Free Essential software list

[Vanyel]

Anyone wanna share their list of useful freewares that they are using?
Off the head what i can think of that im using

OS Installer
Rufus
Ventoy

Image viewer
Irfranview

Media Player
VLC

Uninstallers
Geek uninstaller
Revo uninstaller
DDU

System/Diagnostic
HWiNFO
CPU-Z
Afterburner
Rivatuner

Storage management <--- useful for finding out where all ur storage space went to haha
Treesize
Wiztree

Archiving and File Management
7-Zip (open-source, strong compression support for 7z, ZIP, RAR, and others)
Everything (ultra-fast file indexing and search)

Browser and Internet Tools
Mozilla Firefox or Brave (privacy-focused browsers)
qBittorrent (open-source torrent client, no ads)

Text and Code Editing
Notepad++ (lightweight and supports over 80 languages)
Visual Studio Code (full-featured, extensible editor)

Security and Privacy
GlassWire (network monitor and visual firewall)
KeePass (local encrypted password manager)

PDF and Office Utilities
SumatraPDF (minimalist PDF and ebook reader)
LibreOffice (full open-source office suite, supports MS Office formats)

System Cleanup and Maintenance
BleachBit (open-source alternative to CCleaner)
Autoruns (detailed startup program manager from Microsoft Sysinternals)

Backup and Recovery
Macrium Reflect Free (disk imaging and cloning)
SyncBackFree (flexible file backup and sync tool)

Virtualization and Emulation
VirtualBox (Oracle’s open-source virtual machine platform)
DOSBox (classic DOS emulator for legacy software)

 

[tigerwoods]

qBittorrent
Firefox
Chrome
Revo Uninstaller
Everything

 

[iceblendedchoc]

Anyone wanna share their list of useful freewares that they are using?
Off the head what i can think of that im using

OS Installer
Rufus

Image viewer
Irfranview

Media Player
VLC

Uninstallers
Geek uninstaller
Revo uninstaller
DDU

System/Diagnostic
HWiNFO
CPU-Z
Afterburner
Rivatuner

Storage management
Treesize

ms defender for sure and already included inside windows

 

[XiaomiMax2021]

any good free anti virus?

 

[tigerwoods]

any good free anti virus?

ms defender

 

[NightRaven49]

OS Installer
Rufus

ventoy for multiple os images on one thumbdrive, no need to keep wiping and reinstalling with rufus when u want to install a different os.

Storage management
Treesize <--- useful for finding out where all ur storage space went to haha

wiztree has results within seconds.

 

[naked123]

ventoy is easier

 

[Phen8210]

Anyone wanna share their list of useful freewares that they are using?
Off the head what i can think of that im using

OS Installer
Rufus
Ventoy

Image viewer
Irfranview

Media Player
VLC

Uninstallers
Geek uninstaller
Revo uninstaller
DDU

System/Diagnostic
HWiNFO
CPU-Z
Afterburner
Rivatuner

Storage management <--- useful for finding out where all ur storage space went to haha
Treesize
Wiztree

Here’s a concise, credible list of well-regarded freeware that complements your setup, grouped by function and based on widespread use and expert recommendations:

Archiving and File Management
7-Zip (open-source, strong compression support for 7z, ZIP, RAR, and others)
Everything (ultra-fast file indexing and search)

Browser and Internet Tools
Mozilla Firefox or Brave (privacy-focused browsers)
qBittorrent (open-source torrent client, no ads)

Text and Code Editing
Notepad++ (lightweight and supports over 80 languages)
Visual Studio Code (full-featured, extensible editor)

Security and Privacy
GlassWire (network monitor and visual firewall)
KeePass (local encrypted password manager)

PDF and Office Utilities
SumatraPDF (minimalist PDF and ebook reader)
LibreOffice (full open-source office suite, supports MS Office formats)

System Cleanup and Maintenance
BleachBit (open-source alternative to CCleaner)
Autoruns (detailed startup program manager from Microsoft Sysinternals)

Backup and Recovery
Macrium Reflect Free (disk imaging and cloning)
SyncBackFree (flexible file backup and sync tool)

Virtualization and Emulation
VirtualBox (Oracle’s open-source virtual machine platform)
DOSBox (classic DOS emulator for legacy software)

Do you want suggestions tailored to a specific use case like gaming, development, or system hardening?

 

[tigerwoods]

Open source password manager
Bitwarden

Simplewall

Audacity

Clipgrab

Autorun64

Avidemux

MKVToolNix

Flawless Widescreen

MPC-BE

 

[philips107]

Anyone wanna share their list of useful freewares that they are using?
Off the head what i can think of that im using


Backup and Recovery
Macrium Reflect Free (disk imaging and cloning)
SyncBackFree (flexible file backup and sync tool)

Thanks for the useful list.

FreeFileSync does synchronization / mirror with Google Drive as well, and it's a lifesaver on Linux where Google does not provide a drive client.

 

[naked123]

Here’s a concise, credible list of well-regarded freeware that complements your setup, grouped by function and based on widespread use and expert recommendations:

Archiving and File Management
7-Zip (open-source, strong compression support for 7z, ZIP, RAR, and others)
Everything (ultra-fast file indexing and search)

Browser and Internet Tools
Mozilla Firefox or Brave (privacy-focused browsers)
qBittorrent (open-source torrent client, no ads)

Text and Code Editing
Notepad++ (lightweight and supports over 80 languages)
Visual Studio Code (full-featured, extensible editor)

Security and Privacy
GlassWire (network monitor and visual firewall)
KeePass (local encrypted password manager)

PDF and Office Utilities
SumatraPDF (minimalist PDF and ebook reader)
LibreOffice (full open-source office suite, supports MS Office formats)

System Cleanup and Maintenance
BleachBit (open-source alternative to CCleaner)
Autoruns (detailed startup program manager from Microsoft Sysinternals)

Backup and Recovery
Macrium Reflect Free (disk imaging and cloning)
SyncBackFree (flexible file backup and sync tool)

Virtualization and Emulation
VirtualBox (Oracle’s open-source virtual machine platform)
DOSBox (classic DOS emulator for legacy software)

Do you want suggestions tailored to a specific use case like gaming, development, or system hardening?

vmware workstation pro is free now

can add in

 

[KleoZy]

PDFgear - for those who wants to edit pdf or covert pdf. currently free. later once establish, might start charging, using this for sometime. pretty useful.

 

[Phen8210]

vmware workstation pro is free now

can add in

ok i tell chatgpt to add in

 

[sibeiTrolled]

any good free anti virus?

Probably can look at the free version of BitDefender.

Anyone wanna share their list of useful freewares that they are using?

Thanks for creating this thread.

1)Mullvad Browser - Web Browser
2)Mp3tag - For editing mp3 attributes
3) Nmap
4)TeraCopy - lazy to use robocopy command so i am using this for adhoc file copies
5)FreeFileSync - i think this has been mentioned by someone else, but a useful tool to maintain files across storage devices
6) Winget - Really helpful in ensure your software are up to date though it depend on the team updating the software version
7) yt-dlp - i use this to download youtube and bilibili videos for archival.
8) ASSD benchmark or Crystal Disk Mark
9) Crystal disk info - check SMART info
10) h2testW - check real size of storages (SD,HDD,SSD)
11) Jdownloader - batch or bulk download of links
12) MSI Afterburner
13) mobaxterm - cute little tool to manage my SSH / ftp access
14) remote desktop manager (devolutions.net) - my alternative when i have to rdp into servers instead of the default rdp tool in windows

Not sure if an OS consider as freeware, but i uses this debian OS called dietpi for my mini pc and rpi4

 

[Vanyel]

ok everything above this post updated in 1st post
do let me know if anything is wrongly classified~!!

 

[Vanyel]

saw this wallpaper engine in steam and decided to look for a free one
Lively wallpaper

basically no use and non essential so decided not to add in list lol

 

[naked123]

can add in transmission
open source, lightweight and ad free torrent client

2FAGuard for OTP
open source

Driver Store Explorer
open source
used it to delete older drivers

USB Tree View
for checking problematic USB devices

OpenRGB
customise RGB related stuff

 

[Vanyel]

Mod/admin edited my post ar?
Some programs cannot state is it?

 

[HexenHeretic]

Hiren's BootCD pretty much has most of the essentials that are listed.

 

[sacar101]

Macrium Reflect don't offered free version anymore. But you can still download from other 3rd party sites.