There is a lot of great free software available on the Internet.  Free does not mean poor quality.  The open source movement is responsible for producing great software that compares very favorably with commercial equivalents.  I have listed here some of my favorite open source applications for the Windows operating system.  They all have two things in common: they high quality and they are free!  

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Personal Productivity

Music & Video

Controlling Your Computer

Protecting Your Computer

 

 

Do more work on your computer!

 

Open Office Suite:  http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.0/index.html

Open Office Suite is a great, free substitute for MS Word.  Open Office combines a word processor (like Word), spread sheet (like Excel), presentation software (like PowerPoint) and a data base program (like Access).

 

WRITER Is a powerful tool for creating professional documents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. You can easily integrate images and charts in documents, create everything from business letters to complete books with professional layouts, as well as create and publish Web content.

 

CALC is a feature-packed spreadsheet which can turn boring numbers into eye-catching information. Calculate, analyze, and visually communicate your data quickly and easily. Use advanced spreadsheet functions and decision-making tools to perform sophisticated data analysis. Use built-in charting tools to generate impressive 2D and 3D charts.

 

IMPRESS is the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will truly stand out with special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools.

 

DRAW will produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects.

 

The Database User Tools give you all the tools you need for day to day database work in a simple spreadsheet-like form. They support dBASE databases for simple applications, or any ODBC or JDBC compliant database for industrial strength database work.

 

Dimension 4: http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/index.html

Automatically set your PC’s clock to the correct time.  Dimension 4 is the best time synchronization utility available today for Windows.

 

GIMP:  http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/stable.html

The GIMP is a free version of PhotoShop.  GIMP stands for the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software used for tasks like photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. This site contains information about downloading, installing, and using GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/the_gimp.html

 

IZArc:  http://www.webattack.com/get/izarc.html

IZArc is a full featured compression tool (used to make files smaller) that you can use to open and create compressed files in many different formats.  IZArc support most popular archive formats, including 7-ZIP, ACE,ARC, ARJ,BH, BZ2, CAB, DEB, GZ,HA, JAR, LHA, LZH,PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR,TGZ, TZ, ZIP and ZOO. The program is easy to use, even for beginners, yet powerful enough to provide advanced users with all the tools you need.

 

PDF4U:  http://www.pdfpdf.com/pdf4u.html

PDF4U creates PDF files from any Windows application running on Windows NT (SP3+), Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The software installs itself as a print driver, all you have to do is to click "Print" from your application to create PDF files.

 

Hoversnap:  http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm 

HoverSnap is a a free handy snapshot tool with jpg, png, bmp and gif support.HoverSnap can take snapshots of the full screen, active window or a selected area. It can even capture layered windows.

 

FTP Filezilla:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla 

Full featured, secure FTP client.

 

 

Music & Video on your computer!

 

Quintessential Player (MP3/CD):  http://www.quinnware.com/downloads.php

QCD MP3 player and ripper with the following features: - MP3, Ogg, WAV, and CD support, Full Speed CD Ripping,  MP3 Encoding, Streaming audio support, Skins and Plug-ins support, Powerful Tag Editor, Gracenote CDDB support, Crossfading support, Multiple visualizations

 

VCL Media Player:  http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

 

Movie Organizer: http://www.movieorganizer.com/

Get your movie collection organized with the Movie Organizer.  When you add a movie to your collection you will be able to search an on-line movie database for information which will be downloaded from the net and filled in automatically.  Your movie list can be sorted in any possible way and you can track titles that have been borrowed from your collection.

 

 

 

Control Your Computer!

 

TweakUI: Download here

TweakUI (short for Tweak the User Interface) is a very useful program written by Microsoft that allows you to adjust menu speed and window animation, move the StartUp folder or move the My Documents folder.

 

Startup Control Panel:  http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It's simple to use and it is very small and won't burden your system.

 

Google Tool Bar: http://toolbar.google.com/

This tool bar also offers a pop-up ad blocker, multiple search options (web, this site only, cheapest price, news and dictionary) and a highlight viewer tool, making it easier to find what you’re searching for.

 

EasyCleaner: Download Here

Slow system performance may be due to an accumulation of unused Registry files, usually the result of faulty file installation and uninstallation. EasyCleaner is a small program that searches Windows' Registry for entries that are pointing nowhere, and creates a list from which you can delete them.

 

You can also remove other unnecessary files, such as temporary, backup, and duplicate ones. The program lists applications and files that seem safe to be deleted, and you make the final decision of what to delete and what to keep. A pie chart shows the amount of space that files are occupying on your hard disk and in individual folders.

 

 

Protect Your Computer!

 

Spybot - Search & Destroy:  Download Here

Spybot can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm in trying to see if something snooped into your computer, too :)

  

AVG AntiVirus Free Edition:  http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

New - AVG Free Edition is now available for all single home users worldwide! More detailed information can be found in the AVG Free Edition License Agreement.

 

ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall:  www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?lid=selector_za

ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall protects your computer against Trojans, spy ware, worms and other threats.  This program prevents unauthorized or malicious applications from entering your system. Great for inexperienced users - you easily customize and fine-tune security policies

 

Spambayes on Windows:  http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/windows.html

SpamBayes is an intelligent spam filter. SpamBayes classifies incoming email messages as 'spam', 'ham' (good, non-spam email) or 'unsure'. This means you can have spam or unsure messages automatically filed away in a different mail folder, where it won't interrupt your email reading. First SpamBayes must be trained by each user to identify spam and ham. Essentially, you show SpamBayes a pile of email that you like (ham) and a pile you don't like (spam). SpamBayes will then analyze the piles for clues as to what makes the spam and ham different (for example; different words, differences in the mailer headers and content style.) The system then uses these clues to examine new messages.

 

Firefox Web Browser: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

The US governments Computer Emergency Response Team warns all computer users to to stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser.  Because Internet Explorer has vulnerabilities that allow hacker to infect or even take over your computer, CERT recommeds the use of alternative browsers because of the "significant vulnerabilities" in technologies embedded in IE.  Firefox is the best and safest web browser in existence! “Beware of spyware. If you can, use the Firefox browser.” – USA Today  “Firefox is better than IE by leaps and bounds” – Forbes

 

Hamachi: http://www.hamachi.cc/

With Hamachi you can organize two or more computers with an Internet connection into their own virtual network for direct secure communication.  Hamachi works behind firewalls and works with public IP addresses assigned by DHCP.  Hamachi is fast, secure and simple. It is also free.

 

Perfect Passwords: https://www.grc.com/passwords

Poorly chosen passwords make any secure system vulnerable to relatively simple attacks.  Passwords should be long and completely random.  This is very difficult to accomplish.  This web page generates unique sets of custom, high quality, cryptographically strong passwords.

 

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