As there is a freeware games thread i thought i would create this thread listing the various freeware applications which some windows users might find helpful. The list is from another site and is a few months old so apologies if any of the links are no longer working.
Antivirus Applications
Antivirus Applications
- Antivir
- AOL VirusScan Plus - free AOL Antivirus, Spyware, and Firewall, provided by McAfee. (valid AOL E-mail address required for free version) - Windows 2000/XP/Vista
- Avast Free
- AVG Free
- Bitdefender Free
- aumha.org - Internet Explorer (IE) parasite scan
- BitDefender - virus scanner
- CastleCops - several scans under "Tool Kit', on the right, about halfway down the page
- eTrust - Virus scanner -
- F-Secure - virus scanner
- HouseCall - virus scanner
- HouseCall - Europe - virus scanner - Does not require the use of ActiveX controls. Uses Java instead. -
- Jotti's scan - submit files to be scanned by multiple (15) scanners
- kephyr.com - PopUp Killer Test
- McAfee - virus, security and Wi-Fi scanners, under "Free Services"
- PC Pitstop - several scans, on the left, under "Tests and Scans"
- SpywareGuide - spyware scanner, on the right
- SpywareInfo - spyware scanner, on the left, under "Site Navigation"
- Symantec.com - virus & security scanners
- Virustotal - submit suspicious files to be scanned by multiple (22) Antivirus/Spyware scanners -
- Webroot Spy Audit - Spyware scanner. It will not remove or modify any files. -
- WindowSecurity - trojan scanner
- a² Free - a complementary product to antivirus software which is specialized in protection against harmful software. Antivirus software often features an inadequate protection against Trojans, Dialers and Spyware. a² fills this gap." -
- Ad-Aware - Tutorial: Using Ad-Aware - Windows Vista (32-bit), Windows XP (Home and Pro), Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 (Pro and Server)
- AVG Anti-Spyware (formerly ewido) - removes Trojans, Worms, Dialers, Hijackers, Spyware and Keyloggers.
- Comodo BOClean - removes malware and registry entries, doesn't require a reboot to remove all traces, daily malware database updates, optional rollback of update to an earlier version, sweeps and detects INSTANTLY in the background, etc. -
- IE-Spyad - Tutorial: Using IE-Spyad
- Spybot - Search & Destroy - Tutorial: Using Spybot S&D
- Spywareblaster - prevents spyware from being installed on your PC. - Tutorial: Using SpywareBlaster
- Spywareguard - provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great addition to SpywareBlaster's protection method. - Tutorial: Using SpywareGuard
- Spyware Terminator - Effectively remove spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, home page hijackers and other malware threats. Real-Time Protection is included in the basic version. -
- SuperAntiSpyware - link to a direct download of the Free version
- WinPatrol - "WinPatrol uses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Traditional security programs scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes snapshot of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge." -
- Comodo Firewall -
- Jetico Personal Firewall -
- Outpost Firewall Free
- Sunbelt Personal Firewall
- Sygate Free
- ZoneAlarm Free
- Active@ KillDisk - powerful and compact DOS software that allows you to destroy all data on hard and floppy drives completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders.
- Core Control - a full featured advanced security program, designed for Windows 95, 98, and ME Operating Systems -
- DeleteOnClick - completely deletes files in one click rather than sending the file to the recycle bin. The data becomes unrecoverable. For this reason you must use this program carefully.
- Eraser - an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.
- EULAlyzer - can analyze license agreements in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases. Discover if the software you're about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, or much much more.
- iProtectYou - allows parents to control which web sites can be visited, which programs can have Internet access, block e-mails, chat sessions and instant messages with inappropriate words, stop annoying ads, and/or restrict internet time to a predetermined schedule.
- KL-Detector- detect keylogging activity on your computer!
- AxCrypt - a powerful, yet extremely easy to use file encryption program. It integrates directly with Windows Explorer, enabling encryption, decryption, viewing and editing of any file with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Cryptainer LE - A really simple to use encryption tool that creates an invisible, password protected folder on your hard drive or other media. Free version limited to 25MB. "Cryptainer LE's encryption works with all 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows (95/98/ME/2000/XP/2003 Server) and with all known file types."
- PowerCrypt - a powerful file encoder. Make sure your files are protected with a 100% secure encryption algorithm, which is not resolveable by NSA nor CIA.
- True Crypt - disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux. A, more powerful version of Cryptainer. As a user of both, I recommend TrueCrypt over Cryptainer by a long shot. No stupid limits on how big you can have the drive, as well, so you could encrypt your whole drive if you wanted to
- Auslogics Disk Defrag - designed for fast optimization of today's modern hard disks.
- BootSafe - a program (doesn't require installation) that sits on your desktop. Double click on it, select one of the 3 Safe Mode options, and click on Reboot.
- Drive Manager - has been written to help you easily identify drives which are of the same type.
- driveSMART EWT - a Early Warning and Tracking Systems which tracks the status of the computer hard disks, timely detecting, and anticipating any problems occurring with the disk, before the danger of the data loss appears. - Windows 95b/98/ME/2000 Pro & Server/NT 4.0 Workstation & Server/XP/2003 Server__MAC OS X 10.2 & 10.3
- DShutdown- a stand-alone program that allows you to easily shutdown and wake up local or remote PCs, with many specific options.
- DTaskManager - a Task-Manager, but specifically engineered to give additional functionalities that the Windows bundled TaskManager (and other third party products) do not have. - scratcher
- ERUNT - registry backup tool
- GParted - an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the filesystems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).
- HDDScan - a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics. Supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards.
- HDTune - a good piece of software for testing the HD in the PC. Gives good analysis of the drives sector issues. - projectfocus
- JkDefrag - disk defragment and optimization utility for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/X64
- Memtest86 - a thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers.
- MicroSoft's Memory Test - tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors.
- PC INSPECTOR - a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems.
- Power off 3 - a small program that allows you to control the power state of your pc.
- Process Explorer - shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
- ProcessLibrary - Gain insight on any process through easy and quick search feature that queries over 9000 entries in processlibrary.com database directly - Windows 2000/2003/XP
- Quick Access InfoBar - Get the latest definitions and exhaustive advice on all the processes running in the Windows Task Manager. - Quick Access InfoBar
- Ranish Partition Manager - Partition resizer, create, manager similar to Partition Magic but free!
- SpeeDefrag - a program, which restarts your computer and runs only defrag.exe with optimized windows settings.
- Swissknife - can create, delete and format partitions on your hard disk drives. Supports Internal interfaces such as IDE and SCSI and External interfaces such as Hi-Speed USB, Parallel port, PCMCIA, USB On-The-Go, Firewire®, SATA interfaces etc. Creates Fixed and Removable Disk Format types. - Windows 98/XP/Mac OS/Linux -
- SyncBack Freeware - backup and synchronization software -
- Unknown Device Identifier - Identify unknown devices not recognized by Windows in your system especially after you reinstall your system and cannot figure out what all those yellow question mark labeled devices really are.
- Vision - Reports all open TCP and UDP ports and maps them to the owning process or application. -
- WinDriversBackup Personal Edition 1.0.9 (last freeware version) - for backing up your Windows system driver files. It can also scan for, and back up, third party non-Microsoft drivers. -
- Belarc Advisor - builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser. -
- CoolMon 2 - a program for monitoring vital system stats and almost anything else you wish to display on the desktop. -
- CPU-Z - gathers information on some of the main devices of your system; CPU, Mainboard, Memory, and System. -
- Double Driver - you can view which drivers are installed in your system and you can backup the drivers you choose, save and print the drivers list, and more. -
- EVEREST Home Edition - a freeware system information, system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for home PC users. Similar to Belarc, but much more comprehensive. -
- SIW - This program performs computer configuration, analysis, and diagnostics. (Similar to Everest)
- SpeedFan - monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with hardware monitor chips. -
- System Spec - lets you can see, save and print a complete spec of your PC with this no-install, system information utility and perform various windows functions. Additional advanced info includes CPU, drives, apps, display, memory and more. -
- What's Running - a product that gives you an inside look into your Windows 2000/XP/2003 system. Explore processes, services, modules, IP-connections, drivers and much more. -
- WinAudit - a self-contained (no setup required) PC audit, and inventory of software, licenses, security configuration, hardware, network settings... -
- 7-Zip - a file archiver with high compression ratio. -
- ExtractNow - will let you extract multiple archives with the ease of a single click. -
- FilZip - an archiving utility (zip tool) that can open various archive types. It offers Windows integration, drag and drop, encryption, multi-extract and more. -
- IZArc - File compression utility that supports most standard compression formats.
- WinRAR - click on the downloads tab and download the trial version (not the beta). You can use the full functionality forever. -
- ZipGenius - A nice archiving tool. It handles zip, rar and many others. -
