Erez Zukerman

Getting a new computer is a bit like moving into a new house: At first, there's plenty of room for everything. Then, a few months or years go by, and you find yourself surrounded by random clutter, wondering where all that free space went. I may not have much advice on de-cluttering your house, but if it's your hard drive space you're looking to reclaim, TreeSize Free can provide you with the answers you need.

TreeSize Free shows drive contents as a list sorted by size, with simple and clear bars indicating relative size.TreeSize Free is as straightforward as software comes. You don't even have to install it if you don't want to: Maker JAM Software offers an official portable version at the company website. To compile an accurate report, TreeSize Free must have access to all files on the drive you're scanning. For this reason, it launchers under an Administrator account by default. Once you're in the application, just pick a drive to scan, and let TreeSize do its thing. It took about a minute to scan a 465GB drive with 207GB of occupied space spread across 195,000 files. Free competitor SpaceSniffer took roughly the same amount of time to scan the same drive.

Pulsus is a low-key, minimalistic game of particles. It is marketed for iOS these days (both for the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch), but its original Flash version is still online, available for free play.

Pulsus has a very lean aesthetic, and shuns the flashy graphics many modern games strive for.In many ways, Pulsus reminds me of Auditorium, another Flash game. Like in Auditorium, there is a particle emitter, goals which the particles must hit, and forces that you need to manipulate to make this happen.

Andoku Sudoku for Android offers a simple way to play sudoku on your device. The app assumes that you already know how to play sudoku, and does not include a tutorial, gameplay tips, or any other sort of guidance to get you started.

It offers several sudoku boards to choose from, including some with special rules or layouts. Once you pick a layout, you can also specify a difficulty level. Andoku provides five levels, starting with Easy and going all the way up to Fiendish. On Easy, the board will have a few numbers already filled out for you, while Fiendish will start you off with a blank board.

Auditorium is a casual ambient Flash game you can play in your browser without installing anything (other than Flash itself). Many things set Auditorium apart from most in-browser Flash game. For one, its free version is billed as a demo, and you can buy the full version for $10 for over 70 levels and some extra features. There is also a version for the iPhone. However, the free Flash version is very playable, and could keep you engaged for hours.

Auditorium combines a dark background with a flow of radiant, colorful particles for a striking look.At the beginning of a level, Auditorium presents you with a dark playing field on which you can see one or more containers, several controls, and a flow of radiant particles emanating from somewhere in a straight line. There is no sound. The controls impact the direction of the flow, and you need to slide them around using the mouse so that the flow shifts and fills up the containers. Once a container begins filling up, it starts playing a loop of music. If there are several containers, they each play a different part of the same overarching tune. This way, once they all fill up, you get to enjoy the complete soundscape for the level. In other words, you are creating the game's soundtrack as you go along--"playing" in both senses of the word.

You are a small blue elephant, with a penchant for running, jumping, and earning achievements. Okay, maybe not in real life, but that's who you are in Achievement Unlocked 2, a Flash-based platformer (and a sequel to Achievement Unlocked) where almost every action counts for something.

Achievement Unlocked is played vertically, through six levels packed with spikes, teleporters, and other goodies.Achievement Unlocked 2 keeps the graphics simple. There are no color gradients, and there are very few shapes other than rectangles. But don't let the simple looks fool you: This is a game with a great deal of detail and depth. It takes the concept of achievements to its extreme logical conclusion, where just about anything you do is an achievement. In fact, even things you don't do are achievements: Inactive for ten seconds? Hurray, you've just unlocked the Inactivity achievement! Managed to stay alive for 20 seconds? You've just earned the Survival achievement! Did you die? No problem, you respawn instantly, and get a "See Ya" achievement for your trouble. And if you die repeatedly, over and over again… you guessed it--more achievements! You can unlock every achievement just once, but there are 250 different ones.

If you need help turning your brilliant idea for a product or service into a functioning business--and get that help for a pittance--look to the Internet. With more than two billion people online, a lot of talent is out there, and many smart and artistic people are willing to help you make your vision into a reality, often at a surprisingly low cost.

But how do you effectively communicate your needs to the hive mind and realize your dream? That's where crowdsourcing websites come in. Most of these virtual marketplaces are purpose-built for funding ideas or creating graphic designs. Others are full of eager Internet users willing to do all sorts of creative and crazy things for as little as $5.

Interlocked is a free Flash game, and a new take on a very old idea: mechanical puzzles. In Interlocked, you are presented with a three-dimensional shape composed of several interlocking parts (hence the name). You need to take the shape apart, piece by piece, by sliding the pieces around in the correct sequence.

3D graphics are at the heart of Interlocked, and you must rotate the puzzle and pull it apart to win.The puzzle floats in the center of the screen. You can click and drag anywhere with your mouse to rotate it in any direction, but you can't zoom in or out. It just about fills the screen, but I found myself wishing for a zoom feature that would let me take a closer look at how two parts interlock.

Microsoft's user interface designers face a tough challenge when deciding what Windows would look like. There's just one look and feel, but it must cater to the needs of occasional users, kids, elderly people, and power users who spend sixty hours a week in front of their computer. Windows 7 came out great, but it's not perfect for everyone. With Rainmeter 2.2 (free), you can craft your very own desktop environment that feels just right.

Rainmeter ships with the simple Illustro skin which you can easily customize.Rainmeter is a system resource monitor. Its job is to present the information you want to see in the format that works for you: Think of it as a customizable dashboard. You can use Rainmeter to monitor CPU and memory load, the current time, the weather, your Facebook or Twitter feeds, your Gmail, and more.

What I like best about Predator ($29, 30-day free trial) is the concept: Instead of using a password to unlock your computer, just insert your thumb drive and your computer instantly unlocks. It may not be as magical as BioTrust, which lets you unlock your computer using a webcam and your face, but it's still a nice idea.

Predator's dark UI looks archaic, but boasts many options. Sadly, the idea is one of the few nice things about Predator. The execution feels clunky and insecure in several ways. First, it works by polling your USB drive at timed intervals (every 30 seconds, by default). That means that once you pull the drive out, your computer may take up to 30 seconds to lock, while you sit there and wait (best case scenario) or just walk away assuming it would lock.

A programmer's editor has to strike a fine balance between being powerful enough for daily use and staying out of the way so you can just look at your code and think. The search for the perfect editor can take years. If you're not perfectly content with the editor you're currently using, you might want to consider Komodo Edit (free). Komodo offers some compelling features at a price that can't be beat.

Komodo Edit features syntax highlighting for many Web-related scripting and markup languages, but installing new color schemes isn't as easy as it could be.Komodo Edit is a free, cut-down version of Komodo IDE, a complete development environment for Web and cloud-based projects, comparable to JetBrains PhpStorm. This is one thing that makes it different from other free code editors such as jEdit and Notepad++: Komodo offers a subset of what can be done with Komodo IDE.

Once upon a time, computer keyboards did not have cursor keys. When text editor Vi (and later, Vim) needed a way for users to move the cursor, the solution was to remap the arrow keys to H, J, K and L on the keyboard. Modern computer keyboards do have cursor keys, but if you're pining for the past, freeware utility TouchCursor lets you use those same home row keys instead of cursor keys across your entire system.

If you are using an alternative keyboard layout (such Colemak), TouchCursor allows you to remap keys as needed.Nostalgia isn't the only reason to use the home row keys instead of arrows: It can also be faster, especially if you're a touch typist. With TouchCursor, instead of moving your hand to the arrow keys, simplypress and hold the Space key and tap a movement key. By default, H is Page Up, I is up, J is left, K is down, and L is right. This is different from the Vim binding (IJKL versus HJKL), but TouchCursor lets you easily remap keys as needed. This came in handy for me, because I use the Colemak keyboard layout.

Remember how in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Dr. Evil wanted sharks with laser beams on their heads but got mutated sea bass for all his trouble? Well, what if those were elephants, instead? Think about it: Elephants with laser beams! Mutated elephants who can run, jump, and pick up balloons. Okay, this may not make it into the next Austin Powers, but it does make for one awesome free Flash game: Elephant Quest.

: Elephants, balloons, lasers, and quests--oh my! Elephant Quest is a platformer, played on a large map. You move using the arrow keys (or WASD), and shoot using the mouse. This two-handed control scheme is a bit involved compared to most flash games, but it is common on other types of games such as first person shooters.