8 Top Essential Freewares for Windows
Freewares are always good even though all the features may not available like paid software. Here is the list of top essential freewares for Windows. This list consist of only the basic, but essential freewares.
1. AVG Anti Virus Free Version: One of the basic need for your Windows, an anti-virus software. AVG AV free version is a good one for this purpose. There are even other free AVs serving this purpose. Click here to get the complete list of free AVs.
2. Open Office.org 2.3: Open Office is an open source free office suite which can be used as a substitute to Microsoft Office. Open Office can also work on multiple platforms. It includes Word Processor, Spread sheets, presentation etc.
3. Firefox/ IE7: A good browser with lot of features and add-on support is required for browsing. Firefox is the best option available now, with 1000s of add-on support. IE7 is also pretty good with tabbed browsing.
4. Winamp 5.52: Winamp is the most popular software for playing songs and the new version has lot of new enhancements and improved interface ans skin. Winamp toolbar for controlling music playback from your browser.
5. 7Zip: 7Zip is an open source software for compressing and extracting files. It has a powerful file manager and supports zip and rar formats. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license.
6. VLC player: VLC is the best player for playing video files of any format. VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
7. Adobe Reader: Adobe Reader 8.1 is a free software for viewing PDF files. It also has a variety of tools to view and print PDF formats. It also supports multi platforms.
8. Paint.Net: Paint.NET is free image and photo editing softwarefor computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
There are still more useful freewares, if you feel that any more has to be added to essential list, please share in comments section.
Share & Enjoy
Jan 28th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Guess what .. i ve all them installed presently on my desktop grin:
i also use Picassa and DivX
Jan 28th, 2008 at 4:31 am
I use many of them except Open Office.
Jan 28th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Opera > Firefox imo.
Oh, Azureus for torrenting?
Jan 28th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
For VLC player I would like to add that I was able to play a download XVid .avi file despite the fact that my system did not have XVid codec installed due to which Windows Media Player and other softwares failed in playing it. Later I learnt that that it can play .RM files also.. I liked it…
I have stopped using Winamp as new releases mostly add skins and interface modifications rather than adding valued features.
Jan 28th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Use many of them except Office.org and 7 zip
Jan 28th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
wow! i like your template. new improvement. congrat nirmal!
Jan 28th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I’d suggest Foxit Reader instead of Adobe Reader
Jan 28th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
And… Picasa is worth a try as well. It’s the best Photo Managers out there.
Jan 28th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Nice list of free essentials.
7Zip is new to me. I’ll surely give it a try as well.
Jan 29th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Good list, i use all of them except AVG & OpenOffice
Jan 29th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Thanks for sharing! I have Adobe Photoshop instead of paint.
Other than that, I think I have a few more, but I’ll have to check. 
Jan 30th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I prefer Foxit over Adobe. Maybe, you can also add Pidgin and CCleaner to the list.
Jan 30th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
cool site!
very informative entries!
Jan 30th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I use all of these except for Adobe Reader and Paint.net. I prefer using Foxit over Adobe as it light weight and uses less memory.
Jan 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
I agree with Thilak Foxit is a better alternative over Adobe Reader as it uses very less memory compared to Adobe Reader.
Other than that I also make use of Picassa to manage my picture collection.
Jan 31st, 2008 at 2:49 pm
1.Not good 2.unknown to me 3.Great 4.Very good 5.New one 6.Too complicate than other player 7.Nice 8.Unknown to me.
Anyway interesting topic.
Jan 31st, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Would like to suggest Billy or QCD Player in replacement for WinAmp.
Feb 1st, 2008 at 5:09 am
Good compilation….AVG is good but I prefer Avast which is also free for home users
Feb 1st, 2008 at 10:34 am
I use most of those, except for OpenOffice as that has less features in it’s spreadsheet app. Overall, very useful apps! Good list.
Feb 2nd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
I’d recommend Avast over AVG and Foxit PDF over Adobe Reader any day. Other than that, the choices are spot on….
Feb 3rd, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I am already using 6 out of those 8. I guess I will try the others as well since they are all freeware.
Feb 4th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I recommend Foxit over Adobe. Faster, more flexible.
Feb 4th, 2008 at 9:14 am
I use open office exclusively on my pc and my macbook. Its the greatest freeware since linux.
Feb 4th, 2008 at 9:48 am
It was a great list until you mentioned IE7. It’s technically not freeware since you have to buy Windows to use it. =)
Feb 4th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Thanks all for your comments, I think most of you have voted for Foxit reader than Adobe.
Feb 4th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Pretty good list there Nirmal.
Feb 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I’d recommend Avira in place of AVG, and certainly Foobar or XMPlay instead of Winamp.
Also, I’d add CCleaner, Syncback and Defraggler to the list.
;-). Nice post, BTW.
Jul 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
i am currently using most of it..except paint.net…nice recommendation
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Jan 30th, 2008 at 9:37 pm