John's list of recommended freeware applications

(updated December 2025)

A WORD OF CAUTION

Many installers are now using the installation of freeware to add the ASK toolbar or similar by default, although you CAN refuse. READ THE SMALL PRINT! If you DO have strange unwanted toolbars on your browser AdwCleaner will take them off.

Portable applications

You should not install apps unless you know you will need them frequently. For "one off" applications check my list of FREE "portable" applications that run WITHOUT installation so they dont "clog up" your machine.

On-line security:

Continuous protection from malware - your first line of defence.:

AVG free

Effective but some versions slow: I prefer AVIRA or PANDA for older machines.

Anti-malware: (run about every month, or if you suspect an infection)

AdwCleaner *

Remove adware, toolbars, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs)

Malware bytes *

Full thorough scan takes time - run it when the PC is free

Internet and Email:

Firefox browser *
my favourite browser
Thunderbird email *
Excellent and easy to configure. Good add-ons.
Sylpheed Portable eMail *
Simple portable email client - easy to set up.

Free online email & webmail:  useful for registrations etc so you don't get spam on your important email accounts

Google mail *
Easy as webmail or POP3 with the added benefit of a personal information manager
Proton mail *
Secure (encrypted) email & webmail

Office applications - word processor, spreadsheet, calculator, drawing, presentation and PIM:

Libre Office *
Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base; works on all common computers
AndrOpenOffice
Compatible with MS and Libre Office, runs on Android
Google docs
online office application – documents spreadsheets and presentations and can create pdf files.

Graphics: Drawing and diagrams

You will need to choose based on your own applications as they all have strengths and weaknesses.

QCAD *
Easy CAD package: good online support

Graphics: Creating and managing images (painting)

GIMP *
one of the most powerful image editing tools
Krita
Quite new but well respected paint program
Paint.net *
easy to use and reasonably powerful
IrfanView *
fast compact and easy file viewer - view almost ANY common file type!

Audio: ripping, formats, playing, sound recording editing and analysis

Audacity *
Possibly the best sound editing program
Exact audio copy
rip tracks even from damaged cd's
LAME stand-alone MP3 encoder
Needed by almost all software to produce mp3 files.

Maintenance and Repair: Registry cleaners and other utilities

HWinfo *
Produces a manifest of hardware and software on the PC (portable)
Auslogics disk defrag *
Much superior to windows disk defrag tool
Glary Utilities *
Loads of great tools to maintain your PC. NEW file search utility!
Microsoft SysInternals
a lot of very sophisticated diagnostic utilities
FreeFileSync *
a versitile utility to synchronize files between two folders or devices
Open Hardware Monitor *
monitors computer hardware temperature, load and voltages - and maintains a log file in .csv format
Macrorit Partition Manager
easy to use, best free partitioning tool. BE AWARE ANY partitioning can lose data; backup first
Ninite
Install common applications and keep them updated

Backups and recovery

AOMEI * 
AOMEI backupper home edition. Easy to use
7Backup
Archives to 7zip format. Can open with 7zip.
HekaSoft Backup Restore *
Back up and restore for browser and email client settings
Clonezilla
hard drive imaging (like Norton Ghost)
DriveImage XML
very flexible; clone drive, system backups etc
EaseUs ToDo Backup
clone disk, system backup etc - very easy to use. Excellent and powerful

General utilities

Zip tools (compressing and decompressing downloaded files – ESSENTIAL)
get 7-zip * cos its open source, fast and handles most formats including msi (Microsoft installer) and iso (on cd's)  http://www.7-zip.org/

or nanazip - which works better with windows 10 & 11

PDF documents: reader and creator
Adobe Reader is free and the most compatible; however it's big and slow.  However others can have compatibility issues.
Sumatra PDF Viewer * fast, compact, portable and can read pdf and some ebook formats, but not edit them; while
Nitro PDF Reader * supports editing pdf documents. Also adds a printer driver so you can make your own pdf's.
Foxit PDF Reader supports editing pdf documents, and offers a pdf reading capability for your browser
STDUViewer opens most popular document formats; and has a portable version.

Website editing: HTML code
Arachnophilia * http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.html  (a java application) and
Dreamweaver * - not free (not even cheap) but by far the best.

 

IF ALL ELSE FAILS:

Ultimate boot cd http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

HIRENS boot cd: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd a collection of very useful tools - get the latest version!

Linux Mint * a free and powerful operating system that can run from a bootable 2G USB flash drive to test your system or copy files when windows is dead!