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Avast! Free Antivirus -- Download

"Avast has the most features of all free antivirus programs, including full real-time capabilities (web, e-mail, IM, P2P, network, script, and behavior shields), boot-time scanning, a site ratings plugin, and a light sandbox.

It has high detection rates of malware and is light on resources. But the automatic sandbox may confuse average users (by default a pop up asks you whether an application should be sandboxed or not)."

High Quality Alternatives:

• Microsoft Security Essentials: "A great choice for average users because of minimal user interaction (automatically updates and removes threats). Detection rates are very good (particularly for rootkits). More impressively, MSE has few false positives and good removal of existing malware." Chosen for Gizmo's 9 great freeware.

• Panda Cloud Antivirus: "Panda is also an excellent choice for average users with a simple interface and minimal user interaction (automatically updates and removes threats). Detection rates are very high (but detection of real-world threats is slightly lower than the competition). A behavioral blocker and web protection help increase your security."

Related: Antivirus programs aren't a magical incantation to banish evil spirits, so we recommend using safe practices (and taking a look at our security guides below).

What's it for? - Provides an essential layer of protection from a multitude of virus, trojan, worm, spyware, adware, and rootkit infections. Our top picks have reasonably good detection rates for all forms of malware. Use one (and only one) antivirus program for real-time protection.

Best Free Firewall

Comodo Internet Security -- Download

"The security effectiveness of the "Defense+" application monitor (or "HIPS") exceeds the performance of many commercial products (assuming max security settings). On the minus side, it's rather talkative at its max settings and this may alarm or annoy users.

Using the less protective and somewhat user friendly configurations (including the default setup) you still get reasonable two-way protection. Along with Online Armor Free, it's the best choice for users seeking a full featured firewall suite."

Related: How to install Comodo Firewall

What's it for? - Firewalls filter traffic to your computer and help you control the activities of Internet facing applications. On max settings they typically require routine user involvement to answer popup alerts. If the popup alerts are annoying or meaningless to you, then at least enable the windows firewall. Use one (and only one) software firewall.

Best Free Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware -- Download

"Both are high in the detection and removal of malware, but most recently MBAM had the edge over the competition. However, SAS has a portable version."

Related: We also have steps to follow in our check for infections snippet.

What's it for? - As anti-virus programs don't detect 100% of threats, anti-malware scanning is still a must. On-demand scanners/removers provide a second opinion and can find unique threats.

Best Free Browser Protection Utility

Sandboxie -- Download

"Within the virtual sandbox provided by Sandboxie, your browsing (or other activities that you sandbox) are totally isolated from the vital portions of your PC. Any virus, trojan, worm, spyware or adware threats that 'infected' your PC while browsing will be eliminated.

It can cause problems on some PCs, so backup before installing.

Related: Alternatively, you can isolate your browser and other Internet facing applications with GeSWall. It provides excellent security and is a worthy alternative to Sandboxie."

What's it for? - Browser protection utilities like Sandboxie and GeSWall can greatly increase your defenses against drive-by downloads and other vulnerabilities. Instead of only reacting to malware, they proactively protect your computer.

Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service

Cyber Ghost -- Download

"A VPN (Virtual Private Network) based in Germany, providing a basic, attractive, and user-friendly design. It uses 128-bit AES encryption on all connections to ensure a high level of anonymity, and uses data compression to make connections faster.

The free service allows 1 GB a month, which is enough for normal surfing. You must register in order to use this service."

What's it for? - Anonymity services safely transmit information with little risk of local interception, making them ideal for surfing on open Wi-Fi networks or in hotels while traveling.

Best Free Software Update Monitor

Secunia PSI or Software Update Monitor (SUMo) -- Review

"Secunia scans for insecure software and helps you quickly update risky products like browsers, PDF readers, Sun Java, office software, email software, media players, instant messengers, download managers, P2P clients, etc.

Faster than Secunia's PSI, SUMo is perhaps the best software update monitor for expert users. It adds portable software and isn't restricted to any one download site. However, it doesn't provide direct download links. Warning: download the "Lite" or ZIP/7z versions to avoid the controversial RK and OpenCandy."

Related: We also have tips to follow in our system updates snippet.

What's it for? - Lets you massively check for new software versions, so you can update old software to get the latest features or security fixes. Both of our top picks scan for portable apps too (either automatically or after you set them to scan a custom folder).

Related Security Top Picks and Hot Items

• Best Free Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover -- Emsisoft Anti Malware -- Download . "Applications that specialize in the detection and removal of Trojans."

• Best Free Rootkit Scanner: "Applications that specialize in the detection and removal of rootkits."

• Best Free Intrusion Prevention and Detection Utility (HIPS) -- ThreatFire -- Download . "Provides behavioral based detection and runs from the box without the need for additional configuration." If you use a simple firewall (such as the built-in windows firewall), then a HIPS program can be a potent second layer of defense. Read the article for additional lite HIPS options.

• Best Free Site Link Adviser -- WOT -- Download . Quickly rates sites and links, uses an automatic warning or blocking screen to help you avoid accidentally interacting with potentially bad websites, and provides informative ratings and user comments without censoring the visibility of sites. Read the article for a plethora of ways to improve your online safety.

• Best Free Secure DNS -- OpenDNS -- Download / Review. "After only a quick registration and configuration change, it improves your proactive protection against drive by malware. It's an excellent first line of defense."

Basic Safe Computing Guides:

• Security Advice Wizard: Get personalized results and learn the most important advice.

• Probably the Best Security List in the World: A must read mega security list with a couple security setups.

• Safe Computing in Under an Hour: Secure your PC by following these simple guidelines.

• Secure Your PC: Use safe practices and choose from four novel ways to stop malware from getting a foothold.

• How to Stay Safe While Online: Shield your computer from malware prowling on the Internet.

Best Free File Cleaner

CCleaner -- Download

"Quickly and effectively remove unused or temporary files, unwanted cookies, and other unneeded files from applications." Chosen for Gizmo's 9 great freeware.

Additionally, it can scan the registry for issues, erase, manage the startup, uninstall, and clean system restore points.

Related: Also runs automatically at startup or as a task.

What's it for? - Over time unnecessary files accumulate, which can be removed with a disk cleaner to maintain system performance.

Best Free PC Tune-up Utility

Glary Utilities -- Download

"Allows one-click cleaning for standard cleaning tasks (registry errors, junk data, etc.). Includes many additional tools, such as an outstanding disk-space analysis feature. This is a powerful product, but many of its tools require user interaction and some are not as good as specialized programs."

What's it for? - Intended as an all-in-one PC performance optimizer and tweaker to simplify system tasks that typically require many separate specialty programs.

Best Free Registry Cleaner

Wise Registry Cleaner -- Download

"To decrease the likelihood of causing problems, it allows you to backup the registry before you start and (by default) ignores areas where most registry tricks are played. I caution against changing the default settings unless you have a good understanding of the registry and how applications use it."

Related: If you use registry cleaners such as Wise, CCleaner, Glary, or Revo, be sure to backup and image first.

What's it for? - The effectiveness of registry cleaning is controversial and can lead to the need to completely re-install windows, but for computer savvy users it may help reduce potential conflicts from the leftovers of a few kinds of uninstalled software.

Best Free Disk De-fragmenter

Auslogics Disk Defrag -- Download

"The latest release is way ahead of the competition. I found the defragmentation time to be incredibly fast, and for the first time in a while, the long process of defragmenting my hard drive was shrunk to minutes." Chosen for Gizmo's 9 great freeware.

What's it for? - Defragmenting your hard drive on a regular basis is a sound housekeeping habit. It can greatly increase system performance and relieve stress on your hard drive.

Best Free Secure Erase Utility

Eraser -- Download

"Highly effective at wiping the free space, leaving behind only unrecoverable nonsense file names on modern size hard drives. It erases the unused disk space (or "free space"), cluster tips (or "slack space"), individual files or folders, and data in the recycling bin."

What's it for? - Normal file deletion doesn't prevent a common file recovery program from recovering your files, so eraser utilities are helpful to permanently delete any personally identifiable or unwanted files to protect your privacy.

Best Free Startup Manager

WinPatrol -- Download

A respected and lite app for security and performance that deserves a spot on our list somewhere. The advantage of WinPatrol is that it runs in the tray to proactively stop programs from becoming startup apps without your permission (and as a bonus it can manage delayed startups).

It doesn't detect stealthily scheduled tasks, but along with Starter or CCleaner it's a good startup manager for average users to safely disable unwanted programs.

Related: Advanced users may want to try the powerful Autoruns, but use it carefully.

What's it for? - If you have a system full of programs running in the background or a start menu full of near useless tray icons, then startup managers are especially helpful for increasing system performance. Run programs when you want, not when they decide.

Related Cleanup, Tune, and System Top Picks and Hot Items

• Best Free Duplicate File Detector -- Duplicate Cleaner -- Download . Detect duplicate files.

• Best Free Disk Space Analyzer -- SpaceSniffer -- Download . Analyze disk space; find space hogs.

• Best Free Program Uninstaller -- Revo Uninstaller -- Download . The Windows control panel has limited uninstalling capabilities, but freeware programs like Revo and ZSoft allow for better deletion of programs by removing many files and registry entries that are usually left behind.

• Best Free Windows Tweaker -- Ultimate Windows Tweaker -- Download . "A well equipped tweaker utility that covers user account, security, performance and internet tweaking." Be sure to check out the complementary tweaking guide, here, which largely applies to windows 7 too.

• Best Free System Information Utility -- System Information for Windows (SIW) -- Download . "Displays many detailed specs such as CPU, memory, devices, installed programs, processes, services, network, and page file usage."

• Best Free Process Viewer -- SystemExplorer -- Download . Investigate your system: view active processes, end processes, view resource use of processes, and much more.

Best Free Drive Imaging Software

Paragon Backup and Recovery Free -- Download

"Overall a reliable program with some great features to handle the needs of most users: fast complete backup and restore, basic partitioning, differential backups, individual file restore, cyclic backup, hard drive cloning, and good compression options."

Related: For guidance on drive imaging, see Gizmo's three part article, encouragingly named "Never Re-install Windows Again" -- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

What's it for? - Disk Imaging has rapidly become a must have tool for most users because of its convenience, speed, and ease of use. It nearly eliminates any reason at all for going through the painful process of completely reinstalling, re-updating, and re-customizing Windows. A user can quickly recover from a system crash or a bad virus infection by simply restoring to a backup image.

Best Free Folder Synchronization Utility

PureSync -- Download

"Over all I was very pleased with its numerous features and ease of use, and heartily recommend it to the average user. It has a good preview of what files are going to be copied, updated, or deleted when performing a sync job. Supports scheduling and auto syncing."

What's it for? - Synchronization utilities are important in helping you keep identical versions of your files or folders, say, on both your home computer and office computer.

Best Free Backup Software

Backup Maker -- Download

"Here is a personal backup software that is easy to understand and use, while still offering a very good set of features. It has a slick modern interface that makes it easy on the eyes, as well as to navigate. It has setup wizard that takes you step by step through the job creation process, with the choice to show or hide advanced options."

Related: See here or here for related online apps and services. Online backup services allow you to share your data, access it when traveling, or archive it in yet another extra storage location.

What's it for? - Backup software typically have wizards and guides to make the process painless, giving you confidence that it will work behind the scenes to protect your data. Common features help you schedule backups, backup to local and online storage locations, verify backup archives, and easily restore files.

Best Free File Manager

xplorer² lite -- Download

"Shares the same desktop browsing and file management engine as the Pro version and offers similar features to some popular commercial programs. As a bonus, its user interface is similar to Windows Explorer, so most users will find this tool easy to learn and use. Supports dual panes and folder tabs."

What's it for? - Replaces the simplistic Windows Explorer, allowing for better customization, tabbed browsing panes, and more features.

Best Free File Encryption Utility

TrueCrypt -- Download

"Use this seasoned encryption program when you want an encrypted container that mounts as a virtual drive. You simply mount its encrypted files/volumes and then use the content like any other drive.

TrueCrypt's open source status allows peer review of the source code, adding to its trustworthiness. It also comes with a 'Traveler mode' for portable encryption."

Related: Learn about other important steps/cautions beyond encryption here.

What's it for? - Encryption is normally used to protect highly sensitive documents, but it's a good way to stop people from looking at your personal stuff.

Best Free Partition Manager

MiniTool Partition Wizard -- Download

"With an easy to use interface and fast performance, it aims to be a one-stop application. Performs many basic tasks of resizing, creating, deleting, moving, formatting, copying (disks or partitions), etc.

Also includes extra features like wiping (disks or partitions) and recovering partitions (detects previously deleted partitions and restores them with all data intact)."

What's it for? - Some uses include (1) separating user files from system files, so you can image the operating system (reimaging or reinstalling when needed) and leave the user files intact. (2) Creating a multi-boot computer (that has an option, say, between Linux or Windows) with separate partitions for each operating system.

Related Top Picks and Hot Items -- Disk & File

• Best Free File Comparison Utility -- WinMerge -- Download . "Compare and merge the differences between two (or more) versions of the same text file, or detect variations between two different sets of data."

• Best Free File Copy Utility -- FastCopy -- Download . "FastCopy is the Fastest Copy/Delete Software on Windows."

• Best Free Data Recovery Utility -- Mini Tool Power Data Recovery -- Download . Recover data after accidentally deleting it.

• Best Free File Rename Utility -- File Renamer Basic -- Download . "Rename your files for organizational purposes, including your MP3 libraries and digital image collections."

• Best Free File Archive Utility -- 7-Zip -- Download . Archive files/folders to better transfer, store, and organize your data. Chosen for Gizmo's 9 great freeware.

Related Top Picks and Hot Items -- Desktop & GUI

• Best Free Onscreen Keyboard -- Neo's SafeKeys v3 -- Download . "A virtual keyboard for security. Security-focused OSKs offer protection against malicious software, but read the article for accessibility OSKs that offer more functionality as keyboard replacements (without the security features)."

• Best Free Desktop Search Utility -- Everything -- Download / Review. "Finds a file or folder by name located on any of your hard drives in less than a second."

• Best Free Virtual Desktop Manager -- Dexpot -- Download . Organize your applications over several virtual desktops or work spaces, and work more efficiently and comfortably.

• Best Free Program Launcher -- "Provides a more efficient way of running programs than by using the Windows Start Menu or having your desktop littered with icons."

Best Free Screen Capture Utility

DuckCapture -- Download

"Easy and intuitive to use despite lacking the ability to do delayed captures. Snaps regions, windows, scrolling windows, or fullscreens. Allows you to choose a snapping mode with hot keys or by mousing over the program icon on the system tray. The output can go to the clipboard or an editor, a printer, or a file."

What's it for? - As an alternative to the utilities that come with windows, free screen capture products often cover many useful features and functions: capture full or selected areas, auto detect windows, snap scrolling windows, allow delayed captures, etc.

Best Free High Dynamic Range (HDR) Software

Picturenaut -- Download

"If you are looking for straight forward images without excessive tone mapping this has to be your top software. Provides image alignment, exposure correction, color balancing, noise level compensation, and derivation of the camera curve from the source images."

What's it for? - HDR photography combines several photos of the same scene, taken at different exposure settings, into one photo. The result is a correctly exposed and more dimensional single photo.

Best Free Digital Image Viewer

Zoner Photo Studio Free -- Download

"With an intuitive and customizable interface, it's perfect for the needs of average users. It can seem a bit professional and daunting with many menus, tabs, and icons. But it comes with comprehensive help and numerous tooltips.

It has the ability to temporarily rotate pics and straighten them by drawing a horizontal line. It supports geotagging, reads many formats, generates thumbnails in a blink, stitches panoramas, makes 3D pictures, and much more."

High Quality Image Viewer Alternatives:

• XnView: "It's probably the most versatile of all viewers because it can read nearly 400 types of graphic files and convert any of these to more than 50 formats."

• IrfanView: "This is a first-class product, an amazingly capable application and quite fast at displaying images. It offers plenty of functions for editing, converting, batch processing, slideshow exporting, etc."

What's it for? - Apart from the basic viewing and browsing functions, digital image viewers offer loads of features like editing, filtering, batch processing, organizing, publishing, etc.

Best Free Digital Image Editor

LightBox Image Editor or Paint.net -- Read Review

"Lightbox is my top pick for basic image editing because it has an attractive user interface and it's simple and straight forward to use.

Paint.net is a very good choice for mid-level photo retouching because of its excellent design and attractive interface. It also has options and tools comparable to commercial software, but it requires you to install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or newer."

Related: See here or here for related online apps and services.

What's it for? - Basic editors like Lightbox allow you to quickly make small adjustments to the overall lighting, colors, and tones of your images (along with other tools: cropping, sharpening, red eye correction). But editors like Paint.net offer more advanced tools (layers, captions, shapes, selective adjustments, artistic effects, etc.). Read the review for editors like GIMP that are comparable to professional programs.

Related Image Top Picks and Hot Items

• Best Free Paint Program -- Project DogWaffle -- Download . "Any one of these in the review will definitely satisfy the inner artist in you. My requirements include graphic tablet support and the feel of natural paint on a digital canvas, but support for animation or booklet pages is a plus."

• Best Free CAD Program -- Google Sketchup -- Download . "Affords the novice designer a veritable dream come true of innovative tools and pre-programmed add-ons. It allows you to create surfaces from lines, and extrude 3D solids from surfaces. If you are willing to learn insatiably complex software, CAD (or Computer Aided Drafting and Design) lets you see your imaginings materialize."

• Best Free Photo Slideshow Software -- Photo Story -- Download . "Both rich in features and easy enough for most average users to create a slideshow of photos. Turn multiple images into a standard video file and make your still photos come to life with animated transitions, colorful text, background music or voice narration."

• Best Free Photo Organizer – FastStone -- Download . "Organize photos and videos, import photos from cameras, send photos to many devices, and make quick edits (sufficient for what amateur photographers need)."

Best Free Web Browser

Firefox 4 -- Download

"An absolute pleasure to use, Firefox 4 is faster than previous versions and enhanced with new features. The customization capability of FF is unparalleled by any browser.

Just browse through a few of its features -- thousands of add-ons, hardware accelerated graphics, good looking fonts, 3D video, crash protection, syncing and panoramas -- to see who the real KING of the Internet world is.

Nevertheless, it's still a memory hog and RAM usage increases dramatically as more add-ons are used."

Related: How to Install Firefox and How to Back up Mozilla Firefox (and Thunderbird)

High Quality Web Browser Alternatives:

• Opera: "Opera might be the most feature rich and innovative browser ever. The eye candy interface gives you speed, security, and lightness. Includes tab stacking, tab previews, and a built-in mail client."

• Google Chrome: "One of the fastest browsers available across multiple benchmarks. Known for its impressive usability, streamlined interface, and impressive features (such as an Incognito Mode, Omnibox, and account syncing)."

What's it for? - Some browsers strive for minimalism, but others target the interests of users, such as providing features for social networking. Numerous clones of established browsers seek to improve on the original or offer unique features.

Best Free Email Client

Mozilla Thunderbird -- Download

"Intuitive user interface and highly customizable and expandable through add-ons. More secure than Outlook Express and, unlike the latter, is still being actively developed."

What's it for? - In addition to sending and receiving email, email programs like Thunderbird can manage your contacts and calendar, read news groups and RSS newsfeeds, and even integrate with various web-based mail systems like GMail and Hotmail.

Best Free Download Manager

Free Download Manager -- Download

"A popular download manager and a good choice for its stability, nice user interface and support for various browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari."

What's it for? - There comes a time when you are downloading a large file and the download stops part of the way through. Specialized download managers like Free Download Manager will allow you to resume a download, start several concurrent download sessions, and dramatically improve download speed.

Best Free Bittorrent Client

qBittorrent -- Download

"Stable and efficient with all the necessary features. Performs excellently on all torrents and is unlikely to cause any issues. Low and stable RAM and CPU use.

On the downside, it's a one person operation and support is limited."

Related: Optimizing qBittorrent for Speed and Optimizing Bittorrent Clients

Learn more about Bittorrent here.

What's it for? - Bittorrent quickly became an important download format for its speed, efficiency, and cheapness in distributing content over the Internet.

Best Free Remote Access Software

TeamViewer -- Download

"Very reliable and loaded with the features that you would most likely need while accessing a computer remotely. Allows both attended and unattended control.

There is a portable version and a web-based control site that requires no installation. The web-based version uses HTML and Flash so it is useable even if the browser or firewall doesn't allow Java or ActiveX."

What's it for? - Remotely administer another computer for off-site troubleshooting or for accessing your home PC while traveling.

Related Internet/Network Top Picks and Hot Items

• Best Free HTML Editor -- "Includes WYSIWYG editors for non-technical users who want to create an attractive web site, but also discusses HTML text editors for programmers or for anyone comfortable with coding raw HTML."

• Skype -- "Allows free Skype-to-Skype Internet phone calls with video, but it also has instant messaging and many other features (voicemail, SMS, forwarding)."

• Best Free Web Form Filler or Password Manager -- LastPass -- Download . "LastPass is a one of a kind product. Most password managers are either online or software only. It is the combination of web service and software. With the web service you can access your data anywhere."

• Best Free Network Finder -- InSSIDer -- Download . "A Wi-Fi network finder helps mobile users see the available wireless networks in an area. It also helps you identify the strongest wireless signals and the SSID of an access point. For example, it may help you solve slow and unstable connections that are due to overlapping signals."

• Best Free Telnet/SSH Terminal Emulator -- Dave's Telnet -- Download . "Provides a telnet or SSH connection to UNIX like servers with a fast no-frills connection."

• Best Free FTP Client -- Fire FTP -- Download . "With a robust feature set, ease of use, and browser integration, FireFTP should serve the needs of all but the heaviest power user. FTP clients enable fast bulk file transfers; essential for website management."

Best Free CD / DVD Burning Software

ImgBurn -- Download

"Most powerful burning application with advanced features, support for every modern optical disc from CD to Blu-Ray, more than 10 image formats, authoring rewritable discs, etc."

What's it for? - Whether backing up data, preparing an audio mix CD, or creating a bootable Linux disc, finding the right burning software is essential.

Best Free Media Player

PotPlayer -- Download

"A refined version of the KMPlayer with faster startup, less resource consumption, more versatility and stability, and regular updates. It’s intuitive, easy to use, and provides awesome video and audio quality.

PotPlayer has a wide variety of configuration options and settings. Supports most every audio/video format, GPU acceleration, seamless media playback, and autoresume."

High Quality Media Player Alternatives:

• The KMPlayer: "Special mention -- feature wise it outwits every other media player."

• VLC Media Player: "The Swiss Army knife of media playback software that marvels you with compatibilities and capabilities. Available on multiple platforms (including Mac and Linux)."

What's it for? - Capable of playing most types of media files, including various digital audio and video formats, CDs, and DVDs.

Best Free Music Player and Organizer

Jaangle or MusicBee -- Review

"Jaangle has an impressive auto continue (or "auto DJ") mode that chooses songs based on many tag categories (artist, genre, all music, etc.). It comes with excellent organizing and download capabilities that enhance the music experience (get artist and album photos, reviews, bios, etc.)

Music players like it achieve a good balance between lightness, resource efficiency, and feature support for music lovers.

If you need more music managing features all in one program, try MusicBee."

What's it for? - Music players like Jaangle and MusicBee serve as MP3 players and play most popular audio formats. As music centric programs, they may inspire you to rip or download music, organize your music collection, or learn more about your favorite artists or songs.

Best Free MP3 Tag Editor

TagScanner -- Download

"Supports basic and extended tags, complete with Music Renamer and Tag Processor. It allows you to preview tag information and cover art from online databases like freedb or Amazon.

Related: If you prefer a more normal user interface then Mp3tag is a good alternative."

What's it for? - Useful for when you need to playback audio files with their tag information shown correctly or to organize a large music collection based on tag information.

Best Free Video Editor

Avidemux -- Download

"My personal favorite for multi-purpose video editing and processing because of its simplicity, wide range of tools, and well documented tutorials. Supports many file types including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF."

What's it for? - Video editing is becoming ever more prevalent and crucial; both to the aspiring young director and to the mom who just wants to save old memories.

Best Free Audio Editor

Audacity -- Download

"It does all the recording and editing I need, and is much simpler and faster to use than a lot of pay products. It easily applies noise profiles and saves in multiple compressed formats."

What's it for? - Excellent free products like Audacity give a professional touch to your recordings. For example, podcasting enthusiasts use them to record, edit, mix, and save sound on their PCs. They may even make entire downloadable shows that sound almost as good as a professional production.

Best Free Audio & Video Format Conversion

iWisoft Free Video Converter -- Download

"Simple polished interface, file and preset editing allowed, good device presets. It even has a few pleasant surprises, such as a basic editing suite built in. In short, this program is an outstanding choice for almost any device conversion."

Despite its name, it converts a huge number of both video and audio formats, and as a nice extra also provides some video editing.

What's it for? - Converters like iWisoft make many different audio and video formats compatible for use with common devices or programs. Most devices will only take a few specific formats; for example, a DVD movie will not play on an iPod without being converted into an MP4 file.

Best Free Streaming Media Recorder

Jing -- Download

"Comes with an eye-catching interface, and outperforms the competition in the quality of its recorded stream. Allows you to manually select a recording area on your screen, capture images, play videos, save to vendor servers, and create links for public viewing."

What's it for? - If a free web service (such as ZamZar, SplanDoo and YouConvertIt) fails, you can use a recorder like Jing to record streaming media and add it to your media collection.

Best Free CD & DVD Emulation Software

Gizmo Drive -- Download

"Support up to 26 virtual drives, create ISO image, burn ISO files or folders to recordable disks, complete with Gizmo Manager and Image Wizard to perform tasks."

What's it for? - Emulation software allows users to run a CD/DVD image directly from a hard disk after mounting the image to a virtual disk drive. This works the same as or even better than the traditional way of running a CD/DVD from a disk drive.

Best Free Music Creation Software

.






LMMS - Linux Multimedia Studio -- Download

"Full featured, versatile, and well supported standalone music creator. It lets you choose from many built-in instruments and effects. And it has many forums, wiki style user guides, and tutorials to help you figure out the program features."

What's it for? - Make music with these composer and sequencer programs.

Related Multimedia Top Picks and Hot Items

• Best Free DVD Ripper -- "Copy the audio and video content of a DVD to a file in MP4, MPEG, or other video formats. Edit, backup, share, or playback without the need to load a DVD."

• Best Free CD Ripper -- Exact Audio Copy -- Download . Digitize your music collection to use on a computer or other player. Top of the line specialty program that rips CD imperfections and scratches with ease. Rips to WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, APE, and more audio formats."

• Best Free Media Centre -- XBMC -- Download . "Highly intuitive and usable features for listening to music, viewing photo albums, or watching digital videos. Organizes your media files intelligently (handling some that Windows Media Center does not), and downloads online information about them. Specially designed for better image and sound quality on big screens or while 'sofa surfing'."

• Best Free Online TV Viewer -- JLC's Internet TV Viewer -- Download . "A simple, but effective TV streams viewer without much overhead. User ratings help you choose good streams. Get Podcasts, video on demand, reruns of past shows, independent and international networks, and live video streams. Requires Windows Media Player, Real Player, or VLC."

Best Free PDF Tools Utility

PDFill PDF Tools -- Download

"Nice and clean user interface covering most functions. Includes merge, split, reorder, rotate, header and footer with page number, watermark, encrypt and decrypt, convert PDF to images or vice versa, convert PostScript to PDF."

Related: See here for related online apps and services.

What's it for? - Some programs in this review are designed to combine merging, splitting and other capabilities in a single application (like PDFill), but some perform a more specific task (see the Specific Tools section in the review).

Best Free PDF Writer

PDF24 or Bullzip PDF Printer -- Read Review

"Both have more of the options I need (encrypt and password protect PDF files, add watermarks, append files, adjust output quality, edit metadata), and have worked flawless for me. Requires GhostScript and .NET." Bullzip was chosen for Gizmo's 9 great freeware.

What's it for? - PDF writers act like a pseudo printer on your system. When you want to create a PDF document from pretty much any application you just choose to print it to the PDF printer and it creates a PDF document.

Best Free PDF Reader/Viewer

PDF-XChange Viewer -- Download

"Loads reasonably fast, can print PDFs, allows basic annotation without watermarking, good text clarity, allows you to fill and save Adobe PDF forms, extract text and images, magnify text, and export PDF pages or documents to BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG formats."

What's it for? - Third party readers like PDF-XChange help you to replace the slow and bulky Adobe PDF Reader.

Best Free Finance Software

GnuCash -- Download

"Helps you keep tabs of your budget without complicated features commonly used in commercial personal finance applications. If you're looking for a quick education in double entry accounting, look no further than GnuCash.

The program has a reporting and graphing module that generates a full suite of standard and customizable reports. On the downside, it doesn't track stock price movements automatically and doesn't have built-in encryption."

Related: See here for related online apps and services.

What's it for? - Eases you into accounting equations (without having to create custom spreadsheets on your own).

Best Free Office Suite

OpenOffice -- Download

"OpenOffice covers the basics of office document creation: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases.

Allows you to save documents in many choices of file formats, so you'll have no problem exchanging documents with MS Office.

Related: If you want an online or "cloud" suite, try Zoho (includes helpful collaborative features, support for many document formats, and tabbed document editing)."

What's it for? - Free substitutes for MS Office like this go a long way to meeting the needs of home users, small businesses, and many others.

Related Office Top Picks and Hot Items

• Best Free World Clock -- Wim's World Clock -- Download . "A light world clock with a choice of virtually any number of time zones."

• Best Free Genealogy or Family Tree Software -- Legacy Standard -- Download . "Provides a method for recording the subjects of your research, e.g. names, relationships, and life events. Print reports and charts to show off the results of your labor."

• Best Free Project Manager -- Open Workbench -- Download . "Like Microsoft Project, it's best suited to large scale projects that justify the time it takes to learn the product (users with simple needs might want to read the article for less feature-rich project managers). Key features include project planning, scheduling, resource management, project review, and more. "

• Best Free Word Processor -- Abiword -- Download . "A popular, free word processor with an interface similar to Word & WordPerfect. It reads many document types (OpenOffice, MS Word, WordPerfect, RTF, HTML) and you will be pleased with its layout capabilities. Includes spell checking, annotations, common formatting tools, and support for many plugins."

• Best Free Text Editor -- EditPad Lite -- Download -- "General purpose text editors with more features than the Windows Notepad, such as tabbed interfaces, unlimited undo, and block functions." Chosen for Gizmo's 9 great freeware. Programming editors like Notepad++ are here.

• Best Free Personal Information Manager -- Palm Desktop -- Download . "An excellent, full function PIM, much like Microsoft Outlook without the email client. Track expenses for multiple categories (and in different currencies) and quickly export them to Microsoft Excel and Word."

• Best Free Software Suite -- LiberKey -- Download . "Liberkey has 311 portable applications and three default suites. Choose a suite you like and then add apps to suit your taste. It automatically updates most of your favorite portable apps, making it a great way to keep them in one place."

Ref: http://www.techsupportalert.com/

Ref: http://www.winaddons.com/top-300-freeware-software/

Advanced System Care
IObit Toolbox
X-Setup
Glary Utilities
SSD Tweaker

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Update to the latest drivers: (Pick only one)

Slim Drivers
DriverMax
Driver Sweeper
Driver Magician Lite
DriverGuide Toolkit

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Free antivirus programs : (Pick only one)

Panda Cloud Antivirus
Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows
AVG Free Edition
Avira AntiVir Personal
Comodo AntiVirus
Avast! Home Edition
Kingsoft Free Antivirus

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Protect my computer with a firewall: (Pick only one)

Online Armor Free
PC Tools Firewall Plus
Zone Alarm Free
Outpost Free
Comodo Personal Firewall
Privatefirewall

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Scan & protect my computer for Malware - Malicious software (Pick at least two):


Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
IObit Malware Fighter
SUPERAntiSpyware
Emsisoft HiJackFree
Sandboxie
PC Tools ThreatFire
SpywareBlaster
Secunia Personal Software Inspector

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Remove specific or stubborn malware: (Pick at least two)

Assassin
Combofix
Kaspersky Free Cleaner
avast! Virus Cleaner Tool
Kill2me
CWShredder
Trend Micro CWShredder
WinPatrol
Pocket Killbox
Hijack This!
Hijack Hunter
StreamArmor

Rootkits:

Kaspersky TDSSKiller
Sophos Anti-Rootkit
Trend Micro RootkitBuster
F-Secure BlackLight
Gmer

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Block spam and find a better email tool: (Pick one)

Pegasus Mail
DreamMail
Thunderbird
Sylpheed
Pop Peeper
Koma-Mail

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Monitor or run diagnostics to find a problem: (Pick as many as needed)

IObit Toolbox
UBCD4Win
Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities
Speedfan
Ultimate Boot CD
Bart's PE Builder
Bootzilla
Windows Error Messages
BlueScreenView

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Test the memory in my PC: (Pick one or more)

Memtest86
Memtest86+
Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic
Video Memory Stress Test
FreeRAM XP Pro
OCCT

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Free up hard drive space: (Pick one or more)

Wise Disk Cleaner
CCleaner Slim (Also registry cleaner, startup manager)
CCenhancer
MRU-Blaster
Empty Temp Folders
Duplicate Cleaner
Cyber-D's Autodelete
PC De-Crapifier

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Better defragment my hard drive: (Pick one at a time)

Iobit SmartDefrag
Puran Defrag Free Edition
MyDefragPowerGUI
Defraggler
Lexun DrvCareXP
Power Defragmenter GUI
Diskeeper Lite
Auslogics Disk Defrag
AML Disk Defrag

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Find a better Browser: (Pick one or more)

Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Opera
Slim Browser
Maxthon
Avant Browser
K-Meleon

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Find out what is inside my computer: (Pick one or more)

Tweaking.com - System Information
Everest Free Edition
SIW (System Info)
SIV (System Information Viewer)
Belarc Advisor

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Recover deleted files or photos: (Pick one or more)

Glary Undelete
Recuva File Recovery
Undelete Plus
PC Inspector Smart recovery
Free Undelete
Test Disk & Photo Rec
Unstoppable Copier

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Backup data including CD's or DVD's: (Pick one or more)

Backup:

Yadis!
DriveImage XML
Karens Replicator
Cobian Backup

CD\DVD\BluRay Tools:

BurnAware Free
FinalBurner
DVDFab
CDBurnerXP
ShrinkTo5
ImgBurn
RipIt4Me

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Find tools to manage or optimize my multimedia: (Pick one or more)


Players:

1by1 - The Directory Player
WinAmp Full
JetAudio
VLC media player
Gom Player
KMPlayer
MPlayer
Foobar

Edit and organize:

Audiograbber
mp3DirectCut
Mp3tag
Super@
MediaMonkey
myFairTunes (DRM removal)
EncodeHD
The Godfather
MusicBee

Other (Codec packs, converters):

iTunes
iTunes Agent
QuickTime Alternative
K-Lite Codec Pack Full
Vista Codec Package
x64 Components
Win7codecs
VirtualDub
XMedia Recode
Format Factory

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Edit or organize my photos: (Pick one or more)

XnView
FastStone Image Viewer
Picasa
IrfanView
Paint.NET
PicSizer
WinSnap

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Find tools to Manage or remove installed software: (Pick one or more)


Revo Uninstaller - Remove any unwanted application installed on your computer.
JavaRa - Update Sun Java, remove older versions and tweak install.
Norton Removal Tool - Remove Norton including things the uninstaller might miss
McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool - Remove Mcafee including things the uninstaller might miss
Brute Force Uninstaller (BFU) - Uninstall programs that are hard to remove, uninstall improperly or simply unwanted.
Remove Hotfix Backup Files - Removes Hotfix Backup files and the Add/Remove Programs Registry entries.

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Find tools to improve office productivity: (Pick one or more)


OpenOffice.org - Complete office suite
OxygenOffice Professional - Complete office suite
LibreOffice Productivity Suite - Complete office suite
SSuite Office - Premium HD - Complete office suite

Abi Word - Wordpad replacement
Notepad 2 - Notepad replacement with HTML support
Notepad++ - Notepad replacement that supports many programming languages
Qjot - Notepad, Wordpad replacement that can be portable
Money Manager Ex - Personal finance software like MSMoney
EverNote - Note taking application
Tomahawk PDF - Create, edit and read .PDF files
FoxIt Reader - Create, edit and read .PDF files
Mobysaurus Thesaurus - off-line English thesaurus

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Know what other freebies you guys love?: (Pick one or more)

Multimedia:
DVD Flick - Turn your video files into a DVD.


Password related:
AI RoboForm - A killer password manager for websites
KeyFinder Thing Lite - Retrieve many Microsoft program serial numbers
Jalapeno Keyfinder - Retrieve and decrypt your Microsoft serial keys
Protected Storage PassView - Reveals Internet Explorer and Outlook passwords
EMCO OS License Modifier - Change your Operating System license information.


Everything else:
ieSpell - spell check text input boxes on a webpage
RemoveWGA - Remove the Microsoft "Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications" tool
Skype - Make phone calls over the internet
Clipdiary - A freeware utility for keeping the clipboard history.
Weather Watcher Live - A real-time Windows desktop weather station.

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Ref:http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20