It seems like there’s a never-ending push for newer, better, more expensive, and more bloated programs on the part of software developers. Fortunately, the vast majority of things most people use their home PCs for can be accomplished with excellent software that doesn’t cost a dime. Below are some of my favorite free programs… some of which will improve your computer experience, and others that can save you hundreds of dollars versus buying commercial programs.
All of these programs are designed to work with Windows XP and Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit). Most should work without issue on Windows 2000 systems as well, as long as they are running the latest service pack.
Firefox – While Microsoft has made great strides in better securing the Internet Explorer web browser recently (at least on the Vista platform), if you’re using another version of Windows, or want to try a somewhat different (and arguably better) browser, then definitely check out the Firefox program. Their free email client, Thunderbird, is great too if you don’t already have a favored email client such as Outlook.
OpenOffice.org – Although Microsoft offers a home and student version of their office suite at a lower price than businesses have to pay, for those who just need a compatible suite for home use, the OpenOffice suite provides Microsoft Office-compatible applications that are surprisingly powerful and well thought out given their price… free.
RocketDock – If you’ve used a Mac recently and preferred the Mac’s dock system far more than the Windows start menu, you may have heard that there’s a number of programs out there that attempt to replicate the OS X Dock experience on the PC. My personal favorite is RocketDock, which is extremely customizable, stable, and best of all, free. Below is a snapshot of the application section of my dock. In actual use, the dock autohides at the top of my screen, and the icons expand as you hover over them.
AVG Free – Pretty much everyone knows about the hordes of computer viruses and spyware applications that target the Windows platform, even if they’ve never had major issues with them personally. So, experts almost universally recommend that antivirus protection on all Windows machines. While stores are happy to sell you Norton or McAfee anti-virus solutions, those programs are so bloated they can slow down even a fast machine and don’t offer any better protection than the free (and relatively svelte) AVG Free program.
iTunes – When Apple first released their iTunes music app for the Windows platform they called it “The Best Windows App. Ever.” While this tagline is oft-cited as a prime example of Apple’s corporate egotism, its hard to argue that there’s a better app out there for cataloging and playing music on your PC. Many apps have tried to match iTunes simplicity and excellent user interface, but none have been able to match it.
VLC – Although you can always use Windows Media Player to play video files, you’ll often find yourself needing to download video and audio codecs to properly play different video clips. Fortunately, there’s a better way. VLC media player has virtually every codec you’ll ever need already included in the player, meaning it can handle just about any video you throw at it with ease. Get this and save yourself the stress.
GIMP – While everyone with a digital camera would probably love to have the money to buy Adobe Photoshop CS3 (not too mention the time to learn it), for the majority of people that’s simply overkill. GIMP offers most of the features found in expensive and complex photo-editing packages, in a completely free package.
Adobe Reader or FoxIt Reader – PDF files are everywhere these days and its pretty tough to go without a PDF reader on your PC. Many advanced users prefer the light-weight FoxIt Reader for this task, but the latest version of Adobe’s reader loads much faster its predecessors. So, use whichever program meets your needs best.
WinRAR – While there’s lots of programs out there designed to compress and decompress various file formats, WinRAR can handle just about any filme compression scheme out there, and can integrate itself into the Windows shell allowing you to perform most tasks without actually launching the program. Unfortunately, WinRAR is technically shareware as opposed to to freeware but you can use it forever for free.
CDBurnXP – While Nero and Roxio own the commercial CD/DVD mastering market, both packages have bloated to become substantially larger programs that attempt to be all-in-one media creation and playback packages. If all you need is the ability to burn CD, DVD, or Blu-ray discs (data, audio, and video all supported), CDBurnXP can handle the task just as easily as the expensive apps, and won’t set you back a nickel.
DVD Flick – If you want to author your own DVDs from files on your computer or from a digital camcorder, DVD Flick can do the trick quite easily. It supports a very wide variety of file formats for both video and audio, and even offers the ability to add subtitles.
Windows Live Writer – Although Live Writer has a much more limited appeal than the other programs I’ve listed (it’s sole purpose is to aid in blogging), it serves that purpose better than just about any commercial application out there, and FAR better than most blogging sites web-based solutions. If you don’t have a blog or plan to start one, skip this one for sure. But, if you do have a blog (on just about ANY service) give this program a shot and you won’t know how you ever created and managed posts before it. (Every post on this site has been created by Live Writer.)
There are thousands of other free software packages out there that can help you perform most any task you need done. The above are just a few of my favorites that I think everyone should check out. If you’re interested in others, visit PCMag’s far more exhaustive list of free programs.
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