Utilities / Tools
Calendars
Cloning - Disk Image - ISO/IMG/etc.
Compression = Compressing archive files
Crapware = "If you buy new PCs from OEMs, you are probably all too familiar with the plague known as "crapware": the useless applications that come installed with Windows. Crapware wastes space, often ties up your RAM and CPU power, and can be a pain to get rid of."
Drivers
- See also: Hardware ...
- Intel Driver & Support Assistant
- Identify your products and get driver and software updates for most of your Intel hardware.
- DriverView: Loaded Windows Drivers List
- To create a spreadsheet file containing detailed information about all the installed drivers, you would use the command:
- Driverquery /fo csv /v > alldrivers.csv
- DriverView is a lightweight utility with a simple GUI interface for viewing detailed information about all the installed drivers on your system. There's no installation procedure, just download the zip file, extract the executable DriverView.exe, and run it.
- Driver-Drivers Windows95/98/2000/NT Complete Driver Hardware Search
- DriverGuide.com (printer drivers, cdrom drivers, modem drivers, sound drivers, mouse drivers, monitor drivers, etc.)
- Drivers
- Driver Support
- Top 10 Best Driver Updater Tools For Optimum PC Performance
Duplicates
Codecs ...
Data Recovery Tools = Recover deleted data files
- SpinRite
- SpinRite scans spinning or solid-state mass storage media to verify, restore, repair and improve its current readability.
- The latest version of SpinRite, long regarded as the go-to software to recover data from corrupted hard drives, adds testing and tuning of solid-state drives to hard drive rescue.
- Before running SpinRite, use Clear Disk Info to show the SMART data for a drive, fundamental in deciding whether to tune a drive with SpinRite Level 3 or to take other action.
- GRC | Hard drive data recovery software
- Topic: SpinRite offers us help for solid-state drives @ AskWoody
- Clear Disk Info
- Clear Disk Info displays the SMART data maintained over the life of a drive, and it shows SMART data in a format easy to interpret and understand.
- How To Recover Permanently Deleted Photos from Gallery [12 Simple Fixes]
- Recover a Deleted Photo or Video on your iPhone or iPad | TechRepublic
- How to open your messed up files | Popular Science
- File Recovery – BinaryBiz
- File Scavenger - Data recovery tool for Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003/2008 and NT - $50
- RecoverMyFiles - Data Recovery Software to Undelete Files; Disk recovery; Recover Deleted Files - $70-$300
- Kernel Data Recovery - Hard Drive Data Recovery Software Utilities & Disk Recovery Tools - Nucleus
- Windows File Recovery - Available in the Microsoft Store, the app requires Windows 10 May 2020 Update or higher (Version number 2004 of higher).
Download the complete Website - Offline browsing
Error message windows
Disk Health | HDD = Hard Disk Drive, SSD = Solid State Drive
- File System
- How to check your SSD health
- Best 7 Free Tools to Check SSD Health
- Three Ways To Check Hard Disk Health on Windows
- Check Disk (chkdsk) - Read Event Viewer Log | Tutorials
- Clear Disk Info - OlderGeeks.com Freeware Downloads
- CrystalDiskInfo & CrystalMark.info - $0 - Download
- The standard tool comes as a 4 MB .exe file, and its installer contains ads, so make sure you use the “Custom Installer” option and uncheck the side tool (ad).
- Confusion about terms: TBW = TeraBytes Written = Total Bytes Written, Total Host Writes, Total NAND Writes, Total LBAs Written
- E9 SSD Life Left
- Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring
- Estimated remaining lifetime; SMART; Disk information; Nice interface; Free trial; US$30/CA$47/PC or US$53/5PCs
- Lifetime License! Never pay again for any new versions (of the same type).
- HDDScan - FREE HDD and SSD Test Diagnostics Software with RAID and USB Flash support
- HWiNFO Sofware | Installer & Portable for Windows, DOS
- Intel Memory and Storage Tool (GUI) - Doesn't provide much useful info.
- Intel SSD Toolbox - Deprecated - Recommended: Intel Memory and Storage Tool (GUI)
- Open Hardware Monitor - No installation. Portable. Just run the download. - Doesn't provide much useful info.
- Samsung Magician Software | SSD | Samsung Semiconductor
- Magician does not work with SSDs connected via the SCSI controller interface.
- cmd > diskmgmt.msc > Properties > Hardware
- S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring Tools download | SourceForge.net - CLI only (no GUI)
- S.M.A.R.T. - Wikipedia
- S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology)
- 231 0xE7 Life Left (SSDs) - A normalized value of 100 represents a new drive, with a threshold value at 10 indicating a need for replacement. A value of 0 may mean that the drive is operating in read-only mode to allow data recovery.
- 241 0xF1 Total LBAs Written - Represents the total size of all LBAs (Logical Block Address) required for all of the write requests sent to the SSD from the OS. To calculate the total size (in Bytes), multiply the raw value of this attribute by 512B.
- S.M.A.R.T. attribute list
- SMART attributes vary between manufacturers.
- Our world is not very S.M.A.R.T. about SSDs @ AskWoody
- SSDlife Free
- SSDLife Pro - $26/1PC, $40/2PCs
- Many broken links on this site. Pages missing. No support.
- Problem finding drives on some systems.
- Victoria HDD Utility
(and SSD)
- WinDirStat
= Windows Directory Statistics
- Windows
- Manage disks and volumes - by 2022?
- Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20226 - Simply navigate to Settings > System > Storage > Manage disks and volumes > Properties, where the Drive Health information is located. There you'll see the estimated remaining life of the drive, its current temperature, and any warnings in red text. There's also the option to "Back up now" for convenience.
- Windows > cmd > wmic diskdrive get model,status
- References
Mailto ...
-
- Clipboard
- 7-Zip - see Compression Advanced IP Scanner 2.0 is a free, fast and easy-to-use network scanner for Windows - Scan your network to get more information about all connected devices AIDA32 - Sysinfo Tool - See inside your system without opening the box. - Recommended by TechTV - 2003-0327 Answers that Work ($35/yr) The Task List is free and used to draw prospective customers to the paid parts of the site. Archive files - see Compression AskTheComputerTech - Tech News, Computer Guides, Tips, and More Speed
- Fifty fabulous downloads to speed up your PC — Part 1 | IT Business
-
AusLogics - How to Speed Up Your Computer-Best Software to Increase PC Speed
- SpeedUpMyPc - see UniBlue
-
Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC - Speed up your computer
- The scan is free. However, it won't fix anything unless you purchase it.
Uninstall doesn't work completely. You need to delete files. You need to make sure it isn't in your Startup folder.
Is this spyware?
- Belarc Advisor - -Free Personal PC Audit Boot Disk, Windows/DOS -(thanks to Jameson) CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download
- Note that you should always run the registry cleaning function repeatedly until CCleaner can no longer find problems. CCleaner will also clean up temporary files, remove browser histories, clean browser caches, and generally spruce up Windows.
- CCleaner.com - Docs - Remove traces of documents you've already deleted by securely wiping free disk space.
- Feds Charge 5 Chinese Hackers for Targeting Video Game Companies | PCMag
- APT 41 may also be the group responsible for tampering with CCleaner and Asus's Live Update tool back in 2017 and 2018 to secretly download malware to thousands of users' Windows PCs.
- Born Geek
- CoLT: Firefox extension for copying link text - CoLT (short for "Copy Link Text") - $0
- GitHub - jgbishop/colt: Firefox add-on that makes it easy to copy link text and locations.
- Defrag = Defragment your hard disk
- DiskState - by Geekcorp DLL Library
- Erase ALL Data
- File Managers - Windows Explorer Replacement - see Disk Utilities Folder Size
- Format your hard disk using DOS
- Fresh Download - Free Download Manager getmac.exe /v - To display the physical media access control (MAC) address assigned to a network interface card (NIC) in a local or remote computer. GoodSync: File Synchronization Software, File Backup, File Sync - $30
- Now available in both 32- and 64-bit versions for Windows and OS X as well as for USB flash drives, GoodSync can synchronize and or backup files on local drives, CIFS shares, FTP servers, WebDAV servers, Secure FTP (SFTP) servers, and Amazon S3 as well as Windows Mobile and Pocket PC devices (does anyone still use Pocket PC?). It can also copy locked files, encrypt files using the Windows Encrypting File System, handle symbolic links by either copying them or "drilling down" so the actual file is copied, copy NTFS Access Control List attributes, and perform line-by-line file comparisons using an external DIFF-like utility (such as WinDIFF ). GoodSync, priced at $29.95, still gets a rating of 5 out of 5.
- HDCleaner
- HiBit System Information - OlderGeeks.com Freeware Downloads - AskWoody.com
- HWiNFO - Free System Information, Monitoring and Diagnostics Link and Text copiers
- See also: Default HTML Editor (for Dreamweaver) ...
- Link Text and Location Copier - Firefox add-on
- Copy URL + Title extension - Opera add-ons
- Not nearly as good as IEB. Only for Opera and Google Chrome.
- See also: CoLT - (short for "Copy Link Text") - $0
- IE Booster by Paessler
- Software to extend the context menu of MSIE. Show all forms and applets, page source, hyperlinks, images, style sheets, image information, current frame, resize browser window and more. Free 30 day trial.
- IEBoooster.exe - 1.5 (old, out of date, free)
- MSIE-9 - IEB will copy Title as (<A href="">Title</a>) but will not copy Title as (<A href="URL">Title</a>). This is a big disappointment. IEB is not being updated at all.
- Possible substitues for IEBooster don't work, for example:
- IObit - PC system utility and security software
- Free Trial then $$
- JAM Software
- TreeSize Free - $0
- TreeSize (Free, Personal, Professional)
- TreeSize Edition Comparison | JAM Software
- TreeSize Personal - US$25 - Free Trial 30 days - Will also scan network drives. - Perpetual licence, but updates and support are good for only 12 months. (US$35/24 months, US$43/36 months, US$52/60 months)
- TreeSize Professional - US$55 - Free Trial 30 days - Will also scan network drives. - Perpetual licence, but updates and support are good for only 12 months. (US$78/24 months, US$96/36 months, US$114/60 months)
- Jaangle - tagging and library support LastPass - Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Management
- LogMeIn MemTest86 & MemTest86+
- Memtest86+ is unrelated to 'Memtest86', a closed-source `Freemium` software released in 2013 by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
- Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool
- memtest.org - $0
- MemTest86 - Offical Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool - memtest86.com - Free or Pro-USD$44
- Boots from a USB flash drive to test the RAM in your computer for faults.
- Mike Lin OfficeRecovery Home Page (GOT AN IMPORTANT OFFICE FILE... CORRUPTED? State of the art data recovery software for Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Exchange files! FREE demos.) Partition your HDD or SSD ... PC Hell: Computer Hints and Tips to bring you back from the edge PC Pitstop Tune-up your PC with this free Internet utility PDF - see Adobe ... PicPick Support Center - screen capture tool, intuitive image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair and even whiteboard PingPlotter Recuva - Standard Registry
- Microsoft Doesn't Back Up the Windows Registry Anymore
- Microsoft has confirmed that starting with Windows 10 version 1803 it no longer performs automatic backups of the Windows Registry.
Microsoft only disabled the feature rather than removing it and you can turn the automatic registry backups on again. Microsoft refers to this as "legacy backup behavior" and it requires you to do the following:
Load the Registry Editor by typing regedit.exe in the Start menu
Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Configuration Manager
Right-click Configuration Manager and create a new Dword (32-bit) Value
Name the new value EnablePeriodicBackup
Double-click EnablePeriodicBackup and set the value to 1
Reboot your PC
- Liutilities - Free Windows Resource Libraries and Tech Articles
- TweakNow PowerPack (Windows)
- The registry is a special file in your hard disk that hold most of Windows settings data. Wish to improve your Internet speed or display message at Windows log-on? No problem, those tasks can easily be done by simply editing the registry value. Unfortunately, registry is not a friendly place for most people. Changing a wrong value in the registry may cause an unpredictable problem to your Windows. This is why novice users should not edit registry value directly using a registry editor by them self. In TweakNow WinSecret, we have gathered the most popular Windows XP/Vista registry settings and provide them for you in an easy and safe user interface.
- 5 Ways to Solve "Error While Deleting Key" Problem When Editing Restricted Registry • Raymond.CC | Run > RegEdit
- See also: TweakUI ... - (PowerToys)
- Remote Control Software
- SiSoftware – Windows, GPGPU, Android, iOS analysers, diagnostic and benchmarking apps - SANDRA = System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant ($0)
- SHELL EXTENSION CITY - more than 2,000 ways to customize Windows- One thing to note: Shell Extension City doesn't test every program. Make sure you understand what you're getting yourself into before you do any hacking. SIW | System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala Startup
- Liutilities - Registry cleaner, etc.
- Michael Lin
- r2 studios - Startup Delayer, etc.
- MSConfig
- Tech-Recipes: A Cookbook Full of Tech Tutorials - Howtos and Tutorials about all things tech TreeSize Victoria
- Softpedia
- How to Use Victoria to Test and Fix Your Hard Disk - YouTube
Uninstall programs / Remove programs
- Uninstalr - The Best Uninstaller for Windows
- $0
- Storage tool | How to use Windows 10's Storage tool to find out the size of the hibernation file--and much more - TechRepublic
- MyUninstaller: Alternative to the standard Windows Add / Remove module - $0
- Take an inventory of what's installed so you'll know what to reinstall when you have your Windows 7 machine up and running. A quick way to do this is with NirSoft's MyUninstaller, a freeware utility which lets you dump out a complete list of all formally installed applications to a text, XML or HTML file. This gives you a manifest to follow when you want to reinstall what's needed. If you can't remember product keys for Office and the like, the same fellow's also written a tool to dump product keys for many common MS applications.
- The MyUninstaller utility is a standalone executable. It doesn't require any installation process or additional DLL's. Just copy the executable file to any folder you want, and run it.
After your run it, MyUninstaller loads the list of the installed applications from the Registry, and gathers information about each installation item. The loading and analyzing process might take between 5 and 15 seconds and even more, depending on your hardware, operating system, and the quantity of the installed application on your computer.
- After the analyzing process is finished, MyUninstaller displays the details of all installed applications on your computer. Be aware that some columns, like version, product name, company and others, are displayed for most installed applications, but not for all of them. In rare cases, It's also possible that wrong information about an installed application will be displayed.
- Windows FAQ ...
- Norton products ...
- Spyware ...
- Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Uninstall, Remove Programs, Solve uninstalling problems
- Security ...
- Locked files = access denied = permission denied = write-protected = file in use - Delete Files - Annoying Error Messages
- Cannot delete file: Access is denied | a Tech-Recipes Tutorial
- Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
- After you have done a fresh install of Windows Vista or Windows 7, you might encounter the “you don’t currently have permission to access this folder” warning, meaning you’ve lost your folder access privileges. Most frequently, this happens when you try to access a folder on a partition other than the current Windows partition, and that folder retained the permissions/user privileges from the previous Windows install.
- Solutions
- Microsoft PowerToys - File Locksmith
- Unlocker
-
Warning! - This program installed about a dozen unwanted garbage programs ("optional bundled software") during its installation.
-
If you don't want to go through uninstalling/deleting extra programs, then make sure you read and unclick where needed. Be careful!!
-
Unlocker has been noted for including optional adware that can be deselected during the installation process. (i.e. Read slowly and carefully during the installation process!!!)
-
Norton Internet Security reports that
-
"Softonic is a potentially unwanted application that may download additional software on the computer." NIS removed/deleted the file "softonicdownloader_for_ws-ftp.exe" and the file "unlocker1.9.2.exe".
- "Type: Potentially Unwanted App | Publisher: Softonic | Risk Impact: Low"
- Risk Detected
WS.Reputation.1 | NIS
- McAfee did not flag this program as risky or dangerous.
-
Conclusion: This is a great little program. Very simple and easy to use. BUT, you must be really REALLY careful while installing it in order to ensure that a lot of other junk programs don't install with it. Be careful during installation.
- Problem caused by Unlocker -"not enough server storage is available to process this command" E | Velocity Reviews
- On the computer you are attempting to connect to, Set the IRPStackSize
back to the default (15). Perform the following steps:
1. Start regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\lanmanserver\parameters.
3. Double-click IRPStackSize (or if this registry setting doesn't exist, create it with type DWORD and ensure the case is correct).
4. Change the base to decimal, set the value to 15, and click OK.
5. Reboot the computer
- ACL = Access Control Lists of files:
cmd > cacls ----- CACLS is now deprecaated, please use ICACLS
- FileMon and Regmon are no longer available for download. They have been replaced by Process Monitor on versions of Windows starting with Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and Windows Vista.
- How to fix “You don’t currently have permission to access this folder” or any folder access in Windows
- Windows Explorer > R-click on folder you can't access > Properties > Security tab > Advanced button > Owner tab > Edit button > check Replace owner on subcontainers and objects
- Windows Explorer > R-click on folder you can't access > Properties > Security tab > Edit button > Add button > Check names button
- In Windows 7 getting error 'Access denied' when copying a file - Microsoft Answers
- LockHunter is a free 64/32 bit tool to delete files blocked by any processes
- Locked Files Wizard
- Login As Administrator > Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options > View tab > Uncheck “Use simple file sharing”
Find the folder that won't let you in > Right-click on it and choose Properties > Security tab > Advanced button > Owner tab > Select your new user account and check the “Replace owner on subcontainer and objects” box
You'll get a perverse message saying something along the lines of “You don't have permission to view the contents of this folder, but do you want to give yourself ownership and full access?” (!) > You do, so click Yes > Wait > Wait > Wait
- MoveOnBoot Free - Allows you to copy, moves or delete files on the next system boot - Softpedia
- Process Explorer from sysinternals. It has a "Find Handle" command that can search for open files and tell you what program has it open.
- Take Ownership
- TuneUp Shredder
- WhoLockMe - Windows Explorer Extension - $0 - WhoLockMe - It doesn't kill any processes, but it does tell you who has “locked” the file you are trying to delete.
- VideoLAN - VLC: Free streaming and multimedia solutions for all OS! - simple, Spartan controls, built-in codecs for almost every file type imaginable, and a large and vocal online support community
- Virtual Machine = VM
- WCPUID - is a program that displays detailed information about your CPU. it shows Frequency, Multiplier, Chipset Info, Cache information, System info and a lot more. it also includes several tweaks (if available for your chip) like disabling the Intel processor serial Number, Cache latency, AMD Athlon Level 2 cache speed settings and others. In addition, WCPUID includes a real-time CPU speed clocking gauge. H.Oda!'s Home Page
- WinBatch: Macro Scripting Total Windows Automation of System, Networking, and Software Applications. (US$105)
File Explorer (MSFE) = Windows Explorer (MSWE) - Disk Utilities - File Management
WinUtilities - see YL Software - 30-day trial or purchase $40
Wipe your disk ...
Wondershare Store Center - Shop Online for Wondershare Software - $$
ZIP - see Compression
Resource Sources for Tools
- How to Clear Your Update Cache on Windows 11 and 10
- ExtremeTech
- InformationWeek News Connects The Business Technology Community
- IT Business Canada
- MakeUseOf.com
- PCMag.com | The Latest Technology Product Reviews, News, Tips, and Deals | PCMag
- The Best Tune-Up Utilities | PCMag
- God mode
= Windows Master Control Panel
- Right-click on the desktop and select New > Folder. Re-name the new folder with this bit of code: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
or
Create shortcut in desktop with value
explorer shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} and name it whatever you like.
(Since 2017 GodMode no longer accepts an argument before the dot to give it a file name. Functionality remains unchanged, but you can no longer (re)name the file. This applied to both existing GodMode shortcuts as well as those created after the update. Annoying.)
- Windows 7: The Top 10 Hidden Features | PCMag
- To turn on God Mode, create a new folder on your desktop--or anywhere you'd like--and name it: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}. Don't include the final period. The resulting folder will contain 270 items, representing virtually every configurable option in Windows 7.
- Search Warning - Use Windows File Explorer to search God mode. Don't use any other File Explorer alternatives (e.g. Dopus).
- Wordpad - TXT, RTF, ODT (OpenDocument Text) files used by the free OpenOffice.org word processor, DOCX files created in Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 - (Although WordPad can't understand all the complex formatting)
- Reliability Monitor
- Problem Steps Recorder
- PC World - Downloads, Freeware & Trialware; Utilities, Spyware, Antivirus & Pricing From PC World
- TechRepublic
- ZDNet: Reviews
Microsoft Windows Tools
↑V