Ad-Aware 2008 Free
Site: www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
Licence: Free
Platform: Windows 2000 Pro/Server 2003/XP/Vista
Protection from password stealers, keyloggers, spyware, trojans, and other potential identity thieves. Also erases browsing history.

MozillaHistoryView v1.14
Site: www.nirsoft.net/utils/mozilla_history_view.html
Licence: Free
Platform: Windows (all from Windows 98)
MozillaHistoryView is a small utility that reads the history data file (history.dat) of Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape Web browsers, and displays the list of all visited Web pages in the last days. For each visited Web page, the following information is displayed: URL, First visit date, Last visit date, Visit counter, Referrer, Title and Host name. You can also easily export the history data to text/HTML/Xml file.

Volumouse v1.56
Site: www.nirsoft.net/utils/volumouse.html
Licence: Free
Platform: Windows (all from Windows 98)
Volumouse provides you a quick and easy way to control the sound volume on your system - simply by rolling the wheel of your wheel mouse.
It allows you to define a set of rules for determining when the wheel will be used for changing the sound volume. For example, you can configure Volumouse to use your mouse wheel for volume control when the Alt key is hold down, when the left mouse button is down, when the mouse cursor is over the taskbar, and so on.
When the conditions that you define are not satisfied, your mouse wheel will be used for the regular scrolling tasks, exactly as before.

Tweak Manager 2.1
Site: www.pctools.com/tweak-manager
Licence: Free trial version with limited features, or $US63
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP Â
Allow more downloads by increasing the number of simultaneous file transfers in Internet Explorer; speed up the performance of your broadband Cable & DSL Internet connection; ensure privacy and clear the Internet Explorer typed address history and recent document history; secure your system and restrict the applications that can be run by users; make your system faster by improving core system performance, optimise your cache and clear the swap file; plus over 1000 other tweaks to boost performance of your PC.

PowerPoint Viewer 2003
Site: tinyurl.com/6b6g5
Price: Free
Platform: Windows (all)
PowerPoint Viewer 2003 lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions. This viewer also supports opening password-protected Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. You can view and print presentations, but you cannot edit them in the PowerPoint Viewer 2003.

FlashGet
Site: www.flashget.com/index_en.htm
Price: Free
Platform: Windows NT/2000/9.x/ME/XP/Vista
FlashGet is a leading download manager and has the highest amount of users on the internet. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols and has excellent document management features. FlashGet is a freeware without any adware or spyware.

IECookiesView v1.71
Site: www.nirsoft.net/utils/iecookies.html
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
IECookiesView is a small utility that displays the details of all cookies that Internet Explorer stores on your computer. It also you to sort the cookies list, select and delete the unwanted cookies, display the cookies of other users and from other computers, and more.

FileZilla
Site: www.filezilla-project.orgÂ
Price: Free
Platform: Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista
Download large files quickly and easily – especially those housed on FTP servers. FileZilla can handle files up to 4GB in size.

IECookiesView
Site: www.nirsoft.net/utils/iecookies.html
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
IECookiesView is a small utility that displays the details of all cookies that Internet Explorer stores on your computer. It also allows you to Sort, find, select and delete the unwanted cookies, and save them to a readable text file.

WinZip 11.2
Site: www.winzip.com/index.htm
Licence: Evaluation (45 days) free; then $US30
Platform: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
WinZip, the original and most popular compression utility for Windows, is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that quickly zips and unzips your files to conserve disk space and greatly reduce e-mail transmission time.

Adobe Flash Player 9
Site: www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer
Price: Free
Platform: Windows 98/ME/2000/Server 2003/XP/Vista
Flash Player 9 allows you to enjoy the most expressive, engaging experiences on the Web that combine interactive, rich content with video, graphics and animation.

Mozilla Sunbird 0.8
Site: www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/index.html
Price: Free
Platform: Windows XP/Vista; Mac
Mozilla Sunbird is a cross-platform calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit, providing you with full-featured and easy to use calendar application that you can use around the world.

popURL 1.0
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Windows (all)
Site: www.pc-tools.net/win32/popurl
popURL is a small Windows tool that displays useful information from an HTTP URL, such as the remote server's software and the particulars of the file to be fetched. This data can be useful in a diagnostic or security context.

File Splitter 1.0
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Windows 2000/XP
Site: www.orangesoftware.net/FileSplitter
This program will split a large file into a number of smaller sections. You can either specify the desired size of each partition, or give the name of a disk drive onto which multiple partitions will be copied.

XCode32 1.0.0
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Windows (all)
Site: www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Security-Related/XCode32.shtml
Protects a file with a password by performing a mathematical calculation on each byte. The coding is bidirectional because the same process is used in encoding as decoding. XCode32 can also be put in the SendTo folder (in your user profile), then you can select a file or multiple files, right click, and "Send To" XCode32. WARNING: The level of security offered by XCode is minimal. Encoded files could easily be cracked by professionals.

Minute Timer 1.1
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000
Site: www.download32.com/minute-timer-i32457.html
Minute Timer (MinTimer) is a general-purpose, simple desktop countdown timer and alarm. It's easy to use and is perfect for reminding yourself to do certain things - like getting up from the computer and stretching your legs (for example)!

Spyware Doctor
Licence: $US29.95
Platform: Windows® Vista™, XP and 2000
Site: www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/
Spyware Doctor is a top-rated malware & spyware removal utility that detects, removes and protects your PC from thousands of potential spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, spybots and tracking threats. Now with AntiVirus!

WinZip 11.1
Licence: $US29.95
Platform: Windows 2000, XP or Vista
Site: www.winzip.com/prodpagewz.htm
WinZip, the original and most popular compression utility for Windows, is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that quickly zips and unzips your files to conserve disk space and greatly reduce e-mail transmission time. WinZip 11.1 is available as Standard or Pro.

UndoDelete
Licence: $US29.95
Platform: 9X/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003
Site: www.toppctools.com/undodelete/overview.asp
Restore the full branch of folders tree containing selected files and folders. Along with the main file data, the program can recover alternative data streams which are used on NTFS file system to store additional information about files.

Wintuneup Pro
Licence: $US29.95
Platform: Win 98/ME/2000/XP
Site: www.wintuneup.com/
Wintuneup is the bundle of many utilities which are available in a single product. It will make your system run in a smooth, faster and error-free manner.

MAC STUFF
ESSENTIAL TOOLS

Phone Wallpaper X 1.0
Licence: Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/phonewallpaperx.html
Application for creating, editing, organizing and uploading wallpapers to cell phones or other mobile devices through Bluetooth or USB.

Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.9
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.2 or later
667MHz PowerPC G4 or higher recommended
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/email_chat/mozillathunderbird.html 
Makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry’s best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3
Licence: Demo
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
1GHz PowerPC G5 or Intel processor or higher
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/adobephotoshoplightroom.html
An efficient way for professional photographers to import, select, develop and showcase multiple images.

Mac Cleanse 1.0.9
Licence: Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/maccleanse.html
Mac Cleanse securely scans your system for activity and erases the desired information.

OneShot Recorder 1.1
Licence: $US84.00
Platform: All Windows
Site: www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/OneShot-Recorder.shtml
Thanks to OneShot Recorder you will be able to record both your software and hardware sounds. Record sample has never been so easy, set your thresholds, hit record. and play.
OSR will reorder all your samples by level , by RMS level, by date , by length or even by note

Photo Mixer 3.0
Licence: $US19.90
Platform: All Windows
Site: www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Photo-Mixer.shtml
With Photo Mixer create easily slide shows and video sequences from your digital photos or images. It is the ideal solution if you wish, for example, to create an original presentation of your holidays photos or to realize animated tutorials from screen shots or from images.

Sunbelt Personal Firewall
Licence: $US14.95
Platform: Windows 2000, Windows XP (All), Vista 32
Site: www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/
Sunbelt Personal Firewall used to be called the Kerio Personal Firewall (KPF). Kerio was going to discontinue it, but Sunbelt acquired it from Kerio to save the product. We needed a new name, and changed 'KPF' into the new 'SPF' !

LiveSync Recorder
Licence: $US29.00
Platform: All Windows
Site: www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Plugins/LiveSync-Recorder.shtml
LiveSync Recorder is a VST FX plugin which lets you capture, preview, and export audio as 1 or 2-bar loops, all in sync with your host's BPM! Now you can save only the best parts of someone's performance while they are jamming!

Geophoto 1.5.2
Licence: Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Site: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/geophoto.html
Geotag photos and other documents easily, then browse them by navigating through a three-dimensional representation of the Earth. Ovolab Geophoto brings geotagging to your desktop, allowing you to instantly locate a picture taken in Yosemite National Park, or a document that refers to a specific location, just as easily.

dotNotes 1.2.0
Licence: Freeware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/dotnotes.htmlÂ
A simple memo application, but it has an additional feature which enables you to synchronize your notes over several machines using your iDisk storage

CleanApp 2.4.1
Licence: Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/textexpander.html
Listens to what you type and inserts user-defined snippets on the fly whenever you enter their corresponding abbreviations. TextExpander supports dates, times, plain text, formatted text, cursor positioning, images, and more.

Desktop Maestro
Licence: $US39.95
Platform: Windows® 98, Me, 2000 and XP, with basic support for Windows® Vista™
Site: www.pctools.com/desktop-maestro/
With Desktop Maestro, you can safely clean, repair and optimize the Windows® registry with a few simple mouse clicks. Problems with the Windows® registry are a common cause of Windows® crashes, slow performance and error messages. Desktop Maestro uses a high-performance detection algorithm to quickly identify missing and invalid references in your Windows® registry.

Spyware Doctor™ for Windows®
Licence: $US$29.95
Platform: Windows® Vista™, XP and 2000
Site: www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/
Spyware Doctor's advanced OnGuard technology only alerts users on a true Spyware detection. This is significant because you should not be interrupted by cryptic questions every time you install software, add a site to your favorites or change your PC settings.

CounterSpy™ V2
Licence: 15-day trial, then $US19.95
Platform: Windows Vista 32 & 64 bit.
Site: www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/CounterSpy/  
It's a powerful Anti-Spyware tool that does not bog down your PC. Long, 'heavy-CPU' spyware scans are a thing of the past. With CounterSpy V2's small memory footprint, you don't have to choose between PC security and PC performance.

YahooSearch 2.0.0
Licence: Free
Platform: Windows® 98, Me, 2000 and XP, with basic support for Windows® Vista™
Site: www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Browser-Tweak/YahooSearch.shtml
YahooSearch is a plugin that will allow you to perform seaches on some of the most used Yahoo searches. YahooSearch is a combination of 10 search plugins that give you access to the following Yahoo! searches: Web, Images, Directory, News, News Images, Products, Movies, Videos (new), Weather, and Site.

Mac -
Personal Finance 2.2
Licence: Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.3 or later
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/business_finance/personalfinance.html
A solution intended to control your personal finances. Create multiple accounts, schedule transactions, categories and see graphs. Password protected. Export to Excel. Personal Finance is a simple way to control your money.

Tables 1.3.8
Licence: Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/tables.html
Enables you to organise and present data very simply. With Tables you can not only organise data also do calculations and comparisons with it. Add, sum or multiply numbers or process data by using more than 100 functions.

CleanApp 2.4.1
Licence: Shareware
Platform: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Site: www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/cleanapp.html
Version 2.0 of CleanApp now offers a revolutionary new journaling-tool, that makes it possible to track and remove all associated files of programs, without any exceptions.

PC Tools AntiVirus 3.1 Free Edition
Price: Free
Platform: Windows XP/2000/Vista
Site: www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/?ref=tucows_av
PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition provides world-leading protection, with rapid database updates, OnGuard real-time protection and comprehensive system scanning to ensure your system remains safe and virus free. PC Tools products are trusted and used by millions of people everyday to protect their home and business computers against online threats.

WinZip 11.1
Licence: Free trial, then $US30
Platform: Windows XP/2000/Vista
Site: www.winzip.com/index.htm
WinZip, the original and most popular compression utility for Windows, is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that quickly zips and unzips your files to conserve disk space and greatly reduce e-mail transmission time.

Spam Bully 3.0.0.28
Licence: 14-day trial, then $US30
Platform: Windows 98/NT/2000/ME/XP
Site: www.tucows.com/preview/319667
This spam filter for Outlook Express and Outlook uses Bayesian artificial intelligence to learn your personal email habits. It quickly learns what you consider spam and not spam. It offers Friends and Spammers lists that let you make sure you get emails from friends/family and block out unwanted emails. It also offers Allow and Block lists so you can choose words and phrases you wish to allow/block from your inbox and a link analyser follows the links in your emails and analyses the Web pages for content.

Registry Mechanic 6.0
Licence: Free trial version with limitations, full version $US30
Platform: Windows 98/ME/2000 and XP, with basic support for Windows Vista
Site: www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/?ref=tucows_fs
With Registry Mechanic you can safely clean, repair and optimise the Windows registry with a few simple mouse clicks! Problems with the Windows registry are a common cause of Windows crashes, slow performance and error messages. By using a registry cleaner regularly and fixing registry errors your system should not only be more stable but it will also help improve your system performance without expensive hardware upgrades.