Despite the move (real or hyped) towards Web-based applications, there are still a few hundred million of us using Windows PCs running actual software. These 15 utilities from PC Magazine are little gems of code that will help you get the most out of your Windows system.

Though these days all the talk is about how the future is cloud-based computing—Google Chrome OS will only run Web apps—there is still a real need to run installed applications on Windows systems. In particular, utilities, those helper apps that do just one thing and do it well, whether it be playing or editing a media file or tweaking or peeking at a system function. PC Magazine has rounded up their 15 newest reviews of their favorite utilities. Check them out—many will cost you no more than the time you'll spend downloading it.