Selected free programs & on-line services by Spyros.
Created by Spyros in 2004.
Contact: public2004@gmail.com
Updated: September 13th, 2008
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avast! Home Edition is a complete antivirus solution, fully able to find computer viruses, to create and check the integrity of programs installed, to test executed programs and opened documents, to test and check email and other functions.
Link: http://www.avast.com/eng/free_virus_protectio.html
Link: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/
Trend Micro CWShredder is the premier tool to find and remove traces of CoolWebSearch [the name for a wide range of insidious browser hijackers] from your PC.
Link: http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/CWShredder/index.html
Spybot Search & Destroy. Detects and removes spyware.
Link: http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html
SpywareBlaster can help keep your system spyware-free and secure. Unlike other programs, it does not have to remain running in the background.
Link: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
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.
Link: http://www.ccleaner.com/
Sunbelt Personal Firewall. Good and rather simple to use.
Link: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/Download/
HijackThis is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.
Link: http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis
Mozilla Firefox. The Firefox Web Browser is the faster, more secure, and fully customizable way to surf the web.
Link: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
Mozilla Thunderbird is the perfect complement to Firefox. It is an e-mail program (like MS Outlook Express or Netscape mail) but more secure, light on resources and with spam filter!
Link: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
Opera. Another popular & free browser.
Link: http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/?platform=windows
DrWeb antivirus in your browser! A Firefox & Internet Explorer plug-in. Scan a web-page or download link for malware before you open it, just by righ-clicking it!
Link: http://info.drweb.com/show/2653
Jotti's malware scan. Scan a file on-line, with various anti-viruses.
Link: http://virusscan.jotti.org/
Security patches from grc.com. They are strongly recommended!
1. DCOMbobulator.
Link: http://grc.com/dcom/
2. Shoot the Messenger
Link: http://grc.com/stm/shootthemessenger.htm
3. UnPlug n' Pray.
Link: http://grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm
Calendar of updates. Always keep your software up to date!
Link: http://dozleng.com/updates/index.php?act=calendar
FireTune for Mozilla Firefox. Easily optimize hidden settings with 2-3 clicks and make Firefox run faster!
Link: http://www.totalidea.com/content/firetune/firetune-index.html
Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer and printer, with incredible small size (only 2.1 MB download size), breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set.
Link: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
7-Zip is a file archiver with the high compression ratio. The program supports 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, LZH, CHM, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB formats. Compression ratio in the new 7z format is 30-50% better than ratio in ZIP format.
Link: http://www.7-zip.org/
Freelang. A good multi-language dictionary.
Link: http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/index.html
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.
Link: http://www.irfanview.com/
KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.
Link: http://www.kompozer.net/
OpenOffice. A free, open source, alternative to the expensive Microsoft Office suite.
Link: http://www.openoffice.org/
Last Freeware versions of now commercial software, such as:jv16 Powertools 1.3.0.195, RegCleaner 4.3.0.780, PowerArchiver 6.11, Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5 ...and much more!
Link: http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/
Old Versions of software, in case you have problems with the newer ones.
Link: http://www.oldversion.com/
Diskeeper Lite. The free version of the ultra-fast Diskeeper drive defragmentation engine.
Link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207
TinyPic is a free image hosting site, so you can link them to forums, auctions etc.
Link: http://tinypic.com/
CoolText is an on-line graphics, logos & web-buttons generator.
Link: http://cooltext.com/
GIFWorks. Create your own animated .gif, resize it, colorize it, then save it and take it with you.
Link: http://www.gifworks.com/image_editor.html
Buttongenerator. Create buttons and menus with mouseover effects and submenus for your website.
Link: http://www.buttongenerator.com/index.php
Post-it Software Notes Lite. What happens when you cross a Post-it Note with a computer? Post-it Software Notes - the classic yellow note designed for your PC!
Link: http://www.download.com/Post-it-Software-Notes-Lite/3000-2351_4-10060027.html
Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser.
Link: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
mp3DirectCut. Audio editor and recorder for MP3. You can directly cut, copy, paste or change the volume. It doesn't need installation.
Link: http://www.mpesch3.de/
Adobe Photoshop Album 3.2 Starter Edition. Find your photos fast, fix common flaws, and share your memories...
Link: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/starter.html
Unlocker does what it's name says whenever you get windows messages like "Cannot delete file: Access is denied" or "The file is in use by another program or user".
Link: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/
Winamp. The world's most popular media player.
Link: http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php
QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt, .3gp and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages.
Link: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player.
Link: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm
Media Monkey. Free media jukebox & music manager for serious music collectors.
Link: http://www.mediamonkey.com/
A43 is a freeware file management utility for Windows 2000/XP, with integrated text editor with unlimited size, zip/unzip features, file search, quick launch area, Favorite buttons, Dual-pane view. Requires no installation, no data is written to the system registry!!!
Link: http://www.primitus.us/a43/
PDFproducer is a nice little utility which converts plain text into PDF documents.
Link: http://naramcheez.paraschopra.com/pdfproducer.php
WordWeb is a one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows that can look up words from in almost any program. It works off-line, but can also look up words in web references such as the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
Link: http://wordweb.info/free/
PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it.
Link: http://photofiltre.free.fr/frames_en.htm
Moffsoft FreeCalc is a great replacement for your existing Windows calculator. In addition to basic calculator functions, it has a printable/savable history tape, a sizeable display, double and triple zero keys, color schemes, a system tray icon option, international support for digit grouping, and more.
Link: http://www.moffsoft.com/freecalc.htm
Feedreader is a free, simple and lightweight aggregator that supports RSS and ATOM formats. It works under Windows 95 and later versions.
Link: http://www.feedreader.com/
Steganos LockNote. Keep your passwords and personal information safe. This program works like Notepad, but it adds password protection and strong AES 256-bit encryption. To open a LockNote file, double-click in and type in your password. (Needs no installation).
Link: http://locknote.steganos.com/
Windows Worms Doors Cleaner. Most of the worms, in particular the most famous, use known vulnerabilities in Windows services which are enabled by default and that often can't be disabled via the OS's configuration. Even with these services patched with Microsoft security fixes, they are still exposed to the Internet at large, ready to be exploited by the next exploit. This program allows you to close these services the worms rely on.
Link: http://www.firewallleaktester.com/wwdc.htm
Easy Text To HTML Converter provides fast and easy conversion of Text Files (in *.txt, *.rtf formats) and Text Blocks pasted from Clipboard to HTML or XHTML formats.
Link: http://www.easyhtools.com/ethdescription.html
FastStone Capture 5.3 (Last freeware version). A powerful, flexible and intuitive screen-capture utility. It allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle / freehand-selected regions andscrolling windows/web pages.
Link 1: http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html
Link 2: http://www.oldapps.com/old_version_FSCapture.php
MP3myMP3 Recorder saves any audio you hear on your computer straight to mp3 or wav. IF YOU CAN HEAR IT, YOU CAN RECORD IT!
Link: http://www.mp3mymp3.com/
PowerPoint Viewer 2003 lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=428d5727-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&displ
PowerPoint Viewer 2007
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=048DC840-14E1-467D-8DCA-19D2A8FD7485&displaylang=en
Excel Viewer 2003. Open, view, and print Excel workbooks, even if you don't have Excel installed.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C8378BF4-996C-4569-B547-75EDBD03AAF0&displ
Word Viewer 2003. View, print and copy Word documents, even if you don't have Word installed.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en
FinitySoft BMI Calculator. Easily calculate your body mass index. Just enter your weight, height and sex and BMI Calculator will indicate if your are underweight, normal, overweight or obese, and what is your ideal weight.
Link: http://www.finitysoft.com/
PDF Watermark Creator. Add a watermark (texts such as DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, or even your company's name) to PDF files quickly and easily.
Link: http://www.coolpdf.com/pdfwatermark.html
PrimoPDF. Convert to PDF from any application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and virtually any other printable file type) by simply 'printing' to the PrimoPDF printer.
Link: http://www.primopdf.com/
XemiCo Address Book is a contact manager for everyday use. The program is as simple and straightforward as one can be. It allows you to store all important details about your contacts in one place. Main list view is searchable through all fields automatically, so finding a person or narrowing the list is easy. Double clicking on the program's icon in the system tray provides quick access to contacts list.
Link: http://www.download.com/XemiCo-Address-Book/3000-2074_4-10396433.html
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. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).
Link: http://keepass.sourceforge.net/
Close All Windows. This tool helps you to close all running applications with one click. It does not use system resources because it only sends close signal to all open windows on the desktop and goes out. Just place a shortcut to it in the Start Menu, Quick Launch or somewhere. 17 KB download, no installation.
Link: http://www.ntwind.com/software/utilities/close-all.html
Gmail Manager. This is a Firefox extension that allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.
Link: http://www.longfocus.com/firefox/gmanager/
FastStone Photo Resizer is an image converter / resizer intended to enable users to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermarks to images in a quick and easy batch mode. Drag and Drop mouse operation is well supported.
Link: http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm
Chaos Manager. Simple and compact organizer which features an appointment/to-do manager (appointments will pop-up), a calendar, a phone/address-book (contacts), a notebook which supports multiple topic, sync via internet, email forwarding of appointments, print/import/export and much more. All is password protected and encrypted (optional). You can also customize your own skin and background for the application so it won't be too dull to look at (ships with a number of skins).
Link: http://www.chaosmanager.net/
Jalapeno Keyfinder is a simple utility to retrieve and decrypt your Microsoft serial keys. It also includes support for several non Microsoft software titles.
Link: http://www.jalapenosoftware.com/Demo.htm
GOM is a free media player with popular audio & video codecs built-in. [In my opinion, probably the best video player you can find]
Link: http://www.gomplayer.com/main.html
AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.
Link: http://www.abisource.com/download/
Comodo Firewall Pro. Popular and very good personal firewall.
Link: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
High Quality Photo Resizer is an easy-to-use freeware for batch resizing of digital photos.
Link: http://www.naturpic.com/resizer/index.html
uTorrent, the BitTorrent client that is micro-sized yet feature filled, resource-friendly, skinnable and localized, actively developed and improved.
Link: http://www.utorrent.com/index.php
Switch sound file conversion software is an audio file format converter for Windows or Mac. It can convert audio files from many different file formats into mp3 or wav files including wav to mp3, mp3 to wav, wma to mp3 and much more.
Link: http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
winMd5Sum. A simple open source Windows MD5 checker. In other words, it's a utility to calculate the MD5 checksum of a file. One of the most common uses is to make sure that a file that you have downloaded is not corrupt.
Link: http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/winmd5sum
The "80x15 brilliant buttons", also known as "antipixel buttons" or "badges", are the very popular buttons especially used by bloggers.
Link: http://www.lucazappa.com/brilliantMaker/buttonImage.php
Xenu's Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on "normal" links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced at any time.
Link: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
Locate32 is software which can be used to find files from your harddrives and other locations. It uses databases to store information about directory structures and uses these databases in searches. The use of these databases provides very fast searching speed.
Link: http://locate32.webhop.org/
RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock.
Link: http://www.punksoftware.com/rocketdock
Adblock Plus. Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose `Adblock` from the context menu ; the banner won`t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well.
Link: http://adblockplus.org/en/
Any Video Converter Free version is an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It allows you to effortlessly convert video files between every format! This free version supports DVD NTSC, DVD PAL, MPEG-I, MPEG-II, MPEG-4 and Flash FLV video profiles.
Link: http://www.any-video-converter.com/
SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner.
Link: http://www.gtopala.com/
GEST Online Case Converter. Convert text to upper case or lower case.
Link: http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/up2low/
Sumatra PDF is a slim, free, open-source PDF viewer for Windows.
Link: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/
CD Recovery Toolbox. Recover files from damaged or corrupted CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-Ray disks.
Link: http://www.oemailrecovery.com/cd_recovery.html
Glary Utilities offers numerous powerful and easy-to-use system tools and utilities to fix, speed up, maintain and protect your PC.
Link: http://www.glarysoft.com/gu.html
Security Process Explorer is an enhanced task manager, that provides advanced information about programs and processes running on the computer. It displays all the standard information, including file name, directory path, description, CPU usage etc. as well as a unique security risk rating. This rating is conclusive and relies on the expertise of the user to determine whether the process should be terminated or removed.
Link: http://www.glarysoft.com/process-manager/
Vista Start Menu is the convenient alternative to the plain Start menu you find in Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Link: http://www.vistastartmenu.com/index.html
AnalogX Script Defender will intercept any request to execute the most common scripting types used in virus attacks, such as Visual Basic Scripting (.VBS), Java Script (.JS), etc and can even be configured to intercept new script extensions as needed! It's very simple to use and helps to ensure that you do not inadvertently run a script no matter what email program you use, or even if you get it via another method.
Link: http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/sdefend.htm
Any Audio Converter is designed for extracting audios from videos and converting audios between popular formats, such as WMV, MP4, WAV, WMA, OGG, AAC, MP3, M4A, MP2, etc.
Link: http://www.any-audio-converter.com/
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds.
Link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Auslogics Registry Defrag keeps your registry defragmented. As a result, the Registry becomes compact and small, greatly improving your computer performance.
Link: http://www.auslogics.com/registry-defrag
AVG Anti-Rootkit is a powerful tool with state-of-the-art technology for detection and removal of rootkits. Rootkits are used to hide the presence of a malicious object like trojans or keyloggers on your computer.
Link: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-rootkit/us/crp/0
AxCrypt. Free file encryption software.
Link: http://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/Default.html
BlockNote for the Net. Extremely easy to use Web page editor. Designed for people who create content for the Web, BlockNote is compact, fast and is as easy to use as a word processor. Its? simple, user-friendly interface enables even the most novice computer user to import, edit and format web pages?without having to learn any HTML!
Link: http://blocknote.net/
ContactKeeper is a free personal information manager to store contact information about your friends, family, colleges,... in one database file. You will never forget a birthday any more thanks to the integrated birthday reminder!
Link: http://www.vani.be/contactkeeper/
Deejaysystem Mk-I. Free DJ-ing software.This version emulates a single deck that can be configured to use one single soundcard. Multiple instances can be opened simultaneously and work together.
Link: http://www.deejaysystem.com/download.asp
FreeRIP is a Windows application that lets you save audio CD tracks to Wav, MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis or FLAC audio files (this process is known as ripping). FreeRIP is also a audio file and mp3 converter and it can convert audio files from one of the named formats to another.
[NOTE: I strongly advise you to UN-CHECK the option to install `My Search Bar` during FreeRIP's installation!!!]
Link: http://www.freerip.com/
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application. It supports a wide range of image file formats - including BIN, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.
Link: http://www.imgburn.com/
Fresh HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a tool for webmaster to create pages for the world wide web. Its WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface makes editing HTML pages as easy as using your favorite word processor. Its built-in editor allows advanced users to fine-tune HTML codes to fit their needs.
Link: http://freshwebmaster.com/freshhtml.html
MediaJoin is software that enables you to easily join (combine) all popular audio and video formats into a single merged audio or video file.
Link: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Editors-Recorders/Media-Join.shtml
Freez Flv to Mp3 Converter is a a tool to extract audio stream from Flash FLV files to Mp3 files.
Link: http://www.smallvideosoft.com/flv-to-mp3/
Security Task Manager displays detailed information about all running processes (applications, DLL's, BHO's and services). The Security Task Manager recognizes also rootkits, virtual driver software, services, BHO and other processes hidden from the Windows task manager.
Link: http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/index.html
Safari web browser for Windows XP or Vista.
Link: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
Good Keywords is free Windows software tool from Softnik Technologies for finding the ideal set of keywords for targeting your web pages. Use Good Keywords to find suitable keywords sets, create your meta tags, brainstorm product ideas, etc.
Link: http://www.goodkeywords.com/
CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox extension that enhances Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam).
Link: http://www.customizegoogle.com/
SUPERAntiSpyware. Scan your PC for adware, spyware, trojans etc.
Link: http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html
ThreatFire. By constantly monitoring the activity on your PC, ThreatFire's ActiveDefense technology is able to hunt down and paralyze threats that are too new or too clever to be recognized by traditional security software.
Link: http://www.threatfire.com/
AveIcon. Convert ICO to PNG and vice versa.Simple drag-'n-drop interface.
Link: http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=15304
Direct download: http://www.box.net/public/static/r874dej620.zip
Convert is a free and easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions!
Link: http://joshmadison.com/software/convert/
Text2Html is a freeware text to HTML converter. This application is ideal for webmasters who must quickly convert many text files into HTML format. Text2Html handles http, ftp, gopher, telnet, wais, nntp and mailto tags. Multiple files can be converted at once.
Link: http://www.cybermatrix.com/text2html.html
ToYcon is a software that converts png towards ico files.
Link: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Image-Convertors/ToYcon.shtml
CSE HTML Validator Lite is an award winning FREE (for personal and educational use) HTML editor and basic HTML syntax checker for Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista and above. Clean up your site with CSE Lite!
Link: http://www.htmlvalidator.com/lite/
Text Editing Assistant: Clever tools to assist your text editing work [Upper-Lower cases converter, Hexadecimal color codes, Calendar, Metrics Converter etc].
Link: http://www.vasileios.gr/freesoft/text_edit_assist.htm
Notepad2, a fast and lightweight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system's registry.
Link: http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html
Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.
Link: http://www.google.com/chrome
Since UltimateDefrag 2008 has been released, version 1 is completely FREE to everyone who wants to defrag with the world's most powerful defrag system - the UltimateDefrag way.
Link: http://www.disktrix.com/UDFree.htm
Free Download Manager is a powerful, easy-to-use and absolutely free download accelerator and manager.
Link: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/
Malwarebytes` Anti-Malware: detection and removal of malware. [Free version lacks realtime protection, scheduled scanning and scheduled updating].
Link: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
SharpReader is an RSS/Atom Aggregator for Windows
Link: http://www.sharpreader.net/
Disk fragmentation leads to system slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startups and shutdowns. Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimization of modern hard disks.
Link: http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag
Do you need to convert AAC to MP3? M4a to MP3? MP4 audio to MP3? Your favorite player doesn't support M4a audio? Then take a look at `Free M4a to MP3 Converter`.
Link: http://www.maniactools.com/soft/m4a-to-mp3-converter/?version=6.0
K-Meleon is an extremely fast, customizable, lightweight web browser for the Win32 (Windows) platform based on the Gecko layout engine (the rendering engine of Mozilla).
Link: http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/