My favorite FREE Windows software

[Alex Franke]

The Picassa thread got me thinking that it might be interesting to share some FREE (or nearly free) Windows softare recommendations. I posted this here on my work blog several months ago. I'd much rather spend my money on tools than on software, so here's some of what I've come up with to ease the pain of the for-profit operating system...

If you've found any other gems (e.g. Picassa), then please post them!

• The GIMP - Imaging editing -- more power than you'd ever need... unless you're Sam. (Linux, too!)
• CD Burner XP Pro 3 - Burn CDs, DVD, ISOs, etc.
• Alibre Design XPress - Powerful 3D CAD, but part/assembly limited, unfortunately. Google SketchUp is a free-er alternative.
• 7-Zip File Manager - Pack and/or unpack just about everything - 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS.
• Open Office - Just like the Microsoft Office suite, but free. includes word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, drawings and more.
• PrimoPDF - Write PDFs -- with security features -- for free.
• FreeRIP 3 - Extract CDs to and convert among Vorbis, MP3, WMA, WAV & Flac for your personal use only. =)
• Notepad++ - The most genius text editor on the planet. Installer not required. Cool lizards on this site.
• Irfanview - A fast and extremely capable image viewer - supports like a zillion file formats, including video.
• AutoHotKey - Top-notch mouse and keyboard macro utility - automate just about anything.
• FileZilla - FTP Client -- available on Linux, too! Installer not required.
• Expresso - Fun with regular expressions!
• ImageMagick - Command line image manipulation. A little hard to get used to, but well worth it when you do.

[pierhogunn]

http://sketchup.google.com google's sketchup, probably the only thing keeping my from running a Window's free life at this point

[25]

Thats a great list, but your forgot:

• VIM - Best text editor around, has a high learning curve but worth every second.
• Active Perl or Python - Scripting languages. Something windows is seriously lacking, *nix at least comes with some shell scripting, but Perl and Python are very powerful once you learn how to use them. While I can't stand python personally, a lot of people like it. Also with perl once you learn how to use CPAN most of the time you need to do something or interface with something, it's already been done for you.

[LinuxRandal]

Off to work, so no links yet

The ones I used on Windows
AVG (free personal antivirus) http://free.grisoft.com/
Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Spybot Search http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html
Zone Alarm http://www.zonealarm.com/store/conte...try=US&lang=en
Proximitron http://www.proxomitron.info/index.html or http://www.spamblocked.com/proxomitron/
FreeZip: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/

I forgot the Hosts File, already there, see: http://accs-net.com/hosts/faq.html

[radhak]

Of the many i use, my favorites are -

- vim : truly, the unix vi on steroids, and it has a graphical interface called gvim. one of the rare programs that has a fantastic ROI, where all the investment is the time you spend on it. can't live without it, even on the Mac!

- slickrun : a small command-line at your fingertips
- cuteftp (dunno how it compares with PrimoPDF, but works great)

Did not know of Expresso - thanks for that.

[cgallery]

Great site:

http://www.portablefreeware.com

All the software is portable (doesn't require the installer be run on the target PC) and (as the name implies) free.

[tuttlejr]

How about Picasa from Google. Great image editor and photo arranger etc.
And it is free!!!

Note Tab Light good notepad program.

[Ed62]

I've heard some really good things about The GIMP. The only reason I have Photoshop, is because it was a Christmas gift from my kids. Photoshop isn't free, by a long shot. But if your looking for a steep learning curve, it'll keep you busy for a long while.

I've only used a few free programs. Picasa, AVG, Adaware, and Spybot Search. Sometimes I think you get more from free programs than you really want.

Ed

[kmk]

Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/)
QuoteTracker (not portable free with adds)

[25]

I almost forgot, for those of us that want to use GIMP but know Photoshop there is a plugin for GIMP called GIMPshop that makes GIMP look and feel like photoshop.

[Rich P]

Sound recording and editing

Add to the list of great free stuff...Audacity. It's available for Windoz, Mac and Linux. I've used the Linux version record and clean up old vinyl records and it worked great. I've also used it on XP to trim some music tracks to fit a slide show. If you are into the music thing, it's a great package.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

[alpha]

Ever come across a file that you can't delete? This'll get it done.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

[Alex Franke]

Here's another one I just came across... I'm particularly interested in these features: "It offers an intelligent tag editor which looks up missing Album Art and track information via Freedb and the web, and an automated file and directory renamer to organize your music library." (from download.com)

http://www.mediamonkey.com/ - Free media jukebox & music manager for serious music collectors. It has a CD Ripper supporting Freedb,
mp3 player (plays CDs, WMA and OGG files), audio converter (for OGG, WMA, & MP3 conversion), tag editor, music playlist editor, file renamer, etc.