TheVille

After seeing Castle's thread, i though this would be useful. This thread is for FREEWARE. FULL versions of computer software (NO DEMOS OR ILLEGAL SOFTWARE).

Note: many important utilities (like antivirus/malware, firewall, cloud storage, etc) have been added to windows in the years since this list was originally created and they generally work quite well. Of course a little extra never hurts either

Windows 10
free to download the .iso or media creation tool. but it can still be activated for free as along as you have a valid windows 7 or 8 key https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/softwar ... /windows10

Windows 11
free upgrade for windows 10 users. available october 5, will roll out over windows update if you meet the requirements. biggest requirement for most will be tpm 2.0. but microsoft has said this will only be checked for upgrades, a clean install will not require tpm 2.0, but they will not advertise this as the new security features will not work without it. you can see full system requirements here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows ... ifications

Ninite
this site lets you bundle all your favorite apps into a single installer. great if you are installing/re-installing windows or just setting up a new pc. much of the software listed in this post (and more) is available on ninite to be bundled into an installer.
https://ninite.com/

Openoffice
free alternative to MS Office
http://www.openoffice.org

Google Docs
https://docs.google.com/

Zoom
Video/web conferencing app, widely used thanks to the pandemic https://zoom.us/

Dropbox
free cloud storage https://www.dropbox.com/

Notepad++
A very robust version of a notepad with line numbers, word wraps, support for highlighting syntax words for a variety of programming languages (and many other useful programming features), plugin compatible (there's a spellchecker plugin too), multiple file tabbed editing, different editing options etc. etc. etc. Much better than window's notepad, easy to use, not a resource hog despite what it may seem like, NOT bloatware.
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

Foxit Reader
a free lightweight .pdf reader. a good alternative to adobe's acrobat
https://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf-reader/

Microsoft Powertoys
Microsoft PowerToys is a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows 10 experience for greater productivity.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

VLC Player
multi platform media player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

7-Zip
utility for manipulating ZIP archives. Supported formats: ZIP, CAB, RAR, GZIP and TAR.
Get it here http://www.7-zip.org

FileZilla
the free FTP solution. Both a client and a server are available
http://filezilla-project.org/

Game Clients/digital distrobution
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/
GoG Galaxy: Client for gog.com games, since gog is drm free, it is not required to play any games purchased from gog. also has the ability to connect to most other game clients to allow you to run all your games across all clients through galaxy for ease of use and management https://www.gog.com/galaxy
Origin: EA's client, required for EA games https://www.origin.com/can/en-us/store/download
Epic Games: Epic's client: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/
Battle.net: Activision Blizzards client https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/apps/battle.net/desktop
Uplay: Ubisoft's client https://ubisoftconnect.com/en-US/

Web Browsers:
Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome
Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Microsoft Edge: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge
Opera: http://www.opera.com/

Antivirus Software:
AVG Anti-Virus : https://www.avg.com/en-ca/free-antivirus-download
Avira : https://www.avira.com/en/free-antivirus-windows
Avast : https://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download#pc

Photo Editing:
Paint.NET:The closest you will get to having photoshop without paying for it. https://www.getpaint.net/download.html
GIMP: Open source image editor http://www.gimp.org/

Image/Photo Management
Adobe Bridge : Adobe Bridge is a powerful creative asset manager that lets you preview, organize, edit, and publish multiple creative assets quickly and easily. https://www.adobe.com/products/bridge.html
XnView MP : XnView MP is a versatile and powerful photo viewer, image management, image resizer. XnView is one of the most stable, easy-to-use, and comprehensive photo editors. All common picture and graphics formats are supported. https://www.xnview.com/en/

Firewalls:
Comodo Free Firewall : http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com

Anti Spyware tools:
SuperAntispyware : http://www.superantispyware.com
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware: another useful app in the war against spyware/malware
https://www.malwarebytes.com/

Winamp
http://www.winamp.com (yep, its still around)
Spotify
https://www.spotify.com/us/

E-Mail
Thunderbird: Mozilla's own e-mail app, http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
EM Client: https://www.emclient.com/

Instant Messengers
Discord: probably the most popular messaging/chat/voice client for gaming communities these days https://discord.com/
Skype: https://www.skype.com/en/get-skype/ (being phased out for microsoft teams)
Pidgin: Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log into accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. http://www.pidgin.im/
Adium: the mac version of pidgin http://adium.im/

feel free to contribute to this thread if you know any good FREE software.

I highly recommend that you add Pidgin to the list of free IM software. It's open source and far superior to Trillian.

I'd recommend CCCP+mpc for video watching. Unlike VLC, it can properly display softsubs.

http://www.cccp-project.net/

Iirc it is for windows only. I don't know if they got it to work on linux using WINdows Emulator.

Wine = Wine Is Not an Emulator

Best defrag utility on the planet.

http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/index.html

You will have to use command line to get the most out of it, but its default settings are great for daily use. The program maintainer responds to questions in the forum regularly too.

Wow awesome my friend tnx for the recommendations ....

I'm so mad I missed the original post of this.... bookmarked!


thanks a million archon!

GJ Archon, over the past year or so I have been moving away from purchasing software/recommending software to people that needs to be purchased.

I am a huge fan of open source for many things and recommend it to all. First off the price is right, second the apps seem to be much less bloated ( compare foxit reader to acrobat reader and you will see what I mean) and my PC runs leaner and meaner with less bloated apps.


Now if I could just find the time to dig up open source software for my new Macbook I would be a happy camper

Will keep it a sticky as long as there isn't any Illegal software posted.


Thanks Archon, some nice software there.

[quote="John Doe";p="150882"]
Now if I could just find the time to dig up open source software for my new Macbook I would be a happy camper [/quote]

For the most part, the lists from these pages are pretty good (google search for "open source OS X"

http://www.opensourcemac.org/
http://www.boydcreative.net/apple/top-1 ... os-x-apps/

Off of those lists, ones I've used at some point and thought were good:

App/File Launcher
- Quicksilver
Personally, I've used Launchbar (€24) and continue to use it, but some people swear by Quicksilver. Who can argue with free.

Browsing
- Camino (native Cocoa-based Gecko browser)
- Firefox

IM/Chat
- Adium (multi-protocol)
- Colloquy (IRC)

File sharing/FTP
- Transmission (torrent)
- Cyberduck (FTP)
- Fugu (SFTP)

Photo Editing
- Seashore (based on Gimp)

Photo Management
- Picasa (beta)

Video playing
- VLC
- Perian

RSS
- Newsfire (free but not open source)

Haven't used the Unarchiver, but looks interesting for general decompression, and the occasional app that's still compressed using Stuffit.

hmmm and none of that is Crap wear??

Wow Archon. Thanks for the info. I am always leary of free software because all the crap that is usually associated with it. I'll give some of these a try.

Just few things that popped up.

If you have IE, upgrade to Firefox ASAP
If you have Office 2007, don't bother with open office
If you Adobe Acrobat Reader, upgrade to foxit ASAP
If you have Norton of McCafee, switch to Avast or AVG

Also, some additional software
Kapersky http://www.kaspersky.com/
Ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/

[quote="Yahoo!!";p="151247"]Just few things that popped up.

If you have IE, upgrade to Firefox ASAP
If you have Office 2007, don't bother with open office
If you Adobe Acrobat Reader, upgrade to foxit ASAP
If you have Norton of McCafee, switch to Avast or AVG

Also, some additional software
Kapersky http://www.kaspersky.com/
Ccleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/[/quote]Just curious, why foxit over Adobe Reader? (Just to be clear, Reader is the free download and Acrobat is the paid one that you can create PDFs with)
Also, CCleaner is great.

great!

thanks for posting this