Free tools

Tools

Basically, these links do stuff; stuff that is more than letting you read/watch.

Browsers

File Browsers

Internet Browsers

Communications

  • Discord - A platform independent alternative to Skype and TeamSpeak.
  • Mumble - Low-latency VoIP client
  • Skype - Free internet calls
  • TeamSpeak - Probably the most popular VoIP client out there
  • Ventrilo - Another popular VoIP client

Documents

  • Atom Editor - A hackable text editor for the 21st Century
  • CDisplay - CBR/CBZ format sequential reader, which are rebranded zip/rar extensions popular for image archives such as comic books, guitar tablature, etc.
  • Google Docs
  • Komodo Edit IDE - Powerful free editor for Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, Javascript and other major web languages
  • LibreOffice - offers much more up-to-date software than OpenOffice
  • Microsoft Office Online
  • Notepad++ - a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages
  • OpenOffice - Free office software
  • Sublime Text - A sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose. Note that it is a never-ending free trial, but you should consider paying for the service to support the developers
  • Sublime Text ColourCoder - this plugin for Sublime Text will highlight every variable in its own, consistent color (feature known as semantic highlighting, variable-name highlighting, contextual highlighting) you name it

Files

File Synchronizers

  • BitTorrent Sync - Secure, unlimited file-syncing. No cloud required
  • SyncThing - opensource alternative for bitsync. its recommended if you care about your privacy and security of your files

Cloud Storage

Recovery/Backup

  • EaseUS - Several great products like Partition Manager and Disk Copy, generously free for personal use.

Extras

  • ClassicShell - Restores many of the old Windows features including disk free space on Explorer’s status bar, restores toolbars, the classic file copy dialog, etc.
  • Clover - Tabs for Windows explorer
  • HJSplit - Handy file splitter-joiner

Torrents

Games

  • Habitica - Motivates you to achieve your goals by treating real life like a game.
  • Steam - Has free games available.

Recording * Dxtory - Similar to Fraps and Afterburner * Fraps - FPS Counter & Game recording * Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) - Stream and record your games.

Imaging

  • GIMP - Free photo manipulation software
  • Microsoft GIF Animator - Classic, no frills tool for creating gifs.
  • Paint.NET - Windows application designed to be the much needed upgrade to MS Paint
  • Pixlr - Online photo editor. web-based equivalent to an old version of Photoshop from 2005 or something. Very functional for occasional use manipulating images, and seeing as it’s web-based and doesn’t require an account it’s super easy to use from anywhere.
  • Sumo Paint - Powerful graphics editor for your web browser and pc

IT/Development

  • Abyss Web Server - Host from home.
  • AutoHotkey - Very powerful open source tool can script and customize macros, hotkeys, everything input related within the Windows environment right down to mouse clicks.
  • Bulk File Changer - Batch utility for altering file attributes.
  • Bulk Rename Utility - Bulk file-renaming software
  • Cheat Engine - Extensive memory editor/manager. sort of like Game Genie/Codebreaker for PC.
  • CloudForge - Free Subversion and Git hosting
  • DistroWatch - Put the fun back in computing. Use Linux, BSD. This site gives detailed information on each Linux distribution and provides links to their respective communities
  • Filezilla - Fully featured freeware FTP client
  • Flare - Decompile Flash swf.
  • HJSplit - Downloads web site resources to generate a mirror for offline browsing.
  • Less Msierables - Extracts contents from a .msi file.
  • Linux - Free operating system
  • MobaXterm - Feature-rich SSH client
  • PuTTY - SSH Client
  • Rufus - Easily create bootable USBs [Windows], burning bootable OS ISOs
  • SlimDrivers - Cloud based program that detects what drivers need to be updated. Incredible–especially after formatting an operating system. No need for CDs or trying to remember which model card, adapter…etc. you have
  • UNetbootin - allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
  • Virtual CloneDrive - Mounts .iso files virtually (no CD necessary)
  • VirtualBox - Virtual Machines

Math Solvers

Media

  • Audacity - free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds
  • Avidemux - Free video editor
  • Camstudio - Screencapture
  • Clementine Music Player - Modern music player and library organizer
  • Go PlayAlong - Shareware guitar tablature player for Guitar Pro formats.
  • Handbrake - open source video transcoder
  • Jahshaka - Very advanced open source video editor
  • Kodi - Open-source home theatre software (formely known as XBMC)
  • MakeMKV - Effective free Blu-ray decrypter. Also works to decrypt DVD’s and rip to mkv format.
  • MuseScore - Free music composition and notation software
  • MusicBrainz - Music tagging software
  • Mp3tag - Fix tags on songs
  • MPC-HC - Extremely light-weight, open source media player for Windows.
  • Reaper - Audio workstation. Reaper warning
  • VidCoder - Conversion to H264 mkv or MP4. Based on Handbrake but has more options.
  • YouTube Video Converter - coverts YouTube videos to MP3, AAC, MP4… Recorder, Converter and Downloader

Noise Generators

Password Managers

  • KeePass - Free, open source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager.
  • LastPass - Free (with premium for multiple platforms), easy-to-use password manager.

Privacy/Security

  • 10 Minute Mail - Temporary Email Address. No spam.
  • Cyph - Encrypted chat
  • Hola Unblocker - Same as above, allows access to US Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, etc. but be warned.
  • PeerBlock - Monitors connections and blocks many of them based upon lists of registered IP ranges belonging to various government, anti-p2p, etc. agencies.
  • Prey Project - Multi-platform anti-theft software
  • Privacy Badger - developed by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and is a browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that helps lower your internet footprint and stop third party trackers from following your movement around the web
  • TcpView - Displays all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system
  • ZenMate - (Chrome extension) MediaHint alternative

Antivirus

There’s no need to pay for an antivirus. Here are some great free programs that’ll do a good job at preventing/removing malware.

Statistics

  • CoreTemp - Hardware monitoring software
  • CPU-Z - Hardware monitoring software
  • HWMon - Hardware monitoring software
  • Prime95 - CPU stress-testing software. Uses your CPU to its maximum by looking for prime numbers.
  • Speccy - Hardware monitoring software
  • SpaceSniffer - Visual representation of hard drive space
  • WinDirStat - Visual representation of hard drive space

System

Cleaners

Be aware that system cleaners could have a negative impact on the performance of your system. Use them only when necessary!

Other Browser Extensions

Other

  • Blender - Open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation
  • Calibre - Free ebook library management
  • CeltX - Free scriptwriting and all-in-one production studio
  • ClipCube - clipboard history. I missed this when using Windows
  • ClipX - a tiny clipboard history manager. It is sweet, it is free, use it. ClipCube alternative
  • Feedly - Read more, know more. RSS feed. They also have an awesome app
  • IFTT - Mobile App for automating your phone
  • imslp - sheet music
  • Mint - Get your finances firmly under control. Categorizes transactions from your accounts, and even tracks mortgages/loans. It allows you to set budgets for expenditures of certain types and then tracks those on a month-to-month basis and will nag you when you’re spending too much on something.
  • Ninite - Update/install popular programs all at once
  • Pocket - a great site for saving articles, recipes or whole pages for later offline viewing, and cloud syncs with all your devices
  • Portable Apps - Load several apps on a thumb drive to run on any Windows PC
  • Pushbullet - Send files to your phone; receive phone notifications on your desktop.
  • Rainmeter - Windows desktop customisation. Similar to Conky for Linux
  • Spoon - Use your software and files from any desktop. free virtualization startup that lets users launch full desktop apps from any browser without having any of them installed on my computer
  • TeraCopy - designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed. It skips bad files during the copying process, and then displays them at the end of the transfer so that you can see which ones need attention