15 Great Free Utilities You've Never Heard Of

You don't need to spend a bundle--or even a penny--for great software. These little-known tools do everything from protecting your PC to managing your media.

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Introduction
Looking at the price of software today is enough to send you into sticker 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:
SecuritySystem ToolsGraphics and MultimediaMiscellaneous SoftwareThe Complete List of 15 Great Utilities
Security
The Internet is a nasty place, full of spyware, malware, and other programs bent on doing you harm. Here are four free utilities that can help protect you.


SpyCatcher Express
Antivirus software usually won't protect you against spyware, which is where SpyCatcher Express comes in. This freebie scans your system for spyware, and removes what it finds. Better yet, it offers live protection, just as popular freebies like Ad Aware SE Personal and Spybot Search & Destroy do, so that it stops spyware from infecting your PC in the first place. When you first run it, it does a system scan to check for spyware, and then delete any it finds. After that, you configure it by setting your level of protection, as well as deciding when to do automated scans. SpyCatcher Express will also download new antispyware signatures automatically, so that you always have up-to-date protection.
In addition, SpyCatcher Express includes a variety of other unique tools, such as a System Explorer, which offers a detailed list of all the applications running on your system, as well as ActiveX components and an Internet Explorer plug-in. It also lists all the programs that run on startup.
Download:
SpyCatcher Express


a-Squared HiJackFree
No matter how much antispyware protection you've got on your PC, it's not enough. Spyware is notorious for being able to slip through the cracks of antimalware programs, and you're best off if you have more than one such tool on your PC. That's where this freebie comes in. Use it as a backup to your main antispyware utility, for extra protection. It doesn't offer "live" protection like SpyCatcher Express. Instead, use it to examine your system, to see if it's been infected, and then kill the malware. It's a surprisingly powerful tool, and with far more features than we can cover here. But these are the basics: Run it and click the Online Analysis button; it will then check your system for malware and issue a report online. If it finds any nasties, it will tell you. You can then use the program to delete the malware.
There are also tools for viewing what programs are using your TCP ports, and for examining programs that run on startup. For a free program, it's surprisingly powerful.
Download: a-Squared HiJackFree


VistaFirewallControl
Microsoft has been touting the new Windows Firewall in Windows Vista, which it says for the first time includes an outbound filter as well as an inbound filter. Outbound filters are important, because if you've been infected with a Trojan horse or similar software, it makes an outbound connection without your knowledge, letting someone else take control of your PC. Some malware can also turn your PC into a spam-spewing robot, sending out e-mail without your knowledge.
Unfortunately, the outbound filter in Windows Vista is, in essence, turned off by default. And as a practical matter, it's impossible to manually configure it to block malware from making outbound connections. That's where the free VistaFirewallControl comes in. Install it, and whenever an application tries to access the Internet, a screen pops up with the application name, the publisher, and similar information, as well its path and file name. You can enable or disable the inbound or outbound connections it tries to make, either permanently or just this one time. If you're not sure if the program is malware or not, go to www.processlibrary.com and do a search for the file name, for details. All in all, VistaFirewallControl is a great way to make sure your PC isn't making unwanted outbound connections.
Download: VistaFirewallControl


Tor
Browsing the Web makes your life an open book. Web sites can track your online activities, know what operating system and browser you're running, find out your machine name, uncover the last sites you've visited, examine your history list, delve into your cache, examine your IP address, and use it to learn basic information about you such as your geographic location--and more as well. How to protect yourself? Use Tor, which protects your anonymity as you surf and use the Internet. With Tor, all your communications (not just Web surfing, but also instant messaging and other applications) are in essence bounced around a giant network of Tor servers called "onion routers," until it's impossible for sites or people to be able to track your activities.
When you download Tor, you get other software that works in concert with it, including Privoxy, a proxy program. All the software is self-configuring, so you won't need to muck around with port settings or the like. Tor runs as a small icon in your system tray. To start Tor, right-click it and choose Start from the menu that appears; to stop it, right-click it and choose Stop. Once it starts, simply use the Internet as you normally would. If you're somewhat paranoid, you can regularly change your Tor "identity," to make it even harder for anyone to track your travels. Tor also includes a nice bandwidth tool that graphs your bandwidth use.
Download:
Tor
System Tools
Are you the kind of person who needs to peer deep into your PC, know exactly what's running on your system, and then fine-tune the works? Then these five programs are for you.


What's Running
So you want to know about every single process and every single service, view every single IP connection, find out the details of every driver--and even then you're still not satisfied? Then you'll love this program. In a simple, tabbed interface, you'll find out all those things, and plenty more as well, such as a list of all the programs that run on startup, and a comprehensive listing of your system hardware and software. The program does more than peer into your system, though. It also lets you take actions, such as stopping and starting processes and services, and halting unwanted programs from running on startup.
Download:
What's Running


Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
The more software and hardware you install and uninstall, the more full your Windows Registry gets. A great deal of software doesn't clean up after itself, and leaves behind old and obsolete Registry entries, or upon install creates invalid ones. There will be pointers to missing DLLs, listings of no-longer-valid file extensions, invalid paths, invalid ActiveX Controls, and much more. The more your Registry fills with this junk, the slower your PC gets--and the more often you'll have system crashes.
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner fixes the problem neatly, in a simple, two-step process. Tell it to scan your Registry, and it does so, finding whatever problematic items and junk there may be. Then tell it to repair the Registry, and it tidies things up. Making changes to the Registry can be dangerous, and isn't for the faint of heart, so this program has a few extras to cover you. If you want, you can first look at the problems it finds and tell the program to fix only some of them. Better yet, the program also lets you restore the previous version of the Registry, if for some reason its changes have undesirable effects.
Download:
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner


Undelete Plus
Tossed a file into the Recycle Bin and want it back? Undelete Plus lists files that have been deleted and says whether they can be restored.Windows users sometimes get too smug about being able to recover files that they've deleted. After all, there's the Recycle Bin, so why worry about accidentally deleting files? There's bad news for you. First of all, you may have emptied the Recycle Bin. Secondly, if you delete files from within a DOS window, or a network drive, those files aren't sent to the Recycle Bin. Instead, they're deleted directly.
The free Undelete Plus, however, can come to your rescue. Run it, and it scans your system for files that have been deleted, even those removed from the Recycle Bin, or deleted on a network drive or via a DOS window. It lists all the files, and tells you whether it can likely be restored. (In some instances, the delete file has already been overwritten; in that case, you can kiss it sayonara.) Then tell the program to restore your files, and they come back from the dead.
Download:
Undelete Plus


Advanced WindowsCare
This all-in-one tool combines an antispyware feature, a Registry cleaner, a privacy sweep to delete your surfing traces, a system analysis tool, and more, all combined into one package. It's best suited for advanced users who aren't scared away by delving deeply into their systems. But it's exceedingly simple to use: Launch the program, just choose which feature you want to run, and it then goes about its work. There's too much here to go into detail, but each module is surprisingly full-featured, something you wouldn't expect in an all-in-one tool.
Note that you could get confused when you first start the program. Just be sure to click the Start button at the bottom of the screen. If instead you click any of the links, such as "Computer Type," you're whisked to a page that tells you that the feature is available in the paid version.
Download:
Advanced WindowsCare


System Information for Windows
Think you know the innards of your Windows system? Well, think again. Download and run this program, and you'll realize just how little you know. It's probably the most comprehensive free system analyzer you'll find anywhere. It gives you a complete rundown of all your hardware and software, your system setup, your audio and video codecs, your motherboard, your network cards, your system slots--and that's just the beginning. It also includes real-time monitors for things such as network, RAM, and CPU usage.
How much detail does it give? Consider these few bits of data. It will tell you the temperature of your CPU--and if you've got a dual-core processor, it will show you the temperature of each. It'll even tell you the temperature of your hard disk. And it somehow also manages to report on your software license keys as well, including the ones for Windows and subsequently installed software.
Note that this program is significantly different from What's Running. The latter shows the system processes and programs that are currently operating on your PC, but it won't analyze your hardware or peer deep into your system. System Information for Windows, on the other hand, is a system analyzer that shows you information about your hardware and installed software.
Download:
System Information for Windows
Graphics and Multimedia
Here are tools for organizing your photo and media libraries (and doing much more with them), and for creating your own 3D designs.


Photozig Albums Express
If you've got a surfeit of photos, you'll appreciate this freebie, which organizes your pictures, along with short videos and songs, into albums. You'll be able to create multiple albums, organized the way you want, and easily search and browse for photos with tools such as keyword searching and filters. You'll also find photo editing tools built in, such as red-eye fix, resizing and cropping, changing the contrast and brightness, and so on. There's also a full set of tools for sharing photos, including burning them to CD, sharing them on the Web, or easily sending them via e-mail.
One of the program's nicer features is its customizable interface. Select beginner, intermediate, or advanced, and the interface changes. At a beginner level, it's all graphically based; intermediate and advanced offer the ability to browse via a Windows Explorer-like interface, and to see hidden files and folders.
Download:
Photozig Albums Express


MediaMonkey
Not happy with Windows Media Player or your current media player, or are you just looking for an alternative? Then give the free MediaMonkey a try. It's an excellent tool for playing media, organizing your media library, and ripping and burning music. It'll play pretty much every music file that's out there, will synchronize with your iPod and MP3 player, and includes a tag editor. It will also automatically find album art for the file you're currently playing as well. MediaMonkey organizes your music in multiple ways, including by artist, title, album, genre, year, rating and so on. Unlike Windows Media Player, it loads fast.
Fans of Internet radio will like this program as well; it automatically connects you to the Shoutcast and Icecast online radio directories, and plays any stations you want.
Download:
MediaMonkey


Google SketchUp
Have you always wanted to be an architect? Or perhaps you are one? Or do you just want to design something as simple as a backyard deck? Then you'll want to give this freebie from Google a try. It's a 3D modeling program that lets you create three dimensional models of decks, houses, buildings, your own home woodworking projects, and much more. It comes with a full set of sophisticated modeling and design tools, and it includes very good advice for getting started. Unless you've used 3D modeling software before, you'll need the help, because this program can be fairly difficult to use. But follow the interactive help, and you'll go a long way toward getting started.
You can do more than just print your models. You'll be able to actually place them in Google Earth. And if you want to share them with others, or to be able to use models that others have created, you can post them to Google's
3D Warehouse. In fact, if you don't have artistic inclinations, you may want to go to the 3D Warehouse as soon as you download the program, and grab models from there.
Download:
Google SketchUp
Miscellaneous Software
This category includes tools for RSS feeds, DVD (or CD) burning, and legal file sharing.


RSS Bandit
Browsing the Web is so last century; these days, the Web should come to you. That's what RSS feeds can do for you. They're a way for you to keep up with your favorite blogs, news sites, political news, and much more. RSS Bandit makes it exceedingly easy to subscribe to and read RSS feeds, and organize them as well. Subscribe to any RSS feed and add it to a folder, and the program will automatically update the feed for you. Feeds you haven't read yet show up in bold, so you can see what's new. It displays full graphics, and even lets you play videos directly inside the program.
Download:
RSS Bandit


ImgBurn
Looking to copy a homemade DVD? That's just one of the many tasks you can accomplish with ImgBurn. It's a combination disk-burner and disk-reader that's about as simple a program as you'll find, but will tackle pretty much whatever disk-burning task you throw at it. How's this for simple: Put a CD or DVD in your drive, and select Mode --> Read, and the program reads the disc. Then click the Read button, and it will create an .iso image file on your PC, which is an image of the disc. And to burn that image to a CD or DVD, you need only click a few buttons.
Even if you don't need to back up CDs or DVDs, you'll find the program useful, because some programs are distributed as .iso files that need to be burned before they can be used. For example, beta versions of Windows Vista were commonly made available online as .iso files.
Download:
ImgBurn


Azureus
If you're interested in (legally!) sharing media and other types of files, the best peer-to-peer protocol is the BitTorrent protocol. But for many people, the clunky BitTorrent program itself leaves much to be desired. So if you're a file-sharer dissatisfied with your current BitTorrent client, give the free Azureus a try. It's exceedingly easy to employ, but offers features for advanced users as well as Torrent newbies. You'll be able to handle multiple torrent downloads, and limit upload and download speeds, either globally for the entire program, or per torrent. There's also a very useful fast-resume capability.
If you want to extend the program's features, there are plenty of plug-ins, such as the nifty Autospeed that automatically adjusts your upload and download speeds, according to your current bandwidth. One particularly nice feature of this program is that when you install it, you can either specify whether you want to use the beginner, intermediate, or advanced features, and you can later change the interface as you gain more experience. (Note that you'll need to have Java installed on your PC in order for this program to work.)
The newest version of Azureus, 3.0, is currently in beta, and includes a more graphically pleasing interface, plus the ability to view high-resolution videos from directly in the client.
Download:
Azureus
The Complete List of 15 Great Free Utilities
Products described in this article are listed in order of appearance.


Security
SpyCatcher Expressa-Squared HiJackFreeVistaFirewallControlTor

System Tools
What's RunningEusing Free Registry CleanerUndelete PlusAdvanced WindowsCareSystem Information for Windows

Graphics and Multimedia
Photozig Albums ExpressMediaMonkeyGoogle SketchUp

Miscellaneous Software
RSS BanditImgBurnAzureus
Preston Gralla is a freelance writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the author of Windows Vista in a Nutshell.



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