20 Tools for Trouble-Free Computing

Want to make everyday tasks easier, safer--even more entertaining? These no-hassle utilities do the job right.

We all want an easy life. And life is easier when you have your PC under control. So here are our picks for the 20 best utilities--plus 15 alternates worth considering--to keep your stuff organized and your PC running smoothly.

Robert Luhn is a writer based in El Cerrito, California; Kirk Steers is a contributing editor for PC World; and Richard Baguley is a senior associate editor for PC World.

Protect Your Files

It's better to deal with PC problems before they happen. These programs find, diagnose, and fix troublesome areas and back up the important files and folders you have on your system. But note: Like a car mechanic under the hood, some of these utilities may on occasion cause damage inadvertently, in the name of helping your ailing computer. For instance, if a program removes an entry from your Registry, some applications may stop working. So before using any utility that changes things on your system, remember to back up your hard drive.

1. Back It Up

BackUp MyPC 4.85, Stomp,$69

Stomp's BackUp MyPC has an easy-to-use interface: You can run a full backup of your system or restore individual files or groups of files with the click of a single button. Need to back up selected folders and files? Run a wizard, select your files, identify where you want to back them up, and click a button. The program does the rest, automatically formatting media and spanning multiple backup disks if needed. You can back up to another hard drive, to floppy drives, to network drives, or to CD-R, CD-RW, or rewritable DVD drives. Restoring files--individually, by folder, or en masse--is just as simple. As you'd expect, you can schedule backups to run overnight, and you can protect your backup with a password.

An alternative is PowerQuest's $50 Drive Image 2002, which takes an exact snapshot of your drive. This makes it just the ticket if you have a drive meltdown or want to move one PC's contents to another machine, although Drive Image will also back up files you may not care about.

2. Defrag Your Disk

Norton Utilities 2003 Speed Disk (in SystemWorks 2003), Symantec, $70

As you use your computer, files tend to become fragmented and spread all over your hard drive. A disk defragmenter can make accessing files quicker by putting all the pieces back together.

Rock-solid disk defragger Norton Speed Disk has been around for nearly as long as the personal computer, and it does the job without fuss. It shows disk fragmentation graphically; lets you dictate which files will be relocated to the front of the disk (for faster loading) or at the end, and which are unmovable; and can schedule defragging, so that the task is done at a time when you aren't using your system.

One notable stand-alone competing product is Executive Software's $30 Diskeeper 7.0 Home Edition. Besides largely matching Norton Speed Disk in the features department, it offers speedy disk analysis and defragging, and it can be set to run in the background as you save your files.

3. Recover Deleted Files

Norton Utilities 2003 UnErase (part of SystemWorks 2003), Symantec, $70

When Back to the Future's Marty McFly screwed up, he just zoomed back to a time when he could fix things. If you're a PC user, you can turn to Norton's UnErase. First, stupidly erase the file you're working on. Next, scream. Then go to the Windows desktop, right-click the Recycle Bin icon, select UnErase Wizard, click the file in the list, and then click the Recover button. That's it--the file reappears like magic in its previous location. If it can't automatically recover a file, the UnErase Wizard will help you try to reconstruct it. The Norton Utilities CD also contains a DOS version of UnErase that you can run on any system.

A second choice is Executive Software's Undelete 3.0, which has most of the same features as Norton UnErase (though it doesn't show you all erased and recoverable files by default; instead, you must click through the drives and folder icons in Undelete's Explorer-like tree). Once installed, Undelete--like the Norton product--takes over Windows' Recycle bin. You can search the bin, right-click a deleted file, and restore it with another click. If you wish, the restore can be to a different location (unlike with UnErase).

Protect Your Files (p.2)

4. Remove Spyware

Spybot Search and Destroy 1.1, PepiMK Software, free

Spybot sifts through your hard drive, looking for spyware, adware, cookies, and files that may be used to track your computing habits and send the information to the devil knows who. Offenders are listed by severity; with a click you can get details on the threat and the recommended action. With another click, Spybot removes the selected items. Big pluses: You can undo most changes, the program is frequently updated, and it offers tools for fixing broken desktop links and Registry errors. Spybot is extremely thorough--sometimes too thorough, since it flags even mundane activity logs (such as the name of the last file opened by programs like Microsoft Word) and offers to delete them. But if guarding your privacy is paramount, Spybot is a must-have partner for your antivirus and firewall programs.

Lavasoft's Ad-aware ($15) is a capable alternative spyware catcher, but version 5.83 hasn't been updated for some time, which means that it may miss some recently released spyware and advertising programs. Lavasoft has been working on a thoroughly revamped version 6.0, but the update wasn't available for download at the time of writing.

5. Get Net Protection

ZoneAlarm Pro 3.5, Zone Labs, $50

Got broadband? When you open that big fat pipe to the Net, you also create a potential autobahn into your PC for hackers and spyware. Luckily, ZoneAlarm Pro can stop both, and its ad blocking software smacked down just about every ad we came across. ZoneAlarm's user controls are impressive: You move sliders to determine the level of security you're after, or click a tab to set custom security levels by site or application. The free version of ZoneAlarm lacks ad blocking but is a competent firewall.

Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2003 ($70) adds Norton AntiVirus and spam filtering for $20 more. And like ZoneAlarm Pro, IS 2003 has a deep end: You can fuss with rules, communications settings, and more. Norton's notable downside: Support calls cost $30 per incident.

6. Keep Viruses Away

Norton AntiVirus 2003, Symantec, $50

Norton AntiVirus has an intuitive interface and catches viruses the way Torii Hunter catches fly balls. Furthermore, Symantec (like most antivirus programs) supplies automatic virus and engine updates and scans incoming e-mail for viruses. If you use an instant messaging program like Yahoo or AOL Instant Messenger, AntiVirus can scan those messages for bad stuff, too.

Trend Micro's PC-cillin 2003 is another good option. For the same price as Norton AntiVirus, you get a good virus checker and a personal firewall. PC-cillin scans incoming and outgoing e-mail in your e-mail program, Web-based e-mail, and AOL. And you get free phone support.

Protect Your Files (p.3)

7. Diagnose PC Problems

Sandra Standard 2003, SiSoftware, shareware

Your PC feels poorly and you want to know why. Sandra Standard lets you do a thorough inventory, run diagnostics, and generate a wide variety of useful reports. It can reveal hidden information about your system, from the speed of your AGP slot to the version of DirectX that's installed on your machine. For the price--the Standard version is free, the Professional version costs $35--you can't beat it.

8. Hide Your Tracks

Tracks Eraser Pro 3.1, Acesoft, $30

Tracks Eraser Pro wipes out all traces of your activities on the Internet, from cookies to cache to your browser's autocomplete feature. The program is proactive, too: It erases your digital steps as you tiptoe around the Net and is a snap to run. Click a test button to see what Tracks Eraser can clear out; then click another to finish the job. Tracks isn't limited to browsers--it can remove the details of what you've been doing in Windows, Outlook Express, Acrobat, Yahoo Messenger, and many other programs (although it doesn't support the full version of Outlook).

A second option is McAfee's $30 QuickClean 3.0. This utility covers much the same ground as does Tracks. It can detect spyware and clean files based on age or size; it also includes a stand-alone file shredder.

Windows' Disk Cleanup tool is more limited than these utilities, but it is fairly fast and does a reasonably thorough job--and it's free.

9. Secure Your Files and E-Mail

PGP 8.0, PGP, $39

You're not the only one searching for your true identity; lots of hackers out there would like to get to know you better. PGP 8.0 protects your important files and e-mail messages with strong encryption. The program--originally known as Pretty Good Privacy--automatically integrates into Outlook Express and Eudora, making encrypting e-mail as easy as clicking Send. The program can also add an encrypted virtual drive to your PC. Save a file to this drive, and it's safely scrambled so intruders can't make head or tail of it without knowing your secret passphrase.

Sort Your Files

Organizing the thousands of files on your PC can be a real pain. Data gets spread all over your hard drive, and finding what you need when you need it can be a real challenge. Fortunately, a number of utility programs will help bring order to the chaos.

10. Organize Everything

PowerDesk 5.0, Vcom, $30

Windows Explorer works fine for casual maintenance, but anyone who manipulates files regularly will appreciate a more sophisticated tool. PowerDesk looks and acts like Windows Explorer, but it does much more. Abundant tools offer quick access to commonly used files, folders, and programs. Move the cursor over a file's icon, and a pop-up window displays the file's vital statistics and user-added comments--very handy for identifying files with cryptic names. And an excellent file viewer utility lets you see the contents of documents. Another useful feature is a file size manager that identifies the fattest folders.

11. Organize Digital Photos

Photoshop Album, Adobe, $50

What do you get when you cross a big hard disk with a digital camera? Lots and lots of pictures. So many, in fact, that you may waste more time looking for pictures you already have than you spent actually taking them. Photoshop Album offers plenty of tools for sorting and annotating photos. A simple image editor lets you perform basic editing tasks such as cropping, adjusting brightness, and removing the dreaded red-eye in one click.

If you don't need the image editing tools, Picasa ($30 from Lifescape Solutions), simplifies the jobs of searching, sorting, and sending any number of photos to a Web site, printer, or e-mail address. An intuitive interface displays thumbnail images sorted by time or location, and you can launch a slide show with a single click.

ACDSee 5 ($50) is yet another photo-organizing option worth considering: In addition to cataloging and editing files, it can convert files from one format to another.

12. Play The Right Tunes

MoodLogic 2.0, MoodLogic, $30

Having the right music to accompany the right moment can be magical. But by the time you've plowed through thousands of MP3 files and assembled just the right playlist, the right moment may be just a memory. Let MoodLogic do the hunting and gathering for you. Working from an online database, MoodLogic's software classifies each song in your collection. Pick a song, artist, or genre from your MP3 collection, and MoodLogic's software assembles a playlist of similar songs. The catch: The database is a work in progress; if your tastes stray from the mainstream, some of your songs may not be classified. Paying $30 buys you credits to classify 10,000 songs, but you can get additional credits by submitting song profiles to the MoodLogic database.

Sort Your Files (p.2)

13. Control Your PC From Anywhere

GoToMyPC, Expertcity, $20 per month

When you're on the road, a laptop usually suffices to get the job done. But wouldn't it be nice if you had full access to the files and functions of your primary PC when you needed them? That capability is just what remote-access software delivers; and for ease of use, the remote-access star is GoToMyPC.

The $20 per month (or $180 per year) service from Expertcity takes only about 5 minutes to set up. It lets you use your main PC as if you were sitting in front of it from any Web browser. The service's primary drawback is that it can be cumbersome to use over a dial-up phone connection. Other potential snags: GoToMyPC requires an "always-on" connection for your primary computer, and it may not work across some firewalls. Fortunately, you can try out the service for 60 minutes at no cost.

14. Squish 'Em Down

WinZip, WinZip Computing, $29

When it comes to storing or moving files online, less is definitely more. Compressed files are faster to send and can be encrypted for security. Windows XP's built-in zip utility is adequate for compressing the occasional file or folder, but demanding users will want a more powerful tool. We recommend WinZip from WinZip Computing, which makes the compression process easy and provides a choice of either a wizard-based or a more conventional drag-and-drop interface.

Another option is StuffIt from Aladdin. This program amply justifies its extra cost ($70) if you frequently have to exchange files with Mac users who employ the.sit format. Try before you buy: Free, stripped-down versions of both WinZip and Stuffit are available for downloading.

15. Repartition Your Drive

PartitionMagic 8, PowerQuest, $70

Keeping everything on a massive hard drive with just one partition is like storing files in a file cabinet the size of a small room: As you accumulate data and software, files get lost in the morass. One way to simplify things is to carve out multiple partitions in your hard disk, each of which shows up in Windows as a separate drive letter. For this task, PartitionMagic from PowerQuest is the best utility around. Its simple graphic interface and software wizards make repartitioning a drive easy. Although $70 may seem like a hefty sum of money to spend on software that you'll probably run only a few times, you'll benefit every day from having done so.

16. Move Your Data

LapLink Gold 11, LapLink, $89

If you need to shift data from one machine to another, you can't beat LapLink Gold 11. This classic lets you copy files from one machine to another, either over included serial and parallel cables, or over the Net. You can also take control of one PC from the other, as if you were at the other PC's keyboard. You don't even need to have LapLink installed on both machines: With the Surf Up feature, you can get to files on your home or work PC from any computer that has Web access.

Use Your Files

Personal computing is not just about fixing problems and backing up files. It's also about using all the stuff you have on your machine. Here are our top choices for playing your music, viewing your photos, and more. Although we've sorted these tools into different categories, some of them do perform overlapping functions. MusicMatch, for example, can play a number of video files; DVD playback programs can play digital audio; and applications like Windows Media Player 9 try to work with everything.

17. Play Your Music

Musicmatch Jukebox 7.5, Musicmatch, $20

Musicmatch is the Swiss army knife of the digital audio world. With a click or two, you can open and play your music files, create playlists, download tunes to a long list of portable MP3 players, print out color CD labels and jewel case inserts, and do lots more. Need to reduce plus-size WAV files to slim MP3s? The program has a built-in converter. Want to burn music to CD? Musicmatch includes a tool that is every bit as sophisticated as Roxio's $100 Easy CD Creator.

Version 3.0 of Nullsoft's WinAmp offers the usual suite of file and streaming music playback, a built-in equalizer, and powerful playlist creation and editing features, along with video playback and other customization options. But bugs and sluggish performance hamper this new version, so you may prefer to stick with the popular WinAmp 2.81 until 3.0 gets patched.

18. Edit Sound And Music

Sound Forge 6.0, Sonic Foundry, $350

There's a reason why companies make erasers and why programs like Sound Forge exist: to excise your mistakes. If you make recordings--from music to voice to MP3s--you'll need to trim out pauses, remove ums and ahs, and negate coughing sounds or sneezes. Simply open the audio file and display the cardiogram-like waveform, which you can then manipulate with a number of powerful tools. For example, you can mix multiple tracks and apply various sound effects (such as adding concert hall acoustics to a vocal), and Sound Forge lets you preview and undo the edits ad infinitum. Then, once you've tweaked the audio to your liking, you can burn the file to CD or save it to your hard drive in any of a dozen sound and video formats.

Looking for a more attractive price, and don't need all those high-end features? Consider Stomp's $69 MySoundStudio. This WAV/MP3 editor allows you to mix multiple tracks, edit soundtracks accompanying your videos, remove noise from sound files, and convert files from one format to another. Although its interface is not as intuitive as Sound Forge's, the program delivers some powerful, convenient tools such as on-screen pan and mixer controls for tweaking and refining your digital music or other sound files.

19. Remove The Red-Eye

Photoshop Elements 2, Adobe, $89

Inevitably, your digital photos won't always turn out as you'd like. People end up with eyes as red as wild fruit flies' and with lampposts sticking out of their crania. Fortunately, Photoshop Elements 2 comes to the rescue, with an array of tools for fixing common photo problems. Step-by-step guides (called "recipes") take you through the most common tasks, such as adjusting brightness and color, fixing red-eye and scratches, and removing objects that appear in undesirable locations.

Jasc Software's Paint Shop Pro 7 ($75) is another great editing program. Admittedly, it isn't quite as comprehensive as Elements, but it does include handy tools for printing out multiple photos and creating photo album pages.

20. Play DVDs

PowerDVD Deluxe 4.0, CyberLink, $70

CyberLink's PowerDVD Deluxe 4.0, a DVD player program, comes with a huge range of features, including support for DTS digital surround sound and Dolby headphone technology, which emulates surround sound on a standard set of headphones. When you watch movies, video and sound are sharp; and the control panel is easy to use, so you won't need the manual. You also get some useful extras: five dual speaker settings that you can change on the fly, the ability to capture a video frame, and an interactive timeline so you can quickly skip around the disc.

Microsoft's Windows Media Player 9 can play DVDs, too. But be sure you download the shipping version--the beta is extremely difficult to uninstall, and it relies on third-party add-ins for DVD playback and MP3 encoding. (At posting time of this article, the final release was announced.)

WinDVD Platinum from InterVideo is a bit more confusing to set up than PowerDVD, but this $100 program carries a full complement of playback features and such intriguing extras as the ability to finish a movie within a certain time by speeding up playback.

Classic Utilities: Tools That Have Passed the Test of Time

Computers have changed immeasurably over the years, but people still rely on certain classic utilities, year in and year out.

First and foremost is Norton Utilities 2003 ($50), originally released back in 1984. Beginning as a utility for testing your hard drive, Norton Utilities has kept pace with computer technology, providing a comprehensive set of tools for looking at the innards of your system.

Steve Gibson's SpinRite 5 ($89) has a similarly long and distinguished history. It's been the ultimate low-level format/repair/recovery tool for hard drives since 1988, when the size of such drives was measured in megabytes. Now they are measured in gigabytes, but SpinRite still provides tools for fixing them.

LapLink Gold 11 ($89) is another great old-timer: It debuted in 1987 as a program for copying files over a serial connection between computers running DOS. LapLink has since evolved into a comprehensive syncing, migration, and remote access suite, adding capabilities without losing sight of the core features that have made it a classic.

--Robert Luhn

No Money Down: Five Free Tips

You don't need to spend money to make your PC run smoothly. Here are five improvements that won't cost you a penny but will make your life easier.

• Let the help do it. To deal with programs that lack a scheduler, Windows' Scheduled Tasks utility lets you automatically run any program at any predetermined time. Find it in Windows XP under Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools in Windows Me and Windows 2000).
• Go easy on the eyes. Preserve your vision with two free utilities from Windows XP PowerToys. Image Resize lets you enlarge a graphic file by right-clicking. Taskbar Magnifier enlarges whatever is under your cursor and displays it in a small window on the task bar--great for making small print readable.
• One click fits all. Tray Commander Lite lets you launch programs, open oft-used folders, and shut down your PC in two mouse clicks--very handy for frequent tasks.
• Make a fresh start. Accelerate your Windows start-up by disabling programs that automatically start with Windows. Go to Start, Run, type msconfig, press Enter, and select the Startup tab; uncheck the box for anything you don't want starting up with Windows. Recheck the box to change it back again.
• Listen up! Let your PC read to you. ReadPlease 2003 is a text-to-speech utility that enables you to listen to long blocks of text while you work on something else.

--Kirk Steers

Hardware Utilities: Four Devices for an Easy Life

There's more to easy computing than software. Here are four handy devices that we recommend to keep your PC running smoothly.

• Store files on your key ring. USB microdrives such as Trek's ThumbDrive provide an easy way to take your data with you. These miniature drives can hold up to 1GB of data. Trek's 128MB ThumbDrive costs $100.
• Run two PCs from one monitor and keyboard. A KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) switch like the IOGear MiniView Micro KVM ($40) lets you use a single keyboard, monitor, and mouse to control two PCs. Just wire the KVM switch to your PCs and then hit the button to switch between controlling the two PCs.

• Back it up with a touch. The Maxtor Personal Storage 5000DV external hard drive ($265) makes backing up data a breeze. Just plug the device in (it comes with both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces), and press the button on the front to back up all of your data.
• Protect your PC. An uninterruptible power supply like the APC Back-UPS ES725 ($90) can help safeguard your computer against power outages and power and phone line surges (from lightning strikes, say) that could fry your computer. And in case the power should remain off for a long time, the device includes software that will gracefully shut down your system.

--Richard Baguley

Annoying Utilities: Frustrating Features

Sometimes a great program is dragged down by the stuff that comes with it. Here are three utilities we'd like to install but find too frustrating to use.

RealOne Player once set the standard for streaming audio, then blew it by tracking our listening habits, loading on extraneous features, and putting us through an installation procedure that added icons everywhere and tried to make itself the default player for all our digital media. And why is it that every time we played something, we got an annoying pop-up ad that tried to sell us another version of the program?

Kazaa is a great peer-to-peer file-sharing program, but the sneaky spyware and advertising programs that it forced us to install pelted us with targeted ads and tracked our surfing habits. An enterprising hacker has created a Kazaa client without the spyware; see www.kazaalite.com.

Gator EWallet seems to fulfill a very useful function: It automatically remembers things like username, password, and credit card number for online forms. Less obviously, though, it tracks the Web sites users visit and pops up targeted ads. So if you happen to go to an online bookstore, for instance, you might receive an advertisement for a rival bookseller. Don't bother with Gator; give RoboForm a try instead.

--Robert Luhn