Audio Visual
- GraphStudio or GraphEdit see how video is rendered
- FileMerit to change codec priority
- VLC play any movie without any codecs
- MediaInfo to check the codec & encode details of a file
Interface
- 7-Zip compression swiss army knife.
- AutoHotkey mind blowing mouse/keyboard macro & automation program
- Notepad++ to replace notepad
- Gadwin PrintScreen for capturing screenshots beyond Alt-Prt & Prt
Network
- mRemote rdp+ssh+vnc+all options
- μTorrent to handle all your torrent needs
- Teamviewer no install/network config remote connect
- Pidgin to manage all those IM protocols and accounts
- Google Mail Uploader haven’t tried it could be better than IMAP copying
- Synergy+ to control laptops from your desktop as if they were additional monitors
(Power)shell
- Get it here. Now it’s bundled with SQL 2008
- MS documentation pack has some good stuff
- PowerGUI provides a framework for running scripts
- Windows 2003 resource kit tools for all sorts of utils
Security
- Virus Total is a sanity check for infection or false positives. It scans with ~36 tools or if it knows the file gives you the last report.
- Avast Home for free anti virus
- NOD32 for paid anti virus
- Secunia Personal Software Inspector tells you how stale & vulnerable your software is.
- KeePass secure your passwords properly
System
- WebTemp to show a nice graph of everything SpeedFan collects
- SpeedFan to monitor temps & fans
- HD Tach to test HD speeds
- Sysinternals suite to dig deep into what windows is really doing
- Cleartype tuner page from MS
- Defrag with Smart Defrag
Physical Media
- ImgBurn for the rare times you need to burn something