Some friendly nerd tips from Shoo.

• 7-Zip – A free open source zip program that handles zip, war, rar, and pretty much any other type of compression format. Very fast and is free. Works like a champ http://www.7-zip.org/
• Virtual PC 2007 – Want to try out Linux without repartitioning or wiping out Windows or connect to a VPN without losing a local connection? I use it on a daily basis and love it. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx
• Google Docs – On a school computer, or visiting a friend’s house but don’t want to drag around a USB stick? Save your docs to Google, make changes, let others make changes. Very cool, very free. http://docs.google.com/
• XXCopy – Need to move a lot of files and can’t trust Windows to do the job? XXCopy isn’t totally free, but does a heck of a job of indexing the files that need to be copied, creating a progress bar of what is copied, and spiting out a report of what was done. I moved 2.1 million (approx 120 GB) files last weekend without a hitch. http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm
• Process Explorer -  Need to dive deep into the processes of a Windows machine? What program is hogging the memory? Who’s got this file open? Very good diagnostic tool and free. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx