Guide: Free Program alternatives.

[Thelis]

Hey all, here is a guide to some free (and hopefully handy) programs. I'm sure you guys have a lot of these installed, but I am also sure that some of you will find new programs that you will like.

SECURITY

Ad-Aware
This gets rid of adware and spyware, great tool. It also has an auto update programmed into it so everytime you start it u, it checks to see if their are new definitions from Lavasoft, the makers of Ad-Aware. The time it takes to scan your computer is sort of the drawback though, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes for it to complete. I just let it go, do something else, and it's done.

XoftSpy
* Complete PC scanning, inc. memory & registry
* Removes ALL Spyware Parasites, Unwanted Toolbars and Browser Hijacks
* Largest database in the industry
* New Spyware added Monthly + free updates
* Prevents identity and credit card theft
* Increases your computer's speed

CCleaner
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Microsoft Antispyware
This is a great Security program that offers Real Time Protection, Full System Scans, and even lets you see all of the startup programs your computer has, which you can edit in or out a program. Basically, this is just a great program, and there is much more you can do with it.

Spybot Search & Destroy
This is one of the greatest spyware removers to date, and of course it's totally free with it updated regularly. I recommend you going to advanced options when you first get it, then look for Resident. Turn that on (It's nickname is TeaTimer) and it allows you to be able to decide whether or not a part of your system can be changed, make it a complete dead end to bad programs and processes.

Avast! Antivirus
The latest version of avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses.

AVG Anti-Virus
If you don't already have this, get it. It's actually found a piece of spyware that McAfee couldn't even find. It has Real Time Protection, E-mail Scanner, and bunch of other stuff. Updates regularly.

HijackThis
Hijack This is for advanced users. If you are not familiar with running processes on your computer as well as anything ever installed that could tie into your web browser, it will not be much help to you.

Zone Alarm
A great firewall, easy to operate, and it doesn't miss a thing. This thing works, trust me.

Regcleaner
Similar to CCleaner, but more powerful and somewhat less easy to use.

Sygate Personal Firewall Pro
Another excellent firewall. Especially useful for McAfee VirusScan users because new versions of ZoneAlarm mess up the virus scanner service. The download is only for a thirty day trial version.

CWShredder
CWShredder™ finds and destroys traces of CoolWebSearch. CoolWebSearch is a name given to a wide range of different browser hijackers. Though the code is very different between variants, they are all used to redirect users to coolwebsearch.com and other sites affiliated with its operators.

Spyware Doctor
A very thorough scan through all your registry files and disks. It does take some time to do it though, but it's efficient, and finds many infections usually. It's just a great tool to have.

Webroot Spy Sweeper
Using state-of-the-art spyware research methods that identify new spyware threats before they are widely distributed, Spy Sweeper ensures you have the most powerful and up-to-date protection against new emerging spyware threats.

Kapersky
Kaspersky Lab is dedicated to deflecting cyber threats. A multi-national research team works round-the-clock to develop new techniques to protect users against malicious programs, such as viruses, worms, and Trojans, hackers, spam and other forms of unsanctioned intrusion and data leaks.

BROWSERS


Mozilla Firefox
What can I say? This is just a kick-ass browser with features galore. With tabbed browsing, downloadable search engine toolboxes, pop-up blocker, anti-advertisements, instant access bookmarks and keywords, auto-word find, mouse gestures, customizable skins, plug-ins and security. I personally give my stamp of approval for this web browser.

Opera
Tabbed browsing, a big plus. It's very easy to edit and customize. There is no longer an ad banner at top, so that's an improvement from before. It pretty much has some of the features of Firefox, and uses less memory while running.

Netscape
Eh, not a great browser, just too blocky and big. I don't know, it's just something that I completely hate, but you might like.

Maxthon
Nothing much to say here, it's like a slightly better version of Internet Explorer...meh.

Avant Browser
Tabbed browsing, but sorta weird, I don't know. Personal prefrence, like I've said tons of times before.

AOL Explorer
AOL Explorer browser is pretty cool. But it leaves AOL processes running on your computer after you close it, so you have to shut those down manually. Still, it's a nicely designed and conveniant browser and comes with AIM email. Which is already set up if you have an AIM screen name.

K-Meleon
Super super super small and fast little browser. If your computer is complete junk, and can hardley run two programs at once, this is the browser for you. Even though it doesn't have many advanced features, other than tabbed browsing, it still works.

Deepnet Explorer
Not only is Deepnet Explorer the world’s first browser with RSS news reader and P2P client integration, it is also the first browser to foil phishers! With its superior security, functionality and usability, Deepnet Explorer can dramatically improve your web experience.

BROWSER HELP OBJECTS


FireTune for Firefox
If you have Firefox, this is a must have. It speeds up the loading time for every page at least 50%, I swear you'll see a difference. If you don't download anything else from this thread, get this, you won't be sorry.

Google Toolbar
Spyware and adware free, the Google toolbar is one that you can trust, with a Google search box wherever you are, word translator, and spell check.

MEDIA PLAYERS

Winamp 5.1
Great media player, it runs on a low memory supply, and with great efficiency. You can also download many plug-ins and skins for it to customize Winamp to your prefrence. It does rip CD's onto your computer slowly though, a small con that can easily be cured by using another program, such as Windows Media Player.

Windows Media Player 10
The latest media player from Windows, with features such as finding album info, ripping and burning CD's, music news, and downloadable content. With a customizable interface, and millions upon millions of downloadable skins, this is a more commonly used media player just because it comes with any Windows operating system already.

iTunes 6
With the ability to transfer files from your computer to your iPod, buy music from their online store, and nifty features, iTunes is a great media player. Between WMP and Winamp, this is another one you might want, but in all honesty, it's just personal prefrence. But, iTunes uses a retarded format called an mp4, I believe, and it's a bitch to convert. If you have mp4 files and you want to play them, iTunes is your only choice.

Real Player
If you want a media player that has way too many features crammed into it, with not much use for most of them, then you're going to love this. Personally, this isn't that great at all.

VLC Meda Player
The ultimate media player for your video needs. If WMP can't play a video file - VLC can. If any other can't - VLC can.

Zoom Player - Like VLC. I like the look and feel of this player more than VLC, but it'll play anything VLC will play. The non-dvd version is free at the bottom of the page.

Cliprex- Cliprex DVD Player Professional software is the free solution for playing DVDs on the PC. Cliprex DVD Player Professional will handle playback of both commercial and consumer-created DVDs. Beside DVD video it supports most well known video standard formats, like DIVX, XVID, MPEG, WMV, ASF, Video CD, Super Video CD and any other videofile you have the codec installed for.

INSTANT MESSENGERS

AOL Instant Messenger
I think this is the one that started it all, the age of instant messaging. Getting a screen name to use is simple, and once you're logged on, you can start adding all of your friends, make new ones, and transfer files over it. With a customizable buddy icon and a personal profile to put any information you want, you can express yourself. Video and audio messaging is also available, if you have a webcam and/or microphone. But be careful, there are programs, and links that you can click on that may give you viruses, so be careful.

MSN Messenger
Microsoft's version of IMing. You need a real e-mail address to register, and from there, you can find out if any of your other contacts have it also, by adding their e-mail to your list. With avatars, more in depth selection of smilies to choose from, and weird buddy people things, like that paper clip from Microsoft Word. You can also use video and audio interaction with this also.

Yahoo Instant Messenger
To be honest with you, I don't know much about this. Just look at the website and see for yourself.

Google Talk
Yes, Google has even made it's mark in the IMing bussiness. All you need is a gmail account (if you don't have one, just let me, or anyone else here know, I have invites up the bunghole) and you're set. It's pretty plain and basic, using a little amount of memory. You can talk with your friends, with the audio conversation.

ICQ
Another IMing program that I know nothing about. Just look at the website.

Skype
Basically, an online telephone service that's free. You can call anyone, just put in the phone number and you're good to go. Great to have if the person you wish to contact is very very far away and the rates would be astronomical, but is also great to call someone down the street.

Trillian
Like Gaim, this combines all of the popular, most used IM programs and puts it all into one program.

Miranda IM
Another IMing software that combines all the popular IM programs, but this one is fully customizable and is very small in size.

DESIGN AND EDITING

Blender
Blender is the free software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. It allows you to create astonishing pieces of realistic images, giving you all the tools to do so. Just a warning though, this is a very advanced program and I suggest doing a couple of tutorials from their site before you try to create your own artwork.

Google Picsa 2
It's a photo organizer that imports all your photos to one place on your computer (to Picasa. Although they stay in there original directory, of course) and adds any new ones you aquire automatically. It also acts as a lite/mini photoshop and slideshow viewer.[/size].

GIMP
Decent photoshop alternative. Read that page carefully before install.

JASC Paint Shop Pro
Jasc's take on the world of Photoshopping. This is just a free trial though.

JASC Animiation Shop
Free trial of this animation editing program, such as GIFs.

Avatar Sizer
Resize your avatar with ease!

Flash Mx
All of those flash animations on Ebaums World and Albino Black Sheep were created with this program. It's only a free 30 trial though.

Babarosa GIF Animator
For any of you that have ventured into my Avatar Request thread, you know that I use this for my editor. It's fairly easy, nothing advanced, and you can use it to make an animated avatar for here, or even for MSN and AIM. Editing existing GIFs is possible too with this program.

IrfanView
It is a very fast and efficient image/multimedia program. Great for doing quick and simple resizing/editing of images or for going through your picture collections.

JCreator
This program allows you to create, test, run, and publish Java code applets. A must have for Java creators.

MEDIA EDITING

Adobe Audition/Cool Edit Pro 1.5
For a free trial version of a professional grade recording program, get this. It has tons of cool and neccessary functions needed to fine tune, mix, and tons of other stuff with your music.

Audacity
Great and simple audio editing and recording studio. It doesn't run out in a month, it is yours to keep, and is pretty cool. Highly recommended.

dBpowerAMP
BpowerAMP supports practically every audio type created. Split into four components (no need to bloat your computer, install just what is required), all functioning seamlessly together.

Guitar Pro 4
This is sort of like an audio editing program, except it's sort of a MIDI file thing. But, it also is a great tool to learn songs with, by downloading GP4 files from My Song Book.

Powertab
Power Tab Editor is a tablature authoring tool for the Windows operating system. It is intended to be used to create scores for the two most popular forms of tablature found on the Web: guitar and bass. It is not designed to be used as a MIDI sequencer, nor is it designed to be used to create piano scores. Powertab Central has many files to choose from.

Fruity Loops 3
FruityLoops is a tool for making drum loops or songs with internal mixing and MIDI support. The resulting loops can be exported to a MIDI file or rendered to a WAV file to be used in sequencers or trackers, but its extended playlist allows you to create full songs completely within the program. You can't save anything with an unregistered version though, so you know what to do...

Reason - A far superior program to Fruityloops. This is to Fruityloops as Fruityloops is to Guitar Pro when it comes to composing songs. Fruity Loops is better for writing drum loops, but if you want them to sound good, tranfer the pattern to a Reason drum kit and you'll see a huge difference in sound quality.

OFFICE PROGRAMS

Open Office
Microsoft Office's counterpart, Open Office. This has Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Publisher, and Drawing, and it can save in almost any format, so you don't have to worry if you have to work on the file at school while they have Microsoft Word and you Open Office.

Microsoft Office 30 Day Trial Version
If you want to stick with what you're used to, this is fine, but it does expire after 30 days unless you *obtain* a code.

WEB DESIGN

Macromedia's Studio 8
This free trial comes with everything you need to create, export, and fine tune your website to a professional degree. With easy to use controls, and intuitive design, it won't take long to learn how to use all the programs packed into it.
^^I think it has Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Drawing in there, but if not, you can download them from there anyway.^^

Trendy Flash Templates
If you want a foolproof, high quality, sophisticated site, download this. You'll be able to craft websites within minutes and still getting the desired look.

GENERAL ENCHANCEMENTS

Mini-XP
For all of you Windows XP users, this is a pretty nifty program. It lets you make any window minimize into the system tray (the icons by the time). This is great if you don't want to clutter up your bar thing, to make sure no one screws up a running program, or you need that quick escape when someone is coming into the room

Tweak-ME Gold
Alright, if you are one of those sorry people that have to work on the Windows ME operating system, I know how you feel, I used to have it. This thing will improve it tenfold, no more retarded errors, are all that stupid shit that happens randomly. I know how it goes, it's ****ing shitty.

Daemon Tools
DAEMON Tools is a virtual cd/dvd-rom emulator. It is able to emulate nearly all known copy protections on the market today.

Process Explorer
It's awesome, you can choose to have it come up instead of the Windows Task Manager, and you can see the branches of what's happening so that you can close unwanted programs without the worry.

Clean Old Drivers
Cleans old drivers out of computer for better performance when intstalling new ones.

The Newest Drivers
The newest drivers from this guy are most of the time better than the ones from the company.

Graphics Card Drivers
This is a link to graphic cards drivers, not just one in particular. It's the best I know of and the one I use myself. I think perhaps it's a bit more well known. They also have a host of performance measuring utilities available for download.

DNA-Drivers
Tons and tons and tons and tons of drivers on this site.

PowerToys for Windows XP
Tons of cool and great enchancements.

Powermenu
A tweak that adds "Minimize to Tray" when right clicking programs on the taskbar, also some other cool features like transparency.

nLite- nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice.

WinZip
Unzips ZIP files for you, you must have this to unzip ZIP files, but if you get WinRAR, it covers both. This also compresses files you want into ZIP files for easier and faster transfer.

WinRAR
This allows you to open ZIP files and RAR files, and acts exactally like WinZip, except that RAR files are compressed into smaller files.

COOL STUFF

Google Earth
One very very cool program, it's an advanced version of Google Maps that can be used whether you're online or offline. Trust me, you'll get addicted for about 10 minutes, just following roads and stuff.

Window BlindsThis lets you choose different skins for you Windows interface, pretty cool stuff.

Portable Firefox and Open Office
This has a small enough Firefox to fit onto a flash USB memory stick so that you can use it on any computer. Open Office is also available like this.

DosBox For any fans of classic DOS games, this program emulates a DOS-based system to erase any compatibility issues with the crappy Windows command prompt.

Alcohol 120%
Alcohol 120% can handle the creation of 31 virtual CD and DVD-ROMs, allowing the user to play discs without needing the physical disc. IT only has a 30 day free trial period though, so use it to it's full extent.

Exact Audio Copy (EAC) - Is the only program you should use to rip your cds. If you don't want errors, skips, pops or anthing less than an exact rip, use this program. You need to download LAME (download link) if you want to rip into mp3s. You should set EAC to rip mp3s using the -- alt preset standard setting as it offers the absolute best quality:size ratio. You can download FLAC if you insist on having CD quality sound. You can find codecs for whatever format you want to rip your music into.

Lemonade Tycoon Demo- Just a free demo to try the game out. Like all the other tycoon games out there, it's based around maintaining a particular business of sorts, with this one being a lemonade stand.

[x[JoJo]x]

Nice i can bet that A LOT of windows user out there can benefit from what you have listed

Sadly i r teh macs user but this is a detailed list and can see the time you put in

[HypeRLight]

Even though I only took 1 or 2 off that list +Rep.

[Jareth123]

although i didnt read it all, +rep for the effort you put into it.

edit: oh hmm; "you cannot give reputation to this post" :<

[jackdaripper]

Even though I only took 1 or 2 off that list +Rep.

+Rep and i don't think lechers can give rep IMO

[HypeRLight]

+Rep and i don't think lechers can give rep IMO

I gave rep before =/.

Just won't let me on this post.

and i'm no good at writing guids and things so i'll never lose this status x_x.

[Thelis]

Haha, thanks for the rep guys- I love to help out in any way I can.

PS, anyone know why my rep isn't showing?