Apple Quicktime and Realmedias Realplayer are typical heavyweight programs that install themselves in ways that could influence the speed of your system. Both add parts of their suit to be run at system startup and load slowly nevertheless. It is also great if you distrust big companies and are looking for freeware alternatives to those big media suits.

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Working with files is really uncomfortable in windows. If you want to copy files from one folder to a different one you will have to open two windows showing both folders and use drag and drop to copy the files. File Managers offer an easier way to work with files by offering two explorer windows for instance with the ability to perform all file operations in the file manager.

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Beta day here at Ghacks. First a way to get Windows Vista Beta 2 shipped right to your doorsteps by answering some easy questions in a quiz and now a new beta release of the great website copier HTTrack. The program aims towards the experienced user with all its options and settings but can be used by novices as well. Most settings are optional that should be used for websites that use a lot of scripting and dynamic pages.

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I think you can´t have enough file recovery utilities once you lost data on your computer either by accidentaly deleting the files or by crashes or hardware failures. It is better to have one additional try at recovering the data than to give up if the first program that you´ve been using failed to recover the files. It is even better to already have those programs installed or ready at hand to use them immediately after you have lost the files. Chances that you are able to recover the files are highest right after the incident because no new data was written in the sectors the deleted files occupied.

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Startup Control Panel and Startup Monitor are actually two programs not just one. The first, Startup Control Panel, is a 59K freeware that scans various paths and registry entries for programs that are run at startup. This is great if you need a quick basic overview, if you need an in depth overview try autoruns from sysinternals. Startup Control Panel lists three registry entries and two paths, those are the locations where most programs are autostarted.

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