iDIGITALL

A while back I worked at a small private college in Cape Town as a lecturer. We had an ADSL network which ran through the offices and connected staff (12) computers and a library with 3 internet connected computers, and an un-networked lab with around 50 computers. There was one specialist hardware lecturer (had very little programming but lots of hardware knowledge, a software principles lecturer who was very clued up with theory but knew little about hardware, and there was myself - a hacker. As in, I hacked my way out of a lot of problems that occurred in that college, from internet baddies to student cronies to blond lecturers to leaking aircons to mice.

So anyway, here is my compilation of Top-10 Must-have windows techtools. These tools have saved my life on a number of occasions, and while may not be a complete solution, they serve to debug your problem and shed light on it. Some of them can be used in ways that don’t comply with security/usage policies of organizations. And having been a sys admin myself I don’t condone it.

All the tools are free, and I have included Portable versions of the non-portable items in the list. Portable means that the software can be run off your flash drive without installing on the pc.

With all images you can right-click and select “View Image” to view the full size of that image. Also, Links to their home pages are provided, where you can download the latest copy of each program. All programs have been tried and tested successfully in Windows XP.

1. Process Explorer - SysInternals

This program provides vital information about processes that are running on a computer. It gives information about the process, as well as provides the ability to terminate that process. I must add that there is no substitute for knowing your computer. You should know the processes on a cleanly installed computer and be able to tell which processes on an infected/unoptimized computer can be disabled without rendering the system useless.

2. StartupList - homepage

StartupList supplies you with a list of everything that starts up when a computer starts. I particularly use it to clean up my start up process and stop programs that have “run on startup” policies. Background running processes Always eat resources and should be kept to a minimum. I particularly like this program for the “Jump to Regedit” option for registry entries. Ofcourse, mess in your registry at your own risk.

3. EnableRegistryEdit - local copy here

Ever had a popup saying “Registry editing has been disabled by your adminstrator”? Ever wondered who the F the administrator is, when you KNOw the adminstrator is you, yourself? Well, there are a few worms out there that disable registry editing, and this VB script will help unlock your precious registry.

4. SIW - System Information for Windows - SIW

A very neat program that provides all sorts of useful information on just about everything on your computer, from software to hardware.

5. Avast Home Edition or ClamWin Portable or AVG - homepage

Nothing beats a good antivirus package. If you need a free version, use AVG. Personally, I don’t like AVG, so I’d rather use ClamWin. ClamWin comes as two versions: Portable or nonPortable. The portable version allows you to install it on a flash drive and run it from your flash drive, and nonportable, you can install on your computer. Ofcourse, there’s nothing to stop you from “installing” your portable version on your computer itself. At home and on my personal laptop, I use Avast Home Edition, for it’s priceless feature of scan-on-startup. this allows you to schedule a boot-time scan of your machine so no windows baddies can even be started before you even log in.

6. Windirstat - windows directory stats - homepage

This program allows you to have a graphical view of the content of your harddrive and percentages that content occupies. it’s very convenient since it represents each file as a blob, where the size of the blog is the percentage occupied. Right-clicking on each blob gives you a menu to other useful actions

7.7-Zip portable - homepage

A free Zip-file viewer? need I say more? This one is also 100% portable

8. RockXP4 - homepage

RockXP4 allows you to view program’s serial numbers that you might have misplaced.
Ever lost the serial number for a cd that you’ve installed on a pc? This program will help you retrieve it.

9. QuickTime Installer / VLC - homepage

A useful media player for vague media formats that aren’t always supported by your current players.

10. Sysinternals Suite - homepage

A suite of specialised tools for lots of different applications, from networking to user management to process management and more. Read the official website for more info.