Laze's Software Essentials

Web publishing

HomeSite
Though HomeSite's been swalloed by Macromedia and Dreamweaver, it's worth the price of admission, even in its current state of non-development. A great tag-editor that really saves time.

FTPEdit
This Notepad-like editor designed by a college classmate of mine allows you to save to a web server as easily as your local hard drive. It also sports features like tag highlighting and is useful for web editors as well as students working on computer science programs on separate servers. Version 3.0 is available as freeware. I designed the original web site for the software back in the day. :)

Movable Type
The hardcore blogger's best friend. A great personal publishing application that many are using to power not only their blogs, but their entire site. A great deal developed by two genuinely nice and talented people. I'm also excited about their remotely hosted/operated Typepad service, currently in beta.

Zempt
A stand-alone desktop interface for Movable Type blogs. Supports multiple accounts and editing of existing posts, even in its early beta stages. Other good alternatives that work better with non-MT blogs but not as good with Movable Type are w.bloggar and blogBuddy.

Web utilities

Opera
With Microsoft ditching IE as a stand-alone browser and Netscape gone as a commercial entity, now's a great time to check out Opera, by far the smallest of the three major browsers. It's highly compatible with web standards like XHTML and CSS, unlike IE. Version 7 was re-written from the ground up and is mighty speedy, even compared to previous versions. An ad-supported freeware version is available, or a pay version for $35.

SlimBrowser
If you must use IE, use it with this free faceplate that provides not only tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking, but skinning, item grouping, URL aliasing (a la Opera), free zooming, a built-in "quick search" bar, and a number of other nice features. Definitely worth a look, though their constant updates can get kind of annoying to install.

Google Toolbar (Beta)
The 2.0 beta version of the Google Toolbar for IE provides built-in pop-up blocking and easy searching of Google. Pretty much what you'd expect from Google: quality without compromise.

Proxomitron
This personal proxy server sits in your system tray and blocks banner ads, pop-up windows, etc. It's extremely customizable and already has a nice collection of user-designed scripts. It can be a bit complicated, but with complexity comes power. One of the most useful freeware utilities I've ever come across.

Xenu Link Sleuth
A great freeware link checker—reliable and thorough, even after all these years.

Other Net Apps

SmartFTP
Finally, a freeware FTP client that serves up all the necessary features in a familiar interface. Also worth peeking at: Filezilla (an in-development FTP client that's nice and light, but still full-featured).

UploadAway
Looking for a quick way to automatically upload a set of files via FTP? UploadAway will do it and at a price that won't break your wallet. The author is currently beta testing a useful command-line add-on to UploadAway that's well worth checking out.

The Bat!
With perhaps the best multiple-account management support available, The Bat! continues to be the best mail client I've found. Very good filtering, lots of customization options, and a nice UI.

PC Utilities

EditPad
Screw Notepad, man. EditPad is the best text editor for Windows that I've found. It supports multiple files and has a lot of little niceities you wonder why they didn't build into Notepad. Now available in multiple flavors.

602 Pro PC Suite
If you're looking for a way to stick it to Microsoft by totally avoiding Office, 602Software has got the solution: a freeware suite of tools including a great word processor (very much Word compatible), a spreadsheet program, and photo editor and organizer (the latter two which I have not used). Definitely worth checking out.

Atlantis
This small word processor was suggested to me by the author himself. It's improved significantly over the years and is a worthy, small-footprint replacement for Word. Great freeware/shareware.

Password Keeper
A compact system tray utility that will keep track of your passwords in an encrypted, password-protected file. At 160k, it's a quick download, and it has just the right amount of features, avoiding the overkill of similar programs.

Add/Remove Plus
Ever notice how your Add/Remove Programs list in your control panel is full of programs that don't even exist on your PC anymore? Well, use this freeware utility to do all your uninstalls and the program will actually be uninstalled and removed! Quite a novel concept, eh, Microsoft? (These guys even quoted my review!)

Treesize Professional
A nice little utility that scans your hard drives and gives you a nice graphical representation of how your space is used. There are a number of applications of this type, but this has remained my favorite through the years due to its intuitive UI.

1-4a Rename
A small freeware app that allows you to easily rename a directory of files. You can take the filename, the extension, or both and perform a search-and-replace, allowing you to turn a batch of .html files into a batch .txt files quickly and easily.

PageDefrag
An extremely small (35k) defragging app that will improve your NT/2000/XP system's performance by working on those files that regular defragmenters (including Microsoft's own) don't touch, like your page files, registry hives, etc. I set it up to defrag on each boot and it made a noticable difference on a typically sluggish NT machine.

WatchCat
A very small freeware application that beats out two similar apps I used before: RBTray and Trayer. WatchCat allows you to minimize windows to your system tray, hide windows, etc. with a right mouse click or key combination. Surprisingly full-featured for such a tiny program (< 150k).

Clipboard Magic
This small program sits in the taskbar and will capture what you send to the clipboard. What's nice about it? It keeps track of everything you've cut and pasted (rather than just the last thing) and it also lets you edit text and send it back out to the clipboard. Nice freeware.

FontLister
Non-crippled shareware (a mere $5 registration) that allows you to view and print some or all of the fonts on your machine. The most effective and inexpensive utility of its kind.

IrfanView
Another nice piece of freeware that Brian Burton turned me onto. Great for batch editting of files (making thumbnails out of larger pictures, etc.), viewing, and simple editing.

Home/General Utilities

Quintessential CD
Again, thanks to Brian Burton for hitting me off with this gem. This is a freeware CD/MP3 player program with a slick look and nice features, including CDDB connectivity. I've been using it for over five years.

DVD Profiler
Cataloging your DVD collection is now incredibly easy: simply enter the UPC code and DVD Profiler will populate your database with the actors, a movie summary, and even the cover art. Free display of your collection on dvdprofiler.com is also provided. See my commentary about DVD Profiler at The Daily Ping.

Contact
A tiny, inexpensive contact manager. It's perfect for sitting in your taskbar and it's small enough to always keep running.

EasyNotes
This is a great little freeware reminder program. You can set daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or one-time reminders that will bring up a pop-up window, which allow you to clear the reminder or set a snooze and be reminded again later. Five more minutes, mom... (Note that the orignal page for EasyNotes seems to be down -- perhaps it is no longer supported.)

Web/Net tools

Mailinator.com
Ever want to read a story on a news site and you're forced to give your e-mail address? Now you can get past that annoyance by giving them a throw-away, but valid, e-mail address @mailinator.com that requires no set up. You (and anyone else) can check the e-mail, too, in case you're getting a confirmation link or something that you need to click. Read more about it on the Daily Ping.

Emailaddresses.com
Frequently updated listing of free e-mail services.

The Free Pages Page
Annotated listing of free web hosting services. These days, though, you really get what you pay for.

SpamCop
If filters don't block that spam, report the bastards! Cut and paste your entire spam (with headers) to SpamCop and it will parse through the text and determine which postmasters, hostmasters, and abuse addresses that a spam report needs to be sent to. One note: you have to use an account to report "from"—I suggest (as do they) that you use a throw-away Hotmail account. See Paul's in-depth commentary at The Daily Ping.

Newzbot
One-stop shop for public nntp servers.