Simple security: In last year’s roundup of best free stuff, the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials 2 impressed us. Since then, Microsoft has officially released the utility to the public, and our admiration has only grown. With its combined antivirus, antispyware, and firewall protection, Security Essentials provides a solid layer of protection against the most common threats without hobbling your PC or nagging you with annoying update reminders.

File killer: When you delete files from your PC via the Windows Recycle Bin, Windows marks them as erased and hides them from view; eventually it fills the drive space they occupied with newly created or downloaded content. To get rid of data right away, use Eraser, a free file-deletion utility that works with DoD-grade algorithms to overwrite deleted data repeatedly until it’s practically unrecoverable.

Facebook defense: Facebook is fun, but it’s also rife with malicious links that can damage your PC and compromise your private data. Defensio for Facebook intercepts those threats and alerts you before they can do any harm.

Software updater: Now that almost every PC application can access the Internet, dozens of potential security holes lie scattered across our systems. Secunia Personal Software Inspector helps mitigate the risk by searching for important security patches for every program on your PC. When I ran it, PSI found seven outdated programs on my machine, and pointed me straight to the download links for the updates I needed. Suddenly I feel much more secure.

USB protection: How much do you trust the USB drive that your friend wants to plug into your PC? If you use Panda USB Vaccine, you don’t have to take anything on faith. This simple utility automatically neutralizes common flash-drive threats to keep malware from making the jump to your hard drive.

Password keeper: You want to get to the Websites you use without stopping to recall a dozen unique passwords every day, but using the same password at multiple sites is a good way to compromise your data. Password Safe gives you the best of both worlds by storing all your logins and dropping them into the sites you visit as needed. As a result, you can maintain as many different, complex passwords as you need while having to remember only one master password to rule them all.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Simpler Web viewing: Remember when the Web was add less and clutter-free? A browser add-on called Readability takes you back to those times by stripping any page down to its main article. No ads. Minimal navigation menus. Almost no clutter. It’s great for creating printer-friendly pages, and for distraction-free reading.

Isolation booth: For distraction-free writing in Windows, I love WriteMonkey. While you write, this minimalist writing app hides all of the formatting menus and just about everything else by expanding to full-screen mode and filling your screen with the soothing background color of your choice.

Intelligent notepad: At your PC or on your tablet or phone, Evernote lets you capture Web clippings, text notes, audio notes, and pictures. It then syncs them across all your devices, and indexes them so they’re easy to find later.

Mind mapper: When you want to capture complex ideas, few methods are as effective as a mind map for visualizing the many related parts of a project. Xmind gives you simple, powerful mind-mapping tools that rival those of the most expensive apps around.

Office alternative: Want a powerful productivity suite without the expense of Microsoft Office? Oracle’s free OpenOffice.org has a robust word processor, spreadsheets, databases, and presentations with support for Microsoft Office file formats.

Screen sharing: Whether you’re the unofficial tech support person for your company or the go-to techie for your family and friends, LogMe­In Free simplifies the process of sharing your screen with a remote user or of taking control of that person’s screen in real time.

Search simplifier: An alternative to the ubiquitous Google, newcomer Blekko takes a hand-curated approach, relying on slash tags that allow you to refine your searches and get more-relevant results. To see re­­sults for “Windows tips” sorted by date, for instance, type Windows tips /date.

List manager: To-do lists don’t have to be complicated. For simple, effective lists that you can share with friends and access from any mobile browser, try 37Signals’ Ta-da List.

Easy presentations: Need to whip up a snazzy presentation fast? Log on to SlideRocket via your Google account, and use its slick templates to embed images, Flash objects, videos, and audio. Then export your presentation as a PowerPoint slideshow or PDF.

E-mail postponer: When you get an e-mail message that you need to act on but don’t have to deal with quite yet, NudgeMail serves as a smart snooze button. Forward the message to, say, tomorrow@nudgemail.com or June2@nudgemail.com, and the e-mail will reappear in your inbox when you do need to see it.

File converter: Want to convert a MOV video file to WMV format, or a Word document into an ePub book for your e-reader? Online Convert transforms a wide selection of formats, and it doesn’t require you to download or install any new software.

Streamlined PDF viewer: Adobe’s Acrobat Reader has evolved dramatically over the years, and it has grown a little bloated along the way. For quicker PDF viewing that won’t hog your system’s resources, give the free Sumatra PDF a try.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top

Instant organization: Instead of clicking around in Windows Ex­­plorer to find where Windows hid your newly downloaded MP3 file, try DropIt. This open-source utility lets you set up folder associations for specific file types. Just drop files on the big target icon on your desktop, and DropIt will automatically whisk them away to their appropriate (and easy-to-find) destinations.

Cleaner desktop: Stardock’s Fences lets you create separate areas on your desktop to organize unruly desktop icons into a manageable system. Keep programs in one fence and Word documents in another, for instance, or group them any way you like.

Complete removal: No list of great free tools would be complete without Revo Uninstaller. Windows’ built-in Programs control panel simply isn’t as good at removing the bits and pieces of programs that you want to banish from your hard drive.

Smart dock: The Windows 7 taskbar isn’t bad, but Stardock’s ObjectDock replicates the slick Mac OS X dock interface, complete with snazzy magnification animations, for Windows users.

Virtual machine: Oracle’s VirtualBox lets you run multiple virtual machines on your PC, so you can have multiple instances of Windows, Linux, or any other OS installed. It keeps a working image of a machine as a backup. Then, if things go horribly awry, you can delete the damaged image in favor of the backup.

All-in-one uncompressor: If you’ve ever asked “What’s a .rar file?” you need 7-Zip. It supports all of the essential file compression formats-and more than a few obscure ones, too-so it can unpack anything you download. The utility adds file management tools to Windows’ context menus, too, enabling you to zip files, unzip files, and convert file formats on the fly.

FTP essential: People who transfer lots of files still rely on the old File Transfer Protocol to move their bits around. FileZilla re­­mains one of the best FTP clients on the market, and it’s still free.

Display manager: DisplayFusion gives you multiple-monitor management powers that Windows doesn’t, such as the ability to display different background images on each screen or to span an image across two monitors. It also packs hotkey combos for automatically ar­­ranging your desktop, and it lets you set custom behaviors for your apps.

Easy-launch Web apps: If you spend most of your working life in Web-based apps such as Google Docs and Gmail, Mozilla’s Prism browser plug-in for Firefox can restore your sanity. By turning your favorite Web apps into separate applications that launch from Windows’ Start menu, the utility enables you to cut down on the number of mouse clicks required to get to the tools you need, while at the same time eliminating browser-tab clutter.

One keyboard, many PCs: I have three computers on my desk, running any of three operating systems: Windows, OS X, and Linux. But the free Synergy utility lets me use a single keyboard and mouse to control all three PCs, regardless of their OS. When my mouse pointer reaches the edge of a screen, Synergy uses the Wi-Fi network to take over the next machine. It’s the closest thing to magic that your PC is likely to encounter.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

Back to Top