Best Free Software for Windows

Have you already checked out the NBR Member Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide? If so, then De-Fragmentation, and Registry Cleaning would help. I recommend JK Defrag GUI, and Free Window Registry Repair for those two needs.

 

Thanks for the speedy reply! I De-Frag once or twice a week with the Auslogics program listed in this thread. I briefly checked the Vista Tips and Tweaks Guide, but as stated in my previous post, I'm running XP so it's not all relevant info. I was aware of some of the tips in that list, though.
Off to scrub the registry, then!

 

Hey Calvin, I've used quite a few reg cleaners in the past, some better than others, some actually destroyed my system because they were too aggressive, and I had to do a complete re-install!. Are you sure "Free Window Registry Repair" is the best? Is it not too aggressive, and is it really safe?

 

Yes, some registry cleaners are too aggressive, but i use this one all the time and i have to say it is not too aggressive at all. I test a lot of the software on the list, and others are recommended by people who use it so they are all safe.

 

most registry cleaners have a "backup your registry" option,
you shouldn't get into trouble if you backup before delete any stuff.

 

True, but sometimes the problems don't manifest themselves right away, and you may have installed programs, and or caused other important changes to the registry that make going back to a previously saved reg file problematic. So I'd like to not have to worry too much about problems to begin with.

 

try ccleaner then, I used for months, never had a problem

 

Actually, the reg cleaner in CCleaner was one that corrupted my system. It could have been because I ran it a few times consecutively without rebooting. After I ran it and fixed the problems it found, I ran it again and it found more problems, so I fixed those too, and then I ran it again, it found a couple of more problems, so I fixed those. After that I ran it again and it no longer found any problems.

After awhile I started noticing problems with my system. One of the things that happened was items in my start menu started being embossed, like highlighted or something, really ugly and strange. So I've decided to stay away from the reg cleaner in CCleaner, I think it's too aggressive, or just plain bad.

 

Have you tried RegscrubXP and if so how does it stack up to Free Window Reg Repair? Or is FWRR the best? I've been using WinASO and CCleaner. Since the new version of WinASO is out I thought it might be a good time to see if there's anything better. Registry cleaners are one of the programs I'm not too familiar with.

Scooberdoober: Did you try using the back-ups CCleaner makes to find what happened? I've used CCleaner for years now and I've only had a problem once. I just used the back-up to fix it and never had the problem again.

 

I've used RegScubXP on XP but it didn't do much. I noticed no speed improvements on my system.

 

I don't know what happened, maybe it was awhile since my reg backups, but even using them didn't fix the problems.

 

I just tried it yesterday and haven't noticed any problems. It found and fixed around 1000 errors the first time around, and another 50 or so the second time. My computer does seem to be running faster in general... though boot and shutdown times are still double (at a little over a minute and a little under a minute, respectively) what they were when I got the laptop.

I've scanned the list looking for software that might cut these times back down, but I don't think there's something up there yet. Ideas? (If this is too offtopic for this thread, just let me know.)

 

Yes, cleaning your registry will give you a performance boost, which is why i put those software up there. Do note, only run it twice in a row. It'll always find problems with your registry because the registry is a paradox.

Also, i haven't really been able to find any software to speed up your computer, which is why i don't have them here. I just put a link to a guide that does, which is flamenko's guide, even though most of those tweaks don't apply to XP.

 

Hmm... thanks for thinking along with me. I did a few forum searches and saw TuneXP come by a few times. Is that something someone who doesn't know much about computers should try? (It's not that a minute is so terribly long, it just irritates me that it's getting slower and I want to stop it before it gets worse.)

 

My vista takes about 1 minute 10 seconds to boot. So i wouldn't worry about it. Also, TuneXP doesn't do anything helpful. I wouldn't recommend it.

 

I second the notion of TuneXP not doing anything. The best way I found to speed up boot times is to do a clean install and to fix up the start-up sequence (it should be pretty good after a clean install). With a clean install I have 34 processes running when nothing is open, my parent's laptop without a clean install has 60 or more (both have XP). My boot-up time less than a minute, their's about 4-5 minutes.

 

The "old" Zoomplayer isn't very good but testing of the Zoom player 6.0 RC1 shows it is as good as, or maybe better than MPC. One thing i've noticed is that it uses more CPU but this might be fixed in the final.

 

How come Free Window Reg Repair ALWAYS finds stuff to fix. I've ran it something like 10-20 times and every time it discovers some errors. This is when WinASO and CCleaner don't report anything.

 

I answered that on the last page:

But specific to your question. The others don't find any more because they don't do as good a job as FWRR. A good registry repair program wil always find registry errors.

 

Ah my mistake. + rep for not being mean about it. Guess I'll just run it once a week, twice through.

 

Maan. thanks for this thread. I just recovered every digital picture, paper I wrote, mp3 I had, everything from my entire teenage years. I lost them almost a year ago.

I just used the Test Disk recovery program and it rescued every file perfectly.

 

Guys,

I use CCleaner lastest version 2.05.555 link at http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

I never had any problem with CCleaner while in Safe Mode, CCleaner does good jobs with my Vista 64bit no problem.

most reviews, forums, etc... state that CCleaner is best.

only users errors don't know how to use it properly.


Dg

 

If you haven't read the multiple posts i've made regarding this, i'll say it again. CCleaner doesn't clean the registry as well as the programs on this list. It's for newbies who don't want to mess up their system but the software i have listed can also be used by newbies as it has registry backup.

 

Like I stated in a previous post. Using CCleaner's registry repair on my XP system trashed it. It made my start menu look all goofed up, with no way to repair it that I could find. Maybe I shouldn't have repeated the process before rebooting, but I didn't think it would be a problem. User's beware. If your going to use, I guess you should only use once per boot. I'll never use it for registry "repair" again.

 

fair enough I guess every users use different reg software for their tastes.

I use CCleaner for few yrs, I trust with CCleaner for once at all, yea I miss some of your posts

Dg

 

Im sure someone has mentioned it, but Picasa from Google is a great picture viewer/organizer. It also supports RAW images

http://picasa.google.com/

 

It's not already on there? I must have forgotten to add it, thanks for telling me.

 

Is there a free Software that acts like windows slideshow only that it will view the picture in a zoomed mode??

Thanks

 

how come CCleaner is not on the list?

 

It is. It's under System Tools>Misc. Utilities

 

I'm just putting this out there for others, so if you use the program successfully, it is not meant as a knock...

I installed CDBurnerXP on a fresh Vista 32-bit machine. I could not run the program with my U3 flash drive inserted, otherwise it would crash upon startup. This is apparently a known issue. Once I got into the program I experienced a 15-20 second lag every few seconds when simply hovering over buttons and menus. I read on their forum that several others have experienced this, and nobody replied with a solution. The rest of my machine remained responsive (as there was hardly anything installed/running).

I removed that program, and installed IMGBurn instead. That program works great, with zero lag. It appears to be very similar to DVD Decrypter. I'll use it for burning images, and use WMP for audio CDs.

 

Thought I'd add a few apps I've started to use lately.

Executor
http://www.executor.dk/
This is an application launcher which I think beats launchy, slickrun, etc (footprint, memory/resource usage, features, etc). Best launching app imo. Be sure to grab the latest test builds (they're solid) that have the latest features.

WinDirStat
http://windirstat.info/
This is a great tool for analyzing your disk usage by directory, file types, etc.
I found it to be very useful for cleaning up my hard drives.

NirCmd
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html
Great little command line tool for performing a variety of windows operations.

HiEditor
http://www.winasm.net/forum/index.php?showforum=17
This is not my main text editor, but is still very useful. It's a very light weight text editor with syntax highlighting written in assembly. It can handle very large files with ease, etc.

I don't currently use the next 2 apps but people might find them useful.

AutoHotKey
http://www.autohotkey.com/
Meant to be the best hotkey application if you prefer hotkeys over launchers such as executor. Can be useful for performing other operations using hotkeys that launcher apps can't provide.

AutoIt
http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/
This is meant to be the best windows scripting tool. Very powerful, allows almost anything to be scripted in windows, including scripting in games, etc.

 

Thanks for the suggestions novack.

 

Im running ubuntu ..can I DL most of these stuff???

 

This is primarily for Vista Basic and Home Premium, but will also work in XP:

Free Impact Color Fax Lite

http://www.blackice.com/impColorFaxLite.htm

"The Free Impact Color Fax™ Lite software is designed for users who need a simple but effective PC color faxing software solution. Send and receive faxes from the comfort of your home computer. Send any file on your computer as a fax, or use the Free Impact Color Fax Lite software with a scanner or multifunction printer to scan and fax."

Since Vista Home Premium and Basic does not come with fax software, this is the only free solution I've seen. While the download link says demo, it is in fact free, fully functional software. Works with my Asus F3SV.

You need to give your name and an email address, and they send you a link to download. Spashscreen asks if you want to upgrade, but no adware or other hooks.

Jon

 

Can anyone suggest a freeware Ghosting utility? I thought there was one called Clone Genius, but it looks like its been "bought out" by a company Spotmau and is now sold and not free. If anyone knows of another (or if you know I"m mistaken about Clone Genius), let me know. Thanks. Please PM me.

 

Unless the program is compatible with Linux, no. This is a software thread for windows.

 

oh ok thanks, i installed ubuntu in my old laptop

 

"DriveImage XML" may be what you're looking for. It's on the list under "Data Backup/Recovery".

 

My comparison of Free Windows Registry Repair and RegSeeker:

I was told about an application named RegSeeker by bmwrob and i decided to test it out. The program needed no installation so it was already on my good side. I opened up the folder i had unzipped on my desktop and ran the application. I also started up FWRR. I ran both at the same time and found RS to finish slower than FWRR, but it also found many more registry errors. I was surprised at how many i got so i cleaned my registry with FWRR and checked again for both applications, this time a lot less appeared in RS. I didn't like how it didn't automatically select all of them for me and the fact that the scroll bar was placed weirdly and the fact that the GUI wasn't that smooth looking, but i decided to ignore that for now. I ran RS and went about some normal activities i normally do on the computer, and found something had gone horribly wrong....my system was slower! Especially opening files in explorer was taking about 1-5 seconds more than normal. I used the registry backups that it had automatically made for me but it didn't help. I decided the best thing to do was run System Restore. I ran system restore to a day back and lost some important changes that i had made, but now my system is back to normal. I wondered why it had messed me up and did some googling. Apparently, some sites call it vista compatible but it really isn't. That may have been my problem. In the end i say:

Free Windows Registry Repair: WIN
RegSeeker: Loose

 

Thanks for being the Guinea pig on that one for us. Glad you were able to get your system back in shape.

 

You're welcome, i escaped pretty well but i'll be sure to make more current backups in case i do that again.

 

I just moderately use CCleaner.

 

If it works fine you then you're okay, but if you want a faster system i suggest you use FWRR.

 

Thanks for the comparison, Calvin. Fortunately, I've never run into the sorts of problems you've described. When I run Windows (rarely, actually), I use XP.

 

AM-DeadLink

"AM-DeadLink detects dead links and duplicates in browser bookmarks and text files. If a bookmark has become unavailable you can verify and delete it permanently. "

I use it once in a while.

See what you think. They have some other freeware programs also.

http://www.aignes.com/products.htm


Defraggler

"It differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool!"'

http://www.defraggler.com/

Give them a test drive and see if they are worth keeping.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Todd. I'll take a look.

 

a-squared Free

Just found out about this one last week and giving a try.

" Remove infections of Trojans, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Keyloggers, Rootkits, Dialers and other malicious programs. "



http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

 

For that you'd be looking for this thread.

 

Nice comparison Calvin... My opinion, I do not recommend using XP registry cleaners to VISTA.