Windows Utilites and Tools

After cleaning up a friends system recently and dramatically improving it's performance, appearance and usability I was asked again, nay begged, to recommend as many of the applications and or utilities I use(d) to install or put onto an existing or new installation of Windows to 'protect it' and to help keep it running optimally and take full control of your applications, system preferences and resources.

The list below contains most of the things I install on, or use, on all of my machines.
There are also 'portable' or 'non-install' versions of nearly all of these applications which I carry on my thumb drives too. But I will not provide the links for them as they can be easily found the same place as the full installs of these applications.
There are of course many others I use for network administration but I won't include all of those here now.
I just wanted to put this up so that those of you looking for some very good freeware applications to enhance and improve your computing experience could find them in one place. And to keep it as secure and trouble free as possible.

Firefox:
Download here
[see list at end for Firefox extensions and add ons I use too]

7-Zip opensource file archiver:
http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0.10&os=win&lang=en-US
App:
http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/sevenzip/7z465.exe

Notepad++ Opensource notepad on steroids:
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/about.php
Appinstall:
http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/notepad-plus/npp.5.4.2.Installer.exe

Windows PowerToys:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

ClearType Tuner PowerToy:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/7/0/b7019730-0fa3-47a9-a159-98b80c185aad/setup.exe

Alt-Tab Replacement:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TaskswitchPowertoySetup.


Open Command Window Here:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/CmdHerePowertoySetup.exe

Tweak UI:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowTweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

The entire Syinternals Suite:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx

Complete tool set:
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/SysinternalsSuite.zip

Of those I use most are:
Process Explorer and AutoRuns

Revo Uninstaller - freeware:
http://www.revouninstaller.com/
App:
http://www.revouninstaller.com/download/revosetup.exe

JKdefrag:
http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/
App:
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/JkDefrag-3.36.zip

Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel:
http://mlin.net/
App:
http://www.mlin.net/files/StartupCPL.zip

Unlocker
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Wholockme
http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/

File assassin
http://www.malwarebytes.org/fileassassin.php

A great spyware finder:

Spybot Search And Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

Don't confuse this application with other that are trading on the 'Spybot' name and are in
and of themselves ACTUALLY spyware. The one and only original FREEWARE application is here.

http://www.spybotupdates.biz/files/spybotsd162.exe


CCleaner:
http://www.ccleaner.com/
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/download/d1565b7fb77b48a3692a199d871845fd/

Taskbar Shuffle - a simple, small, free utility that lets you drag and drop your Windows
taskbar buttons to rearrange them:
http://nerdcave.webs.com/
download:
http://nerdcave.webs.com/downloads/ts2.5_setup.exe


Another program much like Tweak XP:
http://xenomorph.net/?page_id=336
installer:
http://xenomorph.net/files/xdn_tweaker_setup.exe

ImageBurn CD/DVD burner:
http://www.imgburn.com/
App:
http://download.imgburn.com/SetupImgBurn_2.4.4.0.exe

VLC Media Player:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
App:
http://www.videolan.org/mirror-geo.php?file=vlc/0.9.9/win32/vlc-0.9.9-win32.exe

KeyPass:
http://keepass.info/
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/keepass/KeePass-2.07-Beta-Setup.exe

ANTI VIRUS APPS:
I have used both of these and they are fine freeware applications.
I also am quite happy with corporate versions of McAfee and Symantec despite the idiot rantings of people who don't do this for a living.

AVG free AV:
http://free.avg.com/
App Download:
Freeware download

Clamwin Free AV:
http://www.clamwin.com/
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/clamwin/clamwin-0.95.1-setup.exe

FIREFOX EXTENSIONS I use:
Better Gmail
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4866

Google toolbar:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6249

pdf download:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/636

stop autoplay:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1765

FoxyTunes
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/219

Video DownloadHelper
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

Adblock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Redirect Remover
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/537

Grease Monkey for firefox - allows of additional script functionalities in firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

GreaseMonkey Scripts:

Remove Facebook Ads:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/46560

YouTube HD Ultimate:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/31864

GZoom:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/7840