Page 1 of Useful Free Software Links (as recommended by forum users)

Thought it might be handy to have a sticky with a list of software for various things, save people having to dig around old threads.

Just add suggestions to this one and I`ll edit them into the first post every now and again.

Antivirus Software

Bitdefender Free
Minimal interface, low system impact, good protection.
http://www.bitdefender.co.uk/solutions/free.html

Avast
Excellent interface, easy to use, sandboxing feature, good protection
http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

Avira
Easy to use, good protection, but needs a bit of fiddling to disable nag screen
http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware
Possibly the most well known and used malware scanning and removal tool
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

ClamAV
Open source anti-virus engine, also runs on Linux, but unlikely to have as good a database as commercial products
http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/

Infection Rescue CDs
Kaspersky Rescue Disc 10
http://support.kaspersky.com/4162
Avira Rescue CD
http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=82163
BitDefender Rescue CD
http://download.bitdefender.com/rescue_cd/
Norton Bootable Recovery Tool
http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/nbrt.aspx?
Comodo Rescue Disc
http://www.comodo.com/business-security/network-protection/rescue-disk.php
Windows Defender Offline
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/what-is-windows-defender-offline

Web Browsers

Firefox
One of the fastest, and the one with the most addons
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Chrome
One of the fastest
https://www.google.com/chrome

Safari
The one with the most make text pretty options
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Opera
The one you think you heard about someone using once
http://www.opera.com/

IETester
A web developer that needs to check how things look in IE, but don`t want to install lots of versions of IE?
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

Email Readers

Thunderbird
From the makers of Firefox, read emails and newsgroups, supports POP3/IMAP
http://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/

DVD/Video Players

Media Player Classic
Should play back almost anything!
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

VLC
For those that don`t seem to like MPC, also does streaming of video across networks
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

ffdShow
If something doesn`t play back because you are missing a codec, or you want to enhance the playback of video or audio, this is what you need. NOT a player, requires something like Media Player Classic as well.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/ffdshow.htm

Video Encoding/Recoding/Conversion

XMedia Recode
For encoding/re-encoding as things like DivX, Xvid, MKV, etc
http://www.xmedia-recode.de/download.html

Handbrake
For ripping DVDs to MPEG4 or H.264 (MKVs)
http://handbrake.fr/

VDownloader
Want to download a YouTube video? Or other streaming video or audio from the internet? Use this
http://vdownloader.com/

MP3 Players

Winamp
Supports all major audio formats, also video and includes music library and iPod support
http://www.winamp.com/

MP3 Utilities

MusicBrainz Picard
Automatic ID3 tag renaming based on extensive online database
http://musicbrainz.org/doc/MusicBrainz_Picard

MP3Tag
Comprehensive ID3 tag editor
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

MP3 to iPhone/iPod Audio Book Converter
Also combines multiple files into one MP3
http://www.freeipodsoftware.com/

BitTorrent

uTorrent
Most popular bittorrent client
http://www.utorrent.com/

BitTorrent
Actually now the same as uTorrent (they bought it!), useful if you want to run two identical clients but tell them apart
http://www.bittorrent.com/

Hard Disk Utilities

TreeSize Free
Find out what is taking up all the space on your disk drive
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

SpaceSniffer
Find out what is taking up all your space on your disk drive with a different interface
http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/index.html

UltraDefrag
The best and one of the not very prettiest disk defrag utilities
http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/

Unlocker
Ever been unable to delete a file in Explorer because Windows says it`s in use? You can guess what this does then
http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/

Eraser
Wipe that hard disk before you throw it or give it away, nuke that folder with the naughty pictures in it
http://eraser.heidi.ie/

GParted
Partition editor, resizer, copier, just boot to the LIveCD!
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Clonezilla
Copy one hard drive to another, or many across a network, a free equivalent to Norton Ghost
http://www.clonezilla.org/

Parted Magic OS
A Live CD with various free partition and HDD management utilities (including GParted)
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

Macrium Reflect
Free version does most of what most of us would want to do when it comes to backing up and cloning disks.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

EaseUs Partition Manager
Free version allows for most basic partition resizing, moving, copying, but doesn`t work with Windows Server editions
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Recuva
Free version will help you to undelete files from HDDs and memory cards
http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Archive/Backup Utilities

7-Zip
For zipping/unzipping/raring, etc
http://www.7-zip.org/

Comodo Backup
For when the built in Windows backup isn`t enough, like for instance you want to backup to a network drive
http://backup.comodo.com/

CDBurner XP
Remember when we all used Nero before it became bloatware? This is like that!
http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home

ImgBurn
Create and burn ISO images to CD/DVD
http://www.imgburn.com/

Duplicati
Backup utility that supports full, incremental and compressed backups to local or remote storage locations, complete with encryption, that works with network drives, FTP, SSH, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Amazon S3 and more
http://www.duplicati.com/

Bvckup
Simple folder cloning utility for backing up from one directory to another, whether that be local or networked
http://bvckup.com/

EaseUS Backup Free
Free backup application supporting file and disk backup, and disaster recovery
http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/tb-free.html

Windows Installation, Cleaning, Fixing and Optimising

Ninite
Install or update loads of free utilities and applications (including many on this thread) automatically
http://ninite.com/

PC Decrapifier
Automatically removes a host of rubbish apps installed on PCs and Notebooks so you don`t have to
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

CCleaner
Cleans up temporary files and the windows registry
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

JavaRa
Updates or uninstalls Java, removes legacy Java files
http://singularlabs.com/software/javara/javara-download/

Remote Access

UltraVNC
Remote control your PC, from another PC, or your mobile, or well anything
http://www.uvnc.com/

TightVNC
Much like UltraVNC, also supports a Java viewer so you can remote control from a browser
http://www.tightvnc.com/

TeamViewer
Remote access via the browser, free for non commercial use
http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

LogMeIn
Remote access via the browser, free for non commercial use
https://secure.logmein.com/UK/

Instant Messaging

Pidgin
Supports MSN, ICQ, Yahoo and a lot more
http://www.pidgin.im/

Images and Photography

RawTherapee
Can`t afford Lightroom? Then try this!
http://rawtherapee.com/

BT747
GPS logging software, for getting that data off your logger and into one of many formats useful for geo-tagging photographs
http://www.bt747.org/

XnView
An all singing all dancing image viewer, with basic editing functions, useful if you want to crop or browse large folders filled with images
http://www.xnview.com/

GIMP
A sort of free equivalent to Photoshop
http://www.gimp.org/

Audio Editing and Creation

Audacity
Edit sound, supports most audio formats
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Emulation

VirtualBox
Run an old version of Windows, or DOS, or Linux, or Unix, inside a window. Also supports USB
https://www.virtualbox.org/

DOSBox
Run old DOS games under Windows (or Mac, or Linux)
http://www.dosbox.com/

Fuse
Spectrum emulator, probably the best, just add games from World of Spectrum
http://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/

Vice
Commodore 64 emulator (also emulates Vic 20 and C-128)
http://vice-emu.sourceforge.net/

MAME
Emulates loads and loads of arcade machines, requires ROMs to do anything useful
http://mamedev.org/

ClrMamePro
For making sure all your emulation roms are up to date
http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/

Office Suites

LibreOffice
Began where OpenOffice left off
http://www.libreoffice.org/

Lotus Symphony
IBM`s fork of OpenOffice, with more user friendly style toolbars
http://www-03.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home

Operating Systems

UNetBootin
Create USB boot sticks of many popular Linux distributions, including Mint, Ubunto, CentOS
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

General Applications

Stellarium
See what the stars are doing tonight
http://www.stellarium.org/



Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

My Flickr Photostream

This item was edited on Tuesday, 21st May 2019, 18:58

good idea, there`s some top stuff there, another forum I go to has a similar thread and it`s been v useful, hopefuly this will be as well as ppl find new cool stuff :)

the only obvious one I can think of off top of my head you`ve missed is Libre Office

http://www.libreoffice.org/

this thread has some more security apps
http://www.dvdreviewer.co.uk/Forums/PCs_and_Mobiles/t796222/Virus_checkers/page1

another good free ant vius is clam, I mention that as it`s free but can run on windows servers as well as desktops
http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/
you can also get it for Linux :)

comodo do free firewall and anti virus as well, didn`t know about their backup so may look at that

This item was edited on Thursday, 5th January 2012, 18:47

Can I suggest that you include http://ninite.com/ in your listing as a superb one stop shop for free software to install in one go on a new PC or laptop. I use it every time.

that looks useful

also for partition resizing
gparted
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
and EaseUS
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Free imaging (as in ghosting)
http://www.clonezilla.org/

remote access

http://www.tightvnc.com/

following 2 are free for non comercial use

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

https://secure.logmein.com/UK/

This item was edited on Thursday, 5th January 2012, 19:27

CCleaner
A very useful tool to clean up temp files and unwanted stuff on your Windows PC, also an easy way to control the startup items that often cause a slowdown.
www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Also, I`d recommend looking for those free apps on "PortableApps.com" - since you can then run them from a USB drive (or from the hard drive) without having to fully install them.

This item was edited on Thursday, 5th January 2012, 20:23

Parted Magic. Excellent live CD/USB partition editing tool that also incorporates a lot of disk health and back up utilities such as GParted (above), TrueCrypt, and the marvellous Clonezilla.

looking good, another one for you budding photogrophers/ppl who liek to fiddle with images but want a free alternative to Photoshop.
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

Very useful and not too difficult to use sound editor, Audacity.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/



Snaps

Every Third Car

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I used to be with it, but then they changed what `it` was.
Now, what I`m with isn`t it, and what`s `it` seems weird and scary

audacity is a good one, great for converting between formats, splitting, joining etc, and as you say, not too difficult to use if you want to do basics, but plenty of features for those that want to be adventurous.

I was introduced to evernote today. http://www.evernote.com/
I started a new job, and I was making notes as I was explained how to do things, fix problems etc, and the guy supervising me showed me evernote. It`s a useful program which lets you enter data, as you would say an email, but it catalogues it all into a database. What he says he finds most useful is that you can sync the windows/mac app with your phone/tablet etc. the website mentions some cool stuff like taking photos with your phone of say a whiteboard, and it will do character recognition to convert the image to text so you can search it!

Not strictly an app, but a very useful alternative to Gimp:

http://pixlr.com/editor/

Online photo editor that has many of Photoshop`s features, including layers and a decent number of filters. Very useful if you`re on a corporate PC and can`t install software etc.