From...

December 8, 1999
Web posted at: 11:06 a.m. EST (1606 GMT)

by Max Green

(IDG) -- The release of Windows 2000 next year will undoubtedly render a number of stand-alone utilities obsolete. Nevertheless, there are others you'll want to keep, and the most popular ones are featured in this week's list. Two of them provide quick access to your programs, one creates partitions on your hard drive, another supplies information about your system, and still another announces what time it is. All the files are free to download and evaluate, so give them a try. You may still be using them when Windows 2010 hits the shelves!

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Top 10 essential files for your Windows PC

1. PowerDesk 98: This file-management collection includes ExplorerPlus, a Windows Explorer substitute; Toolbar, which provides quick access to programs, documents, and system functions; the extensive search utility File Finder; and Size Manager, a program that examines how disk space is being used.

2. Disktective: This utility can create a report that displays the real sizes of all directories and subdirectories on your system.

3. MasterBooter: This boot manager comes with a powerful partitioning program. It lets you install and run up to six operating systems on a single PC. You can password-protect operating systems, hide and unhide partitions for compatibility, set up a custom delay time, and more.

4. Exits 95 and 98: Change the options for shutting down Windows. By double-clicking the icon in the system tray, you can shut down, reboot, restart, exit to DOS, log off, activate your screen saver, turn your computer to standby, force exit, eject removable media, and more.

5. System Analyzer: This utility provides comprehensive info about the innards of your system. If you want to know about your CPU or floating-point unit, cache, drives, memory, modem, or sound, this little utility can tell you whether you have it, and what its name is.

6. Mem Viewer: Find out how much memory your system is currently using. Mem viewer places an unobtrusive icon in your system tray and shows memory usage with a small bar graph.

7. WinGo: This file easily creates custom menus with submenus that you can access from the system tray. Any shortcut on your computer can be launched from WinGo with a quick click of the mouse. It takes the place of Shortcuts and your Documents menu.

8. Compare Copy: Make sure you have the right version of your files on all the different drives and directories where copies are stored. Compare Copy duplicates files to the destination directory only if the date and time on the source file are newer than those on the destination file.

9. Reveal It: Launch basic system utilities such as RegEdit and SysEdit from this handy button bar. You can also view the Windows 95 logs for Setup, Scandisk, and more.

10. Voice Clock: Choose a male or female voice for this talking clock that runs from your system tray. It can announce the time every 15, 30, or 60 minutes.