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7 Great Free Apps For Your Admin Toolbox

Granted my in-house network is pretty small compared to what some of you are looking after, but we’re all faced with the same kinds of problems. We need to be able to maximize uptime and keep producitivity at the highest level possible. That, and we need to minimize the number of annoying tech support calls to our desks.

Here’s part one of my arsenal of apps - they keep things running smoothly, cost nothing, and make sure I’ve got plenty of time to relax and write blog posts.

Drive Imaging (Windows): Macrium Reflect

DriveImage XML has a lot of supporters, but I think Macrium has the edge when it comes to imaging from inside a working Windows install. For one, it looks a hell of a lot nicer. On top of that, it supports scheduling and has the option to create a rescue CD. In my testing it’s just as fast and the images are pretty much the same size.

Drive Imaging (Command Prompt): PING (Partition Image is Not Ghost)

PING is ultra-powerful, with built in support for most LAN adapters and CD/DVD drives. It supports spanning CDs and DVDs, can create a standalone bootable rescue set, and even includes a utility to blank a local admin password.

System Lockdown / Virtualization: Microsoft Windows SteadyState

Who needs virus protection when your users are running virtualized environments that don’t retain any changes? We threw everything we could at this app on our workbench from normal software installs to intentionally irresponsible browsing to infect it with all kinds of horrible malware. SteadyState performed like a champ, never retaining a single shred of our maliciousness. A great, free piece of software from Microsoft? Who’d have guessed?!

Host File Defense: MVPs.Org Hosts File Blocker

Ok, ok, technically it’s not an app. But it kicks ass at keeping staff off potentially dangerous (and NSFW) websites. Any time a system boots on my network, a batch file runs a quick copy command to overwrite the local hosts file with one from my workstation - which I keep updated with the file from MVPs.org. It’s a quick and relatively fool-proof way to keep a lot of troublesome garbage off your systems.

Remote Admin: UltraVNC

I’ve used UltraVNC for ages as my remote administration app of choice. It’s got a lot of nice little additions that set it apart from other VNC flavors (like TightVNC): a Windows key button, file transfer window, and multi-monitor support. It’s also usually a little bit quicker in my experience.

Mail Backup and Restore: Mailstore Home

Mailstore supports just about every email program that you’re likely to have to support - Outlook, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, and anything that uses the mBox format. No employee wants to lose their precious, precious email, and Mailstore will make short work of backing it up and restoring it later. You can even export to a different format if you need to change clients.

File Backup / Synchronization: Allway Sync

I map all my users’ document folders to a share on our server, and I then use Allway Sync to maintain a live duplicate on an external USB hard drive. As I said before, my network is pretty small, so this is a no-frills, painless way for us to back up. Since the files are just copied and not stored in some backup program’s archive format, finding a single file later would be pretty painless - even for a less technical staffer.

…and so ends part one. There are a ton of other apps that I run on our network to take care of other bothersome chores, so watch for part two.

What about you? What software weaponry do you keep close at hand? Comment it!

Posted in Apps, Freeware, Windows