I have combed the Internet in search of useful applications that give me full power over my computer, make tasks easier, or are just fun. Here are the apps I use on a regular/semiregular basis and recommend to everybody to use on their computers. If you know of a freeware that you think I should include here or if one of the links is broken, email me.

Internet Tools/HTML Stuff

Genius 3.1 is a great multifunction app for use when your online. Here's a quick breakdown of the features: Stay Alive, Port Watcher, Portscan Detection, Check Pop3 mail, quick unit conversion applet, random password generator, address book, notes, password list, to-do list, port checker, name server lookup, IP scanner, simple FTP and HTTP browsers, ping, telnet, traceroute, whois, and SMTP mail client. That's a lot of stuff for a little app. I really like the name server lookup and the IP scanner. If I could I would use the portscan detection and all that good stuff too. The only problem is that version 2, which I have and use, was freeware and version 3.1 is shareware with a 30 day limit. I can't find an archived version 2 on the internet, so I'll post the copy I have here. | Official Site | Direct Download: v. 3.1 (1.9 Mb) v. 2.0 (2.75 Mb) |

HTML ColorMaster is a small and simple that does exactly what you want it too. Select any of approximately 16.7 million colors and it will give you the hexadecimal code you want to put in your HTML code. It also lets you preview how the colors would look together on your page. I went looking for the official site, but it seems to no longer exist, so I posted it for you here: | Direct Download: HTML ColorMaster v2 (451 K) |

Evrsoft 1st Page 2000 is a big program that tries to simplify a lot of HTML editing. I mainly use it to insert pictures on my pages because it does it really quickly with the width and height already put in. It also has a lot of DHTML, Javascripts, and PERL scripts that are really easy and fun to use. I don't use it as my main editing program, but I use it occasionally. It automatically color codes the HTML you're editing to you can see if you've forgotten a quote or a close a tag. It's nice to have this one around. | Official Site | Direct Download: 1st Page 2000 (4.87 Mb) |

NoteTab Lite is one of the programs I'm very glad I downloaded. It's basically Notepad on steroids with the intent to edit HTML. I use it as my primary HTML editor. I have all of the pages on my website open in this program and navigating between them is as easy as clicking the file's tab. It has a totally customizable user interface and has more features that I haven't even explored yet. It has AutoCorrect and lots of HTML tags built in. DOWNLOAD this! It makes HTML editing much easier. | Official Site | Direct Download: NoteTab Lite (1465 K) |

FTP Explorer is a FTP program that looks and feels a lot like Windows Explorer. It's small and makes FTPing easy. You can save the FTP servers you most frequently logon to and quickly reconnect to them. | Official Site | Direct Download: FTP Explorer (FTP 662 K) | FTP Explorer (HTTP 662 K) |

MapMaker Pro Lite is a really simple and basic program that does the HTML code for an image map. You can only do circles and rectangles in the free version, not polygons. There's nothing fancy here, it just gets the job done. | Official Site | Direct Download: MapMaker Pro Lite (518 K) |

Multimedia Stuff

Fruity Loops is a really cool program Jake Haws found that allows you to make your own techno music. If you're musically inclined, you'll find this app pretty fun. If you're not musically inclined, you'll enjoy listening to the beats everybody else has made. It has 100+ sounds built in, but you can add your own or download more. The unregistered version has a few restrictions, otherwise a very fun program. | Official Site | Direct Download: Fruity Loops (4640 K) |

Multimedia Xplorer is Windows Explorer clone except that it filters out anything that is not a multimedia file. You can quickly preview pictures and watch a quick slide show. It also plays movies and shows all the icons that may be associated with a file. This is just a handy app to have around when I'm browsing through all my pics. | Official Site | Direct Download: Multimedia Xplorer (1.15 Mb) |

Exact Audio Copy is your one-stop CD ripper and MP3 encoder program. I experimented with a few different rippers and this one consistently puts out the best results. It may not be that fast (or it may just be my CD-ROM), but this program makes the best copy of music. | Official Site | Direct Download: Exact Audio Copy (733 K) |

Windows Tools and Stuff

Resource Explorer is a niftly little program that lets you take a peek inside *.exe files and play around with some of the parameters if you wish. I haven't found a valid reason for using this program yet, but I'm sure I'll eventually need to use it. | Official Site | Direct Download: Resource Explorer (290 K) |

Double Trouble is a small program that looks on your hard drive(s) and reports any duplicate files. It gives you the option of deleting them right there. You can search by Name, File Size, and Date Modified. That's about all it does, but that's all you need it to do. | Official Site | Direct Download: Double Trouble (340 K) |

Tweak UI is a power-user must. This control panel lets you edit the "subtleties" of Windows and possible restore your system when all else fails. You can get rid of some of the nuances of Windows and cover your tracks if you're paranoid. DOWNLOAD THIS! | Official Site | Direct Download: Tweak UI (111 K) |

W(indows)Tools32 is a weird and powerful little program. Navigating in the little miniwindow is a frustrating at first, but once you know where to click, you do just fine. It has shortcuts to a bunch of system configuration programs. What I really like is the window that shows EVERY running task and gives you the option of closing any of them including those "hidden" programs running in the background. There are more programs running than those just shown when you press CTRL+ALT+DEL, this program lets you switch them on and off. That is power, I like that. | Official Site | Direct Download: WTools 32 (412 K) |

WhatCPU is a control that you can put on any computer and it will tell you 1. what chip it has and 2. How fast that chip is running. It also shows a whole bunch of other system information. This is just cool and fun to have. | Official Site | Direct Download: WhatCPU (496 K) |

StartUp is an essential control panel extension every power user must have. It quickly and easily lets you view and add/delete every program that runs at boot-up, including the registry. Reducing the number of programs that run at boot-up significantly reduces boot-up time. There you have it. Place it in the Windows\System Folder with all the other Control Panel extentions and access it in the Control Panel. | Direct Download: startup.cpl (64 K) |

2X Explorer is a beefed-up Windows Explorer clone. It splits the screen in thirds with the far left showing the folder tree and the other two showing the contents of the folders. You can place bookmarks and set filters (thought I haven't gotten the filters to work yet). It also has a thumbnail view so you can easily preview pictures. Overall it's a nice little replacement for Windows Explorer. | Official Site | Direct Download: 2X Explorer (327 K) |

X-Setup is another tweak program like Tweak UI, except on steroids. The GUI isn't as friendly as Tweak UI, but this program has specialized options specifically for Win NT & 2000, or Win 9x/ME. You can change registration information with this and even change the title menu of Internet Explorer. If you want to tweak some more, definitely download this. | Official Site | Direct Download: X Setup (2823 K) |

Terragen is cool artificial terrain editor. You can create and customize realistic-looking computergenerated terrain. There are a lot of variables to mess with, but the results are spectacular. I like to play with this when I feel creative and have nothing else to do. | Official Site | Direct Download: Terragen (2.55 Mb) |

DX Ball 2 is for whenever you want mindless entertainment. This is the ultimate "Brickles" or "Pong" clone out there. It's just fun. Download it and enjoy. | Official Site | Direct Download: DX Ball 2 (2.07 Mb) |