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System Utilities

Are you looking for a better way to keep your files safe and private? To protect yourself against baddies? Or to customize your system for more efficiency? There is no end of free tools that will help you out. Here are a few.

Free and easy encryption. To add a little extra security to your sensitive files, Androsa FileProtector lets you password-protect files with up to 256-bit AES encryption. Just drag the files (or whole folders) into the FileProtector window, assign a password and specify other settings, and you're all set. FileProtector can also compress files as it's encrypting them and create self-extracting archives. You can also scramble the names of the encrypted files for added privacy. This useful tool comes from AndrosaSoft, which also makes a portable version that can run from USB flash drives.

Download Androsa FileProtector.

Put your shields up with Hazard Shield. Looking for an antimalware tool with a little something extra? Orbitech describes its Hazard Shield as a fast antimalware program that can do both manual scans and real-time monitoring for ongoing protection. Hazard Shield definitely completed its scan faster than my normal antispyware program, Webroot Spy Sweeper. What's more, it found several items that Spy Sweeper appears to have missed. Hazard Shield has a few other nifty features, such as the ability to delete pesky, hard-to-remove files that are locked or in use, plus an uninstaller, and more. Hazard Shield can scan both local and network drives.

Download Hazard Shield.

Give Windows a sleeping pill. Of course you want to do your part to save energy while lowering your electric bill, but how? Keeping your computer in standby or sleep mode is a great start. Unfortunately, Windows sometimes interprets network activity or other signals from peripherals as reasons to keep your system wide awake. To nudge Windows toward the land of nod, try CO₂ Saver from Snap.com. The Custom Power Saving dialog of this freeware tool has a checkbox that does just that. It also sits on your desktop and shows you just how much CO₂ you (and others) have saved this way. CO₂ Saver includes a configurable Web search bar, but I avoid it, since it routes search data through Snap's servers for Snap's own uses.

Download CO₂ Saver.

Soup up your Send To menu. The lowly yet handy Send To menu (which appears on the context menu when you right-click a file) makes it simple to do common tasks (like moving a file to a folder or attaching one to an e-mail message) without first opening an application. Gabriele Ponti's Send To Toys gives added power to this menu with handy functions that include a opening a dialog box to specify a folder for copying, moving, or creating a shortcut to the selected file, opening the Run box or command prompt window with the selected file or folder on the command line, putting the selected file on the Quick Launch bar or in your Favorites as a shortcut, adding the file's name and path to the Clipboard, attaching the selected file to an e-mail message automatically addressed to a default recipient, and more. The product's Control Panel makes it easy to add or remove items from the Send To menu. What's not to like?

Download Send To Toys.