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Freeware Utilities The 46 Best-ever Freeware UtilitiesThe Best-ever Freeware List
Free Web Browser Direct Links =>index [1] http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ (5.6MB) [2] http://www.techsupportalert.com/firefox.htm [3] http://www.opera.com/ (4.6MB) [4]http://www.maxthon.com/index.htm (1.9MB) [5] http://www.avantbrowser.com/ (1.86MB) [6] http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/ (6MB) 2 Best Free Anti-Virus Software There are two equal recommendations in this category. First there is AVG Antivirus 7 Free Edition. This product [1] has been continuously refined since it was first released in 1991 and the recently released V7.5 makes further improvements to an already solid product. Additionally, it's relatively small, light on resources, has regular automatic updates and handles email scanning. There is a free and a pro version, the only difference being that the free version has a few non-critical features disabled and has no direct technical support. Equally effective is the free Avast! scanner [2] though its funky media player style interface is not to everyone's taste. Avast! also required periodic re-registration while AVG does not. However Avast! does not seem to suffer the signature file update problems that plague some AVG users. A possible third choice is the AOL Anti Virus Shield [3]. This is a cut down version of the top rated Kaspersky AV and is being made available for free to all uses not just AOL members. On first sight it seems like an unbeatable deal but it's not quite what it seems. First this really is a "lite" version. It lacks the important html and heuristics modules present in the full Kaspersky product so the protection afforded against hostile web sites is actually inferior to AVG and Avast!. Gone, too, is the ability to create rescue disks and to fully manage the quarantine area. The configuration options are also more limited. Secondly the End User License Agreement is worrying. AOL basically reserves the right to spam you. I'm not aware of this actually happening but you need to be aware they have the right to do so. By default AOL AVS installs the AOL search bar in Internet Explorer as part of the AVS install. If you don't want it, make sure you opt out during installation. So on balance I'm cautious about recommending AOL AVS. If you can however, live with the limitations then you'll be rewarded with a first class scanner. Both AVG and Avast! are excellent free products that will meet the needs of most users. However neither can be considered to be the best available. That title belongs to commercial products like NOD32, F-Secure, the full version of Kaspersky AV and others. They are however capable packages and offers the financially challenged a real alternative to the major anti-virus suites. However if you use these free products in conjunction with a free on-demand scanner, you can achieve a level of detection approaching that of the best commercial products. Further improvement is possible by creating a layered defense using additional free security products such as AVG Anti-Spyware (formerly Ewido). On-demand scans should be run regularly, at least weekly, to check for viruses and other malware that may have been missed by your main scanner. If you don't use AOL AVS as your main AV product then this should be your the top choice as an on-demand scanner as its detection is outstanding. You should though, disable the AOL AVS real time monitor otherwise you may run into conflicts with the monitor on your primary AV product. Another top recommendation for an on-demand scanner is AntiVir Personal Edition Classic [4]. It offers significantly better detection rates than either AVG or Avast! but the lack of email scanning precludes recommendation as a primary scanner. However as an on-demand scanner, it's first rate. If you use it in this role, make sure you disable its resident virus guard during installation to prevent it interfering with your main AV scanner.Even so , it's quite an intrusive product -you will certainly be well aware of its presence. Note that the recently released V7 unfortunately introduces a time limited license though apparently this will be renewable. Yet another good option for on-demand scanning is the free version of the commercial AV product BitDefender [5]. It's a first class product with outstanding detection rates but as the free version lacks an email scanner and a resident virus guard, it's only really suited for use as an on-demand scanner rather than your main AV product. There are some other limitations as well. First it has an annoying habit of detecting malware products that have been quarantined by other security products and you can't exclude these areas from subsequent scans. Secondly, it is only available on a one year non-renewable license. [1] http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ (16.0MB) [2] http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html (8.8MB) [3] http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp? (13.9MB) [4] http://www.free-av.com (8.7MB) [5] http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html (13.2MB) 3 Best Free Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover [1] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d ( 6.4MB) [2] http://www.spywareterminator.com (2.3MB) 4 Best Free Browser Protection Utility 1] http://www.sandboxie.com Free for personal use, Win2K and later, 310KB [2] http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html Freeware, all Windows version, 2.5MB [3] http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html Freeware, All Windows versions, 913KB 5 Best Free Firewall [1] http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm (7.3MB) [2] http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ (8MB) [3] http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/jpfirewall.htm[ (2.7MB) [4] http://www.netveda.com/consumer/safetynet.htm (6.3MB) [5] http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp (9.0MB) 6 Best Free Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover [1] http://www.ewido.net/en/download/ (6.17MB) [2] http://www.anti-trojan-software-reviews.com/review-ewido.htm <= review of Ewido 7 Best Free Rootkit Scanner/Remover [1] http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/ Free beta, Windows 2000 and later, 808KB [2] http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer.html Freeware, All Windows versions, 210KB [3] http://www.sysinternals.com/Forum/default.asp [4] http://www.gmer.net/ Freeware, Windows NT and later, 450KB [5] http://majorgeeks.com/Icesword_d5199.html Freeware, Windows XP and later, 1.9MB [6] http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/DarkSpy-Anti-Rootkit.shtml Windows 2000 and later, 626KB [7] http://www.techsupportalert.com/rootkits.htm <= How to deal with the threat of rootkits 8 Best Free Intrusion Prevention and Detection Utility for Home Use [1] http://www.novatix.com/cyberhawk/ Freeware, Windows 2000 and later, 4.7MB[2] [2] http://www.eeye.com/html/products/blink/personal/index.html Free for personal use,Win2K and later 26.7MB [3] http://www.prevx.com/products.asp $21.95, Win2K and later, 8.2MB [4] http://www.softsphere.com/ $29, Win2K and later, 1MB 9 Best Free Anonymous Surfing Service [1] http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html Freeware, Any Windows system with Java, 107KB [2] http://tor.eff.org/ Free BSD License, All Windows, 4.6MB [3] http://torpark.nfshost.com/index.php Freeware, Windows NT and later, 9.27MB 10 Best Free Software Suite [1] http://theopencd.org [2] https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ [3] http://www.paulstamatiou.com/2005/10/24/how-to-ubuntu-linux-for-novices/
[1] http://zabkat.com/x2lite.htm Free for private use, Win 95 and later, 899KB [2] http://www.xyplorer.com/ Free for private use, Win 98 and later, 623KB. [3] http://www.xyplorer.com/download/xyplorer_full_lfv.zip All Windows versions, Free for private use, 633KB [4] http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2006/PL2006FILEUTILITIES.php#FileManager [5] http://www.freecommander.com/ Freeware, Windows 95 and later, 1.61MB 12 Best Free Email Client [1] http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird Free Open Source software, Win 98 and later, 6.0MB [2] http://webmail.mozdev.org/index.html [3] http://opensourcearticles.com/introduction_to_thunderbird [4] http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/E-mail/E-mail-Clients/Foxmail.shtml Freeware, Win 95 and later, 5.5MB. 13 Best Free Web Mail Accessory [1] http://www.ypopsemail.com/ Free GPL license, Win95 and later, 1.48MB [2] http://www.freepops.org Freeware, Windows 98 and later, 813KB [3] http://www.freepops.org/en/tutorial/index.shtml [4] http://mrpostman.sourceforge.net/ Free Open Source, 1.5MB [5] http://2mod2.com/mohot/ <= Installing Mr Postman [6] http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=68124 <= MrPostman forum [7] http://www.poppeeper.com/ Freeware, Windows 95 and later, 818KB 14 Best Free Clipboard Replacement Utility [1] http://www.lw-works.com/ Windows 98 and later, 382 KB [2] http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/ Windows 95 and later, 422KB [3] http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net/dao_setup.exe .3MB 15 Best Free HTML Editor [1] http://www.nvu.com/ Free Open Source, Windows 98 and later plus Linux, 6.57MB [2] http://www.evrsoft.com [3] http://www.voodoofiles.com/4836 Free, Windows 98 and later, 5.2MB [4] http://www.pspad.com/en/ Freeware, All Windows versions, 3.4MB 16 Best Free Spam Filter for the Average User [1] http://www.mailwasher.net ( 3.05MB) [2]http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page2.html#Mailwasher (1.57MB) [3] http://www.artplus.hr/adapps/eng/xterminator.htm (1.87MB) [4] http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-antispam.htm<=brief review of the best spam blockers 17 Best Free Spam Filter for Experienced Users http://popfile.sourceforge.net/old_index.html (4.3MB) http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/ (3.6MB) http://www.keir.net/k9.html (113KB) 18 Best Free Popup Stopper [1] http://proxomitron.info/ Freeware, All Windows versions, 1.38MB [2] http://accs-net.com/smallfish/prox.htm [3] http://www.sankey.ws/proxomitron.html [4] http://toolbar.google.com/ 19 Best Free Desktop Search Utility [1] http://www.x1.com X1 Enterprise Client, Free for personal use, Windows XP, 12.9MB. [2] http://desktop.yahoo.com Freeware, Windows 2000 SP3 or later, 5.3MB [3] http://desktop.google.com Freeware, Windows 2000 SP3 or later, 2MB [4] http://corporate.exalead.com/enterprise/l=en?p=produits_exalead-desktop_screenshots Freeware, Windows 2000 or later, 8.7MB [5] http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html Freeware, Windows 98 and later. 3MB 20 Best Free Digital Image Viewer [1] http://www.irfanview.com/ (874KB) [2] http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/endownloadwin32.html (3.3MB) [3] http://www.faststone.org (3.0MB) 21 Best Free Digital Image Editor [1] http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html (7.7MB) [2] http://www.gimpshop.net/ (7.4MB) [3] http://getpaint.net/index2.html Freeware, Win2K and later, 3.6MB [4] http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/default.asp Freeware, all Windows, 19.4MB [5] http://www.photofiltre.com/ Free for personal use, Windows 98 and later, 1.6MB 22 Best Free Digital Photo Organizer http://picasa.google.com/ 23 Best Free Text Editor [1] http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html Free for non-commercial use, Windows NT and later, 2.9MB [2] http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html Freeware, Windows 98 and later, 241KB [3] http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php Freeware, All Windows versions, 1.4MB [4] http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm Open Source Freeware, All Windows versions, 1.03MB [5] http://www.pspad.com/ Freeware, all Windows versions, 3.4MB [6] http://www.context.cx/ Freeware, All Windows versions, 1.6MB [7] http://www.crimsoneditor.com Freeware, All Windows versions, 1.2MB 24 The Best File Archiver/Zip Utility http://www.izarc.org/download.html Windows 9x and later, 3.1MB http://www.7-zip.org/ Windows 9x and later, 1.05MB 25 Best Free Hotkey Utility [1] http://www.autohotkey.com/ Freeware, all Windows versions, 1.75MB [2] http://www.pssoftlab.com/pshl_info.phtml Freeware, all Windows versions, 707KB [3] http://qliner.com/hotkeys/ Freeware, Windows XP, 804KB [4] http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/ Freeware, all Windows versions, 170KB 26 Best Free Registry Cleaner [1] http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm Freeware, All Windows versions, 2.8MB [2] http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htmFreeware, Windows 98 and later, 860KB. [3] http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm Free for non-commercial use, Windows 98 and later, 457KB [4] http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/index.html#jv16 Freeware, All Windows versions, 2.1MB 27 Best Free BitTorrent Client [1] http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ Open source, any PC that supports Java, 7.6MB [2] http://www.utorrent.com/ Freeware, all Windows versions, 170KB 28 The Best Free FTP Client [1] http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/ Free Open Source, Windows NT and later, 3.4MB [2] http://www.smartftp.com/ Free for non commercial use, Windows 2000 and later 3.3MB [3] http://winscp.net/eng/index.php Free GNU license, All Windows version, (1.4MB) 29 Best Free Bookmark Cleaner http://aignes.com/press/deadlink140.htm 30 Best Free Folder Synchronization Utility [1] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E0FC1154-C975-4814-9649- CCE41AF06EB7&displaylang=en (844KB) [2] http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html (1.9MB) 31 Best Free Screen Capture Utility [1] http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/?prnscr (1.1MB) [2] http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter.htm (381KB) [3] http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm (2.9MB) 32 Best Free Search Toolbar http://toolbar.yahoo.com/ie (3MB) http://www.dqsd.net/ (327KB) http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/ (447KB) 33 Best Free Download Manager [1] http://www.stardownloader.com/downloads.php Freeware, All Windows versions, 2.34MB [2] http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm Freeware, All Windows versions, 1.59MB [3] http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Download-Managers/Free-Download-Manager.shtml [4] http://www.flashget.com/index_en.htm Freeware, all Windows versions, 1.43MB [5] http://www.leechget.net/en/ Free for personal use, All Windows versions, 2.9MB [6] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/201/ Free Firefox extension, 425KB 34 Best Free Web Site Ripper http://www.httrack.com/ Free GPL, All Windows versions, 3.3MB 35 Best Free Download/Upload Meter [1] http://readerror.gmxhome.de/ (601KB) [2] http://codebox.no-ip.net/controller?page=bitmeter2 (806KB) 36 Best Free TCP Settings Tweaker http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in.php?category=100 37 Best Free File Cleaner [1] http://www.ccleaner.com/ Freeware, all Windows versions, 1.4MB [2] http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp Freeware, Windows 98 and later, 667KB [3] http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/download.html Freeware, Windows version unstated, 331KB. 38 Best Free Resource Meter [1] http://www.pesoft.com (92KB) [2] http://www.statbar.nl/ (1.65MB) 39 Best Free Sticky Notes Utility [1] http://atnotes.free.fr/news.html (723KB) [2] http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,17660,00.asp [3] http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/stickypad.html (550KB) [4] http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/ (596KB) 40 Best Free Secure Erase Utility [1] http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ Free GNU license, all Windows versions, 2.4MB [2] http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4221.html [2]http://www.scar5.com Freeware, Windows NT and later, 1.24MB [3] http://dban.sourceforge.net/ Free Open Source, All Windows versions, 1.99MB 41 Best Free Registry Editor 1] http://www.resplendence.com/reglite Freeware, All Windows versions, 2.0MB. [2] http://www.majorgeeks.com/download469.html 42 Best Free Process Viewer [1] http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html Freeware, Windows 9x and later, 640KB. [2] http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx Free beta, Windows 2000 and later, 1.09MB 43 Best Free System Information Utility [1] http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en [2] http://www.majorgeeks.com/download181.html Freeware, all Windows versions, 2.9MB [3] http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html Freeware, all Windows versions, 4.0MB [4] http://www.spiceworks.com/ Free beta, Windows XP Pro with 512MB RAM on the administrator's PC, 7MB. [5] http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html Free for personal use, all Windows versions, 945KB [6] http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/about_siw.html Freeware, Win98 and later, 1.18MB 44 Best Free Search and Replace Utility [1] http://www.pcsupportadvisor.com/downloads/HFFRSetup.exe Freeware, all Windows versions, 361KB [2] http://www.fauland.com/af9.htm Freeware, all Windows versions, 992KB [3] http://www.inforapid.de/html/searchreplace.htm Free for private use, 1.03MB 45 Best Free Outliner [1] http://www.tranglos.com/free/index.html Free Mozilla Public license, Windows 98 and later, 1.7MB [2] http://www.neomem.org/ Free MIT X11 License, all Windows versions, 680KB 46 Best Free Rename Utility [1] http://www.azheavymetal.com/~lupasrename/lupasrename.php Freeware, all Windows versions, 734KB [2] http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014830/english/FlexRena/ Freeware, all Windows versions, 648KB [3] http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php Freeware, Windows 98SE and later, 622KB [4] http://www.herve-thouzard.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=1 Freeware, all Win versions, 2.9MB |
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