It is difficult to find the appropriate tool in such a long list. Thus, some readers have suggested categorizing all tools. Actually, all tools had been tagged, but the problem was displaying them automatically according to their tags and ratings. I had to code a little to make this possible.

I originally didn’t tag the tools for this purpose, so some tools might not be categorized perfectly. If you spot a tool that would fit better in another group please notify me. Please note that a tool can be in multiple categories. I am also open to suggestions for new categories. And if you find tools that are no longer free or you spot any error, I would appreciate it if you leave me a message.

Of course, you can still share additional free admin tools. Please first search the list of all utilities to see if it has already been submitted. If you think that a tool is not properly described, for example, because a new version has become available, you can submit your own review wherein I will put your name and a link to your blog if you have one.

So please have a look at the index of the free admin tool list on 4sysops and tell me what you think. Thanks again to all who helped build this collection of free admin utilities!

• Best Free Windows Admin Tools (5)
• Top Free Windows Administration Tools (5)
• Thank you for your submission of free Windows administration tools (3)
• What are your favorite free admin tools? (3)

• All of the 200 free admin tools on 4sysops are now categorized (0)
• Top Free Windows Administration Tools (5)
• Thank you for your submission of free Windows administration tools (3)
• What are your favorite free admin tools? (3)
…

Submit a free admin tool

List of All  Free Windows Admin Tools

Browse Through All Free Admin Tools

Free Windows Active Directory Tools

Free Windows Backup Tools

Free Windows Command Line Tools

Free Windows Desktop Management Tools

Free Windows File Management Tools

Free Windows Group Policy Tools

Free Windows Hardware Tools

Free Windows Imaging Tools

Free Windows Inventory Tools

Free Windows Log Management Tools

Free Windows Monitoring Tools

Free Windows Networking Tools

Free Windows Password Management Tools

Free Windows Patch Management Tools

Free Windows PE Tools

Free Windows Performance Tools

Free Windows Powershell Tools

Free Windows Process Management Tools

Free Windows Registry Tools

Free Windows Remote Desktop Services Tools

Free Windows Remote Management Tools

Free Windows Security Tools

Free Windows Server Core Tools

Free Windows Server Hyper-V Tools

Free Windows Troubleshooting Tools

Free Windows UAC Tools

Free VHD Tools

• All of the 200 free admin tools on 4sysops are now categorized (0)
• Best Free Windows Admin Tools (5)
• Thank you for your submission of free Windows administration tools (3)
• What are your favorite free admin tools? (3)

I will add my own favorite tools soon. Some of them are already in the list, so I will only be adding the new ones. Because of the positive feedback, I will continuously update this list. So if you run across a new free tool which you would like to share with other Windows admins, you know where to go.

Submitted Tools

Process Monitor and Process Explorer

Submitted by Colin Bowern – Blog: Colin Bowern When it comes to figuring out why something isn’t operating the way it should having a view of the process, file, and registry activity gives you insight that is indispensible.

Robocopy

Submitted by Joe Topjian – Blog: Adminspotting Robocopy is like rsync for Windows. It’s abilities include moving mass amounts of data from disks and shares, keeping two directories mirrored, and maintaining ACLs through the whole process.

ShareWatch

Submitted by ochiru This is a neat little tool that shows active users, their IP address and computer name sorted by the share they’re using. All this in simple tree-like structure in which you can instantly find what you were looking for. You can connect to multiple servers and control how often the list will update (or choose to manually update).

Logparser

Submitted by morphly Log parser is a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows operating system such as the Event Log, the Registry, the file system, and Active Directory…just to name a few.

It uses a SQL-like syntax and features many functions for data conversion, time/date conversion, string manipulations, hashing, etc.

Check out the help file. There are lots of good and practical examples in it.

ManagePC

Submitted by Miha Pecnik ManagePC is an application for PC management in Windows environments. It lets you inventory all aspects of PCs on your domain including: Hardware, Services, Software, Hot-Fixes, Processes, Local Users and Groups.

It also lets you take control of PCs through RDP, VNC, you can reboot, start/stop services, uninstall software,…

I use it quite frequently and while it is a bit unstable it gets the job done.

—— End of description comment. Great idea for this list, I have a list of my own with tons of utils that I use on a regular basis. I’d love to see what others are using as well.

Best regards, Miha.

Treesize Free

Submitted by Lindsey Lets you know where all your free space is going. No need to install; runs from a .exe.

WinDirStat

Submitted by Matt Everson A great tool to see disk usage and look for large files or duplicate folders quickly and easily. It couples a standard directory list with a treemap, and works on drives, folders, or UNC paths.

Remotely Enable Remote Desktop

Submitted by Soeren P Enables/disables remote desktop on remote computers. Works like a charm.

I think I read about it here some time ago.

Sysinternals Suite

Submitted by Christoph Kral The Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities for the various aspets of Windows administration. (Not only Procmon or Proc Explorer)

WMI Asset Logger

Submitted by Bogdan Soima WMI Asset Logger is a multifaceted utility that has the ability to return a great deal of information about windows based computer systems on your network, all from the convenience of your Windows XP workstation. WMI Asset Logger is also much more than that too, it is an administrator’s friend. Once you have scanned your network the true power of WMI Asset Logger comes out. Using the right-click speed menu enables you to quickly perform many tasks. Simply right-click on the desired host and choose Remote Control (initiate RDP Session), Remote Management Console, Install Software, View/Browse/Delete Shares, View/Start/Stop Processes on remote systems, and more.

DELTACOPY

Submitted by rork DeltaCopy is an open source, fast incremental backup program. Let’s say you have to backup one file that is 500 MB every night. A normal file copy would copy the entire file even if a few bytes have changed. DeltaCopy, on the other hand, would only copy the part of file that has actually been modified. This reduces the data transfer to just a small fraction of 500 MB saving time and network bandwidth.

Spiceworks

Submitted by Jeffrey Botts You want network management software that works for you, not software that makes you work. You wish you could have it… without spending a fortune. Your wish is granted.

Introducing the free Spiceworks IT Desktop. Designed, tested and used by 160,000 IT pros in 185 countries. Spiceworks has the everyday IT features you need:

* Automatic PC and software inventory and IT asset reporting to simplify your job. * Network monitoring and troubleshooting to keep things running smoothly. * Run an IT help desk for your company that’s easy to use and join the fastest-growing IT community.

It takes less than 5 minutes to get up and running. No agents. No scripts. No manual. No hassles. Just download Spiceworks and go.

Netsetman

Submitted by Christoph Kral Another tool I am using on a daily basis: netsetman let you switch network settings with a single click.

The website says:

NetSetMan is a network settings manager which can easily switch between 6 different, visually structured profiles including:

* IP Address * Subnet Mask * Default Gateway * DNS Server * Computer Name * Workgroup * DNS Domain * WINS Server * Default Printer * Network Drives * Scripts (BAT, VS, JS, …)

Necromancers Dos Navigator (NDN)

Submitted by Christoph Kral Another Tool I like to share: “Necromancers Dos Navigator”. Despite the bold name, it’s one of the better if not the best free “file commander” out there. This tool is available for linux and w32 plattform and beats mc and other free commander tools with a lot of nice features like an inbuild hex editor, support for a lot of different archives types, a nice editor and a really versatile file viewer.

The Dude

Submitted by Tom – Blog: Kerpau! It will automatically scan all devices within specified subnets, draw and layout a map of your networks, monitor services of your devices and alert you in case some service has problems.

spacemonger v1.4

Submitted by costinel the best disk space viewer

locate32

Submitted by costinel the best file name indexing utility

smartmontools for win32

Submitted by costinel the best S.M.A.R.T. software; add blat.exe and you’ll get automated email reports for failing disks.

console

Submitted by costinel nice eye-candy replacement for cmd.exe (launches cmd but adds transparency, tabs, cursors, etc)

RunAsAdmin

Submitted by costinel a nice approach to running with/without elevated rights.

SpecOps Gpupdate

Submitted by Dan Wilson Handy tool that allows you to initiate remote WOL, gpupdate, shutdown/restart right from Active Users and Computers.

Servers Alive

Submitted by Martin Cadek excellent monitoring application, free for monitoring up to 10 devices or services or any other type.

well worth the money too as it’s one of the cheapest and most flexible monitoring applications I have ever used, but since this is a free list I think its 10 item limit still should qualify it

it’s not as nice looking as other apps, but extremely flexible, very reliable and unlike most monitoring applications actually a joy to use.

From disk usage to network timing and Windows service checking to some dial up testing of your remote PBX or whatever crazy thing you can think of… this can do it all.

Sequoia View

Submitted by hdstn A handy little tool that allows you to see graphically what is taking up your HDD space.

• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP): MED-V (0)
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP): Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) (0)
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP): Asset Inventory Service (AIS) (0)
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP): Overview (0)
• Raffle: ManageEngine Desktop Central – Part 2: Features (2)

I would like to create a list of the best free tools for Windows administrators. For this, I need your help. My own list is probably not representative and I am sure there are many great utilities I have never heard of. So if you know one or two great admin tools and you can spare a little of your precious time, then you could fill out the form below. Every tool will be listed as soon I had to time to check if the submission isn’t just SPAM.

Only two conditions have to be met: the tool should be free and it should be useful for Windows administration. Please don’t submit tools that are only free for a limited time.

Three fields of the form below are required: Your name, the name of the utility and the URL of its homepage. It would be great if you also can add a short description. If you have a blog, then you can submit its address, too. It will be displayed on the list.

Later, I plan start a poll to let you all vote for the tools submitted. It would be interesting to know which tool comes out as the number one free Windows admin tool.

Top rated free admin tools | All free admin tools with description

Update: Please use the new form to submit a free Windows admin tool.

• All of the 200 free admin tools on 4sysops are now categorized (0)
• Best Free Windows Admin Tools (5)
• Top Free Windows Administration Tools (5)
• Thank you for your submission of free Windows administration tools (3)