The Ever-Growing Free Windows Software List

I think that should be added to this thread too (couldn't see it whle scanning the list)

I'm going to try it out

Just playing, look good - but there is one flaw.

On German Office it uses English commands/searches...
Although, that could help in university...

 

Have had no problems.

 

Thank you both.

 

Many thanks to all who posted new apps to add to this massive list!

@Calvin - I saw your post after I had already made the additions. I'll definitely clean up all the spelling mistakes and the like using your fixes. +1000 Rep!

 

This is a nice e-mail client.

http://www.zimbra.com/products/desktop.html

It allows me to check all my email accounts like the other clients do, except, I can also check my Yahoo! emails for free. Other email clients would need the upgraded Yahoo! account to work, which costs money.

-I use it on my Vista 64 Bit.

 

It never ceases to amaze me all the awesome programs out there that are free/open source. You barely need to buy any programs anymore.

It's awesome, as is this thread for leading me to so many of these programs.

 

dbam:
I'd like to suggest a nice Wallpaper Slideshow App' (and free)..I just starting using it, and it's a nice app! Easy to use, so far!
Wallpaper Slideshow LT 1.4.3
Link: http://download.cnet.com/Wallpaper-Slideshow-LT/3000-2336_4-10649566.html

Info:

Cin

 

very true now a days they make more software with no limitations and if u wanna open more features with in the program u buy it .....but most software thats are open source come with exceptional features already implemented ......its nice that software developers that are willing to share their great software with no charge really does me good seen this happening in these harsh times...

 

Added, Thanks FoxTrot!

Added, Thanks Cin'!

Indeed! I'm finding many free-ware versions of apps to sometimes be of higher quality than the paid counterparts.

I totally agree with this as well! Lots of great software available these days is made free-ware.

 

Thanks for adding the app! I really am liking this Wallpaper Slideshow app! I keep tweaking and playing with it


Cin

 

I'm surprised Real Temp hasn't been added to the list.

I recently tried this registry optimizer/tweaker called Wise Registry Cleaner. I DON'T recommend it. Their latest build literally screwed up my OS. I couldn't boot nor go into Safe Mode.

Luckily I had to reformat cause everything was running slow anyways.

 

Strange - why do I think that the later builds are worse than the earlier ones too...

But really:
In Vista Registry Cleaners are pointless.

 

Added! We now have a large amount of temp monitoring app's... plenty to choose from. I tested this one out and give it my vote of approval. Thanks!

 

I agree. I think reg-cleaners are useful for people who still use XP. For people with Vista and onwards, it makes little sense to have.

 

Opps, forgot to point out I was using XP.

Anyways, I would just recommend CCleaner.

Thank you.

 

Diskmax is a cleaner like CCleaner, Glary Utilities, ect, but it is really in depth. It is created by a Neowin member.

 

Interesting, but seems some users have had problems.

 

I added this to the guide. Thanks Jayayess!

For future reference though, I'd don't want to have links that post to forum postings that in turn have the actual link needed in that. I'd like a direct link to the page that has the information on the app.

 

you missing dvd decrypter for dvd ripping and and Halite for bittorrent

 

I looked up DVD Decrypter but could not find a reliable download page for it. It's name is very generic as well, making searches a bit tougher.

Halite on the other hand has a page on Sourceforge so I added a link to that page.

 

Wikipedia on DVD Decrypter

Maybe this DVD Decrypter has been dead for a few years? I think I remember using a few years ago, and it worked fine then.

 

Thanks Jayayess, I followed a link from the Wikipedia page that pointed to a download. I added that to the list.

 

I put down some of the software I remember I've tested. I'm in Windows 7 but I can't really bother with the software I don't like, but I have installed most of the software I list as [tested]. I also include a [recommended] tag that I told you about some time ago on some of them to give you an example, wonder why you didn't put it up.

 

Thanks Calvin! I put up a new tag in the list, called [EDITORS PICK]. I also cleaned up some spelling errors and listed quite a few apps as the editors pick.

 

Kantaris is a neat media player. From their site:

Source + Download Link: http://www.kantaris.org/

 

Cool! I added it to the list. I'm trying this out now to see how well it works.

Edit: Kataranis rocks, but has trouble playing protected videos that I bought from the Zune Marketplace. WMP can play them though just fine.

 

Yea Katarnis has worked well for everything I've thrown at it, but I haven't tried any protected videos.

 

is there any freeware software for tv tuners? something other then windows media center.

 

I found a couple alternatives to Windows Media Center and added them to the list. Of the two that I found, a review from here makes it seem that Media Portal is the best alternative. That page lists 2 others (MythTV and TVersity), but one isn't a simple Windows application, and the other doesn't work with TV Tuners oddly. So I didn't add those 2.

Media Portal Open source alternative to Windows Media Center, that looks very similar. Has vast array of plug-ins.
GB-PVR Provides more plug-ins than Media Portal, but is slightly buggy and requires a bit more configuration out of the box.

 

Can we watch Free Tv with these ?

 

If you have an actual TV Tuner card installed in your computer, and hook up a cable line or one of those antennae sets to the tuner, then you can use these applications to watch TV.

 

Thxs & i have 1 more Qs

Whats the Best Cleaner
I have Vista Ultimate 64bit

C Cleaner
Vista Manager 64Bit
SYSTEM MECHANIC 8

I know some are paid ones but i have them aa

but feel they make my comp slow & laggy
or is it my imagination

 

I'm not sure since I don't use any cleaner software other than what came with Vista. Can anyone give some insight on which is the best?

 

Cleanmem is a tool that gives you back memory that has been used by programs. To elaborate, it does not force open programs to give back the memory it is using; the memory that closed programs have used are not totally given back to the computer to use, so Cleanmem can be used to do that.

IOBit Advanced SystemCare Free is a program that protects, repairs, cleans, and optimizes your PC.

The "IBBIT" Smart Defrag is actually spelled "IOBit".

 

Cleanmem is a cute little utility, tho' it'll really only make a difference on systems that either (a) have very little RAM (say, at or below the realistic minimum requirements), or (b) are left running for long, long, long times without a shutdown and do so while running poorly coded software with memory leaks.

Other than that, shutting down after each session will achieve the same result.

 

Thanks for the adds! I fixed the typo on the IOBit Smart Defrag also.

 

Is there a decent Driver checker/finder/downloader/installer/etc. that is free, ive been searching for days and all i come up with is stuff that checks which drivers are out of date, then they make you buy some software to download and install it, and alot of the time it gives you the wrong file so i doesnt work anyway and then you waste 30 bucks

 

I haven't found an application that does that, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. Hopefully a free one shows up (that works).

Meanwhile, I added the Belarc Advisor. It identifies all the hardware and software you have installed, shows your CIS benchmarks, and can even show you any Microsoft hotfixes that have been applied to your system with the ones you are missing. The CIS benchmarks are shown for XP Pro, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems only though.

 

DriverMax

 

Thanks Jayayess!

 

I added Wubi Installer, which is a cool little application that sets up Ubuntu on your system. It will allow you to dual boot Windows with Ubuntu, and does NOT require setting up or creating an alternate partition for this to work. Even better, you install it within Windows! It simply creates a folder in your root drive (i.e. C:\Wubi) and downloads the Ubuntu files to that folder. Removal is super easy since it includes an uninstaller that you'd use like any other Windows Uninstaller.

This is a cool way to experience Linux without going through installation pains, even though many distro's are easy to install these days anyway. This just makes it even easier.

I found out about Wubi from this post. Thanks darthvader1432!

 

A Note on Windows 7 Compatibility
With Windows 7 rapidly approaching RTM, I'm betting several people will begin to ask on whether the applications listed here work well with it. My thinking is that if an application works fine in Windows Vista (in either 32-bit or 64-bit), then it will work fine in Windows 7. What I'd like to do is update the list with any application that does NOT work properly in Windows 7. If you try out an application in Windows 7 and it doesn't work as expected, let me know so I can mark it. Please include which version of the application you are trying, and which edition of Windows 7 you are using (32-bit or 64-bit). Thanks!

 

Ok, I know you put a lot of work into making this list, but sometimes I find the list is a bit too cluttered, and it might deter some people from finding what they truly need. My suggestion (it's only my suggestion, I hope you don't mind) is that for the editor's pick softwares, put them in bold or put them on the top of each category. So it's either:

or

That aside, thanks a lot for the work of maintaining this awesome list. You've done a great job. Sorry if someone else had actually suggested this too in the past.

 

Thanks for the suggestion! I will do that.

 

Hi dbam,

Since my last visit few days ago ... lot of goodies added ... THANKS!

BTW, KarenA beat me to the punch ... I was going to ask you for the same thing to have "some" recommendation of some sort by YOU and your team ... kind of like Baserk's Antivirus Freeware list.

Q1: I wonder if anyone knows of Freeware that resembles Palm Pilot Desktop application!?!?

Q2: Does anyone know of Freeware that is in a Self-Contained ZIP Format ... you know Portabelish!?!? So, it can be used on a computer even if I have No Admin Rights!

THANKS!

G!

 

No Vista 64 bit

 

That sucks. And it looked so promising too. I updated the description for it to reflect this. Thanks!

 

The vista OS x transformation causes some much troubles for me.
Now, I am headache-ing how to remove it. Even deleted all vista os x stuffs in my laptop, it still got some minor vist os x icons and cursos in certain place.

 

Thanks for letting us know. I marked it in the list that the removal process might cause some issues. Just curious, did you try doing a system restore to the point before you installed it? See the developer's help page on this program here.

 

I added a few more apps!

Unlocker
Unlocks locked files! If for some reason Windows throws you an "access is denied" error or something of the sort, use this to get access to the file.

Manic Time
See a timeline of how you are using your applications. Pretty cool to see if you've been playing too many rounds of Team Fortress or working too hard writing TPS reports.

PicPick
Cool screen capture utility that throws in a whiteboard ability so you can draw on your screen and capture it for demo purposes.

NetMeter
A bandwidth monitoring application, that I'm planning on trying in a few minutes myself.

Xinorbis
Ever wondered how a pie-chart would look like of all the files you have stored on your disk? This app will show the distribution of music, videos, office files, system files, and more on your disk so you can plan a cleaning strategy (or do what I do and just frag your disk altogether ).