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37 Utilities I Wish Came Shipped With Windows

with 32 comments

Windows Utilities

Have you ever downloaded and installed a new Windows utility and wondered why Windows didn’t have its features inbuilt? I have. Over the last few years, I’ve tried hundreds of apps that have solved common inadequacies in Windows.

This is a list of 37 handpicked Windows utilities that I think will help us in fixing the missing pieces in Windows. Give them a try – these utilities will beat those common Windows annoyances. Good luck. Before reading this post, make sure that you also check out our post on lifesaver windows utilities as well.

If you think an app deserves to be in this list, please use the comments section to voice your opinion. I’ll be glad add more to this list.

Essential Windows Utilities

Without further ado, here goes a list of the most useful windows utilities I’ve ever used and wished that Windows came preinstalled with them.

Teracopy – Speeds up Windows file copying. You know how slow it is in Windows Vista

Flash Drive Reminder – Reminds you to remove your USB drive when you exit Windows

Unlocker – Deletes files even if they’re being used by other Windows Processes

Taskbar Shuffle – Rearrange minimized Window Buttons in the Taskbar

Clickie Path Name Copier – Right click to copy a file’s path name to the clipboard. Also opens command prompt in the selected directory

TrayIt – Minimize windows to the System Tray instead of the taskbar

Stalled Printer Jobs – Remove print jobs that are stuck. Ever hit the delete print job button and seen the printer job vanishing instantly?

Folder Size – Makes Windows Explorer to show the size of folders in ‘Details’ view

QTTab Bar – Adds tabs to Windows Explorer

Drive Icon – Shows a bar that indicates disk usage near the drive icon in XP’s My Computer window, just like you have in Vista

Defraggler – Speeds up Windows Defragmentation

Image Resizer – Adds quick resizing options to Windows Vista’s Explorer right click menu

WinDirStat – Visualizes hard disk usage. Know what folders are occuping big chunks of space

FileHippo Update Checker – There’s no central update system in Windows to update all installed software. Use this utility instead

Mmm Free – Delete and edit right click options. Get the junk out

AlwaysOnTop – Keeps windows on top of everything else

DeskDrive – Insert a removable drive and its icon appears in the desktop. You needn’t necessarily go to My Computer to view its files

Window Sizer – Use hotkey combos to quickly resize any window to predefined dimensions

WinRoll – Double click on a window to show only its title bar and hide everything else

ThumbScrew – Write protect USB Flash Drives so that it doesn’t get infected

FileMenu Tools – Adds a load of customizable options to the Explorer right click menu

TaskSwitchXP – Adds Window Thumbnails to the Alt Tab overlay window in XP

Startup Monitor – When a program adds itself to the startup list, this utility asks for your approval

Ant Renamer -  Renames files in a batch. Have a look at the screenshot to know about how powerful it is.

Desktop List View – Enables Explorer only list view on your Desktop

Hot Corners – Assign a task to every corner of your desktop, like in Mac’s Expose

Startup Delayer – Load startup programs sequentially, not immediately after Windows boots

AMP WinOFF – Auto Shutdown Windows. Dozens of fully configurable options

fsLock – Lock down files and prevent renaming, moving or deletion

Jing – Capture and upload screenshots online

Everything – Searches files as you type them. Supports Boolean operators and is better than the default Windows search feature

NoClose – Disables the close button in Windows so that you won’t end up closing windows accidentally

BatteryBar – Detailed battery life meter. Gives the accurate time remaining. Much better than the default battery level indicator

BitMeter – Bandwidth Monitor to track bandwidth usage

USBDeview – If you have multiple devices and drives attached to your USB Port, this utility gives a neat interface to manage them all

Shutdown Guard – Prevents apps from automatically shutting down your computer without your approval

Dexpot – Feature rich multiple virtual desktops manager

What are your favourite Windows Utilities?

That’s about it. Got anything to add? Please tell us about how any lifesaver utilities in the comments. Also don’t forget to bookmark this post by using the ShareThis button below.

Related posts:

  1. How to transfer settings and files from one computer to another with Magic Transfer
  2. Easily find and check MD5 hashes in Windows with HashTab
  3. Six Windows Lifesaver Utilities That Save You From PC Blunders
  4. Get the Windows 7 Taskbar in Windows XP
  5. Windows 7 Little Tweaker

Written by Shankar Ganesh

April 20th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

Posted in software tools

Tagged with ,

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32 Responses to '37 Utilities I Wish Came Shipped With Windows'

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  1. Excellent list Shankar, many of these are the first ones I actually install on a new setup

    Keith Dsouza

    20 Apr 09 at 9:47 pm

  2. Cool collection.

    Another great thing would be make FF as default browser and uninstall IE.

    Ganesh

    20 Apr 09 at 9:49 pm

  3. Interestin link, shankar. Consider adding ccleaner to the list. And another cool alternative to ‘Everything’ will be ‘Launchy’.

    Arun shivaram

    20 Apr 09 at 11:02 pm

  4. Fantastic list man. Is there anyway to customize the installation disk to automatically install other utilities too like Office, Adobe Reader, Photoshop, utorrent, Firefox etc. ?

    Pratyush

    20 Apr 09 at 11:26 pm

  5. Other verrrrrrrrrrrry good and essential tools:

    Foxit PDF Reader [The best PDF reader. Better than Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader.]
    CCleaner.
    WorkRave [Essential app if you sit long hours at PC.]
    NotePad++
    Evernote

    Srikanth

    21 Apr 09 at 5:24 am

  6. That’s an awesome list buddy…. ccleaner is what I badly miss in this great list…

    :) :D :P stumbled :P :D :)

    Pavan Kumar

    21 Apr 09 at 5:30 pm

  7. Looking at this list… i realize that Linux users are privileged not to have these annoyances.

    wooptoo

    21 Apr 09 at 7:09 pm

  8. [...] http://www.killertechtips.com/2009/04/20/windows-utilities/ [...]

    37 tools for windows « Tjeerdoo.com

    21 Apr 09 at 11:10 pm

  9. Great stuff,prof Shankar
    -here’s another Your readers might enjoy:
    ‘Hidden XP Utilities’ has nearly 100 utilities, including 53 Windows utilities and 43 command line tools.
    http://camtech2000.net/Programs/HiddenXP.msi
    cheers

    dar

    22 Apr 09 at 1:28 am

  10. [...] please check out our other big list of 37 Windows Utilities. If you’ve got any comments, please voice them in the comments section below. Do tell us of [...]

    Essential Windows Utilities

    22 Apr 09 at 11:54 am

  11. Regarding to ‘100 Hidden XP Utilities’ , will the commentator give detailed list with its use and limitation, if any.

    Shankar

    22 Apr 09 at 10:50 pm

  12. awesome list man!
    thanx alot fo sharing!

    thecrazyjogger

    23 Apr 09 at 3:51 am

  13. [...] 37 extremely useful Windows Utilities – Check out this huge list of programs that add functionalities to Windows [...]

    Recap of April’s Tech Tips

    27 Apr 09 at 1:40 pm

  14. [...] &#187 El muy recomendable blog de Killer Tech Tips nos hace el favor de recopilar una lista con 37 utilidades que me gustaría que vinieran incluídas en Windows, ebtre las que destacan CCleaner (una vieja conocida de Identidad Geek), Unlocker, Flash Drive [...]

    37 útiles utilidades | IdentidadGeek

    3 May 09 at 12:26 am

  15. Great collection. I suggest Extended task manager too! http://www.extensoft.com/?p=free_task_manager

    Sanbor

    3 May 09 at 10:28 pm

  16. And what about GDI++ (to get MacOSX font rendering in Windows) It’s amazing http://estevaomascarenhas.com/blog/2009/01/howto-1-mac-osx-font-smoothing-in-windows/

    Sanbor

    4 May 09 at 1:54 pm

  17. In addition to this great list, i always have Autoruns and ProcessExplorer.

    Autoruns gives you full control on what starts with WIndows with full description.
    ProcessExplorer is a realtime monitor of ALL processes running on a computer, also showing process dependencies.

    Marwan Zaki

    26 May 09 at 6:37 am

  18. [...] and run a command line from that folder. There is a tiny Windows tool called Clickie [ found via my friend shankar's post ] which lets me open a Command Line in a particular folder path, as shown in the side [...]

    • Markup Dude • Image Optimization for website design.

    7 Jun 09 at 1:12 am

  19. yeah i love most of them
    MS should consider them for windows 7

    robb

    20 Jun 09 at 2:16 am

  20. Phenomenal list; I really appreciated exploring and installing ones that appealed to me. I Stumbled Upon this page, and you can bet I thumbs-uped it. Thanks again.

    kingsupermaster

    21 Jun 09 at 8:42 pm

  21. [...] 37 Windows programėlės, kurios galbūt pravers [...]

    Sekmadienis su StumbleUpon #83 · Radiocool.lt

    29 Jun 09 at 12:05 am

  22. Nice Tools!

    Mourad

    31 Aug 09 at 9:13 pm

  23. Nice Tools !

    Mourad

    31 Aug 09 at 9:15 pm

  24. [...] Via. Average: 5 Average: 5 (1 vote) » 306 lecturas [...]

    37 Utilidades esenciales para Windows. | subinet.es beta información tecnológica y de actualidad.

    31 Aug 09 at 10:23 pm

  25. I’m sorry but I didn’t find a single thing of use in this list. I use Windows 7 and several of these things are covered in W7, MS are taking note of the features people want and need from their OS.

    tompkins

    1 Sep 09 at 4:40 am

  26. [...] hecha por Killer Tech Tips, más algunas que uso yo [...]

    Utilidades para Windows | BlogMAX

    13 Nov 09 at 1:03 am

  27. Got here via Stumble Upon, gave you the thumbs up and bookmarked your page. Nice list. I will be trying a couple of these utilities on my Windows installations.

    Charles

    23 Dec 09 at 2:22 pm

  28. Great list… I use a lot of these.
    You know what I’d like to see. A program that saves your desktop in case of crash, lockup, windows updates, etc. I’m not talking about the icons. That’s been done to death. I’m talking about something that will save a running snapshot of your running apps and open files, so that, in case of a BSOD or some other gotcha, the next time you start windows, it will ask you if you want to resume your worksession. If you say yes, then all the previously opened apps and files would open, and in their last locations and orientations. This would also come in handy if you needed to reboot for some reason, you could do so and resume where you left off. It would be nice if it had an auto-save feature for those running apps, so if you did crash, you would be saved.
    I imagine the app I am envisioning could make use of the Windows STARTUP folder somehow to facilitate this, perhaps that is too simplistic. Since I am no programmer, I’m not sure how it would work.

    Anybody heard of such an app?

    Aron Lasky

    2 Jan 10 at 11:45 am

  29. Nice list, tried a few of these before and they are good apps. Could you also mention whether or not they work in W7?
    And btw, why use photobucket?

    the dude

    13 Feb 10 at 2:00 am

  30. aron:
    you wouldn’t want to pull your same mem state after a bsod like you would with a suspend. which is basically what you are looking for a program to do. you could end up with a perpetual loop bsod cycle.

    sigterm

    5 May 10 at 10:54 am

  31. Nice list of apps..
    Got here via “stumbleupon” aswell…
    Thanks.

    Tony

    21 May 10 at 9:47 pm

  32. Great list, I found 3 useful program between these that a I didn’t know about them before

    Will

    13 Jul 10 at 3:02 am

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