20 Tools for Trouble-Free Computing

Sort Your Files

Organizing the thousands of files on your PC can be a real pain. Data gets spread all over your hard drive, and finding what you need when you need it can be a real challenge. Fortunately, a number of utility programs will help bring order to the chaos.

10. Organize Everything

PowerDesk 5.0, Vcom, $30

Windows Explorer works fine for casual maintenance, but anyone who manipulates files regularly will appreciate a more sophisticated tool. PowerDesk looks and acts like Windows Explorer, but it does much more. Abundant tools offer quick access to commonly used files, folders, and programs. Move the cursor over a file's icon, and a pop-up window displays the file's vital statistics and user-added comments--very handy for identifying files with cryptic names. And an excellent file viewer utility lets you see the contents of documents. Another useful feature is a file size manager that identifies the fattest folders.

11. Organize Digital Photos

Photoshop Album, Adobe, $50

What do you get when you cross a big hard disk with a digital camera? Lots and lots of pictures. So many, in fact, that you may waste more time looking for pictures you already have than you spent actually taking them. Photoshop Album offers plenty of tools for sorting and annotating photos. A simple image editor lets you perform basic editing tasks such as cropping, adjusting brightness, and removing the dreaded red-eye in one click.

If you don't need the image editing tools, Picasa ($30 from Lifescape Solutions), simplifies the jobs of searching, sorting, and sending any number of photos to a Web site, printer, or e-mail address. An intuitive interface displays thumbnail images sorted by time or location, and you can launch a slide show with a single click.

ACDSee 5 ($50) is yet another photo-organizing option worth considering: In addition to cataloging and editing files, it can convert files from one format to another.

12. Play The Right Tunes

MoodLogic 2.0, MoodLogic, $30

Having the right music to accompany the right moment can be magical. But by the time you've plowed through thousands of MP3 files and assembled just the right playlist, the right moment may be just a memory. Let MoodLogic do the hunting and gathering for you. Working from an online database, MoodLogic's software classifies each song in your collection. Pick a song, artist, or genre from your MP3 collection, and MoodLogic's software assembles a playlist of similar songs. The catch: The database is a work in progress; if your tastes stray from the mainstream, some of your songs may not be classified. Paying $30 buys you credits to classify 10,000 songs, but you can get additional credits by submitting song profiles to the MoodLogic database.