7-zip (file archiver)

7-zip is an open-source file archiver with high compression ratio. It can compress your files using a variety of methods, such as 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR. It can also extract RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO and NSIS archives.



Like other file archives you may be used to, 7-zip can integrate into the windows shell and it also has a command-line version. 7-ZIP also offers some advantages over other windows based archive programs such as winzip and winrar:

• Open-source - You can read and modify the program source code.


• Cross-platform - You can run 7-zip on any modern operating system (Windows, Linux, OS X, and so on)


• No registration - There are no annoying splash screens or nagging registration pop-ups


• Provides a compression ratio that is 2-10% better than PKZIP and WINZIP provide for ZIP and GZIP archives.

Note that you can register 7-zip if you want to support it by clicking Help->About 7-Zip->register in the 7-Zip File manager but it’s not a requirement and it will never bug you to.

There are two basic ways you can associate certain file types with 7-zip. The easiest way is to open up the 7-zip file manager and choose Tools->Options and in the System tab choose the file extensions you want to associate with 7-zip. This will make it so files ending in those extensions are automatically opened in the 7-Zip file manager for extraction. If you choose to add the associations manually by the standard MS Windows way of right-clicking on a file, choosing “open with”, selecting the “always open files of this type with this program” and then browse for the 7-zip program then make sure you select C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7zFM.exe. There are two other binaries in the 7-Zip installation folder that could confuse you and they are called 7z.exe and 7zG.exe; so make sure to use 7zFM.exe (FM means File Manager)

It is possible that 7-Zip can handle all your file archiving needs but you may run into some files that were compressed using Winzip and they won’t always be compatible with 7-Zip. I personally haven’t came across this issue but just be aware of it.

To extract all the files of an archive first click Edit->Select All and then click the 'Extract' Button.

TortoiseSVN (source code control system)

TortoiseSVN can be thought of as a Win32 GUI front end to the source code control system Subversion, which is an open-source software engineering tool to allow developers to easily maintain their projects.

Once you install Subversion via Windows Installer, grab the TortoiseSNV Installer. You can of course just use the svn command-line tool that comes with Subversion but there are some benefits for using TortoiseSVN instead. For one, TortoiseSVN allows you to work completely in a Graphical User Interface to manage your projects, but it does more than that; TortoiseSVN is basically a shell add-on to the windows shell, which means you can right-click on any file/folder in windows–be it on the Desktop or from within Windows Explorer–and you will have access to TortoiseSVN via the pop-up menu. What’s more is, only commands that make sense for the selected file/folder are shown. You won’t see any commands that you can’t use in your situation!



Here’s a couple hints to make your life easier:

• When you install Subversion note that the client runs on Win9x/Me but the server does not. If you use Win9x/Me then add the following line to your autoexec.bat:
  SET APR_ICONV_PATH=”C:\Program Files\Subversion\iconv” (or whatever your path to it is if not this)
  (Don’t forget to reboot windows for the changes to take effect after you edit your autoexec.bat)


• When you install Subversion it comes with documentation, which is actually the official book on Subversion. It will be in .chm format (Compiled HTML) but you can get other versions, like PDF (if you want to print it out) or both single page or multi-page HTML versions to download for off-line viewing from here. Trust me, you will want to read this if you’re new to Subversion–at least chapters 2, 3, and 1–in that order. That site also has dead-tree versions for sale.


• If you’re not a programmer but still want to use TortoiseSVN then check out this tutorial.

imgv (image viewer)

imgv is a unique and feature rich Image Viewer. It is released as free software with full sourcecode.

Features include a GUI that doesn't get in the way of viewing your images, a file browser, slideshows, zooming, rotating, on-the-fly Exif viewing, histograms, fullscreen support, wallpaper setting, the ability to view 4 images on the screen at once, adjustable thumbnail sizes, playlists, view and download images from Web sites, movie playing, file searching/filtering, multiple directory loading, transitional effects, image hiding and more.

I actually wrote this program myself and have been working on it since the summer of 2001. It's the only image viewer I use because it's fast, has features that other image viewers don't support that I like and it can run on other operating systems besides just Windows.

Here's a screenshot of imgv I took where I'm using it to view a picture of my old cat with it:



Check out the documentation to quickly learn how to use it.

http://imgv.sourceforge.net

KeePass (password manager)

KeePass is a free, light-weight and easy to use password safe. You have many passwords to remember these days but you don't want to use easy to memorize passwords because they're easy to crack. This program allows you to generate very secure passwords and not have to remember any of them except one master password. It also highly encrypts your passwords (and usernames) so you won't have to worry about anyone getting ahold of them.

I've tried many "password safes" and KeePass is by far my favorite. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish) and it uses SHA-256 as the master password hash. It also protects you from keyloggers by never making you type out your password. It even has in-memory password protection so physical password scanners won't reveal your passwords. It has a host of great features that you should read up on its Web site.

Some people rely on saving all their passwords in their Web browser but the problem with this is that they're extremely easy to find if anyone has access to your system and it encourages you to choose bad passwords. Plus if you reinstall your operating system or try to access your accounts from another computer you'll be out of luck. So a good password manager is the right way to go.h You can configure KeePass to always sit minimized in your system tray and whenever you need to sign onto an account just pop it open and drag the appropriate password into the password field to log in to your accounts.

http://keepass.sourceforge.net/

EZBack-it-up (personal file backup utility)

EZBack-it-up is a personal file backup utility. It is designed to be very easy to learn and use. It is not an archival tool that compresses all your files and folders into one file, but instead, it copies your data to a destination of your choice where you can readily access your backed up files any time you need. All directory structure is preserved and you can optionally choose to delete files from the target that are not in the source. EZBack-it-up includes a built-in scheduler, command-line switches, logging functionality, and more.

Features:
:: Fast. Compares over 3500 files in less than 3 seconds! (1.2 GHz Athlon under XP)
:: Efficient. Incremental style backup - only backs up files if they were created or modified since the previous backup.
:: Full logging. Detailed logs provide you with peace of mind about your data's safety.
:: Scheduler. Built-in scheduler allows for scheduled backups. Command-line switches give additional flexibility.
:: Free. No nags, no registration, just free.
:: All Windows platforms. 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP

This utility makes it so easy to backup my files that I no longer have any excuse to not do it.

http://www.rdcomp.net/ezbackitup/

Wake-on-Lan (remotely wake up a computer)

Wake-on-Lan (WoL) is both a hardware and software solution to allow a computer to be woken up remotely.

Much like a modern television set, a computer that is Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) compliant can be turned on remotely, note that while you can currently only turn your television set on from within a certain distance WoL allows you to remotely start a computer from anywhere in the world, that is as long as it has an internet connection.

WoL works by sending what's called a "magic packet" (no joke). When your PC shuts down, the NIC still gets power, and keeps listening on the network for a 'magic' packet to arrive. The basic premise is that a specifically formatted packet send over a network is send to every network card and identifying features in this packet allow the network card to identify that the magic packet is intended for it. All the other cards therefore reject or rather dispose of the packet. It is analogous to standing in a crowded room of people and shouting out somebody's name, where nobody in the room has the same name, although everybody would hear you hopefully the only person to answer would be the person who's name you have just called out.

This only works with network cards and motherboards that are Wake on LAN compliant. For more information on this and links to download the software check out:

http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/wake-on-lan-gui.aspx
http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/what-is-wake-on-lan.aspx
http://www.hackernotcracker.com/2006-04/wol-wake-on-lan-tutorial
http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/jpo/software/wakeonlan/mini-howto/

Foxit Reader (freeware PDF reader)

Foxit Reader is a great alternative to Adobe Reader for reading and printing your PDF files because it's much lighter, faster and friendlier.

Foxit Reader is very fast, it loads up in a second and without any splash screens. Foxit doesn't even require you to install it, you just run the standalone .exe, so it's perfect for putting on a disk and using on other computers.

It's also a lot easier to configure than Adobe Reader. For example, in Adobe Reader if wanted to change the background color of the reader from the default white, to another color, you would have to go into 'Edit->Preferences->Accessibility' and replace the document colors that way; this isn't very intuitive and took me a while to figure out. However, in Foxit Reader all you have to do is go to 'Edit->preferences->Document Colors'.

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

SIW (freeware system information display tool)

SIW is my favorite Windows System Information display program.

SIW (System Information for Windows) is a program that performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics. It gives detailed information about your computer properties and settings, detailed specs for CPU, motherboard, chipset, BIOS, CPU, PCI/AGP, USB and ISA/PnP devices, memory, monitor, video card, disk drives, CD/DVD devices, SCSI devices, S.M.A.R.T., ports, network cards, printers, operating system, installed programs and hotfixes, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys), users, open files, system uptime, network, network shares, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic. It displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more.

This program also creates a report file, and is able to run in batch mode.

Everest - Home Edition used to be my favorite system information tool but the company that makes it decided to stop developing the free version. I've also tried other ones like Fresh Diagnose but I like SIW much better; and it doesn't require installation or registration either.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/about_siw.html