Goal: Best Freeware in Category 8/29/10

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GoogleTalk Softphone

GoogleTalk has Video and Voice chat which you can easily use through Gmail. Users of Gmail in the USA can now make and receive free telephone calls from their computers, communicating with any other telephone. A VOIP softphone for your computer.

To make telephone calls you should install Voice and Video chat plugin to Google Chat in Gmail. To receive telephone calls you need a free Google Voice phone number and in Google Voice's voice settings/phone tab, check Google chat. If you have a webcam, you now also have a Video Softphone. Even if your friend doesn't have a video camera, you can still have a voice phone or a 1-way video phone.

If you do not already have a full Google Voice account, you must upgrade your Gmail account before receiving phone calls in Gmail. This process is free and gives you access to additional Google Voice features such as one Google Voice number that rings all your phones and voicemail transcription and more.

GMAIL  Google Talk  Google Voice
Note: upgrading to Google Voice requires a valid US number to get started.

Tip: Setting your smart phone to always call with Google Voice, and adding your Google Voice number to your 'friends' list with your Cellular provider prevents call minutes.

Creating a hard drive ISO image

Sometimes it may become necessary to restage your computer due to malware or other system problems as system restore rarely helps. This can be a time consuming process, first reinstalling your operating system software, then reinstalling your programs, data and settings.

Making an image (ISO) of your system can reduce complete restoration time of your system to thirty minutes or less.

First you should obtain an external hard drive and create backup folders on that drive. (You can use CD/DVDs to copy your images to, however, multiple CD/DVDs will be needed depending on how large your drive is.) Before you make a restoration ISO, update your programs, run your antivirus/antimalware programs, clean and defragment your machine.

Download and install your backup imaging program. I recommend Macrium Reflect. Create a boot CD and create your backup ISO and save it to your external hard drive. To restore your image, boot to your boot CD, connect your external hard drive, and follow the wizards.

Video1 showing how to create an ISO with Macrium Reflect, and Video2 showing how to restore an ISO with Macrium Reflect which was made about one year ago though it is still current enough to provide you the necessary information.

It is an easy process and I highly recommend to have a backup image of your entire system which will make it painless to restage in the event of a castastrophy. Also remember to make new images periodically when your system changes significantly.

ClearCloudDNS

ClearCloudDNS by Sunbelt allows you to use their DNS servers coupled with their malware databases which block websites known to contain malware. This gives you an additional layer of security without adding additional burden to your system resources.

Every website is assigned it's own IP address number which looks like 192.168.1.1. Hard to remember or recognize, therefore DNS servers (Domain Naming System) applies recognizable names to these numbers, and when you ask your browser to go to say Google.com, it looks up the IP address number and takes you to that site, sort of like a phone directory. Your ISP has it's own DNS servers, and there are others like OpenDNS.

Go to the ClearCloudDNA website and click on Setup Now. Choose your operating system and it downloads a utility which automatically sets your TCP DNS address to use ClearCloudDNS and gives you a small utility to enable or disable the ClearCloudDNS service easily. If you enable or disable with this utility, it performs the manual method listed below for you.

To manually set your computer to use ClearCloudDNS, go to Control Panel, Network, Manage Network Connections, and right click on your network, choose properties, click TCP Internet protocol, and choose properties. On this screen you will check 'Use the following DNS server addresses' and enter: 74.118.212.1 preferred and 74.118.212.2 alernate. To disable ClearCloudDNS, go back to the same screen and check 'Obtain DNS server Address automatically.'

Of course the ClearCloudDNS utility (download) provides automatic setup for you and allows you to enable or disable ClearCloudDNS without having to manually set the DNS addresses.

Bearware Favorites

Anti KeyLogger  SpyShelterSpyShelter uses special algorithms to protect your data against Spy and monitoring software that are used to steal or reveal your data to other parties such as extremely dangerous and custom-made keyloggers. Proactively scan when any spy program, keylogger or trojan attempts to store your private information. Protect your passwords, chat, credit card. The SpyShelter monitors vulnerable and weak spots in your computer system to ensure that even the most advanced keyloggers are shut down even before these can launch a single dangerous attack against your computer. SpyShelter Stop-logger is a necessary and additional layer of security against threats that cannot be addressed by traditional tools. It is, however, designed to be compatible with other well-known security products such as anti-virus and firewall software. System protection (HIPS), Anti keylogger, AntiScreenCapture, AntiClipboardCapture. Minimal resource usage. It can be configured to launch an on screen keyboard when loging into your system. Win XP/Vista/7.
Anti Malware Scanner  Superantispyware PortableSUPERAntiSpyware is an anti-spyware/anti-malware product that is well known amongst computer technicians. SAS just got even better by officially releasing a portable version of their product. The portable version is almost identical to the installed version in the way that it deals with malware, except that it downloads as a single, portable file. When you download the portable version from the official website, you will probably notice it has a strange file name like “SAS-4325.COM”. The reason for this is because the last 4 numbers of the file name are random. This helps prevent some of the nastier infections from closing SAS Portable when it runs. SAS Portable also comes as a .COM file instead of a .EXE file because many infections will try to prevent .EXE files from running, so it has those bases covered. SUPERAntiSpyware Portable is free, updates easily and is definitely a tool you will want to keep on your USB drive to deal with malware infections. This is a manual scanner, no real time protection. Size: 9.4mb. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Anti Malware Scanner  MalwarebytesMalwarebytes has developed a variety of tools that can identify and remove malicious software from your computer. When your computer becomes infected, Malwarebytes can provide the needed assistance to remove the infection and restore the machine back to optimum performance. The free trial version (blue download button) is free and will remain free according to Dustin Cook, Malwarebytes malware researcher. This is a manual scanner, no real time protection. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
AntiVirus  Microsoft Security EssentialsMicrosoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Personally recommended. Size 11MB. Win XP/Vista/7.
AntiVirus-Cloud  Immunet ProtectImmunet Protect links to the computers of your friends, family and a global community to harness the collective security of all these systems put together. Every time someone in this collective community encounters a threat everyone else in the community gains protection from that same threat in real time. By providing its own fast and light layer of virus detection on top of your existing Anti-Virus product and linking everyone in a global community we harness a security sum that is far greater than its parts. Win All.
Archiver  ZipGeniusZipGenius is a powerful zip tool that offers support for more than 20 different compression formats, including 7zip, ZIP64, UPX and many others. It supports drag and drop, 5 compression levels, full customization and integration in Windows Explorer. The program also comes with a built in FTP client that allows to download and upload files from within the software. The signature features allows you to add your signature and contact information to any zip file you create. ZipGenius also supports the creation of self-extracting exe files, complete with custom setup launch and icon. ZipGenius also comes with additional features like encryption, scanner support (acquire pictures and zip them into files), backup, statistics, download time calculator, disk spanning, file export, support for OpenOffice and more. It can also interact with your Pocket PC device. Very nice! Size: 5775 kb. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Audio Editor  Free Audio Editor 2010Free Audio Editor 2010 is the complete Audio Recording/Editing package. Edit audio files visually; Record audio from a microphone or any other available input device; Batch processing supports up to 32000 files, Apply various effects; Burn audio CDs from MP3, WMA, WAV, and OGG. Powerful audio recording feature, Apply various effects easily, Powerful noise reduction tool. You can download YouTube videos, and strip audio from those FLVs as well as with other video files. Real-time effect preview is supported. Supports a number of file formats including wav (multiple codecs), mp3, wma, ogg and many more. Burn your sound files to CD and Tools include speech synthesis (text-to-speech). Audio Editor can digitize sound recordings of music cassette tapes, vinyl LPs, or videos so they can be recorded onto CD. When editing audio files you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects like echo, amplification and noise reduction. Includes its own CD ripper with ultra fast rip mode and cddb music database lookup. Size: 19.3 MB. Win 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista/7.
Audio Player  FooBarAdvanced audio player for most audio formats, tagging and transcoding capabilities. Portable mode. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Calendar  Google CalendarTwo-way syncing to your mobile phone's built-in calendar or a mobile version of Google Calendar. Customizable reminders help you stay on schedule. Access your calendar however and whenever you want by syncing events with Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCal and Mozilla Sunbird. Share calendars. With offline access, you can view a read-only version of your calendar no matter where you are. Gmail and Google Calendar now work even better together, with a new Gmail interface for attaching event invitations. When you compose a new message, you'll see an "attach invitation" link under the subject field, right next to the familiar "attach file" button. You can fill in an event title, location, and time, and everyone in the To/Cc/Bcc fields will be added to the event.
Catalog  Data CrowData Crow is the ultimate media cataloger and media organiser. Data Crow allows you to create a huge database containing all your collected items. Audio, software, book, movie and photo collection cataloger. You can use the excellent online services to retrieve the information instead of typing all the information yourself. Retrieve information from services like Amazon.com, Imdb.com, Softpedia and MusicBrainz. Platform independent and completely portable. Requires Java. FOSS.
Clean Infections  VipreVipre is a partnership between Sunbelt Software and Malwarebytes in a dedicated effort to assist users in cleaning an infected PC. A very powerful combined effort with great tools. All the tools you need to scrub your PC clean are free!
Clipboard  Ditto-cpDitto is a portable clipboard manager with unlimited saves of clipboard and use a SQqlite database to store data or images, anything you can normally copy with the Windows clipboard. It is very easy to use, extensible and configurable. Win 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Copy Anything/Reminder  QuotepadWith Quotepad, just select some text in any application, press Ctrl+Shift+Q and the selected text will be saved to QuotePad together with the URL of the webpage or the title of the document it was copied from. It stores the selections inside quotepad for future use. Reminders, quick filtering, automatic backup, timestamping, checklist, and print. Highly recommended. Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7. Portable install option.   DemoA short demonstration of the program created with Screen2exe.
DeskTop Icons  IconoidSave and Restore Icon positions for each (or every) screen resolution and more. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
DeskTop  FencesFences is a one-of-a-kind program, allowing you to draw labeled shaded areas on your desktop, which become movable and resizable containers for your desktop icons. These groups can help bring organization and consistency to your computer's desktop, solving the constant mess problem that has plagued the desktop since its inception. Fences also helps you finally appreciate the wallpaper you have hiding behind all that clutter. In addition to its organizing features, Fences offers a novel quick-hide feature. Double click your desktop, and all your icons will fade out. Double click again, and they'll return. Size: 6.31m. Requires .Net 2.0 for XP. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.   DemoA short demonstration of the program created with Screen2exe.
Dictionary  WordWebExcellent English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows, and performs pronunciation. Win 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
DNS Servers  ClearCloudDNSEvery website is assigned it's own IP address number which looks like 192.168.1.1. Hard to remember or recognize, therefore DNS servers (Domain Naming System) applies recognizable names to these numbers, and when you ask your browser to go to say Google.com, it looks up the IP address and takes you to that site, sort of like a phone directory. Your ISP has it's own DNS servers, and there are others like OpenDNS. ClearCloud DNS by Sunbelt uses their DNS servers and malware databases to block websites known to contain malware. They provide a utility to download to automatically setup your computer to use the ClearCloudDNS server, which also allows you to easily enable or disable it. This gives you an additional layer of security without adding additional burden to your system resources. Vipre uses Sunbelts malware databases.
Downloader Hulu  StreamTransportStreamTransport is a program that can download encrypted video from Hulu and other encrypted sites. I have tested this and while the download slow, it does work well and the interface of the program is very nice. Use the 'visit Hulu' button in the built-in browser to navigate to the movie you wish to download or insert the URL of the site you wish to go to in the StreamTransport Browser. Once the download starts, you do not have to continue watching the movie. Find the file easily by length and it usually starts with hulu plus a recognizable name. It downloads as one file without the ads. I couldn't fast forward the video, but found out it is because Hulu does not include keyframe objects. You can use flvmdi to inject metadata and include keyframe objects which enables you to fast forward the video. When Hulu changes/tweaks their encryption, this program will have to keep up to continue being able to download the flv. For now, it works. Win All.   Insert Keyframe ObjectsInstructions on how to insert key frame objects into Hulu videos so they will fast forward.
Downloader Video/Audio  TubeMaster++TubeMaster++ is a powerful tool which can capture multimedia files you are watching or listening from your internet browser (FLV,MP3,MP4). Captured files can be saved directly on your computer or converted to other popular video or audio formats (AVI, MPEG, MP3, MP4, IPod, PSP ...). Websites examples : YouTube, DailyMotion, MySpace, Google Videos, LastFM, Deezer, Jiwa, Songza, and many others. Powerful search engines are also integrated to find videos or audio (mp3) files directly from the software. If you are a music lover, Tubemaster++ coupled with GrooveShark is about as good as it gets. Requires Java Runtime Environment and WinPcap both included in the installation. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.   DemoA short demonstration of the program created with Screen2exe. 4mb.
DVD Burner  ImgBurnBurn an ISO image to a CD. Excellent CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
DVD Recovery  UnstoppableCopierRecovers files from disks with physical damage. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
DVD Ripper  WinX DVD RipperWinX DVD Ripper is a free software program that facilitates ripping the content of a DVD to computer hard disk drive and converting to popular video formats. It supports all types of DVDs including normal DVDs, CSS protected DVDs, commercial DVDs, Sony ArccOS DVDs, all region 1-6 DVDs and most of popular video formats such as FLV, AVI, MP4, WMV, MOV, MPEG1/2 as output video formats. This may be the easiest and best yet solution to make backup copies of your DVD's. Win 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Email Client  GmailGmail is by far the best solution for your email needs. The web interface is so good coupled with the many benefits and features available, contact management, multiple device synchronization and access that I have stopped recommending other PC based email clients. You can sync your existing email accounts seamlessly along with your gmail account so you can also receive your other email accounts in the same interface if desired. Also, Gmail and Google Calendar work together as email/calendar integration should work. It's time to change.
Encryption  TrueCryptTrueCrypt can create an encrypted container in a file or encrypt an entire hard disk partition or storage device such as USB flash drive. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.   DemoA short demonstration of the program.
File Cleaner  CcleanerOptimizer, file cleaner, history cleaner, cleans registry, temp files, and more. Win 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
File Eraser  EraserSecurely erase unused Hard Drive space. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
File Manager  FreeCommanderDual pane file manager with the most functions. tabs, tree views, file viewer for archives, hex, binary, text or image, FTP, renaming tool, wipe files, MD5 checksums, splitting, context menu. folder size, comparison/synchronization, search, and more. Portable or install. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
File Search  XsearchFile search program utilizing a variety of methods. Keyword searches within the files themselves and much more. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
File Search  EverythingFile and folder search program utilizing the existing NTFS file system index enabling it to be the fastest. Does not search within files. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
File Synchronizer/clone  FreeFileSyncVery intuitive fast back-up or synchronzing program for drive, folder or file sync. It will also mirror/clone a drive to another drive, even if that drive is smaller. To choose that option, click the gear icon to the left of the Synchronize button and choose mirror. For the portable version, download the zip file, unzip it into a folder and put it on your removable media. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
File Unlocker  UnlockerIn spite of the controversay over the new installer with Unlocker and after serious review of alternatives, Unlocker is still the best of the alternatives to unlock and delete files when Windows says you can't delete them. There is a portable version for x86 and x64 systems which excludes the issues with the installer which gives you a timer to proceed after opting out of the Bing Toolbar and Ebay Shortcuts. With the portable version, you can put a shortcut to the unlocker executable in your "send to" folder for right click options: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\ Microsoft\Windows\SendTo. Portable option. Size: 992 KB. Win 2000/XP/Vista/7. x86 x64
Firewall  ComodoFirewallProOne of the best firewalls for XP and Vista/2008/7. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.
FTP  FileZillaHighly recommended powerful Open Source FTP SFTP client. Win NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Icon Editor  GreenfishIconEditorA professional and easy to use tool for creating icons, cursors, and other small pixelgraphic images with a wide range of features. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Image Editor  GimpPowerful Open Source Graphic Editor. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.   TutorialTutorials on all aspects of how to use Gimp.
Image Editor  PhotoFiltreAmazing complete image editing and effects package. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Image Editor  IrFanViewGreat graphics viewer and editor. The most popular. Win 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Image Viewer  XnViewXnView is a utility for viewing and converting graphic files. Import about 400 graphic file formats. Export about 50 graphic file formats. Multipage TIFF, Animated GIF, Animated ICO support. Image IPTC, EXIF metadata support. EXIF auto rotation support. IPTC editing. Resize, rotate, crop support. Lossless rotate & crop (jpeg) support. Adjust brightness, contrast. Auto levels, contrast. Modify number of colors. Apply filters (blur, average, emboss...). Apply effects (lens, wave, ...). Fullscreen mode. Slide show with effects. Batch convert, batch rename. Create WEB page easily. Screen capture. Create contact Sheet. Create or edit Multi-page file (TIFF, DCX, LDF). TWAIN & WIA support. Print support. Drag & Drop support. Compare image side by side. Filmstrip layout. 44 languages support. Win All.
Viewer  Zoner Photo StudioZoner Photo Studio is made for everyone, and will make you feel like a pro. Find, browse, and view your pictures fast. Download pictures easily. Get organized with Sort Pictures. Quickly find any picture. Describe and tag your pictures. Geotag to show where you took your shots. Quick Fix - fix it all in one click. Remove red eye, wrinkles, and more. Add cool effects. Fix exposure problems fast. Sharpen blurred pictures. Turn your pictures into panoramas or even 3D pictures. Share them with Facebook friends. Publish them on Flickr. Quick, impressive calendars. Size: 20MB. Win XP/Vista/7.
Installer  NiniteWhen you go to the Ninite Web site, you're presented with a huge list of excellent, free programs to check off. You're creating a customized installer package that, once you're done, saves to your system in the form of a single executable. Run that, and the Ninite-created installation package will install every program you selected onto your machine using said program's default settings. What used to take hours of finding, downloading, and installing now takes the better part of minutes. Ninite does not install itself on your machine. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.
Internet Radio  RadioSureRadioSure is an elegantly simple Internet radio program. More than 12000 of stations in the package, Supports most of the internet radio formats. Quick and reliable search for your favorite radio stations, Smooth switching between stations including crossfade effect, Recording what you are listening to and packaging it into separate song files, Simultanious recording of multiple stations, Automatic checking for software and radio stations updates, Command line parameters for automatization, with UNICODE support...all domestic stations are perfectly visible and searchable. Also Portable. Size: 2.08MB. Windows XP/Vista/2008/7.
Internet TV  Hulu DesktopHulu Desktop is a media center type of application, like Front Row or Boxee or Netflix or Windows Media Center, that gives you full access to Hulu.com with an Apple Remote or Windows Media remote or just your keyboard and mouse. In other words, freed from the constraints of the browser, it is like real TV. The app is beautiful, fast, easy to navigate and simply amazing. It is everything you would expect from Hulu. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.
Media Converter  Format FactoryMultifunctional media converter support converting all popular video, audio, picture formats to others. Repair damaged video and audio file. Reducing Multimedia file size. Support iphone,ipod multimedia file formats. Picture converting supports Zoom,Rotate/Flip,tags. DVD Ripper. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Mouse Gesture  High SignHigh Sign is an application that allows you to easily create and map custom mouse gestures to perform common actions on their Windows PC. Unlike some other mouse gesture recognition software, you are not limited to a set of predefined gestures; you are free to create any gesture you can think up. The original idea for High Sign was to be a complete StrokeIt alternative, but since High Sign's birth, the vision has changed dramatically for it to become so much more. Once you install it, click on Start, Programs and a shortcut for High Sign will be there. Run the program, right click its icon in the tray and uncheck training mode, and look at the available actions. Hold the right mouse button down and draw the gesture (you can even hold the right button down and draw on the mouse pad if you have one.) Size: 820 kb. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.   DemoA short demonstration of the program created with Screen2exe.
Music Manager  jaangleAudio-Video player and organizer that can retrieve info from internet such as lyrics, album reviews etc. Win 2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Office Suite  OpenOfficeMultiplatform complete office suite compatible with all other major office suites. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.   TutorialGreat tutorials for Open Office
Password and Form Filler  LastPassI recommend this solution for automated password management, and form filler. The LastPass password is the last password you will ever have to remember, and you can start using very secure passwords without worrying about forgetting or managing them. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
PDF  PDF-XChange ViewerEnables you to view and annotate PDF files and extract text/images. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Print Manager  iPrintiPrint installs itself as a regular print driver. It's main purpose is to show thumbnails of all pages that will print from any print job(s) and automatically marks pages with no content which you can deselect or select additional unwanted pages. Eco-Friendly Printing. You can group print job requests from multiple applications into a single print job. It logs the jobs and print savings. It can also scale down pages so you can fit up to four pages on each sheet of paper. When you are finished with your selections and print job additions, choose your printer from the icons on the left column to print. Free for personal and business use. Size: 6MB. Win XP/Vista/7.
Process Manager  Process LassoAutomated process management adjusting the allocation of CPU cycles so that system responsiveness is improved in high-load situations. This is also the program that will tell you what's running when you see activity on your hard drive and want to know what it is. It also logs all processes that ran or you can adjust the number of recent processes that ran to show. Simply go to the active processes tab and your questions will be answered. Right click the tray icon to quickly set gaming mode. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/7.
Program Launcher  KeybreezeKeybreeze will perform any task in a second. Very similar to SlickRun, but does a lot more things and now the pro version is free. Once you press the hotkey (semi-colon by default) type entries to, Open files, folders, and websites. Search your computer. Search websites. Perform system tasks. Control windows on your screen. Paste custom text into a text field. Automate actions. Create notes. Set reminders. Launch plug-ins. Portable option. FOSS. Win 2000/NT/XP/Vista/7.
Program Launcher  PStartStart menu program for portable devices and every day computer use. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
RSS Reader  FeedDemonAward winning RSS news reader with a free account to NewsGator's online service. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Screen Capture  PicPick ToolsIt features a powerful screen capture tool with scrolling capture, image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair, whiteboard and etc. Also a portable program. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Screen Recorder  Screen2exeExcellent tool to capture desktop activity with voice and save it as a self-playing .exe file. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Screen Ruler  ScreenRulerMeasure the distance between two points on your screen, get the exact location and size of an element on a web page, measure in pixels, centimeters or millimeters, both horizontally and vertically at the same time. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Screen Sharing  MikogoOnline meetings, 10 users, screen sharing, change presenters, FTP, application selection, 256 AES secure with tutorials. (Use LoudTalks for voice.) Win ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Screen Tabbed Utility  StickScreen tab driven utility that provides tools such as folder explorers, web browsers, calendar, calculator and notepads in tabs that attach to the sides of your screen. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.    DemoA short demonstration of the program created with Screen2exe.
Spell Checker  TinySpellA small utility that allows you to easily and quickly check and correct the spelling in any Windows application. TinySpell can watch your typing on the fly and alert you whenever it detects a misspelled word. It can also check the spelling of text that you copy to the clipboard. TinySpell installs itself in the system tray for easy access. It comes with an American-English dictionary containing more than 110,000 words. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
System Backup ISO  Macrium ReflectMacrium Reflect Free Edition enables you to create complete backups of your disk partitions, including operating system, installed programs and all your settings. Using disk images instead of simple file backups allows you to restore your system to the same state in the event of a system crash or hardware failure. The backup disk images can be saved to a local folder, external drives, a network location or burned to a Linux based or BartPE rescue CD/DVD. The program can backup your partition from within Windows by taking advantage of the Volume Shadow Copy service. Other features include mounting and exploring of backup images, optional compression and a built-in scheduler for automated backups. If you've got an image saved somewhere safe (like an external USB hard drive), you can boot your computer with a Macrium recovery CD, restore the image to a new drive, and be running again as though nothing ever happened within minutes! Win XP/Vista/2008/7.
Text Automation  TexterText substitution application, Texter saves you countless keystrokes by replacing abbreviations with commonly used phrases you define. Addresses, email, html code, clipboard, just about anything. Runs in the system tray and works on anything you can type text in. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.   DemoA short demonstration of the program created with Screen2exe.
Translator  Client for Google TranslateClient for Google Translate is a free translator which translates text in every Windows application such as Outlook, MS Word, Internet Explorer, Firefox and so on. After installing you will see Client for Google Translate in the system tray and every time you want to translate some text, all you have to do is click the tray icon to activate it (turns from blue to orange) and select the text you wish to translate (auto language detection) and a little G icon will appear by the selected text, click that and the selection will be translated instantly! With this tool, you can easily carry on a conversation with someone in a different language. Size: 2mb. Win 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.   DemoA short demonstration.
Uninstaller  RevoUninstallerExcellent uninstall utility that includes additional system clean-up tools after the uninstall. Also Portable. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Video Editor  VirtualDubAmazingly easy to split, join, and capture AVI video with high quality results. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Video Editor  AvidemuxAdvidemux is a video and audio editor used for simple cutting, filtering and encoding. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Video Player/Recorder  VLCVLC is the Swiss Army knife of media players: it will play pretty much any file type you throw at it, as well as rip CDs and DVDs, convert video files to iPod-friendly formats and stream media to other computers. For Portable mode, download the zip file and extract the files to a folder of your choice. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Virtual CD/DVD  Virtual CloneDriveVirtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto a virtual drive from your hard-disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive. Supports all common image formats such as ISO, BIN, CCD. Supports up to 8 virtual drives at the same time. Easy to use, just doubleclick an image file to mount as a drive. Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP/XP64/VISTA/VISTA64.
Virtual Surfing  SandboxiePrevents malware loading on hardrive by surfing in a virtual sandbox. 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Volume Controller  VolumouseVolumouse provides you a quick and easy way to control the sound volume on your system - simply by rolling the wheel of your wheel mouse. It allows you to define a set of rules for determining when the wheel will be used for changing the sound volume. For example: You can configure Volumouse to use your mouse wheel for volume control when the Alt key is hold down, when the left mouse button is down, when the mouse cursor is over the taskbar, and so on. When the conditions that you define are not satisfied, your mouse wheel will be used for the regular scrolling tasks, exactly as before. Portable mode. Size: 80 kb. Win 98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Web Browser  Google ChromeGoogle Chrome is a browser based on Open Source programming that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. This is my browser of choice. You can opt out of sending usage statistics and use unchrome if you wish to anonymize the browser. Win XP/Vista/2008/7.

The above programs are my personal favorites and in my opinion the best of the best.

All of the programs listed on this site have been reviewed and extensively researched by me, and I believe they are the top contenders in each of the categories. If you believe there is a better program than what I have listed, please let me know.