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NirSoft - In July of 2006, Microsoft aquired the SysInternals team who had demonstrated incredible knowledge of Windows with their small freeware utilities. It's been over a year since then and Microsoft should get on a phone to the NirSoft folks and make them a similar offer.
NirSoft is doing amazing work. Their power utilities for windows reach into the very guts of the operating system and do things no other utilities can do. And they are all free. Our only warning is that you please don't visit their site unless you have some serious time to kill. If you are one of those people who love to use programs that let you see what is really happening behind the scenes on your computer, a visit to the NirSoft site is going to be a bit like getting a visit from santa claus on crack.
Some of the tools NirSoft makes are completely unique and wonderfully surprising. Some of our favorites include OfficeIns, a tool for viewing and disabling Microsoft Office Add-Ins; ZipInstaller, an ingenius tool for "installing" programs that are packaged in zip files without their own installers; ShellExView, a tool for viewing and managing file shell extensions; ShellMenuView, for investigating and managing the right-click menu items in your system; Volumouse, a tool for controlling your sound volume using the mouse wheel; NirCmd, a great commandline tool that can do all sorts of useful things like shutting down windows, changeing sound volume, etc., (very useful for calling from other tool (we use it in FARR); SmartSniff, a tool for reconstructing network traffic conversations; and their newest utility, GDIView, which lists GDI resources in use. They also have a ton of password recovery tools, browser investigation tools, and much more.
Rarely if ever has a collection of such powerful utilities for Windows been gathered together in one place. And they are free! Unbelievable. What can we say besides Bravo to NirSoft, we salute you.
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