Ask dotTechies: What is your favorite freeware software?
May 30, 2010 128
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In the huge world of software, there is a huge difference between paid-for software and freeware software. However, in each realm there are massive, headache-inducing numbers of choices and qualities. Free software is probably the second most popular thing to review on dotTech–there are 135 articles on them as of the time of writing this! After all, free things are a lot of time really great (although some times, they’re just worse as opposed to being bad). Today, I ask you on Ask dotTechies, what is your favorite piece of freeware software?
If I had to choose one or two, I’d say that my favorite would have to be either GIMP or Firefox. With GIMP, it’s like I don’t have to pay for Photoshop (although it is completely different in how you use it, it has the same basic functionality if you spend enough time learning it)! However, without Firefox I’d have to use Google Chrome or another browser.
Like the two of the last three Ask dotTechies, there is no poll for this thread; rather please share your input via the comments below: what is your favorite piece of freeware software?
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Favourites:
Ubuntu
Firefox
SpeedCrunch Calculator
GIMP
Pidgin
Wine Windows Program Loader
Another vote for Irfanview, prehaps my most used utility for over 10 years and it just keeps getting better. It is the instant-open viewer that also handles over 90% of my image editing needs. Just be sure to load the Plugins.
Hi dotTechies ,
my favorite one is definitively MOZILLA FIREFOX (& thunderbird) !!!
You can customize it the way you like with thousands of plug-ins and themes , it’s fast and secure and easy to use ; my top freeware .
FIREFOX , what else ?
Firefox – Irfanview – yes, absolutely.
Still, two little programs I use every day that make my computing easier are Tolvanen’s Eraser (now heidi.se) for deletion and Lars Herderer’s ERUNT for registry backups.
- RICOlmer ( http://ricolmer.actuary.pl/index_en.html ) – this is a task reminder, and that’s all it does, so it’s very light on system resources. Everything else I’d tried, with the exception of Outlook, would drop tasks if they weren’t done or if the computer wasn’t on when they came up, and since this is a program that needs to run in the background, it has to have a small footprint. I use it to remind myself to pay bills.
- Pazera Free Audio Extractor ( http://www.pazera-software.com/products/audio-extractor/ ) – this extracts the audio from just about any video format and outputs it in the audio format you choose. You can also select the start and end time of the extraction, and it’s lightweight, so it opens in seconds. I’ve got a ton of video/audio software, from freeware to purchased editing software, and I use this one most often.
I like OPERA as first browser, Seamonkey, FireFox Chrome,
As other: OpenOffice which is taking more power in EU for schools and business. Some AV MS Essential, Immunet, Clam AV,
Graphic soft: Paint, Picassa, and one of the best (for me) CutePDF
And other: CCleaner, Revo, Puppy linux, etc…
Each software has something good for a special use.
All that have been mentioned up to now are excellent and I have most of them.
However, I was surprised not to see AnVir Task Manager Free 6.3.1. It gives me excellent control over applications and what is occurring on my computer.
Read about it at http://download.cnet.com/AnVir-Task-Manager-Free/3000-2094_4-10802050.html and have fun.
My whole computer is full of freeware..
Not a payware in site (or any software / games warez, I’ m not dumb).
As for favourites.. Not really a fanboy of anything, will change any of them if needed.
Faststone Capture 5.3.
I use it dozens of times a day.
Firefox
IrfanView (although the latest version has a serious bug in dual monitor systems)
Skype
Locate32 (Windows search replacement)
Bulk Rename Utility – http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php – a brilliant little app.
Codestuff Starter
Any and all of Karen Kenworthy’s free apps, but especially Replicator. – http://www.karenware.com/
Revo Uninstaller
and many more
No doubt about it: PowerPro!
http://www.pcrei.com/ppro/files/index.html
lets see, free software that I enjoy most – cause I use them a lot and they work well at what they do:
~ FARR (launcher plus plus but still light weight. Donationware.)
~ GridMove (moves/resizes/manages windows)
then there’s some apps where I use the paid version cause I liked them so much (XYPlorer, FileHamster, Avira Anti-Virus. I think the latter two may have annoying popups though in the free version)
Revo Uninstaller
Puran Defrag
<resists getting into a definition rant among freeware, free software, and open source>
GIMP, the Photoshop replacement, has got to be my favorite open source free software, although I probably use OpenOffice more. These are not only essential and free, but easy and fun to use, dead useful, and have a great support community around them — and unlike Firefox (probably most used in terms of hours per week) GIMP and OpenOffice are great on performance and memory footprint.
I use a lot of freeware, but will pay for programs I will use a lot if they seem better than the freeware. So my freeware favourites are ones which I use all the time and think are better than all of the competition (free and paid).
First is Opera (plus Chrome & derivatives).
Next is AbstractSpoon’s ToDoList.
And TrueCrypt.
Then CircleDock.
Opera Browser
NotePad++
Efficient Password Manager
PDF XChange Viewer
Font Runner
Agent Ransack
@Tom: I’ll second FARR. Mouser (the author) writes nice, tight code.
What a great idea for a collaborative project! Thanks DotTech!
I vote for the lightweight version of xplorer²:
The latest version is 1.8.0.12 [15.May.2010] (3.6 MB)
http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm
Free is a good price!
Same as A.S. (#33). Only if FastStone Capture had Web page (keep links) capturing …
firefox
@IndoMK: Hit the Tab button
I am running Vista x64. My favorites are:
FireFox
Clipboard Manager – http://www.janzeman.com
CCleaner
WinPatrol Plus
NexusFile V – http://xiles.net/programs/ (Windows File Manager)
PolyEdit Lite – http://polyedit.com/free.html (Better than Note Pad)
Don’t forget to SUPPORT freeware with your $$$
I have several favorite programs:
CCleaner
Sysinternals Process Explorer
Iconiod
Sysbot – Search & Destory
There are some many freeware programs out there that it can be very hard to choose the best ones.
OpenDNS – used – not installed – should I call it Cloud computing ! !
My ISP had severe network problems a few days ago
I was not affected by hardware breakages;
I could still PING to any destination IP number,
But 70% of my bookmarked site names could not be resolved to an IP number by the ISP provided DNS.
Within 5 minutes of switching the router to OpenDNS I had normality.
Installed software :-
Comodo to protect me from the Internet !
Firefox
OpenOffice
Q-Dir ; A file explorer with simultaneous view of four (Quad) folders, allowing simple drag and drop copy/moving between any two, with two to spare for other purposes.
I’m running Win7 x64 and if I had to pick one I’d say Find and Run Robot or Search Everything…. probably FARR. Once you spend a bit of time configuring FARR, you’ll never go back to Launchy or whatever launcher you use.
Macrium Reflect is by far the best free disk imaging program in my opinion so I’d have to give it an honorable mention since it saved my rear yesterday. Superfast in both backing up and restoring your OS partition and once restored, it’s ready to run. I used to use DriveImageXML until I discovered this gem.
These are the rest of my faves that I always have available on a new install:
* 7-zip
* AquaSnap (why MS didn’t include the ability to snap 8 ways I don’t know but on a big monitor, it’s a necessity)
* FileMenuTools
* Firefox (I can’t believe this didn’t get more picks) – I’m using the Namoroka x64 build v3.63 right now and it’s very stable and handles all the extensions I use… I don’t need flash often anyway.
* MediaMonkey
* Notepad++
* Peerblock & uTorrent (don’t use one without the other)
* Prio (process priority saver… just started using it but like it a lot)
* Sandboxie
* Avast!
* ZoneAlarm Firewall (I know there are more aggressive firewalls but this one does the trick painlessly)
* ImgBurn
* MagicDisc – this iso mounter covers more formats than the rest
* ShadowExplorer – I don’t know many that use this but check it out
* Spybot
* SpywareBlaster
* Stickies (by Tom Revell)
* UltraVNC – gotta check on my kids computers periodically
* SmartDefrag
* VirtualBox – I don’t know if it’s as fast as the others but I’ve had a lot fewer problems with this virtual machine
* WizMouse (but I wish Pitaschio would be updated for Win 7 x64 because I loved that sucker)
* Q-Dir (man I love this)
* Malwarebytes Scanner
* HitManPro Malware Scanner – does a quick boot-up scan
* FolderMenu 3
* Taskbar Extender – just discovered this but love it.
* Various Nirsoft Utils (nircmd and myeventviewer are probably my faves)
* Autoruns & Process Explorer by SysInternals
* CCleaner
* TrueCrypt
* FreeFileSync (if you haven’t tried this, you need to)
* Recuva
Ugh, I guess that’s a few more than one.