501 replies to this topic

[rridgely]

Ok, Here we go. Lets compile a list of the best freeware that we know (please include links and a short description ). Also make sure it is malware free! I see some great stuff on this forum and if we put all of the great programs in the same place not only will it be easier for us but for the new people who come to this forum every day.

My favorites:

Open Office 2.0
A replacement to ms office and a money saver.
http://download.open.../680/index.html

CD burner xp pro
(this was reccomended to me buy agumon)- the name says it all
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/index.php

Picasa 2
the best photo organizer ever! with great simple photo editing(remove red eye, adjust lighting and sharpness) also with gmail you can email pictures to people within the program.
http://www.picasa.co...id=Y2NpZD0zNzQ4

[Andavari]

My fav's, none of them contain any adware, malware, or spyware:

burnatonce ("bao")
Data CD/DVD authoring. Audio CD authoring. In order to burn DVD's you need the ProDVD add-on.
http://www.burnatonce.com/
http://www.burnatonce.net/

CDex
Audio CD ripper, encoder frontend, decoder frontend. You can manually configure command line encoders to work with it such as LAME, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, etc.
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

Exact Audio Copy ("EAC")
Secure audio CD ripper (if configured properly), audio CD authoring, encoder frontend, decoder frontend, wave editor, wave comparer. You can manually configure command line encoders to work with it such as LAME, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, etc.
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

metapad
Text editor. A powerful replacement for Notepad.
http://liquidninja.com/metapad

DSOstop
Prevents the DSO Exploit security issue in all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Google search for a download site

Inno Setup
Creates simple, or complex setup/install packages for distribution.
http://www.innosetup.com/
http://www.jrsoftware.org/

IsoBuster
CD/DVD recovery software. The free functionality version has limited features.
http://www.isobuster.com/
http://www.cdrecovery.net/
http://www.smart-pro....net/isobuster/

Memtest86+
System memory diagnostic software.
http://www.memtest.org/

Resource Hacker
Change button layouts, text, etc., in programs without necessarily breaking them. For moderate to advanced users that know what they're doing.
http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

Ultimate Packer for eXecutables ("UPX")
Compress executables such as .dll, .exe, etc., to reduce their size. Can also decompress files it compressed. Warning: Always have a backup copy of any file you wish to compress hence you may have to restore the unmodified version! Do NOT compress Microsoft Windows operating system files, or Microsoft Office files, you may or will break them!
http://upx.sourceforge.net/

MP3Gain
Replaygain for MP3's. Gives your MP3's a similiar volume level without resorting to destructive normalization.
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

MusePack ("MPC")
MusePack audio software, high quality lossy audio format - however not widely supported.
http://www.musepack.net/

Speek's Frontends
Frontends for audio software, such as; LAME, FLAC, MusePack, Ogg Vorbis, Tag, WaveGain, WavPack, etc.
http://members.home.nl/w.speek/

Clic
A small user friendly image to icon program. Creates 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 72x72, and 96x96 icons. Can save with transparency.
http://www.blaiz.net/CLIC.HTM

CabPack
Makes Microsoft .cab compressed archives and features good compression ratios if using LZX. Rather old, however it works on Windows 9x to XP.
http://www.larsheder...ge.t-online.de/

CDStarter
A user friendly autorun program for CD's/DVD's. Great for usage to automatically run an .exe setup file, an .m3u playlist file, etc.
http://www.wentnet.c...ects/cdstarter/

Copy&Trim
A part of ToolsPackage, however it can be separately downloaded at the bottom of the page.
Cuts spaces & tabs in the clipboard (for website use).
http://www.freewareh...oolsPackage.htm

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
Add-on's for Windows XP featuring many software/utilities that can be very useful - especially ClearType Tuner and Tweak UI.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx

[rridgely]

Here are more of my favorites

Video MP3 extractor
Lets you seperate the audio from a video file. Creates a seperate mp3 file.
http://www.snapfiles...3extractor.html

DVD Shrink
Edit the size of DVD's to make them fit on one disc, enables you to cut out things like special features and menus. Also is very good for editing home videos as well.
http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html

Paint.net
Great simple photo editor. Has many features of the gimp or photoshop, but without the confussion.
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

zip reader 8
The easiest unzipper ever! It always places the unzipped files in a new folder right on your desktop.
http://www.download.com/ZIP-Reader/3000-22...tml?tag=lst-0-2

Maxthon (Browser)
The best IE shell ever. When you HAVE to use IE why not make it like firefox. Features tabbed browsing, skinnable interface, and mouse gestures.
http://www.maxthon.com/

Abiword
The best free word processor around. Deffinately needed by open office users.
http://www.abisource.com/

DVD decrypter
DVD ripper. Allows burning coppies of movies.
http://www.dvddecrypter.com/

[TuPLaD]

Notepad++
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

[rridgely]

MP3Trim
It trims mp3 files with ease. you have to try it to believe it. Is great for people who use stream rippers (remove commercials) or people who just want to shorten or edit their songs.
http://www.mptrim.com/

Startup Control Pannel
A startup manager that is surprisingly easy to use. It breaks down each of your startup process into tabs so that its easier to find what your looking for. After download you will have to switch your control panel to classic view to find the program labeled "startup". Just drag the program to the location you desire then switch the control panel view back to "category view".
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

[rridgely]

AntiMalware section

CWShredder
Removes cool web search. Make sure you click on "stand alone CWShredder.
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshr...r_download.html

Spyware Blaster
Stop spyware and adware from being downloaded in the first place. Just be shure to keep it up dated and to always click block all know issues after updating.
http://www.javacools...areblaster.html

Ad-Aware
removes adaware.
http://www.lavasoftu...ftware/adaware/

Spybot
Removes spyware and immunizes your pc from know threats.
http://spybot.eon.net.au/en/index.html

Microsoft AntiSpyware
A antispyware tool from microsoft, includes a realtime scanner.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/s...re/default.mspx

CCleaner
(Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy 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. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and FREE! .
http://www.CCleaner.com/

HijackThis
creates logfiles of key areas of your hard drive and registry. Post log files on this forum to have them evaluated.
http://www.download.com/HijackThis/3000-80...tml?tag=lst-0-1

[rridgely]

Shareaza
A great piece of software to download bittorent files. And yes it is malware free.
http://shareaza.sourceforge.net

[Andavari]

Iconaholic (formerly FOOOD's Icons)
This isn't software, however it is related. Iconaholic has created a plethora of professional looking icons that can dress up Windows XP, and other software programs.
http://www.iconaholic.com

RareWares
The latest MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-4 and general media utilities compiles.
http://www.rarewares.org

AVX ScriptWall
By SoftWin (Romania) the makers of BitDefender Security Software. Blocks suspicious, and malicious scripts from running and works silently until needed. Note: If you uninstall it search for and delete the following filename it creates which may or will reside in various folders: fxavx.ini
Google Search for a download site

[agumon]

Starter
http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff
Starter is yet another startup manager, that allows you to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever Windows boots. It lists all the hidden registry entries, as well as the common Startup Folder items as well. You can choose to safely disable selected entries, edit them or delete them altogether (if you know what you re doing). Expert users can even add their own entries. Very nice interface, easy to use, no documentation though (but hardly needed).

Winamp
http://www.winamp.com
A popular, fast, flexible high-fidelity music player for Windows. Winamp support MP3 and MP2 audio with it s native Nitrane high-performance decoder as well as CD-audio, MOD, S3M, IT, XM and even SID audio formats. Winamp supports more than 10000 interface skins , 300 visualization plug-ins and CDDB for automatic CD audio title listing.

[Eldmannen]

AntiVir
http://www.free-av.com/
A free (as in beer) anti virus scanner. Works on Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris. Does not contain any big bloated interface with skins. Does not eat up all your processor power or memory. Simple and great.

7-Zip
http://www.7-zip.org/
File archiver that supports alot of format such as 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB. It is completly free software which is released under the GNU LGPL, its open-source. It has its own .7z format which offers superior compression ratio.

ABC (Yet Another Bittorrent Client)
http://pingpong-abc.sourceforge.net/
Is a free, open-source Bittorrent client, you can use it to download files from Bittorrent with is.

Miranda IM
http://www.miranda-im.org/
Free, open-source (GNU GPL), multi-protocol IM (Instant Messanging) client, that you can use to chat with people on Jabber, MSN, ICQ, IRC, etc. It is highly customizable and very easy to use. It is very simple and bloat-free. Doesnt hog your processor power or memory.

DC++ - Your files, your ways, no limits.
http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/
Is a free, open-source DC (Direct Connect) client under the GNU GPL that connects to DC hub's for P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing with other users. Has TTH hashes, etc.

FileZilla
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
Is a free, open-source (GNU GPL) FTP client, it is easy to use, it is great, its competly spy/adware free.

Mozilla Firefox
http://www.getfirefox.com/
Great web browser, free, open-source. Secure, safe, tabbed browsing. Can disable Java, Javascript, third-party cookies, third-party loading of images, etc (to get rid of banners), it blocks popups, etc.

[SkeeterBeeter]

USEFUL FAVORITE

Error Messages
Got to have this one in your favorites . Patches link and explanations of fatal errors for All Windows OS , XP included. Spam and Malware Free...

ICON UTILITY

Iconoid
Nifty little icon manipulator.

[Cursedbythegods]

May I ask for some one to have a list at the very top with the name, link within the name and a short description for brief viewing, it would be simplistic this way.And if possible listing in categories. Well anyway here are my votes...

Chatting

Gaim
Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr networks.
Notes
*A little buggy, but great for people who use more then one network and doesn't seem as bloated as Trillion.

Photo Manipulation

Gimp
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
Notes
*I don't understand why people think gimp has a step learning curve, for a fact I find it much easier then other program I have used.Its shortcut keys are wonderful and seems to have a well thought out plan.After a tutorial or two you'll be fine!

Browsers

Firefox
The wait is over. Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. Join more than 50 million others and make the switch today — Firefox imports your Favorites, settings and other information, so you have nothing to lose.
Notes
*The best browser in my opinion out there, It seems to be so awesome so cool and just so so great!The themes are easy to edit, and there are so many extensions out there its amazing; pluss they openly say all of the great customizable options; way better then IE in many ways!

Email Clients

Thunderbird

Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.
Notes
*An absolute must; its amazing it has all the of the secuirty features I want for instance OpenPGP encryption and alot of other extensions I love for instance the other one I can't go without Menu Editor And the default junk control is pretty awsome!

[Andavari]

Foxit PDF Reader
http://www.foxitsoft...df/rd_intro.php
A replacement for the bloated and slow loading Adobe Acrobat Reader (free edition). It doesn't require the usage of any of Acrobat's .dll files, therefore Acrobat can be uninstalled. It can be configured to be the default system PDF Document viewer, it works with web-browsers, has a save function. You can select parts of a document and copy them to the clipboard, etc. Note: The program does contain bitmap ad's to promote commercial Foxit Software -- however they are very small, not in-your-face, and can be disabled via right-clicking during the session of the program usage.

[Capman]

Disc Management and Security programs

· Ad-Aware SE Personal
http://www.lavasoft.de/

· AVG Anti-Virus
http://www.grisoft.com

· Belarc Advisor
http://www.belarc.com/

· CCleaner
http://www.CCleaner.com/ (obviously)

· EasyCleaner
http://personal.inet...iness/toniarts/

· HijackThis
http://www.spywarein...rijn/index.html

· Microsoft AntiSpyware
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/s...re/default.mspx

· MRU-Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

· Pop-up Stopper Free Edition (used this before Win XP SP2 became available)
http://www.panicware.com/

· Spybot Search & Destroy
http://www.safer-net...news/index.html

· SpywareBlaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

· SpywareGuard
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

· Tweak All
http://www.codeforge...uk/tweakall.php

· Tweak UI
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx

· WinPatrol
http://www.winpatrol.com/

· XPAntiSpy
http://xp-antispy.org/index.php?option=com...=sellang&iso=en

· ZoneAlarm
http://www.zonelabs.com

Audio programs

· All2Wav Recorder (maybe this should not have been listed, latest version contains adware, I use an earlier version)
http://www.naturpic.com/all2wav/

· Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

· Cheetah Audio Converter
http://www.cheetahburner.com/

Internet Related programs

· FileZilla
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

· Firefox
http://www.mozilla.o...oducts/firefox/

· Mozilla Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.o...ts/thunderbird/

· NVU
http://www.nvu.com/

Image Creation & Manipulation programs

· Bworks
http://www.mediachan...icam/bworks.htm

· ImageForge
http://www.cursorart...m/ca_imffw.html

· IrfanView
http://www.irfanview.com/

· KoolMoves Lite
http://www.koolmoves.com/

· Paint.NET
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

· PhotoFiltre
http://www.photofiltre.com/

· Pixia (website not very good for anyone with colour vision problems)
http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/

· Powerbullet Presenter
http://powerbullet.com/

· Ultimate Paint
http://www.ultimatepaint.com/

· VCW Vicman’s Photo Editor
http://www.vicman.net/vcwphoto/[

Office suite

· OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org/

Conversion program

· Versaverter
http://www.pawprint.net/vv/

[Eldmannen]

GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/windows/
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

Free, open-source, is a image program for create, edit, etc images. It is similiar to Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, but free and exists for many platforms, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X.

[Greenknight]

How about a cool toy for making weird fractal images? Fractal Forge http://www.fractovia.org/uberto/

[slowday444]

This is a harmless, simple but efficient mail notifier that sits in and notifys you via your system tray. Have been using it for about eight months. works great!

http://www.poptray.org/index.php

[peter03102]

I use alot of the ones mentioned.
Didn't see:

http://www.crystalfibers.com/ Matrix my fav web editor

http://www.atmaxsoft...trayplayer.html fav audio media player

real or quicktime alternative with Media Player Classic fav video media player

http://www.equi4.com/ Catfish Disk catalog for disk online or offline.

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/ Jelly Bean extracts Windows CD-Key from your computer.

http://www.avast.com/ anti-virus I use

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ MP3 tab editor

http://www.httrack.com/?pat download a entire website

[ChickaD]

AIDA 32

http://www.majorgeek...ownload181.html
[AIDA 32 is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program running on Win32 platforms. It extracts details of all components of the PC. It can display information on the screen, print it, or save it to file in various formats like HTML, CSV or XML.]

X Setup

http://www.majorgeek...wnload4083.html
[X-Setup Pro is the ultimate in system configuration or tweaking as some people would say. It covers all types of options and has many useful features - for more information please read the rest of this section or browse to http://www.x-setup.net/ ]

System Tracker

http://www.hotscript...iled/44874.html
[Description: System Tracker is a small yet powerful utility that gives complete control over all active processes on your computer. Detailed information about processes you may find is available from our online database and is conveniently accessed with a right click on any process. Basically it describes the files you may have found and explains what they do, therefore enabling the user to make an informed decision when determining if the process is desirable. Not only does it audit your machine and present all active processes, System Tracker shows all registry activity in real-time, shows what programs are set to automatically start by location, and also enables users to set programs to not start. You will find the tabs resourceful and intuitively simple to use. Whether using it to track down system resource traps that create performance anomalies, or just to learn more about what is happening behind the scenes on your computer, we think you will enjoy System Tracker. All free.]

AM-Deadlink

http://aignes.com/deadlink.htm
[AM-DeadLink detects dead links and duplicates in your Browser Bookmarks. If a Bookmark has become unavailable you can verify it in the internal preview and delete it from your Browser. Additionally you can download FavIcons for all your Favorites and Bookmarks. AM-Deadlink works with Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox.]

Free & Easy Font Viewer

http://www.styopkin.com/details_free_and_e...nts_viewer.html
[Comfortable and free way to preview the fonts installed on your system.]

The Font Thing

http://www.download.com/The-Font-Thing/300..._4-1519711.html
[Software Publisher's Description Browse installed and uninstalled TrueType fonts, viewing sample text, individual characters, and detailed font information. Easy font-management functions let you install, uninstall, print, copy, or delete any number of fonts at once. You can even store your own notes with them, filter them according to type (serif, sans serif, and so on), and group them into collections for convenience. This version lets you choose your font colors, set up drop-down lists of standard text samples, rename font files to avoid conflicts, and load fonts temporarily for use without installing them. ]


Hope I did not duplicate any from previous suggestions.

[TwistedMetal]

Avant Browser
http://www.avantbrowser.com
Avant Browser, an upgrade to Internet Explorer. Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile multi-window browser. Now, Avant Browser is available in 39 languages.

NSIS
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/
NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is a tool that allows programmers to create such installers for Windows. It is released under an open source license and is completely free for any use.

Driver Cleaner Pro
http://www.drivercleaner.net/
Driver Cleaner Professional Editon is a program which helps you to remove parts of drivers that are left after uninstalling the old drivers. The program is for ATI, nVidia, Creative, Realtek, SIS, 3Dfx, S3 and more drivers. First you need to uninstall the drivers from the control panel, then reboot. After rebooting, run the program. If you really want a good description of what steps you should take, then you really need to read the readme file included in the zip file and installation as it contains a detailed step by step description. The program also fully supports windows themes and other kind of themes.

Messenger Plus!
http://www.msgplus.net/
Messenger Plus! is an add-on for MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger, the two popular Instant Messaging softwares from Microsoft. Messenger Plus! adds different features to Messenger to make it more enjoyable, day after day.

Safe XP
http://www.theorica.net/safexp.htm
Safe XP allows users to quickly tweak various security and privacy related settings in XP. The options include Media Player settings, Services settings (error reporting, time synch, remote registry etc.), as well as and option to remove items from the Start menu, network security settings and more.

CPU-Z
http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php
CPU-Z is a freeware detection program that will detect your motherboard, ram, and cpu brand, type, and much more information.