Show us what's in your toolbox

[Myriad]

I like to collect various tools and utilities that over the years have proved themselves to be keepers.
Same thing goes for my "real" toolbox ( screwdrivers , wrenches , gizmos etc )

I'd like to hear from any interested MT members with some details of your favorite software tools .
You know what I mean ; the one's you just wouldn't want to be without , and the trusted "go to " solutions
to get those tricky jobs done .

Please say why you like them more than the alternatives , and if they are available as portable versions.

I'm going to kick things off with some great utilities from Sordum
It's all freeware / donate-ware and I really do admire neat , elegantly written , user-friendly software ,
and these tools are all of that .

My personal favorites from Sordum are :-

DNS Jumper
Easy Context Menu
ReIcon ( Icon cache repair tool )
Reg Jumper


This one from Tweaking is super-slick , to instantly configure your firewall settings on a per app basis
Tweaking.com - (Right Click) Allow, Block or Remove - Windows Firewall

And for me , Rufus is the stand-out winner for creating bootable USBs

I should state that I have no affiliation whatsoever with any of the above .
But as far as I can see , these guys create , develop and maintain this stuff as a labor of love ,
I seriously doubt they are getting rich from the donations , and they don't even have paid versions , with so-called "extra features " !
More power to them , that's what I say ..... " Let's hear it for the little guy "

Anyway , I've wandered off-topic .... on my own topic .... Doh !

Please name your faves and say a few words .

I am genuinely interested to read what folks here have found , and stayed with , especially the obscure little jewels .

 

[CMLew]

My toolbox have only 4 items after discarding them one-by-one.

1) EEK portable = my OD Scanner
2) Geek Uninstaller portable
3) Voodooshield Installer
4) Ccleaner portable

Those are my to-go USB whenever I'm using potentially infected system.

 

[JGNetworkSecurity]

Ccenhancer added to ccleaner, certwatch, revouninstaller, autoruns, procmon, emet 5.51, voidtools everything to search for anything in my files..

 

[BoraMurdar]

A bootable USB created with YUMI containing :
Hiren's Boot CD,
MiniTool Partition Wizard [Bootable ISO]
Comodo Rescue Disk
Kaspersky Rescue Disk
Easeus Data Recovery Wizard [Bootable ISO]
and always updated versions of Hitman Pro, MalwareBytes, UltraVirus Killer Portable, Tweaking.com Windows Repair, Kaspersky TDSS Killer, Unlocker Portable, Wise Disk Cleaner Portable, Avast AntiRootkit, RKill, etc. compressed in 7z archive to preserve space
​

More Info on this page​

 

[Rolo]

I second Rufus for creating bootable USB drives, Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD), and CCleaner.

Dual Wallpaper - I want wallpaper on my primary monitor but nothing on my secondary one; this utility lets me do that.

LockHunter (but I'm looking for a replacement; this one works but it crashes after-the-fact)

SoftOrganizer - captures all changes for reviewing/uninstalling

CPU-Z

MSI Afterburner 3 (it still works with my Logitech G13)

MyDefrag (until I'm rid of platter drives completely)

EasyBCD

ShareX

Ditto

WinAuth

10AppsManager

BandiZip

Duplicate Cleaner Free

XYPlorer Free

Bulk Rename Utility

FreeFileSynch

DPC Latency Checker

BlueScreenView

Memtest86+

 

[DC47561]

A brief overview of mine:

CCleaner

7zip

Offline NT Password Recovery and Registry Editor (mainly for password unlocks)

Windows boot disks

Macrium Reflect boot disk

Herd Protect

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware -

Hitman Pro

 

[Rolo]

Herd Protect

herdProtect isn't being distributed currently, per their website, so it may not be updated.

My experience (posted a while ago here) is that Zemana with its 5 engines detected far more malware than herdProtect did with its 68.

 

[Myriad]

Ultimate Boot CD
CPU-Z
Bulk Rename Utility
BlueScreenView
Memtest86+

Oh yes ... they are definitely all winners !
Old friends that I forgot to include in my original post

I tested HerdProtect for a while and came to a similar conclusion .... " Big hat , no cattle "

 

[Neno]

Apart from Windows itself, only tool(s) I need is Windows Sysinternals, yet again their own

 

[kev216]

A USB with Ccleaner, Hitman Pro, herdProtect, MBAM, FRST, Avira DNS Repair Tool, Autoruns, Proces Explorer, GeekUninstaller, 7Zip, TDSS Killer , a portable clean copy of a webbrowser...

When I need a boot CD, I sometimes use Hiren's boot cd, or create a custom one with a fantastic tool called Sardu.
However my favorite of which I always have a copy is the brilliant, very light but sadly atm not updated boot cd called RIPLinux. Used that one multiple times with succes.