SPECIALFEATURE:
They're back! PowerToys are available for XP!
Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about
PowerToys. PowerToys are for Windows XP only.

Important Notes

• You must uninstall your old PowerToys before installing the new ones.
• PowerToys will only work with US-English regional settings.

HoverSnap                                     W98/2k/XP                         FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=107141
HoverSnap is a small but powerful screen capture utility that can
capture the entire desktop, the active window, or custom areas on
the screen, and save the image to JPEG, GIF, BMP, or PNG format.
It can even automatically rename and resize the screenshot and
save it to a folder of your choice. Additional features include
integrated FTP upload and support for layered windows. The program
runs in the system tray and screen captures can be triggered via
keyboard shortcuts.

Stocks and Weather                          W98/2k/XP                     FREE
http://stocksnweather.sourceforge.net/
{Stocks and Mother Nature information} Run this program to
retrieve stock quotes of interest and local weather information.
You can configure the options to add your city, and the program
finds the city closest to you (if you don't live in a major city).

Toolbar Paint                                    W98/2k/XP                   FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=107142
Toolbar Paint is a small and powerful paint package that is
specifically targeted at developers who wish to design their own
toolbar button graphics. It can open BMP images up to 64x64
pixels, and allows you to visually design a toolbar, using various
editing tools that include shapes, text, drawing, brush,
selections, and more. It also includes tools to replace colors,
apply gradients, and more. The toolbar graphics can be saved as
16/32-bit or 256-color bitmap. It's a tiny and powerful editor,
written entirely in Assembler.

xCap2 Caption Changer                               W98/2k/XP          FREE
http://methodik.pixelarmy.org/projects.shtml#xcap
{Change windows captions} When using Internet Explorer, you can
change the text "Microsoft Internet Explorer" to anything you
want.  Edit a bunch of settings by opening and editing the .ini file. The
program works from the system tray, or you can turn that off and
operate it with a command-line switch. Notes say that it works
with Win95, but read the Web site notes for more information.

PIXresizer                        W98/2k/XP                             FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=107077
PIXresizer is a photo resizing program to easily create web and e-
mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file sizes. The
reduced files are saved in a different folder, so your original
images are not altered at all. PIXresizer offers several different
resizing methods to choose from and can automatically recognize
image sizes to calculate the best fit. In addition, it can convert
between image formats (JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG and TIFF), rotate
images, convert to grayscale, and resize multiple images in batch
mode.



      For PROPHEADS & UBERGEEKS
 

OpenVPN                                         W2k/XP                  FREE
http://openvpn.sourceforge.net/
 OpenVPN is a modular and configurable
Virtual Private Network (VPN) daemon for linking two or more
private networks over the Internet using an encrypted tunnel.
OpenVPN doesn't require kernel modules, and it uses SSL PKI
(public key infrastructure) crypto infrastructure. Also included
is Ethernet bridging and it can be used with VoIP. It's built for
portability, and works with multiple platforms. As a user-space
VPN daemon, the program is compatible with SSL/TLS, RSA
Certificates and X509 PKI, NAT, DHCP, and TUN/TAP virtual devices,
but not with IPSec, IKE, or dedicated hardware VPNs.

 TrIDNet                                             W9x/2k/XP                  FREE
http://mark0.ngi.it/soft-tridnet-e.html
 TrID identifies file types from their binary
signatures. After downloading the TrIDNet, download the TrID
package under TrID, because it contains the file type definitions
and a scan for creating your own definitions to share with others.
TrIDNet.exe is the GUI version of TrID, which is command-line
based. Copy the TrID_Net.exe into the folder where the TrID files
reside and run it. First, browse to the folder where all the .xml
files that came with TrID_32.zip (file definitions) are located to
add them to the program. You're set! Now load any file with an
extension of interest and watch what happens as it identifies it.
If it doesn't recognize the file type, then help add the
definition by using the tridscan.exe file. TrIDNet is extensible,
so it can add new file types. The utility requires the .NET
Framework.

MacroMaker                                W9x/2k/XP                       FREE
http://members.ij.net/anthonymathews/MacroMaker.htm
You can automate mouse clicks, the keyboard, auto start progs,
the clipboard, windows (resizing, moving, showing), and more.
There are two types of macros: one takes effect when given a
trigger, and the other records the actions. The Help file is
thorough and should get anyone going quickly. To install it, you
must have Windows Installer 2.0, which allows you to click on an
.msi file and run it.

PostCast Server                                   W9x/2k/XP                   FREE
http://www.postcastserver.com/
{SMTP server} Send e-mails directly from your computer instead of
the ISP's SMTP server. The program supports all e-mail programs
and the PC can connect to it through the LAN, Internet, or the
computer where it's installed. PostCast offers a few advantages
over an ISP's SMTP server: faster message delivery, increased
privacy, flexibility, and no worries about the ISP server being
down to stop you from sending and receiving messages.

FreeProxy           W98/2k/XP                                 FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=107097
FreeProxy is a proxy server with support for HTTP, SMTP, POP, FTP
over HTTP, TCP Tunneling, NNTP, and SOCKS5. It works with a wide
range of clients including web browsers, ICQ, MSN Messenger and
many others. Features include user authentication to both an
internal user database or to a Windows domain, extensive
reporting, resource permissions, URL filtering, IP address
filtering, local port binding, on-demand dialing, calendar
control, proxy chaining, and numerous other features. FreeProxy
also includes a small web server, and can run as a service on all
current platforms. Very detailed help is included that documents
all aspects of the setup and client configuration.

Abilon                              W98/2k/XP                        FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=106998
Abilon is a very nice news aggregator for XML/RSS feeds. It comes
loaded with various interesting sources, and you can remove or add
new ones as you please. Besides the clean and easy-to-use
interface, it offers custom checking intervals per item as well as
filtering based on the content. If any feeds are updated, Abilon
alerts you with a pop-up balloon from the system tray. The program
also includes a small blogging tool that lets you post your own
blog entries to Blogger, LiveJournal, or MovableType. Additional
features include advanced search options, import/export and more.

Host Evaluator                          W98/2k/XP                       FREE
http://www.hostevaluator.com/
{Evaluate Web hosts} It's no easy task to find the right Web
server host provider (to host your Web pages). Whether you're
looking to move servers or get a server, the program helps you
evaluate the candidates. Go through the wizard; it asks about the
features found on Web servers. You may have to ask the Web server
company or look on the Web site to get the information needed to
complete the wizard.

Java Service Wrapper                              W9x/2K/XP                 FREE
http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.org/doc/english/
{Solve problems related to Java apps} The program allows you to
run the Java application as a Windows NT service or as a Unix
Daemon. It also monitors a JVM process and automatically restarts
when the JVM crashes or hangs. You can configure the Wrapper to
monitor the console output of a JVM and take action to strings by
restarting or shutting down the JVM. The Wrapper comes with
scripts for use with various platforms to launch almost any Java
application controlled by the Wrapper. Add on-demand restarts to
Java applications, and use the logging tool to view logs on the
console, in a file, or through the Event Log or syslog.

 xCat IP Monitor                                      Windows                       FREE
http://www.xcat-industries.nl/softwareinfo.php?software=26
{Monitor network machines} This small utility - in size and shape,
anyway - monitors any network machine with its own IP address via
routers or servers on a network or the Internet. All you do is
click on the button with >> to enter up to ten IP addresses, check
the boxes of the devices to monitor, and set the refresh rate in
minutes. The box has ten LED lights that are black when first
running it. If a network device is on, its LED is green, otherwise
it'll be red or black. This is useful for small business or a home
network so you know which machines are running.

 White_Dune                                     Windows                       FREE
http://www.csv.ica.uni-stuttgart.de/vrml/dune/index_real.html
{VRML tool} White_Dune is a VRML97 editor and animation tool that
uses a light model based on the standard to read VRML97 files, and
display and change the scenegraph, fields, and routes. VRML is
Virtual Reality Modeling Language, which is the ISO standard for
displaying 3D data over the Web using plug-ins. The changeable
field values it includes are URL, keyboard and mouse input, 6D
input, joystick input, and script editor. Load examples of VRML97
(http://www.csv.ica.uni-stuttgart.de/vrml/dune/docs/typical_vrml_examples/index.html)
into White_Dune to see how it works. Currently, it's not suitable
as a modeling tool.

A.F.5 Rename                               W9x/2k/XP                        FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=105531 A.F.5 is a
file renaming utility that offers an easy-to-use interface and several useful
functions to rename your files. It offers an instant preview of any changes as
well as an Undo feature to reverse the last renaming action. A.F.5 allows
you to rename files based on various criteria, including incrementing counters,
prefixes, parts of the original name, dates, and file size. In addition, you can
create standard batch files to perform the operation on the selected files,
import filenames from a text file, and more.

FOLDOC Offline Browser                                W9x/2k/XP                  FREE
http://nowicki.hell.poland.org/main.html Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
Just like a regular dictionary, FOLDOC covers a wide variety of computer and
telecom categories such as tools, architecture, operating systems, networking,
theory, conventions, standards, mathematics, electronics, institutions,
companies, projects, products, and history... plus all computer related stuff.

NGDiskCat                                              W9x/2k/XP                           FREE
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=105519 NGDiskCat is
a disk cataloging utility designed to help you keep record of your local and
removable storage media collection. The program offers an advanced interface
and a beginner's mode, and includes support for ZIP file indexing and browsing.
It can also read and index ID3 tags (v1, v2) from MP3 files, comments from
ZIP archives, and create a customized HTML report. In addition, you can add
notes or comments to any file in the index, search through the index, save the
results, and more. NGDiskCat also provides basic support for CD cover
printing and even includes a cover editing tool with TWAIN support to help
you create your own CD covers.

LanSpeed2                               W9x/2k/XP                              FREE
http://httpd.chello.nl/~m.vanosta/orcasoft/lanspeed.htm LanSpeed2 will
allow you see a graph of your upload and download speeds for any of your
network connections. You can even choose the MS TCP Loopback Interface
to just test your network card only. Helps make sure info isn't being stolen
from your computer without you knowing about it. You can also use this
application to help you determine why certain downloads take so long or if
your network connection is even alive. LanSpeed2 is great for beginner to
intermediate-level individuals who want to learn more about networking.

BuzzPhraser
http://www.buzzphraser.com/ A hard drive can be called a "data management solution"
or a cell phone could be called a "wireless small network communications system."
You tell it how many nouns,suffixes, adnouns, adjectives, adverbs, & prefixes to use
and then just click the "New BuzzPhrase" button.
It may not be an actual "device," but it still sounds pretty impressive.