Last updated on March 27th, 2024
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Free software is a fantastic option, especially in the face of soaring expenses elsewhere. The availability of free software has coincided with the widespread adoption of computers in homes.
Unlike free software, paid alternatives benefit from dedicated teams, resulting in more extensive development efforts.
Occasionally, free software may resemble older iterations of their paid counterparts. Nevertheless, certain free titles approach the level of functionality found in fully paid versions.
Antivirus & Security Software
- Adaware – A free antivirus software to safeguard your computer from online threats.
- Avast Antivirus Free – Award-winning free antivirus software to protect against viruses & malware. It’s available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
- AVG Antivirus Free – Another free award-winning that offers virus and malware protection for your PC, Mac, Android, and iOS.
- AVIRA Antivirus Free – Another award-winning software that can block spyware, adware, ransomware, etc. and it’s available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
- O&O ShutUp10++ – Free antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11.
- SUPERAntiSpyware – Protect your PC by keeping it free of spyware, malware, trojans, and more.
- VirusTotal – Analyse suspicious files, domains, IPs, and URLs to detect malware and other breaches.
Audio, Video & CD/DVD Tools
- AIMP – Free audio playback software supporting many file formats.
- Audacity – It’s a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- BurnAware Free – BurnAware is a free burning software to create CD, DVD, and Blu-ray of all types, including M-Disc.
- CD Paranoia – Audio CD ripper (audio extraction).
- DaVinci Resolve – Video editing software (a solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production).
- FileOptimizer – It is an advanced file optimizer featuring a lossless (no quality loss) file size reduction that supports many file formats.
- Format Factory – An audio and video converter, clipper, joiner, splitter, mixer, crop, and delogo. It also includes a video player, screen recorder, and video downloader.
- FFmpeg – A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert, and stream audio & video files.
- HandBrake – A free, open-source, multiplatform, video transcoder (including DVDs).
- HCFR– Free video projector/monitor calibration software that is more suited for calibrating TVs (need the appropriate calibration device)
- MediaCoder – A free & universal media batch transcoder.
- MP3TAG – A universal tag editor to edit the metadata of audio files.
- MusicBee – A free music manager and player. It also supports podcasts, web radio stations, and SoundCloud integration.
- Moo0 VideoToAudio – Extract and save only audio/music from the video.
- MusicBee– Music manager & player that is highly customizable
- OpenShot – An award-winning, free, and open-source video editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- PotPlayer – A free multimedia player that supports TV channels, subtitles, and skins.
- Shotcut – It is a free, open-source video editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Subtitle Edit – A video subtitle editor.
- VidCoder – An open-source DVD/Blu-ray ripping and video transcoding software for Windows.
- VLC Media Player – A free and complete multimedia player for all your movies and music-watching activities.
- XMedia Recode – Audio and video conversion tool for unprotected DVDs.
Backup & Recovery Utilities
- Clonezilla – An open-source partition and disk imaging or cloning program similar to Norton Ghost or True Image. It’s suitable for Windows and Linux users.
- Cobian Reflector – A free program to make automatic backups for folders and files on your computer. It can backup to some other location in the same computer, to the network, and even to an FTP server.
- EaseUS Todo Backup – Freeware tool that allows you to backup system files, partitions, or entire disks.
- FBackup – It’s a free & lightweight backup program that can effectively protect your crucial files and folders from being lost.
- FreeUndelete – It restores deleted files, including those removed from Windows Recycle Bin (for older versions of Windows XP, 2000, NT4, 2003/2008 Server & Win 7).
- PhotoRec – File data recovery software that can recover lost files like videos, photos, and documents from hard disks, corrupted SD cards (and other forms of storage).
- Recuva – Recuva recovers files from your computer’s damaged disks, recycle bin, memory card, USB drive, or MP3 player! The free version is a good choice.
- Windows File Recovery – Accidentally deleted an important file? Unsure of what to do with a corrupted file? Windows File Recovery can help recover it.
Browser Add-Ons, Apps, and Utilities
- Google Chrome – A free and most popular web browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web safer and easier. Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Microsoft Edge – A free web browser based on Chromium Open Source Project and it’s available on Windows, Mac, and Android.
- Mozilla Firefox – A free web browser dedicated to Internet health and privacy. It’s available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.
- Opera – A free, fast, and secure web browser that is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Web of Trust (WOT) – Vets the links you click in your browsers for security issues.
Image or Graphic Tools
- DiffImg – Show the differences between two images.
- FastStone Image Viewer – A free image browser, viewer, converter, and editor that supports all major graphic formats.
- GIMP – A free, cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows.
- Hugin– An easy-to-use cross-platform Panorama photo toolchain based on Panorama tools.
- ImgSeek – imgSeek is a photo collection manager and viewer with content-based search.
- Inscape – Flexible drawing tool to create logos, diagrams, icons, maps, and text tool for creating vector graphics, and more.
- IrfanView – A free, fast, and compact image viewer. It’s available on 32-bit & 64-bit Windows.
- Krita – A free and open source, all-in-one painting program for newbies and professionals.
- Paint – An image and photo editing software for Windows.
- RawTherapee – A free, cross-platform raw image processing tool.
- Shrink Pic – Resize or compress the images to reduce the size.
- XnView MP– Photo viewer, image resizer, batch image converter, and more. The big advantage of this one is that it’s fully color-aware.
Office & Productivity Tools
- Buttercup – It’s a free password manager for all your accounts on Windows, Mac, Linux, Google Chrome, and Android.
- DoPDF Free PDF Converter – To convert any printable document into a PDF, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPad, NotePad, and more.
- Ecofont – A program to be able to save ink when you have to print a document.
- KeePass – A free, open-source, lightweight, and easy-to-use password manager to organize and protect all of your important passwords.
- KeeWeb – Free cross-platform password manager compatible with KeePass.
- LibreOffice– LibreOffice is a powerful and free Office suite that is compatible with a wide range of document formats like .doc/.docx, .xls/xlsx, .ppt/.pptx, and Publisher.
- OnlyOffice – The complete Office suites that allow you to view, edit, and collaborate on documents, sheets, and slides.
- OpenOffice – Another free and powerful Office suite.
- PDF24 – A free and full-featured online and offline PDF tool for Windows. It has 3 main functions, including sending and receiving faxes; creating, printing, reading, converting, compressing PDFs, etc.; and merge, split, edit, sign, add watermark, and more.
- SumatraPDF – It’s a free, open-source PDF, eBook (epub, mobi), comic book (cbz/cbr), DjVu, XPS, CHM, and image viewer for Windows.
- Tom’s Planner – Create Gantt charts easily.
- PDF to Word: Converts PDF files into edit-ready Word documents.
- WPS Office – Microsoft Office alternative that can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
System Utilities
- 7-zip.org – A free and open-source compression tool.
- Advanced Renamer – batch file/folder renaming, very powerful.
- AlwaysMouseWheel – You can use the mouse wheel over any window (under the mouse pointer) to scroll via the mouse wheel even if the window is not in the foreground.
- Agent Ransack – a free file search tool for finding files on your PC or network drives.
- BatteryCare – To optimize the usage and performance of the modern laptop’s battery.
- Bulk Crap Uninstaller – It is a free bulk program uninstaller with minimal to no user input.
- CCleaner – It helps you speed up your Windows computer, and maintain your online privacy.
- Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) – DDU is a driver removal utility that can completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA/INTEL graphics card drivers and packages from the system (including registry keys, folders, and files, driver store).
- Download Time Calculator – A tool designed to estimate the time required to download your files based on their size and internet speed.
Find And Replace – a powerful “Find and Replace” utility.
- Home Updater – An easy-to-use program that keeps over 300 apps updated on your PC.
- Microsoft Autoruns– This utility shows you what programs are configured to run during system startup, and when you start various built-in applications like Explorer, Media Player, etc.
- Q-Dir – Great file and folder manager.
- Snappy Driver Installer – use this tool to quickly find and install all missing drivers.
- Speccy – shows computer system information or specs in a nice interface.
- Ultimate Windows Tweaker – Tweak the Windows settings (over 200 tweaks available).
- WifiDiagnosticsView – Wifi diagnostics tool for Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista.
- WifiInfoView– It shows various information about your wireless networks like Network name (SSID), MAC address, signal strength, frequency, speed, and more.
- Winaero Tweaker – Tweak the Windows hidden & secret settings that Microsoft does not let you adjust from the user interface.
- WinSCP – A free and open-source FTP client for Windows to transfer files to and from a remote computer.
Video Tools and Services
- Classic Cinema Online – Watch classic films online.
- Clicker – Aggregates and helps you find where to stream your favorite movies.
- Hulu Desktop – Desktop program for watching Hulu’s videos.
- Libox – Private network to share large media files.
- ShowMeWhatsWrong – Let people record and share screencasts of what’s ailing their PC.