Desktop Applications & Utilities
--File Compression, File Removal & Restore, and Defragging software
7-Zip - Compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than zip format. Can also open RAR, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CAB, and ISO files. Works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista. –kewlceo
AusLogics Disk Defrag - A fast and efficient defragmentation utility for Windows Vista/XP/2000/2003 OS. This is totally free, award-winning software which supports 32-bit and 64-bit (plus dual-core) systems. --kewlceo
AusLogics Registry Defrag - Speeds up your PC by cleaning up the Windows Registry. Vista/XP/2000/2003 (32-bit and 64-bit supported). --kewlceo
CCleaner - A freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. –kewlceo
CleanUp! - Frees disk space and reduces the "clutter" on your computer helping it to run more efficiently. --iGamer
Defraggler - It analyzes the drive and finds the files that are fragmented, and then targets just those files without having to process the entire drive. --rolexdude
File Shredder - Remove files from your hard drive without fear they could be recovered. –iGamer
Rainmeter and Rainlendar - Really great desktop apps, like the Windows 7 sidebar reinvention, move apps anywhere, with skins (SKINS DOWNLOAD). --WF09
Recuva - Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses! (from the makers of CCleaner). --pwn247
Restoration - A handy utility for recovering lost files. --Chris598
StylePix - If you're just looking for a lightweight tool to slap on a netbook or thumb drive for quick photo editing, StylePix might be just what you need. --pwn247
Undelete Plus - Just as the name suggests, it really does it! I've used many recovery tools but they are all horrible, this one is simple and stable, it just shows the files along with their details etc. I can be used on any mass storage device, I came across it when I accidentally deleted very important video from my camcorder, and it recovered it from its hard drive. –Naturelles
Unlocker/ - Unlocks files that cannot be modified otherwise. –Andrewsarchus
web2.0calc - Currently doing Change of sign method in maths I have to change the x value and found using a keyboard is 10x faster than on a calculator. --iranair787
Yahoo! Widgets - Thousands of free desktop Widgets help you save time by bringing your favorite content and services right to you. --pwn247
-Computer Safety
Ad-aware - Safeguard your personal information against cyber threats with the original Anti-Spyware solution. --Mr.Carioca
Advanced System Care 3 - With more than 10,000 improvements, Advanced SystemCare Free v3 scans more, repairs more, cleans more, and optimizes more for your computer than ever before. --Tepp
Androsa File protector - It allows you to set high grade encryption on any of those files you want to keep safe. --suddste
Avast! - Avast! antivirus Home Edition is available free of charge for non-commercial home use ONLY. --Mr.Carioca
AVG Anti-Virus - Free anti-virus. --Jet_A_FuelGuy
F-Secure Rescue CD - It's a bootable Linux CD that can scan Windows hard drives (NTFS and FAT) as well attached USB drives. If the computer has an Internet connection, the virus definition databases are updated automatically. If an Internet connection isn't available, the definition databases can be manually updated using a USB drive. It's an excellent support tool. It's also one of the best ways to scan for and to remove MBR rootkit infections. --SwitchFX
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Malwarebytes Anti-Malware remover is good (even the free version ) for removing troublesome viruses and malware...It helped me when I had a ton of trojans on both my desktop and laptop. --DJ Iceman
Spybot - Search & Destroy - It can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot also can clean program and Web-usage tracks from your system, which is especially useful if you share your computer. --pwn247
Peer Guardian - Its an IP blocker. Block the bad ppl from connecting to your computer. --Kamakazi
-Programs For Making Things Easier
Dropbox - Dropbox is the easiest way to share and store your files online. No complicated interfaces to learn. Dropbox runs in the background on your desktop. Sync your files automatically to your computers and the web. Sign in and access your files from any browser or mobile device. For Windows, Mac, and Linux! Fully free, you get 2 gigs of online storage. --The Elf
Foxit Reader - The free version. --Kamakazi
Notepad++ - A free source code editor and Notepad replacement, which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment. --tropicalfish
OpenOffice - Compatible with all other major office suites, free to download and use. --lauren
PrimoPDF - A free tool for high-quality PDF creation, comprising a user-friendly interface that enables printing to PDF from virtually any Windows application. --SwitchFX
Teamviewer - TeamViewer is the fast, simple and friendly solution for remote access over the Internet - all applications in one single, very affordable module. --suddste
Totally Free Burner - Free application Totally Free Burner burns audio, video, data, and ISO CDs and DVDs in just a few clicks. The app covers almost all of your potential CD and DVD burning needs, and it does so through a slick and simple interface. --kewlceo
-Windows Manipulation Tools
AutoRuns - This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. --iGamer
EasyBCD - Basically allows you to edit the boot.ini paramenters without the need of a XP CD. You can remove/add startup OS entries. Very useful if you've had a dodgy install. --bigflyersmallbyer
ERuNT - Offers ease-of-use to backup the Windows Registry, as well as providing an auto-backup capability, for example at Windows startup. --kewlceo
ExamDiff - A visual tool for file comparison. It has a number of simple and convenient features that many users have been asking for a long time from a file comparison program. --kewlceo
GraphCalc - A calculator for advanced mathematics. --Chris598
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 - A free virtual machine. Useful if you want to install your old copy of windows 95 but don't want to shell out money on Parallels or VMware. --Chris598
Peer Guardian - Its an IP blocker. Block the bad ppl from connecting to your computer. --Kamakazi
Prism - Prism (formerly, Webrunner) is a prototype application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop. --pwn247
Ninite - Ninite runs on Windows XP/Vista/7 and works in the background 100% hands-free. We install apps with default settings for you. --pwn247
WinMD5Sum - Freeware Windows MD5 checksumming utility. --tropicalfish
QuickSFV - A program that checks various checksum type files such as SFV files, CRCs, PARs, MD5, etc. Allows you to make sure you have the good correct file. It allows tells you which are damaged and/or missing. --Kamakazi
Speccy - If you're going to be selling your PC, you can use Speccy to quickly list out the components. Or, if you're buying a PC, you can use Speccy to check that the computer has what the label says it has. --pwn247
Startup Manager - As the name suggests, Startup Manager is a program that provides you the possibility to manage the Windows startup procedure. It offers you the possibility to control which programs automatically start up and more. Startup Manager (st-m) is an opensource project, this means you can download it for free and the source-code is available too. --B737
Windows Grep - A tool for searching files for text strings that you specify. Although Windows and many other programs have file searching capabilities built-in, none can match the power and versatility of Windows Grep. --kewlceo
Wubi - Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. --pwn247
Xplorer² Lite - A file and information manager with all of the goodies from Windows Explorer, none of the hassle! Plus all the features you would expect from a powerful tabbed dual-pane file manager. –kewlceo
-Computer Temperature Monitoring and Performance Monitoring & Testing
CoreTemp - A compact, no fuss, small footprint program to monitor CPU temperature. --iGamer
CPU-Z - Gathers information on some of the main devices of your system. Collects detailed information on your CPU, Mainboard, your Memory, and more. --pwn247
GPU-Z - GPU-Z is a lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU. --pwn247
Prime95 - A program designed to be used to find Mersenne Prime numbers. --iGamer
SpeedFan - Handy tool to check the temperatures your system is running at. --lambo8
-Eye Candy
Celestia - A free program that lets you view the universe in 3-D. --Chris598
DesktopTopia - Updates your wallpaper every specified minutes to a designer choice. --pwn247
IrfanView - IrfanView is a fast and compact image viewer/converter. Features include: multi-language support, Thumbnail option, Painting, slideshow, toolbar skins, fast directory browsing, batch conversion/editing, multipage editing, file search, change color depth, scanning, cut/crop, IPTC edit, capturing, lossless JPG operations, effects, ICC support, EXE/SCR creating, many hotkeys, command line options and plugins. --ollyau
PowerToys XP - PowerToys add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. What are they? PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released. --bigflyersmallbyer
RK Launcher - A free application that will allow the user to have a visually pleasing bar at the side of the screen that is used to quickly launch shortcuts. --experimental_pilot
Stardock ObjectDock - A program that enables users to organize their shortcuts, programs and running tasks into an attractive and fun animated Dock. --experimental_pilot
TClocklight - An app that replaces the taskbar's default clock. No installation is necessary, just unzip into a folder and click on tclock.exe. --Chris598
TerraGen - Used to create amazing CG earthscapes. --pwn247
ÜberIcon - Creates a more customizable atmosphere on your desktop by extending Windows to perform new effects when you launch your icons and folders. The effects are plugin-based to give you control over the look and feel. --pwn247
Vista+XP Virtual Desktop Manager - One of Vista's most talked-about new features is the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). A new set of thumbnail API's can be used to access thumbnails of open windows. --pwn247
WorldWide Telescope - The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe. --ollyau
Yahoo! Widgets - Yahoo! Widgets are small, specific applications that you can run on your Windows or Mac OS desktop. --pwn247
Multimedia Applications & Utilities
-Audio & Video
Audacity - Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. --tropicalfish
Floola - A Light iTunes Alternative freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes). It's a standalone application that can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows (Windows Vista is supported). --pwn247
Infra Recorder - Free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features. --iGamer
iTunes - Possibly one of the best computer music library managing programs out there. I was skeptical of it at first, but it's fast, simple, quick, easy to use. --SwitchFX
LC ISO creator - Simple and easy , creates ISO from CD/DVD's don't even have to install it just runs straight off. --bigflyersmallbyer
Magic Disk & Magic ISO - MagicISO is a powerful CD/DVD image file creating/editing/extracting tool. --suddste
Pictomio - Freeware that sets new standards for 3D accelerated browsing of your photo and video collection. Pictomio requires a graphics card with ShaderModel 2.0 and a minimum of 128 MB video RAM. --pwn247
SharePod - Allows transfer of music from ANY Ipod to iTunes. --cfschris
SongBird - Songbird is a highly customizable alternative to traditional desktop media players. Point 6 is our public alpha release. --pwn247
Taksi - A FREEWARE alternative to Fraps. Records videos of your DirectX games, and captures screenshots. --sharkbate24
Ultrastar Deluxe - A very good karaoke system that focuses on the pitch of your voice. --sharkbate24
VLC Media Player - Media Player. --pwn247
Winamp - One of the better free Audio/Video media players. --SwitchFX
-2D and 3D Rendering
Blender - Blender is the open-source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. --SwitchFX
GIMP - GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. --pwn247
Gmax - For years, artists have used Discreet's gmax 3D modeling and animation tool to create content for video games. With this powerful program, you can create your own in-game content (including characters, maps, weapons, and other objects). --pwn247
Inkscape - A free vector graphics editor. --Chris598
Paint.Net - Every feature and user interface element was designed to be immediately intuitive and quickly learnable without assistance. --Mr.Carioca
-Converting
YouTube Downloader - It's software that allows you to download videos from YouTube and many others and convert them to other video formats. --SwitchFX
Xvid4PSP - Nice converter for various formats etc. --Kamakazi
VirtualDub - VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). --Chris598
Raw Therapee is a free RAW converter and digital photo processing software. --tropicalfish
Free Studio Manager - Has many great A/V conversion tools which are fast and reliable. --Naturelles
Videora iPod Converter - A free iPod video converter that converts video files, YouTube videos, movies and DVD's so you can play them on your iPod/iPhone devices. --Salem
--Codec Packs
CCCP - Combined Community Codec Pack. Comes with pretty much every single codec you'll ever need to watch videos/movies with different file extentions and comes with a lightweight "Media Player Classic". --Jet_A_FuelGuy
K-Lite Codec Pack - Every one you will ever need. VLC + this = everything. --Kamakazi
Web Broswers
Chrome - Google's web browser beta is found to be very solid and fast. --WF08
<a href="http://www.Firefox.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">
Firefox</a> - Web Browser. --TechnicolorYawn
Flock - A web browser specializing in social networking. Based off of Firefox. --Chris598
Opera - Discover the new standard in Web browsing. Download Opera today to get the fastest and most powerful Web browser available and make the most of your time online. --Mr.Carioca
Safari - The Apple Safari browser is available for Windows users if that floats your boat. --kewlceo
Web Browser Extensions
AdBlock Plus - Blocks advertising, banners and other unwanted stuff on websites. --pwn247
BBCodeXtra - BBCodeXtra is an extension, compatible with Mozilla FireFox and Mozilla Suite, which adds to the context menu new commands to insert BBCode/Html/XHtml codes in an easy and fast way. --kewlceo
Bookmark This Page Plus - Adds a menu item in each sub folder of the bookmarks menu to bookmark the current page. Just like Opera. --kewlceo
Cooliris (formerly PicLens) - Full-Screen, 3D; Cooliris transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for searching, viewing, and sharing online photos and videos. --pwn247
Exif Viewer 1.45 - Displays the Exif and IPTC data in local and remote JPEG images. (Firefox) --Pierre.
Foxmarks - If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. You can also log in to my.foxmarks.com to manage your bookmarks from any computer. --pwn247
GooglePreview - Inserts preview images (thumbnails) of web sites into the Google and Yahoo search results pages. --pwn247
IE8 Activities for Firefox - This extension is an implementation of IE8 Activities for Firefox. Activities is a new feature in IE8. You can get more information here: Activities. --ollyau
ImageBot - A great addon for FireFox, a very convenient way to upload images. --Naturelles
MeasureIt - Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on any webpage. --pwn247
MR Tech Toolkit - The primary goal of this extension is to provide the tools needed to install and manage extensions and themes locally and tons of other features. --kewlceo
NoScript - The best security you can get in a web browser! Allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS attacks. (Firefox) --kewlceo
Speed Dial - Direct access to your most visited websites (like what Opera does). --pwn247
Web Developer - Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. --kewlceo
W0T - Web of Trust, warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam. Protect your computer against online threats by using what as your front-line layer of protection when browsing or searching in unfamiliar territory. -pwn247
Web IM Clients
Digsby - Supports most mainstream IM protocols such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, and Facebook Chat. Digsby also supports e-mail notifications and alerts from MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. --pwn247
Pidgin - Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time. --Grogs
*If you have some to add to this list, just post it in this thread. No payware or trialware, please. Also, please follow the format above and include the link and description.
Thanks,
Rick
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Edited by kewlceo, 20 January 2010 - 09:37 PM.