Total Commander

Total Commander is an excellent file manager for Windows. The idea springs from the very early MSDOS version of Norton Commander. It has two file panels which makes it easy to copy and move files from two different folders. Total Commander has all you need to work with files. You can pack, unpack files from most compressed file types (.zip and .rar). It also supports other packed files such as 7zip and arj using plugins. If you miss a feature in Total Commander, then you can go to the plugins page on their website and download a plugin that gives TC the ability to do what you want it to.

Download 'Total Commander'

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SyncBack SE

SyncBack SE is a file synchronization tool. It is very useful to automatically make backups of your files and sync files with an online FTP account. The best about this software is that it is very customizable. You can have backup and sync tasks run upon a specific interval, if there are changes in the monitored directory, if a disk is plugged in, etc.. The Pro version even supports scripting and burining to DVD / CD.

Personally I use SyncBack SE to:

• make daily backups of my Users folder on Vista
• send downloaded .torrent files to my other computer on my network
• move downloaded torrent and emule files from one computer to another on my network
• backup files from my mobile phone (by connecting my phone as a flash drive)
• sync roboform data to a free online FTP account
• backup my portable disk upon connecting

Download 'SyncBack SE or Pro'

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Revo Uninstaller

Sure Windows has a built in unistallers overview window, however it is not an uninstaller in itself. Sometimes a program does not show up in the overview of uninstallers (due to bad installers) or the uninstaller that comes with the software does not want to uninstall. You are then stuck with the application that cannot be removed.

Revo Uninstaller solves these problems and a lot more. The most usefull option to me is to sort the installed programs by date. If you just installed a new program that you wanted to try out, and you want to remove it, then that program is at the top of the list if you sort it by installation date.

Revo Uninstaller can also clean up left over registry entries and files, and comes with lots of usefull tools.

Download 'Revo Uninstaller'

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Pidgin

Pidgin is an open source messenger that combines many popular messenger clients (such as MSN, Google, Yahoo, ICQ, etc...) into one. It has a very clean interface and loads very fast. No spyware, adware, advertising, etc... And it also comes for many platforms such as Windows, MAC OSX, Fedora Core, CentOS / RHEL. It also supports plugins so you can add more messenger protocols, text encryption, etc... The only downside is that it does not support video and audio conversations.

Download 'Pidgin'

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Firefox Add-on: Firebug

Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page...
One problem I had with FireBug was that it does not monitor traffic when you are redirected to another page, because the traffic log is reset. This is no problem for Fiddler.

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Firefox Add-on: WOT

WOT, Web of Trust, warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam. Protect your computer against online threats by using WOT as your front-line layer of protection when browsing or searching in unfamiliar territory. WOT's color-coded icons show you ratings for 21 million websites - green to go, yellow for caution and red to stop � helping you avoid the dangerous sites. Surf safer and add WOT to your Firefox now.

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Firefox Add-on: Lazarus

Automatically saves all forms for easy retrieval later on. Lazarus securely saves every form as you type it, and if the submission fails you can right click, and select "recover form" to restore the form to it's prior state.

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Firefox Add-on: Johnny Cache

Use JohnnyCache to block access to the disk and memory cache based on user-defined URL patterns. This can be useful if you are a developer and are working on a website.

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Firefox Add-on: IE View Lite

Not all sites are optimized for Firefox (example; Microsoft Updates). In that case you can click on the "IE View Lite" icon, or right-click on the page and select 'view this page in IE'. This will open Internet Explorer with the page you are currently on in Firefox, instead of manually launching IE, copying the URL from Firefox and pasting it in IE.

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Firefox Add-on: FireGestures

FireGestures is a customizable mouse gestures extension which enables you to execute various commands and user scripts with five types of gestures.

Reduce mouse movement by using mouse gestures instead of the navigation bar on top of the browser.

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Firefox Add-on: DownThemAll

If you have a web page with lots of links to files you wish to download, then instead of right-clicking on each and every link and selecting "save target as..." can get quite troublesome. Using "DownThemAll", you can save all the links at once in a directory you specify. It can even help you to download files in an accelerated way.

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Firefox Add-on: Download Statusbar

Download Statusbar allows you to view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.

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Roboform

Roboform is a password management tool that is available as a toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer, as a standalone program that sits in your tray, as a USB portable version and as a Windows Mobile application. It can save and fill your login data from any website. You can also make notes where you can type your own information. I use the safenotes to store my software licenses and other personal information.

It can also automate filling in forms for you such as personal name, bank account, credit card number (can notify you if it filled in a credit card number), phone number, adress, etc...

Every entry is stored as an encrypted file, so you do not need to worry that someone might steal your information. The advantage of this is that you can synchronize the login data with your PDA if you have a Windows Mobile device, as there is a free portable version of Roboform for Windows Mobile 5 and 6. This way I have all my logins and personal data available wherever I go in a safe and encrypted way. The only way to get to the data is to enter a password to decrypt the data.

A new feature of Roboform is the Roboform Online sync. When you have a Roboform licence, you can get a free online storage space. By adding the free "goodsync' plugin for roboform, you can have all your roboform data synced with all your computers.

Download 'Roboform'

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Firefox Add-on: Adblock Plus

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.

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