Looking at the price of software today is enough to send you into sticker shock. Sometimes it feels as if you need to mortgage your house if you want to get a full suite of tools.

Luckily, that's not the case. There are plenty of very good free programs that do everything from protecting you against spyware, to giving you a comprehensive look inside your PC, and cleaning your Registry, to managing your media, and plenty more.

We've scoured the Web and come up with 15 of our favorite free utilities that most people have never heard of. We've focused on three popular categories: security software, system tools, and graphics and multimedia. But we've also thrown in some personal favorites that defy categorization.

Among the security utilities, we've chosen two spyware killers--SpyCatcher Express and a-Squared HiJackFree--because no single piece of antispyware can do the job by itself. We've also found a very good firewall, VistaFirewallControl, to improve on Windows Vista's built-in protection. And we've included Tor, which will maintain your privacy whenever you're online.

We found plenty of system tools, as well. What's Running shows you all the programs and processes running on your PC, while System Information for Windows takes a deep dive into your machine's innards and shows you an amazing amount of detail about your hardware and software setup. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner does exactly what it says--it keeps your Registry in tip-top shape and helps your PC run better. Advanced WindowsCare offers a multitude of tune-up tools. And Undelete Plus lets you undelete files in ways you might not have thought possible--for example, those that you've already removed from the Recycle Bin.

As for graphics and multimedia software, you'll be surprised at the sophistication and power of the freebies we found. MediaMonkey does a great job of handling and playing music files, while Photozig Albums Express offers ways not just to manage your photos, but to edit and share them as well. And Google SketchUp is a remarkable 3D graphics program for building three-dimensional objects such as houses, decks, and desks.

Finally, we've rounded up some intriguing miscellanies. RSS Bandit lets you subscribe to and read RSS feeds so that you can keep up with your favorite blogs and news sites. Azureus is a very good peer-to-peer file-sharing program based on the popular BitTorrent protocol. And ImgBurn will let you copy CDs and DVDs with ease.

So what are you waiting for? Start downloading. There's great software to be had, and it won't cost you a red cent.

In This Article:

• Security
• System Tools
• Graphics and Multimedia
• Miscellaneous Software
• The Complete List of 15 Great Utilities

Security

The Internet is a nasty place, full of spyware, malware, and other programs bent on doing you harm. Here are four free utilities that can help protect you.

Antivirus software usually won't protect you against spyware, which is where SpyCatcher Express comes in. This freebie scans your system for spyware, and removes what it finds. Better yet, it offers live protection, just as popular freebies like Ad Aware SE Personal and Spybot Search & Destroy do, so that it stops spyware from infecting your PC in the first place. When you first run it, it does a system scan to check for spyware, and then delete any it finds. After that, you configure it by setting your level of protection, as well as deciding when to do automated scans. SpyCatcher Express will also download new antispyware signatures automatically, so that you always have up-to-date protection.

In addition, SpyCatcher Express includes a variety of other unique tools, such as a System Explorer, which offers a detailed list of all the applications running on your system, as well as ActiveX components and an Internet Explorer plug-in. It also lists all the programs that run on startup.

Download:
SpyCatcher Express

No matter how much antispyware protection you've got on your PC, it's not enough. Spyware is notorious for being able to slip through the cracks of antimalware programs, and you're best off if you have more than one such tool on your PC. That's where this freebie comes in. Use it as a backup to your main antispyware utility, for extra protection. It doesn't offer "live" protection like SpyCatcher Express. Instead, use it to examine your system, to see if it's been infected, and then kill the malware. It's a surprisingly powerful tool, and with far more features than we can cover here. But these are the basics: Run it and click the Online Analysis button; it will then check your system for malware and issue a report online. If it finds any nasties, it will tell you. You can then use the program to delete the malware.

There are also tools for viewing what programs are using your TCP ports, and for examining programs that run on startup. For a free program, it's surprisingly powerful.

Download: a-Squared HiJackFree