WinXP - Applications & Tools

Here is a list of applications and tools/utilities I use and recommend

• Open Office Suite - This is Sun Microsystem's JAVA based office suite. It is Open Source = free. Has all the MS Office features and can open MS Office documents. Not only that, it can print any document directly to a PDF file! Open an Office document in Open Office (read only), print to PDF, nice! Reminder, Sun are the publishers of Sun JAVA.

• Auslogics Disk Defrag (freeware) - Want a better hard drive defrag tool than WinXP provides and you are on a budget, try this.

• B's Recorder - Want to write/read CDs or DVDs with a utility that is very, very user friendly? This is it. Buy the DVD Deluxe version and you get all the features that NERO has. But don't need all those features, buy the Basic version.

• Bart's Preinstall Environment (BartPE freeware) - BartPE has been around for a long time. It allows you to make your own PE (Preinstallation Environment) CD, with your Windows OS, and has standard tools like a File Manager. Many software publishers also provide plug-ins for BartPE, like Acronis True Image, to add their programs to your BartPE CD.

• Boxer Text Editor - I really like this text editor. It has features that most cannot touch. Like some high-end text editors Boxer will automatically recognize programming languages like HTML, C, Basic, dBase, Pascal, etc., and highlight (color code) commands, variables, comments according to the language's rules.

• Chameleon Clock - This is a utility that substitutes for your Taskbar Tray Clock. You can choose from a set of skins for appearance. Hover your mouse over the clock an the current month's calendar opens (Tool Tip). It can act as an alarm if you desire, and it will synchronize with Atomic Clocks via sites you can set, which is very helpful for users that logon to a Domain Server (you cannot us the normal Windows synchronize via a Domain).

• CuteFTP - This is another utility that has been around a long time. I've used it for years.

• MBRWizard (must have) - I say "must have" because this utility will save and restore your current hard drive(s) MBR. This can save you headaches if a MBR gets fouled up. Just remember to save it to a DOS boot floppy with the DOS version of MBR.

• MyUninstaller (freeware) - This is a plug-in that extends the features of Add/Remove Programs. It does not replace it. One feature, you can remove unwanted Add/Remove Programs entries.

• PerfectDisk by RAXCO - This is the hard drive optimizer (defrag) I really like. It costs, but worth every penny. It is fast and reliable. The best feature in Windows is that it uses LAYOUT.INI (the file that lists all that is loaded on boot, in order loaded) to move these files to the head of your drive resulting is slightly faster and smoother bootup.

• TweakNow Registry Cleaner Standard (free version) - This is the safest Registry Cleaner I've used, and a very user-friendly interface. It designates Safe-to-Remove, Not-Safe-to-Remove, and unknown entries. You can add any entry to an ignore list so they don't show up on the next Registry scan. The unknown entries will have a Deep Scan option that will scan all your hard drives looking for the missing file reference, if that does not find it the entry will be marked Safe-to-Remove. There is a Pro version and I think it's worth the price.

• WinAudit (freeware, highly suggested) - This is a very small program (no installer, just one run EXE, fits on a floppy) that will audit your PC. Hardware, software, and much more. It just gathers information from existing sources in WinXP and consolidates it in one document. The feature I like is you can [Save] the document directly in a PDF file. You should use this utility and print the PDF and file for your records, you many need it for troubleshooting.

• WinDirStat (freeware, highly suggested) - If you ever needed an easy way to asses your hard drive space. This small utility (from the Linux world) for Window does the job, including showing freespace. The screenshot is a customized view, removed some of the optional "maps."
  (click for larger view)
  
• TinyPDF Printer Driver (freeware) - This printer driver adds a printer to your system that can be used from any print menu. What it actually does is save the printed document to a PDF file. Having a PDF of a document can make it easier to attach to emails to people who may not have the application that created the original document. Example, a Visio file sent to people who do not have Visio.