but FileMap will show you between any 2 snapshots.
The download is near the bottom of the page.
If you like BB software, you can see these and more at Bernie-Built.

Avast

Avast is the anti-virus program I've changed to. Besides having a great free version, it has one advantage I don't think any other anti-virus program has, especially a free version. You can use it with any POP3 mail client. If you want to get away from Outlook, this is the anti-virus program to use. Its updates are automatic and tiny. Data updates seem to take about 10 seconds on a dial-up connection. This is because they are incremental, not one big file. They do the same for the program updates. Good features and controls and fast.
On the other hand, if you are not running an NT type system (includes XP) then Avast will not do a boot scan. I don't understand this, since other anti-virus programs do it.
You do have to register it, and you'll have to re-register every year or so, but it is free.

Process Library's Quick Access InfoBar      

The Process Library site has information on the system and application processes that are running on your PC. Now you can access their site and get the information for your processes directly from the Task Manager (reached by CTRL-ALT-DEL). With their Quick Access InfoBar, just by clicking on an icon that is added to each entry shown in the Task Manager's Process Tab, you'll access their website on the page for the selected process.

YouTube Stuff

I've provided a description on another one of my pages, where I discuss YouTube.com, about the tools I use to download videos, play them, and convert the sound to MP3 format.

TaxAct

I'd agree that other tax programs are better, but TaxAct works, is easy, helpful, much smaller than the others, and free. Also, system requirements are much less than TurboTax and TaxCut. The main thing some people might miss is downloading their data from an investment firm or financial program. But it might take as much to accomplish that as to enter it yourself. If you switch from another software program, you can't get the data from the previous year, just from TaxAct. But then TurboTax won't take from another program either. If you decide to pay for the state tax software, the process is simple and quick, with a small download.

Clocx      

Would you like a nice analog clock on your desktop? You know, one with hands on it. What's nice about this small program, is not just the clock, but it also has an alarm and a calendar. All the basic time related functions you need. Plus you can get different skins.

Weather Pulse      

Talking about having tools on your desktop, how about the weather. Of course this is not as small a program as Clocx. If you want to take full advantage of it, you need a broadband connection so you can always be connected to get the weather alerts or see the current temperature and conditions. With one click you can get an hourly forecast, or a weekly prediction, or a weather map.
Unlike all the other tools I have suggested, this one won't work with W95, but then who cares now. An older version did, but no more. Since I've moved up to XP and DSL I can get these neat programs. And like everything else I recommend, this weather program has no adware (the one free program from weather.com does have adware).

Alarm Simple

Need an alarm to let you know when it is a specific time? Maybe you want to run a program at a specific tme of day. Alarm Simple is a small program that sits in your system tray. You can set up as many alarms as you'll need. The alarms can be for specific dates or days of the week. You can set each alarm to trigger a message on your desktop, play a wave file, or run a program.
There are a lot of alarm programs here, Alarm Simple is the last one on the page.

RamPage

When I had Windows 95 RamPage came in handy to free up memory when the OS was lax on doing it. With XP, I don't need it anymore, but I like to use it just to see how much memory is available. It sits quietly in the system tray displaying available memory. I have plenty of memory, but some programs still can have leaks or grab more and more memory as time passes. An occasional glance is all that is needed to see if I should look into a large use of memory.

Bit Meter      

I like to see a little sign of my internet activity on the system tray. Something showing when I'm transmitting and receiving. This was provided by the dialer when I had dial-up. I was happy to see ZoneAlarm showed it when I went to broadband. But I dropped ZoneAlarm and went to Comodo Firewall. So I went looking for for another program to do it. Seemed like BitMeter was the only one. In addition (when you place cursor on the icon, it will show the current download and upload speeds and amount of data that has been transferred since it started (startup). Just what I was looking for.

That was then, this is now: I don't use this anymore because I went back to the free ZoneAlarm. I had left ZoneAlarm because I wanted more information. Comodo, I found, has problems always identifying the source of requests properly. Because of this, it will put up an alert because the combination is not in its database yet. I have also found it difficult to tell it to always allow DNS requests. Since I have DSL and it uses PPPOE, the system requests a renewal of its IP address every day. Every few days Comodo would prevent this request without an alert and I'd have to reboot the system to get online.

Registry Monitor

Registry Monitor , known as RegMon creates a log of all activity to your registry. It's a great way to find out what's going on. Of course, you don't know what a program does with the information it retrieves, but you'll be amazed at the amount of activity.

File Monitor

File Monitor , is another interesting monitor program. It lets you know what programs are accessing what files and when. It can be rather surprising. You can filter out programs, so that they don't fill your log once you see a program doing constant file accesses.

Snooper

Snooper is another cool tool that monitors activity. This activity is the starting and ending of programs. You can thus see what's been happening on your system. When you double click it to start, it runs without any sign that it is running. It won't stop until you reboot, and not even then if you have it start up at boot time. What I do to stop it in order to read its log is Ctrl-Alt-Del and kill the task. Snooper is written by Karen Kenworthy formerly of Windows Magazine, which closed.

Countdown

Countdown is another tool that Karen Kenworthy wrote. This one is a simple calendar scheduler. Nothing fancy, which is what I like. Since it is simple, I am more likely to use it than some over-bloated calendar program. I use it regularly to keep track of when I have to pay bills and various events coming up.

IE Cookies View

This one is just for Internet Explorer and is really a simpler and better program in many ways than the above program. I use this one for Internet Explorer.

IE New Window Maximizer      

I don't normally use Internet Explorer but I did finally get my wife to start using a browser, and I showed her Internet Explorer. That way she'll see the internet the way most people do. What I found was that IE does not open maximized, and that is one of those poor things from Microsoft. Programs are supposed to re-open in the window size in which they were closed, but not IE. I've tried all the different methods recommended to do this, and none work. I read at MS that if you use tabs, it won't work. Hey, MS, Firefox and Opera use tabs, and it works. Now, it is easy enough to hit the maximize button after opening it, but should be unnecessary.
So, I decided to use the IE New Window Maximizer, and let it startup with Windows. Not too big. Works like a charm, even though it takes a second for IE to maximize. I left the default options, and am not using any of its other features. It has one option that says it will hide IE windows until maximized, but it doesn't work, and they don't maximize.

Dependency Walker

Dependency Walker is a free Microsoft utility that scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module, and which of those functions are actually being called by other modules. Another view displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file including a full path to the file, base address, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more.
There are many programs that provide this type of information, but this is one of the few I know of that provides the dependencies, and the only one in which the programs do not have to be running.

CS Diff

Here is a program to compare files. For simple file compares I usually use my editor. But it does not compare all the files in a folder and its subfolders, with another folder and its subfolders. CS Diff does. I don't need to use it at home, but it sure helps at work. It presents the results of a file compare as the base file marked up with additions and deletions.
My only complaint is that you can't just backup to the compare results, you have to open a new window, and close the old one.

Program Lock and Protect

If you need to block programs from others being able to run them, this is a good utility to use. It is only in Beta test now, but works fine for me. Program Lock and Protect allows you to make programs unusable. You control the locking or unlocking of the programs under a password. It does not take a password to run a program, it takes a password to run Program Lock and Protect . You start by using the password mentioned when you first run Program Lock and Protect , then you change the password to one you like.

Tiny Spell

Tiny Spell is a great little spell checker. It's probably the smallest and one of the best, least obtrusive spell checkers. It works everywhere, in any program. It sits in your system tray and informs you of typing errors, anywhere you type, by providing a beep. If you prefer it to provide choices you can open its small spelling window, and when it beeps, click the window. This brings up a list of choices, click the one you want and it replaces what you typed. One problem I had in the past, and thus didn't use it, was that it ate up my system resources in Windows 95. But it is fine in other Windows versions.

Everything      

Everything is a search engine for your PC. It does create an index to speed up searches, but it does not have to keep running to maintain the index. And it takes no time to do it. I have over 90,000 files and it took a second or two to index, and after that searches are immediate. This is fantastic. The down side is that it does not search for text within files.

EZ Back-It-Up      

I purchased a USB flash drive that I want to use for 'daily' backups. Therefore I want a simple program to backup some special files. This one fits the bill. It provides a file directory to use to drag and drop files to be backed up. They are not compressed. Then I define them as a job and to what drive the files will be copied. I can then backup the files manually or on a schedule. The files are saved in the same directory structure. One thing it does not do though, even though it specifies it in it's summary log, is remove files from the backup that have been deleted.

Later, I got myself an external disk drive to be able to do a full backup. I decided against a full image, and wanted a program that would update the files that changed and add new files. I did not want incremental changes. As a 'full backup' I would choose all directories except \windows, \i386, and maybe a few others. I might include some of \windows. I looked at several of the free backup programs, and EZ Back-It-Up, again, was the only program that fit my wishes, except that now I wanted a program that removed what I no longer kept. This program could be used for a daily backup.

Beyond Sync      

Beyond Sync Is that program that will do a 'full backup' and remove the files in the target that are no longer in the source. It has a PREVIEW and a RUN. Apparently, the RUN won't do anything unless you do the PREVIEW. For a manual backup, that is not a problem. It has a scheduler, which worked once, but I can't get it to run again. I even tried a PREVIEW before the scheduler was supposed to run. If you get the scheduler to run, note that it only keeps what the job was when it is setup in the scheduler. So, if you change the backup task, that does not affect what the scheduler will backup. You'd have to delete the task in the scheduler and schedule the new task. Maybe it works better in the paid version. I use it because it does remove files inthe target. Nothing free is perfeect for this yet.

BK Color Coder

If you are building a website, here is a nice tool to help you decide on the colors to use for background, links, and text. Too many sites don't check these combinations, such that links cannot be read in their background because of similarity of color. This tool will solve these problems easily.

Xenu's Link Sleuth

Another nice tool if you are building a website is one that will detect broken links. I found this one to be better than any online broken link detector I tried. The link verification is done on "normal" links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets.
You enter your top level URL and it will report on all pages under it. The broken links can be sorted by links or by page (my preference). A reported broken link might mean that the site is now under a new URL, or it had closed up shop, or the site just might be down temporarily. Try to find the site by a search engine.
It will also tell you all links that have been redirected. Some of these you might want to update, while others might be fine with the link you use. You'll be able to tell.
Note: Be sure to include 'http://' at the start of the URL, and end it with '/'.

See HTML Help below, under online tools.

DTaskManager      

DTaskManager , is a replacement for the Microsoft Task Manager. It provides more information, like the pathname of the process, what time the process started, and a more accurate CPU time.

Calendar Magic

All the other tools I have mentioned are helping you technically. This program is a different animal. Obviously, it's about the calendar. It handles years from 1582 on the Gregorian calendar to 9999. But also wide ranges on just about any calendar you want: Julian, Hebrew, Chinese, Islamic, Hindu, and more. There are holidays on all these calendars, equivalent dates, reminders you can enter, and so much more. Since you can enter your location, so it can adjust the calendar for you, it also has distances between places, and not just big cities. It's a prize.

Smart Close

It is recommended that you close all the programs that you can when you install a new program. It helps protect against conflicts that will make the installation fail. I normally don't do this, but I certainly close any programs that are not always open. If you want to go further and close all that you can, you may have to restart the system afterwards, to be able to start those programs again. Smart Close goes a step further than similar programs. The programs that it closed, it can re-open.
But, be warned, you probably will have to work at this. You'll have to add programs to the list that are not closed, by experimentation, until you get a working set that can be re-opened. It gives you a list of the programs that are opened, and you just switch those programs into the list that it will not close. Of course, it saves that list for future use.

Firefox

I've been an Opera user, and still am. It is even by default browser. But, I've been using Firefox now for most of my internet use. This is because of the sites that don't adhere to proper standards or, at least, don't allow for Opera. So, I have a few Firefox add-ons that I've decided to use.
I like the look of the Colorful Tabs.
One of the things in Opera that is missing in Firefox is Duplicate Tabs. It's not as good as Opera, because you still cannot duplicate the complete tab, just it's current page; that is, no going back to previous pages.
Another Opera nicety I mimic is with Extended Statusbar to show speed, percentage, time, and loaded size of pages as they are loading.
FEBE is a little backup of important data in Firefox.
Flagfox shows what country the website is from, and Shazou lets you know if it says the server is in one country but is really another.
Even Firefox sometimes needs to say it is IE. You do that easily with IE Tabs.
To help reduce spoofing I use which highlights the domain in your URL so you can easily see the real site URL.
Another thing missing in Firefox is the ability to do a paste and go in the search bar or address bar, so Paste and Go really does the job.
Opera also came up with the Speed Dial and so this add-on gives it to you in Firefox.
Netcraft is also for protecting you from bad websites, in that it give a risk rating for a website.
Download information is enhanced with Download Statusbar.

That's a lot of add-ons. I'm tired just seeing how many there are. I wonder how Firefox feels. Maybe that's why it is slow in starting.

Online Tools

Doctor HTML

I've tried several sites that examine your web site and give you a report on problems. Doctor HTML does the best on reporting HTML syntax errors. It also tells you about spelling errors, browser conflicts, and more.
For free it will only examine a single page of a web site, but it provides a nice report on a web page that it returns. It identifies the errors by line numbers.

HTML Help

This site is another excellent tool to analyze your site's HTML and links. Under tools, I've used the HTML Validator and the LinkValet. Both are quite good tools, and fast. As with Xenu, some links might still be valid even though the tool can't find it.

Tech Support Best Freeware Utilities

Above you have many of the free tools I like. At this site find what the folks at Tech Support Alert like. Pretty good list. I use many of them myself.