Encrypting your most confidential files can be very easy, at least with the right application. Create a container; choose a password; drag, drop, done.

Sharing those containers is often more difficult, especially if the recipient needs to install a copy of your original encryption tool, and it’s not available for their platform.

"PDF MultiTool" sounds like it’s going to be yet another PDF toolkit: the usual set of basic functions, none of which work very well, which only exists at all because the developer hopes you'll install its assorted toolbars.

But no: this really is different. There's no adware here, no toolbars or similar irritations, and the feature list includes plenty of interesting extras which you'll rarely find elsewhere.

If your desktop is cluttered then you could create a few folders to hold shortcuts, important files, whatever you access regularly. That works, but it’s less convenient: you’re forced to open a folder to view the contents, then close it when you’re done.

Install Wincmder Shellex and just right-clicking a folder displays a menu listing its contents (shift+clicking gets you the previous context menu). Choose a shortcut or file and it launches as usual, no need to open the folder at all.

Viewing comics can be easy. Really, really easy. If you have a CBZ file, say, rename it to ZIP, open it in Explorer, and browse the images it contains -- simple.

That works well for occasional viewing, but if you’re a big comic fan, or just want the best reading experience, it’s worth installing a specialist tool like the free Comic Seer.

Photo editors for the Windows desktop typically compete on the length of their feature list: file formats support, range of selection tools, layer handling abilities, whatever it might be.

InPixio Free Photo Editor ignores almost all of that, and instead focuses on app-like ease of use, just providing a quick and easy way to tweak an image and share it with others.

Freeware developer NCH Software has released Express Animate, a key frame-based animation tool.

The program can import videos, images, text, shapes and audio tracks. Objects may be moved, resized or rotated, while key frame support gives smooth, high quality results.

Scripts and batch files are great for automating complex tasks, but they’re not so good at keeping you informed about their progress. Typically you’re forced to Alt+Tab back to the command prompt window to try and figure out what’s going on.

ToastNotification is a tiny console tool which offers an alternative, at least for Windows 8 users. It allows you to display toast notifications -- pop-up status messages which disappear after a few seconds -- from your own scripts.

If you’re a retro gaming fan then installing something like MAME gives you access to a host of classic arcade games on your PC.

You don’t need a modern PC to run some 25-year-old game, of course, but that’s where Lakka comes in. It’s a lightweight OpenELEC/ RetroArch-based Linux distribution which transforms small computers into retro games consoles.

Let’s be frank: Microsoft’s command line environments are terrible. When we’re having to wait until Windows 10 to get proper Ctrl+C/ Ctrl+V copy/ paste support -- something which the GUI has had for as long as many PC users have been alive -- you know there’s a problem.

Moving to PowerShell doesn’t in itself improve the situation, but at least you get access to PSReadLine, an excellent PowerShell module which does a lot to improve the command line editor.

Image Uploader is a free Windows application which uploads your chosen selected files (not just images, despite the name) to any of 50+ image or file hosting sites: Flickr, Imageshack, Imgur, Picasa, Twitpic, Dropbox, Google Drive, SendSpace and generic FTP servers, amongst many others.

Getting started is easy. Once you’ve set up a default service, you can upload files or folders by dragging and dropping them onto the program window, or right-clicking them in Explorer and selecting Image Uploader > Upload…

NirSoft has announced the release of SimpleWMIView 1.0, a compact portable tool which uses Windows Management Instrumentation to uncover a vast amount of information about your PC.

If you’re familiar with WMI query generators then you’ll have no problems here. Choose your target computer, namespace, query and query type (synchronous/ asynchronous) and the results are displayed in the usual NirSoft table.

Sysprog’s free SSH client SmarTTY has been updated to version 2.0 with in-place file editing for your remote files. There’s no need to try to find your way around a Linux tool, just hit File > Open and work on your files in a Windows-style editor.

The program now supports accessing multiple sessions from the same window, each with its own set of tabs and file transfers.

Talk to mathematicians and they’ll do their best to explain how beautiful their chosen field can be, but it probably won’t make any difference: if you’re not quite so expert, you won’t have the faintest idea what they’re talking about.

3D Fractals have the power to change all that. Some will appreciate the way they shift the geometrical properties of the complex plane and shift them into 3D space. But the rest of us can enjoy spectacular fractal art which is a mix of H R Giger’s sketchpad, old sci-fi novel cover art, and the weirdest dreams Terry Gilliam has ever had.

If you’re a web developer, interested in security, or just trying to troubleshoot a server problem, then it can sometimes be useful to see exactly what’s powering a website.

Wappalyzer is a free browser extension for Chrome and Firefox which identifies servers, content management systems, eCommerce platforms, analytics tools, advertising frameworks and more.

CmapTools is a free cross-platform application (Windows, OS X, iPad) for creating and sharing concept maps, structured diagrams which represent various concepts and show how they’re linked.

Essentially they’re a simple type of mind map which can help you with anything from brainstorming new ideas to teaching knowledge models to others. And if that still doesn’t help -- or you’d just like to see one yourself -- then CmapTools has a concept map about itself which you can view here.