History

Portability
X-file File Management
Desktop Tools — Developer Tools
Miscellaneous Tools — Network & Security Tools
Tray Tools — A Comparison — Features — History — How To

The XPT is a collection of developer utilities. They were all developed by developers for developers, most often for personal use. And they just happen to be extremely well written. As the code is being used all the time (bootstrap) it is consistently and continually gone over, honed and tweaked. After all, the developers want to use these programs themselves, so they want the best possible performance and functionality available.

As developers normally run extremely heavy systems, an accent has always been on 'lean and mean'. These additional tools must use as little disk space and as little RAM as possible. And as the program authors are real developers and not amateurs trying their hand at writing programs, as they deal with operating system and coding contingencies on a daily and even hourly basis, you can know that the code is savvy to a degree not often found elsewhere.

Because all the tools are built with the 'lets get this one job done' attitude in mind, they all do their appointed job well and stick to that job, avoiding featurism and not confusing things unnecessarily - a condition which otherwise often leads to the three nasty B's: Bugs, Bloat, and the Blue Screen of Death.

And because their purpose is always strictly defined, they can often be used for tasks totally undreamt of at the time of their writing.

What do the Extreme Power Tools do? Above all, they make your box happier and make it run smoother. It might not be enough to just run the XPT - you might need to check the knowledge content of Radsoft for other good tips 'n' trix - but using these tools instead of the system defaults and instead of other ISV products you've tried will in general boost your system performance by a wide margin. Tests on unwitting users have consistently led to remarks such as 'but you're running this box with a faster CPU and more RAM!' And the XPT will make your box safer and healthier both today and tomorrow too.

As to their individual tasks - these differ. The XPT was not originally envisioned as a 'product', but was merely a collection of powerful applications collected and distributed in a very closed and exclusive group. No attempt has ever been made to 'commercialise' the product. In fact, the online website has consistently shied away from cheap marketing techniques. It is far more rewarding to know that the tools have ended up in the hands of people who understand them and appreciate them than that they have generated revenues.

There are tools which replace system defaults and there are tools which add to the system defaults when these are conspicuous in their absence. All told, they represent a subset of everything a developer needs on the desktop - with no 'overlapping', no attempts to re-invent the wheel, if other applicable and well-engineered products are available elsewhere. Each tool represents a real 'need': A need on the part of the developer at hand at the time, and a need adjudged to be still applicable to the populace at large at the time of the current release of the XPT.