On this page you will find the best 166 free Windows programs according to MakeUseOf for all your needs.
They’ve taken the effort to categorize the apps and picked only those we believe to be the best ones and which will most likely be useful to you. And they do a really great job at it. My list is a smaller subset of theirs. I like to use theirs to see the best in the group and revisit my thinking on it, check out the article and read their full review, find other qualified reviewers and download the software and see what you think, then choose your own favorites, mine include at present:
Microsoft Security Essentials
Simple, effective and lightweight protection suite. Download
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
Easy-to-use, simple, and very effective anti-malware application. Download
Defraggler
Another excellent defrag tool. Portable. From the same guys behind hugely popular CCleaner. Download
Clonezilla
Live CD to completely clone your hard drive. Download
Windows Live Mesh
Sync your documents, photos and other files across multiple computers using SkyDrive. Download
CCleaner
Scores high points all around. The most popular choice at the moment. Not as many features as in others. Download
Google Chrome
The fastest, minimal design browser (from Google) now with extension support. Growing extremely fast. Download
Firefox
More than 6,000 add-ons for every possible feature. The most customisable browser to date. Download
Google Talk
Google’s standalone GTalk client for Windows is a simple yet effective tool. Download
IrfanView
The Swiss Army knife of image viewers/editors. Extremely popular.Download
Google Picasa
Powerful photo manager software from Google. Includes 1-click photo retouching features. Easy online photo sharing. Download
Audacity
Very popular open source software for recording and editing audio tracks and sounds. Download
VLC Media Player
Extremely popular cross-platform video player that can play almost any video file. Highly recommended by many.Download
Plex
A great looking media centre solution that also works remotely and with mobile devices. Download
Filezilla
A free, lightweight and robust FTP client for transferring files to and from the web. Download
TeraCopy
Copy and move files at maximum speed. Pause and resume file transfers. Download
Notepad++
Popular open source text editor. Favoured by many, including programmers. Download
Dropbox
Must-have for everyone. Sync folder with docs and files to web or other PCs / Macs. Share documents. Download
Windows Live Writer
Compose then publish your blog posts with a click straight from Windows Live Writer. Download
Evernote
Save your ideas on the go and instantly take notes. Access notes from anywhere. Highly recommended! Download
Launchy
A powerful keystroke based program launcher that lets you open program and files really quickly. Download
7-zip
Takes care of most of your archive extracting/compression needs. Supports ZIP, RAR and many others formats. Download
ImgBurn
CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray burning tool. Also, lets you easily create image files from CDs and DVDs. Download
CDBurnerXP
The most popular free alternative to Nero Burning ROM. Burn CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. Download
LastPass
Secure plugin to store and synchronise login passwords across browsers. Comes auto-login and form filler. Download
TrueCrypt
Free open-source, cross-platform disk and data encryption tool. Encrypt and hide sensitive files. Download
XAMPP
Easy to install Apache distribution with MySQL, PHP and Perl. No manual setup required! Download
VirtualBox
Free virtualisation software for creating and running virtual machines. Download
Calibre
Free open source eBook management software with support for conversion and syncing. Download