Just think about that frustrating time a window opened up off the top of the screen and you couldn’t move your mouse to the title area to move it down. Think about how frustrating it can be to get the mouse to hover over the edges of the window, painfully searching for the double arrows that let you resize it.

I love programs like this. No installation necessary, just run it and it works without eating up the computer’s resources.  It makes those “Windows 7 was my idea” adverts even more frustrating… what they should say is “I’m a PC and I have to rely on freeware programmers to add great usability”.

http://taekwindow.sourceforge.net/

http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/09/24/how-to-add-shadow-and-transparency-effects-to-windows-borders/

http://www.studio7designs.com/windows-themes/

http://www.freewaregenius.com/2009/06/23/forty-three-of-the-best-free-windows-enhancements-that-you-should-know-about/

http://customize.org/

This lovely piece of software is not for the feint hearted. I’ve never felt inclined to have a firewall because of the built in NAT firewall in my router and the basic Windows one.  However, sometimes it’s nice to know just which software is accessing the internet and just what exactly it’s doing with it.

This program lists all the processes that are running and the exact bandwidth usage of each.  If things start going slow on the net, pop open this program, see what’s using what and even deny it access (with the firewall switched on) or close it altogether.

If you instantly think “What’s svchost.exe?” – it’s an important windows process.  Anything else popping up that you’re worried about, stick the name in google (with the .exe at the end) and you’ll soon find out what it is.

(http://www.net-peeker.com/Download.htm – You probably want the personal version)

http://www.freewaregenius.com/

My favourites:

• Desktop Media
  
• Explorer Breadcrumbs (unlock toolbars to position it where you want)
• WinFlip
• Copy Handler
• Everything

(Note – it can be hard to find the link to download the software – it’s very small at the bottom – see this image)

I’m quite careful about checking suspicious files I download so I installed it without the constantly running “guard” saving boot-up time and the CPU.

The one downside is that when it updates the virus database, you get a “Buy premium edition” pop-up which is just annoying.  Luckily I found this fix -UPDATED- (for WinXP) which prevents this pop-up making it the perfect anti-virus for me.

http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/

Before you hit “Start Scanning” you will want to choose Options > Auto Detect Local IP Range and select the network adapter which is connected to the net.

Don’t forget the Router will show up in the list also!

Unfortunately, the free version is limited… and its definitely not good enough to pay for.

Has to be seen to be believed:

http://rocketdock.com/download

Freeundelete:

http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/

Great if you’ve gotten into the bad habit of shift-deleting everything and realising the Recycle Bin would have been a better choice.

AVG Anti-virus:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0

AVG Anti-spyware:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/us/frt/0

There are obviously other free anti-virus/spyware programs but I like these two. I’m open to alternatives though.

My favourite feature of the anti-virus is the email shield which add to the signature that the attachments have been checked for viruses. My favourite feature of the anti-spyware is the analysis, which shows you running processes and gives you the option to delete those that autostart (no need to look at msconfig). And a right-click on the system tray icon allows you to uncheck “start with windows”. I wish more programs had this.

EasyCleaner:

Loads of handy features here for cleaning up the crap on your PC. Just remember to backup first!

http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm