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?
About the author: Locutus View all posts by Locutus
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Missing a few but off the top of my head would be;
Revo Uninstaller
Teracopy
WordWeb
DaemonTools lite
KM player
Izarc
Mobysaurus
Editpadlite
This is a tough one.
Obviously everyone could have said Firefox, but I’d go for : Everything (by voidtools.com). It is the fastest indexing system ever. Other than that, WinPatrol, CCleaner,Notepad++, Paint.NET (instead of GIMP which is slower).
@phoenix_rising: Yes,TYPO! Should have been DISK DEFRAG! VERY SORRY!
The aforementioned powerpro, it does so much.
I would say many of the Google products, including sites, docs and best of all Picasa
Lots of good suggestions previously but one that hasn’t been mentioned is StudioLine Photo Basic:
http://www.studioline.biz/EN/products/overview-photo-basic/default.htm
For image management it’s excellent. It also includes a good range of image editing functions. I liked it so much I upgraded to the paid version but most people will probably find the free version sufficient.
A couple of others:
Scribus – desk top publisher
Dropbox – 2 GB online storage but can also be used to host a website
Gramps – family history
7-zip
shark007 codecs
ImgBurn
format factory
dropbox
Avira FREE !
It’s hard to pick just one above all but I will list my favorite for every category and that would be: Bonkenc Audio Encoder, VLC Media Player(for videos), J. River Media Jukebox(for audio), CCleaner, Avidemux, AnyVideoConverter, FastStone Image Viewer
SlickRun
Some of My Favorites:
FireFox
Digsby
Format Factory
VLC
@Brian: Thanks for the heads up about Scribus. I wasn’t aware of this product and it looks great. I’m downloading as I write this …
@ Everyone: Thanks for all the ideas. I’m finding some really interesting progs.
I’ll add a few more: ImmunetProtect, KeePass, MyDefrag, TeraCopy, WinSplit Revolution, TouchFreeze, SpywareBlaster, Notepad++ (probably been mentioned), Lingoes, KeyScrambler, Gigaget, Geswall, FastStone Photo Resizer, Paint.NET, EULAlyzer, Connectify …
Sorry if there’s any double-up.
ERUNT
BartPE
So many, off the top of my head I’d say:
Opera
CCleaner
Avast!
Image : XnView, Photofiltre
Music : Wavepad, N° 23 Recorder
Text : XChange PDF Viewer, Lingoes
Others : Revo, 7zip, Erunt, UBCD4Win
Find and Run Robot (FARR) … by far ;)
Firefox, athough I’m using PaleMoon instead
Thunderbird
Dropbox
Media Player Classic
Shark007 codecs
Putty
TrueCrypt
7-zip
Revo Lite
CCleaner
Avira (free edition ;))
IrfanView
AIMP
…
Maybe the better question is the favorite freeware that most are unlikely to know about. For that, my 1st BoB (Best of Breed) award goes to Zsoft Uninstaller. You can find it here http://download.cnet.com/ZSoft-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10409090.html
Revo uninstaller might get the buzz, but Zsoft Uninstaller (IMHO) takes the prize. Not only does it seem to find more detritus than Revo, it also has a before/after comparison similar to its payware competitors.
My 2nd BoB goes to Powertools Lite http://www.macecraft.com/ptlite/ the freeware reg cleaner version of JV16 Powertools. I can see why Macecraft doesn’t hype this because (IMHO) the reg cleaner in their payware version is the only real reason to use that program and it is (pretty much) identical to the freeware version. Why there hasn’t been more buzz about it elsewhere is surprising to me.
My final BoB goes to Antilogger Virtual Keyboard from Network Intercept http://www.networkintercept.com
It’s your run-of-the-mill virtual keyboard; except that it’s not: Try using it on one of the keylogger tests (www.zemana.com has one) and you’ll see that it defeats the test. So, don’t ALL virtual keyboards do this? Nope. Most do NOT, as a matter of fact. And while others (such as Kaspersky) offer payware that do this, this is the only freeware that I know of which works. Moreover, while there are other freeware keyscramblers designed to defeat keyloggers, this is the only one that works on all types of programs (the Keyscrambler freeware only works on your browser). Why would you want this? Keyloggers are pesky critters that can compromise your system and are very difficult for anti-virus programs to find. This is a nice added protection.
Mp3 tag, Avira free, KMPlayer, Locate32, Skype, Firefox, Thunderbird, Everything,CCleaner,Opera, Picasa
Transcendence
Komodo Edit
NVDA
Agent Ransack
SuperCopier2
DVD Flick
Firefox, SlickRun, Notepad++, WinFF (ffmpeg gui)
CCleaner
Opera
Avira
TrueCrypt
Google Chrome
Firefox
Thunderbird
Freemind
Evernote
Notepad++
MalwareByte (though there is a paid version, I am still very content with the free version)
SandBoxie
TextCrawler
RAD Video tool
GIMP
Picasa
VLC Player
Paint .NET
Open Office
and finally, LaTeX, it protected my life from the hellfire of typing math equations, and for free!!!
FreeBSD :)
Some of my Favs…
CCleaner
VLC
TrueCrypt
DAEMON Tools
ImgBurn
AVG Free
CDex (An oldey but goody)
Wavosaur
There are so many, some of them i use almost every days
xplorer2, everything, FARR, filemenu tools, dexpot, supercopier, clipboard help & spell, truecrypt …
usdownloader, utorrent …
notepad++, pdfcreator, Open Office, foxmail
Image: Fsviewer, photo filtre & Xnview
jkdefrag,
video : vlc player, handbrake, subtitle workshop,
audio : winamp,radiosure, mp3tag and thegodfather, mp3directcut
imgburn
ok it’s enought!
Limiting myself to that which I use every single day, as well as Firefox and OpenOffice,
Horst Schaeffer’s MemPad. It is MY database of everything that doesn’t fit into more structure, small and portable.
Horst Schaeffer’s Reminder.exe. A portable reminder that I autoupdate every time I insert or remove my USB stick. It is the only one that easily does “every third Wednesday” and things like that. It has all my non-office appointments, birthdays, date to call for next tetanus shot in a few years, etc.
Voidtool’s Everything. Still t he best. Only need it to recognize my external network drive, and, …
PicPick. Okay, not exactly every day, but I have thrown out so many other tools when this came along, it ranks right up there.