Back in the day, users would often be put off Linux because few software manufacturers developed for the system. Read our guide to the best Linux distros. North America. The best open source software makes it simple and easy to do everyday tasks on Windows, Mac, and Linux, without the need for license fees.
Reasons to avoid - Not cloud-based. VLC Media Player. Reasons to avoid - Complex menu system. Reasons to avoid - May confuse first-time users. Specifications Operating system: Windows.
Reasons to avoid - Steep learning curve. Reasons to avoid - Features its own ads. Reasons to avoid - No mobile app. Specifications Operating systems: Windows unofficial ports available for others. Reasons to avoid - Basic features. Reasons to avoid - No cloud connectivity. Reasons to avoid - Looks slightly dated. Reasons to avoid - Overwhelming choice of distros.
AWS went down hard, yet again - here's what happened. It might be time to consider running Ubuntu on your smartphone. Microsoft Teams update will level the playing field for all users.
Mozilla Firefox has been a trusted web browser for years now, the recent recode and rebranding was a much-needed breath of fresh air for Firefox and its users. Now, it is fully capable to counter any other web browser. Try a web browser that has its roots in the first web browser called Mosaic through the first commercial web browser called Netscape Navigator. Windows PCs come preloaded with sponsored software. Uninformed users consider them to be the best option for the file types that they are assigned to, and keep using them as default when they can get a much better replacement.
They never think about uninstalling them, and installing better alternatives. Even if somebody removes these bloatware one by one, they come back all at once when the user uses the Recovery option to get his system back to the default factory image. All this pain can be cured by using a wonderful portable tool called PC Decrapifier , which scans for the Bloatware on your system, and recommends the user to remove them.
Prevention is better than cure. This is the philosophy behind Unchecky. When we install software, many times, the free variants of paid software are distributed by the companies along with third-party PUPs, an uninformed computer user accidentally installs these third-party PUPs along with the main program. These unwanted applications later affect the computer badly, they change web browser settings, install toolbars, and install additional software.
Ninite a great tool for installing multiple programs in one go. It saves you from searching, downloading, and installing various software separately. Ninite provides you with a software portal with most popular Windows software, which you can use to create your own customized Ninite software downloader and installer. It is quite evident that the Web Browser companies spend little to no time and resources on the development of the Download component of their products.
We get a bare-bones Download feature with hardly any features. A Download Manager is a complex software, one that is always running in the background and monitoring various things such as the Windows Clipboard, and all of the web pages surfed inside Web Browsers. With a Download Manager, you get various advanced downloads related features such as resuming paused downloads, organising downloads in respective folders, download acceleration, clipboard monitoring, multimedia grabbing, virus scanning, etc.
Free Download Manager provides all of these features along with many others, without any ads, promos or nags. The interface is also of the best that you can get in any download manager. Although many download managers have the support for downloading torrents or downloading files from the BitTorrent protocol , but you should leave the Torrent downloading to the Torrent Clients, a type of download managers dedicated to the Torrent platform only.
Because Torrent is mostly related to piracy, many Torrent Clients try to sell various security and anonymity related services such as VPN in their products. Tixati , an open-source torrent client does not deliver any kind Spyware, Adware, Nagware, or any additional paid services.
It is a pure torrent client. The Media Downloaders are the software that Grab or Capture multimedia files from social media websites. These files can be audio, video, or even images. Similar to the other types of download managers, most of these dedicated audio, video, or image downloaders products also include many kinds of Adware, Trackers, and PUP. It is difficult to stay uninfected while using one of these.
Enter JDownloader , the one of a kind mass media download manager. The options present in this epic software are endless. Along with social websites, it supports downloading from countless file-sharing websites; you can add site-specific free or premium accounts to enjoy respective services. A clean, feature-rich, and complete mass media downloading software that deserves a place in your computer.
A software uninstaller is a must-have application. Follow a lot of blogs online and still miss Google Reader? RSSOwl is a good alternative. Are you someone who prefers a supercharged Explorer interface? If so, check out Total Commander , which has been around for decades and works with Windows If you think you might have bad memory installed in your computer, you can check for bad memory using memtest Want to record your screen and live stream it too?
OBS Studio is a free app that does just that. TinyTake is another decent one, though the free version is limited. Darktable is an open-source photography workflow application. Speaking of Adobe, are there any good Adobe Illustrator alternatives?
One good one for working with vector graphics is Inkscape. Another good one is Vectr. Are you someone who needs to write something, but gets distracted easily? Check out FocusWriter and write without distractions. One of the worst things that can happen to your computer is for it to become infected with Spyware. HijackThis is an awesome program that you can use to find and remove spyware. Another good option is AdwCleaner. One good option is Windows Defender Offline.
It also has a portable version you can run off your USB stick. Are you a true nerd and still use IRC? Ever run into the problem where you are trying to delete a file in Windows and it says that the file is in use and cannot be deleted? You can use Unlocker to delete any file that is locked by a process. Are you always thinking about stuff? Then you should probably use some free mind-mapping software. Wikipedia also has a big list of mind-mapping software.
Need to manage a small project, but need some project management software? Check out GnattProject and Taiga. If you want to play around with virtual machines, download the free and excellent VirtualBox from Oracle.
In 19 and 20, I talked about software to backup your computer, but forgot to mention DriveImage XML , an good program you can use to create an image of your hard drive. Other good disk imaging tools include MacriumReflect and Clonezilla. GNUCash is free accounting and finance software. Ever head of Blender? It lets you create 3D worlds, 3D animations and 3D games. Check it out. If Blender is too complex for you, another great option for sketching in 3D is SketchUp.
For space lovers, I always recommend Stellarium , which is basically a planetarium for your computer. Looking for a really good partition manager? Check out GParted , probably the best not-heard-of partition manager out there. Looking for a file on your computer? Default Windows search sucks? Wish your clipboard could store more than one item at a time? Ever wanted to automate a certain task in Windows? Maybe you want to have your computer turn off every day at 10pm? Or certain keystrokes you want to record and repeat over and over again?
Whatever the case, AutoHotKey is an awesome program for automating many tasks in Windows. Looking to secure your browsing traffic with a VPN? In 14, I mentioned two professional and free movie editing programs, but they are quite complex. Got kids? Need some parental control software? The best options are Qustodio and Kidlogger.
Free versions are limited obviously. Also, read my post on the different ways to childproof a computer. If you have a lot of music, you might want to consider a music management program like Media Monkey. Another good program is MusicBee. I talked about a VPN for secure browsing in 39, but you can also use a different browser like Tor to hide your identify.
Revo Uninstaller will get rid of any program whether it wants to or not. They have a whole free games section. If you have sensitive data on your computer that you want to permanently and securely delete from your hard drive, I would suggest using a program called dBan. Do a lot of reading? A great app for reading in Windows is the Kindle app. It will also sync down to your phone or tablet too. Love using Instagram?
Want to download a photo, video or story from Instagram? Check out 4K Stogram. Looking for good screen capture software? A really good one is Screenshot Captor. Of course, Windows has a lot of built-in ways to capture screenshots too. Ever wanted your computer to speak out what you have written? Do you have a lot of programs that load when Windows starts?
Does it take several minutes for your computer to become useable? If so, check out Startup Delayer, a program that delays the startup of programs so that your computer loads faster. In addition to the Office suites we mentioned in 35, you can also use Canva and Prezi.
Are you someone who prefers a supercharged Explorer interface? If so, check out Total Commander, which has been around for decades and works with Windows If you think you might have bad memory installed in your computer, you can check for bad memory using memtest Want to record your screen and live stream it too?
OBS Studio is a free app that does just that. TinyTake is another decent one, though the free version is limited. Darktable is an open-source photography workflow application. Speaking of Adobe, are there any good Adobe Illustrator alternatives?
One good one for working with vector graphics is Inkscape. Another good one is Vectr. Are you someone who needs to write something, but gets distracted easily? Check out FocusWriter and write without distractions. One of the worst things that can happen to your computer is for it to become infected with Spyware. HijackThis is an awesome program that you can use to find and remove spyware.
Another good option is AdwCleaner. One good option is Windows Defender Offline. It also has a portable version you can run off your USB stick. Ever run into the problem where you are trying to delete a file in Windows and it says that the file is in use and cannot be deleted? You can use Unlocker to delete any file that is locked by a process. Are you always thinking about stuff?
Then you should probably use some free mind-mapping software.
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