Remember the good old days when the Internet was free? It seemed like every program came with a unlimited ‘evaluation’ period. Spyware and nag screens were almost nonexistent. Nowadays, everything has strict limitations or fills your hard drive with crap. I recently downloaded a new version of Win-Zip and the first thing I see is a f**king nag screen to register it.
I thought I’ll post on here a list of free programs I personally use and enjoy. That means no damn nag screens or extraneous adware. I’m aware of sites with huge listings of free programs (try typing ‘free’ in google) but most people don’t have the time to comb through those lists. These are all programs I like enough to keep on my computer. Know this, just because you have to pay for a program doesn’t mean it’s better then the ones you can download for free.
Following is a list with brief descriptions for each item. Every program is free and easy enough for the technologically illiterate. There are no ads or other little surprises unless otherwise stated. I’m sure someone out there is looking for a program to perform one specific function but are unwilling to pay $40 to use it once or twice. I hope you will find something useful.
AbiWord Open-source word processor similar to Microsoft Word.
AdAware This little program searches for any spyware on your computer.
AVG Anti-Virus Great virus detector that doesn’t hog much processing power.
DreamStars 2 Very fun upgrade to Asteroids. Version 3 does require purchasing though.
Eraser This little program will securely delete your files. I don’t use this much but I still like to have it around. Kinda like a security blanket.
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) with LAME These two programs in combination are the BEST way of ripping your cds onto your hard drive. Just google for EAC and LAME to find instructions.
FlashGet I use this download manager for its functionality and ease of use. However, it does have spyware. Does anyone know of a similar program without spyware but just as intuitive?
gSearch This little program provides a small toolbar at the bottom of your screen for searching with Google. I used this back before I switched to Opera because it was very un-intrusive.
GSpot If you have any problems playing a video, download this program. It will tell you what codec are being used to render the file. Very useful for troubleshooting.
Gibson Research Corporation This isn’t a program but a security site. It has many excellent programs for checking (and fixing) your internet vulnerability .
Jv16 Power Tools This is a registry editor with many powerful tools for file management as well (warning: registry cleanup is automated but you should still be careful when mucking around in the registry).
MP3Gain I’m rather anal about my music collection and I like all my files to have the same loudness. This program makes it simple to readjust the volume for mass files.
MP3Trim This little program is good for cutting off those annoying silences at the end of songs. I use this surprisingly often.
MP3 Tag Studio All right, so I’m very anal about my music :). This great program automatically tags and renames your MP3, as well as many other abilities. Very useful.
Muse I use this program to convert music file formats. It has other features such as burning cds but I haven’t tried them yet.
Opera This browser is ad supported but I find it much more intuitive then Internet Explorer.
Proxomitron I absolutely love this program. It sets up a proxy between you and the net to filter out ads and anything else you can think of. I haven’t seen a pop-up since I installed this program.
Spybot Search and Destroy Similar to AdAware but in my opinion the better of the two.
Sysinfo 1.40 This program lets you know exactly what hardware specs your computer has. It has a $25 registration fee in order to print out your stats but why not simply write down the info with a pen and paper?
TweakUI This program allows the user much more freedom with Windows. It takes care of many problems Microsoft didn’t catch the first time.
Winamp version 2 This is still my standard music player. It’s small and efficient without the bloat of version 3.
WinRAR This compress/uncompress program is for those .rar files. They do have a 30 day trial limit so if anyone knows of another program, please let me know.
ZoneAlarm Firewalls are essential for a internet connection. This program does have a few nag screens but otherwise it’s great.
Whew! That’s it for now. Took me a hour to paste all the links :). I’ll post some more stuff as I think of them.
So, does anyone have freeware on their computer that they just can’t live without? Let the rest of us know! Not everyone has the free time to shift through all the terrible programs out there (unlike me). I’m always on the lookout for great programs for free. Right now I’m trying to find a video editing program that’ll let me capture the sound from a movie. Any suggestions?
I hope this list is helpful to my fellow dopers. Everything here I actually use on a daily basis.
P.S. I’m well aware of technically ‘legal’ freeware such as kazaa lite. However, I feel those programs are only used for illegal purposes so I’m not going to get into them. Please, if you provide your own suggestion, do not mention anything that is illegal. Everything I have listed here is completely legal and most important, FREE.