Power Your PC With 45 Free Applications
In this day, not every useful application is connected with a price, there are plenty of applications out there which are free. Google for example, has developed many wonderful applications & give away for free.
For those who are using PC for their day to day business, these are applications that may help to save money. Setup your PC with only the basic Windows & power it with the free applications available for download from the internet.
Gathered here are over 45 free applications for your PC. System utilities, office, audio, video, images and more … download & give it a try.
File System Utilities
1 CCleaner
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system make Windows run faster. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. As a today, CCleaner has over 350 million remarkable downloads!
Link: http://www.ccleaner.com/
2 Ultradefrag
Use ultradefrag to defrag your entire hard drive. It is a powerful Open Source Defragmentation tool for Windows Platform. Features include: boot time defragmentation when windows is fully running, computer shut down after defragmentation has completed, file and folder defragmentation, defragment scheduler, etc.
Link: http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/
3 7-zip
7-Zip works in Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2008, 2003, 2000, NT, ME & 98. 7-Zip is open source file archiver software. It was the winner of the SourceForge.net 2007 community choice awards. 7-Zip supports for zip encryption, and be able to create self-extracting archives (*.exe files).
Link: http://www.7-zip.org/
4 Kruptos 2 (Kruptos is no longer free, see next item)
File security is important. Kruptos 2 is a powerfull 256 bit file encryption utility that allows you to secure any sensitive files stored on your PC or portable storage device. Kruptos can also produce self-extracting (*.exe file) encrypted files that contain encrypted files & the software necessary to decompress the contents.
Link: http://www.kruptos2.co.uk/
4 TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a free real-time on-the-fly files encryption software. This means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right from the disk or any portable storage device. Unlike the other encryption software which encrypts only on individual files, TrueCrypt can store many files in an encrypted file or even in entire storage device. This is useful when you want to prevent others from exploring your files. Read more. (updated: 27 Jan 2010)
Link: http://www.truecrypt.org/
5 DirSyncPro
DirSync Pro (Directory Synchronize Pro) is a small, but powerful utility for file and folder synchronization. DirSync Pro can be used to synchronize the content of one or many folders recursively. It has many options, including the deletion of destination files if the file has been removed from source. DirSync Pro is programmed completely in platform independent Java, so you need to have Java Runtime installed.
Link: http://directorysync.sourceforge.net/
6 TeraCopy
TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed. Copy files faster, it uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
Link: http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php
7 PC INSPECTOR File Recovery 4
PC INSPECTOR File Recovery 4 is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems. Use File Recovery 4 to undelete, recover deleted files or recover a lost file. Get your files back with no charges.
Link: http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?Language=1
8 Drive manager
If you have lots of drive letters of different types of drives, such as mapped network drives, USB thumb drive, CD-ROM and DVD then this utility is perfect to help you manage them.
Link: http://www.alexnolan.net/software/driveman.htm
9 Auslogics Duplicate File Finder
Day to day computer usage are sometime leads to accumulating of duplicate files on your hard disk. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder will find the and duplicate files for you, and it is totally up to you to delete the duplicated files.
Link: http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/duplicate-file-finder
System & Other Utilities
10 Startuplite
Many computers have the problem of slow startup. StartUpLite is a lightweight and simple to use application that allows you to speed up your system startup. Accordingly to the author it is safe and efficient. The program allows you to disable or remove unnecessary startup entries from your computer. You can then shorten your computer startup time.
Link: http://www.malwarebytes.org/startuplite.php
11 Process Explorer
Now you can find out which program has a particular file or directory open. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
Link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
12 InfraRecorder
InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. Support for burning disc images, discs copying, audio, CDs, DVDs, and more. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration. InfraRecorder is your lightweight burning tools.
Link: http://infrarecorder.org/
13 CamStudio
CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and turn those AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs). Use CamStudio to create a demonstration video for any software program.
Link: http://camstudio.org/
14 Greenshot
Greenshot is a revolutionary screenshot tool optimized for productivity. Save a screenshot or a part of the screen to a file within a second. Greenshot is open source software.
Link: http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/
15 Rainlendar
Rainlendar is a feature rich customizable desktop calendar application that is easy to use and doesn’t take much space on your desktop. The appearance can be customized with skins. Rainlendar uses the standard iCalendar format to store its events and tasks so you can easily transfer them between applications.
Link: http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php
16 RocketDock
RocketDock is an application launcher for Windows. It provides a dock similar to Mac OS X Aqua GUI. It is freely available under a Creative Commons license. It is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. It is available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista & Windows 7.
Link: http://rocketdock.com/
17 360Desktop
360desktop is free software that extends Windows as a 360° workspace, plus an online environment for creating interative 360° wallpaper, with a gallery and a widget platform, for sharing your favorite 360′s with everybody. Currently, 360desktop operates on Windows XP and Vista, both 32bit and 64bit Windows versions.
Link: http://www.360desktop.com/
PC Security
18 Microsoft Security Essentials
Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. The PC must run genuine Windows to install Microsoft Security Essentials.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
19 AVG Anti-Virus
AVG are still offering basic antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows for free. Limited features, no support, for private and non-commercial use only.
Link: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
20 PC Tools Firewall
PC Tools Firewall Plus is a powerful free personal firewall for Windows® that protects your computer by preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Internet or a network.
Link: http://www.pctools.com/firewall/
21 Comodo Firewall and AntiVirus
If you prefer a more complicated firewall, then Comodo firewall might be your choice. Comodo firewall is a free Award-Winning firewall & antiVirus application. Comodo firewall uses sophisticated tests to ensure your computer is saved from the attacks.
Link: http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/
Office Applications
22 Open Office
OpenOffice is a 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 can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
Link: http://www.openoffice.org/
23 Excel Viewer
You can use Excel Viewer to open, view, and print Excel workbooks. Although if you have your Open Office installed, you may not be able to view some of the Excel files. Use this to copy data from Excel Viewer to another program. However, you cannot edit data, save a workbook, or create a new workbook. Similarly, Word Viewer & PowerPoint Viewer is also available.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1CD6ACF9-CE06-4E1C-8DCF-F33F669DBC3A&displaylang=en
24 Notepad++
Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License. Unlike the Window Notepad, this powerful text editing tools can open up very large text file within seconds.
Link: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/
25 tinySpell
When you need to check spelling in an application that does not include a spelling checker, then tinySpell is the right choice for you. tinySpell is a small utility that allows you to easily and quickly check and correct the spelling in any Windows application, especially the notepad.
Link: http://tinyspell.m6.net/
26 Adobe Reader (Acrobat Reader)
Acrobat Reader are now namedx Adobe Reader, it is available as free from Adobe’s web site. It allows the viewing and printing of PDF files. The Reader are widely used as a way to present information similar to a document printed on a paper.
Link: http://get.adobe.com/reader/
27 PDFCreator
With the PDFCreator installed on your computer, creating a PDF file is as easy as printing a document. It helps users convert any printable documents into PDF files. It is FREE for use & even commercial purpose.
Link: http://en.pdfforge.org/
Internet & Email
28 Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free & popular web browser. I believe you are already using it right now.
Link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
29 Free Download Manager
Free Download Manager is a powerful, easy-to-use and absolutely free download accelerator and manager. This download tool can accelerates downloads by splitting files into sections and then downloading them simultaneously. Beware of a fake versions of Free Download Manager.
Link: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/
30 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).
Link: http://www.utorrent.com/
31 Google Earth
I just can’t leave out Google Earth to be installed in my PC. Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.
Link: http://earth.google.com/
32 Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla’s Thunderbird in now on version 2. It is an powerful email application. Thunderbird 2 includes many new features to help you manage your inbox. You can now tag your email and find content within your email faster.
Link: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
33 Affixa
Affixa makes your webmail account as Windows application. Today, people use more than one mail system in their day-to-day life. Someone may use Microsoft Outlook for business matters and Gmail for personal stuff. You can use Affixa to handle that multiple email functionality for you.
Link: http://www.affixa.com/
Social Tools
34 Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Free calls, video calls and instant messaging over the internet. Plus great value calls to phones anywhere in the world.
Link: http://www.skype.com/
35 digsby
digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. It is a chat client with many stuff to offer. It is a social networking tool that be able to alert you when new messages arrive.
Link: http://www.digsby.com/
36 TweetDeck
TweetDeck brings your Twitter, Facebook and MySpace into your desktop. It is a personal browser for your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. It is a popular Twitter application. It is compatible with several operating systems like Windows, Mac, Linux & iPhone.
Link: http://www.tweetdeck.com/
Image Manipulation
37 GIMP
GIMP is an free & popular image manipulation application. It can be used as a simple paint program or an expert quality photo retouching program. I use it for images I have created for my blogs.
Link: http://www.gimp.org/
38 Paint.NET
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
Link: http://www.getpaint.net/
39 PhotoPerfect Express
PhotoPerfect Express maximize the potential of your photos without spending hours in front of a computer. PhotoPerfect Express create image enhancement with just 3 simple steps. It create stunning results without any technical knowledge.
Link: http://www.arcadiasoftware.com/photoperfect-express.html
Video & Audio
40 VLC media player
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs.
Link: http://www.videolan.org/
41 DVD Flick
DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set.
Link: http://www.dvdflick.net/
42 Winamp
Besides MP3, Winamp supports variety of music file formats, including MIDI, MOD, MPEG-1 audio, etc. The Winamp allows software developers to extend Winamp’s functionality through the use of plug-ins, those are stunning.
Link: http://www.winamp.com/
43 Songbird
Songbird is an open-source customizable music player that’s under active development. Songbird promises to be the Firefox of media players.
Link: http://www.getsongbird.com/
44 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.
Link: http://www.foobar2000.org/
45 Audacity
Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder. You can use Audacity to Record live audio, Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files, Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together, Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
Link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/


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What do you all think about the free version of Clary Utilities?
http://www.glaryutilities.com/
I’ve been using for awhile and find its registry cleaner and defrag superior to store bought.
That’s Glary Utilities
Kruptos is no longer free. I have updated the list to replace Kruptos with TrueCrypt, be sure to give it a try.
Fabulous list – and well put together. I have most of this list on my PC – one new piece of freeware available for those interested in photo-manipulation is Photoscape and it deserves a place on this list or perhaps boost the number of applications on the list to a round 50 !
Once again thanks for putting this list together.
As well as sumatra and foxit, another pdf reader with slightly more features is xchange pdf viewer. The free version is very useful if not as fully featured as the paid ones. I find it useful for converting pdf’s to images fast and easily, to include inline in phpBB forums rather than pdf’s as downloads, and the text copying to clipboard and rubber stamping / marking up of pdf’s is good too :-)
http://pdf-xchange-viewer.en.softonic.com/
NOT as quick as foxit or sumatra but does work very well.
I enjoyed the article and had no problems reading it. Thanks for publishing!
Personally i am not a huge fan of winamp for playing my audio files, but I do see the merit in that program. If you’re having issues with winamp, you may want to try out mediamonkey. I love mediamonkey purely for its ease in finding all of my music and other sound clips, beyond that, it’s fairly similar to most other audio software.
No problem, I will try out mediamonkey for sure. Thanks for sharing the info.
I must say Adobe has become crap. It used to be decent, but they took a good thing a ruined it. I use Foxit now and am a very happy user of said software. It does the job much more efficiently and without all the security holes. In fact, I have tried to purge all Adobe software from my system and have been successful minus Adobe Flash. Are the any alternative plugins available?
CCleaner is not free!
I have just visited the website http://www.ccleaner.com/, it is still under freeware & available for download.
CCLEANER is free!
“Please donate and help support the software” This is the message at their site. So as you can see they are just asking for a donation so they can continue to keep it free.
Does anyone know of a good open source Blu-ray player?
Has anyone tried Rocketdock ? Is it a resource hog ?
dude you got one more subscriber,thnx a lot for such a nice posts and yeah a wonderful plugin.
If I need to view a manual for a car or copier or whatever published in pdf format, I have no control over what progam authored it. If Reader chokes on it, then I want to use whichever program will read it and display it quickly. Would Google be as useful if it was not tolerant of minor spelling mistakes and kept saying “syntax error” like an old BASIC interpreter?
I used to HATE pdfs because Adobe was s-l-o-w and crashed alot.
Good list. I do not have to agree with every one of your selections to say that.I am gonna try File Recovery in hopes that it will recover files my 84yr old dad keeps loosing with his ANCIENT DOS shareware word processer which he uses as a file manager! Undelete used to work until win 95. Sigh.
Hi..I write films….for a living…a couple you may have seen. .I thought I’d ask a question regarding Adobe….I’ve asked this question in various forums and the answers vary from the rude to irrational; I’ve been told to ask the question in other forums, I’vee been told to pick up books “for morons” on this issue….I thought I’d give you guys a try…It seems like a simple one, HOWEVER: I write a screenplay, okay, on Final Draft (scriptwriting software) and convert it to PDF (Final Draft has a “save as pdf” function) before emailing to agents, managers, and studios. The reason is not secuirty-based. A lot of these folks don’t have Final Draft and cannot thus read what I’ve written. Okay, (And I’m sorry for wasting your time so far, but stick with me) on occasion I get what is known in this world as “notes”…essentially feedback on the script…I need to make changes whether they be substantive or typos. Yet I CANNOT figure out how in the hell to make a change in a PDF document. It won’t allow it. I KNOW THIS IS BASIC COMPUTING 101. Can someone, with my sincere gratitude, explain to me how to edit a PDF document? Thanks, Steve
Hi Steve, you may try Foxit PDF Editor, however it is not free. I believe it is cheaper than the original Acrobat PDF Editor. The person who received & edit your pdf document should have this editing software installed on their computer.
Any free program to permanently delete the “shortcut” arrow on desktop icons?
Thanks for this helpful list. I found many of your recommendations to be sound and quite useful. In regards to your English, you are doing far better than I at Greek. Don’t listen to the language snobs. Keep using the language and your usage will improve.
Thanks for your comment Dave.
I just wanted to let you know of a great freeware pdf program that’s also freeware, it’s called foxit reader
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
I think it’s a great alternative to adobes.
I straddle the world between Mac and PC, I rarely find anything new with these lists for either OS, but every now and again there’s something worth looking at. Cheers.