Advice Request Best Free Softwares for Windows

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jackuars

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After an insanely positive response to my earlier thread in 2014, I have decided to create a new thread as per @Jack 's recommendation.

This is still a partial list, and more categories will be added soon. Sadly I had to limit to 1 software per category. Also included only desktop software's no browser extensions etc. Do give your recommendations and alternatives and hopefully you like the list. :)
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List Updates:

*Project Management- Added Taskade (Sep 15 2021
*Sandboxing Software- Added Sandboxie Plus (Mar 14 2021)
*Font Management- Added FontBase (Mar 14 2021)
*Graphic Card Manager - Added MSI Afterburner (Mar 07 2021)
*Duplicate File finder - Added Auslogics Duplicate File Finder (Jan 06 2021)
*IM Client - Replaced Pidgin with All-in-One Messenger (Sep 24 2020)
*Antimalware - Replaced Zemana Antimalware with Emsisoft Emergency Kit (Jun 11 2020)
*Archiver- Replaced Bandizip with 7-zip (Apr 26 2020)

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Sven

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Hey @jackuars ,

Thank you for your efforts! This is an all around, near-perfect list already! Keep up the good work. ;)

I have to state only one thing as my two cents here; I think McShield is quite an old software and I wonder if its still beneficial for any current operating system. If its not, I'll go ahead and add it to my own system too!

Thanks again!
 

imuade

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Immagine.jpg
 

upnorth

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Thanks again for a great thread @jackuars . Bookmarked. (y)

Here's another 100% free Video editor.

Video Chat software, the most well known I can guess is Skype.
 
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jackuars

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View attachment 213457
You are trying to download the Pro version which is no longer there. The product is now fully free.
Please use this link if you are still facing trouble: StopAd Softpedia

I got the same error page as @imuade , even when I try the Android version. :unsure:
I just downloaded it 10 minutes back. Anyway I have added Softpedia URL now :)

Thanks for the compilation. I'd choose Wise Disk Cleaner against Ccleaner. For media player, VLC is better I guess though haven't tried Pot player. Brave browser instead of Chrome
Thanks for the suggestion of Wise Disk Cleaner, I have now replaced CCleaner.
I'd recommend you to try PotPlayer. It's brilliant, and I believe MalwareTips community would agree with me :)
Chrome is more secure and solid browser and you can try to minimize the tracking/improve privacy by toggling certain options. Brave is great too.
 
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jackuars

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Thanks again for a great thread @jackuars . Bookmarked. (y)

Here's another 100% free Video editor.

Video Chat software, the most well known I can guess is Skype.
This looks great for newbies and I recommend it :) But DaVince Resolve is a professional video editor for free, so chose that instead.

About Skype - I was looking for a free Video Chat utility that allows group calls and doesn't have bloatware. Can someone help me with this?

Another Good inbuilt Screen Capture is Snipping tool by Microsoft.
Also add Anti-spy software:O&O shutup10
Thanks for your recommendation. I'm adding O&O shutup10 to the list.
Snipping tool is a very basic utility and since I had to choose best, I needed to go with Active Presenter :)
 

upnorth

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You are trying to download the Pro version which is no longer there. The product is now fully free.
I got the same error page as @imuade , even when I try the Android version. :unsure:

DaVince Resolve is a professional video editor for free, so chose that instead.
Already tested last year and wasn't satisfied enough. It's decoding feature is way too poor IMO.
I just downloaded it 10 minutes back. Anyway I have added Softpedia URL now :)
Works perfect! (y)
 

Slerion

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Best burner isnt "Imgburn" ?
Also best desktop search isnt "everything" ?
Best defrag defraggler ? Oh hell no. its slow sluggish and overall outdated... either windows defrag or auslogics free defrag.
Download manager would be FDM ( Free download manager ) XDM is buggy. also doesnt catch as much media and more.
Torrent client should be Qbittorrent for the network binding feature , faster devs , open source , and being not banned on plenty of tracker.
Otherwise not bad on browser probably a better more Light solution like cent browser or something

And feem seems to work only if the PC is also on WLAN ( cable same network doesnt work feem WANTS wlan )... Screenshot
Better alternative AirMore Web Free and if you dont make a account its 100% wlan/lan and no servers evolved works even with pcs on cable

Another great tool for data folder or whatever sharing between linux , windows , and mac is Nitroshare
 
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imuade

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You are trying to download the Pro version which is no longer there. The product is now fully free.
Please use this link if you are still facing trouble: StopAd Softpedia

I just downloaded it 10 minutes back. Anyway I have added Softpedia URL now :)
I was trying to download the Free version, but it seems that's no longer possible from their website.
On the other hand, Softpedia link is still working, but it looks like it hasn't been updated in 1 year
 

codswollip

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Video Converter - XMediaRecode
For unknown reasons, this XMediaRecode locks up on my system when converting... it's been doing that for the past few years. So my vote is for Handbrake. My only complaint w/Handbrake is that it can't handle video passthrough.

Great list... I'm exploring a few things now...

I would add
Screen Capture: ShareX
 

Bleak

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Useful list, thank you!
For video recording, I'd suggest Apowersoft Online Screen Recorder, it's quite handy, straight-forward and does the job perfectly if you just want to video capture your screen without much settings to play around and yet still produce very good quality videos with amazing file sizes.
 

jackuars

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This is either dead, or bad link
JOUG8kI.png

@jackuars A very nice list. I suggest using Auslogics Registry Cleaner instead of Wise Registry Cleaner, because WRC has minor issues with false positives. Also, DDownloads is down.

Thank you. I have updated the link for DDownloads. Auslogics is a fine registry cleaner, usually the normal scan feature of WRC has very few false positives, but feature-wise the latter looks better. However caution is to be implemented for any registry cleaner in my opinion ;) And also I'm trying to make my list adware-free as much as possible. I need to revisit some options :)


I have replaced the link now :)
 
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