Summary: List of my favorite freeware tools and utilities.
The lists of my favorite
freeware for regular users and
developers have been getting out of hand lately, so until I find a better method, I'll use this post to keep track of the FREE Windows tools and utilities that I consider the best for various tasks.
When assessing the tools, I prefer software that:
- is totally free: no shareware, not limited to home use (although, home-use restriction is fine in some cases, such as for anti-virus software);
- works across corporate firewalls (for internet connections);
- supports Unicode (international character sets);
- offers multi-lingual interface (mostly interested in Russian);
- comes with an installer (okay, lack of installer will not kill it, but it's really nice to have).
Here is the list of my favorite freeware:
Media PlayersBest Audio Player:
AIMP2Pros: highly customizable; clean interface; good sound (with enabled equalizer); no ads; Unicode support; multilingual interface; can be minimized to system tray; rips CD tracks to audio files (including MP3); records streaming audio; converts audio files between different formats (MP3, WAV, OGG, WMA, etc); edits ID3 tags (ID3v1, ID3v2, etc).
Cons: slight startup delay; some customization options are confusing.
Best Video Player:
KMPlayerPros: comes with internal codecs; plays practically any video format; easy to launch video from a file, folder, or CD/DVD; clean interface; multi-lingual interface; no ads; captures screenshots.
Cons: I noticed subtitles getting out of sync with video a few times (could be a hardware issue); menu is accessed via right mouse click.
Media EditorsBest Video Editor:
AvidemuxPros: converts between various video formats; instant preview of changes; easy to adjust cropping settings; simple to use filters; color/saturation/brightness adjustment; displays file video/audio encoding data.
Cons: two versions of UI (GTK+ and Qt4) are confusing; toolbar buttons do not show tooltips; terse descriptions of available options and settings.
Alternatives:
VirtualDub.
Best Audio Editor:
AudacityPros: many features; easy to use (once you get familiar with the interface); records streaming audio; trims silence; reduces background noise; imports/exports audio files from/to various audio formats; mixes tracks; adds sound effects (bass boost, etc); Unicode support; multilingual interface.
Cons: outdated look; does not come with LAME MP3 encoder (must be
installed manually); cannot edit MP3 natively (need re-encoding); some menu options are non-standard (e.g. Edit-Preferences).
Best Audio Tag Editor:
Mp3TagPros: supports MP3 tags and other metadata (ID3, Vorbis Comments, APE); renames files based on the tag information; supports cover art; works on multiple files; Unicode support; multilingual interface; retrieves metadata from external sources (Amazon, freedb, etc).
Cons: populating metadata from external sources is a bit awkward.
MP3 ToolsBest MP3 Splitter:
mp3DirectCutPros: splits, trims, crops audio files; no-destructive cut, copy and paste; automatic track splitting (by timed intervals); keeps ID3 tags.
Cons: cannot adjust interval-based auto-cues to fall on to silent pause.
Best MP3 Merger:
MP3 Album MakerPros: simple operation; reversible merge.
Cons: cannot adjust interval-based auto-cues to fall on to silent pause.
Best MP3 Volume Normalizer:
MP3GainPros: lossless normalization; can be reverted back to the original.
Cons: functionality is a bit confusing; I'm not sure how it handles clipping.
Disk Tools (CD/DVD)Best DVD Ripper:
DVD ShrinkPros: decrypts (breaks copy protection from) many DVDs; removes region code; rips video to an ISO file or VIDEO_TS folder; can compress ripped video to fit on a standard 4.7 GB DVD; allows removing of unnecessary data (audio/video tracks).
Cons: cannot decrypt some latest DVDs.
Alternatives:
DVD Decrypter (decrypts most DVDs that DVD Shrink cannot);
DVDFab HD Decrypter (haven't tried, but seems good);
AmoK DVD Shrinker (does not remove copy protection, but claims to "[shrink] DVDs up to one fifth of the original size without any noticeable quality reduction").
Best DVD Maker:
Windows Movie MakerPros: creates videos and slide shows; unlimited video clips and audio tracks; many transition effects; fades video/audio in/out; clips video/audio; brightness adjustment; some video effects; supports H.264 encoded videos (via ffdshow video decoder); video menu (several themes); video chapters; video preview; supports PAL and NTSC; not very resource hungry; built into Windows; easy to learn; useful help and tutorials.
Cons: supports limited video formats; does not work with QuickTime (MOV) or Flash (FLV) files; few video improvement features (e.g. no exposure, color correction); few audio adjustment features (e.g. no audio normalization); somewhat crippled Vista version; needs
Windows DVD Maker to build DVD menus and burn DVDs (Windows DVD Maker is not available in Windows Vista Basic and Business editions).
Best CD/DVD Burner:
ImgBurnPros: creates image file (such as ISO) from a disk (CD/DVD); writes image file to disk; verifies disk readability; compares disk to image file; checks quality of drive and media (requires
DVDInfoPro); lots of customization option (burn speed, etc).
Cons: does not offer a single-step disk copy.
Alternatives:
Ashampoo Burning Studio Free 6.76;
BurnAware Free;
CDBurnerXP;
Exact Audio Copy;
InfraRecorder;
StarBurn Free.
File ToolsBest File Manager:
Cubic ExplorerPros: Multi-tab interface; looks clean out of the box; can copy full file path; quick access to favorite folders via bookmarks; natural sort (e.g. 1.txt, 2.txt, 10.txt); file preview panel; built-in text editor; when renaming a file, extension is not selected; multiple skins; file filtering.
Cons: cannot undo (rename, delete, etc); crippled search (cannot search for text in a file); access to remote shares (via UNC path) is slow; does not display folder sizes; limited customization options.
Alternatives:
UltraExplorer (took me some effort to customize to my liking);
FreeCommander (GUI is a bit too busy).
Best File Renamer:
Rename MasterPros: file filtering; preview of results; can use file properties (timestamps, audio tags, image tags, etc); scripts for commonly used renaming options; undo changes; integrated explorer.
Cons: GUI is not very polished.
Alternatives:
ReNamer;
Ken Rename.
Best File Synchronization:
DropBoxPros: 2 GB of free space (+ more via referrals); automatic backups; handles corporate firewalls; tracks file changes.
Cons: cannot delete old file revisions; works only with one parent folder; does not seem to work with auto-proxy configuration scripts (need to explicitly define proxy URL).
Alternatives:
Syncplicity (2 GB of free space; can complement DropBox; manages standard folders, such as My Documents; can customize what get synced);
SpiderOak (2 GB of free space).
Best Online Backup:
MozyPros: 2 GB of free space; automatic backups; uses encryption.
Cons: can't say if there are any.
Alternatives:
iDrive (2 GB of free space; similar to Mozy).
Best File Eraser:
EraserPros: simple interface; Windows shell integration.
Cons: none.
Alternatives:
CyberShredder.
Best Virtual Drive Mounter:
Gizmo DrivePros: supports various image file formats (ISO, BIN, etc); supports encryption; Windows shell integration.
Cons: a bit heavy on pop-ups.
Alternatives:
Virtual CloneDrive;
MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD-ROM;
Total Mounter;
StarBurn Free;
Pismo File Mount;
ISODisk;
WinCDEmu.
Graphics and Photo ToolsBest Vector Graphics Editor:
InkscapePros: clean interface; standard commands an operations.
Cons: manual does not load; used the program very few times, so can't say much.
Best Image Editor:
GIMPPros: feature rich; bit editor; editable text layers; photo enhancing.
Cons: non-standard menu options; some operations are non-intuitive and/or more complex than they should be.
Alternatives:
Paint.NET (does not support editable text layers);
virtualStudio (has a few nice touches; red-eye correction needs improvement).
Best Photo Cropper:
JPEGCropsPros: extremely easy to crop for preset sizes (such as 4x6); preview; lossless cropping; batch mode.
Cons: none.
Best Photo Resizer:
FotosizerPros: simple resizing process for popular formats; batch operation; can lock aspect ratio.
Cons: none.
Alternatives: Image Resizer (part of
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP).
Best Screen Capture:
Gadwin PrintScreen 4.4Pros: easy to use, no-frills program; can capture mouse cursor.
Cons: no built-in image editor; no annotation capability; does not detect non-rectangular or shaded windows' borders; development work on free version has stopped.
Office and Business AppsBest Office Suite:
OpenOfficePros: supports Microsoft Office 2007 formats; multi-lingual interface; traditional toolbar (no ribbon); extensions.
Cons: not as feature-rich as Microsoft Office; interface is somewhat outdated.
Alternatives:
SoftMaker Office 2006.
Best Text Editor:
PSPadPros: supports Unicode; multi-lingual interface; built-in spell checker; syntax highlighting (for many programming languages); ability to run external tools (for example, when editing a VBScript file, you can execute it directly from the editor); search and replace options; supports regular expressions (PSPad is the only free text editor among the ones I tried that correctly handled new line and end-of-line replacements); text bookmarking; line numbering; multi-document interface; built-in file explorer; macros; character case change (UPPER/lower/Sentence/etc); text conversion (to/from Base64, URL, quoted printable, decimal/hexadecimal, etc); auto-insert (optional) and finding matching brackets (parentheses); HTML-RTF conversion; column selection mode; HTML preview; HTML document template; option to set as default text editor.
Cons: some menus are not standard (Settings should be under Tools); I wish it could do XSLT previews.
Alternatives:
Notepad++ (still has problems with regular expression-based search and replace);
Q10 (minimalist, full-screen, spell checker, and more).
PDF ToolsBest PDF Reader:
PDF-XChange ViewerPros: fast; light; fills and saves forms; exports text an images; adds content to PDF files; allows typing over PDF documents.
Cons: does not remember font settings when typing over multiple fields; when printing documents with typed over text, Print Markups in the Print dialog box must be checked (not obvious).
Best PDF Writer:
Primo PDFPros: converts many file formats to PDF; works as a printer driver; can append and merge PDF documents; works in remote desktop (over terminal session).
Cons: text quality of the converted PDF file may be worse than original.
Alternatives:
doPDF (does not work in remote desktop).
Language ToolsBest Dictionary:
LingoesPros: Dictionary, glossary, and more; translates to/from many languages; pronounces words.
Cons: plugin for PDF files does not work with Adobe Acrobat Reader (but it
works with FREE PDF-XChange Viewer).
Alternatives:
1-Click Answers;
WordWeb.
Security ToolsBest Anti-Virus:
Avast! Home EditionPros: light, yet capable; clean interface; multi-lingual interface; anti-spyware; anti-rootkit; automatic updates; resident execution.
Cons: none.
Alternatives:
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition;
Avira AntiVir Personal.
Best Password Manager:
LastPassPros: web-based (no need to sync data between multiple computers); integrated with Firefox and IE; form auto-fill; grouping; search; support for custom properties; can import data from other apps (Firefox, KeePass Password Safe, etc); can export data.
Cons: form-fill authentication cannot be disabled (and it does not seem to recognize 24-hour session); occasional connectivity errors in Firefox (when connection is fine); interface could be more polished.
Alternatives:
KeePass Password Safe (for multi-computer synchronization, it can be used along with
file synchronization tools).
Best Disk Encryption:
TrueCryptPros: treats a virtual partition (encrypted file) as a disk; works with flash (USB) drives; can encrypt full or part of a disk.
Cons: cannot auto-grow encrypted partition; need to read instructions to understand how to encrypt removable disks (such as flash drives).
Desktop ToolsBest Screen Saver:
AnalogyPros: fascinating; elegant; simple; shows current time.
Cons: none.
Best Clipboard Manager:
ArsClipPros: keeps track of text and image-based clipboard entries; allows pasting plain text by default; single step to access clipboard history menu; permanent items; under active development.
Cons: pops up an occasional error message; McAfee anti-virus occasionally treats it as a trojan.
Alternatives:
ClipX (may require a
hack);
Ditto (paste takes one more step than necessary);
xNeat Clipboard Manager (supports text only);
CLCL (hasn't been updated in a while).
Best Taskbar Sorter:
Taskbar ShufflePros: supports drag-and-drop; light-weight.
Cons: none.
Best Task Manager:
SystemExplorerPros: displays full paths of the running processes; shows command-line parameters; checks suspicious processes against the VirusTotal database; passes process information to Process Library; shows network connection information (which processes are connected to which addresses over UDP or TCP/IP); displays startup data (which applications are loaded at start-up); displays list of open files and file owners (which process holds open handle to which file); displays loaded DLLs and their host processes (press CTRL+F and enter the name of a DLL in the SystemExplorer Search window); can export info from every tab; can be configured as a default task manager.
Cons: when configured as default task manager, cannot start Windows Task Manager; cannot show threads per process; Performance window shows a single graph for multi-CPU systems; controls in the Performance window do not get resized correctly.
Alternatives:
AnVir Task Manager Free (shows prompts when new applications are added to Windows startup);
Process Explorer.
Best Program Launcher:
LaunchyPros: automatically detects new applications; small footprint; clean interface; plugins; skins.
Cons: defining catalog filters is a bit confusing.
Best Sticky Notes:
StickiesPros: elegant by default; appear on desktop; can auto hide; transparency effects; rich-text support; hyperlink support.
Cons: none.
Alternatives:
Sticky Notes.
Best Volume Control:
MKN VolWheelPros: controls volume via mouse wheel.
Cons: no option to mute/unmute.
Communication and Collaboration ToolsBest Chat Application:
Google TalkPros: minimalist (in a good sense); uses Google account info; takes fewer resources than other apps (such as Skype); informs about incoming Gmail messages; can transfer files; works across corporate firewalls; multi-lingual interface.
Cons: none.
Alternatives:
Meebo (web-based, Firefox add-on, and
Windows app versions; supports AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, and other protocols; consolidates all chat applications and account in one; clean interface).
Best Video Chat Application:
SkypePros: everybody is using it; works well; user discovery.
Cons: annoying sounds (always need to disable); runs at startup by default (always need to disable).
Alternatives:
Google Video Chat (I need to give it a try).
Best Desktop Sharing Tool:
Team ViewerPros: easy set up; can run on-demand; authorization is based on session secret (session ID and password); works on Vista; auto-update.
Cons: none.
Alternatives:
Ammyy Admin;
Microsoft SharedView (per
Privacy Statement:
"This Service may only be used within the United States of America"); Adobe
ConnectNow (web-based; no installation; organizer must have an Adobe account, participants do not; max of 2 participants + organizer).
Internet ToolsBest RSS Reader:
Google Reader (web-based)
Pros: web-based (stays in sync across multiple computers); quick preview of unread posts; mark as favorite; intergated search.
Cons: does not contain all enclosures (e.g. there is no link to comments for the SlickDeals'
Hot Deals forum posts).
Alternatives:
FeedDemon (some people swear by it).
Best FTP Client:
FireFTP (Firefox add-on)
Pros: light-weight; works across corporate proxy servers; easy to set up.
Cons: none.
Alternatives:
FileZilla;
net2ftp (web-based).
Best Podcast Receiver:
JuicePros: automatically downloads podcast audio files; easy to set up; multi-lingual interface.
Cons: cannot be minimized on startup; development work seems to be halted.
If you have suggestions for applications or categories, please leave a comment.
