"Well, it worked in Windows 95!"
2005 - 2006 - 2007
2008 - 2009 - 2010
2011 - 2012 - 2013
Speedfan is a great hardware monitor which can automatically control fan speeds, warn when temperatures are rising in the case, and do a SMART scan of your hard drives. A 'must have'.. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Piriform Speccy tells you what is inside the box and with great accuracy.. http://www.piriform.com/speccy
Networx shows download/upload bandwidth used.. http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/
Piriform Recuva is probably the best file recovery utility around and is free too.. http://www.piriform.com/recuva
Treesize shows you what you have got, where it is, and how much space it is all using.. http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml
Windows 8 alternative start menus.. Classic Shell.. http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/
Stardock Start8.. http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/
EaseUS Partition Manager is the best free utility of its type.. http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm
YoWindow, a weather utility which appears to work with the Windows 8 desktop.. http://yowindow.com/
Gas Buddy.. http://www.londongasprices.com/VistaGadget.aspx
NetMeter.. http://addgadget.com/
Network Monitor.. http://samwtucker.com/
Asst'd gadgets.. http://gallery.djinngo.com/gallery/index.html
Weather fun.. http://yowindow.com/