The Great Geek Manual

Administration

• Autoruns – controls programs autostarting, like msconfig
• Dirms – command line defragger
• Delayer – delay, repeat, and schedule the execution of programs.
• Mstsc – remote desktop client
• Multidesk – multiple desktops switcher like linux
• Procexp – like taskmanager but better
• UnknownDevices – tracks down unknown devices
• SyncBack Free – a backup program that can run from a Flash drive

Archiving and Compression

• 7zip – a compression program
• A43 – a standalone file manager with built-in zip compression and text editing
• PeaZip – an archiver that features splitting, flexible encryption and integrity check schemes. It supports most mainstream archive formats, including 7ZIP, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, etc.

Audio/Visual Utilities

• Audacity – an audio editor
• CDex – rip CDs to WAV or MP3, convert files between WAV and MP3
• DSpeech – free text to speech software. DSpeech can use Window’s integrated voices. You can even download a free PDF plug-in from the website to read your PDF ebooks. It also allows you to make your own audio books.
• Mp3Cutter – a small, easy to use mp3 cutter. Good for mp3 player/USB Drive like iPod Shuffle.
• SilentNight Micro – a micro CD burner.
• Virtualdub – video capturing and processing utility

Desktop

• BossKey – create up to ten virtual desktops.
• PushPin – keep any window on top of all other windows.
• Nail It! – make windows”sticky” so that they remain above other windows.
• ResizeEnable – turn non-resizeable windows into resizeable windows.

E-Mail Clients

• nPOPuk – a tiny emailer
• Sylpheed – an email client lighter than Thunderbird, but fuller than the nanomailers
• Thunderbird – portable email client & newsreader

File Recovery

• PC Inspector File Recovery – features wider functionality than Restoration, and restores partitions, too
• Restoration – restores deleted files
• Recuva Recuva – helps recover files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer
• Ultimate Data Recovery – allows you to recover deleted files from FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS partitions
• Undelete Plus – a quick and effective way to retrieve accidentally deleted files

File Splitters

• Find – find files with certain properties and execute commands on each
• FineSplit – splits a file into floppy sized parts and creates a merging batch file for them
• HJSplit – multi-platform file splitter with many versions
• InkSizer – copies the contents of a folder into user defined sizes
• JR Split File 1.2 – file splitting utility which uses a batch file to combine the split pieces
• Splitter Light – splits and rejoins files or directories

File Utilities

• 7za – portable version of 7-Zip
• A43 – file manager with text editor, hex viewer, zip, unrar, and dual-pane mode
• Copy Handler – handles file transfers.
• File Seeker – a very fast searching utility. It includes the ability to search within many different kinds of files, including compressed archives.
• Flexible Renamer – file/folder renamer
• Floppy Office – an encryption program, a zip utility, an FTP client, a multiple document interface Rich Text editor, a notepad-style editor, secure file shredder, full POP email client, web server for hosting files via http, a mini tree-style outliner, vector graphics editor, a spreadsheet program compatible with Microsoft Excel, and a PDF creator.
• FreeCommander – dual-pane file manager, zips/unzips, unrars, makes sfx files, wipes, splits, searches in zip/rar/cab archives, has visual filters, custom hotkeys, custom layouts, makes/verifies MD5 checksums, and more
• Unstoppable Copier – copy files from damaged media
• UPX – tool to compress executables. You can save some space in the keydrive, and make programs load faster
• Winmerge – visual text file comparison and merging.
• XYplorer – file manager with tabs, powerful search & preview, renaming, directory/file info export, and more

Games

• Arcade Mini Pack – games included: Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Scramble, Frogger, Centipede, Arkanoid, Pole Position.
• Bricks2000 – a tetris clone. Throughout the game, various types of “bricks” fall from the top to the bottom of the playing area. When the bricks form a solid row of blocks across the playing area, that row vanishes.
• Dark Oberon Portable Edition – real time strategy game similar to Warcraft II
• GeneRally – an isometric 2D racing game for one to six players.
• Lost Labyrinth – a game with an emphasis on exploration and character strategies. It offers a wealth of options during character generation to ensure plenty of versatility.
• NagaSkaki – a chess program that supports different computer “personalities” with different skill ratings and chess clock
• NarkoMania – a minesweeper clone, featuring a speed graph
• Neverball – part puzzle, part action game. Tilt the floor to roll a ball through an obstacle course before time runs out.
• Othello – an implementation of the classic Othello game, where you can pit your skills against the computer player.
• Pawn – a full-feature chess game where you pit your skills against a computer player.
• Slow Chess Blitz – a chess program with network support. You can play with the computer player, or set up a server and have your friends connect to you.
• Typhoon 2001 – a remake of the classic Atari Jaguar game, Tempest 2000, which is in itself a remake of the classic game Tempest. This remake, however, is loaded with plenty of graphic bells and whistles as well as a great soundtrack.
• XO – a computer rendition of the classic board game “Renju”. Pit your skills against a computer opponent by being the first to put 5 pieces in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row.
• ZSNES – a Super Nintendo emulator

Graphics:

• Anim8or – create 3-D objects, articulated figures, movement sequences and animated scenes. Render to .avi movies.
• FastStone Image Viewer – an image browser, viewer, editor and converter
• Foxit Reader – a free reader for PDF documents
• Google Sketchup – a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, viewing, and modifying 3D ideas quickly and easily
• Irfanview – picture viewing and scanning, with a wide range of compatibilities
• Noiseware community edition – photo touch-up software
• PDF Reader – fast, unintrusive, .pdf reader
• PDF TK Builder – allows you to cut and merge pdf files, add passwords, and more
• PhotoFiltre – a complete image retouching program, includes a vast range of effects and filters.
• Portable GIMP – a program for creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, changing colors, combining images using a layer paradigm, removing unwanted image features, and converting between different image format
• Portable Scribus Portable Scribus – an open source version of Adobe Pagemaker
• Wink – captures screenshots and composes interactive Flash animations from them
• XnView – a utility for viewing and converting graphic files. It can also Copy/Cut/Crop and resize graphics and add effects to them.

Hardware

• WinAudit – allows you to perform a detailed audit of the hardware and software configuration of your computer. The resulting audit report contains details on installed software, license information, peripherals, memory usage, processor model, network settings, startup programs and more.
• YamiPod – allows you to manage the content of your iPod without the need to have iTunes installed. You can copy mp3 and AAC files to/from your iPod, import and export playlists, search for songs, remove duplicates, create and edit notes and much more.

Instant Messaging

• Adium – an instant messaging client that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more, packaged as portable application so you can carry around with you on any portable device.
• AM Browser a freeware IE shell web browser. It has tabs, mouse gestures and plugins. It provides many features that make surfing the web more comfortable and less confusing. It has the ability to open multiple sites and windows inside a single browser task. This Web browser also has a Smart Pop-up Blocker – it blocks all the annoying pop-ups automatically!
• Easy Message – an ultra-lite instant messenger for MSN, AOL, ICQ, and Yahoo.
• Miranda IM Portable – a multi-protocol instant messenger client. By default, it supports AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, and MSN. It can be extended to support almost any other protocol
• Portable Gaim – portable IM to chat on AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and more at the same time.
• TerraIM – an instant messaging client that connects to AIM or ICQ
• Trillian – messaging client for aol, msn, irc, etc.

Internet Browsers

• Firefox – a portable webbrowser
• Ghostzilla – a mozilla browser, hacked to look very inconspicuous. Once you move the mouse out of the ghostzilla window, it disappears.
• GreenBrowser – a tabbed web browser based on IE
• LYNX text browser – a DOS port of the UNIX Lynx browser An alternate link.
• Portable Safari – a portable broswer you can carry around on any portable device
• OperaUSB – a portable version of the Opera Browser

Internet Utilities

• Angry ipscan – an IP address scanner
• D3 Traceroute – includes a tracerouter, whois, port scanner, and more
• FileZilla – a portable ftp client that is easy to use and reliable, which includes a site manager and supports uploads/downloads queue, keepalive, timeout detection, SOCKS 4/5 and HTTP 1.1 proxy etc.
• GreatNews – a very nice, stand-alone RSS reader. Customizable features such as the ability to categorize and label your feeds. You can also modify the appearance to your liking.
• IE Privacy Keeper – cleans up all traces of your Internet activity. Perfect for the workplace or cybercafes.
• i.Ftp – a little graphical FTP client, which does what you need in an FTP client without the size and fuss.
• NetMeter – a customizable network bandwidth monitor
• Pscp – a SCP client with command-line secure file copy
• PortaPutty – a hacked version of PuTTY that stores all its information in files, not in the registry
• PuTTY – a free SSH, Telnet and Rlogin client for 32-bit Windows systems
• uTorrent – a bittorrent client with an amazing set of features
• UltraVNC – an easy to use, opensource program that can display the screen of another computer via internet or network on your own screen
• Wget – retrieves files using HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP
• Winscp – SFTP and SCP client for using SSH

Launchers

• AutoHotkey – a free, open-source utility for automating almost anything
• PStart – assigns hotkeys, schedule apps, make notes with reminders, scan drive for executables
• Qsel – is a program launcher with categories and icons

Media Players

• CoolPlayer – a lightweight audio player with freeform skin support
• Evil Player – a fast, powerful media player for windows
• Foobar 2000 – an advanced audio player for the Windows platform
• Guliverkli – a classic media player for your USB Drive.
• KMPlayer – an audio/video player that supports a wide range of file formats
• Screamer Radio – a player for streaming Internet radio. It supports Shoutcast and Icecast MP3, Icecast OGG Vorbis, WMA and AAC streaming. It also records of streams.
• VLC media player – a mediaplayer that plays everything except realmedia files
• Zoom Player – a full featured, bloat-free media player compatible with most file formats

Office

• Abiword 2.0 – a lightweight portable word processor
• Abykus SE – a spreadsheet program designed for business and scientific applications that combines object-oriented functionality with traditional spreadsheet operations, allowing you to store multi-value data types (such as arrays and matrixes) in a single cell.
• AEdit – a very powerful ASCII text edito with strong encryption Early source code.
• AZZ Cardfile – a compact, digital rolodex program
• Gnumeric Portable – spreadsheet software that supports all the worksheet functions in MS Excel
• KeyNote – a powerful note organizer
• MDB Viewer Plus – an Access MDB file viewer for Access MDB files, which allows you to view and edit MDB files without having Microsoft Access installed.
• Metapad – a text editor
• OpenOffice.org – a full-featured office suite with Impress for presentations, Draw for diagrams, Calc for spreadsheets and the Writer word processor
• SciTE – an advanced text editor
• ShirusuPad – an innovative notekeeper
• Spread32 – a small but powerful spreadsheet program. Imports & exports standard Excel, Pocket Excel and CSV files

Operating Systems

• Damn Small Linux – a Linux distribution originally conceived as an operating system to run on lower specification systems, including computers which would otherwise come out of use
• Mac-on-Stick – a project that explains how to load Mac OS Classic 7.0.1 onto a portable device using the minivmac emulator
• Pen Drive Linux – live Linux versions preconfigured and ready to boot from a USB flash drive

Organization

• ATNotes – sticky notes that allow you to organize your notes by using folders, set alarm, change color or font and send your note to your colleagues.
• EssentialPIM – the powerfully simple Personal Information Manager to import your existing data from pretty much any PIM software
• MediaWiki – allows a wiki and required web and database servers to be installed, configured and run under Windows in ten minutes
• Portable Sunbird – a calendar client that supports the creation of scheduled events and the ability to get an overview of events on a particular day, week or month
• RoboForm2Go – RoboForm2Go is a secure password manager and form filler. It stores all your login information and can run directly from a USB drive. Once launched, it attaches itself to Internet Explorer and allows you to login to your sites with a single click from the toolbar.
• TrayURL – a portable bookmark manager that is designed to run from a USB drive. It sits in the system tray and provides quick access to your favorite websites.
• ToDoList – a task management tool that allows you to sub-divide your tasks into more manageable pieces

Programming

• Decimal Basic – a full programming environment for the BASIC programming language

Reference

• TheSage – an english dictionary and thesaurus with tabs and advanced search

Security: Maintenance

• Ad-Aware SE Personal – removes adware from your computer
• Avast! vCleaner – cleans worms and viruses
• AVERT Stinger – cleans worms and viruses
• ClamWin Portable – antivirus scanner.
• Crap Cleaner – a good registry cleaner
• Cwshredder – a small utility for removing browser hijackers and variants
• Dr.Web CureIt – a standalone anti-virus and anti-spyware scanner that scans your PC for viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, hack tools, rootkits, and other malware.
• FileASSASSIN – deletes locked malware files on a system
• Hijackthis – a powerful adware remover
• Multi Virus Cleaner – a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove major viruses
• RogueRemover – a utility removes various rogue antispyware, antivirus and hard drive cleaning utilities
• Rootkit Revealer – a rootkit detection utility
• Stinger – mcafee antivirus scanner
• WinsockXPFix – fixes some adware problems

Security: Passwords

• KeePass – an open source password storage tool that keeps passwords in an encrypted file
• PassDump – similar to PWReveal, but dumps any protected password textboxes to the console
• PassKeeper – safe password storage
• Passwordlist-Viewer – view cached passwords of the currently logged in
• PassPack – compact password manager
• Password Decrypter – allows you to view the content of password text fields
• Password Safe – stores passwords securely using the blowfish algorithm
• PicoZip Recovery Tool – recovers lost or forgotten passwords from password protected ZIP files
• PINs – store passwords and securely deletes files
• PWReveal – allows you to see the passwords behind most protected textboxes
• Showin – enable windows that have been disabled, reveals hidden windows, forces windows to stay on top, and reveals passwords in textboxes

Security: Privacy

• ClearProg – a privacy tool that allows you to removes cookies, history, cache files, autocomplete entries and download history from browsers
• CyberShredder – erases confidential files from your computer permanently
• Eraser – allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it
• LockNote – portable memo pad that enables you to store text information, using 256-bit AES encryption.
• KL-Detector – checks whether your system has been infected with a software-based keylogger
• Omziff – a utility that encrypts and decrypt textual files
• Steganos LockNote – a notepad that encrypts everything you put inside it
• TrueCrypt – a good encryption program for USB drives

Web Development

• Abyss Web Server – a portable web server
• Http File Server (HFS) – an HTTP server to transfer files
• MiniServer – a WAMP package that allows you to run a server on any Windows computer
• Portable NVU – a web authoring system featuring WYSIWYG editing and integrated file management
• Uniform Server – a WAMP package containing Apache, PHP, MySQL and Perl

If you’re not sure what you want to carry around, you may find this useful:
Portable Apps Suite – Portable Apps Suite is a collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, web editor, office suite, word processor, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client and FTP client, all preconfigured to work portably and be easy to back up. Just drop it on your portable device and you’re ready to go.