My Favorite (mostly Free) Applications

The following is a list of my favorite FREE applications for reference purposes in NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

These are all basically utility software, so I'm not really going to group/categorize them.

* I will update this list as I run across new apps or tire of old ones.

FREE Apps:

System Utils:
Sysinternals (even though they were bought by Microsoft) still OWNS the free utility scene:
AutoRuns - better than msconfig
ActiveDirectory Explorer - just what it says - do everything you ever wanted in AD
FileMon - monitors all file access
TokenMon - security monitoring (great for credential issues)
RegMon - monitors all registry access
Process Monitor - now combines FileMon and RegMon abilities plus Process monitoring

AVG Free Edition - anti-virus *Update 1/5/2008 - After running v8 for some time, I simply can no longer recommend this product. It's become unbelievably slow and bloated.

Cobian Backup - very good, mature, full-featured backup software

MultiMon Taskbar - add a taskbar on your second monitor. not as good as UltraMon (see *not* free apps below) - but if you can't afford UltraMon - MultiMon is the way to go.
*Update 1/5/2008 - There's now a pay version of MultiMon available if you're willing to shell out the cash. Personally, I think if you're going to pay $$$ then UltraMon (see below) is the way to go. Luckily, the free version of MultiMon is also still available on the site.

IE7Pro - all-in-one addon for IE that includes inline search, spell-check, ad-block, mouse gestures, form filler, etc.

ClipX - great, tiny, extendable clipboard manager

Messenger Plus! Live - messenger extensions for Live Messenger
Messenger Plus! - messenger extensions for old Windows Messenger (adds chat logging)
LCSMessengerHistory - MS Office Communicator chat logging

FeedDemon - RSS reader (recently gone completely free - including their excellent synchronization feature)

Daemon Tools - CD/DVD drive emulator

Paint.NET - sooo much better than MS Paint

Programming:
Reflector for .NET - disassembler/class viewer
LINQPad - awesome LINQ util
Fiddler HTTP Debugger - works in IE to debug HTTP traffic
IE Developer Toolbar - Microsoft's web developer toolbar
DebugBar - more full-featured web developer toolbar - free for Personal use
IETester - view webpages using different IE rendering engines (IE6,7,8,etc)

Belarc Advisor - handy system report generator

XML Notepad 2007 - great for working with XML/XSL files

TrueCrypt - drive encryption (great for USB drives)

Notepad++ - great free text editor second only to UltraEdit

File/Folder Utils:
FreeUndelete - undelete files
Recuva - another good file recovery/undelete
FolderSize - identify large folders (also works on network drives)
File Renamer Basic - mass file renamer
Easy Duplicate Finder - identify duplicate files in folders
TeraCopy - FAR superior way to copy files. Seemlessly integrates with Explorer Copy/Move functions to completely replace standard Copy/Move operations. (only free for Home use)
Console2 - Command Prompt replacement. Tabbed interface, easy copy/paste, etc. Very cool if you spend much time at the command prompt.

Media Player Classic - still the best media player hands down

QuickPar - par/par2 file processing
ParNRar - auto par fix and unrar file sets

Damn NFO Viewer - proper viewing of nfo files

IIS Utils:
IISxpress - IIS compression (works on XP) - free for personal use
IIS6 Manager - administer IIS6 instances from XP
IIS6 Resource Kit Tools - several very handy IIS utils (some of which work on IIS5):
Log Parser, Metabase Explorer, SelfSSL, etc.

ScrewTurn Wiki - excellent open-source .NET wiki

FileZilla - great FTP Client & Server (separate apps)

EverNote - very polished note-taking/organizing app. I honestly prefer OneNote, but if you can't afford OneNote - EverNote is a great alternative.

NetMeter - great bandwidth monitor

AM-DeadLink - useful for cleaning out the legions of dead favorites in your browser. also identifies duplicates.

Compression Utils:
7Zip - compression software (does most major formats including zip/rar/etc)
FlashUnpack - mass unzip/unrar - an entire folder of files as once (*UPDATE: 9/7/2008 - main site down - mirror here thanks to bfb2k.)

CCleaner - handy "crud cleaner" that makes cleaning temp files, temp internet files, prefetch cache, etc quick and easy. Also has a registry cleaner/fixer function.

FckEditor - "THE" rich-text/wysiwyg editor for web apps

Overclocking Utils:
Prime95 - system stress testing
CPU-Z - cpu info
CoreTemp - multi-core temp monitoring

Microsoft Virtual PC - VM app

And of course all of Microsoft's Express Edition software - Visual Studio, SQL Server, etc.


NOT FREE Apps:

UltraEdit - the best text editor bar-none

NewsLeecher - awesome usenet client

SQL Compare - great for sync'ing 2 database schemas

Microsoft OneNote - incredibly addictive notes organizer

UltraMon - put a taskbar on your second monitor. more polished and updated than MultiMon (see above).