You’re spoilt for choice on NirSoft’s superb website – it’s packed with dozens of simple but clever free programs
Over the past few years one website has made repeated appearances in our Best Free Software section: NirSoft (www.nirsoft.net). It’s home to an impressive range of Windows programs that carry out the sort of ‘boring but useful’ tasks that make using your PC so much easier. And incredibly, it’s the work of just one man.
We’ve spent some time testing the 100-plus programs on the site and whittled it down to our top 10. Most of these are small (typically less than 100KB) and portable, so they don’t need to be installed. They all work with XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 except ProduKey. Best of all, they’re free, contain no junk and require no email registration. Here’s our countdown…
10 OutlookAddressBookView
Many of NirSoft’s tools add the kind of features to Office and Windows that we wish Microsoft had thought of. OutlookAddressBookView is a good example. It shows you at a glance the important details of contacts stored in your Microsoft Outlook address book, giving you quick access to phone numbers, postcodes and email addresses. By default, it shows details from any contacts in your default Outlook profile. You can select other profiles by clicking Options, then Advanced Options, or by pressing F9 on your keyboard.
9 RecentFilesView
Every time you open a file, Windows saves its name in the ‘Recent’ folder or in the Registry. This information is displayed by RecentFilesView, showing you instantly where to find it. Click ‘Modified Time’ at the top to see them listed chronologically based on when you last amended each file, or ‘Created Time’ to see them in the order you created them.
A recent update added the same right-click options you get in Windows Explorer’s ‘context’ menu, such as ‘Create shortcut’ and ‘Send to’. Just select a file then, while holding down Shift on your keyboard, right-click your mouse.
8 LastActivityView
Knowing what caused your PC to crash should help you avoid the problem in future. That’s where LastActivityView can help. It lets you retrace your footsteps by displaying a list of actions performed on your PC, and events that took place immediately prior to a crash. You’ll see when you logged on/off, when you ran software, when a system restore point was created and when you saved a document. Obviously, it’s also a useful way to keep an eye on how other people are using your PC.
7 BlueScreenView
Here’s another tool to help you investigate the cause of a crash. It scans the ‘minidump’ files that Windows creates during those dreaded ‘blue screen of death’ disasters, then presents them in a neat table. The upper pane lists each crash; the lower pane shows the corresponding driver that was loaded – and possibly caused the crash. Visit Microsoft’s Support website for more information on how to understand Windows dump files: www.snipca.com/19530.
6 VideoCacheView
Using VideoCacheView you can save video files in your hard drive. It works by scanning your entire browser cache for videos you’ve recently watched online. These can then be saved to your PC for offline viewing (we recommend playing them in VLC media player: www.videolan.org/vlc). Left-click a file to see information about it, including when you watched the video, and in which browser (it supports Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera and Firefox). Right-click a file to play it, save it, or open it in the browser.
5 WirelessNetworkWatcher
If you ever suspect someone else is piggybacking on your Wi-Fi, run WirelessNetworkWatcher. It scans your network and lists all the computers and devices using it, showing the IP address and MAC address for each. It also runs a background scan to check for new devices connecting to the network. To hear a beep when one connects, click Options then tick ‘Beep On New Device’.
4 WebBrowserPassView
To recover passwords old and new, use WebBrowserPassView. It shows passwords for your accounts in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. It rates their strength (from ‘very weak’ to ‘very strong’) and shows the date you created it. NirSoft says that it will soon update the program to reveal master passwords, which are used in password-management services like LastPass.
3 Mail PassView
What WebBrowserPassView does for browsers, Mail PassView does for email programs. Run it and you’ll see your passwords for Outlook (including the 2016 version), Gmail, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, Yahoo Mail and other services. You’ll also see what server type the email account is on - POP3, IMAP or SMTP - which is always handy when you need to set up email forwarding, or sync across devices.
Don’t worry if your security software flags up Mail PassView as malicious. NirSoft says that antivirus products often misclassify its password-recovery tools as dangerous. Visit NirSoft’s blog to read more about these false-positive results: www.snipca.com/19535.
2 ProduKey
We all know that we should make a note of our Windows/Office Product ID and Product Key, but it’s easy to forget, because it may seem like you’ll never need them again after the first time you use them. These crucial details are revealed by ProduKey. Scroll to the bottom of its download page to see command-line options you can use to operate it. It doesn’t yet work for Windows 10, so visit Microsoft’s website for instructions instead: www.snipca.com/19536.
1 MyUninstaller
Uninstalling programs is never as simple as it should be, which is why we all need tools that well and truly kick them into touch. NirSoft’s MyUninstaller isn’t as powerful as some of the heavyweight uninstallers, such as IObit’s program (www.snipca.com/19491), but it’s worth trying if the built-in Windows tool doesn’t work well for you.
It claims the top spot because of how much information it provides. As well as the obvious (product name, version etc), it tells you in which installation folder the program is stored, which website you downloaded it from, and its uninstall string that appears in the Registry.
It’s easy to use – just right-click what you want to remove, then select ‘Uninstall Selected Software’. If you’re a confident Windows user and know exactly what you want to remove, consider switching on Advanced Mode. This lets you uninstall multiple programs at once. Click View, then tick ‘Advanced Mode’.
MEET THE MAN BEHIND NIRSOFT
At the controls of NirSoft is Israeli software developer Nir Sofer. He is very proud of his one-man operation, boasting that at NirSoft “there is no CTO or CEO, there is no secretary, there is no development team, and there are no rented offices”. Sofer doesn’t make a living out of the site. Instead it is a huge labour of love. He says he uses all his free time to make new programs, and add new tools to existing ones.
Sofer’s first site, launched in 2001, contained tools for his own personal use. The site we know and love now, www.nirsoft.net, arrived three years later. It has grown to offer over 100 programs, which are used by millions of people worldwide. He is open to comments on programs, and suggestions for new ones - just email him at nirsofer@yahoo.com.