Here are some nice links and software. All programs are free and some of them are open source.
Most of them do not touch the registry or other files/folders than the one where the program is installed.
VirtualPlastic
...surgery for Windows. Collected tweaks & links to change the look.
TinyApps.org
A guide to very small software for your PC. Virtually all of the programs listed there are free of charge and for use under Windows.
Nakka.com
The home of nPop (with links to nPopQ) a nice and extremly small e-mail client.
[Windows, WinCE, Others...]
WebMon
WebMon is a program to monitoring web page updates - it saves you time and keeps you updated by automatically
checking web pages to see if they have changed.
[Windows]
Miranda
Miranda IM is a multi protocol instant messenger client.No bloat, it's Easy and Small! Miranda IM is designed to be resource
efficient and easy to use. It uses very little memory and requires no installation. Just unzip and run! This also makes it
ideal for users that want to run their messenger client from a removable storage such as an USB memory stick.
I run ICQ, MSN and Yahoo Messenger from it.
[Windows]
i.FTP
i.Ftp is a little graphical FTP client, which does what I need in an FTP client without the size and fuss.
[Windows, Linux , BeOS]
MemPad
Mempad is a nice program that keeps little notes in text pages with a handy index. The pages are stored in a single file.
[Windows]
FSync
FSync synchronizes the contents of two directories. It's a command line utility for Win32 platforms (starting from Win95). It is useful for
desktop/laptop data synchronization, for smart and complete backups or any other folders synchronization needs, both local or network.
It allows only a one-way synchronization but, thanks that, it is practical and safe.
[Windows]
XacRett
Drag-and-drop type Archive Extractor. XacRett supports these more than 40 formats without any additional module! :
LHa / Zip / Cab / Rar / Ace / Arj / Yz1 / Bga / Gca / Imp / Zoo / Arc / Cpt / Pit / Arg / Asd / Zac / MacBin / Tar / Cpio /
Rpm / Shar / QuakePak / Ar(Deb) / Gzip / Bzip2 / Compress / Pack / Compact / Freeze / Belon / Splint / Jam / MS-Compress /
Base64 / UUencode / XXencode / BinHex / Ish / Boo / BtoA / Fish / Jack / Rez / Cab(InstallShield) / Dzip / yEnc / Dmg
I don't even know half of these compressions formats!
[Windows]
Restoration
Restoration is an easy to use and straight forward tool to undelete files that were removed from the recycle bin or directly deleted from
within Windows. Restoration works with FAT and NTFS as well as digital cameras cards.
[Windows]
SciTe
SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a
generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It has a tabbed
interface and syntax highligthing.
[Windows, Linux]
Resource Hacker
Freeware utility to view, modify, add, rename and delete resources in Win32 executables and resource files. Incorporates an
internal resource compiler and decompiler.
[Windows]
HoeKey
HoeKey is a teeny (17k) program to assign hotkeys to do most anything. It's configurable with a simple .ini file. I use Win-N to
run notepad, Win-G to google search on current highlighted word, etc.
This one is extremly useful!! =)
[Windows]
SysTrayPlay Dead link, use Google to find it instead!
SysTrayPlayer, STP, is simple MP3 player that runs in the system tray and takes just a little of display space and processor time.
It also has an equalizer and a simple playlist editor, plus several unique features you won't find in other players.
[Windows]
PassKeeper
PassKeeper allows you to keep a list of accounts with usernames, passwords and notes. This list is stored encrypted in a file.
[Windows]
ShortPopUp
ShortPopUp, by ()rm, displays a popup menu of a folder you directed it to. Add a shortcut to the executable to the quicklauch
bar or a new toolbar. Displays .lnk files, .mp3 playlists, anything. New version also finds subfolders and displays them as
submenu's. Now also with sorting options added to the popup. You'll have to take note of the extensive readme, but this one
can look and behave like anything you'd want.
[Windows]
TaskBar++
Taskbar++ is the software that allows you to sort(move) the buttons of the Windows taskbar by Drag & Drop and is for the people
who care about the buttons' position such as "Mailer is the leftmost!!", "Internet Explorer is next to Explorer", and so on :)
The web site is in japanese, but the program has an English interface. Not that any interface is needed. Just move you mouse to the taskbar,
click on alt and drag any taskbar button to a new position. Release the alt key when your done and they are reordered.
Previously I used the program
TaskArrange to do the same thing. This program
is only run when you are going to change the order of the taskbar buttons. It has its own interface to arrange the buttons. But because I move
the buttons around relatively often, it's easier for me to to use TaskBar++ that is running all the time. But, TaskArrange is still a good program
and if you don't use it that often, then it is probably better.
[Windows]
FGWndGrab
A seemingly simple screengrabber utility, with just the right amount of advanced options.
Features include 98, 2K, and XP support, 6 kinds of grabbing (control, client area, window, desktop, virtual screen, and rectangular area), save
to clipboard, save to file (multiple image file types supported), multi-monitor awareness, thumbnailing, watermarking, image tagging, image
uploading, and a small resources footprint.
A really good program for taking screenshots!
[Windows]