 | avast! Free Antivirus Expect great all-around protection against viruses and trojans. |  | AntiVir Free Version Lightweight and solid. Good ratings. Worth looking into. |  | AVG Antivirus Free Edition Not as good as Avast or Avira but with considerably less bloat. The most popular free antivirus. |
 | Microsoft Security Essentials Simple, effective and lightweight protection suite. |  | Comodo Internet Security Free security suite, includes both a firewall and anti-virus protection. |  | Lavasoft Ad-Aware+ Free A complete anti-virus and anti-malware solution in one tidy free package. |
 | IObit Malware Fighter Advanced malware & spyware removal utility. The pro version comes with some really cool features. |  | Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Easy-to-use, simple, and very effective anti-malware application. |  | Spybot S&D Detects and removes spyware. Compliments anti-virus apps. Has a very good reputation. |
 | Threatfire Spyware removal tool with real-time antispyware protection. Lightweight and memory sparing. |  | Superantispyware Lightweight scanner to detect and remove spyware, adware, trojans, and other threats. |
 | PC Tools Firewall Plus 6 Powerful firewall capable of providing excellent protection. |  | Comodo Firewall (standalone) Long been considered one of the best free firewall tools available. |  | ZoneAlarm Free Firewall Provides the best overall firewall protection for advanced users. |
 | Online Armor Free All of the normal features of a firewall and more. |  | Ashampoo FireWall Free Very easy to use and navigate. For intermediate users. |  | Peerblock Provides control over who your computer “talks” to online by blocking known bad addresses. |
 | Auslogics Disk Defrag Simple, reliable and quite fast. A must-have free PC tool. Considered no.1 by many. |  | Defraggler Another excellent defrag tool. Portable. From the same guys behind hugely popular CCleaner. |  | IObit Smart Defrag Extremely easy to use. Works continuously in the background. |
 | Recuva Very effective in restoring deleted files. Extremely popular. |  | FreeUndelete No frills, just focused on the zen of file recovery. |  | ADRC Data Recovery Software The Renaissance Man of free data recovery. Not as popular as Recuva but still has its own fans. |
 | Pandora Recovery An easy to use yet powerful file recovery application. |
 | Revo Uninstaller Free Fast and very effective at uninstalling just about anything. Popular choice for the purpose. |  | IObit Uninstaller New kid on the block. Gaining popularity. Boasts a bunch of features not found on other uninstallers. |  | Absolute Uninstaller Less popular than the other two but probably the simplest to use one. |
 | Mozy Incredibly smart, highly secure, set-it-and-forget-it backup solution. Backups data to web. |  | FBackup Easily backup important files and documents, personal settings and plugins. |  | Todo Backup Able to backup the entire operating system, program settings, browser data, emails and other data. |
 | Clonezilla Live CD to completely clone your hard drive. |  | SyncBack Freeware Selective synchronisation, local and remote backup to an FTP server. |  | FreeFileSync Open source folder comparison and sync tool. Optimised for speed and usability. |
 | CopyTo Synchronizer Wide set of options for backing up, updating, and synchronizing files. |  | DriveImage XML Easily Backup or copy entire disks block-for-block directly to another drive without the need to reboot your computer to run the cloning process. |  | Cobian Backup A backup program that supports scheduling on both local and networked machines. |
 | Windows Live Mesh Sync your documents, photos and other files across multiple computers using SkyDrive. |  | SugarSync A multi-platform syncing tool that features 5GB of free space and mobile compatibility. |
 | IObit Advanced SystemCare Free One-click approach to help protect, repair, clean, and optimize your PC. |  | CCleaner Scores high points all around. The most popular choice at the moment. Not as many features as in others. |  | IObit Toolbox The amount of system maintenance tools included in this free app is truly staggering. |
 | Soluto Speed up Windows boot time by removing unnecessary apps from startup. Very effective. |  | Glary Utilities Includes over 15 useful system maintenance tools. Been recommended by MakeUseOf several times! |  | Secunia Personal Software Inspector A free utility that scans your PC for outdated programs in need of updates. |
 | Google Chrome The fastest, minimal design browser (from Google) now with extension support. Growing extremely fast. |  | Firefox More than 6,000 add-ons for every possible feature. The most customisable browser to date. |  | Safari A web browser from Apple. Designed to emphasize browsing. Also features extensions. |
 | Opera The “fastest and most advanced” browser available today. |
 | Thunderbird Increasingly popular email client from the same guys behind Firefox browser. One of the best email clients for Windows. |  | Postbox Express A simple, yet powerful, new email application for Windows. Check it out. |  | Google Notifier Alerts you when you have new Gmail messages. Simple and handy. |
 | Skype The most popular cross-platform VoIP application. Must-have for everyone online. |  | Pidgin Easy-to-use, cross-platform, multi-protocol chat client. Supports all major chat programs. |  | Digsby An alternative multi-protocol instant messaging app. Cross-platform. Extremely popular. |
 | Trillian Astra Popular multi-protocol instant messaging client. |  | Raptr A social network and messaging service for gamers to keep in touch. |  | Google Talk Google’s standalone GTalk client for Windows is a simple yet effective tool. |
 | Paint.NET Strong candidate as a potential substitute for Photoshop for beginner/intermediate users. |  | FastStone Image Viewer One of the best image viewer, converter & editor bundles. |  | IrfanView The Swiss Army knife of image viewers/editors. Extremely popular. |
 | Google Picasa Powerful photo manager software from Google. Includes 1-click photo retouching features. Easy online photo sharing. |  | GIMP Very capable graphic editor with Photoshop-like features. Often labeled as free Photoshop alternative. |  | PhotoScape Another good free and easy-to-use photo editing application. |
 | Inkscape An open source vector graphics editor that uses the Scaleable Vector Graphics (.SVG) format. |  | RIOT – Radical Image Optimization Tool A free tool that makes light work of optimising images for the web while maintaining quality and small file sizes. |  | XnView A small utility for viewing and converting images that reads around 400 formats. |
 | foobar2000 Advanced audio player for Windows with highly customisable user interface. |  | Songbird A popular music player based on Mozilla’s code. Includes some really useful plugins. |  | Audacity Very popular open source software for recording and editing audio tracks and sounds. |
 | iTunes Music player and video library organiser. Hosts the iTunes Store. |  | MediaMonkey Full-featured music player and music collection organiser. |  | Winamp Well-known, lightweight, small-footprint media player. |
 | CopyTrans Manager Alternative iPod manager app. Sync and transfer music & files to iPod, iPhone, iPad. |  | TagScanner A multifunction program for organizing and managing your music collection. |
 | VLC Media Player Extremely popular cross-platform video player that can play almost any video file. Highly recommended by many. |  | Handbrake Open source, cross-platform, video converter that can convert video files between many video formats. |  | VirtualDub Open-source and portable video editor. |
 | Media Player Classic Replica of WM Player. Includes only the most basic controls but can play pretty much any video. |  | Freemake Free video converter & DVD burner that’s easy to use. |  | Format Factory Multifunctional audi and video converter. Supports MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV, SWF, RMVB and lots more. |
 | KMPlayer Highly customisable, popular, multi-format video player. |  | CamStudio A high quality freeware screen capture utility with support for lossless video output. |  | XBMC A powerful, mature open source media centre that rocks. |
 | Plex A great looking media centre solution that also works remotely and with mobile devices. |  | UMPlayer A light video player with some great features and over 270 in-built codecs. |
 | FileMenu Tools Customise the right-click context menu of Windows Explorer. Adds lots of useful functions and utilities. |  | FreeCommander Free file browser and Windows Explorer replacement. Two-pane browsing, secure file deletion and more. |  | TeraCopy Copy and move files at maximum speed. Pause and resume file transfers. |
 | EASEUS Partition Master All-in-one, easy to use disk partition manager. Create, resize and merge partitions. |  | Unlocker Can’t delete a folder or a file? Getting an error that it’s being used by another program? Unlocker can easily delete it. |  | TreeSize Free Shows you where your precious hard drive space has gone to. Easily view how much space is being used by each folder. |
 | DropIt Tiny tool to automate categorizing files and folders. Drag a file on top of it and it will place it for you where you need it. Portable version available. |  | Free Opener An easy way to quickly open over 80 types of file types using one tiny program. |  | SyncToy Free application that synchronizes files and folders between locations. |
 | Filezilla A free, lightweight and robust FTP client for transferring files to and from the web. |  | zeZebra A cross-platform tool for sending and receiving files with absolutely no size limit. |  | MultiCommander A feature-packed alternative file manager to Windows Explorer that uses a dual-panel layout. |
 | LibreOffice Microsoft Office alternative. Open source professional productivity and office suite. |  | Dropbox Must-have for everyone. Sync folder with docs and files to web or other PCs / Macs. Share documents. |  | Notepad++ Popular open source text editor. Favoured by many, including programmers. |
 | FoxIt Reader Really light alternative to Adobe Reader. Open PDF files. |  | doPDF Easily convert documents and pictures to PDF files from any Windows program with two clicks. |  | PDF Xchange viewer Desktop and portable PDF viewer. Lightweight and fast. |
 | Nitro PDF Reader Read PDFs, create PDFs. Extract content, annotate and fill PDF forms. |  | PDFTK Builder Free graphical interface version of PDFTK. Merge, split, decrypt, encrypt, watermark PDF files. |  | VIM Text Editor Highly configurable text editor. |
 | PDFsam Easily split and merge PDF files. |  | Windows Live Writer Compose then publish your blog posts with a click straight from Windows Live Writer. |
 | Fences Provides rectangular containers for your desktop to visually organize your icons. Very handy! |  | Rainlendar Very easy to use and lightweight calendar for your Windows desktop. |  | Evernote Save your ideas on the go and instantly take notes. Access notes from anywhere. Highly recommended! |
 | VirtuaWin Gives you multiple virtual desktops to organize your workflow. Highly customisable. |  | Launchy A powerful keystroke based program launcher that lets you open program and files really quickly. |  | Send to Toys Enhances the right-click ‘Send To’ system menu. Personalise and configure the Send To menu content. |
 | Dexpot Create virtual desktops to separate different running apps and Windows. Comparable to Spaces on Mac OS X. |  | Q-Dir Free multi-pane file manager to save you time. Portable version available. |  | ClipX Tiny, free clipboard history manager. Access up to 1024 items in your clipboard’s history. |
 | Bruce’s Unusual Typing Wizard Gain typing speed and accuracy with its unique touch-typing teaching program. |  | SendToSendTo Easily add new entries to the right-click “Send To” menu. |  | Ditto Saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. |
 | Wunderlist A multi-platform list syncing app for keeping track of your todo lists from any device. |
 | 7-zip Takes care of most of your archive extracting/compression needs. Supports ZIP, RAR and many others formats. |  | Universal Extractor With over 50 supported file formats, Universal Extractor is superb. |  | IZArc One archive utility to rule them all. Supports almost all formats. |
 | ImgBurn CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray burning tool. Also, lets you easily create image files from CDs and DVDs. |  | CDBurnerXP The most popular free alternative to Nero Burning ROM. Burn CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. |  | bitRipper Back-up your DVDs as AVI files or MPEG to your hard drive. Excellent backup tool for DVDs. |
 | CDex Open-source digital audio CD extractor. Saves CD tracks as MP3′s. |  | DuBaron CD2ISO A great tool to extract ISO images from CDs or DVDs. Very simple and easy to use. |  | Virtual CloneDrive Mount a virtual drive to open and playback ISO image files (CD/DVD images). |
 | DVDShrink The easiest and one of the better free DVD ripping and backup tools. |  | Exact Audio Copy The most accurate and error-free audio CD extractor. Can extract MP3s from a CD. |  | DVD Flick Easy-to-use DVD creation software. Allows adding subtitles and making DVD menus as well. |
 | WinCDEmu Mount ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG images by simply clicking on them in Windows Explorer. |  | DVDFab HD Decrypter One of the only free tools that supports the decrypting of Blu-Ray discs. |  | DaemonTools Lite Lightweight and free disk virtualization software for installing virtual drives and mounting disk images. |
 | uTorrent Speedy, efficient, and free. The most popular BitTorrent client. |  | Deluge An awesome but unappreciated cross-platform BitTorrent client. |  | YouTube Downloader HD Downloads YouTube videos with just a few clicks of the mouse button. |
 | PeerBlock Control/block your PC’s communication with ad or spyware servers. Secures P2P activities. |  | Free Download Manager Open source download accelerator and manager. Increase download speeds and resume broken downloads. |  | Jdownloader The most popular download manager. Quickly and efficiently download files from sites such as Rapidshare, Megaupload and many others. |
 | FlashGet A download manager that supports HTTP, FTP and BitTorrent protocols amongst others. |  | MiPONY A download manager designed to facilitate downloading from file lockers like Rapidshare. |
 | LastPass Secure plugin to store and synchronise login passwords across browsers. Comes auto-login and form filler. |  | TrueCrypt Free open-source, cross-platform disk and data encryption tool. Encrypt and hide sensitive files. |  | TeamViewer Request remote technical assistance. Connect to remote computer. Zero setup required. |
 | PortableApps Suite A collection of useful portable apps that can be stored on USB stick. Carry the apps with you wherever you go on a thumbdrive. |  | Sticky Password Free password and identity manager. Browser add-on for automatic login and form-filling. |  | KeePass Free, open source, lightweight and easy-to-use password manager. |
 | LiberKey Suite of over 300 free useful software apps that you can carry with you wherever you go. |  | Hiren’s BootCD All-in-one bootable CD providing an alternate boot environment to troubleshoot Windows problems. |  | Eraser Advanced security tool to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive. |
 | iPrint Print multiple pages on each sheet of paper, delete unwanted pages. Lowers printing costs. |  | Antirun Protects your PC by blocking viruses and malware from infected USB thumbsticks and flash drives. |  | Everything search engine Locates files and folders by name instantly. |
 | Game Booster 3 Speeds up your PC for faster gaming. |  | DriverPack Solution 11 Makes the job of finding and automatically installing drivers really easy. |  | XAMPP Easy to install Apache distribution with MySQL, PHP and Perl. No manual setup required! |
 | Calibre Free open source eBook management software with support for conversion and syncing. |  | Rainmeter A desktop customisation tool with support for functional skins. |  | Rocketdock An elegant dock solution for Windows with support for add-ons. |
 | VirtualBox Free virtualisation software for creating and running virtual machines. |  | TunnelBear Need to access a website that’s restricted to the US or UK? Try TunnelBear. |  | f.lux This small program adapts your PC’s display to the time of day in order to reduce eye strain and fatigue. |
 | Connectify Easily create your own adhoc wireless networks to share your ethernet internet connection wirelessly. Free and commercial ($29.99) versions available |
