been changed, your default search setting altered, unwanted ads pop up on your
screen and worse. SpywareBlaster is not a scanner like SpyBot but rather a stand-
alone inoculation program that prevents the initial infection. It provides active
protection against more than 1500 products that use ActiveX based exploits and
offers defenses against unwanted cookies as well. A companion program to
SpywareBlaster is SpywareGuard. Again, this is not a scanner like SpyBot. It is a
protective program that works like an anti-virus suite by checking programs before
they are executed. Both products are well executed, regularly updated and work
well with each other and SpyBot. (2.2MB) (1.96MB)

Best Free Search and Replace Utility Updated
I've been a long time user of Funduc Software's excellent Search and Replace
utility, now in version 4. However, I have to admit that after using HandyFile's free
Find and Replace program, my loyalties are torn. Granted, it does pretty much the
same thing, but it's faster as changes are made in memory rather than by writing to
disk. This feature also provides a degree of safety. If you need to do text file
replacements over multiple files, I suggest you give this tiny free utility a
spin.(361KB)

Best Free Outliner
I'm not a great fan of outliners - my brain doesn't work that way. Some folks
however, swear by them and if that includes you, then you should check out

accounts and message filters as well. As a bonus, it allows you to tweak some of
your system settings. I didn't try the latter but can report that the driver backup and
restore worked well. It's not quite as simple to use as WindriversBackup but, then
again, it has much more functionality. (227KB)

Best Free Digital Image Utility
Irfanview is a free multimedia viewer and editor that supports a huge range of file
formats. Each new version seems to add more capabilities but to me, its most
powerful features are its speed and its batch processing capability. If you want to
resize sets of digital images for the web or for transmission by email, Irfanview is
the best free solution available. It's also a mighty fine image viewer as well. I just
can't believe something this good is free.
Best Free File Comparison Utility
WinMerge is a free Windows utility that compares two files and identifies the
differences. The differences can then be merged from one file into the other. This
is the sort of product that is ideal when you have several different versions of a file
and are not sure of how they differ. The product is geared to text files so it won't be
much use to you with Word Processing or other complex formatted documents But
for text reports or computer programs, WinMerge is ideal. (514KB)

Best Free Email Accessory

program and it's free. That's why I use it myself. (25KB)
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Best Free Time Correction Utility New
A lot of folks have difficulty getting time correction software to work on their PC.
If that's you then you should try Dimension 4, a free utility that gives you the
choice of connecting to a time server either by standard TCP protocol or by the
more common (and more problem-prone) SNTP protocol. If you haven't yet got a
time correction utility, this is the one. It's free, it’s easy to use, and it has every
function that you could conceivably want. Because it works from both the
command line and Windows, it's ideal for batch files, too. (292KB)

Best Free Startup Manager New
Everyone needs a startup program utility so they can exercise control over what
third party programs start automatically with Windows. My long time choice has
been PC Magazine's Startup Cop but alas, this is no longer freeware - it's now only
available if you subscribe to the magazine's software service. My new choice is
Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel. It’s small, capable and has powerful features not
found in Startup Cop including the ability to edit or add entries. Unfortunately
these same features make it potentially dangerous in the hands of newbies. That
caveat aside, it's a great product. Thanks Mike. (59KB)
Ultr@VNC is a client/server package that allows remote control of another PC
using a TCP/IP connection. It works with Windows W9x/NT/2K/XP and offers all
the features you need including auto-configuration, easy user interface, extensive
hotkeys and embedded file transfer. Apart from the fact that it's free, its strong
suite is its speed. Ultr@VNC must be the fastest remote control package I've ever
used. Just the thing for accessing your home PC while traveling, off-site
troubleshooting or general network administration.

BEST OF THE REST

These specialist free utilities don't fit into any particular product category but are
great products that fill a real need:

Restore Missing Toolbars
Inexperienced PC users just always seem to be losing their Windows and Internet
Explorer toolbars. I've never quite worked out exactly how they do it but they sure