Free File Utility

Free File Utility enables you to carry out several kinds of file management operations: changing file properties, calculating hashes, comparing files, searching folders for files to replace, or analyzing disk space.

It has many options that should be particularly appealing to power PC users. The program doesn't require installation and needs administrative privileges to gain access to some of its features.

Wrapped up in a classical-looking interface made from a single window split into multiple panes, Free File Utility invites you to quickly dive into its configuration.

It's possible to open, create, truncate or append files with read, write or read and write access, as well as to set the file sharing mode to read, write, read and write, delete, or inheritable. The length of the file may be calculated too.

Moreover, you can modify file timestamps and attributes (e.g. read-only, hidden, system, directory), find out the MD5 or SHA1 hash or block hash, and compare two files or folders by size.

The file searcher and replacer can be launched within a given directory (with or without subfolders). The application checks the file and folder names for matches, and it lets you apply file filters with names or extensions.

The disk examination utility has a built-in folder explorer to help you select the drive or directory to scan. After verifying all containing files, it can be instructed to display them by age or extension. This way, you can find out the oldest and largest files, and figure out which items to remove to free up space. Lastly, it's possible to create stub files, add, reparse, query and remove tag data, or query the allocated rage.

There were no stability issues in our tests; the app didn't freeze, crash or prompt error messages. Tasks were carried out fast while CPU and RAM consumption remained minimal.

On the other hand, Free File Utility is not an intuitive file management application; casual users are likely to feel discouraged when trying to figure out how it works. We must also take into account that it hasn't been updated for a while.