Tools

Color Cop
Color Cop is a multi-purpose color picker for web designers and programmers. This tool is great for sampling colors from your screen quickly, and has many handy features, including zoom and color unit conversion.

CPU-Z
CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system. This tool is great for collecting info on processor and memory, or determining what slot in a laptop has the smaller stick of RAM so you don't have to disassemble it. Also great for getting specifics on motherboard, so you can locate drivers.

TrendMicro HijackThis
Trend Micro HijackThis is a free utility that generates an in depth report of registry and file settings from your computer. HijackThis makes no separation between safe and unsafe settings in its scan results giving you the ability to selectively remove items from your machine. This tool is very useful for getting a view into many places bad things like to hide. You can quickly fix a lot of issues with a scan and clean with this tool.

Scanner
This tool uses a sunburst chart to display the usage of your hard disk or other media. The chart shows all major files and folders from all directory levels at once. Simply the best Windows tool for finding out exactly where all that free space you had went to. Once used this to locate a 60 GB profile of a user that had not used their system in over six months.

Starter
Starter is yet another startup manager for Microsoft Windows. This is actually my favorite program to work with to manage the programs that are starting up on a computer.

  • Autoruns for Windows  [ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx ]
    This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. This utility is a good compliment to Starter, and between the two, you can clear up almost any problem you are having with program startup.

  • HWMonitor  [ http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php ]
    HWMonitor is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed. This tool is a great way to keep your eye on the internal temps, and usually used to check for heat issues when doing diagnostics.

  • LCISOCreator  [ http://www.lucersoft.com/freeware.php ]
    LC ISO Creator creates ISO files from CD/DVD-ROM. This utility is a great one to carry around with you, if you need to dupe a disk before you use it.

  • MyUninstaller  [ http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html ]
    MyUninstaller is an alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all installed application, and allows you to uninstall an application, delete an uninstall entry, and save the list of all installed applications into a text file or HTML file. One of the most awesome tools I have found for killing stubborn programs, this will help you remove anything that you have installed, and even the stuff you did not.

  • PCWizard  [ http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php ]
    PC WIZARD is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware, but also used to analyze and benchmark your computer system.

  • Picture Resizer  [ http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize ]
    This is an easy-to-use and free tool for batch resizing of JPG pictures and photos. I love this tool for all the time it saves me. Just give it a special filename, and drop any files you want modified on it, and the program does all the heavy lifting.

  • Process Explorer  [ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx ]
    Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. This tool is awesome for getting a detailed look into what your system is up to, and what files the programs are using.

  • PuTTY  [ http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ ]
    PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Windows and Unix platforms.

  • SpywareBlaster  [ http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html ]
    Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software! This program is one of the two pieces of passive protection that I use on my own computer, and one that I install on any computer that I come into contact with.

  • Spybot - Search & Destroy  [ http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html ]
    Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. This is the second piece of passive protection that I use on my own computer, and I recommend it to everyone to use.

  • TCPView for Windows  [ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437.aspx ]
    TCPView is a Windows program that will show you detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections. Awesome if you want to know what programs are talking to anyone else.

  • Unlocker  [ http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/ ]
    Unlocker will remove the file lock or system lock that will be in place sometimes even after you have closed the programs using it. This program will save you a lot of hassle in getting rid of unwanted files.

  • ZoomIt  [ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx ]
    ZoomIt is screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. Handy because it will run without install, and is more useful than the Windows Magnifier.

  • LessMSIerables  [ http://blogs.pingpoet.com/overflow/archive/2005/11/16/14995.aspx ]