Free Software

There follows a collection of links to lots of extremely useful (and more importantly - free!) software. I am open to suggestions for inclusion into this list, but please note this is primarily a list of the software that I have used and found to be helpful. This list represents a love affair with open source and freeware software that has spanned many years. I originally compiled this list for the free technical support forum, Computer Hope. The list below is more up to date than that at CH, but it is still a good place to go for help.

Note that some software here is only free for personal use, or may be limited in some way. The majority however is completely free and unfettered.

Filesystems

Name/Link Description
Ant Renamer Clever multiple file renamer
Eraser Secure total file eraser/shredder
FreeCommander Excellent two-pane file manager
GParted Partition editor - can recognise, amend and resize most file systems
JDiskReport Disk/space analysis
JkDefrag GUI Front end to an exceptional defragger
FIPS DOS/FAT non-destructive partition resizing tool
IsoBuster CD/DVD data recovery tool
KillBox Delete stubborn files
Smart BootManager Boot from any device, even unsupported CDROMs
NTFSDOS Access NTFS partitions from DOS
Ultimate Boot CD Boot CD with lots of diagnostic tools
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows As above, but completely "Windows-ised" version
Unlocker Automatic locked file management

Graphics

Name/Link Description
The Gimp Photoshop-rivalling bitmap editor
IconShop Manage ICL and EXE icon libraries
Inkscape Open Source scalable vector graphics Editor
Irfanview Graphics viewer with HUGE feature set
Paint.net Paint Shop Pro-rivalling bitmap editor
Picasa Picture album/organiser from Google

Hard drive diagnostics

Name/Link
Testdisk - generic free data recovery tool
Fujitsu
Hitachi
Maxtor
Samsung
Seagate
Toshiba
Western Digital

Hardware

Name/Link Description
Aida32 System information, diagnostics and benchmarking
CmosPwd BIOS password recovery
Everest Home Edition System inspection
Memtest86 Stand-alone memory diagnostic
Prime95 A program to find prime numbers, commonly used for stress-testing
SiSoft Sandra Information & diagnostic utility
System Information for Windows And again! (This one is quite up to date.)

Internet/networking

Name/Link Description
Angry IP Scanner Quick IP and port scanner
ejabberd Jabber server (instant messaging)
ePrompter Auto-check web, POP3 and IMAP email
Firefox Open Source tabbed Internet Explorer replacement
FileZilla FTP client/server software
FTP Surfer Excellent FTP program
HOSTS Secure Automatically update hosts file to assist in blocking ads etc.
HTTrack Recursive website copier
Karens WhoIs A useful lookup tool
KompoZer WYSIWYG HTML editor derived from NVu
LogMeIn Another remote control program
NetMeter Realtime bandwidth monitoring tool
NetStumbler Wireless network discovery
Opera Another good web browser
PeerGuardian Blocks government etc spies
POPTray Reads POP mail on the server
Psi Client for Jabber (instant messaging)
PuTTY Telnet/SSH program
Sam Spade Comprehensive collection of network tools for Windows
UltraVNC Remote control PC software

Inventory/catalogue software

Name/Link Description
eLibPro Excellent book inventory software

Multimedia

Software relating to audio/visual creation, editing and playback.

Name/Link Description
Audacity Advanced audio recorder/editor – Cross platform
AudioGrabber Audio CD ripper, MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis encoder
CDEx Audio CD ripper
dBPowerAmp Audio conversion tool
HACP Audio CD Player Tiny, efficient CD player with FreeDB support
KRISTAL Audio Engine Multitrack audio mixer and sequencer
MediaCoder Convert between many audio/visual formats
ScreenShotAssistant Take screenshots in MS Windows
SUPER All-format multimedia file converter
The-Codecs All the codecs you'll ever need
VLC Media Player Extremely compentent DVD/Audio/Media player and LAN streamer

OSes, emulators, virtualisation

Name/Link Description
DOSBox Intel x86 emulator
FreeDOS MS-DOS compatible OS
Knoppix Complete OS on a CD - useful for diagnostics
Microsoft Virtual PC Run multiple virtual OSes on one machine
Microsoft Virtual Server Run multiple virtual servers on one machine

Office/business software

Name/Link Description
FreeMind Mind-mapping (idea-linking) software
Keynote Powerful tree-based notebook/information store
OpenOffice.org Free MS Office Pro replacement

Security

Name/Link Description
A² Free Anti trojan/malware scanner
Ad-Aware Adware detector/remover
AVG Free Personal anti-virus
Clam for Windows Fully open source antivirus
ewido Anti trojan/malware scanner
HijackThis Startup/browser hijack detector
IE-SpyAd Bad IP safeguard
Spybot Search & Destroy Ad/Spy/Foistware detector/remover
SpywareBlaster Browser hijack prevention tool
X-Cleaner Free Malware Detector/Remover Plus

System tools

Name/Link Description
CCleaner Cleans temp folders redundant registry entries etc
Dial-a-fix Easily fix many problems with 32-bit Windows
Win9x Power Toys Tweaks and addons for Windows 9x
XP-AntiSpy Fixes annoyances and loopholes in XP
XP Power Toys Very useful tweaks for XP

Utilities

Name/Link Description
7Zip Archiver
AutoHotKey Macro scripting/keyboard shortcuts/etc.
Convert Unit conversion program
DeepBurner DVD and CD burning program
Foxit Reader Acrobat Reader replacement
Notepad++ Notepad replacement/syntax-highlighting programmers' file editor
Notepad2 Notepad replacement
Notetab Tabbed notepad replacement
PrimoPDF Save from any application to PDF
TClockLight Enhance the system tray clock
Weather Watcher System tray weather forecast
ZipGenius User-friendly zip/archival tool