Once in a while, some of my friends ask me to format and reinstall their windows system. While reinstalling it is not a big deal, getting all necessary programs afterwards is major headache. So, I decided to dedicate this post to all-needed software tools for healthy and trouble free PC usage (i.e. antivirus, spyware removal, firewall, system maintenance tools, office software, media players, codecs and etc). I have compileda list of best free software tools available, and listed them based on the number of downloads and user reviews. The cool thing about this list is that most of these programs are the best available in their particular domain. You can actually have fully loaded legal system without spending a dime, of course not counting the cost of Windows itself. Here it goes…
|
Name
|
Description
|
Review / Download
|
|
Security
|
||
| Antivir Personal Edition 6 | Antivirus Program | link (allmost 1 mil downloads withiin 5 month) |
| AVG Antivirus Free Edition 7 | Antivirus Program | link (over 11 mil downloads within 3 weeks) |
| ZoneAlarm 6 | Firewall (protect your computer from hackers and prevent some programs connecting to the internet without your consent) | link (over 40 mil downloads) |
| Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4 | Spyware Removal Tool | link (over 80 mil download) |
| Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.06 | Spyware Removal Tool | link (over 220 mil downloads) |
|
Maintenance
|
||
| SyncBack 3.2 | Files Backup Tool | link (over 50.000 downloads within 4 month) |
| CCleaner | System Optimization Tool / Registry Cleaner | link (allmost 1.8 mil downloads in 2 weeks) |
| RAM Booster 2 | RAM Recovery Tool(speedup your computer by recovering RAM) | link (3.2 mil downloads in 11 month) |
| Free RAM XP Pro | RAM Recovery Tool | link (4.4 mil downloads in 7 month) |
|
Office/Documents
|
||
| OpenOffice 2.0.4 | Microsoft Office Alternative | link (over 500 .000 downloads in 4 month) |
| Adobe Reader 7.0.8 | View and Print Adobe PDF files | link (over 30 mil downloads in 4 month) |
|
Media (Play any Movies)
|
||
| VLC Media Player | These 2 players in combination with codec pack below will play almost any video file you may have. I am a big movie buff and it always worked for me | link (approx 3.5 mil downloads in 6 month) |
| DivX Player 6.2.2 | link (over 50 mil downloads in 5 month) | |
| Advanced DVD Player | DVD player | link (more then 400.000 downloads in 3 weeks) |
| Avant DVD Player | DVD player | link (more then 400.000 downloads in 3 weeks) |
| Klite Codec Pack | No more hunting for codecs. | link (one of the best codec packs available) |
|
Browsers & Internet Related
|
||
| Mozilla Firefox 2.0 | All belowed web browser | link (more then 2mill downloads in 2 weeks) |
| Internet Explorer 7 | New version of Microsoft’s IE browser. Much better then previous releases. (IE7 vs. Firefox 2 by CNET) | link (more then 8 mil downloads within 3 weeks) |
| Flash Player 9 | Needed for viewing flash animations on the websites | link (more then 8.5 mil downloads in 4 month) |
| QuickTime 7.1.3 | Most popular player used for viewing videos integrated into websites (ex; video blogs, trailers) | link (more then 16 mil downloads in 2 month) |
|
Other
|
||
| WinRAR | RAR archiver | link (more then 40 mil downloads in 2 month) |
Once you have all fundamentals, you can tweak and dress up your system even more with some of the desktop applications we reviewed before. Enjoy!
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Hide 12 Comments
Now all you need is a free OS to go with your free tools. I suggest Xandros (Debian-based) Linux.
May I invite you to a new kind of support site. Plan-B for OpenOffice.org – http://openoffice.screencast-tutorials.com/index
Here you find help and support for the non technical user through short videos (screencasts) and smart search.
yeap, free operating system would make things even better. Haven’t used linux for allmost 2 years now, I will check on Xandros.
WinRAR in not freeware
yes winrar isn’t a freeware program, however you can continuously use it without paying for it
Xandros is not free
Actualy it’s not 0$ … you still have to pay for Windows
Catalin true windows isnt’t free, i guess title seems to be little confusing for some as you are 2nd person telling this.
@hendoc:
these free programmes aren’t written for linux you idiot.
The only change I would make is in the media section
AVS DVD Player has played every video file I’ve thrown at it so far. Can be downloaded here
avsmedia.com/DVDPlayer/index.aspx
By the way excellent site I’m going through the archives right now, and will be checking back regularly for updates
check out http://www.topfreeware.net
Thanks, very good source.
Good Job. ;-)