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Any Video Converter is the best free software that converts video in any format to MPEG-4 format. I use it often to convert home videos to play on my iPhone. This will come handy if you have smartphone and want to play videos recorded on other sources.

Freemind, like the other mind mapping tools avaliable in the market, allows for capturing easily a process, idea, project or just about any thing. Freemind has all the features you may need for basic use. However a better user interface will not hurt either.

PrimoPDF converts just about any file format to a PDF. You can use print-to-pdf from print options or just drag-and-drop the file on the program window. The conversion process is quick and efficient. Best part of the program is it allows for password protecting the files after the converting to PDF. So you can scan and send confidential documents without worrying about the data theft.

Lastpass is a secure and free tool to remember passwords. It has a plug-in for every broswer and a desktop version as well. Once a password is saved it can be accessed from any computer by just logging in to the lastpass website once. All passwords are encrypted and stored on Lastpass server which even lastpass cant read. You can also take encrypted USB backup

This is the best free image editing software that you can find. It can merge, compress, crop, convert images and do many more things.

Converts audio songs in any file format into .mp3 or WAV

This is the best free FTP client around. It is light weight and complete with every feature that we need for FTP upload/download.

Simple and easy tool to grab any part of the screen and paste in any document. It creates a simple GIF file with more than decent quality picture. Very useful when making power point slides.

One of the best Global clocks I have seen. Pick the cities you want across the world and create mini-window for each in 3 different sizes. It will display the city name, Day Light savings, GMT comparison and other details. You can place these mini-windows where ever you want on the Desktop. The Tool can pick-up benchmark time from your Desktop clock or from Internet clock servers.

Simple Pop-up style messenger for LAN. Send/receive messages from any IP address on the LAN. Best for close-group usage and at work place for chatting :-). Will need no programming on the server.

Very useful tool when you have a Large movie DVD/Video which needs to be fit in a standard single-layer 4.4GB DVD. It also decrypts any security codes, gives option to tweak with compression settings and changes sound choices so you can burn a DVD with the least amount of loss in clarity. Must-have tool if you are a movie-buff like me and are building a DVD library.

I was once pathetic with typing until I practiced using this tool for a couple of hours. Now that I spend most of my day sending only emails, that was a worth wile investment. I am able to type much faster and spend less time looking at  keyboard to find where that X button is. Unfortunately the company seems to have gone bust. I could not find the Website anywhere. But I still have the tool with me and let me know if you also need it. There are lot of commercial tools you can purchase, but this seemed a simple demo version with intuitive training module.

Very useful database for finding out right usage of words quick and fast. The tool is shareware and you may need to purchase it in future.

SyncToy is very useful when you have multiple Laptops and Back-up drives and need to keep the data in all of them synced. Once you pair the specific folders and set the relationship for data transfer, next time you can sync in a breeze. This is one of the must-have tools especially if you take regular back-ups.

Very useful tool for virus protection to Windows OS systems. It also has a software explorer feature to limit unnecessary programs which start-up when you boot the systems. Helps to keep the boot-up time low. The real time virus protection is useful.

Works best when used in combination with DVD Shrink. DVD Shrink can decrypt most of the encryptions but for complex encryptions it throws up an error. You can use this tool when DVD shrink throws up an error reading DVD disks.  Caution: There are certain legal restrictions to use this tool in some countries including US.

Ripit4me is similar tool as DVD decrypter but even powerful. You must install DVD decryper (above) before using this for decryption. (Caution: There are legal restrictions to use this tool in many countries including US)

Extremely useful tool to convert any MS office document/HTML pages into PDFs. This is similar to Print-to-PDF or PDF write tools but it is simple, fast and easy to use. Unfortunately this is not free-ware. There is a demo version available though.