40+ Free Windows Apps For You

Published at September 8, 2007 Filed Under Software, Tools

This post is the part 2 of my earlier post 20 Open Source Windows Apps For You, i got lot of feedback for that post and my readers suggested some excellent programs to be included in that list. So here i am listing all those programs which i have missed in my earlier post. Do check the earlier post for the complete software list.

The list is in random order. Most of these apps serve as alternatives to commercial windows apps.

I am sure that there may be some useful programs which i have missed here, if your favorite application is not listed here comment or shoot me an email i will include that in this list.

Security:

1. Open Antivirus:
OpenAntiVirus is not another virus scanner to put on a computer! OpenAntiVirus is a platform for people seriously interested in anti-virus research, network security and computer security to communicate with each other, to develop solutions for various security problems, and to develop new security technologies.

2. Truecrypt:
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Linux. Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a storage device such as USB flash drive. Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

3. ClamAV:
ClamAV application is primarily for unix based systems but now a windows version is available. This version needs a emulation layer like CygWin

4. RogueScanner:
RogueScanner is an open source vulnerability management tool that is used to gain greater network visibility. This enables you to quickly identify and remove rogue wireless devices that may provide back door access to your critical data and infrastructure.

5. Keepass:
KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database.

6. Clipperz:
Clipperz is a free and anonymous online password manager. Local encryption within the browser guarantees that no one except you can read your data. Nothing to install. (earlier review)

7. SoftPerfect Personal Firewall:
The SoftPerfect Personal Firewall is a free network firewall designed to protect your PC against attacks from the Internet or via a local area network. SoftPerfect Personal Firewall offers customizable security using user-defined rules for packet filtering. It works at a low level and also allows you to create rules based on non-IP protocols such as ARP.

File Transfer / Sharing:

1. WinSCP:
WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer.

2. PuTTy:
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.

3. ShowMyPC:
ShowMyPC is now a Community for Remote Support providers. Providing tools for Instant Support to Service Providers and Users. It started as an open source Desktop Sharing and Remote PC access project, an alternative to subscription based sites like WebEx or Gotomypc.

4. Ares:
Ares is a free open source file sharing program that enables users to share any digital file including images, audio, video, software, documents, etc.

Multi Media

1. Media Player Classic:
Media Player Classic (MPC) is a compact free software media player for Microsoft Windows. The application has a similar look and feel to the old light-weight Windows Media Player 6.4. Underneath, however, it is a completely different application which has all the options and features one might expect from a modern media player.

2. Media Coder:
MediaCoder is a free universal batch media transcoder, which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution. (earlier review)

3. Hanbrake:
HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

4. musikCube:
musikCube can be an alternative to iTunes to manage your music collection.

5. popCorn:
popCorn is a desktop-oriented MPEG-1 audio (MP3) and video software capable of playing data streamed directly from the network. Compatibility with existing media servers is provided by the support of the industry standard RTSP protocol.

6. ImgBurn:
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application. It supports all windows versions.

7. AVS Disc Creator:
Write your data to CD, DVD and Blu-ray Discs quickly and easily using FREE AVS Disc Creator.

8. DVDStyler:
DVDStyler is a cross-platform DVD authoring application that makes possible for video enthusiasts to create professional-looking DVDs.

9. mp3mymp3:
Record any audio playing on your computer as mp3 or wav file with mp3mymp3 recorder. It can record any sound originating from your computer, it works by recording all audio through your sound card. (earlier review)

10. Youtube Catcher:
Youtube Catcher can download videos from Youtube, Google Video, Myspace Video, Yahoo video Dailymotion Stage6 Veoh. The downloaded videos can be exported to various formats like MPG,AVI, MP4,3GP, 3G2, WMV, PSP, MOV, FLV with the quality you choose. (earlier review)

11. Media Portal:
MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC / TV into a very advanced Media Center. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more.

12. 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). It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video.

Video Editing Tools

1. Vivia-The Video Editor:
Vivia is a video editing program for Linux and Windows. It provides extremely easy editing of clips and transitions in real-time, along with multi-camera support for editing scenes that were recorded by more than one camera simultaneously.

2. MiNi Video Studio:
MiNI Video Studio is a program for non-linear video editing. It means this application allows creating of a movie from other movies in a way, that the elements of the final movie overlap, creating a series of layers, that can be rendered one by one, or all at once.

3. DVD Flick:
DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks as well as subtitles of your choice.

4. OpenVIP:
OpenVIP editor. It provides a user-friendly GUI to the core and is based on the timeline concept - you place multimedia files on the timeline, apply filters, transitions…

5. Avidemux:
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs.

Image Viewing & manipulation

1. Irfanview:
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.

2. Paint.net:
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

3. XnView:
XnView is a free software to view and convert graphic files, really simple to use. It Support of more than 400 graphics formats.

3D Graphics:

1. Art Of Illusion:
Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java, and should be usable on any Java Virtual Machine which is compatible with J2SE 1.4 or later.

2. OpenFX:
OpenFX is an Open-Source 3D modeling, animation and rendering suite. A powerful feature-set includes a full renderer and raytrace engine, NURBS support, kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plugin API.

Office / Productivity

1. AbiWord:
AbiWord is a open source and fully cross-platform word processor.

2. Launchy:
Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes! (earlier review)

3. Cygwin:
Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality. A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel.

4. Pandora Recovery:
Pandora Recovery is a powerful free tool that provides its users an effective way to attempt recovery of permanently deleted files. (earlier review)

5. CCleaner:
CCleaner is 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. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.

6. Wink:
You can create presentations or screencasts with Wink in just minutes, you can record mouse movements or take screenshots of your application and save them as flash files. (earlier review)

7. Freemind:
FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into high productivity tool.

8. jetToolbar:
Despite Microsoft’s best intentions, the Start Menu isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. If you’re looking for an alternative way to launch your programs, take a look at jetToolBar. During installation this well-done utility creates 14 default categories, registers shortcuts for many of your applications, and adds bookmarks for recommended Web pages.

9. MyUninstaller:
MyUninstaller is an alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all installed application, and allows you to uninstall an application, delete an uninstall entry, and save the list of all installed applications into a text file or HTML file.

10. Flashget:
Flashget is a freeware for downloading files. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols

11. ZScreen:
ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program that allows for region/window/full-screen screenshots. It can FTP screenshots and put the URL in your clipboard in a single keystroke. It supports automatic custom naming conventions with variables. It can also interface with image editing software.

12. CamStudio:
CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

13. Libra
Libra is a library software to organize your stuff: Books, Audio CDs, Movies, & Games (for a start). Hook up your webcam, and Libra turns it instantly into a barcode scanner. Point your webcam towards the barcode (in any orientation) on the back of your books, DVD’s or CD’s and Libra will auto-retrieve the product information automatically, and add it to your library. Its free for non commercial use.

Web / Development

1. PSPad:
PSPad is a freeware programmer’s editor for Microsoft Windows operating systems, useful for people who:

2. HTTrack:
HTTrack is a free and easy-to-use offline browser utility. It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer.

3. NOTEPAD++:
Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.

Google Pack

I haven’t listed any of the programs from Google Pack because most of the users are aware of these. Except one or two all the programs in this pack are must have for anybody, if you havn’t downloaded google pack get it from here

Miscellaneous

Virtual Box:
VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product.

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118 Responses to “40+ Free Windows Apps For You”

rony john
September 8th, 2007 10:39 am

This is a 5-star rating post.i have submitted it to digg.
ram
September 8th, 2007 12:09 pm

@rony
Thanx for the digg and comment
Rich Massena
September 8th, 2007 1:39 pm

Great list!

I wanted ot point out that Cygwin provides a POSIX layer for Windows, which is not in any sense an emulation or Linux API.
ram
September 8th, 2007 1:54 pm

@Rich Massena
Thanx for pointing out, i will look in to it
Shankar Ganesh
September 8th, 2007 7:58 pm

Wow indeed a great list. Bookmarked, Dugg and Stumbled.
sylv3rblade
September 9th, 2007 3:54 am

No gimp and HJT? o.O
Emperor
September 9th, 2007 3:55 am

Wow… The guys at Open Antivirus are in desperate need of a web designer…
Jason
September 9th, 2007 4:00 am

one of the better lists i think !

..when you see it contains app you use, it gives you confidence that the others are worth while.

well done
ram
September 9th, 2007 4:04 am

@sylv3rblade
See the first line of my post, GIMP and others are there in the first list. you can find it here 20 Open Source Windows Apps For You

@Jason
Thanx for the comment
sylv3rblade
September 9th, 2007 4:09 am

Oh, didn’t get to see Part 1 before posting
Hamster
September 9th, 2007 4:58 am

How can there be a list of free video editing programs without VirtualDub and AviDeMux?
Save Videos
September 9th, 2007 5:13 am

Great list, and great job! You did a good job of focusing on open-source, which generally tend to be more credible as a result of being completely transparent especially when it comes to adware/spyware.

I know it’s not a conventional application, but try out:
http://www.vidimonkey.uni.cc - to save YouTube or or other videos from video sites. The main difference is that I’m experimenting with allowing BULK transfers so that you can enter in a ton of different youtube or dailymotion or putfile or myspace or bolt or ifilm or whatever video links and it will take those urls all at once and spit out the download so that you can save them all at once rather then having to convert each one at a time.
rony john
September 9th, 2007 5:18 am

What happened to your other template dude.
unruled
September 9th, 2007 5:19 am

for 3d moddeling I’d put Blender on that list (opensource, free).

http://www.blender.org/
rony john
September 9th, 2007 5:19 am

Give me mail note.
paw42
September 9th, 2007 5:21 am

Dear ram,

I found that I use several of packages in your first list, so I am on the right lines. Now I’m looking for a free video editing suite. Pinnacle Studio is becoming so bloated.

I need to; import clips; trim clips; add simple transformations between clips; add titles

I’d also need to write out DVD, preferably with the ability to add links to sections of the DVD.

can you suggest which software from your list I should look at first?

Thanks for a great list.

paw42
noksagt
September 9th, 2007 5:21 am

Is there a reason that you recommend ClamAV under cygwin instead of or in addition to ClamWin (listed in Part I)? They use the same virus defs & a similar codebase for the scanner. Most people should probably just use ClamWin. The only reason not to might be if it is targeted by malware & you can’t run it (due to the lack of popularity of ClamAV under cygwin, I can’t imagine it being targeted).
Nino
September 9th, 2007 5:23 am

Whers’s VLC Media Player
noksagt
September 9th, 2007 5:29 am

You can still donate money to free/open source software projects.

A few other good F/OSS apps that aren’t on either list & are that of general interest:

GnuCash
Synergy
VNC of some sort
BitTorrent of some sort
ram
September 9th, 2007 5:35 am

@Hamster
Those 2 programs are added
ram
September 9th, 2007 5:36 am

@unruled
Blender is on the first list
Nick The Geek
September 9th, 2007 5:38 am

@ram

Thanks for taking the time to put together a great list!

I’d like to respectfuly submit CamStudio for your next one!

http://www.camstudio.org

Cheers

Nick
ram
September 9th, 2007 5:45 am

@Nick
Added to the list
thanks
Madhur Kapoor
September 9th, 2007 6:19 am

Awesome post buddy .
Nino
September 9th, 2007 8:58 am

Oops… sorry, didn’t notice this is part of the ‘20 Open Source Windows Apps For You’
hubber
September 9th, 2007 12:03 pm

How about Libra, the beautiful freeware media cataloging app?

http://www.getlibra.com
Ralph
September 9th, 2007 12:04 pm

You left out GIMP from Image viewing & manipulation
David Mackey
September 9th, 2007 12:40 pm

Good list. What about Win32Pad?
ram
September 9th, 2007 12:49 pm

@Ralph
See the part 1 post, link is there in the first line of this post.
@Hubber
Thanks for the info, added to the list
Brando
September 9th, 2007 1:43 pm

Good list.
I would add FastStone Image Viewer http://www.faststone.org
It’s lightweight, fast and efficient.
xoted
September 9th, 2007 2:03 pm

Don’t forget about

Jgnash &
Gnucash

For money management.
Marc Savoy
September 9th, 2007 5:21 pm

Thank you for the incredible treasure of extraordinary programs and applications. Much appreciated.
Steve
September 9th, 2007 6:07 pm

There is another very good web site that point out very nice free utilities:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

Don’t miss it

Steve
Planet Malaysia
September 9th, 2007 6:26 pm

Awesome and downloading now.
-DC-
September 9th, 2007 8:20 pm

Here’s an even bigger OSS list:
http://osswin.sourceforge.net/
xbeta å–„ç�?¨ä½³è½¯
September 9th, 2007 8:24 pm

I make a brief Chinese translation for this article, see â†“

http://www.cnbeta.com/articles/38560.htm
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_46dac66f01000bwt.html

æˆ‘å¯¹æœ¬æ–‡è¿›è¡Œäº†ç®€è¯‘ï¼Œé“¾æŽ¥è§�?â†‘
xbeta å–„ç�?¨ä½³è½¯
September 9th, 2007 8:26 pm

the head & link of this item was missed.

13.
Libra is a library software to organize your stuff: Books, Audio CDs, Movies, & Games (for a start). Hook
Nirmal
September 9th, 2007 9:42 pm

Great list and post! Stumbled.
Nick
September 10th, 2007 1:58 am

What no Gimp??
FreeApps
September 10th, 2007 6:14 am

FreeApps contains a list of some great free cross-platform applications, like The Gimp, Thunderbird, and VLC.
Suzanne
September 10th, 2007 9:38 am

I like audacity.com for multimedia editing.
Lou
September 10th, 2007 1:12 pm

One freeware app that I didn’t see on this list is VLC Media Player (at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/). It’s my favorite media player–It can handle multiple video formats as well as DVD. It has the codecs built into the software, so you don’t need to go around downloading all kinds of random codecs.

Also worthy of mention, for those of you who can’t stand the RealPlayer or QuickTime players, are RealPlayer Alternative and QuickTime Alternative. They consist of the codecs without the bloated players.
Anders
September 11th, 2007 4:13 am

What about foxit or sumatra pdf readers? those make excellent alternatives to the rather sluggish acrobat reader (in google pack, for instance).

cheers!
David Carrington
September 11th, 2007 4:27 am

I prefer Safarp for uninstalling programs.
Free, Open Source programs 4 U!
September 11th, 2007 5:10 am

Gotta LUV this!

Free, Open Source programs, games, Suites of Office, Astronomy, science, tool programs, on a CDrom, made to run in Windows. Make copies for all your friends, the teachers, schools.

R U l33t, punk? W3ll, R U? Then, U mi6ht 8e r3ady 4 http://livecdist.com wh3r3 th3r3 R 315 FREE Live Cdroms with games, programs, etc…
xoted
September 11th, 2007 6:01 am

Ooops, found another, Turbocash for managing business finance.
Hemanth
September 12th, 2007 3:33 am

Wow.. Proved extremely useful
ram
September 12th, 2007 10:02 am

@Hemanth
Glad it was useful to you
peterjack
September 13th, 2007 4:12 pm

hello,
you miss this.

Amaze Flv Downloader
Techhairball
September 13th, 2007 8:23 pm

Awesome post …
VagabondoDigitale
September 15th, 2007 11:33 am

great collection… Thx
John
September 17th, 2007 5:31 am

Great list! I’ll have to take a proper look at these when I’m not at work!
cnhawk
September 17th, 2007 5:53 pm

Yeah,
So great!
Sharin Ahmad
September 17th, 2007 7:20 pm

Thanks for the lists.
Great collection!
Jared
September 18th, 2007 9:08 am

Best freeware desktop search tool out there (at least in my opinion) is Mo-Search. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only tool that actually ranks your results (similar to online Google). This tool is the equivalent of Google for your desktop (and IMHO Google desktop is not!!). Check it out:
http://www.meauxsoft.com/21701/index.html
sadegh
September 18th, 2007 10:19 am

thanke you.
fun program.
http://www.FirstDL.com ?????? ??? ?????
Dave Q
September 29th, 2007 10:10 am

Thought this might be an interesting Windows app

Visual Tooltips
http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.197-visual-tooltip-chsalmon-explorer-tools.htm
Nico
December 2nd, 2007 3:48 am

thanks for this amazing list .. allready downloaded some apps
Jan-Willem Bobbink
February 11th, 2008 9:05 am

Thanks for sharing!
_Leo_
February 13th, 2008 12:48 pm

Have you ever seen Daphne (task manager replacement)?

http://www.drk.com.ar/daphne.php
Nokia Series 60 Softwares
March 25th, 2008 5:13 pm

Thank you very very..muchhhhhhhhh…..great post man..
Rich
March 30th, 2008 3:20 am

Great programs. There are some more here that you may like…
PC Speed Up
April 30th, 2008 3:21 pm

Fantastic post! Thank you!
sixpackistan
June 5th, 2008 10:55 pm

great article! thank you.

anyone who hasn’t used notepad++ needs to download it now. so great to see that you included that wonderful tool!
Milan Chhead
June 6th, 2008 1:42 am

Great Post, Great Collection, Great Work!!!..