15 Great Free Utilities You've Never Heard Of
Héctor Miguel
shock. Sometimes it feels as if you need to mortgage your house if you want
to get a full suite of tools.
Luckily, that's not the case. There are plenty of very good free programs
that do everything from protecting you against spyware, to giving you a
comprehensive look inside your PC, and cleaning your Registry, to managing
your media, and plenty more.
We've scoured the Web and come up with 15 of our favorite free utilities
that most people have never heard of. We've focused on three popular
categories: security software, system tools, and graphics and multimedia.
But we've also thrown in some personal favorites that defy categorization.
Among the security utilities, we've chosen two spyware killers--SpyCatcher
Express and a-Squared HiJackFree--because no single piece of antispyware
can do the job by itself. We've also found a very good firewall,
VistaFirewallControl, to improve on Windows Vista's built-in protection.
And we've included Tor, which will maintain your privacy whenever you're
online.
We found plenty of system tools, as well. What's Running shows you all the
programs and processes running on your PC, while System Information for
Windows takes a deep dive into your machine's innards and shows you an
amazing amount of detail about your hardware and software setup. Eusing
Free Registry Cleaner does exactly what it says--it keeps your Registry in
tip-top shape and helps your PC run better. Advanced WindowsCare offers a
multitude of tune-up tools. And Undelete Plus lets you undelete files in
ways you might not have thought possible--for example, those that you've
already removed from the Recycle Bin.
As for graphics and multimedia software, you'll be surprised at the
sophistication and power of the freebies we found. MediaMonkey does a great
job of handling and playing music files, while Photozig Albums Express
offers ways not just to manage your photos, but to edit and share them as
well. And Google SketchUp is a remarkable 3D graphics program for building
three-dimensional objects such as houses, decks, and desks.
Finally, we've rounded up some intriguing miscellanies. RSS Bandit lets you
subscribe to and read RSS feeds so that you can keep up with your favorite
blogs and news sites. Azureus is a very good peer-to-peer file-sharing
program based on the popular BitTorrent protocol. And ImgBurn will let you
copy CDs and DVDs with ease.
So what are you waiting for? Start downloading. There's great software to
be had, and it won't cost you a red cent.
In This Article:
a.. Security
b.. System Tools
c.. Graphics and Multimedia
d.. Miscellaneous Software
e.. The Complete List of 15 Great Utilities
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