Programming / Automation

Command- line windows scripting	Windows Script 2.15 by Gary Rumble will wait for windows to appear, send keystrokes etc. Scripts must be in files; can be invoked form the command line on a script. Source code available. [f2.org copy (25 Kbyte)] [f2.org copy of source (40 Kbyte)]
Command- line windows scripting	Clipboard by Steve Kemp lets you copy files to the clipboard or clipboard to the console output (stdout) from the command line. [f2.org copy (22 Kbyte)]
Other windows scripting	Sick of pressing a confirmation dialog button to say 'yes I want to delete this file, in fact that's why I clicked delete!' ? rtvreco (5.0 beta is freeware; recent versions aren't) from RTVSoft will press buttons and select menu items for you automatically. [f2.org copy of rtvreco version 5.0 beta (29 Kbyte)]
	Push The Freakin' Button is another tool for automated button-pushing. On modern computers, you should bump up the response time in the settings pannel. [f2.org copy of ptfb version 1.06.3.1 (152 Kbyte)]
	AutoIt from HiddenSoft simulates key presses, mouse movements and window commands (maximize, minimize, wait for, etc.) to automate windows based tasks (or even windowed DOS tasks). Script based ; scripts can be compiled into stand-alone programs. Requires Windows Installer for installation. [f2.org copy of AutoIT v2.61 (498 Kbyte)]
	AutoAct is another automation tool [Direct link to autoact.zip (586 Kbyte)]
Java	Jad is a Java Decompiler by Pavel Kouznetsov, written in C++. [f2.org copy of Jad 1.57 for Windows NT (178 Kbyte)]
Perl	ActiveState has recent Win32 versions of Perl
Pascal	Free Pascal is a faithful Turbo Pascal clone available for DOS, Win32 & other platforms TMT Pascal has a freeware DOS version limited to 1.5 Mbyte code + data for non-commercial use Gnu Pascal is currently (March 1999) in an unstable beta phase See also: Finn's Free/Cheap Programming Languages
Text Editor	The Vim editor is a blessing for old vi-hard programmers. Not for the faint-hearted. [f2.org copy of gvim5-3.zip (391 Kbyte)] See also: Vim Help ; Notes on using gvim with Japanese under windows by Alexandre Elias
Text Editor	SynEdit is a simple, friendly text editor with syntax highlighting for oodles of languages [3.4 mbyte]
Binary Editor	HackMan from the HackMan Crew is a nifty, free binary editor. Patch those hardwired strings! NB - requires Administrator priveleges to install under windows NT. [f2.org copy of HackMan 7.02 (3.1 Mbyte)] HackMan also requires the Visual Basic 6.0 sp5 Runtimes, which may already be installed on your computer [Visual Basic 6.0 sp5 Runtimes (1020 Kbyte)]
Binary Editor	HexEdit 2.0 by Expert Commercial Software is a free-for-non-commercial-use version of their HexEdit product. [f2.org copy of hexedit-20.zip (1.6 Mbyte)] HexEdit requires MFC42.DLL and MSVCRT.DLL, which may already be installed on your computer; if not, use VC6RedistSetup_enu.exe to install these DLLs. [f2.org copy of VC6RedistSetup_enu.exe (1.8 Mbyte)]
Win32 / C / C++	The GNU-Win32 Project includes the ECGS compiler which comes in the mingw32 flavour. Some handy GNU-Win32 links.
	LCC-Win32 by Jacob Navia is a nice IDE for building windows applications in C.
	Borland C++Builder is a free (command-line) compiler from Borland. Direct link to compiler. Direct link to TurboDebugger. [f2.org copy of Borland (command-Line) C++ Compiler v5.5.1 (8.6 Mbyte)] [f2.org copy of TurboDebugger.exe (590 Kbyte)] Instructions for installing the compiler by Neil and Jeff Sumey
	Bloodshed Dev-C++ 4 is an IDE for developing Windows/DOS programs in C/C++. Based on the GNU ming32 compiler.
	See also: Finn's Free/Cheap Programming Languages
	See also: Win32 Programming Links for examples, Win32 API reference, FAQs, tips etc.
Prolog	Visual Prolog is available free for personal / teaching use. Download size for VIP5.2 is approx 18 mbyte.
Installers	Installer Vise from MindVision is currently available freely for shareware/freeware authors.
EXE compression	UPX compresses executable files for smaller distribution / faster download
Windows Analysis	WinSpector lets you examine messages passed to windows, much like Spy++ which comes with MS Visual C++. [f2.org copy of WinSpector 1.0b Build 19 for Win NT/2K/XP (898 Kbyte)] [f2.org copy of WinSpector Win9x (895 Kbyte)]
	Windowse by Greatis Software displays window characteristics as you move the cursor around. Handy diagnostic. [f2.org copy (200 Kbyte)]
	PE Analyzer by Johannes Plachy gives information about .EXE and .DLL files, showing imported libraries, exported symbols ; useful for determining dependencies
	DependencyWalker scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules, listing all functions exported by each module, and which functions are actually being called by other modules.
	Process Explorer by Mark Russinovich from sysinternals.com lets you examine processes, CPU usage, DLLs used, files/directories opened. [f2.org copy of process explorer 6.01 for Win9x,ME,NT,2K,XP (102 Kbyte)]
	Scraper by Don Metzler lets you copy hard-to-get text from dialog boxes etc. to the clipboard. Handy for reporting error messages, grabbing email addresses, URLs etc. NOTE: [Apr 2003] PC Magazine now requires a paid subscription for access to their formerly free software downloads. Some PCMag utilities may still be directly downloaded from other sites around the web. NOTE: [Jan 2004] At the request of Ziff-Davis (publisher of PC Magazine) I have removed a link to an external site hosting the file scraper.zip 122K which I had found via an FTP Search Engine.
Windows Registry	RegMon by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell at sysinternals.com. Monitors access to registry. Works under NT / Win2K / Windows 95/98. [f2.org copy (36 Kbyte)]
	RegistryDetective offers much quicker registry searches than the standard RegEdit app. NOTE: [Apr 2003] PC Magazine now requires a paid subscription for access to their formerly free software downloads. Some PCMag utilities may still be directly downloaded from other sites around the web. NOTE: [Jan 2004] At the request of Ziff-Davis (publisher of PC Magazine) I have removed a link to an external site hosting the file regdet.zip 594K which I had found via an FTP Search Engine.
	RegCleaner by Jouni Vuorio lets you poke around with registry entries, looking at file associations, uninstall info etc., and generally tidy up after badly-uninstalled programs. A command-line interface is available for batching commands. [f2.org copy of RegCleaner version 4.3 (541 Kbyte)] Note: Recent versions of RegCleaner are not freeware -- you can find them at www.macecraft.com/ Version 4.3 was distributed as freeware. Thanks to John Spence for sending me version 4.3 and telling me about this program.
File Comparison	WinDiff is a Microsoft utility that lets you compare individual files or directories for differences. Handy for checking revisions in text files. RunWinDiff is a nicer front-end to WinDiff which lets you browse to select the files or directories to compare. [f2.org copy of WinDiff 4.0 and RunWinDiff Build 061198-01 (100 Kbyte)]
SQL Database	Guide to installing MySQL for Windows