Windows Software
This a collection of primarily cost free Microsoft Windows software I have found useful at one time or another. My home Windows XP machine is currently running: AntiVir, ThreatFire, Windows Defender, and the standard Windows XP firewall. This as worked well thus far for me.
Security
Antivirus/Anti-Malware
Free for personal home use only.
avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users and non-commercial use. avast! 4 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. Scanning is also available in the shell extension and screen server.
Free for personal home use only.
AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).
Free for personal home use only.
Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic reliably protects your private computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers
Only install one of the above traditional antivirus products!
ThreatFire AntiVirus Free Edition
Can be used along with one of the traditional antivirus products above.
Free for home and business use.
ThreatFire is dramatically different to traditional antivirus software. Normal antivirus products usually need to have first identified and seen a threat before they can provide adequate protection against it. The protection is then provided via a signature or fingerprint update, which must first be written by an antivirus researcher. This creates a large window of time where threats are undetected and can therefore infect your PC even when you have antivirus software installed.
Free for personal home use.
Ad-Aware 2007 Plus is a powerful shield that blocks malware and spyware from installing on your computer and stealing your private information. More than just an on-demand scanner, it notifies you immediately when your privacy is at risk, keeping the bad guys at bay!
Free for personal home use.
Spybot – Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications.
Free for home and business use.
Windows Defender is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it’s detected and minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.
Free for home and business use.
Capable of deactivating unknown rootkits and Deletes registry keys transparently.
Firewalls
Free for home and business use.
Install now for out-of-the-box protection against identity theft hackers, trojans, viruses, scripts and other unknown threats. Unlike some other free firewalls, this is not a stripped down version, but is a fully functional product. Updates and upgrades are also free.
File Encryption
Free for home and business use (GPL).
AxCrypt File Encryption Software – Free Personal Privacy and Security for Windows 98/ME/NT/2K/XP with AES-128 File Encryption, Compression and transparent Decrypt and Open in the original application.
Free for home and business use.
TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys. Entire file system is encrypted (e.g.., file names, folder names, contents of every file, free space, meta data, etc).
Password Keepers
Free for home and business use (GPL).
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.
Free for home and business use (Artistic License).
Password Safe is a tool that allows you to have a different password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords. Password Safe runs on PCs under Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP).
Misc Security Tools
Free for home and business use.
We provide you with the tools to see what’s happening on your network, coupled with the tools to take action. For example, discover that myspace.com is the most frequently visited site on your network, and then block it with a single click.
Trust-No-Exe – An executable filter for Windows NT/2000/XP
Free for home and business use.
Trust-no-exe is a executable file filter. It attaches to the operating system and filters all executable files, be it .exe .com .dll .drv .sys .dpl etc from all drives and all network shares against a list of files or paths, you, the administrator provide as trusted applications. If a prohibited executable (one not in the allow list or one explicitly defined in the deny list) is loaded, a popup box informs the user with an intelligent message that can be customised to your site.
Health
Free for home and business use (GPL).
Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit. Please refer to the feature comparison for a complete list of features, and how the program performs with respect to other programs on the market. The program runs on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows.
Web
Free for home and business use (MPL).
The award-winning Web browser is better than ever. Browse the Web with confidence – Firefox protects you from viruses, spyware and pop-ups. Enjoy improvements to performance, ease of use and privacy. It’s easy to import your favorites and settings and get started. Download Firefox now and get the most out of the Web.
Free for home and business use (GPL).
Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once.
Free for home and business use.
If you want to listen to podcasts, this program is for you. Juice is the premier podcast receiver, allowing users to capture and listen to podcasts anytime, anywhere.
Free for home and business use.
Feedreader is a lightweight open-source aggregator that supports RSS and ATOM formats. It works under Windows 95 and later versions.
General
Free for personal home use only.
Foxit Reader 2.0 is a free PDF document viewer and printer, with incredible small size (only 1.5 M download size), breezing-fast launch speed and amazingly rich feature set. Foxit Reader 2.0 supports Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.6.
Free for home and business use (LGPL).
OpenOffice.org 2.1 is the productivity suite that individuals, governments, and corporations around the world have been expecting for the last two years. Easy to use and fluidly interoperable with every major office suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 realizes the potential of open source.
Free for home and business use (Non-Commercial Use Only).
Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.
Free for home and business use (GPL).
PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
Free for home and business use (GPL).
The Portable Apps Suite™ is free. It contains no spyware. There are no advertisements. It isn’t a limited or trial version. There is no additional hardware or software to buy. You don’t even have to give out your email address. It’s 100% free to use, free to copy and free to share.
Utilities
Free for home and business use.
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.
Free for personal home use.
EULAlyzer Pro is very reasonably priced!
Analyze license agreements for interesting words and phrases.
Free for home and business use (GPL).
InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.
Free for personal home use.
ISO Recorder is a tool (power toy) for Windows XP, 2003 and now Windows Vista, that allows (depending on the Windows version) to burn CD and DVD images, copy disks, make images of the existing data CDs and DVDs and create ISO images from a content of a disk folder.
Media
Free for home and business use (GPL).
VideoLAN is a software project, which produces free software for video, released under the GNU General Public License.
Learn more about the VideoLAN project.
Free for home and business use (GPL).
DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation.
Free for home and business use (GPL).
Free DVD authoring and burning tool for Linux and Windows
