Top Utilities and Applications

1. Darn Passwords: Who knows how it happens, but most of us end up with different passwords for different Web sites. Our password for Amazon.com differs from our password for our Web-based e-mail program, which differs from the one we use for our online bank or brokerage firm.

Darn Passwords tries to remedy this memory-testing state of affairs by "remembering" your passwords for you, and lets you "drag" your passwords onto applications or Web sites that need them. The program also remembers the URLs of password-protected Web sites--so if you use the program as intended, logging on to these sites is almost like running a script. And if you're feeling particularly unimaginative, the program can generate passwords for you.

2. Space Hound 32: The overall mission of the program is to "sniff out" wasted space on your hard disk that is duplicated, obsolete, or simply forgotten.

It performs its job by building specialized file lists, which can be examined by the user. The program also provides reporting and exporting capabilities. Its File Finder is similar in appearance to the Windows File Search result, and provides a full system search and display using a broad range of selection criteria. Use selection filters based on multiple file mask patterns (*.OCX and *.DLL) and a variety of other attributes including dates or file size.

Results can be exported to other tools such as Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel for additional analysis. You can also print reports of complete or partial results, play sound and music files, and view graphics and hex files from within this application.

3. WinRAR: The competition between file compression utilities is fierce, and WinRAR is a solid contender. Like WinZip, it archives files and extracts them; unlike that program, it saves its archives in RAR format. That format can typically compress files around 10 percent more than ZIP files, which comes in handy if you're working with a large multimedia file.

Even though the program saves its own archives in its own proprietary format, it can handle ZIP files--as well as most other popular compression file formats (ARJ, CAB, LZH, and so on). It can handle ZIP files up to 4GB. This version offers enhanced compression ratios, faster packaging speeds, and an improved interface.

4. Castillo Text Editor: Ultimately, it's the content that counts, and all the formatting, bolding, and underlining you do isn't going to improve a bad presentation. Do you work with unformatted text and need more features than are provided in Notepad?

This text editor program has built-in support for Pascal/Delphi, C/C++, HTML, JavaScript, and more. You can also create your own highlighting scheme, change the font, and encrypt or decrypt text. The clipboard works similarly to Windows' clipboard, except that Windows' clipboard can only handle 64KB of data, while the clipboard for this program has a 100MB capacity.

You can also select different settings for each document, such as word wrap, auto indent, and line or paragraph numbering.

5. DataPouch: Do you need to keep track of a business or personal inventory, or organize ideas? Using a filing method similar in concept to the folders on your hard drive, you can easily find and organize almost any kind of information.

Instead of storing files, you store objects, which represent everyday items, events, or ideas, and you can choose from pre-designed graphics to represent them or create your own. Each object you create will contain information fields about the real-life object or concept that it represents.

For example: A video tape object might have a set of fields that includes a title, subject, and date filmed, while the electronic equipment object might have fields for model number, date purchased, and serial number. Once you have created your objects, you can use the program's reporting and querying capabilities to create displays and reports, which can subsequently be printed or exported directly into Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word.

6. NoteTab Light: Have you been waiting for something that fits between the slim and simple Notepad, and the monstrous Microsoft Word? Conserve your system's resources, and use this program for HTML editing or anything that doesn't require the advanced formatting of larger text-editing programs.

You can open many documents at once, and switch between them using tabs. Write with the font of your choice, use system-wide search and replace tools, even utilize text macros. This version has the same features as Notepad Standard, such as a spelling checker, a thesaurus, and user-created toolbars, but only for 30 days. After that, it's still free, but loses some of its advanced features.

7. TextPad: In this era of bloated software suites, Windows Notepad does have an attractive simplicity. At the same time, this very strength can be limiting. TextPad is a happy medium: It preserves the no-frills aspect of Notepad, but it adds some features you'll appreciate.

You can edit multiple files simultaneously, as well as utilize commands to transpose words, characters and lines. Other commands let you indent blocks of text, split or join lines, and insert whole files. Any change can be undone or redone, right back to the first one made. Visible bookmarks can be put on lines, and edit commands can be applied to lines with bookmarks. Frequently used combinations of commands can be saved as keystroke macros, and the spelling checker has dictionaries for 10 languages.