Windows PC - Free Software List

Updated 15-July-2007

Since I seem to have always been the family IT geek who is pimped out to relatives and pumped for help, I've decided to post a list of free software that I feel any Windows machine should have.

Make sure that Windows has all the latest fixes installed. Run Windows Update from Internet Explorer, under the Tools menu.

Also make sure that there is enough memory. If there is less than 512MB, then install more. Otherwise, the machine will run like shit.

Install Anti-Virus and Spyware removal software first. Make sure there are no viruses or spies installed.

Security > Anti Virus:

• AVG Free Edition[GriSoft] - Anti-virus
• Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Classic[Avira] - Anti-virus
• Avast! 4 Home Edition[ALWIL] - Anti-virus

Below are free, online, virus scanners for periodic Virus Scans:

• Symantec Security Check[Norton] - These guys make Norton Anti-virus!!!
• BitDefender[] - Can only use with MS Internet Explorer because of ActiveX
• Trend Micro Housecall[Trend Micro]
• Panda Software Activescan[Panda Software]

Security > Anti Spy Ware:

• Ad-Aware SE[Lavasoft] - Spyware detection and removal
• SpyWare Blaster[JavaCool] - Prevent installation of spyware programs

Security > Windows Vulnerabilities:
Windows often comes with services enabled that are not needed and leave it vulnerable to attack. So it is a good idea to disable unneeded services, or to modify the default options.

• DCOMbobulator [GRC] - Disable Windows DCOM service
• UnPlug n’ Pray [GRC] - Disable Windows PnP service
• Shoot The Messenger [GRC] - Disable Windows Messenger service

Security > Firewall:

• Zone Alarm [ZoneLabs] - Firewall
• Leaktest [GRC] - Make sure that your firewall is working from the inside!
• Shields Up! [GRC] - Test your firewall from outside.

Security > Pop Up Blocking:

• Hosts File [MVPS] - A replacement 'HOSTS' file for you Windows that will stop most parasite software and pop ups from getting going. Simple, free, and highly effective!
• Google Toolbar for IE [Google] - Popup suppression for Internet Explorer

Security > Encryption and Passwords:

• 4U Only [Dillobits] - Password Manager
• TrueCrypt [TrueCrypt] - The best encryption tool out there. An absolute must of you have a USB flash drive!
• Perfect Passwords [GRC] - Excellent source for perfect passwords. Especially handy for creating passwords for encryption (see TrueCrypt).

Security > Anti-Phishing & Scams:

• OpenDNS [] - Smarter and safer DNS service to help prevent you from becoming a phish scame victim.

Video Players

• VLC [Video LAN] - Video player Notes: Will play pretty much all video and audio formats on the planet.
• Windows Media Player [Microsoft] - Audio and video player Notes: MS’s media player. Does OK. Version 9 is the highest that will run on Win98
• QuickTime [Apple] - Video player

Audio Players

• Shockwave Player [Macromedia] -Play Shockwave Audio Streams
• iTunes [Apple] - The best player.. comes bundled with Quicktime. Also works as an excellent ID3 tag editor.

Audio Rippers

• Audio Grabber [] - Best Ripper out there when coupled with LAME MP3
• LAME MP3 [] - The best codec for encoding MP3 files from your CD collection. You need to install the LAME binary image on your computer, then configure Audio Grabber to use it.
• Media Monkey Standard [Ventis Media] - Rip Audio CD's to MP3. Does a pretty good job and is it little easier to use and Audio Grabber and LAME.

Audio Editors

• Audacity [] - A free audio editor. Handy for editing MP3 files to get rid of ads, junk, etc.

Image Viewing & Management

• FastStone Image Viewer[FastStone] - Image Browser
• FastStone Screen Capture[FastStone] - Save screen shots
• FastStone Max View[FastStone] - Fast Image Viewer
• FastStone Max View[FastStone] - Batch Photo Resizer
• Picasa2 [Google] - Photo album management
• Fotki [Fotki] - Internet photo album sharing - better than Flikr!

Drawing Programs

• Paint.net [Washington State Univ.] - Bit Mapped Drawing Program Note: Works on Win2K or WinXP only.
• Gimp [GNU] - Photo Editor (Like Adobe Photoshop)
  
• Alibre Design Express [Alibre] - 3D Solid Modeling CAD software.
• Inkscape [] - Vector Drawing Program (Like Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X).

Internet Applications > Web Browser

• Firefox [Mozilla Foundation] - Web Browser Note: After FF is installed, there are a number of plugins, themes, and extensions that can be installed to increase the functionality of FF. The plugins needed are all listed on this sheet. They are Acrobat Reader, Flash Player, Java, Quicktime, Real Player, Shockwave, and Windows Media Player.
• Google Toobar for Firefox [Google] - A better Google search tool bar. Get rid of the search box that comes with Firefox and use this instead.
• Flash Player [Macromedia] - Play Flash animations

Internet Applications > Email

• GMail [Google] - Web based email client.
• Thunderbird [Mozilla Foundation] - Email client

Internet Applications > RSS Reader

• Google Reader[Google] - Web based RSS Aggregator. Easy to use and very handy. The best way to keep up with your favorite blogs and news sources.
  

Internet Application > FTP

• FileZilla [SourceForge] - FTP Client
• Serv-U [Rhinosoft] - FTP Server (easy to use).

Internet Application > P2P (Peer to peer file sharing)

• BitTorrent [BitTorrent Inc] - Internet File Sharing

Internet Application > VoIP and IM

• Skype [eBay] - The universal way to make free phone calls world wide. Be sure to configure your profile for privacy. Otherwise lot of bored Chinese teenagers will call you to practice their English.

File Readers & Management

• Ultimate ZIP 2.7 [Ultimate ZIP] - Manage compressed files. Get 2.7, the sponsored version.
• Rename-It! [Werner BEROUX] - Batch filename manipulator
• Edit Pad Lite [JG Soft] - Text Editor. Much better than Notepad!

Abobe Acrobat PDF

• Acrobat Reader [Adobe] - The official PDF reader... slow and fat.
• PDFcreator [SourceForge] - Ad Free open-source PDF creator.
• PDF995 [] - Create your own PDF files.

Alternatives to Adobe's bloated and slow PDF Reader:

• PDF SpeedUp [] - Use this with Adobe's reader to make it run much faster!
• FoxIt Reader []
• PDF Action Reader []
• Brava Reader []
• eXPert PDF Reader []
• PDF Action Reader []

Misc. Utilities:

• JRE (Java Runtime Environment) [Sun] - Run Java applications and applets
• DirectX 9.0 [Microsoft] - Graphics enhancement
• SyncBack Freeware [Bright Sparks] - PC Backup/restore utility.
• WinDirStat [SourceForge] - Windows Directory Statistics. - An easy graphical way to see where all your disk space is being used. Very handy for finding wasteful downloads you forgot about.
  

Windows OS Advanced Utilities

• Atomic Clock Sync [Chaos Software] - For Win98 - Keep your PC's clock in sync. Note: WinXP has a sync feature built into the clock. You just need to config & enable it.
• CC Cleaner [CC Cleaner] - Remove unneeded files from Windows system.
• Power Toys for Windows XP [Microsoft] - Clever little enhancements to Windows from the brains at Microsoft. These are things that should have been put in the official release, but were not.
• Startup Mechanic [OpenSoft] - Speed up tool - analysis of start up procedures.
• Ultimate Boot CD [Source Forge] - Utility to boot PC and fix things when all else fails.
• RegClean [Microsoft] - Speed up Windows by stripping junk from registry.
• TweakNow RegCleaner Standard [Tweak Now!] - Speed up Windows by stripping junk from registry.
• BelArc Advisor [Belarc] - Create a detailed report of your PC's configuration. Very handy report to give to tech support so they can see what you have on your machine.
• SysInternals Utilities [Microsoft] - Advanced and free untilties for advanced users to manage the operating system. Not for amatures!

Remote and Secure Access:

• Hamachi VPN [GoToMyPc] - The best and easiest VPN system out there! As Steve Gibson says, "Hamachi Rocks!"
• Tight VNC [Tight VNC Software] - Virtual Network Computing Server. Allows remote access and control of PC from another computer on the internet. Note: Install the client on the controlling PC. Install the server on the controlled machine.
• No-IP Free Dynamic DNS Service [No-IP.com] - Static domain name for leased IP addresses. Note: Used to find a computer on the Internet.
• No-IP Dynamic DNS Client [No-IP.com] - Needed for VNC clients to easily find the VNC server. Note: Install this client on the machine you want to access. The same one with the VNC server.
• Be sure to configure these programs to not run automatically!!! They should only be manually started when needed to allow a trusted guest to gain access to your PC.

Networking

• Network Stumbler [Net Stumbler] - WiFi (802.11a/b) Network Finder

Applications

• Google Docs & Spreadsheet[Google] - Online only Word processor & spreadsheet. Quick and easy.(Compatible with MS Word & MS Excel).
• Open Office [Sun] - Word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program (Compatible with MS Office).
  
• Palm Desktop [Palm] - Solid PIM (contacts, appointments, notes) replacement for Microsoft's Outlook.
• Google Earth [Google] - I can't say enough about this most amazing program. Wow!
• FreeMind [SourceForge] - An excellent Mind Mapping application. Very easy to use and handy for planning and organizing complex subjects.
  

Games:

• Arcade! Classic Arcade Pack [Neave] - Classic games Asteroids, Packman, Pong, Snake, Space Invaders, & Tetris.
• Su Doku [Microride] - Addicting numeric 'crossword' puzzle Use this to make new games, or to solve those in the newspaper.

Products Worth Paying For:
Some products are worth every dollar they charge. I would not hesitate for a minute to buy these. I've added this list to the bottom of the page since this page is dedicated to free software for home Windows users.

• MS Office Suite [Microsoft] - Word for word processing, and Excel for a spreadsheet. You don't need to go buy the lastest version. Office Suite versons 2000, 2003, or XP, though no longer supported, are excellent products and can be bought on eBay for not very much money.
• SpinRite [GRC] - The best insurance against hard drive failures and problems. Cheap at twice the price.