20 Great Low-Cost Utilities

File Managers

PowerDesk 6 Standard This handy little utility makes operations like moving, renaming, and otherwise manipulating files easy. It's a big improvement over Windows Explorer. The developer offers a free standard version and a more-advanced $40 version.

The File Splitter This simple, free utility takes a file and chops it up into smaller chunks, automatically creating a program that can restore the original at the other end. It's great for e-mailing large files.

MasterSplitter Large files (typically, those over 10MB) won't make it through your e-mail server. This program splits them into more manageable chunks, and automatically creates a batch file to reassemble them. It has more features than The File Splitter, but it nags you to register and pay $13.

DoubleKiller Got duplicates? This free program hunts down and eradicates duplicate copies of files, freeing up valuable disk space.

Clonemaster This utility searches for duplicate files on your hard drive, network drives, and removable media; it's a powerful program. You can give it a spin with its 30-day trial, after which it costs $40.