Applications

PFE - Programmer's File Editor - Getting old, but still Craig's Freeware text editor of choice

CDex - Rips audio CDs to mp3 or wav files; can automatically pull song information from CDDB either online or on a local drive. The simplest interface combined with effective operation that we've found!

Security/Privacy

ZoneAlarm (OFFSITE) - Excellent firewall, free for home PC use

AdAware (OFFSITE) - Finds and (optionally) destroys spyware

Housecall Antivirus (OFFSITE) - Online Virus Checker from Trend Micro

Entertainment/Educational

SPIRO - SPIROGRAPH Simulator / HPGL Generator from our friend brain_be_hummin; cool program, saves pictures in HPGL format for all you plotter freaks . . .

Utilities

Registry Cleaner - from Microsoft (unsupported)

Registry OLE Cleaner - from Microsoft focusing on OLE stuff in the registry (unsupported)

Power Archiver - compress/decompress utility, excellent

Properties Plus - adds 'Properties Plus' to the Explorer context menu, very useful for applying/removing file properties to/from many files at once (hidden, read only, etc)

System Extensions

Somewhere.vbs - VB script by Steve Yandl, gives Send To Anywhere functionality in the Send To menu (better than MS Power Toy version). You have to create a shortcut to the script, put the shortcut in your Send To folder, then name it whatever you like('Send to Anywhere', etc).

TClockEx - Excellent system tray clock replacement w/ calendar, memory load indicator

RJH Extensions - add various useful actions to the context menu; Dos Prompt, Shred Files, Encrypt/Decrypt files, save Path to clipboard, save directory list to file, etc.

MP3Info Shell Extension - adds MP3 info tab to file properties dialog, allowing you to both view and edit MP3 tags for the selected file.

RBTray - Minimize any window to the tray by right-clicking on the minimize button, normal left-click minimize still acts the way you expect it to; this is the way all those other 'trayer' utilities should work. Completely unobtrusive, intuitive operation.

TweakUI for Win98 - Tweak various facets of Windows; pretty good, in spite of its problems (see Axcel216's excellent tweaks site for info on problems).