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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I love little useful freeware programs, the smaller the better in my opinion. Mikes Command Line is another one of them with 72K in size. The freeware opens a single line command bar when executed. You may then type the name of a program, e.g. notepad or calc and the program window of the program that you typed in opens. This by itself is mighty useful but wait until you hear this.

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The Adbobe PDF document that is currently loading is slowing down the whole computer ? Quicktime takes ages to initialise ? Media Player is unbelievable slow and tries to phone home ? Why don´t you try freeware alternatives to those heavyweight programs ? I´am already using alternatives and my system became faster and more stable while keeping the same functionality.

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Dr.Divx is a freeware utility that is able to transcode many different formats to divx. Formats include mpeg1, mpeg2, mov,vob,avi and flv. The first question that comes to your mind is probably why you would like to convert those formats to divx. The most prominent reason that comes to my mind is that some dvd players are capable to play divx movies but not mov or flv for example. Everyone who has such a player will love this option.

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