What Are Some of the Coolest Utilities You've Found

[garnet_abx]

SlickRun
"SlickRun is a 32-bit floating command line utility for Windows. Occupying less than 1.5% of a 800x600 display, SlickRun gives you almost instant access to any program on your computer. SlickRun allows you to create command aliases, so C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe becomes Mail. Enter a web URL into SlickRun and it will launch your browser and navigate to the specified address. Jot a note, look up a definition... SlickRun does it all!"
http://www.bayden.com/slickrun/

[CrowdAds]

[KingTermite]

Originally posted by garnet
SlickRun
"SlickRun is a 32-bit floating command line utility for Windows. Occupying less than 1.5% of a 800x600 display, SlickRun gives you almost instant access to any program on your computer. SlickRun allows you to create command aliases, so C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe becomes Mail. Enter a web URL into SlickRun and it will launch your browser and navigate to the specified address. Jot a note, look up a definition... SlickRun does it all!"
http://www.bayden.com/slickrun/

I'm trying it now. So far, I think I like it a lot!!

It uses a bit more memory than I'd like (about 8Mb when running), but perhaps the convenience warrants it.

[ATINUT]

I can add Fix-It Utilities to this list also. It does a better job than SystemWorks did at defragging my harddrives.

[KingTermite]

Originally posted by Excavator
Looked long and hard for just the right synchroniztion program. I tested about 5 different ones and read about dozens.
SynchroMagicPro is the one I ended up with.

Ok...I'm giving this one a try now.

The settings seem a bit clumbsy....but maybe I just need to get the hang of it. I got it syncrhonizing my MP3 collection right now over to my external Hdd.

[KingTermite]

A great tool that I've been using for years to monitor disk usage.

Showman from David Taylor's Website. It's in the "Disk Utilities" section.

[wayne_abx]

Originally posted by Paragon
I think King Termite's VB Code Generator is on of the coolest utilities yet...LINK

I must say Chris, your 'VB Code Generator' is a time saver. Just wished I started using it earlier.
I love applications that work straight from the folder

-wayne

[KingTermite]

Wget

GNU Linky
Straight from the horse's mouth linky

When there are embedded objects on a webpage that you want, but can't get to...you can use this command line tool to grab them directly.

[wayne_abx]

Here is another good program for the tool box. For me, it has been safer to use then any of the freeware, Norton or System Mechanic, regarding Registry repair tools.

Registry Mechanic from WinGuides

-wayne

[Sir Skully]

CT cookie spy!

[wayne_abx]

PC Pitstop
On-Line system check (Requiers IE 4 and up) FREE
PC Pitstop Full Tests

Free CD Utilities: Burn Disks, Fix Damaged Tracks (From PC World) FREE
FireBurner v2.2.1
Burn audio tracks without converting MP3s to WAVs.
CDCheck v3.0.1
Detect corrupted files on your CDs and Zip disks, and recover them.
Burn4Free
Two clicks, no cash: Now that's a good way to burn CDs and DVDs.
CDBurnerXP Pro 2.0.9.3 Beta 9.3
Write to CDs and DVDs, and fix damaged audio tracks. Rip and burn, baby.
CD to WAV/MP3 Ripper v1.71
Rip and burn back-up copies of commercial CD tracks to CD-R or MP3.
JukeBox Decoder v2.1
Transfer MP3s to WAV format for CD burning.

-wayne

[etrigan]

Other than the ones that were already mentioned that are the best(like Putty, Firebird, Ultraedit, UltraVNC, Sysinternal stuff, etc etc etc...)

My favs that werent mentioned(at least i didnt notice):

Cdex - Cd ripper, mp3, ogg etc etc...free and the best.

ANY Util from www.foundstone.com, many that are free.

Grabit - Newsgroup program for binary posts etc etc.

Kazaa Lite CodecPack - All the codecs you need to watch just about any media file on your computer. The full pack includes bsplayer which is an excellent media player.

Xteq Setup - Ultimate Win tweak program??

Spybot SD - Down with spyware.

Where Is It? - Cd, HD, DVD and general media catalog program. If you burn alot of cd/dvd's with data/mp3's, you name it...its a good way to keep track of files on those cd's...and do a search for a particular item you may be looking for(usually an mp3 for me)...there's other cataloggers out there that are almost as good, and that are free. But IMO this is the best. And trust me ive tried them all.

Ok thats it for now. :wave2:

[PCBruiser]

Batchrun - a simple auto-scripting program which lets you create little "batch" files to open, close, copy, run, etc. multiple items.

http://www.outertech.com/

[wayne_abx]

For those with DOCSIS Cable modems (most are in the US)

A tool I always use to trouble shoot my connections. You can use this information if you need to call tech support (ask for level 2 support, level 1 support wouldn't have a clue what you are talking about).

DOCSIS cable modem diagnostics

DocsDiag is a program for reading diagnostic data from DOCSIS cable modems. It should work with any DOCSIS-compliant cable modem that has SNMP access available to the end-user. It will be of primary benefit to end-users with cable modems that do not offer diagnostics via web pages.

DocsDiag is a text-mode console program without any graphical user interface. It will run on any platform that supports Java console applications.

A: Downstream Power:
You generally want between -12db and +12db. Most modems are rated from -15 to +15. Anything less or more than that and you may have quality issues.

I personally prefer to not have less than -7db. If you want to raise your signal level a bit, check my troubleshooting and splitter section.

Downstream SNR:
This number is best over 30, but you may not have any problems with down to 25. Anything less and you will probably have slow transfers, dropped connections, etc.

See my "Downstream SNR" definition for more information on this.

Upstream Power:
The lower this number is, the better. If it is above 55, you may want to see if you can reconfigure your splitters. Anything above 57 is not good and should be fixed ASAP. (This is getting pretty close to not being able to connect.)

Upstream SNR:
Anything above 29 is considered good. The higher this number is, the better. If this number is below 25 and 29, you have a minute amount of noise leaking in somewhere. If it's anything less than 25, you want to get it fixed as you may have a lot of packet loss or slow transfer rates.

Example of my results;

DocsDiag v020714 Copyright 2001-2 Robin Walker rdhw@cam.ac.uk

Toshiba DOCSIS 1.0 Cable Modem ; <<HW_REV: 19.0.0; VENDOR: Toshiba Corporation;
BOOTR: 1.7; SW_REV: 1.0.13; MODEL: PCX2600>>

System up time = 6 days 18h 10m 10.00s
Ethernet single-collision errs.1 = 628
Ethernet multiple-collision errs.1 = 681
Ethernet SQE Test errors.1 = 11085125
Ethernet deferred xmits.1 = 2735
Ethernet carrier sense xmit errs.1 = 2482
Downstream channel ID = 3
Downstream channel frequency = 633000000 Hz
Downstream received signal power = -15.3 dBmV
Upstream channel ID = 5
Upstream channel frequency = 21000000 Hz
QoS max upstream bandwidth = 256000 bps
QoS max downstream bandwidth = 1800000 bps
SigQu: Signal to Noise Ratio = 30.8 dB
Cable modem status = Operational
Upstream transmit signal power = 46.2 dBmV
Date and Time = 2003-12-05,10:32:36.0
Configuration filename = hsd1.8M.cfg

-wayne

[stratjakt]

Note about Where Is It? ..

I used the heck out of that program, and found it to be fantastic.. I burn tons and tons of CDs, and put an up-to-date catalog on each disk, the disks ID'd only by a datestamp..

All was great, I had a virtually unlimited supply of backups of the database, and so on..

And then they released a new version. And changed their proprietary database format. All that work scanning cds, entering descriptions, etc, etc.. Down the tubes.. No such conversion utility to convert my databases..

Now I use a simple little app I hacked up myself that reads from a mysql database. It's got nowhere near the functionality, but I'm not worried about a format change invalidating all my old data..

[PCBruiser]

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#build