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  1. #1
    Pandemonium
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    List of Free Apps and Utilities

    This will be a list of free or open source programs or utilities. This is not my list, I take no credit for it as I've compiled it from a bunch of different sites and added some items I've personally tested and found to be useful. Post here if you have anything to add, please provide a link and a brief description of what it does. Note this is for free programs only, this is NOT for posting cracks or pirated software.

    Anti-Virus Clients

    Avast! Antivirus Free Anti-virus client for home users
    AVG Highly rated free Anti-virus app
    Spyware Terminator Despite the name it's actually an AV scanner that also picks up spyware, keyloggers, ect.
    Microsoft Security Essentials Microsoft's free, lightweight, and very good AV/Malware scanner. Requires you to pass a Genuine Windows test.

    Anti-Spyware Clients

    Adaware 2008 Good free spyware scanner, no realtime protection but good detection rate
    Spybot Search and Destroy Highly rated free Anti-Spyware utility
    Super AntiSpyware Another good anti-spyware program
    Hi-jack This! Advanced tool used to locate and disable hidden spyware processes or registry entries -use caution when using-
    Boclean Real time spyware removal tool
    MalwareBytes Good tool for removing lots of spyware/adware/malware

    Firewalls

    Comodo Personal Firewall I like this firewall a lot, it's great for being free, had adjustable security levels and can "learn" what programs to let through
    PC Tools Firewall Plus Free basic software firewall

    Alternatives to popular software

    Trillian Good all-in-one messenger
    Pidgin Used to be GAIM, same purpose as Trillian
    Digsby Integrates messaging, social networking sites and e-mail. No IRC functionality.
    Firefox Widely popular web browser, has ton of extensions and security options that make it more secure than IE
    Thunderbird From makers of Firefox, alternative to Outlook
    VLC Media Player Media Player that will play tons of formats
    Quicktime Alternative Plays Quicktime files without the bloatware and mem hogging processes
    Real Alternative Same as above except for RealMedia files
    Filezilla Free ftp client
    GIMP Open Source Photoshop alternative, high functionality
    Paint.Net Free photo editor with many options
    Foxit Reader Like Adobe Reader without the obscene load times or bloatware
    Open Office Open Source version of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, ect and will open files created in MS office
    CutePDF Free PDF creator
    7-zip Like Winzip


    System Utilities

    Bart PE Creates a bootable disk that allows you access to a command prompt, registry, ect when unable to boot into Windows, has many other uses
    CCleaner Good disk and registry cleanup utility
    SpeedFan Temperature Monitoring and fan control program
    Undelete Plus File Recovery Program
    CPU-Z Shows info about your processor, voltage, clocks, ect. Good when testing overclocks.
    Keepass Store and manage usernames and passwords
    Memtest86 Utility for testing RAM
    Prime95 CPU stress test, universal standard for testing system stability when overclocking
    Orthos like Prime95 but better support for multiple-core CPUs
    3dMark06 Widely accepted standard for benchmarking video cards
    Pc Inspector Another file recovery program
    Synergy Share your mouse and keyboard across multiple computers, seamless and great if you have multiple computers running next to each other
    Crossloop Free Remote assist software
    Eraser Fully deletes and destroys file data
    LookatLAN Network discovery tool
    Media Player Classic builtin codecs similar to VLC, but in the "good old style" of WMP 6.4 and with a few bonus features
    GPU-Z does for GPUs what CPU-Z does for processors
    Orbit/Grab++ download manager, with its component grab++ you can even download streamed songs and flash-vids from youtube &co
    SUPER extremely powerful audio/video converter, has support for special formats (like for consoles or mobile phones)
    JDiskReport shows disk usage of folders and files, requires java
    FreeCommander one of those countless Norton commander clones (), nice alternative for windows explorer
    Rivatuner a very good graphics card utility with tons of features
    Defraggler A very popular defragging program
    JDiskReport A handy program for finding where all your hard drive space disappeared to; gives a report of the space consumed by folder.

    Misc Utilities

    Skype Make phone calls from your PC. great for long distance calling
    Safari Apple's web browser, works on Windows
    Daemon Tools Virtual Drive manager, can mount an ISO instead of wasting CD/DVDs
    DVDfab Rips DVDs and copies to your hard drive, and removes protection
    Winamp Widely popular music player
    CCCP Codec Pack Codec pack that has pretty much everything
    Everest Ultimate Shows pretty much everything you'd want to know about your computer hardware
    Samurize lets you build individual desktop widgets and monitoring boxes, has tons of user-made layouts available
    ATITool monitoring/benchmark/overclocking software for GPUs (yup, even for nvidia ones ^^)
    Hamachi LAN parties across the net ^^ uses encrypted VPN tunnels
    CSpace decentralized instant messenger, uses TLS encryption and offers file transfers as well as remote desktop functionality over the VNC protocol
    FLV Player easy player for viewing those .flv files ripped from video streaming sites
    Notepad++ not just a notepad clone, but a full-fledged editor for pretty much any web/programming language (and of course a nice replacement for good old notepad ^^)
    Eclipse free development platform, entirely written in java
    CD Burner XP CD burning software like Nero

    Virtualization

    Virtual PC Microsoft's virtualization software
    Virtual Box Multi-platform client
    VMWare Robust Virtualization software. They charge for some services, but many of the features are now free.

    Mac OSX

    iStatPro Computer stat widget
    Adium Mac messaging client
    Colloquy Mac IRC client
    Eclipse Coding platform
    SMC Fan Control Temp regulating app for Macbooks
    Textwrangler Like Notepad++ for windows



    Please feel free to continue to add to this list. Thanks!

  2. #2
    Salvage Bans
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Quote Originally Posted by Cephius
    CCCP Codec Pack - Codec pack that has pretty much everything
    codec... packs... are... evil... <.< especially the ones with ffdshow -.-

    well... to contribute a bit:
    Media Player Classic builtin codecs similar to VLC, but in the "good old style" of WMP 6.4 and with a few bonus features
    GPU-Z does for GPUs what CPU-Z (not CPU-ID ) does for processors
    Orbit/Grab++ download manager, with its component grab++ you can even download streamed songs and flash-vids from youtube &co
    SUPER extremely powerful audio/video converter, has support for special formats (like for consoles or mobile phones)
    JDiskReport shows disk usage of folders and files, requires java
    FreeCommander one of those countless Norton commander clones (), nice alternative for windows explorer

    and maybe as an own cathegory: the almighty Sysinternals tools. To pick 2 of them, Process Explorer (Task Manager³) and AutoRuns (all those auto-started programs and services carried together in 1 window). (Side note: these tools are really powerful, but should be handled with care. They can improve your system, but in the same manner they can destroy it when used the wrong way.)

  3. #3
    Pandemonium
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Thanks for the contributions, I added to the list. And yeah I'm not a huge fan of the codec pack but I did find it useful for playing some odd extensions so I thought I'd throw it up there.. thought VLC should play everything you need anyway

  4. #4

    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Audacity - great audio editing program

    and I dunno if you wanna add it but I always have it installed on all my computers:

    StartupCPL - Integrates right into the windows control panel and is great for advanced control on programs you want loaded at startup.

    UXTheme - Allows unsigned themes to run on windows XP 32/64bit without a program like windows blinds.

  5. #5
    Pandemonium
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Added, thanks!

  6. #6
    Old Merits
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Nice post ^^

    One of my alltime favourites that i've used for many many years is Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/).

    Free multimedia application that allows viewing and editing media (mainly pics), screenshots etc.

    Very easy to use and low resources.

  7. #7
    Resident furfag
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    You forgot about foobar2000! Only the best and most customizable music player ever :D

    Audio formats supported natively: MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, CDDA, WMA.
    Here is the program: http://www.foobar2000.org/

    Here's mine: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r260 ... 1205518408

    Here's what it can do: http://www.foobar2000.org/screenshots/index.html

  8. #8
    Pandemonium
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Not bad though I gotta say I like the Winamp GUI better.. maybe I'm just used to it

    Anyway added to the list thanks!

  9. #9

    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php is a nice free calendar/scheduling thingy~

  10. #10
    EAST BAY JEDI DONT GIVE A FUCK
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    http://www.snapfiles.com/get/rainmeter.html

    Rainmeter is a small desktop gadget that allows you to monitor vital system information. It displays current memory usage, disk usage and utilization, network traffic, uptime and other details. The program offers 3 different interfaces, including a text based display, as well as 2 gadget style interfaces.
    Then download this http://files.filefront.com//;6170362;/ and put the unzipped folder in the Rainmeter skin folder -> load the program -> clock is the MKG ver.sk2 option. Right click it for more options like transperancy etc. Comes in white or black yada yada. It replaced my winamp skin as well.
    that gives you a nice little clock to put on your desktop and stuff got this from Panella in one of the old desktop threads

  11. #11
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    found a few more *cough*
    Samurize lets you build individual desktop widgets and monitoring boxes, has tons of user-made layouts available
    ATITool monitoring/benchmark/overclocking software for GPUs (yup, even for nvidia ones ^^)
    Hamachi LAN parties across the net ^^ uses encrypted VPN tunnels
    CSpace decentralized instant messenger, uses TLS encryption and offers file transfers as well as remote desktop functionality over the VNC protocol
    FLV Player easy player for viewing those .flv files ripped from video streaming sites
    Notepad++ not just a notepad clone, but a full-fledged editor for pretty much any web/programming language (and of course a nice replacement for good old notepad ^^)
    Eclipse free development platform, entirely written in java

  12. #12
    Pandemonium
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Very nice, that Samuraize stuff looks awesome, gonna check that out when I get home. Many thanks for the additions.

  13. #13
    Relic Shield
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Auslogics diskdefrag and Auslogics Registry defrag. Very quick defraggers I don't know how quality they are since they are free though.

  14. #14

    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Don't forget Defraggler. Oh, and Recuva.

  15. #15

    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    simp is a nice little app that encrypts most messengers, http://www.secway.fr/us/products/simpli ... etsimp.php

  16. #16
    IMPERIAL CONCUBINE OF ME
    Coolest Monkey In The Jungle

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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    I mentioned this on here somewhere before...

    Vastly Superior alternative to Task Manager:
    Process Explorer

    (He didn't work for M$ when he wrote the program, he's got some other sweet utils too, take a poke around all the sysinternals utilities)

  17. #17
    Melee Summoner
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    I always liked this as free editor http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

    And for the more design minded people this is a nice tool from Adobe that's actually free instead of stupid expensive. http://www.adobe.com/products/air/

  18. #18
    Chram
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Quote Originally Posted by ChibiChaos
    Quote Originally Posted by Cephius
    CCCP Codec Pack - Codec pack that has pretty much everything
    codec... packs... are... evil... <.< especially the ones with ffdshow -.-
    why the hate for ffdshow? D:

  19. #19
    Vuitton
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    Wow, thank you all very much for these links. I've been looking for a number of programs such as these.

  20. #20
    Melee Summoner
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    Re: List of Free Apps and Utilities

    I use Orthos for stress testing. Its similar to Prime95 but is already geared towards Hyperthreading and Multiple core CPUs.

    Edit: Forgot one....

    RivaTuner is quite possibly the best GPU tweaking tool around.

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