A list of some must have and mostly FREE software

This is not by any means an exhaustive list of all the software I use, but it is an excellent
group of choices with descriptions that I feel everyone should have a look at. Almost all of
these software and apps are totally free and Open Source. I have used or tested at one time
or another everything on this list and would not have added and recommended anything here
that didn’t work, or wasn’t safe. I started creating this list on May 28th 2011, and at the time all
links were active and working. If by chance one of the links doesn’t connect you to the intended
software or download page, just use common sense and always remember. Google is your
friend;) And feel welcome to let me know and I will update the bad link.
I hope you take the time to have a look at the categories here, and I just might either add to
this in the future since Technology is constantly changing, and new applications and updates
are created daily. Or I might even create a new and more extensive list at some point in the
future.

If you notice that some software is mentioned twice it’s because I was originally just going to
make a list of alternatives to built in Windows software (Top Section), and then decided to add
a much more extensive list after doing the alternatives.

Thanks, and enjoy;)

Mike

Some Alternatives to built in Windows software

Disk Cleanup
● CCleaner – This is no surprise as the software is quite popular.Searches
 system files,installed programs and hard disk for junk files and cleans them as
required.Integrated start-up manager ,Add /remove programs options and registry
cleaner.
● Advanced SystemCare – From the developer IObit , is a freeware system optimizer
that also cleans the registry and also scans, repairs and secures computers in minutes.
It also features virus protection and can be used to defragment hard drives.

Windows Media Player

● VLC Media Player – Highly portable and supports a majority of audio and video
formats. Known for its high performance, lightweight interface and flexibility. It can
also be used for media file conversions as well as streaming protocols.
● Media Player Classic – Has several additional features such as a built-in AVI subtitle
support, DVD player etc. Its very light and can play a variety of formats without the
requirement of any special codecs.
● KMPlayer – Plays a variety of audio and video files. Also has ability to support a large
number of formats and can be used to capture screenshots of audio and video while
playing.
● GOM Player – Can play most media files without any external codec and can also play
damaged or incomplete media files.
● Songbird – Good clarity Integrates well with music websites. Easily syncs with most
smart phones and media players .

Notepad
● Notepad++ –Supports several programming languages and includes syntax highlighting,
code folding, auto-completion, multi-document, full regular search support ,drag-n-
drop, etc. Most preferred alternative for notepad.
● MetaPad -Its small, fast and a completely free text editor. Designed to completely
replace Notepad since it features all of Notepad’s features plus a few extras. The
features include tool bar functionality, WYSIWYG printing, auto indenting etc. It is
also been said to consume a less amount of memory than Notepad. So even if you like to
stick with the simplicity of Notepad; you can very well try MetaPad.
● Notepad2 – Its a lightweight, free and open source text editor and also provides full
functional Notepad like editing with syntax highlighting. Features also include drag and
drop feature, wildcard search, syntax highlighting for most of the languages. But not
as many features as Notepad++, it provides a simple alternative for Notepad.

Internet Explorer
● Mozilla Firefox – a fast, open source, secure, and extendable browser from Mozilla.
Offers a number of features over Internet Explorer, including Smart Location Bar,
Places Manager, and a rich database of extensions.
 ● Google Chrome -It has process-isolated tabs and add-ons support, providing stability
and security so if an individual page or add-on crashes, it won’t mess up the rest
of the tabs or add-ons. Chrome uses a custom-built JavaScript engine for faster
performance. It’s private browsing offers complete privacy from your regular
browsing.
● Opera –Integrated “Turbo Mode” for loading websites faster, particularly over poor or
dial-up connections. Opera is a very visual, Feature-rich browser. Also Includes email
client, BitTorrent downloads, Speed Dial and mouse gestures.

● Safari – Clean design and very simple to use from Apple. Supports multitouch gestures
in Mac OS X for speedier, less-clicky browsing. Protects against malware and phishing
attacks, block pop ups.

Run
● Launchy – Launch programs faster from keyboard shortcuts and by entering a portion
of the application name rather typing the full name.

Calculator
● Power Calculator – This is freeware and offers more powerful alternative to the built
in Calculator available in windows.

Command Prompt
● PowerCmd - Splits Main view in grid, vertical, horizontal layouts etc. Can also save and
restore previous command line sessions. Provides history logs. Has a special feature
called Outlining. Supports standard text editing behavior also cut, copy and paste using
the conventional Windows shortcuts. Can add bookmarks with shortcut keys.
● PowerShell - An advanced command prompt alternative from Microsoft, and works
for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Windows Server 2003 , 2008. It’s centered around the
concept of cmdlets, these are commands that manipulate the objects to perform a
single task.
● CygWin – CygWin provides the features of Linux shell for Windows, and hence allows
you to work with a more powerful command line tools.

File Archive and Compression

● 7-Zip – Supports a number of formats, including RAR, ZIP, TAR, and 7z; can also
generate a self extracting archive.
● PeaZip - Supports more than 80 file types, including 7Z, RAR, TAR and ZIP. Works
well both on Windows and Linux and Provides multiple strong encryption standards.

Paint
 ● GIMP – Most preferred and advanced image editor for all types of users. I personally
use this software and its easy to use, powerful, flexible and provides a lot of features.
● HeliosPaint - Powerful, feature-rich, easy-to-use paint program for editing drawings,
photos and icons. Runs on Microsoft Windows.
● OS - Mac OS X, Linux and Unix.
● Paint.NET – Provides a larger feature set for image editing, and support for layers and
infinite undo’s.

Windows Search
● Google Desktop Search – Google Desktop Search indexes all fixed disks on your PC
by default. Provides faster alternative to windows search. It provides a sidebar and
quick launch utility. But if you want to keep your privacy away from big brother Google,
better try other options in case google might even save your preferences for it search
engine.
● Copernic Desktop Search – User friendly, Easy to use and customize, and it seems
to index faster, that too using less amount of system resources. Clear search-results
window and more intuitive.

Add/Remove Programs
● Revo Uninstaller – Powerful uninstaller that attempts to remove all traces of a
program when uninstalling.
● CCleaner – As i mentioned this software in clean-up utility, it even has Integrated Add
/remove programs options and a registry cleaner with faster interface.

Windows Photo Gallery / Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

● Google Picasa - Picasa is a simple and easy-to-use photo organization tool available
from Google. Provides plenty of tools to edit and modify pictures, including the ability
to add tags to identify people, fix red-eye, straightening photos, brightness variation
and contrast, as well as fine tune lighting and shadows. Offers a variety of special
effects that can be applied to photos as the graduated tint, film grain effect etc.
● IrfanView – Light image viewer with a wide range of features, including image
manipulation and conversion.

Windows Movie Maker

● VirtualDub – An Open source video processor/editor which has powerful features for
processing video clips. Provides real-time downsizing, apply noise reduction, and has
support for AVI2. Can decompress and recompress videos and use an advanced set of
filters that perform functions such as blurring, rotating, image adjustments etc.
● Jahshaka – offers more features than windows movie maker, includes editing with
 flexibility, create effects in real time, animate your video, paint and design on your
video, create music with practically all the tools that professional video editors use,
and works in any format at any resolution.

Windows Messenger
● Pidgin – Extendable with plugins and Supports wide range of protocols, including Yahoo!,
MSN, IRC, AIM, Google Talk, Jabber, and others.
● Digsby – Supports a wide range of protocols, including Yahoo!, MSN, IRC, AIM,
Google Talk, Jabber, and others, and provides special feature to integrate with social
networks like Facebook.
● Yahoo! Messenger – Integrateing feature with MSN . Mainly built for and supports the
Yahoo! .
● Miranda IM – Runs on Lighter resources and has relatively smaller size than other
messengers with support for a wide range of protocols. Highly extendable using plugins.

Windows Explorer
● Explorer++ - Relatively easier to use with Multi Tab feature and Advanced file
operations. Provides much similarity and functionality as the Windows explorer itself
with almost similar interface but with much improvements. Provides easy to remember
Keyboard shortcuts and quick navigation. Completely portable.
● xplorer2 – Another better free alternative to Windows Explorer with advanced
features like dual pane and tabbed browsing.
● Free Commander – Integrated features like tabbed browsing, dual pane, file wiping,
and MD5 creation and checksum abilities.

Windows Update
● AutoPatcher – Provides you to download selected updates when online and install then
when offline.
● Project Dakota – Provides you with feature to download a CD ISO file with all the
updates required to install.

Disk Defragmenter
● Auslogics Disk Defrag – Supports FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS volumes. Comes with a
user friendly interface and performs defrag slightly faster than the default Windows
defragmenter. Excellent, easy to use user interface for both beginners and experts.
● Smart Defrag – SmartDefrag will perform the defragmentation process automatically
without your intervention. Being smart, it continuously runs in the background as you
work with your computer. Recommended.

Outlook Express / Windows Mail

 ● Mozilla Thunderbird – Enhanced Email client from Mozilla. Can modify themes and
include functionality by installing Extendable plugins .

CD/DVD Burning
● ImgBurn – Works with all types of media, able to create, build, and burn CD images.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best free Antivirus Software

Microsoft Security Essentials : Microsoft Security Essentials is a free Antivirus program from
Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured
your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re
icon is green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

avast! Free Antivirus represents one of the the best free antivirus protection currently available
on the market. This edition is FREE OF CHARGE for non-commercial & home use. You must register
with avast to get your FREE product key that is good for one year, and continue to re-register for
each additional year, but it only takes a minute to register and is definitely worth it. Its features
include:
● Anti-spyware built-in
● Web Shield
● Anti-rootkit built-in
● Automatic updates
● Strong self-protection
● Virus Chest
● Antivirus kernel
● System integration
● Simple User Interface
● Integrated Virus Cleaner
● Resident protection
● Support for 64-bit Windows
● P2P and IM Shields
● Internationalization
● Network Shield

Panda Cloud Antivirus is the first free cloud-based antivirus thin-client. It consists of a
lightweight antivirus agent that is connected in real-time to PandaLabs' online Collective
Intelligence servers to protect faster against the newest malware variants while barely impacting
PC performance. Thanks to Panda Security's Collective Intelligence malware and goodware online
database, Panda Cloud Antivirus detects more malware than traditional signature based solutions
which take longer to detect the most recent, and therefore most dangerous, variants. Panda Cloud
Antivirus protects you while you browse, play or work and you won't even notice it. It is extremely
light as all the work is done online in the cloud. Panda Cloud Antivirus provides you with the fastest
protection against the newest viruses thanks to its cloud-scanning from PandaLabs' servers. Panda
Cloud Antivirus is truly install and forget. Don't worry about updates, configuration or complicated
decisions ever again.

Firewalls

Comodo has long been considered one of the best free firewall tools available. Comodo is now a full
Internet security company providing many for-pay solutions, but they still provide a comprehensive
free Internet security suite (with firewall) which has been given a five-star rating from CNET.
Comodo technically includes an antvirus and a firewall, and the antivirus is quite good. Of course, it
is up to you if you want to actually keep the antivirus protection active or you choose to just use the
firewall.

ZoneAlarm was one of the first free firewalls available for Windows computers. It has a long
history of providing great protection against numerous types of threats. While the basic functions
of ZoneAlarm remain the same as ever, ZoneAlarm has been refined significantly over the years.
The free version of ZoneAlarm has many advanced features, such as automatic Wi-FI security,
anti-phishing protection, and behavioral threat detection. Many of these extra features are not
really the responsibility of a firewall, but it is always nice to have extra protection. The core
firewall features of ZoneAlarm Free remain strong, prompting a five-star review from CNET. The
outbound protection is cited as being particularly strong. Outbound protection helps ensure that
malware attempting to relay data from your computer to another computer will not be allowed to
function

Spyware/Malware removers

Malwarebytes' is an important security program for any computer user to have installed on their
computer. It is light-weight, fast, and best of all, excellent at removing the latest infections that
may be in the wild. One of the best parts of the program is that not only will scan your computer
free, but will also remove any malware it finds at not cost to you either.
If you want to increase your protection from new viruses, then you can pay to activate the program
to enable real-time protection and other features. The real-time protection module will block
infections as they are created or run from your computer. The real-time protection module will also
block access to known malware distribution sites in order to protect you from web sites that may
be trying to redirect you to known malware sites. Last, but not least, the paid version will also allow
you to schedule when you want the program to update its definitions. This will enable you to have
the latest updates available whenever you scan your computer with program.
Regardless of whether or not you pay to activate Malwarebytes, I suggest that you install this
program on your computer and perform a routine scan with it at least once a week. This will assure
you that your computer is being secured from some the newest infections out there.

SUPERAntiSpyware will remove all the spyware, not just the easy ones. Quick, complete and custom
scanning of hard drives, removable drives, memory, registry, individual folders and more. Includes
trusting items, and excluding folders for complete customization of scanning. Detect and remove
spyware, adware, malware, Trojans, dialers, worms, key loggers, hijackers, parasites, root kits and
many other types of threats. Light on system resources and won't slow down your computer like
many other anti-spyware products. Repair broken internet connections, desktops, registry editing
and more with our unique repair system. Real-time blocking of threats. Prevent potentially harmful
software from installing or re-installing.

Norman Malware Cleaner is a standalone virus and malware removal tool that can detect and
remove specific malicious software (malware) from your PC. The program does not require
installation and does not provide proactive protection from future infections. It is designed to clean
a computer that has already been infected.

Ad-Aware Free is an adware and spyware removal tool that scans your memory, registry,
hard, removable and optical drives for known data-mining, aggressive advertising, and tracking
components. It then lists the results and offers to remove or quarantine the components. The
program detects a wide range of adware/spyware related issues and can be updated with the latest
signatures via the built-in update utility. The free version has limited real-time protection, only
processes are scanned.

Threatfire Real-time antispyware protection. Lightweight and memory sparing.

Will your antivirus software catch the latest malware that just came out today? In most cases, no,
because it simply does not know how to detect it yet. But ThreatFire's ActiveDefense technology
does, and has proven to provide up to 243% more protection when combined with traditional
AntiVirus products.

Office Suites

OpenOffice.org 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.

LibreOffice is the free power-packed Open Source personal productivity suite for Windows,
Macintosh and Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production
and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. Support and documentation
is free from their large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers. You, too, can
also get involved!

Google Docs (Web Based): The Web Based Google Docs is an easy to use set of applications that
users can create word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. You can share these
documents with friends and coworkers quite effectively with the push of a few buttons.

Zoho (Web Based): Zoho aims to be a comprehensive set of applications like Google docs. There
are programs for writing and spreadsheets, but the Zoho suite goes beyond that by offering a wiki,
a planner, email and CRM.

ThinkFree (Web Based): ThinkFree allows you to open Excel spreadsheets, MS Word Docs and
PowerPoint presentations. The tools are Web Based, requiring a login that can be coordinated
through your Google account. You have the option of collaborating with others. Being a Web Based
system, it is accessible from anywhere that has an internet connection.

Finance and Document

Calibre Ebook Management : calibre is a free and open source e-book library management
application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features
such as Library Management, E-book conversion, Syncing to e-book reader devices, Downloading
news from the web and converting it into e-book form, Comprehensive e-book viewer, Content
server for online access to your book collection.

dsBudget : is a free, open source budgeting program for everyone. You will begin by allocating your
income into “categories”, such as Mortgage, Entertainment, etc. As you spend money throughout
the month, you will enter the expenses into each category. dsBudget will then let you see how much
money you have left in each category and how you are spending it. You can save money and regain
control of your expenses by understanding your spending habits and making smarter purchasing
decisions.

mint.com (Web Based): The best free way to manage your money. Mint brings all your financial
accounts together online, automatically categorizes your transactions, lets you Set budgets & helps
you achieve your savings goals. Your financial life, all in one place. Mint pulls all your financial
accounts into one place. Set a budget, track your goals and do more with your money, for free!
Watch the short video.

Evernote : Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration,
or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient,
and then to make all of that information easy to find. Its beyond that by creating text and ink
notes, to snapshots of whiteboards and wine labels, to clips of web pages. Evernote users can
capture anything from their real and digital lives and find it all anytime.

Springpad is a free application that makes it quick and easy to take notes and save anything you
want to remember in one place - from tasks and lists to products, places, movies, recipes and more.
We automatically organize and enhance what you save with useful links and relevant offers to save
you time and money. Everything you save is automatically synchronized and instantly accessible on
the web and your phone.

Defragmenters

Defraggler Another excellent defrag tool. Portable. From the same guys behind hugely popular
CCleaner. Use Defraggler to defrag your entire hard drive, or individual files - unique in the
industry. This compact and portable Windows application supports NTFS and FAT32 file systems.

IObit SmartDefrag Extremely easy to use. Works continuously in the background.

File Recovery

Recuva is a free file recovery program that makes it extremely easy to locate files that were once
thought to be lost forever. Recuva is made by the authors of the hugely popular software CCleaner
& Defraggler.

FreeUndelete No frills, just focused on the zen of file recovery.

DiskDigger is a program that undeletes and recovers lost files from your hard drive, memory cards,
USB flash drives — you name it!
Uninstallers

Revo Uninstaller solves an all-too-common problem: Programs whose uninstallation routines are
sloppy. Not uncommonly, when you uninstall programs in Windows, they leave bits and pieces of
themselves behind, such as Registry entries. This program promises to find all those bits and pieces
and zap them so that when you uninstall software, your computer gets truly clean.

IObit Uninstaller IObit Uninstaller helps you uninstall and remove unwanted programs and folders
from your computer fast and easily. Where the built-in and sluggish "Windows Add or Remove
Programs" option fails, IObit Uninstaller works as always and picks up the slack. What's better, it
is a free Uninstaller without installation.

PC Decrapifier: As the name suggests, this free uninstaller removes crap from your PC. This is
completely free for personal use, but you need to buy a license for commercial use. It lets you
easily uninstall multiple programs together. Just select the programs that you want to uninstall, and
this program will take care of the rest.

Backup and sync

Mozy Incredibly smart, highly secure, set-it-and-forget-it backup solution. Backups data to web.
Whether it's business documents and financial records or photos and music, Mozy ensures your
digital life will be there when you need it.
FBackup Free backup software you can use to backup your important files and folders. Supports
automated backups to local, external or network drives.

Dropbox is a Web-based file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. that uses cloud computing
to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file
synchronization. It was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a Y Combinator
startup.
There are both free and paid services, each with varying options. In comparison to similar services,
Dropbox offers a relatively large number of user clients across a variety of desktop and mobile
operating systems. There are a total of 10 clients, including versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac
OS X, and Linux (official and unofficial), as well as versions for mobile devices, such as Android,
Windows Phone 7, iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry, and a web-based client for when no local client is
installed. Dropbox uses the freemium financial model and its free service provides 2 GB of free
online storage. Users who refer Dropbox to others can gain up to 8 GB of free storage.
FreeFileSync Open source folder comparison and sync tool. Optimised for speed and usability.

Synkron Free, open-source application Synkron is a powerful file-syncing utility that syncs
files across platforms. The apps marquee features include support for syncing multiple folders,
automatic scheduled syncs, and restore capabilities for files that may have been accidentally
overwritten during a sync. Apps like previously mentioned Dropbox boasting instantaneous sync
between your PCs and the web are all the rage right now, but Synkron has its own appeal, namely
that it's a local sync tool, so your files never pass through any third-party server. It also supports
filtering by extension and file and folder blacklists. So while Synkron may not be up to the instant
syncing standards you can expect from the likes of Dropbox, it does support complex backup
schemes and is a great alternative. Synkron is free, and works on all platforms.

System Maintenance & Tools

TweakNow: TweakNow is another full fledged system management software. Apart from an
effective uninstaller, it also includes Disk Cleaner, Registry Cleaner, Startup Manager, and much
more.

Glary Utilities aims to provide easy-to-use, robust, and highly reliable mechanism to help you fix,
speed up, maintain and protect your PC.

IObit Toolbox The portable free PC repair/diagnostic tool box - IObit Toolbox reaches high-level
and all-directional computer monitoring and management. The amount of system maintenance tools
included in this free app is truly staggering.

IObit Advanced SystemCare Free One-click approach to help protect, repair, clean, and optimize
your PC.

Soluto is a free application that brings an end to the frustrations PC users encounter, using
advanced technology and collective user wisdom. Is your computer booting slow due to too many
programs loading at start up? Soluto brings happiness to:
Windows XP/Vista/7 (32bit & 64bit)

Web Browsers

Amazingly enough, a lot of people still don’t realize that there are many alternatives to Microsoft’s
built in web browser Internet Explorer. And because Internet Explorer is the most popular web
browser simply because in comes pre-installed with all Windows operating systems, it is also the
biggest target for hackers, and in turn is the least safe web browser to use. As a PC technician my
advice would be to use any of the web browsers listed here before surfing the web in IE.
Just sayin ;)

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application
Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation.

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make
the web faster, safer, and easier.

ChromePlus from Maple Studio is exactly what it sounds like: Google Chrome, plus a bunch of useful
extras. ChromePlus has all the functionalities that Google Chrome has. More, ChromePlus added
some useful features such as Mouse gesture, Super drag, IE tab, etc. Meanwhile, ChromePlus is
free with no function limitation and you can use ChromePlus to surf the internet in any case. Start
ChomePlus Getting Started Tutorial.

Opera offers free and easy to download Web browsers for computers, mobile phones and devices.
Share our passion for technology, and download an Opera.

Safari for Mac and PC puts the emphasis on browsing not the browser. Innovative features make
your experience on the web better than it ever was. “ (Side Note)The previous statement did not
come from me, it came from Apple”!! Although it is an interesting and speedy browser. Just not
my first choice.

SRWare Iron The browser of the future - based on the free Sourcecode "Chromium" - without any
problems with privacy and security.

Email Clients

Thunderbird Open source cross-platform email and Usenet client based on Mozilla code. Features
intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader and more. Created by the same awesome folks who gave
us Mozilla Firefox.

Postbox Express! The makers of Postbox have decided it's time to offer a free version of their
well-loved Postbox email client.

Communication and Social Networking

TweetDeck is your personal real-time browser, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter,
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare and more. “Just so you know, If My computer is
turned on then you can bet TweetDeck is running”;))

HootSuite With HootSuite, you can monitor keywords, manage multiple Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Foursquare, Ping.fm and WordPress profiles, schedule messages and much more.

Skype Make internet calls for free. Call friends and family on any phone with Pay As You Go and Pay
Monthly subscriptions, sign up today at Skype.com.

ooVoo Free high quality video chat and video conferencing from ooVoo. Talk live face-to-face with
up to 6 people at once.

Pidgin is a free chat client used by millions. Connect easily to MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, AIM and
other chat networks all at once.

Digsby Manage all your existing IM, email, and social network accounts from one easy to use
application.

Photos and Images

IrfanView is a freeware/shareware image viewer for Microsoft Windows that can view, edit, and
convert image files and play video/audio files

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software. It features an intuitive and innovative user
interface with support for layers, unlimited undo and much more.

Gimp is an free open-source alternative to high priced, professional graphics editing programs such
as Fireworks or Photoshop.

PhotoScape Another good free photo editing application.

Google Picasa Powerful photo manager software from Google. Includes 1-click photo retouching
features. Easy online photo sharing.

Zoner Photo Studio Complete photo editing and management package Photo management programs
range from the extremely basic to the very, very complicated. If you are looking for the middle
ground, Zoner Photo Studio might be the program for you.

Pictomio is freeware and raises the bar when it comes to displaying your 3D-accelerated photo and
video collections and comes with great geo tagging and so much more.

Audio

AIMP is a free audio player with support for large number of formats and playlists. It works with
multiple playlists immediately, allows creation of bookmarks and also has a playback queue.

Winamp The very popular free customizable Winamp media player that plays mp3 other audio files,
syncs your iPod, subscribes to Podcasts and more.

Songbird is a free and open source software audio player and web browser, with a stated
mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media
Web. Songbird utilizes the cross-platform frameworks, Mozilla's XULRunner and GStreamer media
framework, and largely capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Solarisand
Linux.

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.

Video Tools

VLC is considered one of the world's best players since it can play almost any audio and video
format. This media player most outstanding feature is that it brings its own codecs pack which
makes it compatible with all media files you may come across. VLC is a free and open source cross-
platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio
CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.

VirtualDub is a powerful Open-source and portable video editor.

Media Player Classic Replica of WM Player. Includes only the most basic controls. Plays many
formats.

Any Video Converter (Free version) enables you to convert between a wide range of video formats
including AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPG, M2TS, MTS, RM, RMVB, QT, WMV and others. It offers
ready-to-use conversion profiles to choose from and you can also manually adjust the settings for
each format. In addition to format conversion, the program can also be used to trim and crop a
portion of a video or to merge multiple video files into on. Other features include batch conversion,
integrated YouTube download, video snapshot capture and more.
Installs an additional product or toolbar unless you opt-out during setup. Just uncheck the extras,
it’s worth it.

Files and Drives

EASEUS Partition Master All-in-one partition manager. Create, resize and merge partitions.
Free Partition Magic alternative, EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition works with Windows
2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (32 bit & 64 bit)

FreeCommander Free file browser and Explorer replacement. Two-pane browsing, secure file
deletion.

WinAudit performs a rapid and exhaustive audit of installed software, license information, security
configuration, hardware inventory, network settings and much more. WinAudit is easy to use, no
special knowledge is required to use the program. It is a self-contained single file that needs no
installation or configuration. It can be run from a floppy disk or USB stick. Simply download the
program and double click on it. User interface translations have been kindly contributed by several
people, if possible WinAudit will automatically start in your language.

TreeSize Free is a free disk space manager for Windows. The software shows you the sizes of
folders including all subfolders. so you can see where your precious hard drive space has gone.

TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed,
providing the user with a lot of features.

Documents and Note Taking and PDF

Notepad++ is a Notepad replacement with an eye toward programmers, although it should also
appeal to the casual user

PDF-XChange Viewer is smaller, faster and more feature rich than any other FREE PDF Reader
available.

FoxIt Reader Really light alternative to Adobe Reader.

doPDF Free PDF creator you can use to convert to PDF any printable document. You can download
this free PDF printer right now and use it to create pdf documents.

Productivity
Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on
your desktop, and even your file manager. (I could NOT live without Launchy).

Executor. A multi purpose launcher and more advanced and customizable freeware windows run
replacement

VirtualWin provides virtual desktops for the Windows operating system much in the same way
Linux/Unix does.

Send To Toys Send To Toys is an enhancement of the Send To system menu. It adds a Send
To "Folder..." option to the right click menu, which allows you to select a folder and copy the file
there. In addition, the "Send To Clipboard (as name)" copies the name of the file or files to the
clipboard.

Screenpresso Quite Possibly the Best Free Screen Capture tool!!!!

AbiWord If you want to go light on a word processor then AbiWord is for you. AbiWord, an open
source alternative to Microsoft Word.

Remember The Milk Online to-do list and task management. Manage tasks from anywhere, get
Email, SMS and IM reminders. Access from your phone, Use with Google Calendar, share your tasks
and SO much more. This is a must have for everyone.

CD and DVD Tools

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should
have in their toolkit... and it's free!

CDBurnerXP is a free CD, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray burning software. It also includes the feature
to burn and create ISOs and has a multi-language interface.

DVDShrink The easiest and one of the better free DVD ripping and backup tools.

DVD Flick 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

Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only
virtually. Have you ever needed to burn an ISO, IMG file or DVD but didn't have a spare disk or
simply didn't want to go to the hassle of doing so?
If so, did you know you can mount ISO files virtually using a virtual drive such as Virtual
CloneDrive? Effectively, it's like adding an extra DVD drive to your machine but it exists only
virtually.

Archive and File Compression

7-Zip It's easy for Windows users to forget that WinZip isn't the only file-compression utility
in the world. 7-Zip supports a number of other compression and non-compression archive formats
including:
Packing/unpacking of ZIP, gzip, bzip2, tar and, since version 9.20 xz, WIM.
Unpacking only: APM, ARJ, CAB, RAR, MSLZ, EXE, SWF, FLV, SquashFS, CramFS, NTFS, FAT,
VHD, MBR, Z, LHA, cpio, smzip, JAR,ISO CD/DVD images (7-Zip version 4.42 and up), DMG, HFS,
RPM, onepkg and Debian DEB archives.

ZipGenius can handle more than 20 compressed archive types, so it is a perfet companion for your
work and daily activities; but ZipGenius doesn't handle compressed archives, only: it is flexible and
expandable so it could almost everything you want from it.

ZipGenius is a FREEWARE product, it is absolutely free for everybody and it can be installed in
any environment and on an unlimited number of workstations (private, professional/commercial,
corporate, educational, government environments are welcome).

IZArc is one of the the best ways to extract zip,rar and many other archives for free. Supports all
popular compression formats. Can open CD image files like ISO, BIN, CDI and NRG and many more.

Webcam and Screenrecording

ManyCam is free webcam software that allows you to use your webcam with multiple applications at
the same time and add cool graphics to your webcam video.
- Use your webcam with multiple programs simultaneously.
- Add text to your webcam video window with any application.
- Add cool animations to your video window.
- Show your local day and date in your video window.
- Add live CGI graphics like fire and water effects. You can even make it appear as if it is snowing
inside your house!
webcamXP Network and ip cameras software for surveillance and broadcast purposes.
webcamXP is a powerful webcams and network cameras monitoring, recording and streaming
software for private and professional use. it offers unique features and unequaled ease of use
to let you manage multiple video sources on the same computer. it is the ideal tool to secure your
goods and keep an eye on them remotely from your phone or over internet.

iSpy Use your Webcams, IP cams and Microphones as full security devices with motion/ sound
detection, recording and instant alerts. Remotely Monitor and control cameras in every room in
your house - add an unlimited number of cameras and microphones! iSpy is Free, Open Source
Software!

Stone Screen Recorder is the simplest product to record your desktop activities real time and the
speech from microphone, and then combine them into a high quality video file.
It is useful for your demonstrations, help documentation, customer support and training material
etc.
With it, you can select the full screen or any area of your screen to record; or just record the
activities of one application window which you are interested in.

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-
standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean,
bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

ScreenHunter When information comes across your screen that you do not want to forget, a screen
capture is in order. While using inaccurate and confusing hot keys was once the preferred method,
ScreenHunter Free offers an alternative that promises to simplify the process.

TechSmith Jing Take a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer monitor.
Share it instantly via web, email, IM, Twitter or your blog. Simple and free, Jing is the perfect way
to enhance your fast-paced online conversations.

As I stated at the beginning, this is by no means all of the software that I use or have used, but it
would take forever to list everything so I tried to cover some of the most popular. In the future
I will also be creating a list of Web Apps so you will be able to get things done by solely working in
the cloud.

Until then I hope you have enjoyed the options I have given you so far, and please follow me on
Facebook and Twitter to get links to more useful articles, software and web apps;)
Safe surfing!

Mike

And in ending I’d like to leave you with a quote from From the movie Die Hard 2,
spoken by the character John McClane.

As far as I'm concerned, progress peaked with frozen pizza;)