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DownThemAll (tested v1.0.3)
Firefox download manager
Developer: Nils Maier, Federico Parodi and Stefano Verna
OS: Windows/Mac/Linux (via Firefox)
Price: Free
Site: downthemall.net

Sometimes you'll come across a website with lots of links, and you want or need to download the whole lot of them. Less resourceful computer users might start clicking and saving links one at a time, thus chaining them to the computer until the task is complete. Some of them might throw their hands up and declare the task impossible. But thanks to a handy little Firefox extension called DownThemAll, downloading a long list of links from a website can be quick and painless.

As the name suggests, DownThemAll is designed to grab all the links on a webpage and automatically download them. The extension has a laundry list of options that make it easy to define exactly what should and should not be downloaded, and how the download process should go. You can use preset filters to download only music, video or text files, or filter by file extension. There are also settings to limit the number of simultaneous downloads, in case you're worried about overloading your internet connection.

The status display in DownThemAll is far more informative than the standard Firefox one, showing exactly what parts of a file you've already downloaded and a line graph showing your transfer rate over time. DownThemAll also boasts the ability to accelerate your downloads by using multiple connections, though in the broadband era this feature isn't as useful as it once was. For those special cases when Firefox's download manager isn't enough, you'll be glad you had DownThemAll.

MailStore Home (tested v2.7.2)
E-mail backup utility
Developer: deepinvent Software
OS: Windows
Price: Free for non-commercial use
Site: http://www.mailstore.com/en/mailstore-home.aspx

Chances are you've collected several e-mail accounts over the years from workplaces, schools and all sorts of webmail services. With so many messages scattered across so many accounts, keeping all your correspondence in one place can be an awfully tough task. And should you ever decide to back up all your e-mail for safekeeping, good luck sorting through the procedures for the mail clients and services you use.

MailStore solves this problem by offering a one-stop shop for your e-mail backup needs. It can download and archive mail from a wide variety of sources, including desktop e-mail clients like Outlook and Thunderbird, corporate e-mail systems like Exchange, and any web service that offers POP3 or IMAP access, including GMail. You set up profiles for each of the services you need to access – one for your desktop client, one for each of your webmail accounts, and so on – and schedule backups or run backup tasks manually.

The major flaw with MailStore Home is the limit of three backup profiles. For more profiles, you have to purchase the Home Office version, a whopping $500 (U.S.) for the minimum of five user licenses. You can also circumvent the limit by using a desktop client to download mail from several accounts at once while using only one profile. If you fall under this limit, however, MailStore's basic functionality is incredibly handy and well worth recommending to anyone interested in keeping archives of their e-mail.

Folder View (tested v2.1)
Quick folder access utility
Developer: MediaVilla / Wouter van Wijk
OS: Windows
Price: Free
Site: folderview.com

Windows tries its best to keep novice users confined to a small subset of folders on the hard drive: My Documents, My Music, My Photos, etc. If you're the type of user who doesn't stray far from these home folders, then filing and finding your files is easy. But for more experienced users who like to organize their hard drives in their own particular way, things can get a bit messier. Hopping between different folders every time you save a download or a new document is a tedious process, especially when those folders are buried several levels deep in the folder tree.

Folder View attempts to make accessing your favourite folders as simple as possible. Basically, Folder View creates a menu pointing to a user-defined set of folders, and then places that menu in practically every place you'd want it – in right-click menus and a toolbar in Windows Explorer, in a system tray application, and even in open and save file dialogs.

One caveat with Folder View's setup involves the concept of a “main folder.” Folder View reads all the shortcuts and folders inside the main folder to build your list of favourite folders. It defaults to using My Documents for this purpose, which is less than ideal because it may contain folders you don't need or want in your folder list. Better to use a new, empty folder created specifically for Folder View.

Despite this misstep, Folder View is a handy utility that will grow on you very quickly, especially if your filing system is very complex.