Windows Starter Kit: Must-have PC apps
By Seth Rosenblatt on 09 February 2009
Title
Editors' rating
Smart Defrag
There's much to be said for Auslogics Disk Defrag, our defragger in last year's Starter Kit. However, IOBit's Smart Defrag is just as good at defragging and surpasses the competition in two major areas: Smart Defrag is faster and it utilises a perpetual defragger that runs as a background process but doesn't slow down your system.
When running in the background, the program only eats up 14MB of RAM, so it's possible to run it smoothly even on older machines. Along with quick analysis and scans, Smart Defrag boasts a scheduler and some customisation features, like running at boot-up or shut-down. Overall, if you would like a handy defragger with options for scheduling and more, this is a great one for both novices and more experienced users.
Smart Defrag (Credit: Download.com)
Editors' rating
Process Explorer
A lack of visual polish doesn't hurt this utility that replaces the cumbersome Windows Task Manager by showing running processes in an intuitive tree format. Process Explorer makes the job a lot easier by including program icons and other data, such as description, image and processor time.
It also can identify the process for a given application window or look up a process name in Google — a handy way to spot spyware. Additional features offer detailed information on performance, DLLs, threads, handles, TCP/IP connections, security settings and environments. Process Explorer is one of the best we've seen.
Editors' rating
WinDirStat
WinDirStat identifies how much disk space you're using. Based on Linux's KDirStat, it shows you an informative, visual, HD usage display. It can also analyse external devices. The initial WinDirStat scan may take quite a while, so be prepared to grab a cup of coffee.
When you return, you'll see your files displayed by colours according to file type. By default, the order is blue, red then green, but the Options menu can change these settings. It's also loaded with features for managing files. It's one of those apps that you didn't know you needed until you started using it, but once installed it's hard to imagine life without it.
WinDirStat (Credit: Download.com)
Editors' rating
NoteTab Light
A hectic interface can't stop the power of NoteTab Light. This replacement for Windows' built-in Notepad jumps in with web browser-style tabs for managing different projects simultaneously, and it can automatically replace the tool it's based on.
However, there's much more to it. Commands on the left, called Clips, do anything from insert bits of text to generate code. Libraries of clips appear as tabs at the bottom of the screen. The FTP library, for example, lets you create server profiles, connect, upload and download files and issue various commands. The publisher's site offers many user-created libraries or you can make your own.
(Credit: Download.com)
Editors' rating
Launchy
Launchy lets you open nearly any program, file, folder or website on your system with just a few keystrokes. It lives in the background and a quick hot-key combo calls up the small, skinnable Launchy box.
Enter the first few letters of a file or program and Launchy automatically displays the rest of the name. Simply press Enter to open or launch it. If the name displayed isn't what you want, wait a few seconds and the tool displays a drop-down list of other likely candidates. The tool is easily configurable and it also looks at your default browser's Favorites file.
If Launchy fizzles for you, two other lesser-known but high-quality launchers are Executor and Find and Run Robot (FARR). All three are five-star programs.
(Credit: Download.com)
Editors' rating
CCleaner
Although it lacks a few of the bells and whistles found in other cleaning applications, CCleaner offers more than enough to make it worthy. The logically designed interface makes it easy to wipe away your tracks from browsing, various Windows system areas and some third-party applications.
CCleaner doesn't support a large number of extraneous programs, but it can erase traces from such popular programs as Spybot and WinZip. Also missing is a secure file shredder, but it does supply a Registry-cleaning utility that quickly scans for invalid entries before removing them. The app can back up your Registry before altering it, and also uninstall any program on your machine.
(Credit: Download.com)
Editors' rating
Belarc Advisor
Hiring a professional computer-security consultant is out of reach for most home PC users, but Belarc Advisor can fill part of that gap. It analyses a machine's weak points, looking at elements such as whether antivirus software is up-to-date or whether all the security flaws in Windows have been patched. It uses the Center for Internet Security benchmark test to give the computer a score showing its overall security level and produces a report that can be viewed in a web browser.
Not only does it analyse software and operating-system components and show you where problems are, but in its comprehensive report it tells you what your computer's physical components are: not just how much RAM you have, for example, but what kind of RAM and which slots are occupied.
This program doesn't fix the problems itself, but gives clear advice on how to address each issue. This download is free for personal use; we recommend it to home users as a first step in securing their home systems or for those considering a hardware upgrade who want to see what's in their current system.
(Credit: Download.com)
Topics: audio, chat, email, image editor, jukebox, office, utilities, web browser, editor, torrent
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Comments (8)
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Wally commented on 18/11/2009 21:45
Couple more that I just can't do without,.. SharePod which replaces itunes and Foxit Reader which of course replaces the master of "bloat", Adobe Reader.
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BooBoo commented on 03/07/2009 10:41
I reckon, anyone could have typed this up. Even a Newbie. Do some research !
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Early_Grayce commented on 30/04/2009 16:02
I have found that over the last decade of PC use I have been able to find enough high quality free software to make paying for software unnecessary.
No mattter what you are looking for there is a program to fit your needs and if there is a feature from some overpriced software missing from the freeware equivalent it is often worth leaving a feature request on the developers discussion board.
All discussion leads to better programs in the land of freeware unlike commercial software which is often looking for the next dinky thing to catch your eye and make you spend $s. -
cwoodsp commented on 27/03/2009 13:47
Oooops! That last sentence should have read: "sometimes you get what you pay for, but there are some excellent freeware products out there!"
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cwoodsp commented on 27/03/2009 13:43
Although I have Vista on my PC and had been running IE (seemingly forever), the laptop I inherited from my ex runs XP and came complete with a heavily-customised Firefox installed (leaning mainly to all things Francophile). During the course of 'de-Frenching' the Firefox I realised just what a great program it is - and immediately dumped IE from my PC and am now happy as a pig in sh*t... As a 'techless' user, finding the wider software world (through CNet and others) has been a revelation and has made me a lot more knowledgable and choosy about my software. Totally agree with arcturus that you get what you pay for!
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arcturus commented on 12/02/2009 00:16
This is my must-have list of Windows apps. Not all are freeware; sometimes you get what you pay for.
Media player: VLC (free)
Browser: Opera (free)
Anti-virus: Avast or Kaspersky (not free)
Image editor/organizer: Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Bridge. Nothing comes close (not free).
Disk defragmenter: Diskeeper 2009 pro. The best defragmenter out there, and better than all the freeware defraggers (not free).
Office: MS office 2007 (not free).
Quick image viewer: Irfanview (free).
These programs always go on any system I put together for my use. -
Dumbo commented on 10/02/2009 12:12
No Dumbo, try the links on top of the page
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SkyPioneer commented on 09/02/2009 22:51
What? Is that it? I was expecting something decent, not just the three premier browsers available for download.
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