Favorite Freeware Thread

[heartswarm]

Post your favorite free programs here. These might be useful for other forum members. I'll put a list in this post.

 

The programs should be free of malware. If ad-supported, there must be an opt-out option in the installer itself. Provide a link and a brief description of the product.

 

 

AUDIO / VIDEO

 

VLC Media Player

Foobar 2000

Audacity

 

 

 

MESSAGING AND CHAT

 

Miranda IM

 

 

 

ANTI-VIRUS

 

Avast! Free Anti-virus

 

 

 

CLEANING AND TWEAKING

 

CCleaner

Defraggler

 

 

 

IMAGING

 

Photoscape

 

 

 

FILE SHARING

 

µTorrent

 

 

 

OFFICE

 

Evernote

Foxit Reader

 

 

 

GAMING

DOSBox (x86 Emulator with DOS)

 

 

 

COMPRESSION

 

7-Zip

 

 

 

CD AND DVD TOOLS

 

CDBurnerXP

Daemon Tools Lite

 

[heartswarm]

I'll start.

 

 

CCleaner - CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! :)

 

http://www.ccleaner.com/

 

Miranda IM - Miranda IM is an open-source multi protocol instant messenger client for Microsoft Windows. It's smaller, faster, easier!

 

http://www.miranda-im.org/

 

 

Foobar2000 - foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats.

 

http://www.foobar2000.org/

 

Avast! Free Antivirus (Avast! 5.0) - Avast Free Antivirus is based on multiple protective layers that work together to provide security. The product is designed for the average consumer who wants easy-to-use protection for basic email and web surfing. It is limited to home and non-commercial users.

 

New features match top detection with increased efficiency. Computer memory requirements for the new antivirus and antispyware engine have been cut in half. Scanning is 40 percent faster, saving both time and computer resources. Complete rootkit protection includes real-time detection to ward off initial installation, on-demand scanning and boot-time scans. The user friendly 5.0 has a new interface with easy-to-adjust settings, a context-sensitive help menu and graphs showing ongoing protection activities. Users can set the time and conditions for complete scans, with avast even waking up their computer from hibernation for midnight scans before putting it back to bed. Multiple shields prevent the spread of malware via email by checking incoming and outgoing emails for suspect content, identify malware by its anticipated behavior or by looking out for unusual activity and attempts at system modifications.

 

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

 

 

Photoscape - Photoscape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos.

 

Key Features

 

• Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a slideshow
  
• Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
  
• Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos
  
• Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo
  
• Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo
  
• Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo
  
• Print: Print portrait shots, carte de visites(CDV), passport photos
  
• Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces
  
• Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
  
• Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color
  
• Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
  
• Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
  
• Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper
  
• Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet
  

 

http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

 

 

VLC Media Player - VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac ...) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

 

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[Italian Plastic]

Audacity and VLC Media Player. So helpful!

[heartswarm]

µTorrent - µTorrent is the world's most popular BitTorrent client. Most of the features present in other BitTorrent clients are present in µTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet). Additionally, µTorrent supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification (compatible with Azureus 2.4.0.0 and above, BitComet 0.63 and above) and peer exchange.

 

µTorrent was written with efficiency in mind. Unlike many torrent clients, it does not hog valuable system resources - typically using less than 6MB of memory, allowing you to use the computer as if it weren't there at all. Additionally, the program itself is contained within a single executable less than 220 KB in size.

 

Various icon, toolbar graphic and status icon replacements are available, and creating your own is very simple. µTorrent also has support for localization, and with a language file present, will automatically switch to your system language. If your language isn't available, you can easily add your own, or edit other existing translations to improve them!

 

 

 

 

http://www.utorrent.com/

 

 

 

 

Evernote - Evernote is ready to collect all of your ideas, experiences, thoughts, and memories into an always-accessible place.

 

• Take down your inspirations and ideas as they happen
  
• Capture interesting webpages you see, images and all
  
• Snap photos of everything from whiteboards to wine labels
  

Then, find it all any time from your computer, phone, or the web!

 

(I find this really useful!)

 

http://www.evernote.com/

[Buxus vahlii]

This is not really "freeware" but this enables Firefox users to download any video they see on the internet.

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

[heartswarm]

This is not really "freeware" but this enables Firefox users to download any video they see on the internet.

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

 

 

 

seems like a useful addon!

[Buxus vahlii]

Would you say Avast! is better then AVG Free no_wow? I'm using AVG Free right now but if this Avast! is better...:wink3:

[SueDeNimes]

I'm using Avast for a while now and I'm really happy with it.

But I recommend to disable the audio notification for updates etc - I really freaked the first time that voice was speaking because I wasn't expecting it :lol:

[heartswarm]

Avast version 5 is out now, and I must say, it's way better than 4.8. It has a new interface that's more intuitive (in 4.8, the interface looked like a music player!) It uses less ram, and the scan speed has improved.

 

I haven't used AVG for years, so I could not say which is better, but I'm quite satisfied with Avast.

[Buxus vahlii]

I'm using Avast for a while now and I'm really happy with it.

But I recommend to disable the audio notification for updates etc - I really freaked the first time that voice was speaking because I wasn't expecting it :lol:

 

Yeah how do you do this?

[SueDeNimes]

Right-click on the little logo next to the clock --> program settings --> sounds --> disable sounds.

 

I don't have an English version so the names could be different, I just translated :)

[Cobalt]

For playing old DOS games, DOSBox eez best.

[Buxus vahlii]

Anyone have any freeware for converting audio files? Typically wave to MP3 ;)

[SueDeNimes]

XMedia Recode or SUPER or Audacity :)

[Buxus vahlii]

Thanks!

[SueDeNimes]

You're welcome.

Tell me if you have questions about them. Each program has its advantages and disadvantages depending on what you want to do :)

[Buxus vahlii]

I downloaded audacity just because it sounds the coolest and looks trustworthy.

[SueDeNimes]

That's a great one.

Have a look at the effects :awesome:

I use it mainly for enhancing and adding fade-in & -out.

Also awesome for editing long files to split them into multiple tracks.

 

When you extract, before you save the file, you can select the quality (options, below ok and abort)

[Puzzling]

7-Zip - An open source alternative to programs like WinZip and WinRAR. Supports a wide range of formats.

CDBurnerXP - A nice program for burning CDs and DVDs.

 

Defraggler - Defragment your hard drive once in a while to make your PC faster and more responsive. Windows also comes with its own defrag program (found under Accessories -> System Tools), but Defraggler's better overall.

 

Foxit Reader - A light-weight alternative to Adobe Reader.

[heartswarm]

Daemon Tools Lite

 

With DAEMON Tools you can back up your physical CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray discs into "virtual discs" or so called "disc image" files, which run directly on your hard drive. You can also work with images created by other burning programs! DAEMON Tools supports variety of image types.

[Cobalt]

I agree with the DAEMON Tools suggestion

[heartswarm]

thanks for the suggestions, guys!

 

 

 

OpenOffice.org 3

 

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

 

 

 

 

ImgBurn

 

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

 

 

 

Firefox 3.6

 

The Web is all about innovation, and Firefox sets the pace with dozens of new features to deliver a faster, more secure and customizable Web browsing experience for all.

 

User Experience. The enhancements to Firefox provide the best possible browsing experience on the Web. The new Firefox smart location bar, affectionately known as the "Awesome Bar," learns as people use it, adapting to user preferences and offering better fitting matches over time.

 

Performance. Firefox is built on top of the powerful new Gecko platform, resulting in a safer, easier to use and more personal product.

 

Security. Firefox raises the bar for security. The new malware and phishing protection helps protect from viruses, worms, trojans and spyware to keep people safe on the Web.

 

Customization. Everyone uses the Web differently, and Firefox lets users customize their browser with more than 5,000 add-ons.

[Cobalt]

Really? There's 3.6 now? I'm still running 3.0.17

[EmmaLouiseSmyth]

↑ The new firefox update is great (:

you can personalise the header.

Even with moving GIFs. :nice: