Hiren's Boot Disc - An epic collection of freeware utilities

[Vitalius]

I just found out about this thanks to my supervisor showing me it. I thought I'd share. 

Here is the page listing all the utilities (in a better format, because I'm not formatting all that after Ctrl + Shift + V). However, I can't find the download button on that page. I found a legit place to download it here. Go to the bottom and click the hyperlink where "Filename: Hirens.BootCD.15.2.zip". 

Some of it is old and useless (for Windows 8 for example), but other things are pretty cool and always useful. Some are for MS-DOS (yes, old), some are for Linux, and some are for Windows.

This is for those who don't want to read the full list linked above; it's an overview.

 

• Several Antivirus scanners. (Avira AntiVar Personal, Spybot Search & Destroy, Malwarebytes, etc.)
• Several Backup utilities. (CloneDisk, DiskImage, CopyWipe, Ghost 4 Linux, etc.)
• Multiple BIOS/CMOS tools. (!BIOS, DISKMAN, Kill CMOS, UniFlash, etc.)
• Many browser & file managers (7-Zip, Bulk Rename Utility, DOS navigator, etc.)
• Multiple cleaning utilitiles (CCleaner, Data Shredder, Duplicate File Finder, PC Decrappifier, etc.)
• A few Driver tools. (Device Doctor, Double Driver backup tool, etc.)
• A few editor tools. (Notepad++, Atlantis Word Processor, Quickview Pro, etc.)
• Some File System tools. (Filemon, NTFS Access, NTFS4DOS, ImDisk, etc.)
• Many Hard Disk Health testers & file destroyers. (Crystal Disk Info, Darik's Boot & Nuke, HDD Capacity Restore, HDD Scan, etc.)
• Some MBR alteration/checking utilities. (HDHacker, MBRWizard, Grub4Linux, Smart Boot Manager, etc.)
• A few MSDOS specific tools. (SCSI Support, DOS Tools, Firewire Support, etc.)
• Some Network monitoring programs. (Angry IP Scanner, Network Password Recovery, SmartSniff, PuTTy, etc.)
• A few Optimization tools. (Defraggler, MyDefrag, PageDefrag, & NT Registry Optimizer.)
• Some other specific utilities. (Mouse Emulator, Don't Sleep, Parted Magic, On Screen Keyboard, etc.)
• Some Partitioning specific programs. (eXtended FDisk, GParted, The Partition Resizer, Volume Serial Number Changer, etc.)
• A good amount of Key/Password cracking tools. (BulletPassView, NTPWD, ProduKey, WindowsGate, etc.)
• A few Process monitoring and management tools. (Dependency Walker, RKill, Unlocker, RunAsDate, etc.)
• Some Recovery applications. (DiskGenius, PartitionRecovery, TestDisk, UnstoppableCopier, etc.)
• Just enough Registry editing tools. (Fix HDC, RegShot, RegFromApp, ERUNT, etc.)
• Even a couple of Remote Control programs. (Teamviewer, & TightVNC.)
• A few encryption/decryption utilities. (Trucrypt, EncFS, DiskCryptor, etc.)
• Some OS Startup management tools. (Autoruns, HijackThis, StartupMonitor, etc.)
• A bunch of System Info. tools. (CPU-Z, GPU-Z, Speccy, PC Wizard, etc.)
• Many general testing tools. (Disk Speed, Memtest86, Prime95, Windows Memory Diagnostic, etc.)
• Some System setting tweaking programs. (KeyTweak, TweakUI, Disable AutoRun, Disable Compress Old FIles, etc.)

 

TL;DR: It's like the fricking Swiss Army Knife of Boot CDs. You need it? It likely has it.

It has some old useless (for modern OS' at least) stuff, but I saw a lot of stuff in there that is worth having. Like, a lot. I would get this if you want all this on one Disk/USB drive. I have no comment on if the NT stuff would work on the newer versions of Windows. Probably not, but not all the Windows stuff is for NT and I believe much of it will still work regardless.

Warning: The download is 600+MB. I can understand that file size though. Just thought I'd share. Enjoy.


@IdeaStormer (For work stuff.)
@wpirobotbuilder (For storage stuff.)
@alpenwasser (See directly above, & possible pinning of thread?)
@MG2R (See directly above.)

@Slick (For Benchmarking and stuff.)

Note that I'm not trying to spam you guys. Just thought this was pertinent to your interests and past times.

[Guest Kloaked]

 

 

I need.

 

Thanks for the info @Vitalius  B)

[Askew]

This looks great, the only thing I'm wondering is how many of the items within are going to have been updated substantially between the compiling of this disc in 2012 and present time?

[Vitalius]

This looks great, the only thing I'm wondering is how many of the items within are going to have been updated substantially between the compiling of this disc in 2012 and present time?

Probably not a lot, however I imagine it doesn't matter for many things while it does matter for other things (TrueCrypt is an example). It's best for working on other people's machines since they will likely be out-dated and thereby the programs on this disc will be more relevant. 

However, I don't think things like CPU-Z, GPU-Z, Speccy, or Prime95/Memtest86 need to be updated to be useful.

[megadarkwood]

You guys should also check out trinity boot CD

[Askew]

Probably not a lot, however I imagine it doesn't matter for many things while it does matter for other things (TrueCrypt is an example). It's best for working on other people's machines since they will likely be out-dated and thereby the programs on this disc will be more relevant. 

However, I don't think things like CPU-Z, GPU-Z, Speccy, or Prime95/Memtest86 need to be updated to be useful.

 

Ok cool, I was more or less expecting that to be the case for the utility side, just with the antivirus/malware being outdated on definitions, I only asked because I don't know what more than 50% of the utilities even are.

[wpirobotbuilder]

That is a long list of utilities! I've never even heard of most of them.

[IdeaStormer]

Been using Hiren's, Bart's, UBCD, UBCD4Win for years, they all have their pro's and con's but all good utils:

 

Bart's : http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

 

UBCD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

UBCD4Win: http://www.ubcd4win.com/

 

Then for Linux World:

 

Knoppix, Gparted, SLAX, and many others I don't want to dig up at the moment.

 

Good link none the less. There's a ton of apps out there, some are very specialized yet are advertised as a cover it all but they are not but still are good for that one thing.

 

You'd think we'd have a sticky for the good old utilities but nagh lets sticky another Off-Topic thread which are useful as spam is to e-mail :rolleyes:

[CornOnJacob]

I keep a multiboot flash drive with HBCD, SysRecCD, and a normal distro (usually Mint or Manjaro) and it is very useful. I'm glad more people know about these tools

[terrytek]

Hiren's been with me for years. A bit late, mate.