One of the benefits/drawbacks of this job is that in looking for solutions to particular challenges we come across a plethora of little utilities which usually serve a very narrowly defined purpose. Some of these are gems, some we bitterly regret ever having tried, others are just so neat if we only had a use for them.
We won't share the duds. We won't put up the really expensive ones. What follows is an eclectic list of sources of freeware and shareware utilities. We liked the programs when we tried them. Your milage may vary!

• Atomic Clock Sync from http://www.worldtimeserver.com/ won't keep you on time but at least you'll know exactly how late you are.
• I rely on several tools from KarenWare http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp not the least of which is the countdown timer.
• When all is not going well then I often turn to PrcView (Process Viewer) from http://www.prcview.com to see what is going on behind the scene.
• Shred is a tiny utility commissioneed by PC Magazine. It does just the name implies, shreds files when you want them deleted for good.
• Ever wonder just what it is that's taking up all of the room on your hard drive? SpaceMonger from http://www.werkema.com displays the disk useage graphically for easy identification of usage issue.
• If copying or dreating CD's is a regular part of your life then you'll want to have WinImage from http://www.winimage.com.($30 US)
• Do games or other programs keep your screen size in a constant state of change? RapidRes, another PCMag utility, allows quick access to all of your settings.
Do you ever want to save text from a web page or perhaps from one of those much travelled emails one gets from time to time? Have you passed just because of the effort to cleanup?
• TextCleaner from http://www.comp4learn.com/cleaner/ does a great job of clearing all of those ">", spaces, blank line and other unwanted formatting.

(Shareware prices are shown in parentheses after the description.)