Getting clipboard text or images into a file normally requires some help from an application.You might launch Notepad, paste in some text, click File > Save As, browse to the folder you need and enter a file name.

Pastextra is a tiny Explorer extension which enables pasting clipboard text or images directly to a file, no extra steps required.

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SysGauge (32-bit) is a highly configurable system and performance monitor for Windows.

At first glance the program looks much like any other monitor gadget. Click the CPU, memory, disk or network counter, its current, average and minimum values are displayed, and a line graph shows how your counter is changing in real time. Yawn.

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Dynamic Theme is a free Windows 10 app which enables using Bing or Windows Spotlight images as desktop wallpaper, on the Windows Lock Screen, and more.

Installation is simple, and entirely safe. Dynamic Theme doesn’t change any of your settings immediately, and so you’re not left wondering how to get everything back to normal.

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CrowdStrike has updated its Windows malware hunter CrowdInspect to version 1.5. The new version now scans all running processes for malware, not just those communicating over the network, quickly displaying a detailed report.

The most immediately useful feature is a column representing the VirusTotal score for each file. It’s color-coded to quickly highlight likely threats, and a right-click option provides a link to the full web report.

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Freeware developer Sordum has unveiled NetDisabler, a freeware Windows application which can disable and restore internet access on demand.

The program stands out immediately for its use of three web-blocking techniques: disabling the network adapter, blocking via DNS or using the Windows Firewall.

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Windows 10 finally brought virtual desktops to the PC with its Task View feature, but although the system is easy to use, it’s a little underpowered.

Windows 10 Virtual Desktop Enhancer is an open-source portable application which extends Task View with some small but welcome extras.

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Map Puzzle is a portable freeware map downloader for Windows. This isn’t just another Google and Bing app. It can also grab data from Arcgis, MapQuest, OSM, ToolServer, various government and specialist sites, and with many variations: satellite images, regular maps (with or without labels), transport maps, artistic maps and more.

Download and launch the single tiny executable (<500KB) and you’re presented with a cluttered mass of boxes, buttons and lists. It looks intimidating, but don’t be put off -- basic operations are very simple.

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Following yesterday’s Sysmon 6 release, Microsoft Sysinternals has announced new releases of Autoruns, Process Explorer, Process Monitor, AccessChk, LiveKD and BgInfo.

Autoruns now lists print monitors, the DLLs responsible for sending data from the Windows print spooler to the kernel mode print driver. We tried this on a Windows 10 laptop and found 10 installed monitors, mostly relating to PDF and other virtual printers.

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Microsoft Sysinternals has shipped Sysmon 6.0, a powerful system monitor for Windows.

The new release can log processes which are accessing other processes, a simple way to detect automated Mimikatz-like credential dumping.

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Hyper is a very configurable open-source Electron-based terminal. On Windows it uses the regular command prompt by default, but can be tweaked to support PowerShell or whatever shell you’d prefer.

Launch the program and it just looks like a regular command prompt with a slightly different font and window style. But wait: Hyper is powered by Chromium, and some familiar Chrome-type features are just a tap or two away.

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Finished with that USB key? Unplugging it risks losing data, so in theory you should click the Windows "Safely remove hardware" icon, choose the drive, and wait to be told it’s safe to unplug.

Unfortunately, the Safely Remove Hardware system is very strict about the drive types it supports. SATA or eSATA drives, fixed drives with a USB connections, even some USB keys won’t appear on the list, and the only guaranteed safe way to swap them out is to grind your way through Device Manager.

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PeaUtils is a simple suite of file processing tools from Giorgio Tani, the developer of PeaZip.

The program can create hashes, process checksums, analyze and report on files, split and join files, display files in a hex view, securely delete confidential data, wipe drive free space, and more.

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Need to enter a Unicode symbol on your PC? Then launch the Character Map, find what you need to the clipboard and copy it to the clipboard. Sounds easy, right? Until you try it.

The reality is the Character Map gives you hundreds of characters to examine, organised in a way which doesn’t always match their purpose, and displayed in such a small font that you’ll barely be able to see some of them at all.

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Portable network toolkit TCP Monitor Plus has had its first update since 2015, adding a snapshot feature and some handy display tweaks.

The program opens with a scrolling graph of network traffic, and assorted low-level stats on bandwidth, speeds, and packets sent and received.

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Movavi Share Online is a free application for quickly uploading images or video files to Facebook, YouTube, VKontakte, S3 and FTP.

Choose your upload destination and you’re able to set up authentication as usual: sign in to Google or Facebook, provide your FTP host name, user name and password, and so on.

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