Being a master of your system really means knowing what’s available to you under the hood and how to get to it. Nothing is truer when using Windows, as there are a lot of configurations available to you that can be unlocked through the registry or by other means. Windows 7 “God Mode” is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
Sysinterals and NirSoft are just as heaven-sent, being two names that will resonate beautifully with Windows enthusiasts like myself. They put out some of the best alternative software that you’ll ever get your hands on, and I personally consider both suites to be huge contributors to the platform. Both have pumped out dozens of portable applications that truly unlock and polish certain elements of Windows. If you’re not familiar with any of their software, you need to be.
The program that I want to introduce you to today takes the power of Sysinternals and NirSoft and takes it a step further. Windows System Control Center takes managing those individual applications and makes it ridiculously easier..
Windows System Control Center
Windows System Control Center will work on any version of Windows past 2000 and comes available as a completely portable application. It allows you to install, update, and completely manage applications that you’d find in major system utility suites. The latest version focuses on the software made available by the Windows Sysinternals Suite and NirSoft Utilities.
Upon launching the application, you first need to fix your options. It’s great for them to immediately prompt the user with these options, because I’d almost always recommend that one of the first things you do with an application is look at the options and settings.
The General tab includes a lot of basic and aesthetic settings, as you can see above.
The Software tab is the most significant of the options, where you’re able to tweak the local storage path and live URL of both application suites. You’re also able to tick which pieces of Windows you’d like Windows System Control Center to be able to manage.
After Windows System Control Center has been tweaked to your liking, you will then have a massive list of applications available for you to download.
Be advised that every one of these applications is portable, and the Install button does nothing more than automatically extract each application from the archive that it’s in.
As the applications begin to “install,” you can check the folder that you set them to download to and see a heap of brand new executables.
Overall, Windows System Control Center is an awesome layer over two software suites that many Windows fans can’t live without. I’ve actually seen a Sysinternals batch script that gets their applications updated by command line, and NirLauncher is doing a great job of keeping that suite together as a group, but as of right now I definitely see Windows System Control Center as the best way to keep your applications as recent as possible. It’s a great management tool for these two software suites.
After handling downloads and updates, the main window of Windows System Control Center shows your entire library, by category, in the left pane and the applications that belong to each category in the right pane.
Windows System Control Center even offers its own console window for advanced users who are interesting in playing with the applications via command line.
Other than these small features, Windows System Control Center simply does its job of keeping your software fresh and easy to access.
If you’ve never used software from Systinternals or NirSoft, here’s a quick recap of each:
Windows Sysinternals
Sysinternals was actually created by the people at Microsoft to help power users like you and I get the most of their PC. Sysinternals software includes names like Autoruns, Process Monitor, and Process Explorer. Most of their software is very technical.
NirSoft Utilities
NirSoft is well-known for lightweight, niche applications of all sorts. Names like Mail PassView, CurrPorts, AdapterWatch, SiteShoter, and ShellExView are some of the most popular. NirSoft does a great job of pushing out applications with features that make your Windows experience much easier. While Sysinternals improves parts of Windows that already exist, NirSoft adds completely new functionality with many of their applications.
By itself, Windows System Control Center isn’t much. However, if you’re someone who already uses these two application suites or someone who is trying to make the most out of their system, Windows System Control Center is your way to constantly stay up-to-date with a massive amount of some of the best third-party software on the web.
Let us know what you think of Windows System Control Center, Sysinternals, and NirSoft in the comments.
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