Dec 132009
This week I will be working on The Windows 7 Freeware Machine.
If you have a suggestion for this article leave it here.
Please state why you prefer one app over another. User preference, efficiency, looks, less system resources (examples please), etc.
It isn’t necessary to bash one program to promote another (respectfully pointing out a programs shortcomings is not bashing).
Please see The Vista Freeware Machine for examples and categories.
12 Responses to “Submit Apps For The 7 Freeware Machine”
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CCleaner: A good little program that can be scheduled to run weekly or at startup. Lots of useful features including the ability to select specific cookies you do not want to delete.
Hulu Desktop: Clean interface for online content from Hulu. When a clip or show finishes it automatically launches something similar. It makes for an enjoyable addition to any computer.
Adobe Reader: Obviously the program for displaying pdf files. Caution, disable javascript under preferences!
Skype: No matter what the competition does, Skype remains the leader for video chat. Great for family and friends to stay connected. This program adapts to changing internet bandwidth on the fly and is something your grand-mother could figure out.
OpenOffice: Competent alternative to MS Office
CDBurnerXP/ImgBurn: alternative to Nero
Microsoft Security Essentials: excellent free anti-virus/trojan software
Auslogics DiskDefrag/Defraggler: good defraggers
ccleaner: excellent disk cleaner
Firefox: the main alternative to IE
Filezilla: opensource ftp client (server version also available)
7-zip: the archiving program
paint.net: useful paint program with more features than Paint.
Recuva: file undeleter
Speccy: from the makers of ccleaner, system information
Spybot Search & Destroy
Avast!: Antivirus
Photo: Gimp
Backup: Paragon Free
Web Browser: Opera
Burner Software: Ashampoo Burning Studio 6 Free
PDF Reader: FoxIt
Firewall + HIPS: Comodo Firewall Free
I personally used these freewares:
Antivirus: Avast (auto updates; custom select protection settings; easy on the resources)
Office: Google Docs; Adobe PDF Reader
Web Browser: Google Chrome (been using it for a year, some compatibility issues but overall fast and easy to use)
System cleaner: Ccleaner (been using it for 2 years, no complaints, easy to use, gets the job done really well)
IM: Pidgin (support almost all IM clients: MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, QQ, etc. too bad it doesn’t support Skype)
BTW: Thanks for your work Eric, been reading your articles for over a year now. Good job, keep it up
microsoft security essentials,c cleaner,Photoscape,utorrent,synctoy,xrecode,Open Office,Cd Burnerxp,Windows Live Mail, All these free Programs just work perfect on windows 7 64Bit and would recommend all.
Ps great website.
7-Zip
Adobe Reader
Apple iTunes
CCleaner
Core FTP
CPU-Z
DVD Shrink
DVDFab HD Free
Google Chrome
GPU-Z
Microsoft Excel Viewer
Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer
Microsoft Security Essentials
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1
Microsoft Windows Live Essentials
Microsoft Word Viewer
Miranda
Nero Free
SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive
Steam
Universal Extractor
uTorrent
These are two truly unique programs that don’t really have alternatives…
Dropbox: simply a “dropbox” folder in the cloud. Free 2 gigabytes of storage and the ability to get more. Very useful. Think microsoft sync tool on the web.
Secunia PSI: Audits all the programs on your pc to ensure that everything is up-to-date so that you aren’t leaving any vulnerabilities open.
Macrium Reflect: Poor man’s True Image…I’m sure there aren’t as many features in this program, but it works well.
The rest:
Peerblock: No, it’s not just for protection while file sharing (I don’t). It’s a nice extra layer of security: Blocks IPs of P2P, Spyware, Advertising, and/or Education
Institution sites. Does not require a work around for Windows 64 bit like Peerguardian does.
Spywareblaster: Every computer I have installed it on has not gotten a spyware infection since. Blocks CLSIDs of spyware so that it can’t be installed in the first place. Does not need to run in the background.
Hostsman: Updates hosts file with multiple well known hosts file distributions. Nice interface and includes a local webserver to redirect blocked sites to for improved browsing speeds. Another nice layer of protection against bad sites.
Web of Trust or Siteadvisor browser plugin: These plugins indicate safe, risky, and dangerous sites. Users can click to find out why the site received the rating that it did. A necessary layer of security for all computers! I prefer web of trust which is now available for the google chrome browser.
Hope I contributed something useful! Your site is truly awesome…always the first place I visit before and after a reformat!
NameBench – benchmarks your dns and make suggestions for faster DNS Servers
Sysinternals Tools – Autoruns, Process Explorer, and TCPIPView specifically.
Daemon Tools Lite – Loading/Mounting ISO files
PDF-Xchange – lightweight and FAST PDF viewer
CCleaner – Great app PERIOD
CPUID – also known as CPUz…good for system information
SIW – system inoformation with A LOT more detail
GPUz – Video card information
MyDefrag – schedule degrags or just run any number of preconfigured defrag jobs
PUTTY – SSH connection utility
SPeccy – More system information..made by the folks that brought us Recuva and CCleaner, so I had to try it…and it turns out to be pretty nice. Not only general system information, but temps for those devices that have temperature monitoring
Control Spyware and such through the hosts file – http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm – not freeware technically, but a free means to block unwanted ads and such.
LAN Speedtest – a program that will let you know exactly what your network is capable of in terms of speed. Good expecially if you do network and/or OS tweeks.
Avira – Free Antivirus; you get the occasional ad, but as a free av I can cope.
Firefox, Opera, and Chrome – all free web browsers, but from a web dev point of view…good to have for testing. Firefox stands above the rest just for the Add-ons and other tools that are numerous and free.
GOM, VLC, Media Player Classic Homecinema x64 – Media players; I like to have a cross-section in case one doesn’t play a certain format or doesn’t have a codec
Win7Codecs – Made by Shark…who brought us the Vista Codec pack; Shark keeps his codec package updated with frequent updates
x64 Components – Also by Shark; an add-on for vista codecs and win7codecs
7zip – archiver
Bullzip PDF Printer – used in place of a printer; prints to PDF format. Great to have as most people don’t need or want a paper copy of something, but a file to read later or email to someone
CDBurnerXP – Burner app
Pidgin – IM client
Filezilla – FTP application
Notepad++ – replacement for notepad; but so much more…html editor…file comparison…etc.
Blender – 3d development program
Gimp – image editing
XBMC – Media Center with MANY Add-ons which propells this past WMC
Google Picassa – image management and viewer
Microsoft Live Writer – part of windows LIve essentials; great blog tool
Thunderbird – from Mozilla…a great email client
IMGBurn – great tool for burning, creating, and copying ISO’s, CD’s, and DVD’s
That is all I got…great tools!
aimp2: best music player I’ve found, player ui is similar to classic winamp, but it has a powerful library sitting in the background.
media player classic home cinema – only video player I ever use.
firefox w/ adblock plus and/or opera w/ ad sweep: firefox is a little more compatible and flexible. opera is a little more secure and feature complete out of the box.
digsby or trillian astra
virtual drive by slysoft
avira’s free av or maybe panda’s cloud av or maybe microsoft’s (but probably not)
as few google apps as possible
TrueCrypt is a must. Well, atleast for me. I do have much personal information kept in my desktop and laptop that I really do not want others seeing in the event my desktop or laptop gets stolen.
Windows 7 Firewall Control (Free Version)- useful application add on for built-in firewall
Driver Sweeper – Great at removing drivers
Threatfire 4.7 – works as an addition to existing security software.
Adobe Reader – Good for reading PDFs if thats all you do with them.
Izarc – File Archiver thats works very fast and not buggy at all
Spyware Blaster – Adds passove protection to firefox, and IE Users by blocking tracking ad/tracking cookies for FF and blocking Spyware based ActiveX and ad/cookie protection also.
WOT for Firefox – Anti-Phishing protection and also checks for reputation of site among other things.
Revo Uninstaller – Very thorough uninstaller.
Avira Personal – Just rated top on pcworld’s free anti-viruses
B.I.S.S Hosts Manager – this is if you mess around with your host file quiet often.
Trillian Astra – awesome app for integrating all your instant messaging needs into one application.
PCDecrapifier – good for removing crapware of your computer.
QTLite & Real Alternative Lite – great programs if u only need to view those kind of files on your web browser and not have the bloated software that usually comes installed with quicktime and real player.
Secunia PSI – Does a good job of checking your computer for vulnerabilities in applications.
Moovida Mediacenter – Alternative to Windows Media Center thats is preinstalled with most windows 7 OSes.
Disk Defragmenter – Not really a freeware tool since it’s baked into the OS, but I found out that it can now move MFT blocks/other NTFS metadata and can defrag multiple drives. IMO does a good enough job to warrant not replacing w/ a third-party defragger.
Microsoft Security Essentials – Tiny, non-intrusive, no-nonsense antimalware. Catches a lot of stuff without slowing the system down/nagging to buy the pro version/paranoid about flagging every .exe and gives other antimalware a run for their money.
Windows Live Essentials – Mail for mail, Writer for blogging, Photo Gallery for the tagging and Facebook integration (w/ plugins), and Movie Maker for those times you need to make a quick video of the family vacation. All quite fit in nicely with 7.
7-Zip – Handles most of your archiving needs
Pidgin – IMHO the Firefox of IM clients when it comes to extensibility. Mine is currently setup for Sametime, Office Communicator (SIP), Facebook Chat, and all sorts of exotic IM needs.
Infrarecorder – Ditched Nero for this wonderful little gem. It won’t remix your MP3′s/print CD covers, but can burn stuff (ISO images, data, video, audio) to discs pretty well. And it won’t hijack your video/audio file extensions or install a lot of stuff in the process.
MP3Tag – Fast little tagger of sorts. It’s Actions feature saves hours of correcting spaces/capitalization in your digital music collection.
Handbrake – Great video converter/dvd ripper. Tons of options for the tweaker, and presets for one-click converting. After using the Mac version for ages, it’s quite good on the Windows side too. Note that the presets are geared towards Apple hardware if that’s your thing.
foobar2000 – Fast, light, highly customizable audio player. Can handle a playlist of tens of thousands of songs without choking up. I use a temporary auto-generated playlist for quick previewing of files w/o mucking up the other playlists.
Daemon Tools Lite – ISO mounting
CCleaner – General system maintenance and startup editor.
Paint.NET – Light, fast image editor. Has plugins (get the one that can open Photoshop files), layers, light levels, and a great Aero UI to top it off. It’s proof of how great a well-coded .NET program can be. Great alternative to Photoshop if you don’t need the hardcore features (plus the hardcore price) and just want to occasionally touch up stuff.
IrfanView – I keep this for its batch processing features.
Notepad2 Extended – Nice little Notepad replacement without going full-blown Notepad++ if you’re not a programmer and just want Notepad with a litte more features. It uses something called “Image File Execution” to cleanly replace Notepad and is reversible (aka without mucking around with File Protection and UAC)
K-Lite Codec Pack Standard – Video playback. Might need a little tweaking to get GPU video acceleration up. I set up everything to use ffdshow (one codec to rule them all!) instead of the built-in Win7 codecs, then “uninstall” WMP.
Adobe Reader – Might come as a suprise but the current version (9.2) is actually decent now. You can turn off auto-update, and you still get GPU accleration and all the Adobe niceties. Loads faster the more you use it (thanks to Superfetch)
Steam – Games go here. Community features, game patching, backups, great weekend deals, preloading, and a large catalog. No fussing around with DVDs and such.
VMWare Player – For troublesome programs and if you can’t get XP Mode to work (e.g no virtualization support for your CPU) . Install XP inside it, turn on Unity Mode, voila.
HashTab – Adds a tab in the file properties window that shows you the current file’s hash (MD5/SHA-1 to name a few). Great for testing if your downloaded file is intact or corrupt.
Secunia PSI/Filehippo Update Checker – Keeps the non-games non-Microsoft stuff updated. The MS stuff gets handled by Windows Update. Set PSI to scan only your C: drive or equivalent to stop it flagging your installers (if you keep them) as “security risks”