Best Free Browser Scrubber

Best Free Browser Scrubber There's no doubt that when you browse the web you accumulate huge amount of stored data. The sheer quantity is surprising; often gigabytes. A lot of this is just junk while other parts can be useful. Just what is and what isn't junk is a personal decision. For example, I regard the information stored in my browser's history as a valuable resource but I know a lot folks see it as clutter or even an embarrassment. That's why the flexibility to choose exactly what you want to keep or delete is a key requirement in any browser cleaning utility. It's in this area that CleanCache excels. Yes, there are a few other cleaner programs that also offer this but when you take into account CleanCache's speed, ease of use, automation features, near- forensic thoroughness and the fact that it works with Internet Explorer, IE Clones such as Avant, Firefox and Opera, then you have a clear winner in this category. Note that it requires the 26MB Microsoft .NET Framework to be installed on your PC.
Code:
http://www.buttuglysoftware.com/CleanCache3.html Freeware, Windows 2000 and later, 1.3 MB

Best Free Route Tracer

Best Free Route Tracer 3D Traceroute graphically displays Internet route information. You can use it for technical tasks such as diagnosing slow connections or for general purpose snooping like determining the location and owner of a web site or tracing spammers.
Code:
http://www.d3tr.de/ (1.6mb)

Best Free Parental Filter

Best Free Parental Filter The stand-out choice in this category is K9 Web Protection [1] by Blue Coat Systems. It's a web based service that uses a special driver installed on your PC to redirect all your browsing through K9's servers where it is filtered for content. This means that the filtering works for any browser installed on your PC. The actual filtering itself is highly customizable from a password protected control panel at K9's web site with over 15 selectable categories plus the ability to restrict or permit individual sites. Full reports on sites visited are also available from the control panel. The filtering seems quite accurate; I only found one site in an hour of browsing which I felt should not have been blocked. I also liked the optional blocking of Spyware and Adware sites. I tried a few obvious ways of crippling the filter such as uninstalling the product or disenabling the driver, with no success, which is comforting to parents. I suspect though, that a determined tech-savvy teenager might eventually find a solution. The only real downside was the slight slowing down of my browsing as a result of it being re-routed through the K9 servers. This will mainly be of concern to dial-up users. If that's you then you might like to try Naomi [2] that has the advantage of filtering locally. In my tests it caught all the offensive sites I tried though occasionally it caught an innocent site as well. Like K9, it's also difficult to disable. As with K9 I tried the obvious tricks of defeating the filter by terminating the Naomi service and deleting the autostart entry without success. Naomi also works with any browser on your system not just Internet Explorer. On the downside, it filters by terminating the browser session without warning whenever a banned site is encountered. I found this a real pain especially when I had several browser tabs open and lost the lot! Naomi is certainly a very capable parental filter but on balance I preferred K9's smarter logic, greater configurability and friendlier behavior. Modem users will however, appreciate Naomi's speed advantage.
Code:
[1] http://www.k9webprotection.com/ [2] http://www.radiance.m6.net/

Best Free Application Minimizer

Best Free Application Minimizer TrayIt! impressed me with its combination of simplicity and effectiveness. First, it requires no installation; just double click the program file and it's up and running. Second, it can minimize open windows to the tray either temporarily or permanently with just one click. Third, it handles "difficult" windows such as skins, with ease. Fourth, it works with all versions of Windows. Fifth, it's a tiny 45KB! Finally, it's free. A little gem.
Code:
http://www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm

Best Free CD Recovery Utility

Best Free CD Recovery Utility It's pretty common to encounter unreadable CDs. The causes are many, ranging from simple scratches through to partially written sessions. ISOBuster is free utility that will allow you extract any usable information on the CD (or DVD) to your hard drive. It works by bypassing Windows and talking directly to the hardware. As an added bonus it can read old sessions, decode multiple image file formats, recover data from quick formatted DVDs and a host of other useful data recovery features. You can use most of the functions in ISOBuster for free but it will cost you $25.96 to enable some of the advanced functions such as recovering data from MAC UDF or HFS(+) file systems. Windows 95 and later.
Code:
http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/ (2.5mb)

Best Free Timesheet Program

Best Free Timesheet Program This is a very lucrative class of programs and consequently the very best programs are unfortunately, commercial products. The best of the free programs is "Timesheets Lite" [1] from Moving Target Software. It's actually an older "lite" version of that company's full featured $29 shareware product. Its main limitation is that only one person can be connected to the program's database at any one time. That aside, Timesheets Lite has all the features needed for anyone who bills on a time or project basis. It can also export timesheet data to Excel for easy invoicing. I found much to like in this product and can give it my hearty recommendation. If you want an alternative consider Timesheets Express Free. The free version is limited to a single account but if you can live with this it's worth checking out. The vendors web site [2] doesn't currently offer the free version but it's readily available from a number of download sites [3].
Code:
[1] http://www.timesheetsmts.com/freesoftware.htm 4.68MB [2] http://www.acksen.com/25euro/ProductsTimesheetsExpressFree.asp [3] http://www.download.com/Timesheets-Express-Free/3000-2076_4-10442986.html (5.1MB)

Best Free Outlook Add-in

Best Free Outlook Add-in

I hate opening HTML email. Despite multiple layers of protection I just know that one day some cunning new exploit is going to get me. That's why I'm so enthusiastic about PocketKnife Peek, a small free Outlook 2002 add-in that allows you to preview your HTML email as text. RealAccount is another freeware add-in for MS Outlook 2002 and later that allows you to designate a default email account and signature for any Outlook Folder. The program is a late beta but has proved totally stable on my Windows XP Pro PC. Yet another free utility that provides functionality that should have been included in the original product.

Code:

http://www.xintercept.com/pkpeek.htm (520KB) http://www.realpopup.it/realaccount/ (338K)