Your Windows system may come with software to tell you all about your hardware or play video, and nearly everyone has a PDF reader program on their computers these days. But we’ve selected this handful of programs because they truly go above and beyond—either by improving upon the standard performance of other “utilities,” or by outright changing the game in how you interact with your computer.  We hope that you’ll find at least a couple of them (if not all!) useful in your everyday computing.

System Information for Windows – download

SIW is a portable freeware program you can use to obtain, among other things, a complete software and hardware inventory of your computer system.  It will detail all the components of your machine, from brand to speed to size, and every program you have installed, whether good or bad.  It’s also got some handy tools for recovering lost passwords and optimizing your network connections. It will even export the data it collects to easy-to-share formats like CSV and Excel. If you have multiple computers, or tend to inherit machines with suspect pedigrees, you might get a lot of use from this nifty utility.

Speccy - download

Speccy is another system inventory tool, but unlike SIW, it focuses on a more concise presentation of your hardware specifications.  The interface is a little more user-friendly and easy to read, and it will also export to other text-based formats like CSV or HTML for sharing or taking to-go. Unless you really want the software and license inventory that comes along with SIW, Speccy is the softer, nicer inventory software for the slightly less technically inclined among us.

SequoiaView – download

Even if your middle school Biology days are far behind you, you’ll probably remember that the cross-section of a cut tree shows rings of varying widths that correlate to years of the tree’s life.  SequoiaView does something similar for your computer’s hard drive.  It scans all the files and folders in your system and then arranges them in a color-coded and scaled graphical representation, so you can see exactly how much space your collection of funny LolCats images takes up.

Recuva - download

Don’t lie, it’s happened to you. You get to your computer to open up that super-important file that you were working on before you decided to clean up your desktop in a fit of good intentions, and—oh no. It’s gone. You’ve deleted the super-important file, and now life as you know it is effectively over.  Of course it’s happened to you. It’s happened to me three times already today. Luckily, I use Recuva. It’s a nifty little program that will search the depths of your directory for those files that “accidentally” got erased. You can use it on your computer’s hard drive, but also on any external drives, cameras, memory cards, or even your iPod. It’s also got a “secure erase” feature to make sure the files you really and truly want to delete will get gone for good.

DriverEasy – download

Anyone who’s used a Windows system with new hardware before knows what a pain it can be.  Even so-called “plug and play” accessories require a minute or two of setup to begin working, and the worst ones might never work at all if you don’t have the proper device drivers or know where to get them. Enter Driver Easy. This program will scan your system to get a gander at all your hardware peripherals, search the web for the most up-to-date or applicable drivers, and present them for your convenience. What could be better? Your stuff will work better with the most current software and bug fixes, and you won’t have to worry about a thing!

VLC – download

VLC is the do-it-all video player. This fabulous open-source software runs without ads or junk, and will play pretty much anything you can throw at it without the need to download endless codecs. It’s famously virus-safe, fast, and powerful.  You can say goodbye to skipping video, or opening six different programs for all  your different media filetypes.

Foxit Reader - download

While Adobe might have developed the PDF filetype, most people these days will agree that their program for reading these useful files is bloated, buggy, and not very functional (unless, of course, you shell out the big bucks for Acrobat Pro).  That’s where Foxit Reader comes in.  It’s a lightweight PDF reader that starts and loads in a flash, but not before making sure the file you’re trying to open isn’t carrying some extra baggage in the form of unwanted malware. It will print without crashing Print Spooler, and opens multiple documents in handy tabs to keep your desktop clear. It’s compatible with interactive forms, and allows you to comment, bookmark, and even validate digital signatures on your PDF documents.

Sumatra PDF - download

Sumatra is another alternative to Acrobat that deserves a recommendation. I admit its desktop view before you open a file is maybe more yellow than anything ever should be. But viewing actual files is an elegant and minimalist experience. Sumatra is a great option for big multi-page files, since its presentation view just fades into the background and lets you focus on the content without distraction. While it does not have as many security or comment features as Foxit, you can view and print your documents speedily and with no crashes.

FileHippo Update Checker - download

If you run a lot of third-party software on your computer, you’re either constantly annoyed by alerts to update, or are running significantly out-of-date versions of most of those programs.  If you’d rather download and install those third-party updates in one fell swoop, then FileHippo’s Update Checker is the program for you. It will scan your installed software in a flash (as little as a second or two!) and contact the FileHippo website to check for any available updates. It then presents them to you in an easy-to-access list, and you can pick and choose the updates you want to run. Quick, simple, and ever so convenient.

Thanks to Income Insiders for the image. And yeah, we know it’s a MacBook Pro. But it looked cool.

All that you need to do is open up the PDF with FormulatePro instead of the default OSX viewer.  You get a small pop up that includes options for check boxes, scribbles, type, and a few more. When you’re done filling out the form, you can export it to PDF, or just hit print in choose OSX’s PDF printer. Did I mention that it is free?

There is another program that is even better, but this one is not free, PDFPen. This however has many more powerful options in which you can actually edit the pdf itself, as opposed to just filling in forms in an overlay.

PDF’s are a great way of exchanging information and making sure that the information looks the same on your computer as a computer a thousand miles away. Leverage that power with one of the apps above!

Need to create PDFs on your computer but don’t want to pay $300+ for Acrobat Professional?  Don’t want to install a 1GB+ software suite just for some simple functionality?  Take a look at CutePDF.

CutePDF is a small (1.5 MB) download, installs quickly and stays out of your way.  If you want to create a PDF simply select File, Print in whatever program you’re using and choose the “CutePDF” printer. That’s it!

The free version doesn’t have the advanced features such as creating interactive forms, digital signing of documents, etc., stuff that most people don’t ever use anyway.  If you do need those features they have a Professional version that is only $49.95, about $250 less than Adobe’s!

Download it today from http://www.cutepdf.com/

The one downside is that CutePDF is not a PDF reader, only a writer.  If you don’t have a PDF reader on your computer Adobe Acrobat Reader works just fine if you have both installed.

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader here: http://get.adobe.com/reader/