Favorite Utilities?

[TrainableMan]

>>>Freeware:
Pop Peeper
WildRename
CCleaner
3RVX (displays onscreen volume indicator)
Daemon Tools Lite
SyncToy 2.1
hkSFV
Peerblock
HiJackThis 2
Process Explorer 12.03
TCPView 2.54

>>>Not freeware:
Winrar
TuneUp Utilities 2010

 

[TrainableMan]

BTW, if you were ever thinking of giving the 3D Desktop organizer BumpTop a try, Google bought it and it is no longer freeware.

I did find a link to 2.0 at PCWorld magazine...
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,77603/description.html

I have not tried it myself because I'm not a fan of stuff on my desktop anyway but if you are - get it now.

ALSO, Beamish mentioned Unlocker. Does this work in Win 7 64-bit because everytime I load it I can't find it's menu addins in my right-click menu and I cannot get the assistant to do anything. This is one product I really would like to have back in my utility belt.

 

[Veedaz]

SpeedFan is another one of my faves (freeware), you can have it start with Windows (drop it in the Startup Folder) choose fan speeds and save your settings, great for noisy system and case fans (Motherboard allowing)

Link > SpeedFan

 

[TrainableMan]

BTW: I was able to get unlocker running in Win 7 but it takes some tweaking.

Because Win 7 requires signed 64-bit drivers, which Microsoft charges to get, he has not gotten them yet. But you can run a Test environment which allows unsigned drivers; one way to do this is with dseo13b.exe

So add Unlocker to my list of favorite utilities.

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

I've been away a while.

Thought I'd add to the thread

Paragon HDM 2010 Server

Gimagex

7zip

Device Remover

bcdtool

Easybcd - v2.0 Beta is great , saves a lot of typing.

 

[Nibiru2012]

BTW: I was able to get unlocker running in Win 7 but it takes some tweaking.

Because Win 7 requires signed 64-bit drivers, which Microsoft charges to get, he has not gotten them yet. But you can run a Test environment which allows unsigned drivers; one way to do this is with dseo13b.exe

So add Unlocker to my list of favorite utilities.

Regarding Windows 7 Drivers... I get ALL of mine for my hardware from the hardware or chip makers sites, i.e., Intel for chipset drivers, ATI for graphics, Realtek for Audio, etc, etc,. Too many people rely on Windows 7 to supply all the "correct" drivers and it doesn't, it comes close in many instances, but no cigar.

One thing I learned over the years is that MS cannot do as good a job of current up-to-date drivers as well as the companies that make the parts themselves.

 

[Veedaz]

Regarding Windows 7 Drivers... I get ALL of mine for my hardware from the hardware or chip makers sites, i.e., Intel for chipset drivers, ATI for graphics, Realtek for Audio, etc, etc,. Too many people rely on Windows 7 to supply all the "correct" drivers and it doesn't, it comes close in many instances, but no cigar.

One thing I learned over the years is that MS cannot do as good a job of current up-to-date drivers as well as the companies that make the parts themselves.

Spot on with that Nibiru its the only and best way to get the latest drivers ... I get a fair few PCs coming in that have being totally buggered up by auto download driver programs (eg) ATI graphics drivers some of these robot programs will download the driver but not the new CCC then problems can start. We all love our computers so its worth a little time and not much effort to go to the manufactures site and download the correct software / drivers.

 

[TrainableMan]

I was reading through this list again looking for the best software to test harddrives. That computer I had built (that originally had a noisy harddrive) was throwing off some form of disk errors on boot-up and when I ran chkdsk on it, it ran for over 45 minutes before I killed it. Anyway I have it plugged into my computer via this dual ThermalTake e-sata connection but booting from MY harddrive not this one. Anyway, now I cannot find any errors at all but before I put it back into the other computer I want to verify it is actually OK.


also I realized I hadn't replied to this ...

Regarding Windows 7 Drivers... I get ALL of mine for my hardware from the hardware or chip makers sites ... Too many people rely on Windows 7 to supply all the "correct" drivers and it doesn't ... MS cannot do as good a job of current up-to-date drivers as ... the companies that make the parts themselves.

All 64-bit drivers must be signed (i.e. Microsoft approved) and the creator of Unlocker had not gotten that so the drivers were unsigned. I wasn't saying I wanted to get them from Microsoft, I was saying I had to tweak my system into Test Mode to allow the creators unsigned drivers. Unlocker now has fully signed 64-bit drivers so all is good.

 

[sunnyrepairs]

Reginout, Ccleaner, Defraggler, Malwarebytes, Spyboot

 

[TrainableMan]

Why would you run reginout and ccleaner - both are registry cleaners and ccleaner has been around for years. Stick with the tried and true ccleaner and avoid the risk of registry damage some wannabe cleaners inflict.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Beside RegInOut is a paid program, why pay for something when CCleaner is free!