The 33 Essential Free Utilities for Every New PC
Posted 12/22/09 at 11:00:00 AM by Alex Castle and Norman Chan
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The Windows ecosystem is filled with more programs than we will ever need. But while you know to install essential programs like Firefox and Steam onto every new PC, there are plenty of core utilities you should install before downloading any application software.
We pick out the 33 most useful utilities that enhance the Windows operating system. These aren't apps used for productivity (like word processing or web browsing) or entertainment (like video playback or gaming). Instead, they strengthen the backbone of Windows by optimizing hardware and system software. From single-purpose diagnostic tools to user-interface replacements, these programs provide general support to overhaul the gestalt of the Windows experience.
Think you have every utility to bend Windows to your wishes? You'd be surprised!
Cobian Backup
After recommending SyncBack SE in our last app roundup, our readers turned us onto Cobian, an independently-developed backup utility that is as elegant as it is powerful. Cobian lets you schedule backups of folders and drives (yes, even networked ones) to encrypted archives. You can select the frequency of backups, the type of backups (incremental or differential), encryption algorithm, and compression format (Zip and 7z are supported). Backups can be stored onto physical disks, USB keys, or networked drives. The best part is that retrieving files is a cinch—just browse the backup with your preferred archiving program, like 7-Zip.
Executor / Launchy
It you want to rid Desktop icons once and for all, consider using Executor, a powerful visual implementation of the Run command. A keyboard shortcut brings up the Executor prompt, which lets you type open programs, documents, and websites that the program indexes in the background. You can associate keyword commands with applications to perform specific tasks, and manage Executor’s database to refine your results. It’s also extremely customizable to match your desktop aesthetic. Another recommended program launcher is Launchy, which isn’t as feature-heavy as Executor.
CCleaner
It’s easily the most popular registry-cleaning utility; though CCleaner will also purge your system of unwanted temporary files, memory dumps, and even system restore points. The latest version will let you manage start-up programs and services as well.
Dropbox
Since its introduction last year, Dropbox has been a perennial addition to our must-have software lists. So why does it always make the cut? Because it’s a utility that’s simultaneously intuitive, simple, and absolutely kick-ass.
Dropbox monitors a folder on your system, and syncs it with a folder on any other system you have Dropbox installed on, keeping all your important files everywhere you might need them. Even if you don’t have a second computer you want to sync, Dropbox is a worthy download thanks to its powerful browser interface, which lets you download or upload a file anywhere, and saves a revision history, in case you screw up an important document.
Belvedere
For neat freaks who like to keep their files organized, here’s a powerful utility that lets you automate file management in Windows. Belvedere is an open-source tool that lets you monitor folders and move, delete, rename, or open files based on specified rules. You can set it to keep track of your documents folder and archive files created over a month ago, or keep watch of your downloads folder and soft files based on the file’s name, extension, size, or creation date.
Be careful with CCleaner
Submitted by OvenMaster on Sat, 01/09/2010 - 9:49am
CCleaner right out of the box (so to speak) can overdo the "cleaning up" schtick and cause a lot of trouble later on. A few weeks after I installed CCleaner, I started getting error messages when trying to uninstall other software: Windows (XP) could not find .msi installer packages. I had to download and install Windows Install Cleanup and get rid of CCleaner.
Defrag
Submitted by Mikeytron on Tue, 12/29/2009 - 9:25am
I have found the auslogic defragger to be pretty poor. I have tried Defraggler which seems to work really well on Xp or Vista. Auslogics is better than the worthless defragger that takes forever on Vista and does very little. Defraggler takes a while the first time. In fact I ran Auslogics on a Vista P.C. It took like 10 minutes max. and had run before on that machine . Performance increase was sub par. Then I ran Defraggler and it took a long time (only the first time) and the performance increase was noticed.
Cobian Back Up ??? Try that one again Please ??
Submitted by tiredoldman on Sat, 12/26/2009 - 9:01pm
From Glenn,,A moderator at Cobian fourms:
"Cobian is not designed to backup and restore system files, so I would restrict your backup to just your most critical user data files that cannot be replaced otherwise."
Okay,,now I'm confused..Why back it up if you can't restore it ??
Did I miss something here ??
On the subject of VLC , I have used VLC for a long time,,but,,somethings are better played by Windows Media Center. Best of both worlds.
Just as I have both Windows Vista Pro and XP Pro,as well as some Linux rigs.
It all works fine,,and which OS is based on what I need done.Again,,best of both worlds.
Keep up the great work Murph ,Doing good..For a Geek !lol
Submitted by pastorbob on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 8:13pm
SYSTEM FILES. In other words your registry and all the files required to run the OS. You can backup and restore all other types of files such as documents, executables etc.
7 Zip vs. Winrar
Submitted by tomastaz on Sat, 12/26/2009 - 5:10pm
You guys like 7-zip, I use Winrar. Is 7-zip better or is there a difference?
All your base are belong to us!
Submitted by johnnymegabyte on Thu, 12/24/2009 - 8:58am
AVStoDVD. Wizard based DVD burning. Easy to use and handles all sorts of video input formats.
VideoLAN VLC (bye bye Windows Media Player and more)
Jdownloader (queue them up and walk away)
Vdownloader (Youtube and more to your PC)
DrumTrack (drum machine, MIDI file input / output and WAV output. create beats, loops, jam along)
Submitted by aziobron on Wed, 12/23/2009 - 5:51pm
from the makers of CCleaner, Defraggler is also a very nice defragger i use. it includes the functionality to defrag an entire drive as well as individual files and folders.
also from the makers of CCleaner, in it's beta stage now, Speccy gives you information about your OS and all of your hardware components, as deep as CPU-Z and GPU-Z, but for many more things.
and come on guys, no VLC Media Player?
Sweet app list! I've have
Submitted by Sparx10 on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 8:41pm
Sweet app list! I've have about 10 of these, but have used about 20 of them. Just downloaded Cobian Backup yesterday; and its awesome. CCleaner is like my favorite app ever, had it since like beta days. AutoHotkey I just got a week ago, and its AMAZING all the things you can do with it (almost anything you can imagine, and its pretty much a software creating tool, seeing as you can create .exe's from scripts you make). But I'd have to go with WinZip over 7-Zip, I just really like WinZip's GUI better (pathetic reason for favoring it, I know), and their new .zipx format is pretty good.
Id probably also recomend
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 11:17am
Id probably also recomend as a bonus DriverMax, sure they gutted the free version but with PCI and DriverMax (paid version or lots of patience with the free one) you prety much cover everything, Apps and Drivers.
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
I think these are great!
Submitted by V-mateika on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 11:00am
don't get me wrong, but these lists are quite great despite the fact that they are numerous. For us people who have been with maxpc for a long time, or even just a year, these lists are a little worthless, I hate sifting through them to find few apps that they never added before. For the new reader however, or someone new to the world of geeks (we all were at one time), these are a very good source of information. Keep up the good work maxpc! Who gives a crap if maxpc is being endorsed or not by companies? Anyone who assumes that may be right but they are only people looking to blow off steam by saying assuming things just to sh*t on the hard work of others. Endorsements are irrelevant. What matters is the content provided by those hard working editors:)
There are several good paid apps that combine a lot of these.
Submitted by JohnP on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 10:50am
Roboform, Truelaunchbar, TuneUp Utilities, RegSupremePro, and Directory Opus 9 will handle just about all of these apps. They have a great interface, will do multiple things, and are easy to use. I donno why "free" or should I say limited apps should be given peference over a good paid utility. $150 bucks for a $2 Grand machine is a good investment.
another "you forgot"....
Submitted by Olmec on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 10:49am
You missed foobar 2000. It does play almost any music codec arround(loosy and loosless), highly customizable user interface, small system footprint. If you have an album with a cue sheet it can handle it, it has a lot of dsp and output plugins (like asio, kernel streaming(XP), wasapi (vista-win7), It can handle huge music libraries (mine is about 250 ALBUMS)
....so you missed it.
Kudos on adding Cobian. I've
Submitted by lunchbox73 on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 8:40am
Kudos on adding Cobian. I've been using it for a long time and I love it.
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 11:15am
YEs! Yes! Oh god Yes! I love me my Cobian...
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Submitted by Perplexing Man on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 8:26am
Here's an idea stop posting these must have apps. Please I am tired of seeing the same apps being hyped time and time again through numerous postings on here with the only difference being that a handful of new apps might make it on the list.
CCleaner, WinDirStat, 7-zip, Speedfan, Imgburn, Fraps, Truecrypt, Keepass, RevoUnistaller, CPU-Z, GPU-Z, SuperAntispyware, Auslogics Disk Defrag, UD Pixel, all of these programs have been hyped dozens of times over the past couple of years. Don't get me wrong I do use some of these programs and have for years now but I seriously doubt there are many who are devoted MaxPC fans that do not already know of these programs (due to heavy endorsement.... one might think there is some sort of kick back for hyping them so much)
Here is an idea take each program and compare it to other "free" programs similiar to them if any and lets see how many are still standing. I mean seriously I can't be the only one who has noticed this. Sorry for being rude that is not my intent I am just tired of feeling ripped off so to say of course that's time ( the time it takes to read these articles when I could be learning about the latest technology for my PC that I may buy at some point.) I mean I stopped wasting money on the magazine because of this very issue.
Perplexing Man, Do you ever
Submitted by TheMurph on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 10:44am
Perplexing Man,
Do you ever check out the weekly freeware roundups? I really try to toss super-new or super-unfamiliar freeware/open-source apps and games in those. Maybe that might be more to your liking?
Submitted by pastorbob on Wed, 12/30/2009 - 8:25pm
the magazine suscriber list is a constant. Nobody new ever subscribes. Not to mention that the people accessing this website are the always same ones. Sounds rather egocentric to me.
Submitted by ThunderBolt on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 4:48am
My tray would be 2 miles long. I already use CCleaner, Recuva, Hamachi, Malwarebytes (full version). I will install some additional apps, but nothing that would be auto-starting and just sitting there.
Input Director
Submitted by DrMD on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 3:59am
Some of these apps CPU-Z , SpeedFan, and GPU-Z, I already have but Input Director looks like a winner and it also comes in linux.
Here's a real useful app and one I'm definitely going to try. After having the clutter of 2 mice/keyboards 1 monitor and switching between 2 boxes.
Submitted by Sina on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 12:46am
Revo Uninstaller (now Revo Uninstaller Pro) is not free anymore. ($39.25)
Lots of guides, apps... you'll blow your system if you install all those apps. (mediocre articles)
Max PC, could you please focus on reviewing laptop accessories like: mouse, speakers, earphones, USB DVB receivers, USB flash drives, portable backup drives?
Submitted by TheMurph on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 12:50am
You're kidding, right? You did go to the download page, I take it.
http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html
Still looks free to me!
Submitted by Sina on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 1:00am
compare free with pro version:
http://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html
well at least they didn't drop the free version.
The problem with Revo is
Submitted by Cy-Kill on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 3:00am
The problem with Revo is they won't say when thy are bringing out the 2.0 for the free version of the app, the Pro version -- which is 2.0 -- will install a native x64 app, the free version is still x32.
Cy-Kill
Submitted by TheMurph on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 10:43am
fwiw, check out this week's Murphy's Law column for a comparison of Revo Free versus Revo Pro -- is it really worth the cost?
Submitted by Sina on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 3:36am
yes, that's right, crisis of x64 apps.
the pro version will fail, i'm sure: $39.25 for just an uninstaller?
Submitted by ETNPNYS on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 10:57pm
Alex... Norm... Are you guys recommending that all this crap gets put onto a fresh install? Jeez... I can't even imagine what my tray would look like with all of this madness going on. ...Heck, I'd need CCLeaner and Revo Uninstaller just to address what the rest of this article recommends!
<><
Submitted by Sina on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 3:43am
yes, for me too:
revo for somewhat complete uninstallation.
ccleaner for fast & easy cleaning.
& plus: reg organizer for advanced reg-editing/cleaning.
Submitted by DogPatch1149 on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 10:46pm
You can't be serious...even the built-in defragmenter in Windows has a more efficient algorithm than Auslogics' product. MyDefrag (formerly JKDefrag) kicks Auslogics to the curb.
Submitted by lunchbox73 on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 8:39am
Agreed. Mydefrag is great.
Submitted by Catalyst on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 10:08pm
I've kind of been waiting for an actual review by MaxPC on the new MS Security Essentials. I've been using Avast! for several years now and not had any infections issues, but they did screw up recently with a bad signature update that incorrectly flagged a bunch of files as bad. Has anyone actually given Security Essentials for a spin? I see it protects against viruses/spyware/malware, but does it scan emails as well?
Submitted by JohnP on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 10:44am
MS Security Essentials seems to get the job done. I had a very bad infection when I downloaded a trojan torrent. MS program pretty much got rid of it and I finished it off by using MalwareBytes Anti-malware and Regsupremepro to delete the registry additions.
Submitted by majorsuave on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 9:37pm
I've been using Sysinternals' Process explorer for years (probably since the first time I saw it mentioned in Max PC). How good does Process Hacker compares to it?
A thing I like about Process Explorer is that it can work portably (just copy its folder to a portable drive - I have it in my portable apps folder- can Process HAcker be used the same?
quick questions: does
Submitted by nsk chaos on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 9:16pm
quick questions:
does ccleaner clean out all the registry crap and etc? if it does can it overwrite it?
Submitted by majorsuave on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 9:30pm
I don't think it overwrite with something you would tell it to if that is what you mean. It does clean the left over strings from apps that have been uninstalled and the strings leading nowhere.
It scans through temp folders, internet cache and such and cleans dead weight too.
Take your time the first time you use it because it might clean up preferences for useful apps as well.
All in all, it is well worth it
yeh it cleans the registry
Submitted by Pentium 0 on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 9:24pm
yeh it cleans the registry if you want. Im not sure what you mean by overwrite though. If you mean by accident, it lets you create a backup beforehand.
All of these utilities are
Submitted by reutnes on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 9:11pm
All of these utilities are great. I also reccomend 'Recuva' for when you accidentally delete something. It's made by the same people behind CCleaner.
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