I am writing this from the perspective of myself clean-installing Windows and re-installing all the software I find to be essential afterwards. This post took a long time to write, please Digg and/or Stumble it ;).
6. PC Decrapifier: if you install Windows from a CD image disk provided with your computer then it is highly likely that it comes pre-loaded with all manner of junk software that the computer maker wants to foist on you. PC Decrapifier will batch-uninstall many of these for you; be careful, however, to check the list so as not to uninstall something you might want something you actually want.
7. DriveImage XML: used this program to create an image of my freshly clean installed hard drive. (A hard drive image is a backup of the drive as-is with everything in it; performing such a backup means that I can quickly revert to my clean install of Windows in the future simply by restoring the image). There’s a number of reasons why I like this program (a) it can split the image file into several files, allowing you to save an image that is larger than 4 gigs onto a hard drive that uses the FAT filesystem rather than NTFS; it features ’Volume Locking’ which contributes towards ensuring that your created images are error free, and it is featured on boot CDs such as BartCD, which means I can boot into it and restore the primary partition.
8. Launchy: everybody needs a good launcher, and Launchy is my favorite. Pressing a hotkey will prompt a dialog to appear whereby you can type in the first few letters of the name of the program that you want in order to launch it. Launchy will index your start menu and program files folders by default so that it will know all the programs available on your computer (you can define other folders for it to index as well). If you would like alternatives to this one checkout Key Launch and the very powerful Keybreeze.
9. AVG Antivirus: the reason this is the my free antivirus of choice is (a) it is very light on the system’s resources, (b) it does a simply excellent job,and (c) it supports email scan, which is something that I need (and which is why I use AVG rather than the excellent AntiVir). Secondary choice: Antivir. Third choice: Avast.
10. Spyware Terminator: provides very good real-time protection against spyware/malware. For system scans it also integrates the open source ClamAV virus killer, which it also auto updates. Overall this program provides a very good free antispyware solution. Note that it will attempt to install a “Web Security Guard” toolbar in the setup which I typically disable (I do not like toolbars installed in my browser thank you very much).
11. Comodo Firewall: this is not only an excellent free firewall, this program is a PC Magazine Editor’s choice and is possibly the best personal firewall out there, free or paid. According to Matousec.com’s latest firewall ratings, Comodo gets the highest overall firewall score as well as the highest anti-leak protection (these results as of the date of this writing Oct 20, 2007). (Thanks go to reader DevZero for mentioning this in the comments section of my Comodo Firewall review).
12. TweakUI: this powerful Windows tweaking tool from Microsoft is one of the best out there, IMHO. In general I do not like to have any of my data stored in the primary (C:) partition, and I use this program to switch many of Windows’ special folders (i.e. My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Favorites, and the Desktop itself) from their default locations to a new location on the secondary partition. Having no data on the primary partition means that I can create images of my hard drive with DriveImage XML (#7 above) and restore them at will at any point without having to worry about lost data. Later I will also change the default data storage locations for all programs that I use so that they are on the secondary partition as well. More interesting tweaks that TweakUI does that I should mention: customizing the placesbar in the windows open/save dialog and increasing the number of folder customizations that Windows would remember.
13. OpenOffice: a world class office productivity suite and Microsoft Office replacement. OpenOffice can read and write MS Office 2003 documents in DOC (Word 2003) ,PPT (Powerpoint 2003) and XLS (Excel 2003) formats, and can also output documents in PDF format. Note that some MS Office documents that employ VBA Macro scripts may not be fully compatible with OpenOffice. (Ok, I have a confession to make: I actually install MS Office 2003 and 2007 both on my machine rather than OpenOffice, because (a) I need to use Outlook for work, (b) because most of my Excel work is done with VBA script, and (c) the licenses are paid for by my work). For the average user and for the purposes of this article, however, OpenOffice would be my free productivity suite of choice.
14. Forcevision Image Viewer: this is a very competent and straightforward free image viewer. Image viewing programs tend to be either (a) simple lightweight programs with few features but get the basic job done, (b) mid-level image viewers that have a good range of image editing options and features, some of which can do image format conversions (c) larger programs that have a comprehensive set of features and are typically extendible by plugins, and typically include the ability to read/write all manner of image formats including obscure ones. And although I know many people swear by Irfranview and Xnview, which would belong to category (c) in this case, for myself I prefer a mid-level program that I find can handle 99% of my image viewing needs, and Forcevision is the one I use. (Another good alternative: Faststone Image Viewer).
15. JZip: my current compression/zip utility of choice. Based on the 7 Zip open source archiver, JZip Can handle a good number of formats, has excellent compression ratio and speed as well as context menu integration. Other options that are good in this category are TugZip, IZArc, and ALzip (this last one might come as a surprise to some readers, but I actually used the new beta version for a few months and liked it).
16. CDBurnerXP 4: is the free program I use to burn CDs and DVDs; it is a full featured CD/DVD burning program that can burn audio CDs, copy CDs/DVDs, burn/convert ISOs images, and handle a large variety of formats (including Double layer DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs). My second program of choice would be InfraRecorder, which provides most of these functions as well.
17. JKDefrag GUI: this is the graphical user interface for JKDefrag a hard disk defragmentation program. There are 3 reasons why you should use this program (a) JKDefrag has recently been tested and found to be the best amongst x different defragmentation programs, free and paid, (b) it provides the option to install itself as a screen saver, which will kick-off the defragmentation process whenever your computer is idle and goes into screensaver mode, and (c) it is fast and delivers excellent performance (see this blog for an interesting comparison of free and commercial defraggers, where JKDefrag was deemed the best freeware defrag program)..
18. Folder Size: this free Windows Explorer extension provides a “Folder Size” column in Windows explorer’s ’Detail’ view that shows the size of both files and folders (Windows shows the size of files but not that of folders). My second choice for a for a free program that does this would be “Aurionix FileUsage“; the latter offers more columns but requires .NET and therefore much more resources than Folder Size does.
19. Pidgin: a fantastic IM client that supports multiple messaging protocols including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC, SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr, MySpaceIM, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ. It enables you to access all of your instant messaging accounts for the above networks simultaneously in the same client. You can use it to communicate individually with other people or to create chat rooms where multiple people interact simultaneously. Pidgin has been improved continuously and it is my favorite IM client (they finally implemented minimizing to tray which was inexplicably lacking forever). My second choice in this category: Miranda IM, which also has matured greatly, or try Meebo, which performs this function but is a web service that you can use from anywhere rather than a program that you install locally.
20. Google Toolbar: this is the only toolbar that I install. Google Toolbar provides a quick searchbox your browser’s toolbar, but it also provides the ability to fill simple forms, quickly translate pages, and spell check your text that you enter in internet forms. See this posting for a description of how to do that.
21. CCleaner: a fantastic hard drive cleaner that can rid your system of temp files, internet traces such as your surfing history, cookies, logfiles, cached files and other unused files from your computer. Installer comes with Yahoo toolbar included, so be careful to uncheck that during the installation process so it doesn’t install on your computer. Also includes a registry cleaner.
22. Shock Sticker: a really nice desktop ’sticky notes’ program that provides rich text editing and minimizing notes to floating icon (which is why I like it). This is my favortie desktop notes program, although Stickies, another similar program, is also extremely good and has more features.
23. FolderICO: I really like to differentiate my folders with different colors and/or icons. FolderICO installs an entry into the Windows context menu that does this, but it also saves the changed icons within the folders such that the changed icon is preserved if, say, the folder is accessed on a network from another computer from a different operating system (or after a Windows re-install).
24. BeCyIconGrabber: if you work with icons you will love this one. It enables you not just to extract icon resources from files, but to do the opposite (save individual icons into libraries) which most like-programs do not. Very cool.
25. Alpass: an excellent password manager (for Internet Explorer only) that can store, encrypt, and fill in passwords and logins into forms for you. For another excellent program that performs a similar function check out Keepass.
26. Picasa: an excellent program from Google that can help manage your picture libraries as well as share/upload them online. Provides many picture enhancement functions, and is also a very nice viewer to boot.
27. Faststone Capture: a really powerful image capture program that is extremely easy to use and has a built in editor for adding annotations and image manipulations. Unfortunately this program has recently become shareware but you can still download and use the last freeware version (5.3). Check out Screenshot Captor for another excellent screenshot capture program. If you know another excellent screenshot capture program please mention it in the comments (I’d like to try something new).
28. GOM Media Player: a fantastic player that plays DVDs as well as video formats, including Real Media, Quicktime, DivX, Xvid and FLV. Whats is really nice about this program is that it is self-contained and uses all internal codecs (meaning that in most cases it will not install codecs on your system). If, however, it encounters a video file that it cannot play it will automatically download it for you.
I chose this one over my other favorite, VLC media player, because it handles FLV videos better (allows you to jump to the middle of an FLV video, which the current version of VLC does not). It also has a nicer look and feel, IMHO, esp. when playing DVDs.
Also check out CodecInstaller, an excellent program that can identify, download, and install the codecs needed to play any media file (regardless of the player you are using)
29. Quintessential Media Player: supports most audio formats. It is simultaneously (a) a very nice player, (b) a competent tag editor, (c) a CD ripper with CDDB database support, and (d) and audio formats converter. Also features an equalizer, visualizations, and skins and is extendable through plugins. One of the nicer abilities is autotagging, which it does through digital thumbprinting and CDDB. (Note: album art is supported through a plugin, or use the cool CD Art Display).
Mediamonkey is another excellent program that also provides CD ripping, mp3 tag management, downloading of album art, audio format conversion, visualizations, skins, and equalizer, etc. Mediamonkey is vastly extendible though plugins and has a large community following.
30. MP3Tag: a fantastic MP3 tag/metadata manager that can download album art from Amazon and save it into the audio file itself. I’ve used a number of similar programs but like this one most because of it’s straightforward interface and user experience. Try The Godfather for another free alternative (note that the audio players mentioned in #29 above also provide MP3 tag management, which might be sufficient for most people’s needs).
31. MusicBrainz Picard: use this program if your audio files have incomplete and or missing tags. Picard uses sophisticated digital fingerprinting to compare audio files to the community-created MusicBrainz database. It employs a different technology than Quintessential Media Player (#29 above) and can in the most cases auto-tag audio files that have no tags whatever.
32. Exact Audio Copy: an audio CD ripper that reads audio CDs “almost perfectly” (i.e. produces very high quality MP3s), connects to CDDB/Freedb to get track information, and supports a handful of audio file formats. Another favorite of mine that does the same thing is BonkEnc. (Note that the audio players mentioned in #29 above also provide competent audio CD ripping). If you are looking for an excellent audio file converter try Any Audio Converter which supports most audio formats as well as FLV and can demux audio from video files.
33. MP3gain: this program can analyze a group of MP3s and determine the average volume for each, and then raise and/or lower the volume of the files in order to “normalize” them (such that volume differences that might occur when one song transitions to another largely disappear). The cool thing is that it does this without re-encoding the files and its intervention is reversible. Another program that has this same function: MP3Trim.
34. Unlocker: this small memory resident program will pop-up whenever you encounter a file that is locked by a process or another program which prevents you from deleting or moving it. Once you install and use this you will start to consider it a must have program. (Also see this related post).
35. Orbit Downloader: is an excellent download manager that has the unique ability to download streaming media (audio and video, as well as flash SWF) from video sharing and other sites. Another excellent download manager: FlashGet.
36. WinSCP: if you need an FTP client WinSCP is an excellent program that supports FTP and SFTP (as well as the legacy SCP), allows for secure transfers, and features dual pane file-manager like functionalities (such as sorting and comparing directories). It also allows for session saving (i.e. a bookmarking functionality), with the option to create entries in the Windows’ send-to menu for uploading files straight from Windows.
FileZilla is another competent, free program that is constantly improving and supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS. If you want a very nice program that integrates FTP support into explorer through the Windows’ right-click context menu check out RightLoad.
37. Local Website Archive: is a program that saves individual webpages locally on your hard drive, including pictures and formatting, and allows for later viewing even if offline. What’s cool about this one is that it saves websites in the original HTML format and therefore allows you to reference the local URL of the saved webpage in your notes program or other applications. Another alternative that I used for a long time until I found Local Website Archive: Evernote.
38. Flashnote: a quick and handy scratch-pad that pops-up when you press a hotkey and disappears back into the background again when you minimize it (or press the hotkey again). You can store multiple notes in it and quickly retrieve them when needed (its not a full-fledged notes program, but nonetheless has become a must install on my machine).
39. Revo Uninstaller: my uninstaller of choice, Revo Uninstaller will uninstall a program and then look for any files and/or registry entries that were left behind by the program’s uninstaller (and does a beautiful job at that). Be carful to look at the entries that it identifies for deletion post-uninstall, as it will sometimes list registry entries and/or files that should not be removed. Revo also provides a slew of other tools such as a startup manager and hard drive cleaner.
Another nice uninstaller which I used previously is ZSoft Uninstaller; this one will not uninstall programs as thoroughly as Revo does, but on the other hand will not erroneously remove registry entries or files that should be left alone.
40. BitTyrant: this is the free torrent client that I’ve been using for some time. What it is is a modified version of Azureus that, controversially, picks and chooses peers to allocate bandwidth to such that those who are providing more bandwidth for downloaded files receive more of your own bandwidth (which is why it is sometimes called the ’selfish’ bittorent client). It is claimed that this can result in up to 70% faster downloads, but the reason this is controversial is that peers with lower connection speeds or are not sharing files may be overlooked by this program (read more about it here). Other excellent free torrent clients: uTorrent, Azureus.
41. Starter: a small, no-install program which does a fantastic job managing the programs that start with Windows. (I’ve tried many, and this is the one I like the most). Note that Revo Uninstaller (#39 above) provides a built in startup programs manager as well.
42. Send To Toys: use this program to add any folder to the explorer “send to” menu, which allows you to quickly copy or move any file to your favorite or most used folders.
43. Returnil: a system virtualization program that allows you to surf dangerous sites and/or install and test software or implement any desired changes then restart your system to get it back to the state it was before said changes.
44. SysTrayMeter: a small program that shows your processor usage and free memory in the system tray. Invaluable if you like to keep an eye on your available resources, and very useful in troubleshooting a problematic or slow system.
45. SweepRAM: a tiny, no-install RAM optimizer that frees system RAM by allowing applications all the RAM that they need, but no more (i.e. does not deprive programs from RAM). Use it to free RAM whenever your available memory plummets and/or your system becomes sluggish.
46. VSO Image Resizer: installs an entry in the Windows right-click context menu that enables image resizing and format conversions on-the-fly. One of the nicer things about this software is the ability to create custom image profiles that you can save in order to access them quickly at any later point. Another program which I also used for a long time: Easy Thumbnails.
47. Photoscape: is an all-in-one image management and manipulation suite that includes an image editor, a screen capture program, image formats conversions, an image viewer, GIF animation editor, mass image renamer, page creator, as well as a handful of other functions. While it does most of these functions competently, what I like about this program is its ability to combine and/or overlay images and easily add annotations. If you have to use a lot of images in presentations (as I do for work) you will find this program a great help.
48. PDF-XChange Viewer: a very nice PDF reader that allows for form filling as well as annotation and adding notes. The only thing I would change about this program is the icon it displays for PDF files (but that can be done with a program like Icon Phile).
49. Primo PDF: a virtual printer that can create PDF files out of any printable document. If you’re interested in printing to image formats as well try PDFCreator. Another alternative: DoPDF.
50. HobComment: this will add a “file/folder comments” in Windows details view, and a right-click “add comment” extension in Windows explorer (the latter only for NTFS partitions). The end result is a very easy way to add comments to files and folders that can be displayed in the Windows details view.
51. I.Mage: I use this image editing program as a replacement to Windows’ “Paint” program; it’s simple and straightforward and sufficient for my occasional image manipulation needs. If you need a more powerful Photoshop-replacement freeware bitmap editor try Gimpshop or Paint.net (both excellent programs).
52. Flashfolder: an explorer extension that adds user-defined favorites folders (and recent folders) to Windows’ open/save dialogs. A favorite of mine that I always have on my machine.
53. JOCR: can snap any area of the screen (or simply load an image) and provide instant (and excellent) optical character recognition. This one might be a little out of place for an article that advocates using only free software because it needs a library installed with MS Office, whereas I list OpenOffice (#13 above) as the MS Office alternative. Still, I use this program a lot and find it to be a must-install, which is why I decided to list it.
Description: I recently clean installed Windows XP on my laptop, and this meant that I had to re-install all the essential software that I use. It also presented an opportunity to write a posting about how you can outfit your computer with all the essential (and non-essential) software you need using strictly 100% freeware and/or open source titles.This posting could have been titled any of the following:1. Gparted Live CD: one of the easiest ways to preserve your data when you want to wipe your system clean is to create a secondary partition and move all of your data into it. Gparted Live CD is a fantastic program that can create and manage partitions and hold its own alongside any program of its kind, paid or otherwise.
2. Unstoppable Copier: I used this program to copy any of the data and files on the primary partition (C:) to the secondary partition. Unstoppable copier makes the process of moving large numbers of files easy because you can set it up and leave and be certain that the copying process will not be interrupted by pointless Windows dialogs such as “are you sure you want to move the read only file xxx” or any other possible prompts of this sort.
3. Amic Email Backup: can backup all of my Outlook email to the secondary partition ahead of the drive formatting (it can backup email from numerous programs except Thunderbird; if you use Thunderbird use Mozbackup). For another freeware alternative try EZ Email Backup.
4. DriverMax: I used this one to back up all my current drivers. DriverMax will backup all of your drivers locally and can optionally restore them for you. Although I have my manufacturer’s CD with all of the original drivers (and anyway they are all on the internet), I used DriveMax just in case; if it were the case that I am unable to locate a driver for any device after re-installing XP, I figure I could always go back to the drivers backup that I made with DriverMax and find it.
5. Produkey: used this program to keep a record of all the product keys for the Microsoft products that are on my system, including Windows XP and Office. Made a printout of this info and saved it on the secondary partition for later use. I found that unlike some other similar programs, this one doesn’t make antivirus/antispyware programs act up and react adversely to it.
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Here’s a few more off the top of my head:
Attribute Changer, Audacity, Autoruns, BTRWiz, Copernic Agent, Copernic Desktop Search, Filehamster, Gadwin PrintScreen, JAlbum, Komposer,Movica, MyUninstaller, PageDefrag, RazorLAME, Spybot Search & Destroy, SpywareBlaster, THERename, Wax
dugg http://digg.com/software/Clean_Install_Your_XP_and_Load_It_With_Freeware
[...] “Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs” ( http://www.freewaregenius.com/2007/10/29/reinstall-windows-and-outfit-your-system-with-all-freeware-... « előző | tapir — 2007. 10. 29. [...]
Thanks Querymoon!
Hi there, just bounce on your interesting article via reddit. I’ve tried a few of them, maybe ths an itch in me to try more.
Great article , keep it up.
What about FireFox?
Tray Apps i cannot live without:
Process Explorer from Sysinternals (Now MS)
> Task Manager substitute a lot more powerful
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx
NetMeter from mMetal MAchine http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/index.php?PHPSESSID=d28a0a3faf0a256097b5aa331ebfa981&action=tpmod;dl=get14
> Network Bandwidth meter, great to read real download and upload speed.
Others i feel like you forgot:
Firefox, with more and more Web 2.0 apps out there i couldn’t live without a browser i can set up as i like. Favourites extensions:
Adblock, Customizegoogle, download statusbar, FEBE, SiteAdvisor, TabMix Plus
Check out Prism from Mozilla to integrate web apps on the desktop.(still in LAB)
SIW: System information for Windows, a standalone program to make a full inventory of your HW:
http://www.gtopala.com/
These are some of my favourites, sure there are more….
What about Ubuntu?? That has some of this software installed already, uses gparted during instalation to manage teh partitions and wont cost anything. Also, its good, more ethical and doesnt require you to sign away ure life with an EULA
on an aside, FileHippo.com have that updater for windows which would be a great addition to ure list
Both BitTorrent and uTorrent have sold out to the **AAs. I ran them with PeerGuardian2 to test the rumors about them selling out and I was flooded with hits from various ant-p2p outfits like Media Defender. Please, please do not use either of these two torrent programs; they are not safe.
That sure is some list.
Brings my attention to a few I havent seen before or forgot about. Nice.
thanks FWG
Gin,
Two things:
1) Which freeware bittorrent client would you recommend, and
2) Would you care to write about your experience evaluating torrent clients and running them with PeerGuardian2 on Freewaregenius? I’m sure it would make a great (not to mention informative) article.
Congrats! It looks like you have done your homework or plugging your own coded software. Regardless, it’s one of the most thorough freeware lists I’ve seen to date.
[...] [from dudu] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Downloa… [...]
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
Thanks for the list! I’d have to say that’s the most comprehensive one I’ve seen in a while. And I’m looking at an XP reinstall here coming up soon.
One question - what is you desktop wallpaper that I see in some of the screenshots?
Excellent suggestions for XP knuts like me…Loathing VISTA doesn’t even describe my feelings I have for it.
Sadly my XP box’s hard drive died but now I see that it is worth my time and expense to rebuild my box with awesomely cheap prices for a relatively excellent P4 3GHz board with PCIe graphics.
I dug this and will spread you around
what about custom emoticons on various IMs? what would you recommend?
Thanks
all freewares are free here except Windows.
dear freewaregenius,
this is one of the best freeware posts that i have read in while. Most of the applications i use. I suggest:
1. slickrun
2. seo note - it takes notes further with a tab AND tree structure
3. firefox - of course
4. handbrake - for converting videos - to IPOD etc
5. letmetype - for autocompleting text
6. auto hotkey with text substituting wikipedia list of commonly misspelt words (you can also add text) http://lifehacker.com/software/spell-check/download-of-the-day-universal-autocorrect-192506.php
7. freecommander - explorer alternative
8. winpatrol - to disable or to delay startup
9. dvdfab HD Decrypter, dvd decrypter - to copy dvds to HD
10. K-lite codec pack - with Media Player Classic
11. virtual dimension - for multiple desktops
12. true crypt for encryption
[...] Freewaregenious publicaron un artículo muy piola con una pequeña guía de una instalación nueva de Windows y como dejarlo a punto y con todo lo [...]
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Samer Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:48:54 GMT [...]
Wow! Really great! Thank you for the list.
I’ll get a new notebook next week and I can’t wait to install some of those programs.
The first thing you should install is InstallPad (http://www.installpad.com/). Then you can use it to install the rest.
[...] Windows only: Freeware application DriveImage XML creates and restores images of any drive or partition on your system. That means that next time you freshly install Windows on your computer (whether XP or Vista), you can back up that clean and sparkling system state with DriveImage XML. If things get messy down the road, you can just as easily restore that fresh system state with the program’s simple interface. We’ve given you the complete guide to system partition imaging and restoring from the open source perspective, but the freeware, Windows-only DriveImage XML offers a much more user-friendly alternative for the faint of heart. DriveImage XML [via FreewareGenius] [...]
Go to http://www.distrowatch.com and get a live CD of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, simplymepis, or pclinuxos, or damnsmall linux and boot the live CD.
Many of these programs are already in or from the Linux world (open office, firefox, pidgin).
You just need to take that last part of the bandage off - do it quick and suddenly you’re three years away from your last Windows OS. Or MacOS.
Gin:
Give definite proof that uT phones home, or leave the recommendation be. Many people have accused the client of malicious behavior, but no one has stepped up with any real proof. Even tracker administrators that had initially banned the client because of the supposed security/privacy issues it had were forced to retract their decisions because they saw with their own eyes that their decisions were mistaken.
http://torrenthelp.depthstrike.com/2007/07/utorrent-171-and-all-claims-about.html
Considering the fact that uT is at least the second-most popular BitTorrent client, everyone is obviously keeping their eye on it. If anyone had real proof, then quite simply, everyone would know about it.
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | fr… (tags: freeware) [...]
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt[…] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’sa quick excerpt […] [...]
This post belongs to a hall of fame or something, excellent job.
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | fre… (tags: freeware software windows opensource free tips list blog **) [...]
Well done; excellent compilation.
To echo some of the other comments:
Firefox, for web browsing.
And I would also add:
KatMouse, for scrolling any window below the mouse-cursor (not just the one with keyboard-focus) and
Volumouse, for changing the volume with the scroll-wheel hotkey.
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | fre… Hasznos freeware win programok (via: tapir twitt) (tags: freeware software free windows tips win) [...]
Like all others, I coincide in that it is an excellent selection of freewares, for a fresh reinstall of Windows. In the end however, everyone must decide his own selection.
Someting very needed, would be a similar article, about how to build a complete freeware security suite, covering different aspects of computer security, with programs that do not overlap too many functions.
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs (tags: freeware windows software opensource free reinstall reformat) [...]
it’s kinda stupid to make a new partition just to copy files over. why not burn to a dvd or install winxp with ‘keep file system intact’ ?
carbon copy list of freeware apps from other sites, with a few crappy ones thrown in.
Wow!
Great article! It’s this kind of site I point people to when I’m trying to tell them that they don’t need to spend $50 a pop on decent computer appz.
Wow.
I use linux. Don’t even have to pay for windows!
FlyingIsFun1217
Excellent. But why googletoolbar instead of Firefox? I stress, the lack of Firefox in your so complete list is really astonishing.
Comodo Firewall… mousetec’s “Leak test” is not as comprehensive or useful as you would think.
It equates to annoying pop-ups (fine for a poweruser)it just teaches your average user to accept all warnings, since if they don’t the system won’t even work.
It also presumes that your machine is already infected, which is too late.
I believe it’s a good firewall, but I would recommend against relying on the “leak test” as a fair measure, and I wouldn’t recommend such a “pop up happy” firewall to a novice (or even competent) user.
Blender 2.45 - free, open-source 3d modeling, animation, and compositing suite.
http://www.blender.org
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | fr… [...]
[...] Freeware I have installed on my laptop Using information from an article on http://www.freewaregenius.com I found these freeware programs and plan to use them on my laptop. The article can be found here. [...]
I very much like this review, and I think this will help so many people immensely.
Thank you for your reviews.
Why not just download Ubuntu? It COMES with many, many open source programs. Also, it has repositories to keep these programs up to date automatically. One last thing: No need for extensive spyware/malware/anti-virus programs! Linux does not have viruses!!!
This is really good, but for someone like me who is a bit of a technophobe, I’d still have to get someone to install them for me.
Good article!
Excellent post - thanks so much for sharing! Some great picks in there. I would also include Notepad for a text editor.
I’ve found an interesting concept at http://www.freewaremarks.com
How come the Total Commander is missing. It is the swiss army knife, providing so many functions!
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | fre… [...]
great post . I would add too a CD/DVD discs emulator like Daemon tools and Unlocker to force the deletion of a file locked by windows
Zipeg is not as sophisticated as jZip or 7zip but build on the same engine.
It has RAR 3.7.8 plugin that allows it to unpack RAR archives with encrypted filenames (to my knowledge latest version of jZip still fails on them).
Otherwise it is much simpler and also free.
http://www.zipeg.com
It is helpful in browsing photo-archives and icon archives.
Supports national code-page encoding in filenames.
Also works on Macintosh.
Any criticism is appreciated.
Leo; I like Zipeg alot. Will review soon.
This is the best software review site have ever seen. No other even comes close. IMO. I am particularly impressed with the detailed descriptions of these programs. These aren’t just copied and pasted descriptions - they are extremely well written by someone who has actually used the software. I have heard of some of these programs before, but have never tried them because the software authors’ descriptions are usually poorly written… they tend to speak to people who already use and understand the software. They’re far too close to their programs to write effective descriptions like the ones contained in these pages (plus they just tend to be poor writers in general). Reading this site enables me to know precisely what these programs do and how they work in the real world. So I’m finding that I’m downloading a ton.
The author of this site should work as a technical writer… I wish companies like Asus would hire people like this to write their motherboard manuals. Thank you! This is extremely well done!
Nice, except I’d replace these items
28. KMplayer -> this plays just about everything and is extremely skinnable.
40. Deluge -> One of the most actively developed torrent clients around, with the much vaunted ability to bypass ISP traffic shaping.
[...] Just found this article called “Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs” on freewaregenius.com which is exactly the kind of thought I had in mind with this article. [...]
Or you could just use Ubuntu, with it’s smooth looks and col desktop effects, not to mention all the free open source software at just a couple of clicks away, with synaptic.
check for:-
FDM Free download manager
Glar utility
Double desktop
Fresh Diagnose
HDtune
Netmeter
Date cracker2000
Xcalday
VTP Vista transformation pack
Electronic piano 2.5
Incontrol
Pc Wizard 2008
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs [...]
You totally forget about File managers. I recommend FreeCommander 2007! It’s a must have freeware program!
Echo the comments about how very well written this is. Covers the “What”, the “How” and the “Why” most readers crave when learning about software. I’d like to add a favourite of mine, similar to seonote, called “Keynote” which is a tab & tree pane note gathering app. A bit daunting at first but so loaded with features most will only scratch the surface. Encryptable, so it’s also a good password keeper.
Okay, a few more favourites: Y’zDock, Y’zshadow. CalcAnt. ClockX. DVDShrink. Audacity…
Now, if only someone could recommend a decent disc library tool…
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | fre… [...]
[...] Free software for windows Filed under: Windows — techteam @ 11:55 pm Free software ideas for windows at freewaregenius [...]
What a thorough list, this must have taken quite some time to write up, thanks for sharing.
This is truly a very interesting list. Thank you!
Very interesting list,plenty of good software there.But no mention of the best browser out there,Opera.Some other good security freeware would be Superantispyware and SandboxIE.
a free ruler program for your PC:
http://www.arulerforwindows.com
gr8 list-may I add http://www.Gadwin.com for an excellent screencapture site? just select a hot key and it captures it. also Abi-word is another Microsoft word replacement. Only problem with it so far is that I have to change thefile type to .txt instead of .abw in order for my printer to work
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | fre… [...]
Great post!! Thanks!!
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Thanks for all the great links, I have justposted a review of this post on my blog, please feel free to stop in and check it out.
Great list and appreciate the explanations!!
[...] fun to try out these, if you want more information and elaborate reading then dump your arrow here. Thats a whole lotta [...]
Thank you for not just making this “yet another list”.
If it had been named “53 essential freeware programs that can take care of the majority of your computing needs.” I probably wouldn’t have clicked on it.
The “blog lists” are getting out of hand [10 best apps, 20 best this, 40 best that], and most of them are useless, but you did a damn fine job of rounding up some of the absolute best programs out there and listing them in a very practical way.
I especially thank you for including FSCapture [definitely under-appreciated software]… and an extra thanks for linking to the last freeware version; last month I installed the newest version for the first time in well over a year and quickly realized it was only a demo. I had previously given this utility so much hype, online and offline, I felt like someone raped my face with an icepick when I saw it was no longer freeware. Grr.
Nice job.
You’ll definitely be getting hits from me often if you keep this up.
- trench
Comodo pesters you with popups to the point where you begin to confirm them automatically. Mysteriously, it warns you when one application on its trusted list calls another one on the same list. With bittorrent, it becomes unusable, requiring permission for every IP adress your client wants to connect to, which can be dozens. I reverted to ZoneAlarm.
Many thanks for your wonderful list, gave me a lot to play with - some great applications, cheers!!!
[...] How to reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs (the best guide to freeware I have ever read, except that it’s missing Firefox) [...]
[...] full story here [...]
Why not just install Linux?
faststone capture not free any more.
[...] sourced here [...]
I’m a blogger in China. Also devoted to promote freeware.
I translated this article into Chinese, here
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_46dac66f01000crp.html
ask for your permission.
xbeta. You have permission. I’m glad you like the posting.
[...] geek, or how to run DOS games by Alex Kohler -How to Be a Geek (And Why You’d Want to Be) by CSS -Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs by Fish -HOW TO: Cheap Wireless For Your Xbox 360 by David Peralty -How To: Be prepared for that [...]
[...] Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs November 5th, 2007 by admin Thanks to the author for such a great and detailed XP HOW-TO http://www.freewaregenius.com/2007/10/29/reinstall-windows-and-outfit-your-system-with-all-freeware-…/ [...]
To all of you posting about “What about Ubuntu and linux?” STFU. It’s a post about freeware on WINDOWS. Don’t like it? Too bad.
To the author: Good post! I’m usually well versed in freeware, but that list gave me some ideas.
Keep up the good job.
you do relize that you would have spent absoluty
nothing if had just installed Linux being that very single program above was originally based for Linux that is why its free
Richard,
Not every single program above was originally based for Linux. Not even the majority.
I wrote this article for the Windows user. My main computer is a laptop supplied by my work, and I need to connect to applications for work that run on Windows. Converting to Linux is not an option, but that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t outfit all of my non-work apps with entirely free software.
Hi Samer, I think your site is great,
you generosity and willingness to help even better..
All the best brother and keep it this way..
Thanks dude.
[...] Do a clean Windows install and then go free….link [...]
Great writeup! Very complete and thorough. I am impressed and will definitely use this next time my system crashes or gets overloaded (which is about every few months)
Damn! This is the greatest freeware article I have ever seen…
You really are a genius (and definitely not a bot)!
I hope Microsoft reads this article.
Nice work Samer!
man you cover it all. if you are looking for more, do scour my cool free software blog.
useless, and u have big problems, where is firefox, where is irfanview and so forth…
[...] und Produkey Veröffentlicht 8. November 2007 Tech Tags: software, Tools freewaregenius hat eine Liste von Tools/Programmen, die man verwenden kann um sein Windows System komplett mit [...]
Superb list, wonderfully written and made for Windows. I hope you are a