Recover and Restore

everything you can imagine doing in Windows, using prearranged keystrokes and mouse clicks or just about any input button. Free

CLICk hErE FOr MOrE

CubicExplorer www.cubicreality.com/ce

This file viewer and Windows Explorer replacement is portable and relatively uncomplicated, supporting tabs for multiple browsing sessions to take place at once. Free

Free Commander www.Free commander.com

Get dual panes of data (side by side or stacked) with this Windows Explorer replacement, plus features like FTP, tabs, file-renaming tools, and compressed archive support. Free

Gladinet www.gladinet.com

Get access to your online files—such as those in Google Docs or Windows Live Skydrive—as if they’re stored locally. Gladinet mounts the services like network drives that are accessed from Windows Explorer. Free (for now)

Portable Snowbird

lmadhavan.com/software/snowbird

Snowbird is built for speed as well as portability (run it from a USB flash drive on any Windows system). The main window has the typical tree on the left, breadcrumbs at the top, and a list of recently visited files—but what it lacks in features it makes up for in performance. Free

xplorer2 zabkat.com/x2lite.htm

You want two panes of file listings, a folder tree, tabs, and FTP access? That’s just the beginning with this longtime favorite Windows Explorer replacement. The free version also comes in a portable version. Pro adds individual folder settings, “hyperfilters,” scrap containers, duplicate cleanup, and more. Free; professional version, $29.95

recover AnD reStore

AntiFreeze www.resplendence.com/antifreeze

We all know the Ctrl-Alt-Delete salute to get out of a borked computer (or to get to the running processes list and kill an offending program). But AntiFreeze may offer a better way. It waits in the background for trouble, and when called, it displays all running processes, suspending most without killing them until necessary. Free

GoneIn60s

www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index .html#GoneIn60s

If you closed an application within the last minute, you can open it up again without losing anything by right-clicking the icon in the system tray—but only if your PC is already running GoneIn60s. Free (donationware)

UndeletePlus www.undelete-plus.com

No matter the volume type (FAT12 on up to NTFS5), UndeletePlus promises to restore files you’ve junked but want back. Great filtering makes it easy to find one file among the many you’ve deleted. Free trial, then $29.95 per year