2.7

WinMend Auto Shutdown is a free tool that will shut down your Windows PC at a scheduled time. It can also place your PC in hibernation or standby mode, or log you off when it's unattended. You can use Scheduled Tasks to do all that in Windows, but it's a complex and time-consuming process. That's where Auto Shutdown shines: it's easy enough for anyone to use.

WinMend Auto Shutdown normally runs in the background; clicking the program's system tray icon let us show the main view as well as restart or shut down our PC … Read more

System Explorer is a free, portable application that scans your system and displays a large amount of useful information in an easy-to-navigate tree view. It also gives you access to online resources that can help you diagnose problems, such as a searchable File Database that includes user-contributed reviews, a forum, and tech support. Since it's totally portable, it can be run from a wide range of devices on any Windows system. It even handles plugins.

System Explorer's scan includes a security check, which identified no vulnerabilities in our system. Hovering the cursor over the program's system tray … Read more

Mimosa is well known in the education community as a versatile scheduling and course-planning application that's used in schools and universities around the world, but it's also suitable for business, industry, nonprofits, and any place that can benefit from better scheduling and planning. Though the full package is a substantial purchase, Mimosa Small School Edition is freeware. It's fully functional but has some limitations, such as saving only 100 "codes" compared with the full package's 8,000 plus. However, that's more than enough to help smaller schools and institutions improve their scheduling and … Read more

After months or years of use, it's not uncommon for computers to become cluttered with unneeded and duplicate files. This not only takes up space that could be used to store useful data, but also contributes to poor performance. Disk Space Fan allows users to see exactly what's taking up room on their computers and eliminates the space-wasters. Although the program works just fine, it's definitely not the most intuitive we've ever seen.

The main problem that we encountered with Disk Space Fan is that it tries a little too hard to be cool, favoring sleek … Read more

WinSCP is a small, free, open-source file transfer client for Windows that uses Secure Shell (SSH) technology to enable the safe copying of files between a local and a remote PC using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), SSH FTP, or SCP (Secure Copy) protocols, as well as offering some basic file management features.

This small tool's full-featured installer includes additional, optional software called Jing, but you have to select it; the default installation omits Jing. The installer also presents a choice between two different main interface styles, a full-featured Commander interface with panels for local and remote directories and … Read more

Artemis 2.6.9 is a free utility for sharing all sorts of files via the BitTorrent PRO peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing protocol. It's one of many similar free BitTorrent clients, each of them claiming unique features that set it above its peers. BitTorrent dramatically reduces bandwidth and increases download speed and reliability. It hosts large files in small bits called "torrents" on participants' computers via a decentralized network. Users, called "peers," can access and download your torrent when you're logged on. You can transfer immense files like HD video, ripped DVDs, whole directories of … Read more

FTweak's FCleaner is one of many free utilities designed to clean and optimize your Windows Registry and disk drives. Like many other free registry tools, it promises to improve your system's performance by removing unnecessary, orphaned, and potentially hazardous files and registry entries without causing residual mayhem. Unlike many others, it doesn't contain adware or spyware. It also offers some security- and performance-enhancing features that many free registry editors omit, like a browser cache cleaner that can remove cookies and erase traces of your online activity, including sensitive data retained in out-of-the-way places that other cleaners often … Read more

Quick Startup provides the tools for speeding up a computer by singling out slow-moving startup programs. With a basic setup and impressive results, this program will certainly make a difference.

We were pleased to discover the program's interface was incredibly simple to operate, housing its few commands on a single, intuitive screen. This was a blessing, as the Help file's tutorials were brief and not very useful. Quick Startup listed every program that starts running when we turned our computer on. With each, we were given a simple one-click option for delaying it. The programs were given a … Read more

Absolute Uninstaller is an intuitive program that promises to remove software components that the Windows Add or Remove Programs function cannot. The program's ease of use and effectiveness make it a great choice for this task.

First, let's talk about what Absolute Uninstaller doesn't do. If your computer is already a mess of cyber junk, Absolute Uninstaller isn't going to clean it up for you. We had multiple folders in our Program Files that should have been removed along with the program they came with, and Absolute Uninstaller couldn't help us with those. The program'… Read more