Everyone has heard that old saying "you get what you pay for". However, software in my opinion, is the exception. There is a lot of good software available on the internet that is absolutely free. However, trying to find it can be frustrating. Fortunately, for you I have put this list together.
If you find something you like then please help me out by visiting some of the sponsors which are displayed throughout the site. If there is something not on the list that you use then please share it with others by leaving a comment.
Text based Tools
Notepad++ - The ultimate notepad replacement. Include syntax highlighting for programming.
WinMerge - Compare the differences between two files.
PDF Creator - Turn any document into a PDF!
Scite - Text editor. Many people use this for Ruby development
Vim - Windows based Vi editor. If you are used to vi then this is a great tool.
Virtualization
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 - Can create and play virtual machines
VMWare Virtual Player - Can only play VM's. Fortunately, VMWare has prebuilt VM's available for download.
WAMP - Self contained Windows Apache MySQL PHP Server
XAMPP - Slightly different than WAMP but same concept
Database
SQL Server 2005 Express
SQL Server 2008 Express
MySQL
Oracle 10g Express Edition
Oracle SQL Developer - graphical tool for database development
CD/DVD Related
Daemon Tools - Perfect for when you download an ISO file and don't want to burn it to disk. Just load the file into a virual drive.
Virtual Clone Drive - Alternative to Daemon tools
ImgBurn - Image burning software. Very easy to use interface.
Communication Software
Firefox - Feature rich web browser.
Google Chrome - Lightweight browser made by google.
Thunderbird - Great email client
FileZilla - Poweful but easy to use FTP client.
Putty - SSH and Telnet client
TightVNC - Remote desktop software
uTorrent - The best torrent software available
Free Download Manager - Download management software
MP3 Related
RockBox - Alternate Firmware for your Ipod or Music Player. Dual boot capability available.
Songbird - Opensource ITunes replacement
Floola - Lightweight ITunes replacement that will run directly from your Ipod.
Winamp - The best MP3 ever made. I have been using for over 15 years
ITunes - Needs no introduction
Video Related
Quick Media Convertor - Easy to use Video conversion tool
VLC Media Player - Free video player that will play almost any type of file.
Image Editors/Viewers
GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program
GimpShop - GNU with a Photoshop look and feel
Irfanview - Image viewer
Picassa - Organize, edit and share your photos
Paint.Net - Highly recommended by reader Tim Coker!.."its interface is much more simple than GIMP and is good for simple tasks (I have both installed and use both for different tasks...)". Thanks Tim!
Compression
WinRar - The best compression available.
7-Zip - Not as good as Winzip but it does not have any nag screens.
Thumb Drive Related
Portable Apps - Carry all your favorite apps on your thumbdrive with portable apps. The site has a large list of applications that you can install directly to your thumbdrive.
Pen Drive Linux - Run linux directly from your thumbdrive
Miscellaneous
Cygwin - Linux-like environment for Windows making it possible to port software running on POSIX systems (such as Linux, BSD, and Unix systems) to Windows.
nLite - Build customized install disks for Windows XP, 2000 etc..
vLite - Same as nLite but made for Vista
Google Desktop - Find files easily on your computer. Similar to the search capablity in Vista
Google Earth - Great for finding directions or just traveling the world from your computer.
Security
AVG - Free Antivirus Software for Vista and XP
Windows Defender - Free if you have a valid copy of windows
System Tools
Process Explorer - Task manager on steroids.
Periform Degfraggler - Defrag tool. An improvement over the stock windows utility.
Games
GTA and GTA2 - The first and second edition of the popular Grand Theft Auto game.
IM Chat
Pidgin - Chat on multiple protocols such as AIM, MSN etc..
Trillian - Same idea as Pidgin
Miranda - In case you don't like Pidgin or Trillian
Development
Visual Studio Express Edition - Various Versions available
Eclipse - Very popular opensource editor.
CVSNT - Source code versioning system
SVN - Similar to CVS but has a few more features.
LINQPad - Interactively query databases using LINQ (Thanks for recommending this Dave!)
Git - Fast Version Control System (Recommended by Xico Nunes)
NetBeans - Powerful Java IDE (Thanks again Xico!)
TortoiseSVN - The best SVN client available! Shell integration and very easy to use.
TortoiseCVS - Same as TortoiseSVN but made for CVS.
Regular Expression Designer – A great tool for learning, developing and testing Regular Expressions.
Finally, if you are a startup company and you are on a limited budget you may want to check out Microsoft BizSpark. They are offering free software in the hopes that your new company will build products using the Microsoft stack.
