Utilities & Operating Systems

Have you ever added a TV tuner card to your computer, only to have the DVD drive stop working? Maybe you've tried to install software and gotten an error message such as "The file foofah.dll is missing or damaged." The only time most people will need to deal with a driver is when something goes awry. Essentially, a driver is a piece of software that communicates the special needs of a hardware device or software application to an operating system. Windows comes with most of the drivers you need, but sometimes plugging in a new device--such as a digital camera or printer--will trigger a search for drivers. If the maker of your device doesn't offer drivers on its Web site, try searching our library for the name of the device or corrupted DLL.

This category is also the home of popular programs such as the top-rated SmartFTP Client, which made our list of the best free utilities. Installing and uninstalling software, deleting files, and other daily tasks can take a toll on your computer's performance. To test how well your PC is running, try a benchmarking program such as SANDRA Lite. Cleaning out the dead wood with a system optimizer such as Ace Utilities or System Mechanic will straighten out some Registry problems, improve system speed, and free up disk space. Don't forget to back up your data regularly with something like Second Copy so you can replace any files you regret erasing, such as the driver for your nVidia ForceWare Graphics card.

File-compression tools include the classic WinZip and the newcomer WinRAR, which are both excellent shareware products that provide lots of free functionality. Among the wide variety of software within Tools & Utilities, you'll find bookmark managers such as Bookmark Buddy, download managers such as Download Accelerator Plus, file-sharing tools such as LimeWire or Morpheus, and search tools such as Google Desktop.