Alex Feinman’s ISO Recorder allows you to burn CD/DVD ISO images under Windows XP/2003/Vista without the need for a dedicated CD burning application. Lucersoft’s LC ISO Creator enables you to do the process in reverse, i.e. create an ISO image from a physical CD/DVD.
Edit: Alex’s ISO Recorder now supports image creation, removing the need for an external tool such as LC ISO Creator.
Zamzar is a free online converter for documents, audio and video files. Just upload the file you want to convert, choose the output format and enter your email address. Zamzar will get to work and email your converted file when it’s ready.
TeraCopy speeds up Windows file copy operations as well as adding a few much-needed features such as smart error recovery and a pause button. It integrates with the Windows shell completely so you don’t need to run a separate program to reap the benefits. It’s a free download for home users; the Pro version is $19.95 (about £10). Highly recommended!
Thunderbird has the somewhat strange default behaviour of starting replies below the quoted message. Fortunately there is an option to change this, and I’m mentioning it here as it’s a little hidden away and I had trouble finding it myself.
Click Tools (from the menu bar), then Account Settings. Now choose Composition and Addressing which appears under your account name on the left. Underneath Automatically quote the original message when replying (which should be checked) you can then change start my reply below the quote to start my reply above the quote. Easy as that!
There are a number of product key recovery utilities for Windows – Magical Jellybean Keyfinder is the first one that comes to mind, possibly because of the name – but ProduKey is the first I’ve seen that will recover keys from other installations, for example via a local area network or from slave hard drives. It also recovers keys for Office and SQL Server, and at a diminutive 31KB, deserves a place on any technician’s USB drive. It is one of a number of freeware utilities available from the NirSoft website.
Edit: Actually the new version of Magical Jelly Bean has similar functionality, although it’s still in beta at the moment.