Tools for System Administrators
Software
OctoDNS: Managing DNS Zones the Way GitOps Teams Actually Want DNS isn’t usually the problem — until it is. Someone updates a record by hand, forgets to copy it to the secondary zone, or fat-fingers a TTL. And suddenly, services don’t resolve, emails bounce, or CDNs go dark. OctoDNS helps bring order to all that mess. What Makes It Different
SaltStack on Windows: Not Always Smooth — But Still Worth It Let’s be honest — managing Windows at scale can be painful. Scripts don’t run the same way twice, permissions break for no reason, and remote tools either do too much or not enough. SaltStack? It sits somewhere in the middle. Once it’s working, it really works. What’s Going On Here?
SaltStack on Windows: Not Always Smooth — But Still Worth It Let’s be honest — managing Windows at scale can be painful. Scripts don’t run the same way twice, permissions break for no reason, and remote tools either do too much or not enough. SaltStack? It sits somewhere in the middle. Once it’s working, it really works. What’s Going On Here?
Rudder: When You Need to Know Your Systems Haven’t Gone Rogue It’s always the little things. A config tweak here, a missing user permission there — nobody notices until something breaks. And by the time someone logs in to check, it’s already late. That’s the kind of problem Rudder was made for. Not a magic bullet. Not the flashiest interface. But it works — and that’s saying a lot in environments where “compliance” usually just means praying nothing drifted.
ZBack: When You Just Want to Copy Folders Without Breaking Anything Some days, all that’s needed is a way to copy files from one place to another — no databases, no background services, no proprietary formats. That’s what ZBack is about. It’s a tiny, portable tool that helps you mirror, back up, or sync folders with minimal setup and zero fuss. What It Really Is
Iperius Backup Free: When You Just Need a Backup That Works Some tools try to do everything. Iperius? It sticks to what matters — backing up your files where you tell it, without nagging for upgrades or locking features behind a paywall. The free version may not clone disks or upload to the cloud, but for simple, dependable backups? It holds its ground. What’s the Deal?
Areca Backup: Old-School File Backups That Still Get the Job Done There are fancier tools out there. Some hook into cloud drives, some try to guess what you want. Areca doesn’t do that. It’s just a solid little app for backing up folders — quietly, reliably, and without making a mess. What’s It About?
Genie Timeline Free: Automatic Backups Without the Fuss Sometimes you don’t want to think about backups. You just want them to happen — quietly, in the background, without daily babysitting. Genie Timeline Free fits into that space. It’s not packed with power-user features, but for basic file safety? It does the job. What It Actually Does
Open365: When You Want a Self-Hosted Office Suite — and You’re Not a Google Fan Let’s face it — not every organization wants to hand over its documents and emails to a cloud giant. For those looking to keep things local, but still have the tools people expect (email, calendar, document editing), Open365 once tried to be that all-in-one answer. What Was It?
MailEnable: A Mail Server for Windows That Doesn’t Overcomplicate Things Sometimes, setting up email turns into a whole separate job. Between Exchange licensing and Linux-based mail stacks, it’s easy to feel stuck in the middle. MailEnable comes in as a sort of “just enough” solution — especially for folks who want something native on Windows and don’t want to wrestle with config files all day. So What’s It About?
Xeams: Email Server Meets Spam Filter — and Doesn’t Require Linux to Work Running your own mail server is already tricky. Running one with decent spam filtering and a usable UI? Even harder. Xeams offers a way to get both — in a single package, and yes, even on Windows. What’s the Idea Here?
hMailServer: A Full Email Server on Windows — Without the Bloat Setting up a mail server sounds like trouble — Linux configs, Postfix voodoo, endless DNS tweaks. But hMailServer makes it possible to run a functional email system right on Windows. No need to touch a terminal, no need for 10 layers of abstraction. So, What Is hMailServer?
Terminals: The Remote Access App That Still Does the Job It’s not flashy. It hasn’t been updated in years. But when you need to RDP into a bunch of servers, SSH into a switch, or VNC into an old box across the network — Terminals gets it done. Quietly. Consistently. So, What Is It?
My Commander: Tiny File Manager That’s More Useful Than It Looks It doesn’t look fancy. It doesn’t try to replace your desktop. But My Commander (also known as MyCO) has one job: help you manage files fast — and it does that with surprising precision, considering the whole thing weighs less than a megabyte. What It Actually Is
Wyns SSH Box: When All You Want Is a Terminal in a Browser — Nothing More There are days when SSHing into a server is a whole production. VPN, jump host, security group changes — it adds up fast. Sometimes all you want is to just get in, type some commands, and leave. That’s pretty much what Wyns SSH Box is for. What This Thing Actually Does
Explorer++: File Manager for Windows That Does More Than It Looks Sometimes, Windows Explorer just doesn’t cut it. You’re juggling folders, clicking back and forth, opening multiple windows just to compare two directories. Explorer++ steps in as a lightweight, portable, tabbed file manager — and frankly, it makes basic file work faster and less annoying. What It Actually Is
Open-AudIT: Inventory the Network You Didn’t Know You Had In IT, half the battle is knowing what’s even on the network. That printer someone plugged in last year? The forgotten VM with root access? The old laptop running XP in the finance corner? These things don’t announce themselves. Open-AudIT helps you find them — before they cause trouble. What It Does (In Plain Terms)
PA Server Monitor Free: Watch Your Servers Without Watching Them All Day Some tools want to build graphs. Others want to push dashboards. PA Server Monitor Free just wants to tell you when something breaks — and that’s why it still has a place, even in modern IT stacks. What It Actually Is
Xitoring Agent: Lightweight System Monitoring Without the Fuss There are plenty of monitoring tools out there — some way too complex, others too basic. Xitoring Agent sits somewhere in the middle. It’s simple, it’s fast, and it gives you the data you actually care about: CPU, memory, disk, network, uptime — all wrapped into a dashboard that doesn’t make your eyes bleed. What Is It?
Checkmk Raw Edition: Monitoring That Stays Out of the Way Until You Need It If you’ve ever looked at Nagios and thought, “this could be easier,” you’re not alone. Checkmk Raw Edition takes the core of Nagios — its speed and plugin ecosystem — and wraps it in a saner, more usable interface. No magic. No vendor lock-in. Just solid monitoring that works. What It Actually Is
SoftPerfect Network Scanner: Quick Scans with Deep Insight Some tools just get it right. SoftPerfect Network Scanner blends speed, detail, and flexibility into a utility that’s as much for quick sweeps as it is for in-depth audits. Whether it’s a class-C subnet or a list of scattered IPs, it finds what’s online, shows what’s open, and digs a little deeper — without being noisy or hard to use.
It’s a Windows-native scanner, but far from basic. Hostname resolution, port checks, SNMP queries, hidd
Angry IP Scanner: The Fastest Way to Know Who’s on the Network Sometimes all it takes is a quick scan. No dashboards, no graphs, no overhead — just a fast sweep across the subnet to see what’s alive, what’s open, and what’s responding. That’s where Angry IP Scanner earns its name — and its reputation.
It’s a small, cross-platform network scanner that does one thing extremely well: ping a range of IPs, report what answers, and let you drill down if needed. It doesn’t care if the network is new,
LanTopoLog: When You Just Need to See What’s Plugged in — and Where There are days when flashy dashboards and cloud-native stacks just don’t cut it. What’s really needed is a clear, no-nonsense view of the network — something that says “this device is here, plugged into that port.” That’s exactly where LanTopoLog comes in.
It’s a lightweight Windows utility that maps network topologies, keeps an eye on connected devices, and makes sense of tangled switch configurations — without demanding compl
PRTG Freeware: Keeping an Eye on the Network Without Breaking the Budget Every network has blind spots — those moments when something slows down or breaks and nobody knows why… until it’s too late. PRTG Freeware steps in as a smart, approachable way to monitor devices, traffic, and uptime before things go sideways.
It’s the same core engine as the commercial version, but limited to 100 sensors — which is more than enough for small to mid-size networks that want real-time visibility without sett
AnyDesk Free: Fast Remote Access Without the Overhead Sometimes, you just need to connect. Not to manage a fleet of machines or deploy patches at scale — just to help someone click the right button, check a service, or reboot a frozen desktop. AnyDesk Free is built for exactly that.
It’s lightweight, quick to install, and works across platforms — Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, even Raspberry Pi. The free edition skips team management and user roles, but for fast, frictionless remote suppo
Wayk Bastion: Secure Remote Access Built for Teams There’s remote access — and then there’s secure, auditable, and centralized remote access. Wayk Bastion, developed by Devolutions, takes the second route. It’s not just a screen control tool; it’s an entire self-hosted remote access platform, designed for companies that care about access governance, logging, and keeping sessions inside the network.
Unlike basic desktop sharing tools, Bastion gives full control over who can connect, when, and ho
LiteManager Free: Remote Access That Gets the Basics Right Not every remote desktop tool needs to come with a subscription model, cloud logins, or constant nags for “Pro.” LiteManager Free takes a different route — offering stable, straightforward access to remote machines without fuss, and without charging a cent for up to 30 devices.
It’s designed for IT support, sysadmins, and anyone who needs to manage multiple computers from a single console. Install the server on the target machine, the v
Sunlogin Remote: Remote Access Without the Hassle Sometimes, all that’s needed is a way to get into a remote machine — quickly, reliably, and without opening ports or wrestling with VPNs. Sunlogin Remote does just that. It’s not trying to reinvent remote desktop access — it just makes it smoother, especially in setups where simplicity is the goal.
The tool works across NAT, doesn’t care if the target has a static IP, and doesn’t ask for domain infrastructure. Install the service, link the devic
SpyShelter Free: The Kind of Protection That Watches What You Can’t See Sometimes the threat isn’t in a file or a download. It’s what an app does after it’s already running — silently logging keys, hijacking your clipboard, injecting code into trusted processes. That’s the gap SpyShelter Free tries to fill. And frankly, it does it well.
It’s not a traditional antivirus. It won’t scan your disk or nag you about updates. What it does instead is quietly sit between your OS and everything else — wa
NetCrunch: Monitoring That Doesn’t Waste Time There’s a moment in every IT department where someone finally says, “We need to start watching this stuff properly.” And then comes the usual flood of tools: some open-source half-stack, a few agents, manual configs, and dashboards that only one guy understands. NetCrunch skips all that.
It’s a monitoring platform that installs fast, finds what’s on your network, and just… starts working. No compiling. No duct-taping pieces together. You fire it u
Genie Timeline Free: Automatic Backups Without the Fuss Sometimes you don’t want to think about backups. You just want them to happen — quietly, in the background, without daily babysitting. Genie Timeline Free fits into that space. It’s not packed with power-user features, but for basic file safety? It does the job. What It Actually Does
Wazuh: When Log Noise Turns Into Real Signals Every network leaves a trail — logs, events, user actions, system tweaks. Most of the time, nobody looks. Not until something breaks. Wazuh is what happens when you stop ignoring that noise and start making sense of it.
It’s not a single-purpose tool. It’s more like a collection of things glued together — log analysis, file change detection, intrusion alerts, vulnerability checks, compliance tracking — all wrapped into a system that actually talks t
UTM on Windows: macOS-Style Virtualization, Reimagined for x86 UTM started as a macOS app built on QEMU, making it easy to run virtual machines on Apple Silicon. But what many don’t realize is — UTM also works on Windows. It brings the same user-friendly wrapper, smart defaults, and cross-platform VM handling to a platform where QEMU has long been powerful… but never exactly approachable.
UTM isn’t trying to replace Hyper-V or VMware. It’s more about giving people a clean, GUI-driven way to run
Multipass: A Quick Way to Get Ubuntu VMs Without the Usual Fuss Let’s be honest — sometimes all you need is a clean Linux machine. No Dockerfile, no dual boot, no massive VM setup. Just a fresh Ubuntu box you can poke around in, test something, break it, and move on. That’s pretty much what Multipass is made for.
It’s a tiny tool from Canonical that spins up real Ubuntu VMs on your machine with one command. And not just once — you can create five, ten, destroy them, rebuild them, mount folders,
Hyper-V Manager: Built-In Virtualization for Windows That Still Gets the Job Done It’s not flashy. It doesn’t have the most modern UI. But Hyper-V Manager has one big advantage over most virtualization tools — it’s already there.
If you’re running Windows 10/11 Pro, or any modern Windows Server, chances are Hyper-V is just waiting to be enabled. And once it is, you get access to a full Type 1 hypervisor — no downloads, no licenses, no extra software.
Whether it’s spinning up test environments,
Virtuozzo: Container Virtualization with a Proven Track Record Long before containers became trendy, Virtuozzo was already shipping them to production. Originally developed in the early 2000s, it pioneered operating system–level virtualization long before Docker or Kubernetes hit the scene. And while trends shifted, Virtuozzo quietly kept evolving — powering hosting providers, VPS platforms, and private clouds across the globe.
At its core, Virtuozzo combines high-density containers with tradit