The available utilities of Windows are quite limited and lack features. We have reviewed and selected 10 very useful utilities to assist you. Interestingly, all 10 of these utilities are compact and completely free.
Does your website need to load faster, or is your digital photo collection taking up too much hard drive space? What should you do? Use StripFile by Nuetools. This program can shrink web pages (HTML) and web image files such as GIF, JPEG, and PNG. However, the unique and appealing feature of the program is that it only removes redundant information like color profiles and annotations. You can choose Settings to filter the data you want to remove, or simply right-click on the folder or file and select Compress. Another option is to right-click on the folder or file and choose Strip to eliminate excess information. You’re probably wondering, what if this processing fails, or if the quality is compromised? Don’t worry, StripFile will create a backup folder for these folders and files in case you encounter issues.
What about quality? The quality depends on the type of file you compress, but the program guarantees a reduction of up to 50% in size. According to our tests, StripFile reduced the size of HTML files by 7% and JPEG files by 6.3%. This reduction seems negligible at first glance. However, if you have a “batch” of such files, that number can be significant, greatly reducing your hard drive space.
Photo Management
There are many digital photo management programs available. However, many are poorly designed, or you have to pay fees. We would like to introduce readers to Google’s Picasa. Picasa will scan and manage all photos and videos on your hard drive into its library. Through this library, you will easily copy, move, delete, and perform other file functions. Picasa is also a perfect photo editing program, allowing you to crop, rotate, make adjustments, and add effects to your photos.
While you will see the results of your edits in the preview frames, there will be no immediate changes to the photo itself. To ensure that you really want to make changes, you must export the photo to another folder.
A fantastic feature of Picasa is its batch renaming capability. With this feature, you can automatically add dates and resolutions to the file names of your photos. Other features include grouping photos into albums without needing to copy them into another folder, creating slideshows of photo files, archiving photos onto CDs or DVDs, creating a photo gallery for your website, and printing organization capabilities. While Picasa may not be as powerful as Photoshop, its ease of use and unique features make it an indispensable tool.
File Management Tools
Keeping your folders and program windows organized can be quite challenging. But with ExplorerXP by Nikolay Avrionov, you can title or sort open folders in another window. ExplorerXP allows you to customize the toolbar, rename multiple files simultaneously, and drag and drop into the Explorer window. What about the program’s weaknesses? It does not provide a preview; you can only view in detail mode, and browsing network drives is quite basic. However, ExplorerXP is genuinely a great file management program and is free. Why not give it a try?
Convert to PDF Format
Many programs can quickly convert any document into PDF (Portable Document Format). 
However, some of these programs come with ads or embed their logos in the converted files. CutePDF Writer from Acro Software does not do that.
This program adds a CutePDF printer icon to your system. When you need to convert to PDF format, just select the print function in other programs and choose the CutePDF printer instead of your actual printer, and you will have a perfect PDF file. CutePDF Writer requires you to download and install a PostScript printer language converter like GhostScript (available on CutePDF Writer’s website). While CutePDF Writer may not offer as many features as Adobe Acrobat, the program is genuinely useful and appealing.
Mac Icons
For users who “admire” the interface and glamor that Mac OS X offers, many Windows users want to change the “boring” taskbar and Start menu of Windows. The ObjectDock utility from StarDock can launch and switch applications, using animations similar to Mac, enlarging icons when you hover over them. Features such as weather forecast information may not be very necessary, but the clock provided by ObjectDock, along with the attractive pop-up Google search box, is quite appealing. If you want more features, consider upgrading to the paid version (upgrade price is 20 USD). The registered version supports multiple screens, among other enhancements.Automatic Shutdown
If you keep your system running continuously, you can schedule tools like antivirus and anti-spyware scans, system backups, and many other maintenance activities for your PC. But do you want to shut down after finishing your workday? Use LastChance by FileWare to add applications and commands you want to execute before Windows shuts down. When you exit Windows, LastChance will terminate all machine activities, running the commands you’ve requested. Once completed, the program will shut down Windows. You can also set the utility to use certain resources (like network drives). You can even set a timer before shutting down.
Organize Icons
One morning, when you open Windows and see your familiar icons on your screen “scattered” everywhere, it can be frustrating to have to reorganize those icons. Try Icon Restore by Tim Taylor; this utility adds two new commands when you right-click on any icon, such as My Computer—a commonly used icon available on almost all systems. Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Save Desktop Icon Layout. Whenever the icons get scrambled, you simply select Restore Desktop Icon Layout. However, this program does not include an uninstall function, so you should also download the UnInstall Icon Restore program so you can remove Icon Restore from your system when needed.
Neat Taskbar
The glorious days of DOS are over; Windows allows you to run multiple programs at once. You can listen to music, run virus scans, and compose text documents simultaneously, switching between these programs using the
The utility TaskArrange by Elias Fotinis allows you to drag and drop all running programs into a single window, organizing them in a way that suits your preferences. You can also arrange icons according to the controls of each specific program. If you use the grouping feature for work programs in the Windows XP taskbar, TaskArrange can organize programs into individual pop-up groups.
Program icons can clutter your system tray. Create more space with Tray Pilot Lite 
from Two Pilot. Tray Pilot Lite adds a button right next to the system tray, allowing you to show or hide all clocks along with icons. For just 16 USD, you can upgrade the free version to include features like hiding icons while keeping the clock, or using a different clock altogether. This utility is very useful for Windows 98 and Me. Windows XP has this feature available, but it does not allow hiding the clock.
The Perfect Clock
The Windows clock (located in the system tray) is small and quite limited. This clock does not display seconds, nor does it have an alarm function. Replace this “old-fashioned” clock with ClocX. ClocX allows you to set timers and schedule tasks. The timer mode can play sounds, display messages, launch applications, and even shut down Windows. ClocX can show a pop-up calendar to check dates or display both time and date directly on the clock interface. You can utilize anti-aliasing mode, transparency options, or download new skins for better visibility.
