Hexagora Performance Monitor is a light and customizable freeware application that displays four important system load values – CPU, memory, disk and network traffic. It requires no user input to work out of the box and is portable.

ThumbWin and miniMize are two free memory resident apps that allow you to minimize open windows and programs to the desktop as thumbnails. You are then able to maximize and access these windows/apps again by clicking on the thumbnails on the desktop.

WinExt is a free horizontal bar docked to the top or bottom of your screen that can give access to your files, folders, and programs as cascading menus or as shortcuts placed on the bar itself. It also offers an optional “infobar” with status indicators for CPU, memory, battery, and hard disk drive usage.

Phlox is a small program for Windows XP that runs in the background and tweaks the "f2" button when used to rename a file in Windows XP, such as to select only the file name without the extension (similar to Windows Vista).

Png2swf is a free program that can convert PNG files into an animated flash SWF file. It can process a number of PNG images serially into a SWF file or otherwise batch-create SWF files out of individual PNGs.

Totally Free Burner is a CD/DVD burner with a nice, minimalistic interface and an excellent range of features.

DExpose is a replacement for the Alt+Tab application switching funcitonality that emulates the Mac Expose window-stacking style.

Minimem is a free program designed to reduce the memory footprint of individual applications selected by the user. It runs in the background and will handle as many processes as requested.

Miestas is a free point and click flash adventure game that features artsy, hand-drawn graphics and a jazzy soundtrack that combine together to create a dream-like game environment.

DK Finder is a desktop search program that employs a sophisticated indexing algorithm to deliver lightning fast search results. It is primarily designed to find files on your system but can also search for keywords contained within files. The program can also perform a number of excellent file-related operations on search results that go beyond moving and copying to include group-operations, advanced filtering, and exporting results as a collection of shortcuts.

this posting will provide a number of mini-reviews for freeware programs written by the amazing Dirk Paehl: SimplyZip, DP MediaInfo, IndexMaker, and UPXG.

Desktop Media is a free program that can display shortcuts on the desktop to USB drives, CDs/DVDs and other media when you plug them in, and automatically removes these shortcuts when you unplug. It can also alternately create so-called “hard links” to your media instead of shortcuts.