WinCDEmu is a free, open source program that can mount disk images (.ISO, .IMG, .CUE, .BIN and .RAW) into virtual CD or DVD drives. It works invisibly without a user interface, and simply allows the user to double click on an image file to mount a CD/DVD image into a virtual drive, and to right-click “eject” to unmount.

Folder Menu is a free utility that can display a popup-list of favorite folders, files, and program shortcuts via hotkey or by using the middle mouse button. An added function is the ability to browse your files and folders within the popup dialog.

PowerTools Lite is a free registry and system cleaning utility based on jv16 PowerTools 2009 utility suite, one of the best available registry cleaning utilities. PowerTools Lite is designed to provide regular or novice users with a safe, effective registry and system cleanup. It removes unnecessary data from the registry, performs a general PC cleanup, and cleans MRU and history data from most applications and from Windows.

DriverBackup is a free and easy-to-use Device Drivers’ backup and restore utility that comes with command line options, path formatting and automatic driver restoration. It can easily backup and restore all the currently installed device drives automatically without the need for re-downloading drivers or using CD-ROMs.

ActiveHotkeys is a small, free portable app that can scan and display all active hotkey combinations on your system that are being used by various applications.

FreeMeter is a free system-performance monitoring utility designed to be powerful yet light on resources. It monitors a number of system activities that most people need, including uptime, drive space, CPU usage, disk access, physical memory available, and page file usage. It can also monitor up to 2 email accounts and present real-time updates for them in the system tray area.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com]. 

SpaceSniffer is a free program that displays the size of your files and folders in a visual “Treemap” representation. It allows you to browse your folder structure, drill in and out of represented elements, and filter the display by any combination of criteria (filenames, extensions, size, date). It also allows you to access your Windows context menu for on-the-spot file/folder manipulation.

PowerResizer is a free program that brings the window resizing/docking function popularized by Windows 7 to all Windows platforms. It is unique in that once two windows are docked PowerResizer will let you grab ahold of any one of the edges in the ”border” are between the two Windows and drag it to resize both windows simultaneously, in case you wanted one of them to take up a larger area than the other. A really nifty feature. Additionally, you can perform all sorts of resizing behaviors using a combination of resizing and hotkeys.

I’ve previously discussed virtual server infrastructure with an article on Microsoft’s Hyper-V which comes included with Windows Server 2008. Due to the performance hit that a Server 2008 machine will take just by having the Hyper-V role installed, I went looking for another solution. I had a few criteria though. Since I was just doing this for myself and my own curiosity, I wanted it to be free or near there. I also wanted it to have as little performance impact as possible, but produce a fully stable and functional virtual machine.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com]. 

MaxTo is a free program that splits your screen into custom regions and then nables you to maximize and snap your windows to these regions on-demand. It supports 2 “layers”, main and alternate, such that the user can split the screen into, say, vertical regions in one layer and horizontal regions in another (or even vertical/horizontal combinations) . It allows you to toggle window maximization for the main and alternate settings via two user-definable hotkeys, such that maximizing without pressing hotkeys results in normal window maximizing behavior.

StExBar is a free Windows extension that adds a number of useful functions as a Windows explorer toolbar, including a filtering box, toggle show system files, copy names or paths, mass rename, and a command line console. It allows you to add your own functions to the toolbar (or as keyboard shortcuts) if you have an executable or script.