Top Freeware Picks

Discussion in 'Software' started by Major Attitude, Jan 23, 2015.

  1. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    This is a list of the absolute best, 5 star rated, totally free programs for your computer. This is a complete re-write with EVERY program tested and our own comments added to help you choose.

    No toolbars, third party programs or wrappers (Bundleware). Each program has our own description (review) to help you pick the right program. The only exception is if a company offers you one of their other programs, but you are WARNED anyway if a program does this.

    Categories are alphabetical. They are:

    [ All-In-One Suites - Anti-Spyware & Anti-Malware - Anti-Virus Protection - Backup - Browsers - CD\DVD\Blu-Ray Burning Tools - Data Recovery - Defragmenting Tools - Diagnostics - Drive Cleaners - Driver Updaters - Email Clients - File Compression - Graphics - Multimedia - Microsoft Office Alternatives - Partitioning - PDF Alternatives - Text Editors - Uninstallers - Honorable Mentions ]


    http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/majorgeeks_top_freeware_picks.html
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2015
    Marti82, Reema Sharma and baklogic like this.
  2. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Tim, both Avira and AVG currently link to the Avira page.
     
  3. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    That was fixed, thanks as well as a few other typos. The list has also grown as recently as this morning. 10 days into it so far.
     
  4. Doofus

    Doofus Private First Class

    Thanks for the tips, but what happened to the Firewall section?
     
  5. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

  6. Doofus

    Doofus Private First Class

    Thanks, but " a list of the absolute best, 5 star rated," to make choosing easier for the non-geeks, as per the other categories here? I could be wrong, but doesn't a Firewall deserve at least as much consideration as a text-editor?
     
  7. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    I don't have access to the download stats but I'd guess that firewalls are way down the most popular list since native firewalls have improved a lot in the last few years, most users are now behind NAT routers and many suites incorporating firewalls are now available or supplied by ISPs.

    Just because a full category isn't there now doesn't mean those downloads aren't available, search still works fine and times have changed - MG's ain't gonna stand still :major
     
  8. mjnc

    mjnc MajorGeek

    Look at the recommendations in the Firewalls section here:
    http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525
     
  9. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    Installing what? This is a thread about top freeware picks.

     
  10. Monica Galler

    Monica Galler Private E-2

    great, tks for the tips!
     
  11. blueice

    blueice Private First Class

    Major Attitude, that is a major league list you presented..

    I am bookmarking it and will send it off for others not in the know..

    Tanks again!
     
  12. _nullptr

    _nullptr Major Geeky Geek Geek

    The list is here and CCleaner is on it.
     
  13. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    Wise Cleaner is better.
     
  14. blueice

    blueice Private First Class

    Major, Sir, could you please
    elaborate..Thanks in advance.
     
  15. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    CCleaner is a tad conservative and for most that's a good thing. But if you're trying to really clean out a lot of files you don't need like language files, old Windows Update files and more, Wise Cleaner can double or triple the space freed.

    Go to http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/wise_disk_cleaner.html and scroll down for a video I did on using it. I explain and show what I mean.


     
    baklogic likes this.
  16. joffa

    joffa Major Geek's Official Birthday Announcer

    Thanks Tim, CCleaner has been one of my staples for years so I checked out your video and have now decided to give Wise Cleaner a run ;)
    I have three computers, each with 500GB SSDs and two of them are always a bit tight for space so if this is as good as you say then this will be a cheap fix to defer buying 1TB SSDs :-D

    BTW nice video...... clear and concise :cool

    Cheers
    joffa:major
     
  17. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    Hey, let me know. I stand behind it. Thanks for the compliment on video. I'm due to do more with the goal of keeping it under 5 minutes for each while covering the basics. I'll look for your feedback.
     
  18. joffa

    joffa Major Geek's Official Birthday Announcer

    Howdy Tim,
    Jeez to say I was surprised is an understatement :-D
    My workstation got a bit over 14GB back which is nothing to be sneezed at but the real shock was the family multimedia PC. The multimedia PC is a really high spec. custom water cooled overclocked i7 extreme that the kids also use for gaming. Remember LAN parties..... well we load up to 4 virtual machines and the kids have a LAN party with their friends on the one computer.;)
    When I ran Wise Cleaner on the multimedia pc it took a bit longer (still only about 10 minutes) and jeepers creepers it cleared out nearly 60GB of crap on the first pass. Then I went to advanced clean and got another 6GB back. All up it cleared just short of 66GB and this is a worthwhile saving. Because it is only the multimedia pc I just let it clean everything without even checking and after the clean everything still seems to work :-D

    My verdict
    I just used the standard settings as installed and it worked flawlessly. It surprised me with its speed too as the work station took just under 5 minutes and the multimedia pc took just on 10 minutes. Previously when running CCleaner it typically only found about half of the crap so for me Wise Cleaner is a real winner ;):cool

    BTW I did check prior to deleting any of the files on my workstation and it might have uncovered a small OS problem. About one third of the files deleted were "~" files indicating a temporary currently open file that should be deleted when the program that created it closes but for some reason these have remained on the HDD. Further checking needed:major
     
    imcaf_fl likes this.
  19. Anon-9aee479f8f

    Anon-9aee479f8f Anonymized

    Just saying I love the Top Freeware Picks! It is the first place I look for software. Thank you for providing such a useful informative guide for software.
     
    imcaf_fl likes this.
  20. Dennis017

    Dennis017 Private E-2

    One thing everyone that is considering on purchasing Wise 365 that they DON'T tell you is that they automatically
    charge your credit card. I had notified them 2 months prior that I was cancelling it and I uninstalled the program.
    They got a email that my renewal was done and I was charged. Lucky for me I had it hit my Paypal account and they are
    crediting me and told me that they see this all the time. So beware
     
  21. Anon-9aee479f8f

    Anon-9aee479f8f Anonymized

    Honestly to be fair two weeks is short notice to cancel something that is auto billed to a credit card. You have to take into consideration billing cycles vary. Often it takes two billing cycles to get something removed from a credit card. Can be frustrating yes, but it is what it is, not exclusive to Wise Care.
     
  22. MaxTurner

    MaxTurner Banned

    It depends on the legal jurisdiction of the card issuer but it is always best advice to notify the card issuer at the same time as notifying the company that holds the continuous payment authority.
    In EU jurisdiction none of that is even necessary (though for an easy life it is still worth doing) since a telephone call to the card issuer up to the close of normal business on the day before the payment is due is sufficient.
    Two weeks is enough time for any billing company to stop a payment authority request, and if they don't either they or the card issuer must make a refund.

     
  23. Anon-9aee479f8f

    Anon-9aee479f8f Anonymized

    In theory it should be but does not always happen. At least that had been my experience.
     
  24. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    Very quick, and cleared round 2gb for me, on top of advanced system care tools. Video was very useful, and intuitive- thanks
     
  25. Steve122

    Steve122 Private E-2

    wise disk cleaner is good
     
  26. greenhut

    greenhut Private E-2

    I downloaded bluescreenview but when I tried to uzip the file it opens an already installed programme on my machine called Quo2 which is a map reading/display prog.
     
  27. greenhut

    greenhut Private E-2

    UPDATE
    NOW SOLVED, I ran it from the download folder direct and it worked fine.
    Does not show any bluescreen crashes that I have had though so more investigatiing at this end needed.
     
  28. tuyetnamtran

    tuyetnamtran Guest

    Great, thanks for the tips :D
     
  29. adriana

    adriana Private E-2

    Thanks A Lot
     

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