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MajorGeeks Top Freeware Picks
MajorGeeks.Com takes pride in listing only the best tested, freeware, shareware, Freemium, and Open Source software. However, in our 14,000 plus listings, you can find the cream of the crop, or as we call it, the top 1%. Here's our list of your best bets. We are now allowing a handful of very select Freemium listings.
Categories include:
[ Windows 10 Issues - All-In-One Suites - Anti-Spyware & Anti-Malware - Anti-Virus Protection - Backup - Browsers - CD\DVD\Blu-Ray Burning Tools - Data Recovery - Defragmenting Tools - Diagnostics - Drive Cleaners - Driver Updaters - Email Clients - File Compression - Graphics - Multimedia - Microsoft Office Alternatives - Partitioning - Password Managers & Recovery - PDF Alternatives - Text Editors - Uninstallers - Honorable Mentions ]
If you enjoyed this list, check out 101 useful websites with easy to remember names and all of the How-tos and guides on MajorGeeks.
Windows 10 Issues
We're often asked how to debloat or make Windows 10 more secure.
O&O ShutUp10
O&O ShutUp10 is a free privacy tool that provides you with full control over which functions in Windows 10 you choose to use and how far data gets shared. With video.
O&O AppBuster
O&O AppBuster displays and allows you to remove the additional Microsoft apps provided during the Windows 10 setup. With video.
W10Privacy
W10Privacy can display typical Windows 10 security settings that can be activated as well as deactivated within the program. It also allows importing and exporting of your changes. With video.
FixWin 10 for Windows 10
FixWin 10 for Windows 10 allows you to fix and repair Windows 10 problems, issues, and annoyances.
FixMy10
FixMy10 will help you to correct problems with file associations; Windows functions as well as restoring settings/registry associated with file associations and Windows functions that have been changed by viruses, malware, or other things that can potentially cause errors.
WPD
WPD is a portable app to manage your Windows 10 privacy and firewall settings, uninstall Windows apps, and decide what apps can access your information.
MSMG ToolKit
MSMG ToolKit creates a slimmed down or bloat free Windows by customizing, adding, or removing features and components as well as enabling or disabling features to Microsoft Windows 7, 8, and 10.
NTLite
NTLite is an all-in-one Windows customization tool that offers a robust set of options for modifying and removing unnecessary components from the standard distribution of Windows.
All-In-One Suites
Simple System Tweaker
There is a handful of safe, tested tweaks most geeks will apply to a computer. This does it for you and saves potentially hours.
Advanced SystemCare
ASC is an all-in-one suite to keep your computer running fine and forget about it. We like Driver Booster from them, as well.
Wise Care 365
We have used Wise Care 365 over the years, and it’s a solid, all-in-one suite that pretty much does it all. There’s a video on the download page, so check that out as well.
Glary Utilities
Glary Utilities has a Disk cleaner, registry cleaner, startup manager, file shredder, process manager, shortcuts to Windows tools, memory optimizer, and much, much more.
X-Setup (Older)
X-Setup was a pretty hardcore tweaking program but was abandoned in 2002. The author agreed to provide the key to Majorgeeks so it could live on.
JetClean
JetClean is rarely updated anymore, yet it has a cult following. We wouldn't use JetClean on windows 10, but older operating systems should consider this one.
Anti-Spyware & Anti-Malware
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Malwarebytes is one of our all-time top downloads and for a good reason. It's simple, fast, and effective. You can purchase full-time protection, so you don't get infected again.
IObit Malware Fighter
IObit Malware Fighter is the biggest competitor to Malwarebytes. They have a long history and hate each other, but that's good for you.
SpywareBlaster
Not a removal tool but a proactive program to block known rogue websites that install hijackers and more. Install it once and forget it.
Anti-Virus Protection
Windows Security - Windows Defender
The antivirus section has massively changed in the past years. Most free antivirus programs are rarely free and often bloated. If you want our opinion, uninstall your antivirus. Once uninstalled, Windows Defender will take over. We're having a hard time recommending any other freeware antivirus app.
BitDefender Free
BitDefender Free is one exception and often overlooked. We find it ironic that so-called geeks swear by AVG, Avast, or Avira, yet seem oblivious to one of the most consistently highly-ranked antivirus apps available.
Backup
Macrium Reflect
We have used Acronis True Image for years, but it’s not free, and it has almost no quality competition. Macrium Reflect is the one program that comes close. Backup files, a complete image, and much more.
Dropbox
No need for a second hard drive, external drive, or DVD. With Dropbox, you can use the Cloud to back up your important files. You can also share and sync. Dropbox has a solid reputation built over the years. Dropbox is our most popular cloud-based backup.
FBackup
FBackup is a free, lightweight automated backup program that can effectively help protect your important files and folders from being lost.
Cobian Backup
Cobian is a backup tool designed to back up files on your computer or network on a schedule. It also can FTP. Uses little resources and can compress files it backs up.
Karen's Replicator
Karen has been around for years, and we love it. Karen Kenworthy passed away on April 12, 2011, and in 2019, someone began updating her apps again. Karen was one of those people who made software to help people for free.
Browsers
We'll catch some flack for this, but we've never used a third-party browser that changed our lives. Most third-party browsers also tend to run behind on critical updates, and many eventually disappear. We'd stick to the Big 4.
Microsoft Edge
We've had so much fun picking on Microsoft Edge, that we were surprised when Microsoft moved Edge to Chromium-based. Since you see it here in MajorGeeks Top Freeware Picks, yeah, it's good.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome has become the market dominator yet tends to use a lot of memory. Still, Chrome remains one of the best browsers.
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is one of the most popular browsers out there and for a good reason. It is fast, stable, and offers enough add-ons to make sure it works as you prefer.
Opera
Opera Web Browser is a free web browser that originally started as a research project back in 1995 and today continues to be a fast, safe, and secure web browser.
CD\DVD\Blu-Ray Burning Tools
CDBurnerXP Portable
I usually have this one on my computer. Light and easy to use. The installer version always has some bundleware, so you want this portable version to avoid that.
InfraRecorder
InfraRecorder is another often overlooked tool. It’s small and has plenty of features similar to CDBurnerXP.
ImgBurn
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray burning application designed to be easy to use yet have advanced options when needed. Video "Starter Guide to Using ImgBurn" available.
Free Any Burn
Copy, burn, write images, and more. Pretty sweet little program considering it’s only just over 1 MB.
DVDFlick
DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take several video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will playback on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set.
Data Recovery
Data recovery is rarely accomplished with one app, the first time. Often you need to try multiple apps to recover your files.
Recuva Portable
For free, Recuva is an excellent choice. It's fast, easy to use, and can even try to recover lost emails, deleted music, and Microsoft Word documents or temporary files.
Wise Data Recovery
Wise is another tool that is part of an entire suite of tools. Often overlooked, you would be mistaken to do so.
FreeUndelete
Freeundelete hasn't been updated since 2001, but the same recovery methods apply to this day.
PC INSPECTOR Smart Recovery
Bad news? It hasn't been updated since 2006. Good news? It is designed to recover photos from digital cameras, including memory cards, so only get it for that.
TestDisk & PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents, and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and lost pictures
Defragmenting Tools
Remember never to defragment your SSD drive, but instead use an app that supports TRIM.
SmartDefrag
Smart Defrag can defragment files, folder, and entire drives as needed or scheduled. It also features SSD trimming to prolong your SDD performance and life.
Defraggler
Defraggler is brought to you by the same guys who created CCleaner. If you like CCleaner, then try this one.
MyDefrag (formerly JkDefrag)
Not updated in a couple of years, this remains an excellent, lesser-known choice. Includes a defrag screensaver and can defrag USB as well.
Disk Defrag (formerly Glarysoft Disk SpeedUp)
Disk Defrag is part of the Glarysoft suite of tools that has had a long, solid reputation. It will offer to install the Glary Utilities at the end of the setup, so watch for that if you don’t want it.
Diagnostics
Tweaking.com Windows Repair
Getting errors from your computer? Windows Repair will go through your system and reset and repair any potential problems with your computer. A Portable version also available.
Windows Repair Toolbox
Windows Repair Toolbox includes most third-party applications and Windows utilities you might need to repair any Windows problems in one small application. Video tutorial available.
Sergei Strelec's WinPE
Sergei Strelec's WinPE creates a bootable DVD or thumb drive for computer maintenance, partitioning, backup, restore, diagnostics, data recovery, and more.
Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD)
Getting a bit geekier here. With Ultimate Boot CD, you can boot your computer from the CD\DVD drive to run tools. This is especially useful if you have a computer that will not start at all.
HWiNFO32
HWINFO is more of a system information tool but has benchmarking, monitoring, and more. Driver Updates tab in the program is an advertisement, so don’t fall for that. 64-bit available, but 32-bit runs just fi for anyone.
Drive Cleaners
Wise Disk Cleaner
Do you find CCleaner too conservative? Wise Disk Cleaner can often free up an additional gigabyte or more removing files CCleaner won’t touch. I happen to love it personally.
Privazer
Privazer takes the traditional drive cleaner approach but adds a focus on security as well. We love Privazer, but there's a small learning curve.
CCleaner
CCleaner has been around and highly rated for many years but has moved to the dark side a bit since acquired. We still use it for the startup manager and registry cleaner, but almost any drive cleaner on the market is better at removing unwanted files unless you add the third-party CCEnhancer.
HDCleaner
HDCleaner is designed for complete cleaning of your Windows PC, including registry and backup, encrypting data, splitting files, removing traces, and more.
Driver Updaters
Driver Booster
I've used this one for years, and it works great. It does offer to install one of their other programs at the end, but since it's not malicious or a wrapper, it makes it onto the list.
Snappy Driver Installer Origin
Snappy Driver Installer Origin is an Open Source fork of Snappy Driver Installer designed by a former contributing developer and build master who felt that the project had gone astray.
Snappy Driver Installer
Snappy Driver Installer is a driver updater geared toward geeks and techs alike. Video tutorial available.
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Email Clients
Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is an email client from Mozilla who is also the group behind the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser. Installation and setup are easy, the spam filter is excellent, and it does not require any registration.
Sylpheed
We'll make this one short and simple. It is a simple, clean three-panel interface similar to Outlook Express. Sylpheed has been around a long time.
Mailbird
Mailbird connects all your favorite email, calendar, task, and messaging apps into one versatile utility.
Claws Mail
Claws Mail is a plug-in enabled email client and newsreader that features a familiar, intuitive interface with easy, flexible configuration.
File Compression
7-Zip
The list of what we would consider excellent compression tools is pretty short, so your choices are easy. This one or the other one :) 7-Zip is simple, portable, and easy to use.
PeaZip
The list of what we would consider excellent compression tools is pretty short, so your choices are easy. This one or the other one :) PeaZip is open source and has a ton of additional options if you want more control.
Explzh
Explzh is a freeware compression tool that is capable of creating and extracting file archives.
Graphics
FastStone Image Viewer
Don’t be fooled by the word viewer here. They should have called it "Faststone Image Viewer, Editor, Converter and More," but I guess that would be a bit long.
Krita Studio
Krita Studio is an Open Source powerful all-in-one painting application geared for professional artists, VFX, and game studios.
XnView
Photoshop is expensive. Sometimes you need those features but not a full-blown, pricey suite. XnView might fill in the gap.
IrfanView
You can apply everything written about XnView (above) and apply it to IrfanView. Both have a very long history. One neat advantage to IrfanView is the IrfanView Plugins.
Paint.net
Paint.net was designed to be a replacement for the old Microsoft Paint that came with Windows that grew into an excellent program offering features that make it as good as IrfanView and XnView.
The Gimp
Gimp can be used for many different photo management purposes, but its real power lies in photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.
Inkscape Portable
Inscape aims to be an open-source editor to replace Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X. It won’t replace all of those but does come close.
PicPick
PicPick is an all-in-one screen capture tool that includes an intuitive image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair, whiteboard, and more.
Wildbit Viewer
WildBit Viewer is compact & fast image viewer with slide show and editor.
Multimedia
VLC Media Player
Multimedia player for various audio and video formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server.
WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project)
WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project) is a freeware app that aims to keep Winamp alive by improving the app by fixing bugs and adding new features.
foobar2000
foobar2000 intends to be a small footprint audio player for Windows. Simple, customizable colors and gets the job done. The installation offers to install it or use it as a portable app.
PotPlayer
PotPlayer is a comprehensive video and audio player that also supports TV channels, subtitles, and skins.
Kodi
Kodi (formerly XBMC) is a free and Open Source software media player and digital media entertainment hub.
Universal Media Server
Universal Media Server is a DLNA-compliant UPnP Media Server based on the PS3 Media Server by shagrath.
Media Player Classic Black Edition (MPC-BE)
An often overlooked, 5-star app based on the original "Media Player Classic" project and "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" project.
Microsoft Office Alternatives
Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice For Windows is a free, Open Source MS Office alternative with a Word compatible word processor, a complete Excel compatible spreadsheet program, and more.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is a powerful all-in-one office suite that combines pretty much everything you need to increase workflow productivity.
SSuite Office
SSuite Office - Excalibur office suite provides you with a stable and robust way to improve your productivity and document format compatibility.
SSuite Office - Premium HD
SSuite Office - Premium HD is a feature-rich office suite that works better on HD and larger monitors.
Partitioning
Parted Magic
The Parted Magic employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease while featuring other useful programs.
Partition Logic
Create, delete, erase, format, defragment, resize, copy, and move partitions and modify their attributes. As a bonus, it can copy entire hard disks from one to another. It has a few limitations (see description) but should do what you need.
GParted Live
GParted is a large (over 210 MB) program but runs as a bootable live cd. It’s a good program to use if you are unable to make changes with other programs. It is a powerful, open-source program.
Super Fdisk
Super Fdisk is a driven disk partition manager. With Super Fdisk, you can quickly and easily create, delete, format partitions on IDE/ATA/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives without destroying data.
Password Managers & Recovery
KeePass Password Safe
KeePass Password Safe is an open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords securely.
KeeWeb
KeeWeb provides you with a free cross-platform password manager that includes full compatibility with KeePass.
LastPass Password Manager
LastPass Password Manager - The last password you'll ever have to remember. This easy to use password manager will make your browsing a lot easier and much more secure without having to remember multiple passwords.
Buttercup
Buttercup is a password manager for all your accounts built for your desktop or Google Chrome. Also, we like calling people buttercup, so that's fun. Buttercup.
Asterisk Key
Asterisk Key shows passwords hidden under asterisks. Video available.
WirelessKeyView
WirelessKeyView recovers all stored wireless network security keys/passwords (WEP/WPA).
ProduKey
ProduKey is an essential utility for retrieving lost ProductIDs and CD-Keys for Microsoft Office, Windows, and more. Video tutorial available.
ShowKeyPlus
ShowKeyPlus is a portable freeware app to retrieve and save your Windows product key if you lost it.
PDF Alternatives
Sumatra PDF
Small, light on resources and completely portable, this is a nice choice for basic PDF viewing, which is all most people need.
PDF24 Creator
PDF24 Creator can create or convert PDF files into multiple file formats.
Foxit Reader
A PDF reader and writer that supports plug-ins. Some say it seems to be a little more bloated over time, but a lot of features will do that.
PDF-XChange Viewer
A 16-17 MB alternative to Adobe PDF. Better than Adobe, like all the others listed here.
UnityPDF
UnityPDF is not just a reader but let's you lets you merge, split, divide, rotate, protect PDF files and a lot more.
System Information
Tweaking.com - System Information
Tweaking.com is the same guy from PCWinTech.com, and all of his utilities are free and 5-star programs, so this is no exception.
SIV (System Information Viewer)
SIV by is an app for displaying lots of useful Windows, network and hardware info.
Belarc Advisor
Belarc Advisor can be found in use by most techs. It shows all of your system information into a web page.
Speccy
Another solid from the CCleaner guys. It will offer to install Ccleaner so watch for that. A portable version is available.
HWiNFO32
HWINFO is more of a system information tool but has benchmarking, monitoring, and more. Driver Updates tab in the program is an advertisement, so don’t fall for that. 64-bit available, but 32 bit runs just fine.
Open Hardware Monitor
Under one MB, open-source and can report back on your fans, CPU, video card temperatures, and more. If you’re looking to see if heat is an issue, this is a good choice. Also, an excellent system information tool.
Text Editors (Notepad, Wordpad Alternatives)
Evernote
EverNote is a note management application that offers you a single place for the organization, easy input and quick retrieval of all types of notes and clippings.
QOwnNotes
QOwnNotes is a portable Open Source app that allows you to create notes that can be efficiently sorted, organized, printed, exported and more.
Notepad++
Microsoft Notepad included with Windows works. That's about it. Notepad++ allows you to have Notepad on steroids. It has a WYSIWYG interface and is handy for programmers, including HTML, Java, PHP, Pascal, Perl, and more.
SynWrite
SynWrite is a free text editor that is designed mainly as a complete environment for web coders and writers.
CintaNotes
Sometimes you don’t need a text editor but simply a note-taking application. This one does the job and keeps it simple. Sync via DropBox and other places across computers. Run from a thumb drive.
RJ TextEd
RJ TextEd Portable is a web development tool plus a text editor with many features including syntax highlighting advanced column mode, and text folding.
Uninstallers
IOBit Uninstaller
IOBit Uninstaller can remove programs and do a deep scan for leftover files, folders, and registry entries. This one does offer to install their Advanced System Care, so watch that at the end.
GeekUninstaller
Simple, small, and portable. Export to HTML, force removal, look up assigned registry keys, and more. Pretty amazing what is packed into this small program.
HiBit Uninstaller
HiBit Uninstaller can completely uninstall Windows programs and also features ten more tools including a drive and registry cleaner, process and startup manager, and more. Video tutorial available.
BCUninstaller
BCUninstaller is a free program uninstaller. It is focused on removing large amounts of applications at once, in a small amount of time. Video tutorial available.
Display Driver Uninstaller
Display Driver Uninstaller is a graphics driver removal tool that helps remove all remnants of AMD, Nvidia, and Intel graphics card drivers. Video tutorial available.
Honorable Mentions
VMWare Player
With VMware, you can run a virtual operating system. Run Windows XP or anything you like. MajorGeeks uses the professional version of VMware to test all software before we make it available to you. The player does not allow saving or "snapshots."
TeamViewer QuickSupport
Got a friend who needs help with their computer or vice versa? With this simple no installation version of TeamViewer, you run it and get a code to connect to and a password.
Everything Search Engine
Locate files and folders by name instantly. Small, free, easy to use.
SpeedGuide.net TCP Optimizer
Having issues with your internet connection and suspect it is your Windows settings? This program can apply the optimal settings in your Windows registry as well as reset everything to default.
Patch My PC
Make sure Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, Mozilla Firefox, Oracle Java, Apple Quicktime, and more are updated all at once.
Feedback, suggestions, complaints welcome in the comments below.
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Updates:
02/09/20 - Link checks.
11/6/19 - Added TestDisk & PhotoRec to Data Recovery.
11/4/2019 - Removed two from Data Recovery. There are only a few excellent FREE data recovery apps left. (Thanks, Mark U.)
10/10/2019 - All brand new from top to bottom! New categories and dozens of apps added and removed.
10/12/2019 - Fixed duplicate and replaced with another suite in the Office category.
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Categories include:
[ Windows 10 Issues - All-In-One Suites - Anti-Spyware & Anti-Malware - Anti-Virus Protection - Backup - Browsers - CD\DVD\Blu-Ray Burning Tools - Data Recovery - Defragmenting Tools - Diagnostics - Drive Cleaners - Driver Updaters - Email Clients - File Compression - Graphics - Multimedia - Microsoft Office Alternatives - Partitioning - Password Managers & Recovery - PDF Alternatives - Text Editors - Uninstallers - Honorable Mentions ]
If you enjoyed this list, check out 101 useful websites with easy to remember names and all of the How-tos and guides on MajorGeeks.
(More in this category)
We're often asked how to debloat or make Windows 10 more secure.
O&O ShutUp10 is a free privacy tool that provides you with full control over which functions in Windows 10 you choose to use and how far data gets shared. With video.
O&O AppBuster displays and allows you to remove the additional Microsoft apps provided during the Windows 10 setup. With video.
W10Privacy can display typical Windows 10 security settings that can be activated as well as deactivated within the program. It also allows importing and exporting of your changes. With video.
FixWin 10 for Windows 10 allows you to fix and repair Windows 10 problems, issues, and annoyances.
FixMy10 will help you to correct problems with file associations; Windows functions as well as restoring settings/registry associated with file associations and Windows functions that have been changed by viruses, malware, or other things that can potentially cause errors.
WPD is a portable app to manage your Windows 10 privacy and firewall settings, uninstall Windows apps, and decide what apps can access your information.
MSMG ToolKit creates a slimmed down or bloat free Windows by customizing, adding, or removing features and components as well as enabling or disabling features to Microsoft Windows 7, 8, and 10.
NTLite is an all-in-one Windows customization tool that offers a robust set of options for modifying and removing unnecessary components from the standard distribution of Windows.
(More in this category)
There is a handful of safe, tested tweaks most geeks will apply to a computer. This does it for you and saves potentially hours.
ASC is an all-in-one suite to keep your computer running fine and forget about it. We like Driver Booster from them, as well.
We have used Wise Care 365 over the years, and it’s a solid, all-in-one suite that pretty much does it all. There’s a video on the download page, so check that out as well.
Glary Utilities has a Disk cleaner, registry cleaner, startup manager, file shredder, process manager, shortcuts to Windows tools, memory optimizer, and much, much more.
X-Setup was a pretty hardcore tweaking program but was abandoned in 2002. The author agreed to provide the key to Majorgeeks so it could live on.
JetClean is rarely updated anymore, yet it has a cult following. We wouldn't use JetClean on windows 10, but older operating systems should consider this one.
(More in this category)
Malwarebytes is one of our all-time top downloads and for a good reason. It's simple, fast, and effective. You can purchase full-time protection, so you don't get infected again.
IObit Malware Fighter is the biggest competitor to Malwarebytes. They have a long history and hate each other, but that's good for you.
Not a removal tool but a proactive program to block known rogue websites that install hijackers and more. Install it once and forget it.
(More in this category)
The antivirus section has massively changed in the past years. Most free antivirus programs are rarely free and often bloated. If you want our opinion, uninstall your antivirus. Once uninstalled, Windows Defender will take over. We're having a hard time recommending any other freeware antivirus app.
BitDefender Free is one exception and often overlooked. We find it ironic that so-called geeks swear by AVG, Avast, or Avira, yet seem oblivious to one of the most consistently highly-ranked antivirus apps available.
(More in this category)
We have used Acronis True Image for years, but it’s not free, and it has almost no quality competition. Macrium Reflect is the one program that comes close. Backup files, a complete image, and much more.
No need for a second hard drive, external drive, or DVD. With Dropbox, you can use the Cloud to back up your important files. You can also share and sync. Dropbox has a solid reputation built over the years. Dropbox is our most popular cloud-based backup.
FBackup is a free, lightweight automated backup program that can effectively help protect your important files and folders from being lost.
Cobian is a backup tool designed to back up files on your computer or network on a schedule. It also can FTP. Uses little resources and can compress files it backs up.
Karen has been around for years, and we love it. Karen Kenworthy passed away on April 12, 2011, and in 2019, someone began updating her apps again. Karen was one of those people who made software to help people for free.
(More in this category)
We'll catch some flack for this, but we've never used a third-party browser that changed our lives. Most third-party browsers also tend to run behind on critical updates, and many eventually disappear. We'd stick to the Big 4.
We've had so much fun picking on Microsoft Edge, that we were surprised when Microsoft moved Edge to Chromium-based. Since you see it here in MajorGeeks Top Freeware Picks, yeah, it's good.
Google Chrome has become the market dominator yet tends to use a lot of memory. Still, Chrome remains one of the best browsers.
Mozilla Firefox is one of the most popular browsers out there and for a good reason. It is fast, stable, and offers enough add-ons to make sure it works as you prefer.
Opera Web Browser is a free web browser that originally started as a research project back in 1995 and today continues to be a fast, safe, and secure web browser.
(More in this category)
I usually have this one on my computer. Light and easy to use. The installer version always has some bundleware, so you want this portable version to avoid that.
InfraRecorder is another often overlooked tool. It’s small and has plenty of features similar to CDBurnerXP.
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray burning application designed to be easy to use yet have advanced options when needed. Video "Starter Guide to Using ImgBurn" available.
Copy, burn, write images, and more. Pretty sweet little program considering it’s only just over 1 MB.
DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take several video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will playback on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set.
(More in this category)
Data recovery is rarely accomplished with one app, the first time. Often you need to try multiple apps to recover your files.
For free, Recuva is an excellent choice. It's fast, easy to use, and can even try to recover lost emails, deleted music, and Microsoft Word documents or temporary files.
Wise is another tool that is part of an entire suite of tools. Often overlooked, you would be mistaken to do so.
Freeundelete hasn't been updated since 2001, but the same recovery methods apply to this day.
Bad news? It hasn't been updated since 2006. Good news? It is designed to recover photos from digital cameras, including memory cards, so only get it for that.
(More in this category)
Remember never to defragment your SSD drive, but instead use an app that supports TRIM.
Smart Defrag can defragment files, folder, and entire drives as needed or scheduled. It also features SSD trimming to prolong your SDD performance and life.
Defraggler is brought to you by the same guys who created CCleaner. If you like CCleaner, then try this one.
Not updated in a couple of years, this remains an excellent, lesser-known choice. Includes a defrag screensaver and can defrag USB as well.
Disk Defrag is part of the Glarysoft suite of tools that has had a long, solid reputation. It will offer to install the Glary Utilities at the end of the setup, so watch for that if you don’t want it.
(More in this category)
Getting errors from your computer? Windows Repair will go through your system and reset and repair any potential problems with your computer. A Portable version also available.
Windows Repair Toolbox includes most third-party applications and Windows utilities you might need to repair any Windows problems in one small application. Video tutorial available.
Sergei Strelec's WinPE creates a bootable DVD or thumb drive for computer maintenance, partitioning, backup, restore, diagnostics, data recovery, and more.
Getting a bit geekier here. With Ultimate Boot CD, you can boot your computer from the CD\DVD drive to run tools. This is especially useful if you have a computer that will not start at all.
HWINFO is more of a system information tool but has benchmarking, monitoring, and more. Driver Updates tab in the program is an advertisement, so don’t fall for that. 64-bit available, but 32-bit runs just fi for anyone.
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Do you find CCleaner too conservative? Wise Disk Cleaner can often free up an additional gigabyte or more removing files CCleaner won’t touch. I happen to love it personally.
Privazer takes the traditional drive cleaner approach but adds a focus on security as well. We love Privazer, but there's a small learning curve.
CCleaner has been around and highly rated for many years but has moved to the dark side a bit since acquired. We still use it for the startup manager and registry cleaner, but almost any drive cleaner on the market is better at removing unwanted files unless you add the third-party CCEnhancer.
HDCleaner is designed for complete cleaning of your Windows PC, including registry and backup, encrypting data, splitting files, removing traces, and more.
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I've used this one for years, and it works great. It does offer to install one of their other programs at the end, but since it's not malicious or a wrapper, it makes it onto the list.
Snappy Driver Installer Origin is an Open Source fork of Snappy Driver Installer designed by a former contributing developer and build master who felt that the project had gone astray.
Snappy Driver Installer is a driver updater geared toward geeks and techs alike. Video tutorial available.
TIP: (More in this category)
Thunderbird is an email client from Mozilla who is also the group behind the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser. Installation and setup are easy, the spam filter is excellent, and it does not require any registration.
We'll make this one short and simple. It is a simple, clean three-panel interface similar to Outlook Express. Sylpheed has been around a long time.
Mailbird connects all your favorite email, calendar, task, and messaging apps into one versatile utility.
Claws Mail is a plug-in enabled email client and newsreader that features a familiar, intuitive interface with easy, flexible configuration.
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The list of what we would consider excellent compression tools is pretty short, so your choices are easy. This one or the other one :) 7-Zip is simple, portable, and easy to use.
The list of what we would consider excellent compression tools is pretty short, so your choices are easy. This one or the other one :) PeaZip is open source and has a ton of additional options if you want more control.
Explzh is a freeware compression tool that is capable of creating and extracting file archives.
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Don’t be fooled by the word viewer here. They should have called it "Faststone Image Viewer, Editor, Converter and More," but I guess that would be a bit long.
Krita Studio is an Open Source powerful all-in-one painting application geared for professional artists, VFX, and game studios.
Photoshop is expensive. Sometimes you need those features but not a full-blown, pricey suite. XnView might fill in the gap.
You can apply everything written about XnView (above) and apply it to IrfanView. Both have a very long history. One neat advantage to IrfanView is the IrfanView Plugins.
Paint.net was designed to be a replacement for the old Microsoft Paint that came with Windows that grew into an excellent program offering features that make it as good as IrfanView and XnView.
Gimp can be used for many different photo management purposes, but its real power lies in photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.
Inscape aims to be an open-source editor to replace Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X. It won’t replace all of those but does come close.
PicPick is an all-in-one screen capture tool that includes an intuitive image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair, whiteboard, and more.
WildBit Viewer is compact & fast image viewer with slide show and editor.
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Multimedia player for various audio and video formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server.
WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project) is a freeware app that aims to keep Winamp alive by improving the app by fixing bugs and adding new features.
foobar2000 intends to be a small footprint audio player for Windows. Simple, customizable colors and gets the job done. The installation offers to install it or use it as a portable app.
PotPlayer is a comprehensive video and audio player that also supports TV channels, subtitles, and skins.
Kodi (formerly XBMC) is a free and Open Source software media player and digital media entertainment hub.
Universal Media Server is a DLNA-compliant UPnP Media Server based on the PS3 Media Server by shagrath.
An often overlooked, 5-star app based on the original "Media Player Classic" project and "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" project.
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Apache OpenOffice For Windows is a free, Open Source MS Office alternative with a Word compatible word processor, a complete Excel compatible spreadsheet program, and more.
LibreOffice is a powerful all-in-one office suite that combines pretty much everything you need to increase workflow productivity.
SSuite Office - Excalibur office suite provides you with a stable and robust way to improve your productivity and document format compatibility.
SSuite Office - Premium HD is a feature-rich office suite that works better on HD and larger monitors.
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The Parted Magic employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease while featuring other useful programs.
Create, delete, erase, format, defragment, resize, copy, and move partitions and modify their attributes. As a bonus, it can copy entire hard disks from one to another. It has a few limitations (see description) but should do what you need.
GParted is a large (over 210 MB) program but runs as a bootable live cd. It’s a good program to use if you are unable to make changes with other programs. It is a powerful, open-source program.
Super Fdisk is a driven disk partition manager. With Super Fdisk, you can quickly and easily create, delete, format partitions on IDE/ATA/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives without destroying data.
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KeePass Password Safe is an open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords securely.
KeeWeb provides you with a free cross-platform password manager that includes full compatibility with KeePass.
LastPass Password Manager - The last password you'll ever have to remember. This easy to use password manager will make your browsing a lot easier and much more secure without having to remember multiple passwords.
Buttercup is a password manager for all your accounts built for your desktop or Google Chrome. Also, we like calling people buttercup, so that's fun. Buttercup.
Asterisk Key shows passwords hidden under asterisks. Video available.
WirelessKeyView recovers all stored wireless network security keys/passwords (WEP/WPA).
ProduKey is an essential utility for retrieving lost ProductIDs and CD-Keys for Microsoft Office, Windows, and more. Video tutorial available.
ShowKeyPlus is a portable freeware app to retrieve and save your Windows product key if you lost it.
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Small, light on resources and completely portable, this is a nice choice for basic PDF viewing, which is all most people need.
PDF24 Creator can create or convert PDF files into multiple file formats.
A PDF reader and writer that supports plug-ins. Some say it seems to be a little more bloated over time, but a lot of features will do that.
A 16-17 MB alternative to Adobe PDF. Better than Adobe, like all the others listed here.
UnityPDF is not just a reader but let's you lets you merge, split, divide, rotate, protect PDF files and a lot more.
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Tweaking.com is the same guy from PCWinTech.com, and all of his utilities are free and 5-star programs, so this is no exception.
SIV by is an app for displaying lots of useful Windows, network and hardware info.
Belarc Advisor can be found in use by most techs. It shows all of your system information into a web page.
Another solid from the CCleaner guys. It will offer to install Ccleaner so watch for that. A portable version is available.
HWINFO is more of a system information tool but has benchmarking, monitoring, and more. Driver Updates tab in the program is an advertisement, so don’t fall for that. 64-bit available, but 32 bit runs just fine.
Under one MB, open-source and can report back on your fans, CPU, video card temperatures, and more. If you’re looking to see if heat is an issue, this is a good choice. Also, an excellent system information tool.
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EverNote is a note management application that offers you a single place for the organization, easy input and quick retrieval of all types of notes and clippings.
QOwnNotes is a portable Open Source app that allows you to create notes that can be efficiently sorted, organized, printed, exported and more.
Microsoft Notepad included with Windows works. That's about it. Notepad++ allows you to have Notepad on steroids. It has a WYSIWYG interface and is handy for programmers, including HTML, Java, PHP, Pascal, Perl, and more.
SynWrite is a free text editor that is designed mainly as a complete environment for web coders and writers.
Sometimes you don’t need a text editor but simply a note-taking application. This one does the job and keeps it simple. Sync via DropBox and other places across computers. Run from a thumb drive.
RJ TextEd Portable is a web development tool plus a text editor with many features including syntax highlighting advanced column mode, and text folding.
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IOBit Uninstaller can remove programs and do a deep scan for leftover files, folders, and registry entries. This one does offer to install their Advanced System Care, so watch that at the end.
Simple, small, and portable. Export to HTML, force removal, look up assigned registry keys, and more. Pretty amazing what is packed into this small program.
HiBit Uninstaller can completely uninstall Windows programs and also features ten more tools including a drive and registry cleaner, process and startup manager, and more. Video tutorial available.
BCUninstaller is a free program uninstaller. It is focused on removing large amounts of applications at once, in a small amount of time. Video tutorial available.
Display Driver Uninstaller is a graphics driver removal tool that helps remove all remnants of AMD, Nvidia, and Intel graphics card drivers. Video tutorial available.
With VMware, you can run a virtual operating system. Run Windows XP or anything you like. MajorGeeks uses the professional version of VMware to test all software before we make it available to you. The player does not allow saving or "snapshots."
Got a friend who needs help with their computer or vice versa? With this simple no installation version of TeamViewer, you run it and get a code to connect to and a password.
Locate files and folders by name instantly. Small, free, easy to use.
Having issues with your internet connection and suspect it is your Windows settings? This program can apply the optimal settings in your Windows registry as well as reset everything to default.
Make sure Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, Mozilla Firefox, Oracle Java, Apple Quicktime, and more are updated all at once.
Feedback, suggestions, complaints welcome in the comments below.
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Updates:
02/09/20 - Link checks.
11/6/19 - Added TestDisk & PhotoRec to Data Recovery.
11/4/2019 - Removed two from Data Recovery. There are only a few excellent FREE data recovery apps left. (Thanks, Mark U.)
10/10/2019 - All brand new from top to bottom! New categories and dozens of apps added and removed.
10/12/2019 - Fixed duplicate and replaced with another suite in the Office category.
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