Essential Free Downloads

As you have probably have guessed, I spent far too much time on the computer. One thing I'm a big fan of, is free downloadable software that makes my life easier. I wanted to list a few peices of software that I install on every clean install of Windows XP.

• Open Command Prompt Here - right click on any folder in Windows Explorer and choose to open a command prompt directly at that location


• Tweak UI - Change tones of registry settings customizing your system from one all encompassing UI


• Image Resizer - Resize images directly from the shell, doesn't keep pictures the highest quality, but perfect for resizing pictures for the web


• The Google Toolbar - This was more important pre-XPSP2 for the pop-up blocker, but now it's just handy to search from the web. I feel inclined to mention the MSN Toolbar, depending on which search engine you want to use


• Win Zip - I used the Windows XP shell zip for about a year after Windows XP shipped, it does everything you need. Winzip provides a few cool features around creating folders, and installing zipped applications that are quite good. (mostly free)

I also install Office, Image library software and some other things, but these are the free ones.