All of the following programs are all free to download use.
All links take you to the programs home pages
There are many programs out there available on the internet that are totally free to download and use, many of them seem to do a better job than the same software that you are charged varying amounts for. These are not limited by "trial" restrictions, for example: after 30 days you will no longer be able to use the program unless you buy it, or have limited functionality (menu areas unavailable is a common 1) until you pay for the full versions.
You will be able to just download and install and run these programs, it is always worth taking a good look at the program's websites so you get an idea of what the program is capable of and importantly will it run on your pc.
 |
VideoLAN This is a very good multimedia streaming of MPEG-1, MPEG-2,
MPEG-4 and DivX files, DVDs, digital satellite
channels, digital terrestrial television channels and live videos on
a high-bandwidth IPv4 or IPv6 network in unicast or multicast
under many O/Ses. |
|
StartupCPL
Startup Control
Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to easily configure
which programs run when your computer starts. This website also has many
other free programs which are all helpful "add-ons" to windows. |
|
Cdex
This is a cd-ripping utility that lets you copy your audio cd's to
many audio formats such as mp3 so that you can back them up or copy
to your mp3 player with ease, there is a nice tutorial on how to use
this program situated here : http://www.donwalker.net/CDexTutorialMenu.htm |
|
Skype Skype is free and simple software that will enable you to make free calls
anywhere in the world in minutes, which uses innovative P2P (peer-to-peer)
technology to connect you with other Skype users. The calls have excellent
sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. Best of all,
Skype does not require you to reconfigure your firewall or router—it just
works! |
|
AVG AVG Antivirus 6.0 Free Edition. This product has been continuously
refined since it was first released in 1991 and now offers very impressive
protection capabilities. 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 technical support. |
|
GNUWin II This is not 1 program but a huge collection of applications, as a "software suite". This huge suite features dozens of programs including free alternatives to many expensive commercial products. There is Abi Word as an alternative for MS Word, OpenOffice for MS Office XP, The Gimp for Adobe Photoshop, Gzip for WinZIP are dozens more. Taken collectively this suite provides more than enough software to completely set up a PC without spending a cent on applications or utilities. The suite is available on CD or you download the CD image and burn your own. |
There are 1000's of similar freeware programs out there and many websites full of links to download them, a good search tip is to add the word freeware to your searches when looking for programs, for example "Freeware photo editors".
It is also worth noting that there are many free and freeware games as well, some are brilliant especially if you have small children, or just board at the office with time to kill before either the end of the day or the boss gets back. A nice site for these is www.gamehippo.com, which has a wide choice of games from Tetris style to the platform games of old, set out into categories according to game type.